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 who find themselves in terrible situations from which they struggle to escape. It has major players in its cast but still feels like a deeply un-Hollywood movie; it’s the cinematic equivalent of a dull ache, and we mean that as a compliment. Prince of the City, Angels with Dirty Faces, and even the parable of the prodigal son make their way into the discussion. If 7-Up is the un-cola, this film is the un-Departed.

If you’re interested in the issue raised by the film concerning the war on drugs, you may want to read David Farber’s 2021 history of the cause and the costs.

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“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 about why Paul Schrader’s 1982 remake works on paper but not on the screen. So grab your sketchbook, steal that key, and give it a listen!

You can pick up a copy of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde here.

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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 creepiest criminal and a young Peter Sellars as one of his gang. Dan praises the film’s economy and compares it to John Cheever’s “Reunion”; Mike explains how it reminds him of Gilbert & Sullivan. And while they dissect the film and how it manipulates the viewer, they still cannot answer the question, “Are those really Alec Guinness’s teeth?”

If you’d like to read “Reunion,” the terrific story by John Cheever to which they compare The Ladykillers, you’ll find it in this collection—which, incidentally, is a book everyone should have.

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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 compared to the work of C. S. Lewis but one we find is more like that work of Miguel de Cervantes and Hayao Miyazaki.

If you’re interested in learning more about the director of Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and other (literally) fantastic thrillers, check out Guillermo del Toro: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work.

Follow us on X or Letterboxd–and let us know what you’d like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. The opening interview clip of Guillermo del Toro can be found here.

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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 who wants to preserve the same things as Superman did: truth, justice, and the American way. Everyone knows that, like another film would twenty-four years later, Saboteur uses the Statue of Liberty in its climax; what many forget is how many terrific moments lead up to that famous fall. Join us for an appreciation of a Hitchcock film that, like Foreign Correspondent, deserves a wider audience, despite Dan’s not thinking it can earn a Howard Hawks Seal of Approval.

There is no shortage of books about Hitchcock: the most recent is Edward White’s The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock.

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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 Michel Gondry’s mind-bending film that is a completely different experience when you’re 20 versus when you’re 40. Go ahead and give it a listen–then visit Lacuna so you can listen again for the first time.

If the passage from Alexander Pope’s Eloisa to Abelard reminded you of Pope’s talent, you may be interested in this quality collection of his verse. You may also want to check out this collection of essays about the film.

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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 if you had to see yourself as a cold observer does? Defending Your Life, Albert Brooks’s version of A Matter of Life and Death, asks all of these questions and answers about half of them—pretty good for someone only using 3% of his brain. Join us for a conversation about this terrific film that, to its credit, feels like Lost in America II: The Death of David Howard. Face your fears and give it a listen!

We all love Albert Brooks’s movies—but have you read his novel? In 2012, Brooks released 2030, his own version of 1984.

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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 a film so unsettling that even the TV spot (featured at the start of the episode) caused people to run from their living rooms. So put down the dummy and give it a listen!

William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade (1989) and Which Lie Did I Tell? (2001) both offer the renowned screenwriter’s advice about writing films and understanding how they work—or don’t.

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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 agency, exploitation, and climbing the corporate ladder. It’s also a lot like Richard III. This may have been the first of Barbara Stanwyck’s big roles, but it was Alfred E. Green’s fifty-fourth feature, which leads to a digression about people who claim that any director did something first. So grab that suitcase of jewels, hop in the back of the ambulance, and give it a listen!

In 2015, Victoria Wilson published A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel True 1907-1940. We’re still waiting for the next volume, but at 1,056 pages, this one will keep you busy. Also check out Catherine Russell’s 2023 collection, The Cinema of Barbara Stanwyck: Twenty-Six Essays on a Working Star and Dan’s interview with the author on the New Books Network.

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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, and the difference between soldiers and warriors are all offered for the viewer’s consideration. It’s also oddly countercultural and conservative in its point of view. Join Dan and Tim for an appreciation of a wildly entertaining film that launched the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger and features one of the greatest movie soundtracks. We know the poetry of Khitai and the philosophy of Sung—so give it a listen!

Interested in reading the source material? Check out Robert E. Howard’s The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, the first collection of Conan stories Howard wrote in the 1930s for Weird Tales magazine. You may also want to check out Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story to hear Arnold talk of how much he and James Earl Jones enjoyed working with each other.

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