Episode 21, December 20th, 2011

Highbrow! Lowbrow? brings another fresh episode of Jesse and Shaun chopping it up about movies. As we do every week, we review the Top Box Office Earner and Best Picture Academy Award Winner of the same year to see who was right: the critics or the masses. This time we aren't going too far back as we look at the year 2001 and its films, A Beautiful Mind (Highbrow) and Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (Lowbrow).

A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard, is an autobiographical story of Nobel Peace Prize winning mathematician John Nash (played by Russell Crowe) who seeks to do something truly great while battling his inner demons. Nash eventually falls in love with Alicia, a former student played by Jennifer Connelly, who stands by her man against all odds. Both Crowe and Connelly have a somewhat difficult time pulling off these roles, Crowe, a manly man, being a nerdy scientist, and Connelly, being a beautiful woman interested in an awkward and somewhat mean mathematician. There are some fascinating twists and turns to the story that really alter how you see John and his interactions with the world, culminating in a poignant ending both tragic and triumphant. The director Ron Howard has been critiqued as manipulative and his stories saccharine, and for the most part, this film had enough quirks to avoid those pratfalls, however occasionally you do feel the film push you in a certain direction. Overall, this was entertaining throughout, a compelling story about an interesting individual aided by Ron Howard's crowd pleasing direction.

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, directed by Christopher Colombus, is the 1st installment of the Harry Potter franchise, based off the adventures of Harry Potter, played by Daniel Radcliffe, and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermoine (Emma Watson) as they learn to become wizards while fighting off the evil forces of Voldemort. This film sets up the tenets of the series, establishing the wizard world and introducing us to the main players of the story. Though some of the cgi effects can feel dated, overall this film has a very fantastic, majestic and epic feel due to the sweeping castle shots, nuanced special effects, and imaginative art direction. We both thought that the acting of Grint and Watson were strong, Watson giving a intelligent female hero and Grint hamming it up just enough. But we disagreed on Radcliffe, Harry Potter himself, where Shaun thought Radcliffe was wooden and awkward, Jesse embraced such traits as a part of his nerdy charm and his growing acceptance of this new world. One of the bigger critiques of the film was that it was overlong, taking too much time to get to the arc of the story, a good 10-20 minutes could have been shaven for a leaner and more focused film. Ultimately, t's a worthy 1st installment for the Harry Potter series, combining elements of fantasy, mystery and honor to tell a magical and epic story.

So what film did we end up siding with? The magical adventures of Harry Potter in Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (Lowbrow) or the tragic trials of John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (Highbrow)? Tune in to the next Highbrow! Lowbrow? to find out!

Episode 20 November 23, 2011

Highbrow! Lowbrow? is back from its month hiatus with a fresh new episode, episode 20 breaking our way into a whole new set of podcasts. As always, we review the Academy Award Best Picture Winner and the top box office earner to try and figure out who was right: the critics or the masses. For this episode, we go back to the year 1961 for our selections: Westside Story (Highbrow) and 101 Dalmatians (Lowbrow). We also take a look at the past 10 episodes and make our picks as to what films really made the cut and what films didn't.

West Side Story, directed by Jerome Robbons and Robert Wise, written by Ernest Lehman and Arthur Laurents and with music by Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim, is a modern retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story, set in 1961 New York. Two star struck lovers, Tony (Richard Beymer) and Maria (Natalie Wood) are caught between the Sharks and the Jets, two gangs with a vicious rivalry. Also starring are Russ Tamblyn as Griff, leader of the Jets, George Chakris as Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, and Rita Moreno as Anita, girlfriend of Bernardo and best friend to Maria. Although this film had a lot of great moments due to the great song and dance numbers, the two main characters, Tony and Maria, were just unlikable and their songs were bland ballads, the film's greatest fault. The two gangs brought many of the memorable moments of the films with songs such as "Officer Krupke," "Cool" and "Jet Song", but they were hard to take seriously as they fought via dance. Other notable songs were "America" with Rita Moreno delivering a strong performance, and "Tonight" providing a strong ensemble performance leading into the intermission. Despite the movie's flaws and it's unwieldy length, West Side Story remains entertaining and enjoyable because of the exciting dance numbers and catchy tunes.

101 Dalmatians, directed by Clyde Geronimi, is another Disney animated classic, featuring Pongo, a dalmatian, and his girlfriend, Perdita, as they try and rescue 99 other dalmatians from the aptly named Cruella De Vil. Featuring the songs of Mel Leven and the voice talents of Rod Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, and Betty Lou Gerson. The Disney hit making machine brings catchy tunes, memorable characters, and great stories to this film, continuing it's long standing tradition. The film also benefits from it's brief runtime, a svelte 79 minutes, that keeps the pace well without overdrawing the movie. That's not much else to say except that it's a classic disney film with all the elements that only Disney could execute so well, not to mention a great film for kids.

So what film did we end up choosing: 101 Dalmatians or West Side Story? Tune in and check out the latest episode of Highbrow! Lowbrow? to find out. Also stick around to see what we choose for our favorite picks over these past 10 episodes.