Welcome to the first installment of USELESS/USEFUL, in which we discuss topics of interest, broken into two categories. USELESS covers topics that have to do with pop culture, music, film, etc. – and the term “useless” is used lovingly, hearkening back to the DIY Brooklyn venue Fort Useless and the community around that. USEFUL covers topics like relief efforts, charitable campaigns, and social issues that we want to draw attention to. We’ll also share about projects going on at Stereoactive Media. Here are our topics for this episode…

USELESS: R.E.M. – specifically, their 1994 album, ‘Monster’ /// ‘The Substance,’ now in theaters and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Quallet, and Dennis Quaid

USEFUL: Relief efforts related to Hurricane Helene.

STEREOACTIVE MEDIA: RedactedAV /// When We See Each Other

LINKS:

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/hurricane/2024/09/28/keaton-beach-damage-photos-hurricane-helene-florida-video/75426982007/

https://www.commoncause.org/north-carolina/articles/what-you-can-do-to-help-western-north-carolina/

https://www.redactedav.com/

https://redcircle.com/shows/whenweseeeachother

Jeremiah and Joe discuss the evolving 2024 election landscape, reviewing key events like the Democratic National Convention, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s endorsement of Trump, and the Harris-Trump debate, analyzing their potential impact on voter sentiment. Joe shares his fatigue and mixed feelings on the campaign’s warped timeline, following President Biden's dropping out and VP Harris dropping in. They also delve into the debate performances, particularly Harris's assertiveness and Trump’s controversial moments, and discuss the importance of moderators in upholding journalistic standards such as, you know, fact-checking. As we near the election on November 5th, they reflect on the unpredictable nature of the race and the significance of the upcoming VP debate and whether there may be any further Presidential debates.

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0:00 - Introduction to the 2024 Election

1:28 - Overarching Thoughts on the Race

4:34 - Impact of the Democratic National Convention

6:57 - Harris's Campaign Strategy

11:54 - The Big Tent Democratic Party

17:24 - Analysis of the Recent Debate

32:14 - Fact-Checking and Moderator Dynamics

47:10 - Importance of Vice Presidential Debates

49:58 - Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Guests - Joe Virgillito

Music - Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media

Back in 2020, J. McVay and Joe Virgillito did a regular series of discussions on the previous incarnation of this podcast, leading up to that year’s election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Now that the looming specter of a depressing rematch between those two is behind us, they’re now embarking on hopefully the first of a new series of chats leading up to this November’s election. So, here;s the state of the race so far: 1) Joe Biden did terribly in his June debate with Donald Trump; 2) Trump was shot at a rally; 3) JD Vance was announced as Trump’s running mate; 4) The Republican National Convention happened; 5) Democrats managed to convince Biden to drop out of the race and Vice President Harris immediately became the heir to the nomination; 6) Tim Walz was picked to be Harris’ running mate. With all of that as table setting, along with the looming possibilities of Project 2025 if Trump is elected, and the “uncommitted” movement showing Biden’s weakness in Democratic primaries earlier in the year, Joe and J tackle the following questions… How surprising was Vice President Harris’ quick ascension as Biden dropped out of the race, and how does she seem as a candidate now as compared to 2020? Where does JD Vance fall on the Palin Scale – is he more or less of a drag on the Trump ticket than Palin was for McCain in 2008? How does Tim Walz stack up as a running mate for Harris as compared to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shaprio and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly? With Democrats adopting the messaging that the GOP is “weird,” and the Harris/Walz team seemingly presenting themselves as something like a “return to normalcy,” what are their prospects as they head into a Democratic National Convention where they’re probably going to be largely selling the idea of “Normcore 2024?”

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Guests - Joe Virgillito

Music - Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media

J. McVay reviews George Miller’s 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,' distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Since its release in 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road has moved close to the top of many, if not most, lists of the greatest action films ever made. So, it was never going to be an easy feat to create a film that could be viewed as a worthy follow up to such an accomplishment.

Of course, throughout his career, director George Miller has proven that he is anything but averse to challenges. After all, it took him two or three decades to finally get Fury Road made, depending on which point in the early gestation of the project you start counting from. So, at least as far as time is concerned, bringing Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga to screens less than a decade after the previous film could be viewed as a sign the process was at least a bit smoother this go-round.

That said, reports on the production of Fury Road make it pretty clear that it would be hard to outdo the difficulty of that past endeavor. Again, though, Miller is anything but averse to challenges and in Furiosa, against the odds, he has managed to create a work that rivals his masterpiece.

In terms of story and theme, Furiosa vastly deepens Fury Road. Part of the way it does this is that it takes a sort of incidental, yet incredibly important, element of previous entries in the franchise and moves it more front and center, thematically, than it's ever been before. As much as Furiosa is about the backstory of its title character, previously played by Charlize Theron – played here by Anya Taylor Joy and Alyla Browne – it’s also about the importance of storytelling itself.

