Beste Film Fanatics Podcasts (2024)

1
A Serious Man 39:06

14d ago39:06

39:06

A Serious Man (2009) may seem much different from the Coens’ adaptation of No Country for Old Men, which they released two years earlier. But they both concern a likable man who finds himself posing questions that the universe–or any of its weisest men–cannot answer. And even if there are glimpses of answers to the question “What does Hashem, or Go…

1
True Believer 27:46

20d ago27:46

27:46

Actors win awards and gain our admiration when they convince us that they have “become” someone else–it’s what we mean when we say that so-and-so “inhabits” a role. But that’s not the only benchmark: a good actor is also someone whose statements are interesting to hear and whose voice engages the listener, whether or not we “believe” that he’s real…

1
Blow Out 26:36

27d ago26:36

26:36

Political noise is as American as baseball and apple pie and in this election season it’s impossible to tune it out completely: it’s on our televisions, radios, phones, and computers. Brian DePalma’s Blow Out (1981) follows a man who is able to hear something underneath all the noise: a perfect character to think about this election season. The rea…

1
The Fly 25:13

1M ago25:13

25:13

There’s a moment in The Fly (1986) in which Seth Brundle–well into his transformation into Brundlefly–explains that he must vomit on a donut before eating it. The camera cuts away to show Geena Davis’s reaction, which is the same reaction David Cronenberg evokes in his viewers throughout the film. Grotesque yet surprisingly moving, The Fly is more …

1
Manchester by the Sea 33:23

1M ago33:23

33:23

You can’t judge a book by its cover or a movie by its poster. When Mike suggested Manchester by the Sea (2016) for the pod, Dan hooted and derided his co-host as a lover of Hallmark Holiday Classics. But after he watched Kenneth Lonergan’s brutal and sobering examination of unquenchable grief, he admitted his mistake. Join us for a conversation abo…

1
Out of Sight 23:56

2M ago23:56

23:56

The second-best movie based on an Elmore Leonard novel, Out of Sight (1998) does what Netflix and other platforms try to do all the time: throw a bunch of stars together in an effort to increase the quality of the “content.” But those half-assed efforts never come close to Out of Sight, which has a roster of A-list actors, a terrific screenplay bas…

1
Kramer vs. Kramer 25:42

2M ago25:42

25:42

Robert Benton’s 1979 interior drama turned out to be one of the biggest films of the 70s. While we might appreciate Dustn Hoffman now more often than we watch his movies, this marked another example of him owning the decade. It’s his movie, despite the attempt to give balance to the two Kramers fighting for the legal and moral right to raise their …

1
As Good as It Gets 29:24

2M ago29:24

29:24

For years, Dan avoided this movie, fearing it was like a Hallmark Holiday Classic or Very Special Episode of Mad About You. But after our episode on Broadcast News, Mike insisted Dan give it a watch. Join us as we talk about the ways in which the film surfs just above the sharks of sentimentality that threaten it at every plot point and offers a gr…

1
Strangers on a Train 24:16

2M ago24:16

24:16

Strangers on a Train (1951) may not be an “obvious Hitchcock” like Vertigo, Rear Window, or North by Northwest, but it’s fascinating, rewatchable, and has everything we love in the Hitchcock canon. When Guy Haines (Farley Granger) meets Bruno Antony (Robert Walker), he learns that he might not know himself as well as he thought he did. The whole fi…

1
Croupier 23:48

3M ago23:48

23:48

Has your day today been worth narating? If it were retold in the pages of a novel, would anyone read it? Are you worthy of narration? Most of us would say that we weren’t, but that’s not the case for Jack Manfred, the title character of Croupier, Mike Hodges’ 1998 film about authorship and narcissism. Jack thinks that one must be a gambler or a cro…

1
L. A. Confidential 30:26

3M ago30:26

30:26

If L. A. Confidential (1997) were two degrees campier, it would seem like Dick Tracy–but Curtis Hanson made sure to capture the spirit of James Ellroy’s novel while making its labyrinth plot understandable to viewers. Join us for a conversation about how the film examines the need for heroes yet seems to only offer them in a way to which the movies…

1
For a Few Dollars More 30:03

3M ago30:03

30:03

A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) are collectively known as “The Man with No Name” trilogy and are often thought of as one long movie about the hero’s adventures, much like we think of the original three installments of Indiana Jones. Quentin Tarantino has called the third film th…

