[ indistinct chatter ]

Gus Van Sant's 2nd feature, starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Le Gros, Heather Graham, William S. Burroughs, James Remar, and Max Perlich.

Continuing the Redford Appreciation Episodes with a revisit of Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford's 1972 deceptively revisionist Western, 'Jeremiah Johnson'.

Shaped by Redford and Pollack from an apparently off-the-wall John Milius screenplay, and only shot on location in the Utah wilderness through Redford's intervention with the studio, 'Jeremiah Johnson' is, I think, secretly one of everybody's favorite comfort watches.

JC Chandor's 2nd feature film after 'Margin Call' was 2013's sailing-catastrophe film 'All Is Lost', and it's a unique film in that it has virtually no dialogue and a single cast member in Robert Redford, who delivers a tour-de-force of non-verbal acting filled with pathos, regret, and rueful recognition of one's own self-delusions.

As we continue to contemplate Redford after his death last week, it feels right and necessary to devote a few episodes to some Redford films that might be slightly off the well-worn pathways of The Sting and Butch & Sundance.

Listen to Alex Ebert's extraordinary score for 'All Is Lost'

I'm joined by Charles Fleming, LA-based writer, author and returning FCAC guest to talk about todays news of the death of Robert Redford. We discuss Redford's extraordinary career and difference-making life, including his environmental activism and the Sundance Film Festival and Institute.

Redford was born in Santa Monica and after a peripatetic youth marked by extreme religious pressure, hooliganism, college expulsion, found himself in New York City planning to be a set designer. He stumbled into acting and paid his dues in the emerging TV world of the 50's before breaking out as a film star in the 1970's. His interesting combination of extraordinary good looks and inner turmoil lent his characters a similarity even as he was never just playing himself. His is one of the more interesting acting careers to contemplate, and Charles I try and do justice to the decency and morality with which Redford seemed to conduct his life and his work.

Recent events have gotten me thinking about Roger Ebert's quote about movies being empathy machines, bringing us closer to people we might think we have nothing in common with.

When I first saw the Berlinger/Sinofsky documentary 'Brother's Keeper' I was overwhelmed with empathy and heartbreak and humor and feeling for these odd-duck brothers and their ramshackle farm existence and the small town in Upstate New York that became roiled by a murder trial when one brother was accused of killing another by smothering.

And so, not having seen the film in many decades, I wanted to revisit it, to see if it retained its power and ability to create empathy.

In this episode I start with a brief prologue talking about first encountering the film. Then I pause and rewatch the film and come back on the mic to share my thoughts on seeing the movie anew.

'Brother's Keeper' is one of the first films I would mention to anyone who wanted to know what movies of any genre I held closest to my life as a moviegoer. If you've seen it, you'll know what I mean. If this podcast episode is the first you're hearing of it, I hope you'll give it a watch, and let me know what you think!

Howard Berger and Marshall Julius have a brilliant new book out called 'Making Monsters: Inside Stories From The Creators of Hollywood's Most Iconic Creatures'. It's an indispensable oral history and visually spectacular compendium of Hollywood history and personal reflections from the industry's pre-eminent special make-up effects artisans, and actors and directors who appreciate the work of these specialized craftspeople.

Howard is a co-founder of legendary Hollywood special make-up effects and creature design company KNB EFX Group, a company with more than 800 film and television credits that's been in the business of making movie magic for almost 40 years.

Marshall Julius is a writer and reviewer who describes himself as a veteran nerd with a boundless enthusiasm for everything you love and a collector of plastic things. Marshall is the author of 'Action! The Action Movie A-Z', 'Vintage Geek', and, with Howard Berger, 'Masters of Makeup Effects'.

Our conversation covered the changes facing the industry, the particulars of putting together such a labor-of-love book (their second collaboration), and, of course, some great inside stories from the making of some of your favorite films.

Here's the book website.

Buy the book.

Follow Marshall Julius on IG

About KNB EFX Group

David Cronenberg's 'Videodrome' remains a shockingly prescient vision of the world we're living in now: technology overlords using computerized developments for their own nefarious means...except in the case of 1983 Toronto, personal enrichment isn't the end game: elimination of the freaks and geeks is.

Featuring a tour-de-force performance from James Woods and an impressive commitment to allowing viewers to experience the unfolding story as it happens to Woods' Max Renn, the film also has a hauntingly simple and utterly perfect score by frequent Cronenberg collaborator Howard Shore.

Videodrome Trailer

I recently learned of the senseless death of a friend from elementary school—someone I hadn't seen in over forty years. His name was Joe Kane. The news reached across all that time and unexpectedly unlocked a reservoir of childhood emotions I didn't even know I was still carrying. Letting those feelings out left me feeling connected to Joe's spirit and to the memory of his kindness, a quality that many have remembered and commented on after hearing this tragic news. And in that connection, I came to a better, if bittersweet, understanding of this period in my own life, of the odd and destabilizing duality of growing up in an alcoholic household and how the magical resilience and essential fragility of childhood continues to co-exist within us, bringing us together and apart and together again, if we're lucky. A lot of this episode draws from comments on a couple threads on my personal Facebook page which I've made public. This episode is an expanded version of an essay I wrote in my newsletter about Joe's death. You can read it here if you'd like. Here's the article that started all this. And here's the link to the GoFundMe for Joe's funeral expenses and to benefit the Beth-El Center

Here's the next episode in a little courtroom-drama jag I've been on; it's about the second of screenwriter Steven Zaillian's three directorial efforts, 'A Civil Action', from Zaillian's adaptation of the best-selling Jonathan Harr nonfiction book of the same name.

Like 'The Rainmaker', 'A Civil Action' provides a large roster of fantastic actors opportunities to deliver amazing portrayals that rely as much on non-verbal communication as they do the words written by Zaillian. IMO this makes Zaillian an impressive director, because what writer would willingly NOT want to hear more of his own words coming from the actors mouths.

The Onion thread on X

Sydney Pollack scene from 'A Civil Action'

Sydney Pollack in Woody Allen's 'Husbands and Wives'

Sydney Pollack in 'Eyes Wide Shut'

Sydney Pollack in 'Tootsie'

Sydney Pollack on Stanley Kubrick

Dead & Company's 60th Anniversary three-show stand is an opportunity to talk about about the living history that the band's music represents, the ongoing and still-vital multi-generational pull of the concerts, which drew about 175,000 people, and the fascinating real-time challenge represented by sitting in with the band. Using Sturgill Simpson and Trey Anastasio as examples of how players find a space for their instrument to occupy in the band's sonic tapestry, I dive into the sink-or-swim weirdness of entering this telepathic onstage space and speculate on what could be next for the band and the songs.

You can watch the first songs of all the nights here on YouTube.

Subscribe to my [indistinct chatter] newsletter, where I jot down musings, recommendations, and random thoughts.

Check out nugs.net for the streaming 4K videos of the Dead & Co Golden Gate and other shows.

Vertex Effects 'The Guitarist Behind' Series is fantastic. This is the Wendy Melvoin one referenced in the episode. Other favorite are the Michael Thompson, Darryl Stuermer, Tim May, Ray Parker, Jr, Dean Parks, and Eddie Martinez.