Latest Posts
Quentin Tarantino and the False Catharsis of Violent Revenge Stories
Nov 4, 2019 — Ross Noble
I recently watched Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (shortened to Hollywood going forward). I watched it on a plane, a viewing choice that accurately summarizes how I feel about about his recent work. Perhaps I’m being harsh, but despite an impressive career, to me, none of his recent films come close to the genius of Pulp Fiction. It’s not that his films since then haven’t been compelling, it’s that there appears to be a set of themes present in most of these movies that, when combined, synthesize into a problematic message. Specifically, I am concerned about Tarantino’s obsession with three things: (1) ultra-violence (2) revenge stories and (3) rewriting history.
The What and The Why
Oct 31, 2019 — Ross Noble
Earlier this year, Emma and I launched the Cinema Esoterica podcast. It’s been an exciting journey. Though neither of us were strangers to audio recording, the world of podcasting was indeed foreign territory. We’ve received some encouraging feedback over the past few months, but we realized recently that we have not succeeded at fully communicating the ethos of the show. It may appear to be yet another movie podcast, or simply a discussion of “weird” stuff, but neither was our intention. We our now relaunching the website to make the goal of the podcast a little more clear. Before explaining what we hope to achieve with this podcast, let’s rewind a bit and explain how it came to be.
The Podcast
Each month, we pick a movie from an evergrowing list that appeals to us from an esoteric perspective. We watch the film, do some independent research, then hit record.
Come for the movie talk, stay for the weird stuff! Read more about the podcast.
Esoteric /ˌɛs.əʊˈtɛɹ.ɪk/
Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.
Your Hosts
Emma Valentiner
Writer, social media manager and musician. 🎸
Ross Noble
Software developer, runner, and van dweller. 🚐