#31: La La Land: A Movie That Is Good From Damien Chazelle

Damien Chazelle's La La Land is a good movie. It is so good, in fact, that you'll be hard-pressed to find anything negative said about it on this snob. In fact, we are finding it difficult to say anything about it in this description. Like trying to describe the "True Snob," attempting to describe this film has a way of making words disappear. That is because its images transcend words. It is an exuberant expression of emotion and possibility tinged with a realistic portrayal of human beings and the inevitable struggles of real-life relationships, no matter how fantastical they may be at first. 

Legend

Throughout this early snob of 2017, we discuss stuff as far-reaching as The Last Temptation of Christ, the music video for "Cool" by Gwen Stefani, (500) Days of Summer, George Clooney's stardom and "smuggy" Oscar acceptance speech, (John) Legend, I Am Legend, Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler, Neo's dive-bomb into Hugo Weaving's chest, and the necessity of struggles in following one's dreams.

D. Chazelle, Talking

General Snobbery was most inspired by this film to continue living its dream to #LetUsWriteID3, a dream for whose actualization we are willing to travel through the deepest pangs of suffering. This path of life leads such grand and unexpected places. Who would have anticipated that a conversation beneath the Cincinnati stars would eventually yield an interview with DeObia Oparei, a truly wonderful man? Who can predict where this snobbing journey may lead? We cannot, listener, and neither can the great Damien Chazelle. All we know is that we must not submit to any blockades, regardless of how many Twitter followers we lose for inexplicable reasons. 

In words penned by the great Roland Emmerich, delivered by the great @BillyPullman, "We're going to live on!" In the words of the late great Freddy Mercury, "I'm having a good time, having a good time, I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky... There's no stopping me." Let us continue to ride these waves into the vast reaches of the Stratosphere, transcending the Mesosphere into the land where dreams reside, into the shimmering tesseracts of "La La Land", a place of infinite bliss and possibility. Yay. 

#29: Home Alone: The Is-ness of Culkin and Stern (And Trivia!)

Merry Christmas ya filthy Snob. And a happy New episode! If you, sweet listener, understand this reference, then you know the endless bowl full of jelly belly laughs you are about to hear. 

In this Christmas edition, General Snobbery has decreed that Sean and Matt delve deep into the world of Kevin McCallister, Pesci, and Stern. Home Alone is simply a Christmas classic. It has everything: a good story, wonderful music, action, laughs, and Buzz. Few films resonate as deeply in the collective Christmas psyche of the American people. And no movie has more Pesci burns as this one. 

To many, Home Alone is a Christmas tradition, and everyone has a favorite part. What's yours? Perhaps it's Stern's water fetish, maybe it's Uncle Frank's absolute content for innocent children, perhaps it is Pesci's emerging psychopathy, or even the image of Kevin growing on Buzz's ass. We all have favorite scenes that make us laugh and feel the holiday spirit with such strength, we'll think we were just hit in the face with a paint can.

Stern

In a special Christmas twist, Sean challenges Matt with Home Alone trivia and thus a tradition is born. We ask you this single piece of trivia, Listener: what podcast should you recommend to all your friends this holiday season? You know the answer, you know it the way Stern knows the feeling of a nail entering his foot. 

Praise be this classic film! And praise be you, Listener! Ho ho ho, let us Snob.

Landmarks:

7:10: Sean and Matt share their top three Home Alone moments

55:30: Home Alone trivia begins

The Electrocution of Stern

#28: #NotMyMummy: Fraser Rules, Cruise Drools

The title just about says it all on this one. Hashtag "Not My Mummy" (#NotMyMummy) began in the wake of the trailer for the new The Mummy, starring one Thomas "Tom" Cruise of Scientology, couch-jumping fame. Needless to say, some fans were not too pleased. But in truth, their anger had much less to do with any personal qualms with Mr. Cruise, and far more to do with the tragic fact that the great Brendan Fraser will not be returning in this upcoming film. 

Imhotep is mad that Fraser won't be returning

Had any of us truly recognized what impact Fraser had had on our lives? Or was it not until the moment that we saw the guy from Vanilla Sky in the trailer for a Mummy film that we realized just how impactful Fraser has been? Say all you want about his Golden Globes clap (video below) - the guy can kick some major butt. Rick O'Connell will be greatly missed in this new film, and quite likely, your hosts at General Snobbery, amidst their laughter at this inevitably terrible new Mummy, will quite likely feel surges of nostalgia at the distant memory of Fraser taking on a dozen reanimated corpses with a sword. 

We greatly miss Fraser, and we hope that #NotMyMummy will help bring him back. Regardless, we dedicate this episode to him, where, by laughing time and time again at the hilarious scream made by Cruise in the new trailer (video below), we are truly yearning for the simpler times when we could watch Fraser shoot guns at Imhotep's huge mouth. As franchise after franchise sucks Hollywood dry of its once-great energy, dumbing film after film down to silly tropes and rushed release dates, we can at least tip our top hats to a man of the greatest order, who once radiated charisma of a special blend, charisma time has proven to be of the eternal kind. Brendan Fraser, this snob's for you. 

Fraser's legendary Golden Globes clap

The Cruise Scream begins at 1:13