1
To Have and Have Not 20:43

3M ago20:43

20:43

Howard Hawks’s To Have and Have Not (1944) is more Hollywood than Hemingway–something for which we should all be grateful. The film is a wonderful example–perhaps the best–of onscreen chemistry and remains wildly entertaining even aside from the onscreen courtship of Bogart and Bacall. Join us as we talk about banter as a tool of seduction, the way…

1
Thief 24:57

3M ago24:57

24:57

Everyone loves a good heist movie that depends on the combination of cold, logical planning and some element going sideways–and Thief is one of the best. Its 1981 release date is seen in every frame and the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream makes for great nostalgic viewing. But the film has real power as a character study of a highly skilled man tryin…

1
Training Day 29:09

4M ago29:09

29:09

Do you need to be a wolf to protect the sheep? That’s the question at the heart of Training Day (2001), in which Ethan Hawke plays the lead and Denzel Washington plays himself–at least for the first hour. What happens in the film once the sun goes down gets Mike and Dan arguing as they haven’t in a while: does the movie become yet another one where…

1
Oppenheimer 31:35

4M ago31:35

31:35

Any director other than Christopher Nolan would have done one of two things with this material: made an Oceans Eleven at Los Alamos or a cradle-to-grave biopic. That Nolan resisted these temptations to instead use the life of his subject to explore issues of historical legacy and what happens to those who steal fire from the gods makes Oppenheimer …

1
Collateral 31:13

4M ago31:13

31:13

Collateral was made in 2004, ten years after Speed—and while both films have the same story of a good guy trying to stop a killer in real time, Collateral feels decades away from the innocence of Speed. Much of that has to do with the villain, who espouses a set of assumptions about the world that we se all around us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Shark…

1
The Graduate 29:20

4M ago29:20

29:20

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our descent into Los Angeles.” So begins The Graduate (1967), which everyone loves but which many of us loved for one reason when we were younger and one when we became a little more seasoned. “Plastics” is a great joke when you’re 20; how does it sound decades later? The movie hasn’t changed, but we hav…

1
Auto Focus 28:45

5M ago28:45

28:45

A great movie that is very difficult movie to recommend because of its subject matter, Paul Schrader’s Auto Focus (2002), the story of TV-star Bob Crane, is another of Schrader’s portraits of a man whose self-destruction we watch with admiration for the writing and unease at what we’re seeing. It’s a combination of The Lost Weekend, Reefer Madness,…

1
Manhunter 27:28

5M ago27:28

27:28

Anthony Hopkins has defined the popular conception of Hannibal Lector and, by extension, the erudite serial killer. But before The Silence of the Lambs there was Manhunter (1986), Michael Mann’s thriller featuring the first appearance of Dr. Lecter (or Dr. Lecktor, as his name is spelled in the film). Mike loves it for its shots of men brooding ove…

1
Forbidden Planet 26:34

5M ago26:34

26:34

A dramatized thought experiment like best episodes of Star Trek, Forbidden Planet (1956) is a wonderful reminder of how people in the past envisioned the future. Part prophecy—looking forward—and part analysis of the timeless human condition, the film wraps heavy ideas about the cost of knowledge and the ways we interact with our own creations into…

1
After Hours 22:26

5M ago22:26

22:26

“Kafkaesque” is the word usually used to describe After Hours, Martin Scorsese’s 1985 comedy—a fair point, since there’s a scene in the film that dramatizes Kafka’s “Before the Law.” But the writer whose imagination this film really taps is Lewis Carroll: as in Alice in Wonderland, a naïve but likable young person chases a white rabbit to a differe…

1
Bringing Out the Dead 23:49

6M ago23:49

23:49

What is the proper—or most effective—response to a barrage of horror and pain? The closest that screenwriter Paul Schrader ever came to a comedy (albeit a very dark one), Bringing Out the Dead (1999) is low on special effects depicting medical emergencies but high on drama. Join us for a conversation about one of Scorsese’s sleepers, a movie about …

1
Broadcast News 26:46

6M ago26:46

26:46

An Academy darling that has faded into the background, Broadcast News (1987) still holds up as Network’s little brother. They don’t make ’em like this anymore: light comedy about adults with adult problems. Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about how the film offers something more novel than a love triangle: a talent triangle. They also talk abo…

1
American Movie 25:29

6M ago25:29

25:29

If you’ve seen Hearts of Darkness, you can better appreciate what Coppola endured while making Apocalypse Now; if you’ve seen River of Dreams, you can watch in wonder as Herzog talks about the shooting Fitzcaraldo and really moving that boat through the jungle. American Movie (1999) aims to do the same thing for Mark Borchardt’s low-budget independ…

