Have You Ever Seen

Bob Clark made his name directing popular comedies in the '80s like Porky's and A Christmas Story, but his 1974 horror flick about a home-invading murderer has become a classic too. And that's good because Scary Movie Month 2024 is here! The ending of Black Christmas is one of the best in the history of horror...even if it also has MANY flaws. Ryan's one-man show gets into that, but also talks about how this film just might be better than ever. Clark's direction and his use of the camera are dynamite. Leading ladies and sorority sisters Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder are lovely, but this is not a nudity-drenched slash-'em-up. And in the annals of the "final girl", Hussey in Black Christmas is one of the greatest. So hang up the phone, be pro-choice and avoid the unseen killer in your attic as you take in Have You Ever Seen episode #614.

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We're hours away from Scary Movie Month and---while Nightcrawler doesn't exactly qualify as frightening---it IS intense. Jake Gyllenhaal is certainly at his Taxi Driver weirdest. He's also just about at his best in Dan Gilroy's investigation of capitalism-at-any-cost. Rough stuff, but it's also quite funny. Gyllenhaal plays an amoral "stringer" (a freelance videographer) who knows that ratings equals money and "if it bleeds, it leads". He'll do absolutely anything to get the shot...and then we discover the gory results. Rene Russo, Bill Paxton and Riz Ahmed are effective too, but this film belongs to the worm in the lead role. So doll up to look your best before you go on the air to glorify crime scenes and put a scare in your viewers as the 613rd episode of Have You Ever Seen gets deep into the scummy world of Nightcrawler.

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Let us know what you think of this thriller with an email ([email protected]) or a tweet on Twi-X (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis...same @ for Bev on Threads). We also put our shows on YouTube later on the day they go up on your podcast app. Rate and review our shows on your app, but also comment and like our show, but also subscribe to the YouTube channel (@hyesellis in your browser).

Scarlett Johansson playing a cold, indifferent alien probably wasn't something her fans expected from her. She was an A-lister who was a key figure in all those Marvel movies, but here she was in Under The Skin, the only actor of note in a detached art film. The movie star even gets nude a lot in her role as a succubus who learns how to feel empathy. Jonathan Glazer's strangest film to date is Kubrickian (and Lynchian) in its style and also its themes of gender roles, sexual assault...and even meat-eating. So Under The Skin isn't perfect, but there are shots that really stay with you. Plus, it's interesting...and we mean that in a good way. This 612th podcast on the Have You Ever Seen channel tries to figure out what's going on in Glazer's 3rd motion picture (perhaps unsuccessfully), so tell us if you think we're onto something...or if ou think we're way off.

Well, Actually: Gemma Arterton's first name is in fact pronounced with a hard "J" sound, not a soft "G" sound.

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Share your own theories about this unique film. Email us ([email protected]), hit us with some tweets on Twi-X (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis...same @ for Bev on Threads) and give us a rating on your podcast app. Review our show too. Oh, and go to @hyesellis in your browser to find our show on YouTube. You can comment all you like, plus you can hit us with a thumbs up. And don't forget to subscribe there and on your app.

In The Thin Man, William Powell and Myrna Loy are 2 married, childless adults living in the big city...and they like to drink. It's the Ellis Story! Well, no, but the 611th episode of Have You Ever Seen features those 2 comedic tipplers Nick & Nora trying to solve a murder (which is really more his job than it is "theirs"). But is this acclaimed yucks-fest actually funny enough to be so revered for its comedy scenes? Perhaps not. This film is really more effective as a whodunnit than as a laugher anyway. One thing that can't be questioned though is that Powell & Loy were a marvelous team in all the Thin Man movies, starting with this saucy original that was released in the early days of the production code. It's a Fridays, so this is a one-Ryan show. Light up the monologue!

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Contact us with your own thoughts about Thinnus Mannus. Our email address is "[email protected]". Our Twi-X handles are @moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis (which Bev also uses on Threads). Plus, our podcasts always go up on YouTube at some point that same day. The location in your browser is "@hyesellis" or look for "Have You Ever Seen" in the search bar. Comment on the 'Tube, like the show and subscribe to us. Also, rate and review us on your podcast app.

Roland Joffe is not a director who's been beloved by critics over the years, but most seem to agree that his magnum opus is the Oscar-winning The Killing Fields. Sam Waterston plays an American journalist in war-torn Cambodia in the aftermath of the Vietnam war, when Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge went on a run of violence---especially against their fellow Cambodians---that was chilling. Haing S. Ngor won the Supporting Actor Oscar as Waterston's interpreter and compatriot who goes through horrors...and manages to make it out alive in this real-life tale of fear, friendship and politics. The Killing Fields is a terrific achievement. It just has to deal with the fact that other films have done similar things in the 40 years since this came out. But don't leave a man behind in Southeast Asia in the 1970s. Just dial up our 610th episode, which happens to be a Ryan solo show.

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We post all our shows on YouTube (@hyesellis in your browser). Comment there, like the show, subscribe. Also, rate and review our work in your podcast app. And how about sending us an email ([email protected]) or a message on Twi-X (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis). Bev is @bevellisellis on Threads too.

