Culture Gabfest - Licorice Dystopia
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2022
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, senior editor at Slate, Allegra Frank, fills in for Steve as the panel begins by debating the enjoyability of Apple TV+’s new star-studded thriller Severance. Then, the panel digs into Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest Oscar contender Licorice Pizza. Finally, the panel discusses longform YouTube videos and the rise and fall of attention spans, inspired by Terry Nguyen’s article “The video essay boom” for Vox. Referenced video essays include: Mike’s Mic on Pretty Little Liars, Jenny Nicholson on Dear Evan Hansen, and Quinton Reviews on Victorious.
In Slate Plus, the panel discusses thematic aversions they have in films.
Email us at culturefest@slate.com.
Endorsements
Julia: Endorsing Six Seasons: a New Way With Vegetables by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg, which has lots of delicious recipes that are designed for your farmer’s market finds.
Allegra: The podcast Dead Eyes from comedian Connor Ratliff about people in the entertainment industry and their long forgotten, lost, and/or canceled projects—inspired by how he was fired from Band of Brothers by Tom Hanks himself because he had “dead eyes.”
Dana: Speaking of video essays, filmmaker Kogonada’s (After Yang, Columbus) video essays which are extremely visual and beautifully edited. They’re all on his website, but Dana specifically shouted out: Breaking Bad // POV, Mirrors of Bergman, Hands of Bresson, and Linklater // On Cinema & Time.
Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Production assistance by Nadira Goffe.
Outro music is "If Only I Was a Poet" by Staffan Carlen.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Dana Stevens, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest, Liquorice Dysopia Edition. |
| 0:15.3 | It's Wednesday, March 16th, and on this week's show, we'll discuss Severance, the new Apple TV series that's about a corporate |
| 0:21.2 | dystopia where work and home life are split into two separate parts of the employee's consciousness. |
| 0:26.7 | Ben Stiller directs, Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, and many, many others star. |
| 0:31.1 | Secondly, we'll talk about Paul Thomas Anderson's 10th feature film, Liquorish Pizza, |
| 0:34.9 | which is nominated for an Oscar in three different categories this year, |
| 0:38.1 | Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. This is a movie that has earned both |
| 0:42.7 | rapturous reviews and considerable pushback from some quarters we'll discuss. And finally, |
| 0:48.7 | in an era famed for its fractured attention spans, why is it that the long-form YouTube video, |
| 0:53.5 | and we're talking very |
| 0:54.6 | long-form, like five-hour discussions of old TV shows, is enjoying an unexpected golden age. |
| 1:00.5 | We'll discuss a Vox piece that makes this argument. |
| 1:03.4 | I am joined, as always, by Julia Turner, deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. |
| 1:08.1 | Hello, Julia. |
| 1:08.9 | Hello, hello. |
| 1:10.0 | And because Steve is off gallivanting about two parts unknown, which he will report back on in a couple of weeks, we are joined by Allegra Frank, Slate Senior Editor. Hey, Allegra. Hi, sadly not gallivanting. But that's why I haven't been on the show in a while. I was gallivanting prior to this episode. I'm glad you got to Gallivan and I'm glad you get to meet Julia. I know. |
| 1:29.2 | We've done a show. We've done so many Allegra shows without you, Julia, never won with you. I'm pro-galivanting, but I'm also so excited to finally get to do a show with Allegra. Thank you so much for holding down the fort while I was off having a baby. I'm grateful. Yeah, I'm excited to have you back and finally chat with you. |
| 1:46.9 | All right. |
| 1:47.6 | A lot of hype. I was off having a baby. I'm grateful. Yeah, I'm excited to have you back and finally chat with you. |
| 1:47.0 | All right. A lot of hype. A lot of hype for this combo. |
| 1:50.8 | So Severance on Apple TV is a nine episode first season. It comes from the mind of creator Dan Erickson in collaboration with Ben Stiller, who directed six of the nine episodes, and it's a stacked, |
| 2:01.7 | stacked cast from Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette to John Turturro, Christopher Walken, |
... |
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