This week we explore David Lynch’s black-and-white period drama The Elephant Man, starring Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, and Anne Bancroft. Plus: Just how bad was James’s first screenplay? LINKS: <a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxb_1457gGs'>Trailer for The Elephant Man</a> <a href='https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-06-17-8702140689-story.html'>Michael Jackson bids for Merrick's bones</a> <a href='https://acf8919c-fdd4-4293-be76-b308fa1a45b2.filesusr.com/ugd/c1b934_0ad61a86db4f4f5bb577894456e97b6e.pdf'>Three pages from The Mourning Cloak (1999)</a><a rel="payment" href="https://buymeacoffee.com/alternatesides">Support the show</a>

This week we explore David Lynch’s black-and-white period drama The Elephant Man, starring Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, and Anne Bancroft. Plus: Just how bad was James’s first screenplay? LINKS: Trailer for The Elephant Man Michael Jackson bids for Merrick's bones Three pages from The Mourning Cloak (1999) Support the show

This week we explore David Lynch’s black-and-white period drama The Elephant Man, starring Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, and Anne Bancroft. Plus: Just how bad was James’s first screenplay? LINKS: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxb_1457gGs" rel="noopener noreferrer">Trailer for The Elephant Man</a> <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-06-17-8702140689-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer">Michael Jackson bids for Merrick's bones</a> <a href="https://acf8919c-fdd4-4293-be76-b308fa1a45b2.filesusr.com/ugd/c1b934_0ad61a86db4f4f5bb577894456e97b6e.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer">Three pages from&nbsp;The Mourning Cloak&nbsp;(1999)</a><a href="https://buymeacoffee.com/alternatesides" rel="noopener noreferrer">Support the show</a>

1980: The Elephant Man

James and Sam have been friends and collaborators for over 20 years. They’ve worked on films and TV shows and commercials together and have written numerous scripts that lie unproduced in their shared Dropbox folder. But James has a secret: he hasn’t actually seen that many movies. And Sam, who’s a bit of a film snob, has been giving him a hard time about it for years. As James enters undeniable middle age, he has finally promised to catch up on some of the films he’s missed. Every week or so, while Sam has to move his Subaru from one side of a Brooklyn street to the other (to appease the street-cleaning gods), they chat about a classic movie that James has somehow managed to avoid until now. One film from each year of James’s life so far: 1973 to 2026…

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James and Sam have been friends and collaborators for over 20 years. They’ve worked on films and TV shows and commercials together and have written numerous scripts that lie unproduced in their shared Dropbox folder. But James has a secret: he hasn’t actually seen that many movies. And Sam, who’s a bit of a film snob, has been giving him a hard time about it for years. As James enters undeniable middle age, he has finally promised to catch up on some of the films he’s missed. Every week or so, while Sam has to move his Subaru from one side of a Brooklyn street to the other (to appease the street-cleaning gods), they chat about a classic movie that James has somehow managed to avoid until now. One film from each year of James’s life so far: 1973 to 2026…

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1980: The Elephant Man

1980: The Elephant Man