The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen Metcalf, and this is the Slate Culture Gab Fest, the South by Southwest edition.

It's Friday, March 18th, 2011.

On today's program, the new Jody Foster directed Mel Gibson-addled movie The Beaver.

What is it about live music and the latest adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's classic novel, Jane Eyre?

Joining me today are Slate's deputy editor, Julia Turner. Hello, Julia.

Hello, Steve. It's so nice to see you in a festival setting. I'm feeling very festive.

Also a trade show setting as well. We've

never recorded in a trade show before. It's true. I've never seen you draped across a hood of a car

quite so elegantly. It was really attractive. I was practicing earlier this morning. And our film

critic, Dana Stevens. Hey, Dana. Hey, Steve. All right. Well, let's jump right in. We should tell people

who are not familiar with the show. We very often, we talk about movies. We love to talk about movies. But we impose upon ourselves a peculiar discipline,

which is that we embargo our own feelings from one another before talking about the movie

under discussion on the show itself. Last night we went and saw The Beaver, the preview

of the Jody Foster, Mel Gibson movie The Beaver.

It tells the story of a man suffering from crushing depression who works his way back from the brink of suicide by using, yes, a hand puppet.

And as if that weren't enough, it's also a movie that has some issues with its star Mel Gibson, who from all appearances suffers from manic episodes

that lead him to deliver anti-Semitic rants.

These are two enormous marketing problems

with an otherwise A-list project.

But before we get to that, I have to know,

why is there so much ambient noise?

...