Dir. Damien Chazelle. Starring Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser People listen to music for repetition, predictability. This is why a three minute ditty on the radio can repeat its chorus three times and no one is bothered, and this is why people in pressed shirts go crazy for Ravel’s Bolero. Even music like Schoenberg’s… Read More Whiplash (2014)
Dir. Dan Scanlon. Starring Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Helen Mirren The girls are at summer camp. They report something strange is in their cabin. None of them are frightened – in fact, some even seem a little giddy. Regardless, forest rangers and other law enforcement quickly evacuate the girls before heading in. Slowly, quietly, cautiously,… Read More Monsters University (2013)
Back to the Disney Renaissance, and for an accidentally long podcast. We talk about how Josh is this close to being Lord Greystoke, Tim’s need to make everything he loves relate to Absalom, Absalom!, and most importantly, we join the rest of the Internet in asking if a hot dog is a sandwich. Come on… Read More Baumann and Burch, Episode 6: Autopsy-Turvy (Disney Renaissance, Part 2)
Dir. Nicholas Stoller. Starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Russell Brand I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall for the third time recently. I first saw it maybe a year after it came out. I watched it again in college, remembering how much fun I had when I saw it as a high school senior, and then wondered… Read More Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Baumann and Burch welcomes its first guest of the podcast. Tim’s former ex-roommate Josh comes onto the podcast to talk with us about the Disney Renaissance. Listen for what Greek myth would adapt nicely to Disney animation, deciding if Aladdin has more in common with Game of Thrones or the First Persian Gulf War, and… Read More Baumann and Burch Podcast #5 – Edward’s Angels (Disney Renaissance, Part 1)
We kept the last one to an hour. This one, not so much. We had many things to say about The Incredibles – Helen Parr, the best Pixar character and Syndrome, faceless victim to Bob Parr’s Howard Roark – and not so many things to say, comparatively speaking, about Finding Nemo. Listen to find out… Read More Baumann and Burch Podcast #4 – Feminist Icon Helen Parr (Pixar, Part 2)
We meant to make a single podcast about Pixar. We made two instead. This first half (which is less than an hour! Woo!) talks about our bottom five Pixar movies, as well as Tim’s scorching take on Toy Story 3 and Matt’s belief that all of these movies contain a secret message about a workers’… Read More Baumann and Burch Podcast #3 – Immigrant Pillbugs (Pixar, Part 1)
Dir. Richard Fleischer. Starring Paul Lukas, James Mason, Kirk Douglas Tomorrowland, one of the many attractions at many Disney theme parks, opened first at Disneyland in 1955. In 1954, Tomorrowland was very much in view in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a Disney film based on the Jules Verne novel. It is the only sci-fi… Read More 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
When I say that I chose not to key your car, what I mean is that I chose not to key your car. I walk past dozens of cars every day, and I drive past hundreds. I had never before walked past a car with my keys in my hand, thinking to myself, “Should I… Read More To the Person Whose Car, Despite the Several Confederate Flags Which It Bore, I Chose Not to Key
There are some books that I read over and over again. From the time I was in sixth grade up into my last year of college, I read To Kill a Mockingbird at least twice a year. (I’ll be citing the edition that is yellow and a little torn beyond its years: it’s the first… Read More Villainous Age in Harper Lee’s “Oeuvre”
Seeing Things Secondhand 