Ep. 813 - Grand Theft Hamlet
Added 2025-03-04 17:00:22 +0000 UTCDavid, Devindra, and Jeff break down the 2025 Academy Awards ceremony, step into the spotlight with The Only Girl in the Orchestra, assess the cultural code-switching in the second season of Mo, and see if Kate Hudson can shoot and score in Running Point. Then they drive through a Shakespearean tale in cyberspace with Grand Theft Hamlet.
We're making video versions of our reviews! Be sure to follow us on the following platforms:
Weekly Plugs
David - Decoding Everything: Notable Moments from the Oscars
Devindra - Engadget Podcast on iPhone 16e and Alexa+
Jeff - DLC 589 with Veerender Singh Jubbal
Shownotes (All timestamps are approximate only)
What we've been watching (~00:24:46)
David - The Only Girl in the Orchestra, Jailbreak: Love on the Run
Devindra - Mo Season 2, Pantheon Season 2
Jeff - Running Point, Win or Lose
Featured Review (~00:51:23)
Grand Theft Hamlet
Support David's artistic endeavors at his Patreon and subscribe to his free newsletter Decoding Everything. Check out Jeff Cannata’s podcasts DLC and We Have Concerns. Listen to Devindra's podcast with Engadget on all things tech. You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
Credits:
Our theme song is by Tim McEwan from The Midnight. This episode was edited by Noah Ross who also created our weekly plugs and spoiler bumper music. Our Slashfilmcourt music comes from Simon Harris.
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Comments
There is no way that CODA made more than $30 mil, right?
Aaron Pinkston
2025-03-24 17:29:23 +0000 UTCGotta disagree here, Grand Theft Hamlet turned out to be an incredibly emotional experience that I most likely would've missed out on if the gang hadn't been taking a look at it this week. Not every film can afford a theatrical run and that doesn't mean they're any less valid. I think everyone here wants theaters to stay open, but sometimes great stuff comes out on streaming and is worthy of attention. And complaining about it being on a paid service....a month subscription to Mubi is half the price of the normal theater paywall where you only get access to one movie once.
Hahmstrung
2025-03-09 21:54:45 +0000 UTCI LOVED Grand Theft Hamlet! I'm listening to their review again and I have so many comments but I'll try not to ramble on! I love that the film is so rough around the edges; I think locally recording their voices with high tech mics would've taken away that charm. What's interesting (and beautiful) about this movie is seeing how difficult it is to rally people in GTA Online and put on a performance. You need to hear the other random players yelling and screaming, the audio needs to be crunchy like it is when you actually play the game. The creators weren't going for a Machinima-level production. I get why this may have been initially distracting for them, it was for me, but I was completely sold during the scene in which ParTeb (the film's MVP and I'm sad didn't even get a mention) talks about his ADHD and how he was able to concentrate on the actor's audition, then they get him to audition by reciting from the Quran...I thought that was so beautiful, and the film is filled with so many little nuggets of humanity. Using the words of Shakespeare to bring people together in a game about absolute chaos just really got to me. I'm saddened that the crew was so hyper-focused on the production values, I feel like that really misses the point of what they were trying to do here. I also just need to point out that the film gives us a ton of insight into how the production went down. There's a scene where one of the main creators talks about obsessively spending all their time in GTA Online earning money to buy all the planes and other vehicles they need. They had that one guy who went from silent observer to defacto stage manager, also piloting all the vehicles during the production. We see how the audience rides with them from scene to scene, and when their blimp accidentally crashes we see how they gather everyone back. I'm glad Dave recommended this one as I don't think I would've given it an honest shot otherwise.
Hahmstrung
2025-03-09 21:29:09 +0000 UTCI love seeing new perspectives on these open worlds. So much artistry is on display, only to have it rushed by on the way to the next mission. Here are two YouTube channels that I think successfully highlight the consideration and intentionality often hiding within. https://m.youtube.com/@DayDreamGamingTV https://m.youtube.com/@any_austin
infinite_karate
2025-03-07 21:37:13 +0000 UTCThey never said the pandemic is over Cameron, read the actual press release https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/05/1136367 Jeff has made multiple similar comments in the past year Don, there was a comment he made although I can't recall the episode specifically where both Dave and Davindra pushed back and said "i still care" or "i still talk about it" (covid). Just because you've all collectively stopped caring as a society does not mean that the situation has got any worse. Each covid infection, even mild or asymptomatic causes long term damage to your body including brain damage. Because something has become a chronic issue and no longer an emergency, does not mean it should or can be ignored. Let's call it what it is, it's eugenics and attitudes like Jeff's normalize it.