With that in mind, it makes a certain sense that, unlike other Mad Max films, this one features delineated chapters with titles telegraphing what’s to come and imbuing the internal plotting and characters with a sense of thoughtful importance. The key to this meta-element of the film’s storytelling about storytelling is a climactic scene between Furiosa and her antagonist, Dementus, played expertly against type by Chris Hemsworth.

“Do you have it in you to make it epic?” he goads her.

And perhaps this is an oblique comparison, but it immediately made me think of the scene in Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans when that film’s protagonist got this sage advice from one of his filmmaking heroes, John Ford, about how to frame a shot:

“When the horizon’s at the bottom, it’s interesting. When the horizon’s at the top, it’s interesting. When the horizon’s in the middle, it’s boring as shit.”

The point of both, within the context of their respective films, is that approaching something straight on may get the job done, but it’s often not the most fulfilling way to go. In the world of Mad Max, especially as envisioned in Furiosa and Fury Road, self-mythology is a means of survival. For the big bads of this post-apocalyptic world, self-mythology helps them to maintain power by giving their underlings something to strive toward and buy into. For the tentative heroes, though, it offers some small yet crucial avenue toward freedom.

If, as the so-called History Man tells Furiosa early on in the movie, making yourself invaluable to those you are forced to serve is important for self-preservation, the message she receives from Dementus about making it “epic” is her key to becoming invaluable. It’s her way of tapping into the power of self-mythology that her vicious boss, Immortan Joe has fostered. If she can build herself into an epic figure, so good at her given job that she must be relied on regardless of how much incidental trouble she may carry with her, then she can survive her current low status long enough to find a way toward her inevitable goals, as depicted in Fury Road.

But the History Man is not only a giver of sage advice; he is also the narrator of the story we’re seeing on screen. In this way, we the audience are made a part of the film, essentially cast as silent listeners taking in his tale from some future time. This is not the first time the franchise has used this trope, but it’s arguably the most self-reflexive and effective.

Ultimately, what we’re left with is perhaps the most thematically, emotionally, and dramatically complicated Mad Max film of all. This is not to say it either is or isn’t better than Fury Road. But just as that film’s standing and reputation only grew over time, almost certainly, the same will happen for Furiosa – even if it, disappointingly, hasn’t found its full audience yet, as unfortunately evidenced by its relative box office revenue so far.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Music - Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media

https://www.stereoactivemedia.com/

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Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/hF0CffGCWqY

J. McVay reviews Dev Patel's debut as a director, 'Monkey Man,' distributed by Universal Pictures.

The backstory of Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, is nearly as compelling as the film itself. The film was first announced back in 2018 and was set to begin production in early 2020, though it had to be postponed once the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down.

By March of the following year, filming was complete and Netflix acquired it. But the subject matter apparently made them squeamish and they nearly canceled its release. Eventually, though, Jordan Peele saw the film and convinced Universal Pictures to buy it and give it a theatrical run.

For that, we’re lucky.

It’s an impressive looking film that plays great on a big screen. The action, along with the film’s production design, cinematography, and editing make for a truly visceral experience that becomes overwhelming in a theater, in the best way.

Patel has been a welcome big screen presence since his debut in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionare back in 2008 – even in films that never quite lived up to his own appeal and talent as an actor. And Monkey Man proves that, if he likes, he can create his own path now that he’s a distinguished and capable multi-hyphenate: a writer-director-producer-star.

But he’s more than just capable.

The story he’s crafted with his co-screenwriters is a solid revenge tale that touches on the corruption often inherent at the intersection of religion, politics, and industry. Overall, they’re smart to let those elements live around the margins and bleed into the main thrust of the plot just enough to elevate the stakes and offer a sense of higher purpose to Patel’s central character. That said, the villains he’s after are drawn a bit too faintly, leaving the climactic moments feeling just a bit underwhelming.

But the previously mentioned viscerality of the filmmaking does a surprisingly good job of making the journey of the 2 hour runtime feel satisfying enough to overcome a good deal of that let-down of the climax. And that’s a feat in itself, as so many films with underwhelming climaxes feel retroactively deflated once the credits roll.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Music - Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media

J. McVay and Charles Hinshaw discuss How to Blow Up a Pipeline, which is directed by Daniel Goldhaber, and is available on Hulu.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline essentially plays like a heist movie where the object of the heist is a future that otherwise seems so futile and bleak that to not successfully execute the caper is simply not an option. Propelled along by a bustling, plaintive, largely electronic score composed by Gavin Brivik, we follow our cast of characters from several walks of life as they converge on the representative object of their derision.

