BFG Podcast #071: ‘The Rings of Power,’ the Venice Film Festival, and Review-Bombing

In this week’s jam-packed edition of the BFG podcast, editor Neal Pollack welcomes Jake Harris to talk about the unfortunate practice of review-bombing. Unfortunately, they conclude, it’s here to say and there’s nothing we can do to police the bombers. Maybe we can summon the Department of Homeland Security.

Next up, resident Tolkien expert G.L. Ford stops by the podcast to talk about the review-bombed ‘The Rings of Power,’ the Lord of the Rings prequel series now airing on Amazon Prime. Unlike many online critics, Ford doesn’t care about the fact that there are Black Elves and Dwarves, and doesn’t think Tolkien would have cared either. He does care about the thin motivations and lack of moral seriousness of some of the characters. But he prefaces all his criticisms with “so far,” because the series still has a shot to deliver.

Kaveh Jalinous is spending this fall on the continent, la di da, and filed a report for us from the Venice Film Festival. He and Neal talk about new projects from directors Todd Field, Lars Von Trier, Noah Baumbach, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Luca Guadagnino. If you’re going to see a movie at 8:30 a.m., be sure to see it with a strong Italian coffee in hand. Words to live by.

Enjoy the show!

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