April Reid
2025-03-07 06:57:36 +0000 UTCI mean, I’m an “Unlimited Showings “ member of the indie cinema down the street and I haven’t made it the three blocks from my house to see Last Breath after technically already paying for it! I also think the discussion around the film branched off into very important topics like the future of film and the depiction of the COVID pandemic in media. It was the kind of discussion that reminds me of why I listen to the reviews of movies I know I’ll never see.
Don Wood
2025-03-06 18:56:04 +0000 UTCBig agree on this, Cameron. I have also followed Jeff since TRS and because of that I’ll be judging him on a couple decades of evidence rather than his off the cuff word choice which, as Cameron points out, is easily placed in context with a little good faith.
Don Wood
2025-03-06 18:51:19 +0000 UTCGreat episode as always. I wanted to second the recommendation of pantheon but from the perspective of a person who is not into anime. Every couple years or so I get into a recommendation from an anime fan that I either know IRL or follow in media. I have been doing this since my friend dragged me to a theater to see Akira and blew my mind. So, decades. Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, and Attack on Titan have been the only winners for me. It is just not for me. That said, this is an excellent television series that happens to be animated, IMO, with little to no parts of anime that I find off putting. My only other recommendation would be Cells At Work if you are studying human physiology because I wish they had this when I was in nursing school! It is an accurate dramatization of how anatomy and physiology works. Super cool.
Don Wood
2025-03-06 18:24:24 +0000 UTCReally enjoyed Dave’s insights about how an orchestra works. Opened my mind.
Keith Henry Brown
2025-03-05 23:37:27 +0000 UTCI dunno, there is far too much of it that is really funny - and definitely written to be - for me to consider it a drama first.
Cameron S
2025-03-05 19:00:10 +0000 UTCDisagree. It’s a drama that has comedy not a comedy that has drama. A dramedy, if you will.
Reynaldo K. Cruz
2025-03-05 18:58:47 +0000 UTCExcellent episode gentleman! Team Jeff being angry at apple for their remote.
Reynaldo K. Cruz
2025-03-05 18:56:40 +0000 UTCDue to Gene Hackman’s sad demise I rewatched March or Die. It must have been twenty years since I last watched it and I was fully expecting a full blown “not aged well” experience. Hell, what a good movie with a Stellar God of a (true) main actor. Way ahead of its time in how it commented on complicated topics like colonialism and a general appreciation of the world as a complicated place where our need of simplification makes things worse. Thanks to you team for talking about this great man and thereby reminding me that I should rewatch this.
ThreefromTwo
2025-03-05 12:54:57 +0000 UTCDefinitely agree with Jeff on GTH. I actually found it kind of tedious, I just don’t find watching these digital avatars all that compelling for an entire feature, and I almost wish there had been cutaways to the real world where we could see the human players also. I think this could have been a really great short film but at 90 min it’s a slog.
Cameron S
2025-03-05 12:33:38 +0000 UTCI don’t want to speak for Jeff but I don’t think by saying the pandemic was “over” he was suggesting that the disease was cured or that people are no longer suffering - I have a dear friend who is still suffering long covid and I know how much he’s struggling, so I can empathize with you. But by most people’s understanding, by “over” it means it is no longer an urgent global emergency as it was before. The WHO committee for COVID 19 has made the decision that it no longer fits the criteria for a pandemic. I believe that’s all he meant - that we’re not in global quarantine any longer, not that the disease is gone. Jeff has demonstrated many times that he’s a deeply empathetic person and has children with health issues so I can’t believe that he is an ableist person. I hope that you are able to be as comfortable and well as possible.
