Pax and Nine Productions Tobi Ogunyemi

Guess who's back? But don't call it a comeback, as James and I return from.... the last time we did a podcast together to do what we usually do!

With.... everything going on in the world today, and hoo boy is there a lot going on in the world today, we were able to get together to discuss what exactly going to the movies means right now (not going to the movies really), what that would possibly look like for audiences, the industry and more going forward, and then discussing some of the films that we've had a chance to watch during this topsy-turvy time, such as Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods, Kitty Green's The Assistant, Céline Sciamma's love masterpiece, Portrait of a Lady On Fire, the latest big topical film from Netflix in Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending  Things and much more.

Then, we shift gears with a spin on our usual segment - Actor in a Hat - but this time, thanks to James, we do one for us and we go all the through the latest Best Actor Oscar winner for [insert any of the films he's acted in besides the one he actually won for] Joaquin Phoenix, touching on everything from his brother's, River, passing - which was the anniversary of around the time we recorded this - to his beginnings in the industry, working with directors such as Ridley Scott, James Gray, Paul Thomas Anderson, Lynne Ramsay. And then, yeah, we eventually talk about Joker as well.

Good to be back, and as awkward as it gets at the end, we're glad to have you check us on out again for a listen and a helluva time on listening to us do the usual rant and rave!

Other quotes that could have doubled as the title of this episode:


"Work the Clock, Not the Cock"
"The Angry Man Who Relates To Horses Genre"
"HARK! Don't Do Heroin!"

With that said though, Steve and Tobi open up the new year in 2020 with Gwyneth by talking about the some of the best films of 2019, including Tobi's Top 10 and honorable mentions, and films that the two got a chance to watch together including Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood, the Safdie's Brothers Uncut Gems, Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse, Lorene Scafaria's Hustlers and more. This is just the beginning of the 2019 coverage, and we have more coming up - after a word from our sponsors here....

More notes:

Tobi's Top Ten of 2019:


Parasite - directed by Bong Joon-Ho
Pain and Glory - directed by Pedro Almodóvar
The Irishman - directed by Martin Scorsese
The Souvenir - directed by Joanna Hogg
Little Women - directed by Greta Gerwig
Ad Astra - directed by James Gray
Uncut Gems - directed by Josh and Bennie Safdie
Atlantics - directed by Mat'i Diop
Waves - directed by Trey Edward Shults
The Nightingale - directed by Jennifer Kent

Also, by the time this is listened to, the Super Bowl already happened (I took the Chiefs, thanks for asking), so I'm glad in retrospect I didn't take the Ravens over the Titans as mentioned here. "Eat shit, Earl!" indeed.

It's been a long time coming, but in this episode, Steve and I look at some of their best of the year.... the year of 2018 that is!

Again, it's been a long time, but we still have some good stuff here, including some of the best films, comics, tv and more as usual from the year, including a different format for this where the fellas talk about three of their favorite aspects and items of the year (female directors and their perspective, DC Comics' Mister Miracle, BBC America's Killing Eve, Netflix's Aggretsuko, Spider-Man representation and The Simpsons memes). There's also breaking down Jordan Peele's Us (cause it was seen recently by the time of this recording) and much more.

Catch up with us, as we catch up with time itself!

Also, huge note that can't be overlooked; this episode was recorded on Steve's birthday in 2019!

1. Van Lathan and Rembert Brown were the guests on The Bill Simmons Podcast when they were discussing Nipsey Hussle's death before this episode was recorded.
2. The narrative of Chloe Zhou's The Rider takes place in Pine Ridge, South Dakota.
3. There are 8 episodes in each of the two seasons of Killing Eve.

The latest episode of The Awkward Goodbye takes us all-around to Sacramento, Chicago, the South, the Middle East, Washington, D.C., the gothic romantic realm and possible Heaven/Bardo.... with another edition of the Actor In a Hat! With James, we pull out the two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain and go through her career with started off with a bang at the beginning in the decade, to The Tree of Life and, um well, is where it's at now with the X-Men franchise. Tough.

But we love Chastain in general! And the digressions here are hard and fast in this one, as we go touch on everything from the latest Spider-Man: Far From Home (or Far From Good as James refers to it as), the lackluster year overall in cinema so far, some films we've caught up on lately, and then a really, REALLY nerdy debate on Captain America as the God of Thunder in Avengers: Endgame. You're not prepared for how nerdy it is; so give it a listen and check out one of the most dynamic actors working today!

It's another episode of The Awkward Goodbye podcast, with myself and James, where we have our usual staple in "Actor In a Hat"; taking a literal hat, putting actors names in said hat, pulling said names out of aforementioned hat and discussing them as much as we can.

This go-round, we have two Oscar-winners in Matt Damon and Brie Larson and admittedly, James and I recorded this one a while ago so I'll touch up on some notes below:

- Colin Firth, not Colin Farrell, starred in Gambit, that was written by the Coen Brothers.

- I finally saw Jason Bourne since we recorded this, it's not bad! Same with Contagion, it's not bad!

- one of James' cats sits on my phone while recording this, great producing work here (srsly).

- the leads for Sean Baker's Tangerine are Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor (shouts to James Ransone as well).

- I was badly thinking of Joe Swanberg being the director of Greenberg, instead of Noah Baumbach.

- there's an outdated breakdown of Bohemian Rhapsody in here, just before we got into the thick of awards season last year. Needless to say, Rami Malek did end up winning Best Actor and the film won 4 out of the 5 Oscars it was nominated for. The less said about this, the better probably.

- Amy Adams was eventually nominated for Vice in Best Supporting Actress.



Give it a listen, and hopefully we'll have another episode up in a more timely matter for you all!

Coming directly and immediately out of the biggest movie of the year - and possibly of the whole decade at the end - Steve and I discuss everything about the film in-depth through three facets; as a massive pop-culture artifact, as an actual movie and everything encompassing the plot, spoilers, what could possibly be next with the MCU, and much more.  What we liked, what we didn't like, swan songs for a number of the characters and actors, what could be in the next chapter for those remaining, what makes this movie so unique compared to and in regards to the previous 21 movies in the MCU canon - how do we get the all-female A-Force from here? - as usual, we go deep and within a lot of tangents in this one.