Yes, you read that right, the little blog that could, Texas’ own GoSeeTalk has hit the 5 year mark. But as joyous as this moment in internet history is, it’s also a bit sad. Well, more like bittersweet as this Dallas-based movie themed website is going to be changing gears, focus, and streamlining our content. You may have noticed more promo screenings since the beginning of this month. Well that’s because we’re changing it up and putting focus on what we believe is important. Reason being is that chasing news stories each day is just too ambitious for the resources and time allotted in the professional and personal lives of…
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So Long and Thanks For All the Fish!
(I write this on the eve of a special site-impacting announcement, because in light of what’s to come, we at Go, See, Talk! want you the reader to be aware of what’s ahead for us. Don’t worry, this isn’t a precursor to doom and gloom – quite the opposite in fact – but we wanted to keep all the information from being lumped into a long catch-all post that may or may not be overlooked. Again good news follows so gather around film fans. Here…we…go.) Five years. That’s a lot of time to account for. Of course, I personally only need to account for part of it; I only began…
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Of Horn & Ivory: The Odyssey Of ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’
For an ostensible, totally loose biopic about Dave Van Ronk, Inside Llewyn Davis leans rather heavily on an incredibly serendipitous allusion to The Odyssey, and more than a decade after releasing O Brother, Where Art Thou?, to boot. A story about one man’s navigations through the choppy waters of New York’s 1960’s folk music scene might be the last place anybody would expect to find references to Homer’s ancient epic; leave it to Joel and Ethan Coen to subvert expectations, then, because their film practically hinges on a synchronized collision between hoary fiction and the more recent, very real history of Van Ronk and the folk revival movement he contributed to – at least as far…
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Solomon Survives: The Modernity Of ’12 Years a Slave’
From behind the iron-barred basement windows of a faceless tenement building nestled alongside so many others that look just like it, a man frantically cries out for aid. His words echo fruitlessly, bouncing between alleyways and sidewalks as they’re smothered by the brick facade of the structures surrounding him; his pleas goes unanswered, leaving him utterly trapped, robbed of his freedom and with no means of alerting his family or his friends – hours away in Saratoga – of his plight. But he continues to make appeals to the deserted street, and as he does, the camera pans up, revealing that this heartbreaking display of hopelessness and isolation is unfolding…
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A 3D Movie In Any Other Format Would Be As Great…
“Great movies are the ones that stay great no matter where you watch them.” Seventy three characters never read so compellingly. This little nugget popped up in my Twitter feed Friday afternoon on October 4th, a direct result of the mid-afternoon jamboree that took place on the opening day for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity. You may be familiar with this film by now; it’s the one where Sandra Bullock and George Clooney spin aimlessly through space for roughly ninety minutes in the long, unbroken shots that serve as Cuarón’s calling card (and have done since 2001’s Y Tu Mamá También). According to the Internet, you should probably – probably – make a…
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‘Blue Jasmine’: Empathy For The Elite
Blue Jasmine is a film about the 1% and Bernie Madoff that actually isn’t about either of these things at all; they’re elements of window dressing rather than substance, as Woody Allen’s eponymous heroine might herself declare. They only comprise the film’s backdrop, against which Allen fashions his examination of Jasmine’s shame, guilt, and inability to assume personal responsibility over her life, while also posing a fundamental question whose answer invariably shapes our response as the audience. Can we accord sympathy to a has-been member of America’s obscene wealth culture? If no, then Blue Jasmine may resemble a variation on cruel revenge fantasy, or simply play out as a colossal waste of time.…
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Lighting The Affleck Signal
Preface: I don’t really have a dog in the entire “who should play Batman next” fight, and as a general rule I don’t find rampant fan-casting to be either productive or a rewarding use of my time*. More than that, I don’t really care for the current big-screen iteration of Batman (outside of The Dark Knight, a film I enjoy but consider flawed, I think Nolan’s Bat-franchise happens to be one of the most overrated contemporary movie trilogies), and I presume that DC’s intention going forward is to rely on those films as canon when building their Justice League brand in time to counter Marvel’s Avengers pictures. And yet here…
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G-S-T TV: ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Is Your New Obsession
(We’re trying something new here at Go, See, Talk!: we’re talking about TV now. GST will remain a primarily movie-oriented outlet, but we’re expanding our brand and slowly starting coverage on the television shows that we’re interested in the most.) I’m not going to pretend that I don’t have a tiny bias in favor of Orange Is the New Black‘s continued success as the seventh Netflix original series; I love Weeds, half of it anyways, and I have a completely random personal connection to Jenji Kohan’s latest endeavor to boot*. But when have I ever allowed my biases to keep me from singing the praises of the movies and television…
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What The Alamo Drafthouse Means To Me
I’ve never been more excited for a new business moving into the DFW Metroplex than I am right now. That’s because a mere 15 minutes away from me is an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a haven for true movie fans. They cater to the people that aren’t simply content with the average cinema experience. We want more. Talking, texting, and cell phone use are not just against their policy, they actually enforce that rule with eagerness. You get one warning then you’re gone. Without that we are left with a safe place for cinema to flourish, but not just the blockbuster flicks at every megaplex. Instead, the Drafthouse also does repertory showings,…
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Halftime Report: G-S-T’s 10 Best Movies Of 2013 (So Far!)
What’s good in 2013? If you’d asked me the same question three months ago, I’d have had very few titles worth recommending. This year has been marked by a glacial start, with decent B-movie pulp- Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, The Last Stand– appearing sporadically from January onward, but it took March for 2013 to really start showing off the gems waiting patiently on its release slate. From Stoker to Beyond the Hills to Ginger & Rosa, March showed a turnaround in quality for this cinematic season, and things have picked up from there considerably. Where we’ll end up in December is another question entirely, but if the remainder of the ride…
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Star Trekking Into Nitpicking
(Like most of my editorials, this piece contains really specific spoilers for the film being discussed, which in this case happens to be Star Trek Into Darkness. If you haven’t seen the film, you should first check out Go, See, Talk!’s dueling reviews by me and Bill, respectively; you should also avoid reading this piece, because it’s guaranteed to ruin the experience for you.) I am by no means a Trekkie. The last time I watched a Star Trek program during its televised run was in 1999, when the series finale for Deep Space Nine ran in June. I haven’t seen a good chunk of the Star Trek movies, but of those that I have seen, I only…
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Smoke, Mirrors, and the Mandarin In Iron Man 3
(Note: If you have not yet seen Iron Man 3, you probably should avoid reading this. Spoilers, big ones, lie just a few paragraphs down. On top of that, there’s some sensitive subject matter discussed here that’s tied to the film but stems from the upsetting topic of terrorism, which I imagine might make for difficult reading for some. Be advised.) Alongside discussions of its quality, its place in comic book cinema, and how it relates back to its source material, there’s going to be- or there ought to be- a healthy conversation about where Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 fits in our post-9/11 cultural dialogue. There’s something inherently daring about…
