Max, Mike; Movies!

Here is another entry in our series of “Hidden Gems,” movies that we dig but for some reason haven’t received that much audience love.  This week we’re talking about the totally tubular (dude) movie that launched an 80’s phenomenon, “Max Headroom,” a tv movie about a dystopian near-future where an A.I. that becomes a popular tv personality.  Oddly prescient in some ways . . .

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Welcome to Series 2 of our podcast, a little something that we like to call “Hidden Gems,” or movies that we think are hep and groovy but for whatever reason they never really caught on.  This week we’re checking out one of Mike’s favorite films “Empire Records”, a movie about one remarkable day in the kind of record store we all wish we could have worked at or shopped at.  The soundtrack alone is worth the price of a rental.
Damn the man! Save the Empire!

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“Her” is obviously the sequel to “Them!” and the prequel to “She!” . . . ok, no it isn’t.  In this surprising film, Joaquin Phoenix plays a lonely divorced man who finds himself falling in love with the digital personal assistant, who turns out to be a genuine A.I., on his phone/computer.  This is one that Max had seen but Mike had not.

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This is a fascinating documentary, seen before by Mike but not Max, that is . . . initially about street art, focusing in particular on the legendary street artist Banksy but it’s also about how the focus of a narrative can change in unexpected ways.

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In Episode 6, we discuss the classic adaptation of the Harper Lee novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which Max had seen but Mike had not.  Starring Gregory Peck, this movie is a remarkable depiction of both a children’s coming-of-age story and the racial tensions that plague a small town . . . something disturbingly relevant to this country today.

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Here we have a (not) family-friendly little flick that Mike had seen but Max had not.  “The Wolf of Wall Street” tells the tale of the Big Bad Wolf after he decided to stop going after pigs and decided to try his paw at investment banking.  Ok, not really; this movie is based on the life of a REAL person; Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a man who truly embodied the notion that success can bring excess.  Fascinating story; not for the young ‘uns.

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This week’s movie is “Raising Arizona,” the early Coen Brothers classic that Max had seen and Mike had not.  Starring Nicholas Cage, Holly Hunter, and the Warthog From Hell (hey, that’s what Holly Hunter calls him) this is one of most Coen-esque of Coen Brothers movies ever to Coen it’s way into your Coen.

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And here we are with “The Big Kahuna”, a movie Mike had seen but Max had not.  Join Frankie, Annette, and Moon Doggie as they get up to zany antics on the beach . . . . Oh, hang on.  Wrong sort of “big kahuna.”  No, this intriguing character study is based on the play “The Hospitality Suite” and deals with three salesmen trying to land that one big account that will save the company.  Starring Danny Devito, Peter Facinelli, and . . . oh dear . . . Kevin Spacey.

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And with Episode 2 of this series, Mike and I discuss “The Social Network,” the fictionalized story of how Mark Zuckerberg created some obscure little website called “Facecrunch” or “Headbook” or something, that ended up making him the youngest billionaire in the world . . . and what he ended up doing to the people around him along the way.

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