Cameron S
2025-03-05 12:24:38 +0000 UTC“What if Succession was a comedy?” Succession IS a comedy…
Cameron S
2025-03-05 11:56:36 +0000 UTCThat as good insight thank you
April Reid
2025-03-05 09:26:13 +0000 UTCNo, or Tony Todd
April Reid
2025-03-05 02:43:23 +0000 UTCHad to turn off the main review segment because of Jeff’s ablest comments about how the pandemic is “no longer happening” This is ablest and disgusting minimising language and for somebody who prides himself so much on his love of science I’d expect better. The pandemic hasn’t stopped because you stopped giving a shit about it. Jeff I’ve been following you since TRS episode one and I’d expected better. Lots of us are still essentially stuck at home because of long COVID or being carers for those who have become disabled by the disease which spreads unchecked because of attitudes like this. Do better.
April Reid
2025-03-05 02:42:29 +0000 UTCThank you for sharing these thoughts regarding the show skipping theatrical releases to make main reviews be for streaming films. I agree and we as paying patreon members should continue to speak our minds on this subject.
Papool Chaudhari
2025-03-05 00:04:41 +0000 UTCWe sadly have a lot of people passing in a short amount of time. Did the show mention the passing of Michelle Trachtenberg?
Papool Chaudhari
2025-03-04 23:43:29 +0000 UTCTheir job kinda does rest on the success of the film industry though, as do many other jobs. It's their podcast though, and they can do what they want with it. Make a book or a play or a video game the featured review if they want to. But Sean Baker's speech? That was for them.
Stranger2Reality
2025-03-04 22:17:56 +0000 UTCTake it easy. It’s not their job to prop up a failing industry more than they already are. If movie theatres fail it’s not the fault of this podcast. I also have a big problem with making preachy judgmental comments like this. It’s good to be inclusive of movies available for anyone to watch, lots of people still don’t go to cinemas due to having disabilities or not wanting to catch COVID, which never went away.
April Reid
2025-03-04 22:13:32 +0000 UTCMaybe a controversial take but Gene Hackman’s acting in French Connection 2 is out of this world compared to the original (which is still great)
April Reid
2025-03-04 22:11:37 +0000 UTCMate they’ve been at this for about 17 years. Now it’s likely you, me and anyone over the age of 13 won’t care about or even have heard of whatever Grand Theft Hamlet is but let them have their fun for one week. I have so many podcasts in my queue I’m glad to be able to skip through the review portion this week.
Mark P
2025-03-04 22:05:39 +0000 UTCKinda sad that immediately following Sean Baker's speech about how important it is to see movies in theaters and support the theatrical experience that this podcast decides to skip cinemas entirely and instead reviews something you can only see on a paid streaming service. Feels like this week's featured review should have been relegated to a "what we've been watching" segment or an after dark. It's not the first time you guys have done this, but ignoring theatrical run movies are exactly what Sean Baker was talking about, and it would be nice if you guys would put your power of amplification behind something that's in theaters. If you didn't want to review Last Breath (which was a perfectly fine movie, and much better than some other ones you've featured in recent months) there are other ones in theaters that could have been discussed. I saw My Dead Friend Zoe this weekend and thought it was an excellent indie film that's especially relevant given some of the horrible cuts DOGE is making to our important government services. There's good stuff out there in theaters, but you have to actually go to the movies to see them. Just disappointing from you guys.
Stranger2Reality
2025-03-04 20:42:21 +0000 UTCLots of love again to Divendra - bringing awareness to Mo season 2 & No Other Country
AJ Karim
2025-03-04 19:45:09 +0000 UTCAs someone that follows the Oscars very closely, I get frustrated when people who don't follow the Oscars closely say something is a surprise. Anora was pretty much the front-runner since it won the Palme d'Or. Yes The Brutalist won the Golden Globe, but then once Anora won the PGA, the DGA, the Independent Spirit awards, it was pretty clear it was on its way. Similar to the great phrasing of "in my opinion" that is used for reviews, something similar should be mentioned when talking about the Oscars because to many people it was not a surprise at all.
Scott M. Adams
2025-03-04 19:25:56 +0000 UTCOh man, that Dave didn't mention the Best Song award and that speech 🤣 Emilia 🎶 Emiliaaaaa
Mountain of Conflict
2025-03-04 18:20:07 +0000 UTC
