The French Dispatch, Selling Sunset, and GBBO finale

From Ennui-sur-Blasé to Los Angeles, plus thoughts on our Bake Off faves

Nov 30, 2021

Hello!

On this week’s episode of Criticism Is Dead, we discuss The French Dispatch and Selling Sunset, two artifices of reality.

Click here to listen to the full episode on the web

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, or other podcast apps.

04:38 The French Dispatch, playing in theaters, is very “Wes Anderson” (to borrow a phrase), and we like that.

Surprise, surprise, we are into it when directors have a vision, even if it’s a fussy, nostalgia-tinged, quote unquote “precocious child” one lol

The French Dispatch is made for people who love magazines, by which I mean the New Yorker, specifically during the golden years of journalism when writers could make a handsome living off of like one or two stories a year. It’s a romantic view, to be sure, but one that is engaging and even moving at time, like in the tale of “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner,” which is the strongest marriage of Anderson’s meticulous style and a very human story. Give it a shot!

22:30 Netflix reality show Selling Sunset needs to dial back on the tepid interpersonal drama and bring back more opulent, ostentatious houses to look at.

Once upon a time, we recorded a pilot episode of Criticism Is Dead that included a segment on Selling Sunset, and it was pretty good, but we never released it, so now, more than a year later, here is our actual official take on the show in light of its latest season :)

To put it simply, we want more properties and real estate-specific workplace drama, instead of having everything revolve around Christine! She is carrying the show at this point, which we hear comes down to pretty selective editing. Here’s hoping Chrishell/Jason can take some of the load next season.