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A remark made in Aaron Rose’s art-nerd documentary Beautiful Losers, about humor acting as a sledge hammer, got us thinking about the power of both the comic and the tragic. Not long ago, Karina reviewed a little known documentary called Dear Zachary: A letter to a son about his father. Then the film was played on MSNBC, and her analytical criticisms of the film set off a firestorm of angry comments. We chat about tragedy, context, and the dangers of critiquing non-fiction films as works of art.
Another type of movie that often avoids critical attention is comedy. A new PBS mini-series seeks to correct this. Make ‘Em Laugh explores the evolution of American comedy, revealing its power as a cultural force.
(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)
0:00 - Intro, Che giveaway
4:45 - Listener e-mail
9:40 - The Dear Zachary dust-up
19:31 - Make ‘Em Laugh
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
filmcouch-114
[...] Dear Zachary as well as a excellent art of critiquing non-fiction. PBS’s Make ‘Em Laugh creates us consider about comedy. Original post: FilmCouch #103: Comedy, Tragedy, Criticism | SpoutBlog [...]
Aww, I liked Dear Zachary but I also thought Karina’s review made good points. There can be a balance, people.
After listening to Filmcouch #103, I was curious what all the hoopla was about so I read Karina’s review of “Dear Zachary”. I have to say, I think you guys are right that it has a lot to do with the showing on MSNBC. From reading the comments it also appears that many of these people were friends of the Bagby family. On the other hand, some of the language used in Karina’s review caused the review to be interpreted as “sympathetic” to Shirley Turner by (apparently) many readers. I did not feel that Ms. Longworth was sympathetic, but that she was making a point that the film was manipulative - maybe so much so that it created the opposite of the reaction that it intended.
Peter DeBruge made similar comments in his shorter review for Variety.
Relatively new listener. Loved this podcast, guys. But…. I’m disappointed by the amount of time spent discussing the idiots commenting on Karinas’ reviews. This is the second time that you have done this in just the half dozen episodes that I have listened to. News flash–people who comment on posts are idiots (yes, i get the irony). I listen to your podcast for the movie reviews and insights, not to complain about the ignorance and vitriol of people who comment. Rule of the internet #1 (great video)
If you are upset by ignorant comments, you shouldn’t be in the blogging biz. Now let’s talk movies!