Category: - Mark Botts & Isaiah Mouw

Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Doubt

5/1/2014

I first saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman's work when I watched Boogie Nights. Isaiah remembers seeing him for the first time in Patch Adams. Starkly different films and performances. But PSH had the capacity to play polar opposite characters, and his filmography is one worth study and admiration. Some of our favorite Hoffman identities include: Capote, A Late Quartet, Moneyball, Along Came Polly, The Master, and Charlie Wilson's War.

Another piece of Hoffman's work we highly favor is the religious drama, Doubt.

Check out the link to a podcast Isaiah and I and our good friend Ben Bronsink of Snobby Movie Reviews recorded, prior to Hoffman's passing, for the film Doubt.

Rest in Peace.

No Country For Old Men

4/1/2014

"How does one deconstruct a masterpiece? In this episode, we try our best. Mark Botts, Isaiah Mouw, and Ben Bronsink discuss the incomparable No Country for Old Men. Topics of fate, aging, and maybe mob mentality are all brought up and thrown out on the discussion table. We love this movie, and think you will too."

Check out another podcast that we were fortunate to be a part as we discuss the Coen Brother's masterpiece: No Country For Old Men.
Do it, friendo.

Children of Men

3/2/2014

And the Oscar goes to... Alfonso Cuaron. Congrats to Alfonso Cuaron for winning the 2014 Oscar for best Directing on his film Gravity. How fitting that our podcast for Children of Men, also directed by Alfonso Cuaron, was posted this week on Snobby Movie Reviews. Click here to listen to our thoughts on an earlier Cuaron masterpiece.

Our favorite podcast yet. Mark Botts, Isaiah Mouw, and Ben Bronsink cannot slobber over Children of Men enough. Find out what every single symbol is in the film, and why Mark doesn’t consider it a masterpiece.

"Characters & Scenes" - notes for the cancelled class session

2/17/2014

Because of snow, class last week was cancelled. But I did send lecture notes via email to the students. I've included those notes in this blog post.

“Characters and Scenes”

Characters…

Must possess these two things: WANT and NEED. Also known as a: GOAL. To create conflict, the life-blood of drama, the character’s wants and needs must encounter a PROBLEM, someone or something standing in between what the character is chasing, and the main character must solve the problem; this requires THOUGHT, and, most importantly in cinema: ACTION.

The 52 Week Challenge

1/2/2014

We took it to the last day, but Mark and I both finished the 52 week challenge from www.readwatchwrite.com. The past year, we read the following scripts:

World War Z Podcast

10/17/2013

We're at it again sharing our thoughts at Snobby Movie Reviews. Check out our latest podcast on the zombie blockbuster World War Z.

Mark Botts, Isaiah Mouw, and Ben Bronsink get down to the bottom of all issues zombie related. For instance, can zombies smell fear? If zombies were cats, would we love them more? And of course, exactly how many zombies would it take to make a zombie wall?

Michael Clayton Podcast

8/12/2013

Check out our first podcast together on the wonderful little website Snobby Movie Reviews. Mark and I join the brilliant creator of the website, Ben Bronsink, on a review of Tony Gilroy's, Michael Clayton. We'd love to hear your thoughts and make sure to like the Snobby Movie Reviews facebook page.

Film expert Isaiah Mouw joins Mark Botts and Ben Bronsink in a short but thorough discussion on Tony Gilroy’s best film to date, Michael Clayton. Corporate greed, escalators, horses and even sweaty armpits are all points of discussion and sometimes contention. A wonderful episode, and one of our shortest.

Movie a Day for a Year

7/1/2013

It is finished. In the past 365 days, I watched 365 new movies. Along the way, I knocked out AFI's Top 100, IMDB's Top 250, and almost knocked out Roger Ebert's list of Great Movies. I'll admit, it wasn't as romantic as it seems. You have a stressful day at work, the kiddos get to bed late and you still have to watch a 3 hour Fellini film. I think I'm going to take a month long movie-free sabbatical.

However, I saw a lot of great films that I probably wouldn't have gotten around to watching until years from now. Some of my favorites of the year in no particular order were:

Letterboxd

4/30/2012

I recently joined a website called Letterboxd. It is Facebook for movie nerds. It's a website dedicated to movie viewers where you can rate, review and log all the movies you watch. The best thing about it is the aesthetics. It looks really nice. It allows you to make any sort of movie list and share it to your social media profiles. If you consider yourself a cinephile, movie lover, film fanatic, etc.... you should be on Letterboxd. Check it out and follow me.

- Isaiah Mouw