Plastic Off the Sofa
29 November 2022 - 30 mins“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” came into theaters with a huge responsibility: It had to address the death of Chadwick Boseman, the star of the first “Black Panther” movie, who died of cancer in August 2020.
Wesley and J discuss how the film offers the audience an experience of collective grief and mourning — something that never happened in the United States in response to the losses of 2020. They interrogate what it means that this gesture of healing came from Marvel and Disney, a corporate empire that is in control of huge swaths of our entertainment, and not from another type of leadership.
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Series Episodes
The Summer Movies That Made Us
explicitWesley was formed in the glory days of the summer movie: “Total Recall.” “Ghost.” “Pretty Woman.” All from the same epic summer of 1990. He found this year’s slate disappointing by comparison. So in this episode, Wesley invites his friend, the New York Times Magazine writer Sam Anderson, to travel back in time with him — to reimmerse themselves in the movies that shaped their adolescences, and maybe give you the edge-of-your-seat cinematic experience you deserve before summer is over.
57 mins
28 August Finished
Is the New Spike Lee Joint Serving Pound Cake?
explicit“Highest 2 Lowest” is an over-the-top, bougie and unapologetically New York movie. It might also be Spike Lee’s most conservative offering to date. Wesley invites critic Vinson Cunningham to discuss whether the 68-year-old director is picking up an old refrain, and telling young Black men to pull up their pants.
52 mins
21 August Finished
‘And Just Like That …’ Is Over Too Soon
explicitWesley is joined by another unapologetic fan of the “Sex and the City” reboot, Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Together, they celebrate a show about old friendships and middle age. And blame you for its untimely end.
54 mins
14 August Finished
Beyoncé Isn’t Giving Up on America
explicitWesley went to the final stop of the Cowboy Carter Tour. He talks through what he saw — the genre of it all, and the quietly powerful politics — with Salamishah Tillet, Times contributing critic and the professor behind an entire class about Beyoncé.
54 mins
7 August Finished
Don't Let the Vampires In
explicitWhat does Ryan Coogler’s vampire movie “Sinners” have in common with the Drake-Kendrick beef? Wesley has a theory that he’s been sitting with for weeks. He shares it with the writer Rembert Browne, and together they consider the vampiric threats facing Black art in America right now.
42 mins
31 July Finished
What NYT’s Top 100 Movies Missed: 2 Former Video Store Clerks Get Real
explicitTwenty-four years ago, Wesley Morris and the film curator Eric Hynes were just a couple of “cooler-than-you” cinephiles working at Kim’s Video, the beloved New York City video store. They recently got together to dissect the trends, snubs and outliers on the Times’s 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century list and to shed a few tears over their own top 10s, which are shared below. FROM WESLEY MORRIS: 1. Norte, The End of History 2. Mad Max: Fury Road 3. The Piano Teacher 4. O.J.: Made in America 5. Wall-E 6. Moonlight 7. The Holy Girl 8. Inherent Vice 9. Love and Diane 10. Magic Mike XXL FROM ERIC HYNES: 1. In the Mood for Love 2. The Act of Killing; The Look of Silence (tie) 3. A.I. Artificial Intelligence 4. The New World 5. Hale County This Morning, This Evening 6. Synecdoche, New York 7. Cameraperson 8. 35 Shots of Rum 9. Inside Llewyn Davis; A Serious Man (tie) 10. Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
1 hour 9 mins
24 July Finished
