Going Rogue 2024

The passage of time terrifies me!

It was 34 degrees here on Saturday. Which means it’s now 18 degrees and misty because I live in God’s Perfect City, but it also means the end of the year is approaching at horrifying speed and as usual, I feel like I’ve achieved nothing! This is not objectively true, so I’ve put together this writeup of 2024 episodes of Going Rogue to prove it, mostly to myself, and I wanted to write a bit about why I made each of these podcasts in the first place.

This year was mostly made up of stand-alone episode, unlike the previous seasons like Going Rogue & Striking Out, so you really can listen any episode at random (if you’re currently avoiding your family or trying to soothe the ache of another year gone)

How To Train Your Dragon

I loved making an episode about a good movie! Sometimes movies go wrong in a good way!

Don’t Worry Darling

This movie had haunted me since I walked out of the cinema asking "why didn't they foreshadow Alice being a surgeon in any way? like surgeons have a distinct way of washing their hands why didn't she do that?"

And then I read the script where she does exactly that.

Robin Hood

This was an unexpectedly personal journey because I followed the development of this film closely as a Robin Hood obsessed teenager. I was baffled by it then and honestly I'm still a bit baffled by it now.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Earlier this year, outta nowhere, I started thinking about The Wheel in Pirates of The Caribbean 2. I could not tell you why, but when I rewatched the scene, I was floored by how good it looked. I watched the film that night and remained floored, and a couple days later during Easter my sister pitched doing a movie marathon over the long weekend so I suggested Pirates. During the credits of Curse of the Black Pearl, my sister was like "wait so who actually did the music on this?" and that one question pushed me down a rabbit-hole.

I remembered from Disney War that the production on the first Pirates was kinda fraught but I truly did not expect how crushed it was. Everything I learned prompted a reaction of "no, surely not?" and this film low-key took over my life. Like I had most of the Cinderella episode written before Easter and I completely dropped it for Pirates. And again, it was really nice to write about a movie that worked, which then inevitably led to the question of how and why the later films didn't.

Which just pushed me further down the rabbit-hole and turned this into a mini-series.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

I'm a staunch Dead Man’s Chest defender (see: The Wheel), even if it laid the groundwork for the disappointments of At World's End, and I think it's an interesting study in sequels, trilogies and making movies that feel big by focusing on small stakes. But it was also really interesting to revisit this as an adult and confirm that no, I was right when I was 12, the Jack and Elizabeth subplot simply does not work.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

And all that comes home to roost in the third film, which is big in the way that loses sight of the small, and over-complicates things to the point where I had to do a 15min breakdown of what the plot is supposed to be in order to properly crack into all the ways it doesn’t.

(also I'm currently writing something that is very broadly in a similar tone to Pirates and At World's End was a real caution for me in terms of over-complicating a scheming character's schemes because as the writer you already know the plot back to front and keep trying to surprise yourself, not the first-time audience)

Rebel Moon: Part One - A Compromise of Filmmaking

Rebel Moon saved me from seeing Argylle in cinemas and I'll always be grateful to it for that but if I ever meet Zack Snyder it's ON SIGHT for making me watch 4 hours of film he didn't even like.

(right after Part One of this two parter came out I got a text from a friend saying "what do you mean you're doing another episode in two weeks on a film that isn't even out yet?!")

Rebel Moon: Part Two - The Cutgiver

Ridley Scott is the reason Zack Snyder started making Directors Cuts and I think we should hold him at least a little bit responsible for this.

Megalopolis

This is another film I kinda had no intention to cover until I saw it, and then I could not stop thinking about every single element of it, and Coppola's book Live Cinema and Its Techniques, and here we are 13,000 words later and many hours later.

Gladiator II

ok now let's do a silly one!

The main impetus for doing this episode was all the "Nick Cave Gladiator 2??" articles I've seen over the years that didn't bother to actually read the script.

The year isn’t over yet - we’ve still got an upcoming episode on Cinderella, which was partly written before Pirates took over my life, and a special Holiday Special, but if you’ve scrolled this far, thanks for listening for another year.