Dune and The Velvet Underground

One of the season's most highly anticipated movies, "Dune" has met with critical and commercial success and marks the start of a new science fiction franchise. HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano have a lot to say in this podcast episode about what works and what does not work in director Denis Villeneuve's screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel. They agree that the desert planet landscape is visually striking, but that the film lingers too long in many scenes. They also note that while the intriguing casting of Timothee Chalamet as an action hero is successful in moments where the character is meant to be sensitive, the slender Chalamet is not convincing when fighting muscular bad guys. They did find it interesting to watch a number of other notable actors in the movie, among them Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson and Stellan Skarsgaard. Marie and Mike also discuss  director Todd Haynes' documentary "The Velvet Underground." It's a film that very much plays to that band's fan base, so if you're a Lou Reed fan you will want to see it.