Ep. 804 - Nosferatu
Added 2024-12-25 07:00:07 +0000 UTCDavid, Devindra, and Jeff level up with Sonic the Hedgehog 3, enter cautiously into Red Rooms, and take aim with The Day of the Jackal. Then they dive into the horrifying world of the latest Robert Eggers film, Nosferatu.
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Weekly Plugs
David - Decoding TV Bonus Ep: Squid Game Season 1
Devindra - Engadget Podcast on 2024: The AI hype train stalled
Jeff - Jeff’s Cameo Page
Shownotes (All timestamps are approximate only)
What we've been watching (~00:25:23)
Jeff - Sonic the Hedgehog 3, The Agency, The Franchise
David - Red Rooms, Dune: Prophecy Season 1
Devindra - The Day of the Jackal, Black Doves
Featured Review (~01:06:16)
Nosferatu
SPOILERS (~01:20:45)
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Credits:
Our theme song is by Tim McEwan from The Midnight. This episode was edited by Noah Ross who also created our weekly plugs and spoiler bumper music. Our Slashfilmcourt music comes from Simon Harris.
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Comments
Anora
Sean Gallagher
2025-01-11 07:43:46 +0000 UTCI’ve been struggling to get back into reading, mainly because my attention span has been shattered by social media and a never ending backlog of TV shows to binge, but I want to second Dave’s recommendation “Nuclear War: a Scenario”. I literally couldn’t put it down.
Peter Tribe
2025-01-10 07:47:20 +0000 UTCI just want to say I really hate what studios have turned the end of the year into. From Thanksgiving till the end of the year used to be a time when the studios released all their best movies to try to build awards buzz, but this more and more has morphed into everything coming out the last week of the year. But the problem is that now the studios also see the holidays as another chance (like summer) to release a bunch of kid-friendly blockbusters, and those dominate the multiplexes. As such it's becoming harder and harder to even find screens that are playing the awards-worthy films. I live in LA, where the options are almost surely better than they are in most places, but I basically wasn't able to see The Brutalist, Babygirl, Nickel Boys and The Fire Inside, because there are barely any screens anywhere that they're showing on, and it looks like by Thursday none of them will be in theaters anymore. The studios need to stop cannibalizing their own products this way and instead need to release some of these awards movies earlier. There were a couple solid weeks this month where the only new releases were Kraven and Werewolves, two movies that were guaranteed to flop at the box office. These were also weeks I'd have loved to go to the movies if there was anything worth seeing that was playing, but there wasn't. Spread this stuff out so that the few of us who actually still go see movies in theaters can do so, rather than expecting us to go see 6-7 movies in one single week before they're all gone from theaters, and then may not be available to stream until after award season is over. It sucks as a film fan to see all these "best of" end of the year lists and various awards shows and think "sounds great, wish I'd had the chance to see some of these movies."
Stranger2Reality
2024-12-31 11:30:43 +0000 UTCListening to them discuss that it sounded like none of them were familiar with the Dracula story, as that's how it's always played out. Jonathan Harker goes to see Dracula and gets attacked and drained there, but then escapes and convalesces after the escape. Meanwhile, Dracula takes a ship to London to try to steal Mina away from Jonathan, and the rest ensues. But the Nicholas Hoult character is never the focus of the story, he's just sort of the inciting incident, who then happens to also be there at the end. Ultimately it's Dracula and Mina's story.
Stranger2Reality
2024-12-31 11:15:34 +0000 UTCI couldn't help but compare it to Coppola's Dracula, and felt like it suffered by comparison. I liked this movie, but Eggers efforts to be period accurate and authentic just aren't as interesting to me in this case when compared to what Coppola did over 30 years ago, with all the stylistic flourishes, incredible costumes and amazing score. I watched that movie a lot in the 90s (seeing it a few times in theaters when it was originally released), and I re-watched it a year or two ago and still loved it. I liked Nosferatu, but really it just made me want to watch Bram Stoker's Dracula again.
Stranger2Reality
2024-12-31 09:49:49 +0000 UTCSeriously impressed how you guys manage to juggle all the media you have to consume for podcasts and still find time to read so much. (Not to mention kids, full time jobs, and other things) I don’t know how you do it.
Jon
2024-12-31 05:02:11 +0000 UTCThe second half was pretty dull for me. Agreed about the production value though.
