Sunday, January 31, 2016

The Dissolvers Best of 2015 Poll



As a member of the Facebook group for former Dissolve (RIP) commenters, I had the task of compiling all of your top ten lists for 2015 in film.  And my, what a fascinating list it was, so I figured I'd share it here.  We had 96 ballots covering 135 films that were released in or came out in the US in 2015  (I tried to lay down rules, but at some point you have to be fair, like how Paddington was a 2014 release for the UK but a 2015 for the US.)  With that said, the final results.


 The Top 10

  1. Mad Max: Fury Road - 694 votes (37 first place) 
  2. Inside Out - 419 (7)
  3. Carol - 298 (9)
  4. Ex Machina - 225 (7)
  5. Sicario - 210 (2)
  6. Spotlight - 184 (4 )
  7. Look Of Silence, The - 148 (1)
  8. Duke Of Burgundy, The - 140 (2)
  9. Phoenix - 121 (0)
  10. Tangerine - 116 (0)
Carol was way behind for a long time but had a huge late surge (extending the voting through January helped).  Mad Max was never in any doubt of winning this, as you can tell.   I wonder how much Duke Of Burgundy, Tangerine and Phoenix coming relatively quickly to Netflix helped their votes.

The Top 10 By First-Place Votes

  1. Mad Max: Fury Road (37)
  2. Carol (9)
  3. Inside Out (7)
  4. Ex Machina (7)
  5. Spotlight (4)
  6. Sicario (2)
  7. Duke Of Burgundy, The (2)
  8. Clouds of Sils Maria (2)
  9. Mommy (2)
  10. Magic Mike XXL (2)
Well that's a wee bit different, isn't it?


Movies That Only Received A First-Place Vote

  1. Jauja

Movies That Only Received A Tenth-Place Vote
  1. Unfriended
  2. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
  3. Far From The Madding Crowd
  4. Dude Bro Party Massacre III
  5. Incompresa
  6. She's Funny That Way
  7. Peanuts Movie, The
  8. Electric Slide
  9. Faults

Movies With One First-Place Vote
  1. Look Of Silence, The
  2. World Of Tomorrow
  3. Creed
  4. Brooklyn
  5. Force Awakens, The
  6. Anomalisa
  7. Room
  8. End Of The Tour, The
  9. Big Short, The
  10. Forbidden Room, The
  11. Amy
  12. Queen of Earth
  13. Shaun The Sheep Movie
  14. Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter
  15. 71
  16. Breathe (Respire)
  17. Spring
  18. Assassin, The
  19. Jauja
Domnhall Gleeson is, apparently, the MVP of 2015 as every movie he was in made the list somewhere and three of them received first-place votes.

If you'd like to look at the full poll, with all the movies that were right in the middle, go here for a downloadable .csv file:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mDgS2xTCACTF_yWMM0q1XQt1L0Y0J0GqMmanAjSOo3s/pub?output=csv

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Thursday, January 28, 2016

Episode 54 - 2015 Books


This week we're talking about books from 2015. Randy selected The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, Joe picked Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley, and Amy chose The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan.


   

Show Notes

The Girl on the Train
  • Lucy Knisley's own website
  • Knisley's memoir Relish won the ALA Alex award, given to "best adult books that appeal to teen audiences", in 2014
The Royal We
  • The website that started it all: Go Fug Yourself
  • The alternate history of the book and how it came to be
  • British monarchs may now marry a Catholic (or Buddhist, or whatever) but they cannot be one themselves.
  • Passions - which apparently once had a storyline in which a character was presented "as an intersex person who became pregnant with his own father's son." Whoa. One critic for the New York Times wrote that it featured "acting that would make a pro wrestler blush." Oh my.
  • Amy misspoke - in the prologue, Bex states that it is the day before, not the day of, the wedding
  • SNL sketch wherein Kate Middleton (Anne Hathaway) meets QEII (Fred Armisen) and Philip (Bill Hader) and gets quite a surprise
  • Lauren Graham has written only one novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe.
  • To shave a few minutes off the episode and because it required major spoilage, I put our discussion of "What would you want from a sequel" into an extra mp3

On the Next Show

Seeeeecreeeets. Randy selected "Secrets" as the theme. Joe's having us watch A History of Violence and Amy selected Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies as our book.




Where to find the podcast

Listen at Podomatic
Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 
We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters

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Friday, January 15, 2016

Episode 53 - My Uncle Was a Sheep for the Last Five Years




This week we're discussing some films from 2015 that maybe didn't hit with audiences but that we liked. Randy picked The Last Five Years, Amy chose The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Joe went with Shaun the Sheep. 

Show Notes

The Last Five Years
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Shaun the Sheep
  • "Feels Like Summer"
  • A good George Thorogood song: "Steady Rollin' Man"
  • Megamind soundtrack
  • A cursory search of imdb lists "Bad to the Bone" in the following movies and TV series (year for tv series indicates year of episode not year series began):
    • Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
    • Man Up (2015)
    • The Muppets (2011)
    • Christine (1983)
    • 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001)
    • Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008)
    • Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010)
    • Hawaii Five-0 (2011)
    • South Park (2015)
    • Married with Children (1989, 1993)
    • The Parent Trap (1998)
    • My Name Is Earl (2005)
    • Joe Dirt (2001)
    • Eureka (2012)
    • Miami Vice (1985)
    • Las Vegas (2003)
    • According to Jim (2004)
    • Problem Child (1990)
    • Major Payne (1995)
    • Beavis and Butt-Head (1994 -two episodes)
    • Problem Child 2 (1991)
    • The Lone Gunmen (2001)
    • Early Edition (2000)
    • Flesh and Bone (1993)
    • Firehouse Dog (2007)
    • Take Me Out (2012)
    • Transylmania (2009)
    • Reasonable Doubts (1992)
    • Mongrels (2010)
    • Slayground (1983)
    • The Legend of Dick and Dom (2010)
    • How to Boil a Frog (2009)
  • Penguins, distinguishing good from bad, with discussion of Feathers McGraw
  • We didn't get around to talking about it on the show, but Aardman did a rather amusing set of parody posters around Oscars time last year to promote Shaun the Sheep
  • Shaun the sheep has round pupils

    Real sheep do not

On the Next Show

Books from 2015 - We read some! Be prepared for these picks:

  • Randy: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
  • Amy: The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (AKA The Fug Girls from Go Fug Yourself)
  • Joe: Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley

Where to find the podcast

Listen at Podomatic
Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 
We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters

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Monday, January 4, 2016

Episode 52 - The Street Value of a Mountain

 
Southerner Amy romanticizes snow, so we're watching The Long Kiss Goodnight, courtesy of Joe, and reading Smilla's Sense of Snow, thanks to Randy.

What We've Been Liking Lately

  • Hamilton - Original Cast Recording (Randy)
  • Digging for Fire (Joe) (imdb)
  • Phoenix (Joe) (imdb)

Show Notes

On the Next Show


We'll be doing a semi-special episode, focusing on three different movies from 2015 that we each felt deserved a second look. Our picks:

Joe: Shaun the Sheep Movie
Randy: The Last Five Years
Amy: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.


On the Show After That

Never fear, we have not abandoned books entirely! The second January episode will be ALL books. Our picks:
Randy: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Amy: The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (AKA The Fug Girls from Go Fug Yourself)
Joe: Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley

Where to find the podcast

Listen at Podomatic
Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 
We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters

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