Some film shoots (like the one for Apocalypse Now) seem to last 12 years, but here's a movie with a production schedule that was DELIBERATELY that long. Although gimmick aside, Boyhood is Richard Linklater's lauded attempt to show the slow growth of a fractured family, with the focus on Ellar Coltrane going from 6 to 18. Linklater's daughter Lorelei plays Coltrane's older sister and their divorced parents are Ethan Hawke & Patricia Arquette. The adults are terrific---Arquette won an Oscar for her work as the put-upon mom who keeps finding romance with bad men---but the kids just aren't the actors that she and Hawke are. In any case, it's fascinating to see this arc in a family's life and the (mostly white) people they meet along the way. Our impressions of the exploits of the Evans clan down in Texas is the 609th chat on the Have You Ever Seen podcast channel, so snap some pictures and see what we thought of Boyhood.

Well, Actually: Jean-Pierre Leaud repeatedly played "Antoine Doinel" in Francois Truffaut movies. Also, Mason Senior becomes an "insurance actuary", not an "insurance actuarial".

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You can email us at "[email protected]". Send us some of your movie thoughts on Twi-X (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) or to Bev on Threads (also @bevellisellis). Check out our show on YouTube. The address in your browser is @hyesellis (or click "Have You Ever Seen" into the YouTube search bar) and don't forget to subscribe to us. Like the show, leave a comment. And also rate and review our 'cast in your app.

Ryan's first Friday show in 3 months tries to be extraordinary and also to seize a day or two in this monologue about Dead Poets Society. Robin Williams' performance as an inspirational poetry teacher at a posh prep school was up for an Oscar, but some critics thought his impressions of famous people was out of place. He IS funny, but his serious scenes are far more effective ("thank you, boys, thank you"). Robert Sean Leonard, a very-young Ethan Hawke and others are taught to think for themselves and to yawp barbarically in Dead Poets Society. They also learn about friendship, love and loyalty. Those topics and so many more come up in this 608th edition of Have You Ever Seen. So lock in for a ramble about an emotional melodrama where the boys learn a lot more about Walt Whitman than anyone thought possible.

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Also, say hi to us. We have accounts on Twi-X. Ryan is @moviefiend51 and Bev is @bevellisellis, plus she uses that I.D. on Threads. Our email address is "[email protected]". We also fire up our shows on YouTube. The address in your browser should be "@hyesellis"...or type "Have You Ever Seen" into YouTube's search bar. Comment about, subscribe to and like the show, then rate and review us on your podcast app.

We continue our summertime trend of posting listicles on holidays as we exchange 10 (or perhaps a few more) theatrical experiences that stuck with us. Many of these are about laughing at funny movies with enthusiastic audiences, but sometimes the experience was seat-grippingly scary...or it might have even been an angry time at the flicks. Documentary festivals and just being in legendary theatres were themes too. So labour through our mere 30-minute chat about (mostly) excellent times we've had watching stuff in rooms with other people in this 607th edition of Have You Ever Seen.

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Give us a buzz on Twi-X (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) or find Bev on Threads with that same moniker. Email us ([email protected]). And look for us you YouTube (@hyesellis in your browser). Subscribe to us there, but also like and comment. Then why not rate and review our podcast on your favourite app.

2023 was the year of Barbenheimer, but it was the movie about serious science that went on to win 7 Academy Awards this past spring. Oppenheimer was also an absolute blockbuster, which is par for Christopher Nolan's course. He always just goes around making monster hits that also get critical acclaim. Although while the spectacle in this film wowed millions of people last summer, one of us hated it from the start and the other has mixed feelings about it...and about Nolan's filmmaking style in general. We talked about the issues of communism and treason, not to mention the morality of dropping nuclear bombs on people. Cillian Murphy won an Oscar for playing a man smart enough to create this weapon, but then has guilt about it. Our 606th episode also spends plenty of time yapping about the work of Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Oscar-winner Robert Downey Jr, and many of the others in this enormous cast. So don't throw a genius under several busses for your own petty reasons as Have You Ever Seen gets into the real-life world of Doc Opp and his band of brilliant brothers.

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Say hi to us with a message via email ([email protected]) or a Twi-X type thing (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis). Bev also uses that @ on Threads. And since we post all our shows on YouTube (@hyesellis in your browser), you can comment, like and subscribe there. And do some rating and reviewing in your podcast app.

Franka Potente never became a bonafide movie star after Run Lola Run, but her intensely iconic work in this breakout movie remains awesome 25 years later. Tom Tykwer has had a solid career of his own since writing and directing this video-game-esque flick with the butterfly-effect gimmick. He and future collaborators the Wachowskis were making some of the coolest movies around back then, taking advantage of new technologies, narrative devices and editing techniques. In truth, while Tykwer clearly loves Potente, he doesn't do so right by Moritz Bleibtreu's Manni (and the first part of the man's last name rhymes with "tribe" by the way, not "leeb"). Bleibtreu is a whiny screw-up who needs his dedicated girlfriend to save his life by racing around Germany for 20 minutes to come up with a small fortune. Lather, rinse, repeat. So go ahead and scream so shrilly that you'll break glass as we yap about Run Lola Run in the 605th edition of Have You Ever Seen.

Order a whole bunch of stuff from Sparkplug Coffee. They offer our listeners a onetime 20% discount just by using our "HYES" promo code. Go to "sparkplug.coffee/hyes".

Contact us in a variety of ways. We're Twi-X people, sort of (@moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis) and Bev uses that same @ on Threads. Our email address is "[email protected]". And look for our podcast on YouTube (@hyesellis in your browser). You can subscribe there, but also comment and give us a thumbs up. And don't forget to review us and certainly rate us on your podcast app.