BFG Podcast #166: 'The Rings of Power' Season 2, 'Reagan,' and a report from the Toronto Film Festival
Listen now
Description
This week, our hero and host, Neal Pollack, welcomes back Greg Ford to the podcast to talk about 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.' It's the second season of The Rings of Power, and the makers of that show have doubled down on what was bad about the first season: Boring characters, slow storylines, and nonsensical world building. For resident Tolkien fans, it's a real disappointment, though the show does look terrific despite the extremely mediocre acting and lame fan service. We cannot recommend it with good conscience. But Stephen Garrett can recommend many of the films coming out of this year's Toronto International Film Festival with good conscience. There was tons of crowd-pleasing Oscar bait this year, including the Papal succession movie Conclave, Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman on all fours, a documentary about Pharrell Williams where everyone is a Lego figure, and a biopic about Robbie Williams where the star is played by a chimpanzee. You heard it here first! Listen up and get your fall movie viewing calendar ready. It should be fun. Why does this new Ronald Reagan biopic feature a narrator, played by Jon Voight, who's an ex-KGB agent? If you're trying to turn nonbelievers into Reagan fans, this is not the way to do it. Contributor Adam Hirschfelder joins Neal to talk about the strange trip that is 'Reagan.' Dennis Quaid plays Ronald Reagan, a good bit of casting. Apparently, Ronald Reagan single-handedly defeated Communism and had nothing to do with the Iran-Contra Affair. Is that true? It's not up for this podcast to decide. But we can certainly decide that 'Reagan' is a silly film, an unintentional comedy that plays like a sketch-show parody of a Reagan biopic. OK, that's all we wrote. We thank you for listening, this week and every week!
More Episodes
As we continue to process the cultural fallout from the 2024 Presidential election, writer and podcaster Meghan Daum stops by the pod-dome to talk to Neal Pollack about the strange phenomenon of writers and creative people leaving Twitter for Bluesky, seeking a safe space from the MAGA storm. But...
Published 11/21/24
Published 11/21/24
Today we bring you an audio podcast edition of the excellent cultural coverage we've been doing since the Second Coming of President Trump. Explaining political trends lies outside our core mission, but understanding cultural currents is why we exist. Bobby Hilliard joins host Neal Pollack to...
Published 11/08/24