Jon
2024-12-31 04:58:33 +0000 UTCI watched the 1922 version, Herzog's 1979 version, and Coppola's Dracula from '92, and ended up disappointed with this new one. I agree that the production and atmosphere was great. It was cool to see Egger's style applied to this story, but other than that it was nothing new. My favorite so far is Herzog's. It's quiet and eerie and has some of Herzog's classic ponderings on life and death - and sooo many rats.
Mathew
2024-12-30 19:35:50 +0000 UTCHaving watched the original Nosferatu the day before watching the new one, I gotta say I was bored to death. I wonder if anybody else felt the same way. Everything about the production was incredible, but the actual story just wasn’t interesting enough to be enjoyable.
Danny Champlin
2024-12-28 15:27:05 +0000 UTCJeff (or anyone else), I’m curious since you mentioned tabletop RPGs, have you played D&Ds Curse of Strahd? It’s obviously based on Dracula/Nosferatu but this movie was pure catnip for us Strahd fans. Also, was getting very strong Bloodborne vibes from the city scenes too. So awesome. I’m kind of with Dave that I didn’t love it just really liked it but man the vibes of this movie are INCREDIBLE.
Jon See
2024-12-28 10:45:57 +0000 UTCI remember listening to David Cross’s audiobook, read by himself, many years ago and throughout it he deviates from the written text to chide the listener for not reading it.
Cameron S
2024-12-28 09:02:03 +0000 UTCIt’s a good and valid point that Shakespeare is meant to be heard and not read. I was mainly using that as an easy example that most people could probably relate to of the difference. I still maintain that it is different to read a book than to listen to it.
Cameron S
2024-12-28 08:58:53 +0000 UTCRegarding Shakespeare, I'd argue that (assuming we're talking about his plays) his works were really meant to be consumed as a viewer/listener. Reading his plays and finding your own character interpretations, to me, is more of a study exercise, whether as an actor or an academic. Obviously, many people take great joy out of doing this, and I do agree that it's different from hearing an actor perform the lines, but it's like reading a film script versus watching the movie. While reading you can imagine how you think the film would be portrayed, but ultimately the script is just one element of the greater work that the author wanted you to enjoy.
Hahmstrung
2024-12-28 08:01:06 +0000 UTCRegarding audio books, studies have shown that you get the same level of comprehension from listening to them as you do from reading text. Listening to an audio book is very much "active listening;" you have to participate by paying attention and processing all the information coming at you just like reading a visual book with your eyes. You're still using your imagination to picture what the words are telling you. I'd like to see someone listen to Gardens of the Moon and argue that's passive listening! Sometimes listening to a book can be even more challenging than reading since with text there is a standard layout that helps you parse what you're looking at; for example, using line breaks to indicate when different people are speaking. Even things like quotation marks we take for granted since much of the time authors aren't ending each sentence with "he said"/"she said." On that point, I saw someone bring up the idea that a narrator takes much of the work away from the listener by adding their own cadences and inflections. Authors do the same thing in text using punctuation marks to let the reader know when a question is asked, or when a character is yelling or upset. Italics are just one other visual indicator used to clue the reader in on how to process the text. The only difference, in my eyes(ears?), is how an audio book is highly dependent on a good narrator. Admittedly, a bad narrator can make a great book a real slog. On the flip-side, however, a great narrator can make a seemingly boring book a joy! I get that some people take pleasure in coming up with character voices in their heads when reading, but not all of us are "actors" in that way, and with some books featuring dozens and dozens of characters I can get a little lost in the sauce thinking "wait, how did I envision this guy from 20 chapters ago?" A good narrator can really bring a world to life with consistent voices for each character, making the work much easier to ingest.
Hahmstrung
2024-12-28 07:52:13 +0000 UTCDo we have links to those audiobook recommendations by any chance?
Kess Broekman-Dattner
2024-12-28 00:10:18 +0000 UTCDevindra reading The Dawn of Everything put a smile on my face. Graeber rules
Jake
2024-12-27 19:43:33 +0000 UTCAbout this '...start a dad joke in Weekly Plugs, then give the punchline later' thing: I think this can only work if you explain, OUTSIDE the Weekly Plugs section, what's going on. If someone is skipping the WP section (which was the original problem, right?) then all they get now is some completely random (to them) line somewhere in the podcast, with no explanation or context. They will have no idea why that line is there, so still have no incentive to listen through the WP section. Maybe I missed something, but that's how it seems to me. Hope this makes sense. Keep at it, and love to your families. Andy (Melbourne, Australia)
Andy Vickery
2024-12-27 19:13:21 +0000 UTCI am so here for the “what we’ve been reading” section. Thanks for the book recs.
