Very Bad Wizards

Episode 223: The Hopeless Dream of Being (Bergman's "Persona")

October 19th, 2021  |  1 hr 28 mins

chappelle, ingmar bergman, movie episode, persona, the closer

David and Tamler dive into Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 masterpiece “Persona”, a film about two (?) women, Elisabet, a famous stage actress who has stopped speaking, and Alma the chatty young nurse assigned to care for her at an island cottage. What happens when the roles we play as parents, spouses, friends, and colleagues start to feel like dishonest performances, an endless series of desperate lies? Can we escape to an inner sanctum of truth and authenticity? Or is that putting on another mask, playing yet another part, telling a different set of lies? We offer some tentative interpretations of this rich and baffling film. Get that boy a normal sized sheet! 

Plus we share some thoughts about the Chappelle special… 

Episode 211: To Live and Die in Kurosawa's "Ikiru"

April 20th, 2021  |  1 hr 46 mins

akira kurosawa, death anxiety, dog jealousy, ikiru, japan, movie episode

"Sometimes I think of my death," Akira Kurosawa said, "I think of ceasing to be...and it is from these thoughts that Ikiru came.” David and Tamler explore what it means to truly live in Kurosawa’s 1952 masterpiece about a bureaucrat in postwar Japan who learns that he will die from stomach cancer within six months. Plus a new study provides evidence for what every pet owner knows: dogs get jealous. And a shocking revelation about Harvard legends Kohlberg, Rawls, and Nozick.