BFG Podcast #106: 'Rise of the Beasts,' 'The Idol,' and censoring 'The French Connection'

BFG delivers another great podcast episode this week. Host Neal Pollack welcomes guest Michael Washburn to discuss the curious recent decision by The Criterion Channel to edit out a sequence featuring a racial slur from the 1971 Oscar-winning film, 'The French Connection.' Neal ties this decision into recent efforts to bowdlerize popular classic works of British fiction. And Michael points out that the film deploys that language to show that the main character, Popeye Doyle, is flawed, to say the least. They both agree that there's really no way to apply consistent standards of what's culturally acceptable across all films at all times. A really strange and ultimately cowardly act by Criterion, which, as the standard bearer of film culture, should know better.No one will ever be censoring 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.' Brave film critic JP Guinn went to see this film, which he found harmless and more in the gee-whiz spirit of the old Transformers cartoons. If you like to see robots beating each other up, he says, you will enjoy Rise of the Beasts. We also find out that as a child, JP alphabetized his Star Wars figures.Meanwhile, over on Max, Matthew Ehrlich endured the premiere of 'The Idol,' the controversial new show from Sam Levinson, creator of 'Euphoria.' Matthew's main criticisms are as follows: the show is not fun to watch and Lily-Rose Depp, while beautiful, doesn't exude superstar charisma like Lady Gaga or Madonna. Also, Vanity Fair reporters don't just wander onto a celebrity's estate, so the show gets its pilot's central conflict all wrong. Also, Matthew takes extreme issue with the main character's name, "Jocelyn." "Why not just call her Agnes?" he asks. Why not, indeed?Enjoy the show!