#114: (Pt. 1) A Futile and Stupid Gesture / Wet Hot American Summer

The Next Picture Show

Filmspotting

Tv & Film, Film History, Film Reviews

4.6 • 858 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Wain’s new biopic spoof A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE had a pretty ignominious Netflix debut, but that seems in keeping with the comedic director’s history of films that are unappreciated in their time but grow a cult following — a history that was established with 2001’s WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, a Sundance flop that’s now rightly considered a comedy classic. In the first half of our comparison of the two films, we talk over our WET HOT impressions then and now, share some theories for why it didn’t hit with critics or audiences, and consider the limitations of Wain’s affectionate but ultimately insincere, sketch-comedy-influenced style. Plus, some feedback on our recent episodes on PHANTOM THREAD and I, TONYA. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER, A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE, or both by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730. Outro music: “Higher and Higher” by Craig Wedron and Theodore Shapiro Articles cited: • Tonya Harding Would Like Her Apology Now, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (New York Times) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sit in quietly once you've made the house all shiny.
0:04.2	Down time can be just fine, playing bangers from the 90s.
0:08.4	Tea break.
0:09.4	Lunch break.
0:10.2	Maybe listen to the outbreak.
0:12.1	Sometimes it's not time for some tombollah, right?
0:15.1	It's enjoying lasagna time, chilling with a book time, or time to visit your nan time.
0:29.3	Go on. Play some other time. visit your nan time go on play some other time put your phone down tombollah open for fun terms apply 18 plus gamble aware.org It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.
0:36.2	You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?
0:42.9	We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.
0:49.5	Welcome to the next picture show, a movie the week podcast devoted to a classic film
0:53.7	and how it shaped our thoughts on a recent release.
0:56.4	I'm Scott Tobias here with Genevieve Koski and Keith Phipps.
1:00.3	Tasha Robinson is at our rival camp across the lake this week, but she'll paddle back for the next episode.
1:05.5	Here on the next picture show, we believe that no film exists in a vacuum and that all culture is more interesting in context.
1:11.3	So every other week, we get together to talk over a classic film and consider how it relates
1:15.8	to a current movie.
1:17.1	This week, we're deconstructing the deconstructive comedies of David Wayne.
1:21.3	Genevieve, what do we have for our waniacs out there?
1:24.2	Late last month, Netflix released Wayne's new movie, a futile and stupid gesture,
1:28.1	a biopic about the late Doug Kenny and the rise and fall of National Lampoon,
1:32.0	the magazine and brand that launched the careers of an entire generation of comedy
	...

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