Jamelle Bouie

1 sketch, 6 claims, and 5 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

Blank Check with Griffin & David: The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie (guest)

Raised churchgoing in the South, studied religious history, and loves how the film captures the strangeness of the ancient Near East and the humanizing of Judas and Pilate. Dislikes fundamentalist readings; a sucker for Scorsese, Duke Ellington and weird snacks.

Stances

  • Film is faithful to modern biblical studies and the real alienness of first-century Judea
  • Fundamentalist outrage is ironic because the film is flattering to Jesus' radicalism
  • Pilate as bureaucrat is the best revelation

Humor: Dry, self-deprecating; plugs YouTube and eating weird Oreos on stream.

In their words

  • “I'm an African-American from the South.” (0:28:29)
  • “Bowie's incredible.” (0:38:53)

Their shows' recurring bits

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

Blank Check with Griffin & David

Their claims

Showing 1–6 of 6 claims.

  1. people (casting): Willem Dafoe → Platoon. Scorsese saw Dafoe's sensitive, spiritual-yet-scary Platoon role and thought of Jesus.
    “My understanding is that Scorsese had seen him in Platoon, where he plays a very sensitive...”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:03:48 · Jamelle Bouie (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. contrast (genre contrast): The Last Temptation of Christ → Ben-Hur. Biblical epics already existed in public mind in the 60s, so a Last Temptation would have drawn less ire then than in the 80s.
    “Precisely because the biblical epic already existed in like the public mind.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:53:23 · Jamelle Bouie (0.70 sure it was them)
  3. industry (dealmaker): Tom Pollock → George Lucas. Pollock as lawyer got Lucas the Star Wars sequel and merchandising rights.
    “he is the one who got George Lucas the Star Wars deal.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:54:22 · Jamelle Bouie (0.40 sure it was them)
  4. craft (aesthetic): The Last Temptation of Christ → Robert Eggers. Its depiction of the past as truly alien feels like Eggers's work.
    “Feels very like Robert Iggers to me these days of like trying to take seriously the fact that the past is truly different”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:05:21 · Jamelle Bouie (0.70 sure it was them)
  5. people (casting): David Bowie → The Man Who Fell to Earth. Bowie's alien quality was perfect for Pilate, as his Man Who Fell to Earth showed.
    “you watch the man who fell to earth and you're like, well, of course, he's great at this.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:35:14 · Jamelle Bouie (0.50 sure it was them)
  6. career (career thread): The Last Temptation of Christ → Mean Streets. The Jesus figure runs through Scorsese's whole filmography back to Mean Streets.
    “But what's like this Jesus is as central of this guy's entire filmography as anything?”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:18:50 · Jamelle Bouie (0.40 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–5 of 5 fun items.

  1. fun, about Martin Scorsese: Jamelle watched every Scorsese film in a year around 2017 and came away more convinced he is great, comparing it to a Duke Ellington binge.
    “I just watched every Marty movie and came away.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:22:30 · Jamelle Bouie (0.90 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Tom Pollock: The Universal head who greenlit Last Temptation started as the lawyer who won George Lucas the Star Wars sequel and merchandising deal.
    “The greatest entertainment deal of all time.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 0:54:44 · Jamelle Bouie (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Victor Argo: Argo plays Peter like a Red Hook stevedore, smoking a cigar until the camera rolled.
    “he plays Peter as essentially like a fucking stevedore from like Red Hook.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:04:26 · Jamelle Bouie (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about The Last Temptation of Christ: Jamelle's Letterboxd line: fundamentalists hating it makes sense because Christ as all-encompassing love opposes the in-vogue Christ of vengeance.
    “Christ as emissary of total and all encompassing love is in direct tension with the quote unquote Christ of vengeance and domination”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 1:58:34 · Jamelle Bouie (0.80 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Cocktail: Griffin's verdict: the stupidest movie Tom Cruise ever made, a film about a bartender who does 'the crazy thing'.
    “I mean, the stupidest movie he ever made.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · The Last Temptation of Christ with Jamelle Bouie · 2:06:00 · Jamelle Bouie (0.40 sure it was them)