Spoilcast

The spoiler special feature at Slate, a podcast in which Dana Stevens and some other editor discuss recent films in their entirety, free to reveal the ending, is a neat idea. Certainly, it fills a gap in movie criticism that limits mainstream critics from talking about endings—often the most important parts of a movie in terms of creating meaning. It’s a fun listen: Stevens has a good voice for this sort of thing, and of course, she’s a very smart critic. What’s surprising is how casual the conversation is. While discussing Pirates 2, Stevens freely admits to not being able to remember subplots and dismisses the movie as confusing. Editor Bryan Curtis isn’t certain he remembers the name of Orlando Bloom’s character. They talk to each other in the unpracticed rhythms of everyday conversation. This isn’t a criticism, and in fact, I think it’s kind of neat; but it still surprises me a bit to contrast this sort of casual banter with the relatively polished, formal look of the New York Times’ movie minutes or other high profile multimedia broadcasts.