That object is the titular pipeline – somewhere in arid West Texas. And the relative isolation only aids in the film’s success at making the viewer feel immersed in the microworld the group of characters have chosen to now exist in, away from a society that may judge their actions separate from their meaning and, at least as far as they’re concerned, necessity. This immersion through isolation makes it all that much easier for us to feel as if we’re a part of the plot ourselves.

The result is a vital commentary on the state of our world – a world where the idea that we may actually be able to make a difference for the sake of humanity’s very future can seem not only daunting, but often impossible.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Guests - Charles Hinshaw

Music - Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media

J. McVay and Charles Hinshaw discuss the second film written and directed by Emerald Fennell. Saltburn stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, and Archie Madekwe and is distributed by Amazon MGM Studios and available on Prime Video.

Since we’re recording this a couple of months after the film’s release and even longer since it first began playing at festivals and reviews of it started coming out, it may be worth mentioning that there seem to be a lot of critics who do not like Saltburn. In fact, I pretty much avoided watching the film until now because so many critics I follow had so little good to say about it. 

So, perhaps my low expectations played a part in this, but I found it mostly pretty compelling to watch. I mean, it’s pure pop melodrama trash playing at being deep and sophisticated, and I think another couple of passes on the screenplay may have leveled it up from that to either the true satire or social commentary it strives to be – something more along the lines of The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Rules of the Game, Gosford Park, A Place in the Sun, or something more recent like Parasite. But the talent and craft brought to the film from other quarters certainly elevate it into something more than it would be otherwise.

Barry Keoghan not only swings for the fences as the class interloper at the heart of the film, but he also more than proves his ability to lead a high profile movie with a top notch cast. And whether some of his choices pull you in or make you cringe, it’s impossible to deny his commitment to his character and the themes of the film.

For his part, between this and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Jacob Elordi is fast becoming an actor whose presence in a project is going to make me more interested in checking it out. That said, I do wish he had more to do at times in Saltburn – especially after his character, Felix, first shows Keoghan’s Oliver around the estate and introduces him to the other residents, then seems to melt into the background or wholly disappear for quite some time. 

Richard E. Grant and Rosamund Pike, as Felix’s staggeringly British parents, are both bright spots when the film allows them space to shine and Archie Madekwe, as Felix’s cousin Farleigh, certainly does all he can to make his character as unlikable as the script requires.

Add to all that, the striking visuals delivered by the cinematography and production design, and I’m honestly more excited now to see director Emerald Fennell’s next film, than I was after I had mixed feelings about her last one, Promising Young Woman.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Guests - Charles Hinshaw

Music - Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media

J. McVay and Charles Hinshaw discuss Bradley Cooper’s second film as a director and co-writer. Maestro stars Cooper as conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, Carey Mulligan as his wife Felicia, and is available on Netflix.

Before 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook, Bradley Cooper may have seemed like he was destined to be in nothing but pulpy movies like Limitless or bro-flicks like The Hangover – at the time, both fairly recent hits for him that had already changed his career and made him a more bankable leading man. But Silver Linings Playbook put him into that different category of quote-unquote “serious actor” seemingly destined to one day win an Academy Award. And 2018’s A Star Is Born proved him also a serious prospect as a writer and director. So anticipation for his second film as a triple hyphenate actor-writer-director, Maestro, was obviously highly anticipated.

Unfortunately, there’s also been a certain narrative building up around Cooper – at least with the very-online portion of the film commentariat – that his supposed thirst to prove himself by winning an Oscar and being taken seriously as not only an actor, but an all around filmmaker is cringey and unseemly. But if you can deliver the goods, maybe you deserve a bit of allowance in that regard.

And ultimately, Cooper has the goods. Between Maestro and A Star Is Born, he’s clearly proven himself to be a great director. As far as acting goes, I don’t think the jury was still out on that one. 

Really, the only real problem with Maestro, which portrays the relationship between famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia, is its screenplay… which, counter-intuitively, is not to say the writing is bad, necessarily. Each scene is internally impressive on its own, but the film as a whole lacks a solid throughline and feels disjointed and unfocused. Perhaps this can at least be partly attributed to the decision to position the film as if it’s actually more about Felicia (wonderfully played by Carey Mulligan, by the way) than it is about Bernstein himself. It’s a perplexing decision because it leaves Bernstein feeling inadequately explored, while the centering of Felicia seems forced and, itself, inadequately justified.

All that said, it’s not everyday we get a movie as otherwise beautifully shot, crafted, and performed as Maestro, so here’s hoping the next screenplay Cooper co-writes is up to his skills as a director and performer, as well as the skills of the excellent crew and cast he surrounds himself with.

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Mentioned in the episode:

Stereoactive Presents: Oscars Nomination Reactions for 2023 Films

https://www.stereoactivemedia.com/stereoactive-presents-oscars-nomination-reactions-for-2023-films/

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Charles Hinshaw

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Produced by Stereoactive Media