tony black | the m0vie blog

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 5, Episode 20 (“The End”)

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Darren

It’s season finale time on The X-Cast, so it was a privilege to be invited back on to talk about the fifth season finale The End. And it was a delight to join Tony Black for that discussion.

The end of the fifth season was the end of an era for The X-Files. The series would light up the multiplex over the summer with The X-Files: Fight the Future, and would return to the airwaves later that year as a changed show, with the production team having moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles. It was a transition that fundamentally altered the core dynamics of the show, and remains highly contested to this day. The End would be the last episode of The X-Files to be produced in Vancouver until My Struggle I, and a large part of the episode is about bidding a fond farewell to the show’s extended family in that area.

Appropriately enough, it seems like this episode marks a similar turning point for The X-Cast. I was caught completely off-guard by it, so I’ll let you listen and year for yourself. You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: podcast, the cigarette-smoking man, the end, the x-cast, the x-files, tony black, Vancouver | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 5, Episode 8 (“Kitsunegari”)

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Darren

Last year, I was extremely privileged to get to discuss the wonderful Pusher with the sensational Tony Black on The X-Cast. For those who don’t know, Pusher is Tony’s favourite episode ever – and comfortably sits around the edge of my top ten. So no pressure.

As such, it was a delight to get to join Tony for Kitsunegari, the fifth season sequel to Pusher. Outside of the mythology, it was relatively rare for The X-Files to do direct sequels to earlier episodes – even popular ones. Kitsunegari is an entry in a very select club that includes Tooms and Orison. However, it is also an episode with which I’ve had a very complicated relationship. It often feels like a parody of a sequel to Pusher rather than an entirely earnest follow-up, and as such as always felt like it belongs to the fifth season’s broader preoccupations with monstrous progeny as a metaphor for the show’s unexpected evolution and direction. Of course, I’ve always worried that I read too much into it.

As ever, you can make up your own mind. You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: kitsunegari, podcast, pusher, Television, the x-cast, tony black, x-files | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 2, Episode 10 (“Midnight of the Century”)

Posted on December 24, 2019 by Darren

It’s Christmas, so The Time is Now has a special treat lined up for you. It’s the night before Christmas, so it was the perfect opportunity to discuss Midnight of the Century with the wonderful Tony Black. It’s something of a companion piece to our discussion of The Curse of Frank Black at Halloween.

It’s strange to imagine Millennium producing a Christmas episode. It’s even stranger to realise that’s a pretty much perfect episode for the season, following Frank Black through his Christmas Eve as he tries to work through his own complicated feelings about the holidays. Then again, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, the second season was show run by Glen Morgan and James Wong who had written Christmas-themed episodes like Beyond the Sea on The X-Files and River of Stars on Space: Above and Beyond. It is a delight.

As ever, you can listen directly to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below. Have a Merry Christmas!

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Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: christmas, frank black, midnight of the century, millennium, podcast, tony black | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 5, Episode 1 (“Redux I”)

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Darren

The X-Cast just kicked off its season coverage, and I’m back with Tony Black to discuss the first part of the fifth season premiere Redux I.

Redux I was famously the second-most watched episode of The X-Files, behind Leonard Betts. It’s easy to see why. Not only was the episode following on from an edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger involving the supposed suicide of the male lead on one of the buzziest shows of the decade, but it was also the launch of the season that would lead into the feature film adaptation, The X-Files: Fight the Future. As such, it was a pretty daring move on the part of Chris Carter to devote so much of the premiere to purple prose monologues playing over Mulder walking down grey corridors.

I think this is a pretty fun and interesting discussion. Redux I is always an episode that I’ve have complicated and conflicted feelings about, and the podcast was a nice opportunity to work through some of those strange emotions. Anyway, I hope there’s something worthwhile in here.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

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Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: belief, chris carter, conspiracy, faith, mythology, oliver stone, redux, redux i, the x-cast, the x-files, tony black | Leave a comment »

155. The 250 Anniversary Special 2019

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This week, to mark the podcast’s three-year anniversary and passing the one-hundred-and-fifty-episode threshold, we decided to bring back as many of the guests from the third year as possible. So, joining Andrew and Darren on this podcast are:

Andy Hazell, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return and Mary and Max
Tony Black, who recorded Avengers: Endgame
Carl Sweeney, who recorded Double Indemnity
Brian Lloyd, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return
Alex Towers, who recorded Room, The Matrix and Fight Club
Doctor Bernice Murphy, who recorded The Exorcist and Exorcist II: The Heretic
Jess Dunne, who recorded Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation
Luke Dunne, who recorded Bohemian Rhapsody, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation and Baby Geniuses
Phil Bagnall, who recorded L.A. Confidential, The Avengers, Three Colours: Red, The Lion King, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and Exorcist II: The Heretic
Richard Drumm, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return
Niall Glynn, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return
Chris Lavery, who recorded Sanjuro
Jay Coyle, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return and Capernaum
Ronan Doyle, who recorded Capernaum
Grace Duffy, who recorded Fifty Shades of Grey, Star Wars, Spice World, Rush and The Matrix
Babu Patel, who recorded Race 3, Andhadhun, Escape Plan 2: Hades and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Doctor Giovanna Rampazzo, who recorded Race 3, Andhadhun and Escape Plan 2: Hades
Joe Griffin, who recorded The Sixth Sense

We thought we’d take the opportunity to have a talk about the best and worst of this list, both in general and over the past year, and also take a nostalgic look back at the year 1999.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: 1999, alex towers, andy hazel, anniversary, babu patel, bernice murphy, carl sweeney, chris lavery, giovanna rampazzo, grace duffy, into the spider-verse, jay coyle, jess dunne, joe griffen, luke dunne, niall glynn, once upon a time in hollywood, phil bagnall, richard drumm, ronan doyle, tony black | Leave a comment »

129. Avengers: Endgame – This Just In (#6)

Posted on May 4, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Tony Black, This Just In is a subset of The 250 podcast, looking at notable new arrivals on the list of the 250 best movies of all-time, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Joe and Anthony Russo’s Avengers: Endgame.

At time of recording, it was ranked 6th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: This Just In | Tagged: avengers, avengers: endgame, captain america, Content, endgame, film, hawkeye, hulk, meaning, Movie, podcast, thor, tony black | 2 Comments »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Season 3, Episode 24 (“Talitha Cumi”)

Posted on November 16, 2018 by Darren

I’m back on The X-Cast this week, covering Talitha Cumi with the one and only Tony Black, a nice companion piece to last week’s episode covering Wetwired.

Talitha Cumi is a controversial and divisive episode, particularly among fans of the series. It is relatively unique as far as season-finales go, in that it is perhaps the only season finale in The X-Files that could not also serve as a series finale as well. It is very poetic and very lyrical story, but also one that largely eschews a lot of the structures and rhythms that audiences expect from narratives. I have always had a soft spot for it, and I think I get a chance to articulate why on the podcast. As little sense as the actual plot of Talitha Cumi makes on a beat-by-beat basis, it works very well as a thematic piece meditating on big ideas.

It was, always, a pleasure and an honour to discuss the episode with Tony. I’m always flattered to be asked back. There were a few recording hitches with the episode that meant we had to record it, and some of that giddiness shines through a little bit. I hope it’s enjoyable to listen to, as it was one of my favourite podcasting experiences. We also talk a little bit about the third season of the series as a whole, about whether it is the best season and even how we measure such things. It’s quite an extended episode, but I hope you enjoy it.

The truth is in here. You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.