1
Goodnight Mommy 26:59

6M ago26:59

26:59

Goodnight Mommy (2014) is a perfect “office movie”: one difficult to recommend to others and better when watched alone. It’s strong stuff. Young boys can be violent and ingenious, which is why the film feels like a cross between What to Expect When You’re Expecting and Lord of the Flies. Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about how the film liter…

1
Modern Romance 23:53

6M ago23:53

23:53

When looking for love, we don’t attract what we want--we attract what we are. That’s one of the many ideas dramatized in Modern Romance (1991), our third Albert Brooks film and another fanatic favorite. The story of a film editor who can’t fix the rough cut of his own life, Modern Romance uses “the Albert Brooks character” to look at how we all put…

1
First Reformed 33:58

7M ago33:58

33:58

In a recent interview, Paul Schrader said he was lucky with Taxi Driver because he “caught the zeitgeist.” He may have done so again with First Reformed (2017), a film that reflects the age of extremism in which we now live. Join us for a long conversation about a person who might be called the “green Travis Bickle” and who trades in one religion f…

1
Hobson’s Choice 31:44

7M ago31:44

31:44

Hobson’s Choice (1954) is the perfect example of a very specific genre: the capitalist romance. Filled with a Dickensian love of humanity and featuring one of Charles Laughton’s best performances, it’s a perfect film about a deeply complicated topic: what makes the world go round and how individual family units come together, function, and roll on.…

1
We Own the Night 21:42

7M ago21:42

21:42

Is there anything so refreshing for a film fanatic as a film about grownups? The mid-budget We Own the Night (2007) is a tonic in a world of films costing five times the money but offering only one fifth the talent. Join Mike and Dan for an appreciation of a film without seven reversals at its ending or a series of explosions, but one about adults …

1
Cat People 24:56

7M ago24:56

24:56

“I envy normal women—they’re free,” laments Irina Dubrovna Reed, in Jacques Tourner’s 1942 film, one as noir as Out of the Past which he would direct five years later. Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about a film that explores the same subject as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and has received, justly or not, “The Criterion Treatment.” They also talk…

1
The Ladykillers 17:48

8M ago17:48

17:48

Everyone loves gut-busting belly-laughs in a film. But sometimes, big laughs slow things down. There’s something to be said for films that amuse us for their duration. Join us for a conversation about a film that makes us smile from its first moment to its last: The Ladykillers, Alexander Mackendrick’s 1955 dark comedy starring Alec Guinness as the…

1
Pan’s Labyrinth 21:50

8M ago21:50

21:50

In 1965, Bob Dylan teased the squares by stating, “Something is happening but you don’t know what it is.” The same could be said for childhood and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) is a film that takes childhood seriously—as opposed to the way it is usually portrayed in big-budget, effects-laden films. Join us for a conversation about a film sometimes compare…

1
Saboteur 17:53

8M ago17:53

17:53

Saboteur, released in 1942, feels like it was conceived, written, filmed, and edited in the three days between Pearl Harbor and Germany’s declaring war on the United States. The villains are vaguely “totalitarian” and their goals seem to be mere anarchy rather than the political ends of any specific nation, but they spark the derring-do of a hero w…

1
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 29:25

8M ago29:25

29:25

If we could undergo a procedure that would erase the painful memories from our lives, would we do it? That seems to be the question of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) until we realize that we’re asking the wrong question. The real question this film asks is why wouldn’t such a procedure ever work? Join us for a conversation about Miche…

1
Defending Your Life 23:35

9M ago23:35

23:35

We are supposed to get smarter as we get older. Do we? If the meaning of your life had to be found in nine representative days, which days would you choose? Are they the same days that your critics would select? Would you live your life differently if you had to watch yourself years later a big screen? Would you think you were as cool as you do now…

1
Magic 26:26

9M ago26:26

26:26

Magic is misdirection, and Richard Attenborough and William Goldman do a terrific job of misdirecting the audience in this 1978 thriller. Like The King of Comedy and Limelight, the film looks at the desperation of people who want to be recognized; unlike those films, there’s nothing funny about the hero’s struggle. Join us for a conversation about …

1
Baby Face 17:24

9M ago17:24

17:24

Baby Face is the 1933 film that created the archetypal Barbara Stanwyck character and famously laid everything bare before the production code tried to clean up Hollywood. It’s direct and “against interpretation”—but that’s what makes it so compelling. Join Tim and Dan for a conversation about how the film speaks to our current moment regarding age…

