'Raising Arizona' was the 2nd film written and directed by The Coen Brothers, and it's one of my most foundational movies; a movie that spoke to who I was at 18, when I first saw it in 1987 and continues to be one of my favorites today.

In this episode I revisit the film, tell some anecdotes about the making-of, and revel in the wonderful, nuanced performances, Carter Burwell's brilliantly distinctive and pitch-perfect score, and more! I must not tarry.

 

Some of My Foundational Movies:

My Blade Runner 2049 Episode

 My Once Upon a Time In Hollywood Episode

My Blade Runner Episode

Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii

All The President's Men

Close Encounters

Being There

Brazil

Chameleon Street

Our episodic roll of the Scorceseverse dice comes up a winner here with a look at 'Casino', Marty's unofficial "sequel" to 'Goodfellas' and a treatise on the inevitable end of mob controlled Vegas casinos.

If you're interested in how we got here, check out my episodes about Goodfellas and 'Mean Streets':

Goodfellas Part 1

Goodfellas Part 2

Goodfellas Part 3

Goodfellas Part 4

Mean Streets

The Full Cast and Crew MartyVerse run continues with the first of Scorcese's unofficial trilogy of gangster films, 'Mean Streets'.

In this episode: Marty's Little Italy, Family, High School, NYU, Los Angeles, and early directorial experiences and how they influence and inspired 'Mean Streets'.

How 'Mean Streets' was very nearly a blaxploitation film funded by Roger Corman. 

John Cassavetes seeing 'Boxcar Bertha', an exploitation film Scorcese directed for Corman, and telling Marty "You just spent a year of your life making a piece of shit. Don't you have something more personal to do?"

Films mentioned by Scorcese as inspirational/informational to 'Mean Streets'

‘Gilda’

‘The Shanghai Gesture'

'Shadows'

'Who's That Knocking At My Door'

'Boxcar Bertha'

'Open City' 

'Paisa'

'Shoeshine'

'Bicycle Thieves'

'Cool Breeze' 

'Buck Privates'

'Scorpio Rising'

'Saturday Night, Sunday Morning'

'The Road to Singapore'

'Marty'

'Fatso'

'Accatone'

'How Green Was My Valley'

'The Informer'

'The Searchers'

'On The Waterfront'

'East of Eden' 

'His Girl Friday' 

'The Big Sky'

'The Thing' 

'Two Rode Together' 

OK, so I wasn't quite done with Goodfellas, try as I did...one more bridge episode here before we get into 'Mean Streets' and 'Raging Bull'...

In this episode, we consider Marty's Oscar frenemyship, DeNiro's screen qualities, his most famous and best onscreen performances, and, finally...FINALLY...all of his scenes from "Goodfellas" considered from a DeNiro/Jimmy Conway perspective.

In part 3 of my three-episode take on Martin Scorcese and Nicholas Pileggi's masterpiece 'Goodfellas', we pick the film up just after the halfway point, which is Tommy's killing of Spider.  Test audiences and studio executives were completely discombobulated by the loss they felt of the breezy, funny, enjoyable glamorization of the gangster life that the first half of the film represents.  And the descent into depraved, violent madness was a truthfulness that not every audience...or cast member... could embrace immediately.

GQ Oral History of Goodfellas.

In Part 2 of my 3-part exploration of the brilliance, humor, and bravura filmmaking of Marty Scorcese's 'Goodfellas', I talk about iconic scenes from the film's first half, including:

The Bamboo Lounge Crew Introduction scene with Pete The Killer, Freddie No-Nose, and Jimmy Two Times.

The Jimmy/Henry "I'm a clown" scene.

The Copa Entrance scene.

The Bruce beat-down scene.

Morrie's Wigs

The Billy Batts Shinebox scene.

Tommy's Mom's House.

The Spider sequences.

This brings us to the halfway point of the film, and the Spider killing represents the turning point, away from the idolization of gangster gods and deathly into the dark heart of the reality of low-level mob-guy life.

In Part 3, we'll cover the rest of the film's scenes, including the stupendous extended cocaine sequences.

 

This is the first of at least 2 episodes about Martin Scorcese's 1990 masterpiece 'Goodfellas'.  Let's be honest: it'll probably take three episodes to cover all the genius onscreen in this epitome of the perfect film.

In this episode, I explore the film's roots in Nick Pileggi's classic non-fiction book 'Wiseguy', and the early involvement of vital creative participants in the film like producer Irwin Winkler, actors Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Paul Sorvino, and Lorraine Bracco, and production team members like Micheal Ballhaus and Thelma Schoonmaker.

In Episode 2, we'll get into the film itself, covering the iconic scenes, the score, the film's reception and legacy, and more.

RIP Teri Garr.

 

Star Trek   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfAP6fJZ1is   After Hours   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPMDA9N1itk   Tootsie   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp3nln2xans   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0pUtIIwGHo   Michael   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y6NM7Ax9hk   Mr. Mom   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvQctA3xsoE     Young Frankenstein   https://youtu.be/H4seOhR5ChI?feature=shared&t=8

I'm traveling for work this week so in lieu of a typical episode I'm taking a wild flyer on something new; maybe it'll work maybe it won't! It's a watch-along episode.  It's like sitting next to me at a screening of 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' and me talking all the through the movie with salient interjections like "Oh I love this part" and "How cool is Brad??".  THIS IS HOW I FIND THE REAL FCAC HEADS!

Should you actually want to watch along with me...there's a countdown a couple minutes into the episode where you can press play on the media of your choice. We should be in sync then.  But no watching is required, you can enjoy this like you would listen to a DVD Commentary as a podcast. What, you don't listen to DVD Commentaries as Podcasts???

Director Mary Herron and her co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner did what 'American Psycho' author Bret Easton Ellis thought was impossible: made a film of his controversial, considered-unfilmable 1991. novel. 

And the lens through which they espied Patrick Bateman proved exactly the right way to gain something meaningful out of what, frankly, is a pretty unreadable and repetitive novel.

The astonishing lead performance from Christian Bale catapulted him to the stardom and rarified air he continues to occupy as an actor today.  And the performance is a wonder to dissect, if you'll pardon the pun.

Featuring a wonderful assortment of supporting actors like Willem Dafoe, Chloe Sevigny, Justin Theroux, Reese Witherspoon, Reg E. Cathey, Josh Lucas, Matt Ross, Jared Leto, Cara Seymour and Samantha Mathis, the film is one of the most essential films about NYC in the 80's.