8: Solaris (2002)

The Monte Hall Effect

Tola and Tim take on Tola's favorite film of all time- not just his favorite SF film, but literally the film he says "changed his life"- Steven Soderbergh's 2002 adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's classic science fiction novel "Solaris." They discuss the challenges of talking about your favorite film, bad film marketing, Tim uses the word "titular", Smoldering Clooney, the genius of Cliff Martinez, the You're the Only One Who Can Help Us movie trope, a world full of Unreliable Narrators, ye olde thyme Plasma screen saver, things that are fundamentally unknowable, Jeremy Davies at his most Jeremy Davies, Viola Davis before she became the acting juggernaut that she is today, smoldering on the train, Dylan Thomas, speculating on the tidal forces of an orbiting centrifuge, technobabble, a mis-explanation of the Higgs Field (physicists, please do not write in to correct us), all we know about people is what we see about them and maybe not even all of that, mental snapshots, after eight episodes Tola finally gets to break out a Winston Churchill reference and talks about Clementine Churchill's ALLEGED affair, confirmation bias, the fundamental unknowability of an alien intelligence (vs the Roddenberry model), everything wrong with the depiction of liquid oxygen including why drinking it is a classically bad idea, another bad idea: bringing an unknown alien intelligence to Earth, smoldering versus drugged out, Chekhov's Blood, the fundamental unknowability of artificial intelligence, conservation of mass or the lack thereof, Tim provides more evidence that Clooney's character is a creep, Tola says his favorite quote from his favorite movie, Tim quotes Samuel R. Delany's "Dhalgren", moments that are simultaneously touching and creepy, Frank Bowman, planet sized fundamentally unknowable mood rings, how this movie changed Tola's life, a mangling of the Brad Meltzer quote "Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about," Stanislaw Lem hating the movie, how one piece of art relates to another, Tola's Mom's great definition of "what is art?", a brief "Accidental Tourist" digression, Potterverse film/book synergy, and Tola speculating on why he suspects he'll be thinking of Miyazaki on his deathbed (many decades from now!)

Final score: Science (75%), Fiction (98%), Film (91%).

Next podcast: shooting fish in a barrel with Roland Emmerich's "Moonfall."