HONEY DON’T! – A PANEL DISCUSSION with Ben Brewer, Emilio Diaz, & Melissa Tuckman
To the White Sea is back to discuss HONEY DON’T!—the slapjacking new film from Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke—and we’re bringing a new episode format to attempt to wrap our minds around this monumental moment.
We’ve gathered some of our favorite minds of filmmaking and film analysis—Melissa Tuckman, Ben Brewer, and Emilio Diaz—for an unrehearsed panel discussion affectionately dubbed The McDunnough Group. We explore important issues of the day including how this new film differs from a Joel and Ethan collaboration, how a more varied filmmaking approach impacts the experience of the viewer, and whether the film successfully defines its moral universe. Thank you so much to all of the panel guests. Special thanks to Focus Features.
Coens Covered: Honey Don’t!, Drive-Away Dolls, The Big Lebowski, The Ladykillers, Burn After Reading
Plus: Supervixens, Before Sunset, Punch-Drunk Love, Love Lies Bleeding, Death Proof
“In livelier precincts, the swells of Dreamland gather to inspect the complicated weave of another piece of gossamer… Another movie, another portion of balm for the ache of a toiling mankind.”
Want to join the study group? Follow TO THE WHITE SEA on social media, tell your friends about the show, and leave a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. These all really help out the podcast.
***You can also support us directly at https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea***
Visit tothewhitesea.me for all the links – and join the Discord too!
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26: Intergenerational Warfare with Will Menaker & Hesse Deni
Today we’re excited to be joined by Will Menaker and Hesse Deni—cohosts of Movie Mindset, as well as Chapo Trap House and Seeking Derangements respectively—to split the everlasting light of cinema via a prism of great importance: tensions between the old and the young in the films of the Coen brothers.
Jumping off from a thrilling duel between Muldrow and the blind swordsman we unpack the trope of The Old Gunslinger vs. The Kid, and from there fan out across a galaxy of cigar-chomping geezers, stoned Bar Mitzvah boys, goldbricking veterans of forgotten wars, and house partying dybbuks.
Thank you to Will and Hesse for this life- and movie-affirming conversation! Thank you also to the great Chris Wade for helping setting this up.
Coens Covered: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Miller’s Crossing, The Hudsucker Proxy, A Serious Man, The Big Lebowski, Inside Llewyn Davis
Plus: Armageddon, The Heart She Holler
Want to join the study group? Follow TTWS on social media, tell your friends about the show, and leave a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It really helps the show.
*You can also support us directly at https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea*
For all things TTWS visit tothewhitesea.me – and join the Discord too!
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25: Perfect Quiet with Skip Lievsay
Like a seashell to your ear, we are here. In this extra special episode of To the White Sea we are thrilled and honored to welcome Academy Award-winning sound editor Skip Lievsay, who has worked on more Coen brothers movies than the Coen brothers themselves! This paradox wrapped in an enigma will be unraveled along with so much more.
Together we listen closely to scenes of “perfect quiet” when the volume of the soundtrack drops down to almost zero, yet it’s in this zone where a whole galaxy of perception may be unlocked. We explore how these quiet scenes build tension, intimacy, tactility, and subjectivity. We also discuss Skip’s fascinating working relationship with the Coens, as well as Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, and Darren Aronofsky.
Immense thanks to Skip Lievsay, Kyle Miller, Mitchell Wareham, and Nina Leitenberg for their time and effort. Mega special thanks to Kate Sanford making this connection.
Coens Covered: Blood Simple, The Big Lebowski, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country for Old Men, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Plus: The New World
Want to join the study group? Follow TTWS on social media, tell your friends about the show, and leave a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
***You can also support us directly at https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea***
For all things TTWS visit tothewhitesea.me – and join the Discord too!
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24: Suspense and Surprise
Surprise! We're back with a new episode. We jump off from the idea introduced to us by J. Todd Anderson, by way of Alfred Hitchcock, that filmmaking is about two things (and according to J. Todd only these two things): suspense and surprise. We analyze ways in which films create a “burden of knowledge” in the mind of the audience, and how this can dramatically affect the way scenes play out on a screen and behind our eyes. Sometimes you’re ahead of the characters, and sometimes they’re way, way ahead of you.
Check us out in the new episode of Blank Check where we kick off their Coen brothers mini series Pod Country for Old Cast with the first film in the Coens ouvre, Blood Simple!
Coens Covered: Raising Arizona, No Country for Old Men, Barton Fink, True Grit, Intolerable Cruelty, The Man Who Wasn’t There
Want to join the study group? Follow TTWS on social media, tell your friends about the show, and leave a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
***You can also support us directly at https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea***
For all things TTWS visit tothewhitesea.me – and join the Discord too!
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UNLOCKED: TTWS Goes on Hit Factory - A Simple Plan
Hello study group! We will be back soon with more mainline episodes of To the White Sea. To tide you over we bring you a delightful side-quest / amuse-bouche. A couple months ago we went on Hit Factory to discuss A Simple Plan, directed by frequent Coens collaborator Sam Raimi. We enjoyed our discussion with Aaron so much, and thought it Coens-adjacent-enough to put it out as a bonus. Hope you enjoy it too!
Thanks to Aaron & Carlee for giving us the go-ahead to release this premium episode, and please consider supporting their amazing show on Patreon, which is all about the films and politics of the 1990s.
Want to join the study group? Follow TTWS on social media, tell your friends about the show, and leave a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
***You can also support us directly at https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea***
For all things TTWS visit tothewhitesea.me – and join the Discord too!
A close look at the work of the Coen brothers through the lens of their unproduced screenplay To the White Sea, based on the novel by James Dickey. Hosted by filmmakers Jordan Fish and Ray Tintori, and featuring awesome guests. Every week we read two pages. Ray has read the screenplay and Jordan hasn't.
Ireland