This week's "Christmas-adjacent" movie is a real feel-good holiday classic: Terry Gilliam's Brazil, from 1985. 

First, we're having a preliminary conversation about some troubling comments Gilliam has made recently, and about what happens when cheeky young provocateurs become cranky old establishment figures.

Then, we're sitting down for Nakea's first viewing of Brazil, and a fairly depressing discussion of surveillance states, dehumanizing bureaucracies, disastrous plastic surgery, sinister heating ducts, Consumers for Christ, scary baby masks, and whether our present-day reality is actually much, much worse than Gilliam's dystopian vision of the future. 

Happy Christmas, everyone. We're all in it together. 

Program

0:00: Prologue: from Brazil (1985)0:38: Preliminary Conversation: Intro, Apology, and The Trouble with Terry12:05: Interlude: Original Trailer14:06: Cultural Osmosis: Pre-Viewing Discussion23:33: Interlude: Scene from Brazil24:24: The Verdict: Post-Viewing Discussion1:05:40: Outro and Next Week's Movie1:06:33: Outtake

Notes and Links

—Movie Reviewed: Brazil (dir. Terry Gilliam, Fox & Universal, 1985)—Articles Mentioned and Referenced:  "Terry Gilliam on diversity: 'I tell the world now I’m a black lesbian,'" The Guardian; "Terry Gilliam has Some Controversial Opinions about Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo," Julie Miller, Vanity Fair; Documentary What is Brazil; "Duct Soup: The Daffy, Dystopian Design Nightmare of Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’," Cinephilia & Beyond; "How Terry Gilliam Found a Happy Ending for Brazil," Leslie Bennetts, NY Times;  review of Brazil by Pauline Kael. —Find additional episodes, leave a comment, or make a donation at unaffiliatedcritic.com.—Email us, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. (Suggestions of movies to watch for future episodes are very welcome.)—Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY 3.0