Dana Stevens

1 sketch, 17 claims, and 4 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

Blank Check with Griffin & David: An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens (guest)

Loves Campion's evocative, elusive style and the film as a coming-of-age story about an artist; says she maybe loves Bright Star slightly more. Distrusts crude biopic cliches and Cuckoo's Nest. Dislikes the piano score's imposing clang. A sucker for production design, performance continuity, and mystery.

Stances

  • Angel is one of the best coming-of-age movies about an artist
  • Angel and Bright Star are two of the best literary biopics
  • Criticized The Piano's score
  • Prefers mysteries that remain unexplained

Humor: Warm, erudite and self-aware, with comfortable wry asides.

In their words

  • “this really is like a coming of age movie about an artist, one of the best coming of age movies about an artist.” (0:02:51)
  • “I think I just, I wanted music that I was happier to listen to for every single 2nd of the movie.” (1:14:14)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Their claims

Showing 1–17 of 17 claims.

  1. theme (parallel (inscrutable artists)): Buster Keaton → Janet Frame. Dana says Keaton, like Frame in the film, remains mysterious even after years of research.
    “a little bit like the Janet Frame character that we're going to talk about in this episode, he also has this ineffable, mysterious quality”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:11:08 · Dana Stevens (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (genealogy): An Angel at My Table → My Brilliant Career. Dana confused the two for years; both are about a young woman growing into a writer.
    “I even confused the movies for years afterwards probably was my brilliant career, right?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:16:00 · Dana Stevens (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. craft (mood): An Angel at My Table → Picnic at Hanging Rock. The gauzy distance, fades to black and mystery of the childhood chapter recall Picnic at Hanging Rock.
    “Peter Weir's picnic and Hanging Rock, which I think this movie has something in common with”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:16:07 · Dana Stevens (0.90 sure it was them)
  4. people (director credit): Peter Weir → Picnic at Hanging Rock. Dana attributes Picnic at Hanging Rock to Peter Weir.
    “Peter Weir's picnic and Hanging Rock”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:16:07 · Dana Stevens (0.90 sure it was them)
  5. people (contrast (casting continuity)): An Angel at My Table → Cinema Paradiso. Dana praises Angel's continuity across three actresses, unlike Cinema Paradiso where the three actors never felt like one person.
    “remember Cinema Paradiso, like how none of the 3 guys at the same, at different ages seemed like the same dude”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:17:47 · Dana Stevens (0.60 sure it was them)
  6. what-if (what it could have been): An Angel at My Table → One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Dana says a cruder version could have resembled Cuckoo's Nest, whose portrait of mental illness she finds reductionist.
    “its portrait of, you know, mental illness and mental illness treatment is is just really, really crude and reductionist.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:29:54 · Dana Stevens (0.60 sure it was them)
  7. what-if (what it could have been): An Angel at My Table → Frances. Another highbrow mental-illness biopic the film could have resembled.
    “And I think it could have been Francis.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:30:02 · Dana Stevens (0.40 sure it was them)
  8. unmapped (feel): An Angel at My Table → Terrence Malick. The childhood section, with sparse dialogue and a baby's-eye first shot, recalls Malick.
    “Yes, in in a way that almost at moments recalls Terrence Malik.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:30:52 · Dana Stevens (0.70 sure it was them)
  9. verdict (best literary biopics): An Angel at My Table → Bright Star. Dana calls them two of the best literary biopics ever, both avoiding the furrowed-brow-at-desk cliches.
    “the same person, Jane Campion directed what I think are 2 of the best literary biopics ever made.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:31:10 · Dana Stevens (0.90 sure it was them)
  10. unmapped (feel): An Angel at My Table → Terrence Malick. The train-and-asylum moment is called a Malick-like glimpse of a child sensing something wrong in the world.
    “that's a really powerful, again, sort of Malikian moment, right?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:45:30 · Dana Stevens (0.70 sure it was them)
  11. craft (visual resemblance): Annie → An Angel at My Table. Janet Frame, in her red cardigan and curly red hair, looks like Annie, which makes viewers root for her.
    “she kind of looks like Australian little orphan Annie.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:52:10 · Dana Stevens (0.35 sure it was them)
  12. craft (production design): An Angel at My Table → The Power of the Dog. Production design is a major part of Campion's project in both, communicating class without exposition.
    “in power of the dog, this past year where production design is a huge part of what informs Campion's project.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:58:25 · Dana Stevens (0.50 sure it was them)
  13. unmapped (narrative strategy): An Angel at My Table → The Power of the Dog. Campion's films hold you without conventional narrative thrust, unlike the ensemble of Power of the Dog, this one is just Janet.
    “in power of the dog, it's an ensemble of full characters.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:59:55 · Dana Stevens (0.50 sure it was them)
  14. unmapped (landscape): The Power of the Dog → The Lord of the Rings. New Zealand standing in for Montana looks, if like anything, like Lord of the Rings.
    “if it looks like anywhere, it looks like Lord of the Rings landscapes, right?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 1:10:46 · Dana Stevens (0.40 sure it was them)
  15. people (composer credit (criticized)): Michael Nyman → The Piano. Dana thinks the score is overused and imposing, a major problem for her.
    “I dont like the music by, is it by Michael Nyman?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 1:13:32 · Dana Stevens (0.70 sure it was them)
  16. people (cast credit): Holly Hunter → The Piano. Dana praises the imagery, Hunter, Keitel and script.
    “Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, all of that stuff, the storytelling.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 1:13:59 · Dana Stevens (0.60 sure it was them)
  17. unmapped (athlete-to-movie-star): Brian Bosworth → Jim Brown. Studios hoped another athlete could repeat Jim Brown's movie stardom.
    “it had been like 20 years since like the peak of Jim Brown.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 1:45:39 · Dana Stevens (0.40 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–4 of 4 fun items.

  1. fun, about An Angel at My Table: The opening shot: a baby's feet walking through the grass and a mother's flowered dress looming overhead, an unusual way to begin a biopic.
    “that very 1st shot of the baby's feet walking through the grass”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:30:56 · Dana Stevens (0.80 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about An Angel at My Table: Dana's favorite shot is an 8 to 9 second silent shot of Janet staring at a piece of chalk as she freezes while teaching.
    “it's so cinematic to decide to look at someone looking at a piece of chalk”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 0:41:24 · Dana Stevens (0.85 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about An Angel at My Table: The ending: Janet twists to Chubby Checker, then the film fades to a girl dancing the twist in her writing trailer.
    “she's twisting to chubby checker at the end”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 1:27:03 · Dana Stevens (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about An Angel at My Table: Callback: she wants an author photo on her first book and is hurt; the later photo, with photographers climbing a hill to reach her while she wrestles farm animals, is anything but glamorous.
    “she's asking, where's my picture?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · An Angel at My Table with Dana Stevens · 1:28:43 · Dana Stevens (0.60 sure it was them)