79 min listen
#63: Criminal Activities / Snowden (with Matt Goldberg)
FromTravolta/Cage
ratings:
Length:
53 minutes
Released:
Jul 12, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
This week, Matt Goldberg (formerly of Turner Classic Movies, currently of the Substack Commentary Track) joins us for the mighty return of... gasp.... John Travolta in a good role? First, we cover Jackie Earle Haley's directorial debut, Criminal Activities, a messy but ultimately interesting Tarantino riff in which a group of down-and-out high school buddies (Michael Pitt, Christopher Abbott, Rob Brown, Dan Stevens) ends up inadvertently in debt to a cheeky, Macbeth-quoting mob boss (Travolta, having a grand old time). They can get out from under his thumb, if they do one big job for him -- kidnap the failson (Edi Gathegi) of his mob rival. Twists, turns, and darkly comic antics ensue, as a deeply-overqualified cast leans into the film's innate goofiness. On the other side of the coin comes Oliver Stone's poorly-aged, deadly serious, self-righteous political biopic Snowden, charting the life of Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, doing his best Elizabeth Holmes impression) as he goes from dull intelligence agent to dull whistleblower. Cage shows up for a few minutes as Snowden's jaded mentor, but otherwise it's two-plus hours of Stone's overwrought self-insistence that what you're watching is The Most Groundbreaking, Earth-Shattering Discovery About Government Surveillance Ever. (The government's spying on us all the time? The hell you say?!) Pledge to our Patreon at patreon.com/travoltacage Follow us on Twitter @travoltacage Email us questions at travoltacagepod@gmail.com Podcast theme by Jon Biegen Podcast logo by Felipe Sobreiro
Released:
Jul 12, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
#19: Pee-Wee's Big Avengers: Nathan and Clint go it alone for the latest Happy Cast, as we celebrate the Paul Ruddnaissance with a long-overdue discussion of Marvel's latest cog in the cinematic universe machine, Ant-Man and the Wasp! Plus, we talk about the mid-aughts Rudd rom- ... by Travolta/Cage