Arrival & The Boss Baby: Back In Business

Just about my favourite thing in all of cinema is the long take or 'oner', whether it's to establish character or geography, to infuse a scene with intensity or drama or to present incredible skill and scale from impossible seeming new perspectives. They are often dazzling feats of vision and technical-endeavour, requiring countless hours of rehearsal and set dressing, incorporating complex camera moves, precision blocking and clever editing to achieve. So we're going to talk about them.There are literally millions of movies which discuss linguistic determinism, how problem-solving and our entire worldview are linked to our linear perception of time and can articulate what consciousness might be like if you could experience past, present and future simultaneously and 2016's hard science-fiction film ARRIVAL is one of them. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer brings Ted Chiang's 'Story of Your Life' to...life...while Denis Villeneuve confidently balances the technical details of earths first contact with an alien species against a profoundly affecting emotional through line, brought to the movie by Amy Adam's terrific performance and moving character arc.The Boss Baby: Back In Business sees Netflix once again plundering the Dreamworks studio archives in order to bring a cinematic creation to the small screen. The Boss Baby is about a corporation of babies in a battle with kittens for the affections of humans or something. I don't know exactly and I definitely don't care. Honestly the whole idea of Boss Baby is totally bizarre anyway, like someone had an idea that would make a great 10 second joke then was suddenly gifted with millions to turn it into a less than mediocre screen franchise. I can accept most premises and ideas but really who is this for? Kids tv offering characters with great traits and personalities or the chance of roleplay and wish fulfilment I can understand but who the fuck looks at harried employees, office culture, late night meetings, stressful deadlines and a Dickensian work ethic and thinks 'we need to package all this great stuff and resell it to kids through a briefcase toting, suit wearing corporate infant stooge' except someone with a weird neo-fascist agenda?We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. Try us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review or on our website baddadsfilm.com.Until next time, we remain...Bad Dads You can now text us anonymously to leave feedback, suggest future content or simply hurl abuse at us. We'll read out any texts we receive on the show. Click here to try it out!We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at [email protected] or on our website baddadsfilm.com. Until next time, we remain... Bad Dads