Devin and Mark, recording in the same room for the first time in 17 months (!!!), celebrate the safe reopening of movie theaters and take stock of two movies they saw together (!!!) in Los Angeles: Old and Zola.
(Note: This episode was recorded in late July, before recent urges in cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19.)
Back to the Movies: 3:28 - 17:00
Old: 17:09 - 35:54
Zola: 36:00 - end
Read the (bad) Kara Swisher piece dismissing the excitement around movie theaters, and the Rolling Stone article upon which Zola is based.
Devin and Mark are healing the world with podcasting—about Bo Burnham's new special (?)/movie (?)/musical (?)/uncategorizable work of semi-autobiographical art that's streaming on Netflix and setting Twitter and TikTok ablaze.
We pick favorite songs and moments; dissect the piece's complicated and conflicting ideas about the Internet and mental health; and try to understand how Burnham and his work achieved a rare kind of pop culture ubiquity.
Read Craig Jenkins on Burnham's music; Richard Brody on the tradition of "cinematic selfies"; and Lili Loofbourow on the special's artifice.
Listen to Who Weekly on Bo Burnham's celebrity persona.
Mark and Devin convene virtually for the M&M Report's eighth annual episode recorded immediately after the Oscars telecast on ABC--and Mark is mad.
Devin and Mark break down what to expect and what they're hoping to see during the 93rd Oscars on April 25. They also ponder how it feels for Oscar season to be occurring during ~these times~, and whether anyone even knows the show is just around the corner.
A few worthwhile reads:
Movies Survived 2020. The Oscars Diversified. There’s More to Do. (Wesley Morris, The New York Times)
What Frances McDormand Would (and Wouldn’t) Give to ‘Nomadland’ (Kyle Buchanan, The New York Times)
Yes, this Oscar season has no blockbuster contenders. Why that’s a good thing (Justin Chang, The Los Angeles Times)
The Many Lives of Steven Yeun (Jay Caspian Kang, The New York Times Magazine)
What Nomadland Gets Wrong About Gig Labor (Wilfred Chan, Vulture)
‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’: The Sixties Told in Sorkinese (K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone)
Oscar Producers Reveal Plans For Show And Covid Safety Procedure: “There Is No Universe In Which We Put Anybody At Risk” (Pete Hammond, Deadline)
I'd Like This To Stop: Praise For A Promising Young Woman (Ayesha Siddiqi)
Promising Young Woman is a sneering, winking provocation of a movie (Roxana Hadadi, Polygon)
Stream Let Them All Talk on HBO Max and First Cow on Showtime
Mark and Devin take stock of the, uh, busy last four years and attempt to make sense of their effect on the landscape of American popular culture.
(Note: This episode was recorded on the first weekend in January, before the insurrection, the second Trump impeachment, and the early days of the Biden administration.)