1
Conan the Barbarian 29:42

9M ago29:42

29:42

It’s easy for some people to laugh at Conan the Barbarian, John Milius’s 1982 film about Robert E. Howard’s most famous creation: it seems like the cinematic equivalent of middle-schoolers playing Dungeons and Dragons. But this is an honest (as in “unpretentious”) film with ideas: the pagan existentialism of Thulsa Doom, the theology of Subatai, an…

1
Tucker: The Man and His Dream 24:01

10M ago24:01

24:01

A genuine crowd-pleaser that couldn’t please enough crowds in 1988, Tucker: The Man and His Dream has finally found an audience. Tim defends 80s Coppola and calls out critics who dismissed his post-Godfather II output; Dan talks about the film’s enthusiasm for its subject and how that enthusiasm helps the viewer feel like those who find themselves …

1
The Hunting Trilogy 21:47

10M ago21:47

21:47

We all know the rules of the Looney Tunes universe: rabbits can outrun bullets, shots to the face don’t kill, and the laws of gravity don’t always apply. But that universe is still very much like our own, in which we all strive to be like Bugs Bunny, but are really like Daffy Duck. If there’s an aesthetic of frustration, Chuck Jones is its Shakespe…

1
Limelight 29:52

10M ago29:52

29:52

Being lighthearted and amusing can be a painful business. That’s one of the themes of Limelight, Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 portrait of the artist as an older man. It’s like a combination of The Red Shoes and Death of a Salesman, with elements of The Entertainer and The King of Comedy. Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about the ways in which art an…

1
Anatomy of a Fall 33:22

10M ago33:22

33:22

We all know the rules of courtroom dramas. We welcome the confusion we feel during the case and the sense of release upon hearing the jury’s decision: this is true in Witness for the Prosecution, Anatomy of a Murder, and, of course, The Verdict. But what if the feeling of disorientation that we enjoy in the middle of these films was heightened and …

1
My Best Fiend 27:02

10M ago27:02

27:02

Werner Herzog is a filmmaker with an intuitive sense for showing the right thing at the right time, whether he is offering the story of a maniacal conquistador, Count Dracula, or himself eating his own shoe. Klaus Kinski was, according to many, more monster than man and an actor who resembled the megalomaniacs he portrayed. Together, Herzog and Kin…

1
Eyes Wide Shut 38:25

11M ago38:25

38:25

In a past episode in which they discussed the films of Tom Cruise, Mike told Dan, “You’re the smartest person I know who ever made it all the way through Eyes Wide Shut.” After reading a forthcoming biography of Stanley Kubrick, Dan returned to the film and urged it on Mike, who rewatched it, but who still finds it a total failure. Dan thinks it’s …

1
The Omen 28:37

11M ago28:37

28:37

Can a film do everything wrong yet still find its defenders, who not only acknowledge each of the film’s faults but find these faults endearing? Such is the case with Mike and The Omen, the 1976 Richard Donner blockbuster that—like Satan himself—has spawned sequels, remakes, and imitations. Dan tries to point out all the things that are bad about T…

1
Meet John Doe 31:48

11M ago31:48

31:48

Have you seen that other Capra film in which the protagonist in a moment of crisis, attempts suicide on Christmas Eve? Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about Meet John Doe (1941), a film Frank Capra made five years before It’s a Wonderful Life and which shares that film’s celebration of the common man—the John Doe—living and working and dying a…

1
The Sting 21:26

11M ago21:26

21:26

There’s nothing like being conned at the movies. Join Mike and Dan as they talk about George Roy Hill’s beautifully-constructed toy, The Sting. Dan explains how the long con in the film is like a theatrical production and how con games and films are similar forms of art. Mike revs up with a rant about why Pauline Kael is overrated, continues with o…

1
Donnie Darko 31:45

12M ago31:45

31:45

If we had seen Donnie Darko in high school, we would been drawn to the Easter eggs throughout the film and made videos in which we pointed them out with big red arrows. But there’s more to this tale of time travel than a dorm-room discussion of free will vs. determinism: we now appreciate the ways in which Richard Kelly dramatizes teenage dread and…

1
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 34:58

12M ago34:58

34:58

How should one deal with evil? What are people capable of doing when they are given unconstrained liberty? Why does democracy work when people run things physically away from the very people it wants to assist? These are a few of the questions that arise as one watches John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Progress and civilization a…

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Film Fanatics Podcasts

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