Kyle Smith
2024-12-27 16:51:10 +0000 UTCI don't know if this is really on your radar, but I'd be curious to hear you guys discuss the whole Blake Lively drama that's been revealed through reporting, about how her former costar and director apparently hired a PR firm to destroy her reputation in an effort to head off sexual harassment allegations she was going to make about him. It's the kind of thing that seems like it could have wide reaching implications for Hollywood and entertainment, so it might make for an interesting discussion. I'm generally not one to pay attention to celebrity gossip, but found the NY Times article about it from a few days ago to be pretty interesting, though I know there's a lot out there about this now.
Stranger2Reality
2024-12-27 11:37:30 +0000 UTCI wanted to throw a recommendation for a book to go along with Dave reading Nuclear War. Please give The Ministry of the Future by renowned science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson. In audiobook format it comes in at 20ish hours. It is extremely riveting and lays out a future that’s sits in stark contrast to Nuclear War.
Jamal Dumaka
2024-12-27 03:30:55 +0000 UTCI think once key difference between audiobooks and regular books is that if you get distracted or lose interest the audiobook keeps playing whereas if you’re reading and you vague out for a few minutes put you can easily just go back to the start of the sentence or paragraph until you’re more focused on the book.
Peter Tribe
2024-12-27 00:48:54 +0000 UTCDoes anyone have any recommendations for podcasts or YouTube channels similar to Jeff’s book club? I like the sound of that but don’t know if I could get into a dense 10 book fantasy epic.
Peter Tribe
2024-12-27 00:45:57 +0000 UTCPleeeeeease stop saying “skeet.” That has got to have been a troll by someone. “Skeeting” is slang for ejaculation. There is literally a Ying Yang Twins song where “skeeting” is the hook.
Lino Rodriguez Jr.
2024-12-26 21:15:45 +0000 UTCWanted to jump on the Very Long Audiobook Classic train with the audiobook of Don Quixote read by John Ormsby. Also 40+ hours, but one of the funniest books I’ve experienced. Who knew? A bad English teacher really left a bad taste in my mouth for this one. I’m about halfway through after a few years, listening to a few hours and then coming back again and again. Highly recommend.
Don Wood
2024-12-26 17:34:43 +0000 UTCIf you guys are wondering why Nicholas Hoult was sidelined halfway through the movie, that is exactly how the book (Dracula as well) is structured. You follow him to a certain point, and then after the castle he’s largely gone for several chapters.
Branden Cancino
2024-12-26 08:37:58 +0000 UTCSaying “listening” as an insult to audio books is f’d up, but I will DIE on the hill that listening is NOT the same as reading.
Reynaldo K. Cruz
2024-12-26 07:23:59 +0000 UTCWhat a lovely Christmas present, thank you gentlemen! Hope you and yours have a lovely holiday and New Year’s.
Reynaldo K. Cruz
2024-12-26 07:00:19 +0000 UTCI think Nosferatu will do well at the box office. The 8pm screening of Nosferatu was sold out, A Complete Unknown, Sonic 3, and Mufasa had almost no one in any of their theaters.
Nicholas Ewers
2024-12-26 05:37:41 +0000 UTCI can see how I might’ve thought that 20 years ago
Mark P
2024-12-26 02:13:52 +0000 UTCRelated to audiobooks and Jeff's opening joke, if you like the idea of a Nosferatu/Santa mashup read NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. There's also a great audio recording on Audible, and surprising to me, a tv show that lasted 2 seasons, which I've never seen. The book is a lot of fun though!
