The year I turned fourteen, I saw Diner and Reservoir Dogs. In these films, people talked. They didn’t talk like people in movies talk, but they talked like real people talk. Only cooler. Only better. They sat around tables with cigarettes and coffee and waxed philosophic about songs and television and sex and sports and television and sex.
And this is how these characters learned about each other. This is how they understood the world. This is how they managed to feel less alone in a universe where our insignificance is almost too much to bear.
The Rate the Universe Podcast is not an attempt to recreate those conversations. Too many people have tried to do that since. What’s great about those films is that they are not forced. They come from a real place. Most of Paul Riser’s dialogue in Diner was improvised. You could tell that Quentin Tarantino sat in a circle with people who had thoughts on Like a Virgin and tipping. These were not discussions that were manufactured, they were discussions that happened.
I would never have seen those films or understood their importance had I not also been obsessively reading Roger Ebert’s movie guides at the same time. He was my greatest teacher. I began to see the world through the lens of his four star scale. It all made so much sense to me.
Chicago is our real place. These are conversations that happened. They are conversations that happened between Matt and me, our friends, and people we think are interesting or funny.
This is our attempt to understand the universe. On a four star scale.
Luke
March 2012
Matt & Luke,
I love your work here and I love your 2011 lists. I was wondering if you could post both of your lists on the website so people could enjoy them in a visual form. I fully intend on checking out some of your music and comic picks! Thanks
Working on it as we speak. The past few weeks got kind of hectic for the both of us.