Ep 30: Collateral Cinema Civil War: David Ayer’s Suicide Squad (2016) – Season Premiere (SPOILERS)

Title: Suicide Squad [Wikipedia] [IMDb]

Director: David Ayer

Producers: Charles Roven, Richard Suckle

Writers: David Ayer, John Ostrander (comic)

Stars: Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, Cara Delevingne

Release date: August 5, 2016 (US)

PODCAST SHOUTOUT: Black Girls Do Stuff Too! (@BlkGirlsDoStuff)

SHOWNOTES: Welcome to Collateral Cinema Season Three! We wanted to start off with something a little more contentious: Beau, Robert, Ashley, and Dakota don't actually agree on how we feel about the 2016 DCEU superhero (or supervillain) movie Suicide Squad, directed and written by David Ayer! Which of us wholeheartedly agrees with the generally negative critical consensus? Which of us feels there's something of value here to be apologists for? Which of us just likes that custom-made Joker car? Listen to find out! This Season Premiere, Collateral Cinema discusses the questionable cinematography, well-chosen but not-so-well-implemented soundtrack, mixed-reception casting, and the problematic reshooting and editing process that happened in the production of Suicide Squad. We also make comparisons on the part of Jared Leto's Joker performance against the many others (including Joaquin Phoenix' recent portrayal in the standalone titular movie), as well as this movie as a whole to its obvious Marvel counterpart and cinematic adaptation inspiration Guardians of the Galaxy from James Gunn—and on that note, predictions of where Gunn will take the announced sequel/soft reboot The Suicide Squad set in the DC Extended Universe, in addition to what we expect from the upcoming sequel Birds of Prey! There's a lot to dig in here, and a lot to harp on in this film, but most importantly, did we have fun talking about it?

Collateral Cinema is on Apple Podcasts, Chill Lover Radio, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Also, find us on Patreon; we have exclusive full-length commentaries on our favorite movies and plan more to come!

(Collateral Cinema is an LCompany Production. Intro song is a license-free beat. All music and movie clips are owned by their respective creators and are used for educational purposes only. Please don’t sue us; we’re poor!)