Mark and Aaron podcast live and in person for the first time ever. During Aaron’s vacation up north, he visited “Casa Hurne” up in beautiful Vermont. While we weren’t drinking beer and eating delicious food, we decided to podcast a little about the experience we’ve had with Criterion Close-Up. Aaron also talks about his journey...

Mark and Aaron are joined by Matt Gasteier to explore Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place (1950) and evaluate Humphrey Bogart’s body of work. We go into how Ray’s life informed the cinema, why he wasn’t celebrated during his time and subsequently appreciated later. We also go through Bogart’s entire career, from getting his lucky...

Mark and Aaron are joined by Scott Nye to hash out the intricate themes, history, and nuance of Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day. Given the length and depth of the film, we explored it in detail, distilling the cultural and societal clashes that took place in a pivotal period of Chinese and Taiwanese history....

Mark and Aaron welcome old friend, Doug McCambridge to talk about Robert Altman’s “Don’t call it a” comeback. We touch on the opening tracking shot, what Altman is saying about Hollywood, and yes, we even go into the ending — or both of them. On top of that, we give some tidbits on how to...

Mark and Aaron welcome Ben Model, silent film historian, accompanist, distributor, and enthusiast. He gave a presentation about “undercranking” on Criterion’s release of Chaplin’s The Kid. We discuss the idea of undercranking, scoring silent music, and the state of silent media today theatrically and in the home video market. Episode Links & Notes Special Guest:...

Mark and Aaron take a look at Whit Stillman’s Barcelona (1994), and how it compares with his other work. We focus most on his other two films from the 1990s, Metropolitan (1990) and Last Days of Disco (1998), but we also discuss his most recent effort, Love and Friendship. About the film: Whit Stillman followed...

Mark and Aaron explore the popular genre that is science fiction. At the core of our discussion is a science fiction project that Aaron has been working on, but we also explore the genre on Criterion, and delve further into Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s World on a Wire. Episode Links & Notes 0:00 – Welcome and...

Aaron is joined by Keith Enright for a discussion of politics, new and old, through the lens of The War Room (1993), the behind-the scenes 1992 Clinton campaign documentary. We go into depth about the backroom politics and how those are what defines the campaign, but are usually far from the public eye. We contrast...

Mark, Aaron and Paul Cobb look at John Frankenheimer’s political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate. We explore the originality and how it influenced other paranoia films, how it spoke to the spirit of the 1960s, as a satire towards McCarthyism, and how it has remained relevant throughout the years.

Mark and Aaron fly back to 1939 to discuss Howard Hawks’ classic Only Angels Have Wings. We evaluate the special effects, how the film built suspense, the context of aviation in the late 1930s, and later films that embody a similar masculinity. We also reveal the winner of our Don Hertzfeldt contest and talk about...