Oh So Pretty: Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’

There’s a new Steven Spielberg movie in theaters. It’s about Sharks, but it isn’t another Jaws. It’s about Jets, but it isn’t a sequel to Catch Me If You Can. This is something we’ve never seen from Spielberg before — a movie musical. Spielberg’s name is synonymous with cinema in a way that no other living […]

“Help Me Help You” (#99)

By the time I was pop culturally aware, Tom Cruise was already taken for granted as a movie star. He was always there, grinning and waving on red carpets, on the cover of all the tabloids and more legitimate magazines, every movie he was in an Event (and a hit that warranted the event status). […]

“Take Me To Bed Or Lose Me Forever” (#98)

Do you feel the need? The need to speed back to the 80s and bro out with Iceman, Viper, Wolfman, Slider, Goose, and Maverick all over again? We’ve got you covered in the first part of our cruise through the career of the galaxy’s biggest superstar (don’t tell Xenu), starting with the 1986 blockbuster that […]

Maradona & Child: ‘The Hand Of God’

Paolo Sorrentino won 2013’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for the appropriately titled La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), a dazzling drama about a writer and socialite in Rome entering the final act of his privileged life. He’s in a strong position to claim the award a second time for this year’s The Hand Of […]

Strong & Silent: ‘The Power Of The Dog’

The stoic cowboy is, perhaps, the most stalwart hero trope we’ve ever had in the movies. Detectives have always been hard-boiled, soldiers are often racked with guilt and trauma, cops frequently cross over to the wrong side of the law, but the cowboy protagonist has rarely been less than noble. Even revisionist Westerns like Unforgiven […]

He Said, He Said (& What She Tried To Say): ‘The Last Duel’

What we know of history has been written almost exclusively by men, especially when you go as far back as the Middle Ages. Every man who ever made a record of the past had his biases, and if you multiply that by the thousands of men who’ve had their say over time, you have to […]

“There Is No Dana, Only Zuul” (#97)

It’s about time we got around to Ghostbusters on the podcast. Ivan Reitman’s supernatural sensation is the granddaddy of the fantasy-action-comedy blockbuster, creating the formula that family-friendly genre pics are still using to this day. 1983’s top grossing films consisted largely of adult-oriented fare — Tootsie, Flashdance, Risky Business, Trading Places, Mr. Mom. Return Of […]

I, Tammy: ‘The Eyes Of Tammy Faye’

There’s at least one every year. The film that makes me act as the Lonely Defender, a film I like — perhaps unreasonably — more than just about everyone else. Sometimes, it’s a messy film; perhaps its reach exceeds its grasp. Often, it has big things to say about America, or Our Times, or even […]

“Draw A Crazy Picture, Write A Nutty Poem” (#96)

If you’re a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a magic bean buyer, or you just hate doing dishes and taking the garbage out, you’ll surely find something to relate to in our latest episode on celebrated author, illustrator, poet, and all-around Renaissance Man Shel Silverstein. Though Where The Sidewalk Ends was first published in 1974, […]

“He Can’t See Without His Glasses” (#95)

My Girl is something of an anomaly as a feature film. It sits right on the border between family film and adult-oriented coming-of-age tale. It’s a PG-rated film that’s entirely about death. It contains the line “flesh all amesh,” which is not the sort of dialogue you hear spoken in The Pagemaster or Gold Diggers: […]

Taken, Seriously: ‘Stillwater’

Is Stillwater an American movie trapped inside a French film, or a French film stuck inside an American movie? Tom McCarthy’s first adult-oriented feature since Spotlight is quite a ride. At times it rushes forward at the speed of a tense international thriller. In other moments, it moves at the lackadaisical pace of a French […]

“Okay To Go” (#94)

In 1997, Contact was something of an anomaly — the “hmm…” to Independence Day‘s “wow!” It was cerebral and character-driven, but released in the midst of summer blockbuster season, just one week after Men In Black had blessed the 4th of July with its second Will Smith-starring extraterrestrial-themed smash hit in a row. Contact cost […]