Mike H
2024-12-26 01:33:15 +0000 UTCHard disagree. One of the best of this year by far
Cameron S
2024-12-26 00:56:49 +0000 UTCIt was immediately after the intro to the main review
Joy o Napping
2024-12-26 00:26:35 +0000 UTCFor any Australian interested, Red Rooms is available on SBS On Demand. It’s godawful (you can’t make that the subject matter of your film then completely decline to examine the crime, instead focus on your mentally ill Jason Bourne/Ethan Hunt/Rain Man character) but free to stream so swings and roundabouts 🤷🏽♂️
Mark P
2024-12-25 22:25:35 +0000 UTCI’m sure this will start a debate, but I *don’t* think that listening to a book is the same as reading it. Reading is active, listening is passive. When you’re reading your brain is doing a lot of work - books give you nothing but raw text, you’re seeing a collection of symbols on a page that you’re associating or translating into concepts and it is up to the reader to focus and parse out the information communicated. When you’re listening, a lot of that work has been done for you, even down to the cadence and inflections from the narrator that signal how the information is to be received. It is easier to listen to a book than to read it. The difference between reading Shakespeare and hearing an actor perform it is huge. But despite what I think of this, I don’t look down on anyone for listening to audiobooks, I understand that people often don’t have the luxury of time or have other physical impediments to reading, so I consider audiobooks to be perfectly legitimate and I don’t consider them “inferior.” I have listened to a lot of them! But they’re not the same thing.
Cameron S
2024-12-25 21:57:46 +0000 UTCSo, I just want to take a moment to talk about The Brothers Karamazov, because it so rarely gets mentioned in modern society. Upwards of 25 years ago I took a college course on 19th century Russian history. In order to understand that history you have to understand the dialogue between the intelligencia, which was largely done through novels and short stories. In 10 weeks I read works by Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and pretty much any Russian writer that was in that time. It was so intense it basically ruined me for reading to this day. But having an understanding of how one novel was in communication with another novel or the events of the time did give me a greater understanding and appreciation for the work. Of all of those things, The Brothers Karamazov was my absolute favorite. I loved the character arcs, what they represented, the metaphors - all of it. I wouldn't recommend an audiobook just because you might miss out on footnotes, etc. that might help bring a greater understanding of the work beyond the basic story. But it does sound like that audiobook is remarkable. Regardless, I can't co-sign the recommendation of The Brothers Karamazov enough!
Jeff Gibson
2024-12-25 20:36:57 +0000 UTCWait...did I miss where you finished the knock knock joke?
Cindy McIntyre
2024-12-25 18:09:29 +0000 UTCI'm the owner of an independent bookstore in Oregon and I always get stoked when the guys talk about books! And yes, audiobooks 100% count! There are studies that show they engage similar parts of the brain just as effectively (and sometimes more so) and are especially good for retaining reluctant or struggling readers! No judgement of anyone who wants to be in the Amazon ecosystem but going to drop a small plug here for Libro.fm, which is basically an independent bookstore version of Audible - you can tether your account to your local indie so they get $$ when you purchase books, it has a monthly subscription & credit system similar to Audible, and you also OWN the files DRM free, rather than licensing them. Right now they're running a sign up bonus where you get 2 extra credits when you subscribe. This is the link (https://libro.fm/membership?mp=SWITCH) - it is not an affiliate link or anything like that (even though I know this reads that way!). Libro is a small team of folks based out of Seattle and my store has been working with them since it was just two of them about ten years ago! And while I'm here...some of my favorite audiobooks that all have amazing narrators: Piranesi by Clarke (yes Jeff! so good! The notebook indexing system that the protagonist uses in that is an inspiration to me and my OCD) Come Closer by Sarah Gran Circe by Madeline Miller Exhalation by Ted Chiang Anything by Joe Abercrombie (grimdark fantasy) Lonesome Dove by McMurtry
Lane Jacobson
2024-12-25 18:02:07 +0000 UTCI have been listening to the audio book (yes it counts!) of Nuclear War this week. You know, just light holiday reading. If you have the stomach for it, highly educational and interesting.
Cindy McIntyre
2024-12-25 15:03:59 +0000 UTCJust putting this out there…..the audiobook versions of the 3 Alan Partridge books are some of the funniest things I’ve ever listened to. A quotable line every 30 seconds.
Garry L
2024-12-25 13:39:23 +0000 UTCIt’s a Christmas miracle!
Dianae Weeks
2024-12-25 13:35:06 +0000 UTCA new episode on Christmas Eve? This makes me so happy
Kashif Pasta
2024-12-25 08:07:19 +0000 UTCI've heard good things about Red Rooms, I'm interested to hear your review of it. Also, Dave, I have a movie recommendation for you, the new film from Pedro Almodovar called The Room Next Door. It's all about impending death and planning your death and coming to grips with your mortality, and all that stuff that's supposedly your catnip. I thought it was pretty good, but my immediate thought was "this definitely seems like a Dave Chen movie".
Stranger2Reality
2024-12-25 07:04:13 +0000 UTC
