BFG Podcast #131: 'Wonka,' 'Godzilla Minus One,' and 'The Boy and the Heron'

It's a magical, fantastical, confection-filled week on the BFG podcast. Host Neal Pollack welcomes in always-guest Stephen Garrett to talk about 'Wonka,' starring Timothée Chalamet as a truly child-friendly young Willy Wonka, who the movie re-invents as a gee-whiz paragon of goodness and light. Stephen liked the movie more on the show than he did in his review. Neal found it cloying and cynically calculated. They were deeply split on Hugh Grant's Oompa-Loompa, who Neal enjoyed but Stephen found weird. In general, 'Wonka' seems to have generated more debated among our two critics than it deserves. Listen up, and see it for yourself, and join the conversation.

There is no split, however, about 'Godzilla Minus One,' which Neal proclaims one of the year's best pictures. Our critic London Faust isn't quite as enthusiastic, but does appreciate how GMO manages to create some human-scale characters worth caring about, even while it does deploy a somewhat hammy Japanese acting style. Neal appreciated the historical depth of the screenplay and frankly found Godzilla himself quite terrifying. You must see this film.

'The Boy and the Heron', on the other hand, is only for Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli complete list. Critic Pablo Gallaga and Neal both admire the movie's beauty and off-kilter character design, but agree the world-building and the story just aren't up to the usual snuff. This film feels more serious and message-y than Miyazaki's previous animes, and it suffers from the old master trying to teach us a lesson.

But we're not trying to teach you a lesson at BFG, we're just trying to present the best pop-culture podcast on Earth. And we succeed, every week. Enjoy the show!