Jason and the Movienauts

Paul and Shawn are back, so it has to be time for another discussion of the films of John Carpenter. This time, the pair take on a real Carpenter classic along with the only sequel Carpenter ever directed: Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. As he loves to do, perverse Paul defends L.A. as, well, not terrible - especially in the new 4k remaster. Shawn kinda disagrees, which makes for some really fun discussion.

Michelle is back for another episode discussing the filmic career of the great Bily Wilder. This time the pair discuss perhaps Wilder's final great film, the complicated and butchered (but still fascinating The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. They also take up one of Wilder's intriguing final movies, the very strange and oddly sweet Avanti!

Avanti! (exclamation mark and all) is a film that comes remarkably close to being a great Wilder film. It has all the makings, but Jason and Michelle get into a long and intriguing discussion of why it's too full of old man energy to make the film worthwhile.

Paul Moyer joins Jason Sacks for the first of a series of discussions of 1970s dystopian cinema. This time: George Lucas's THX-1138 and Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running. Join Jason and Paul for a thoughftul and (we think) fascinating discussion of alienation, ecological collapse, the trauma of the 1960s, and the impact of loneliness in these two fascinating films. It's an hour of so of great listening.

Eric Hoffman joins Jason to talk about one of Alfred Hitchcock's classic films, the 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. You may be familiar with the 1950s version of this film starring Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day, but the earlier movie is actually better than th remake, with more complex characters, more clever scenes and a more satisfying climax. Eric and Jason explore what makes the earlier film better as well as how it fits into Hitchcock's long career. It's a fast paced hour long conversation we think you will enjoy.

Shawn and Paul are back to continue our look at the amazing films of John Carpenter. This time, the trio take a look at the two TV movies Carpenter directed in 1978-79, Someone's Watching Me! and Elvis!. Both movies are early work by a director learning on the job, and both are surprisingly pretty great on their own terms. Whether you know these films or not, we think you'll enjoy this listen.

In honor of Jason's upcoming trip to Japan, Eric is back to talk about two classic Japanese crime dramas - one of which is frequently listed as one of the greatest films ever to come out of that country.

A Fugitive from the Past is a deeply immersive and deeply impressive cop drama from director Tomu Uchida, while Vengeance is Mine is a deeply upsetting journey inside the mind and life of a serial killer/rapist/general terrible person, from director Shohei Imamura.

Uchida and Imamura both show sympathy for their reprehensible lead characters, but do both of them make the audience feel that same sympathy? Eric and Jason debate, compare and contrast to come to some interesting insights.

Michelle is back to continue our look at the films of Billy Wilder. This time we look at the the three films he made which start Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon: The Fortune Cookie, The Front Page and Buddy Buddy. Are these three late career Wilder films lost classics or signs the old man didn't have his old fastball? Hmm, well, let's just say these are not the best films in Wilder's catalog...

Eric is back again, and as usual, he and Jason are talking about Japanese films. In fact, they're continuing their series on the work of Shohei Imamura with two fascinating, odd, contrasting films: The Eel and The Pornographers.

The former is an intriguing tale of redemption, guilt and the obscure love of a fish. The latter is, well, about the obscure love of a fish, as well as bizarre families, an intiguing filmic style, and some very unsexy pornography.

These are fascinating works of film art. Even if you're not familiar with them, we think this will be a good listen.

Paul and Shawn are back! And now it's time to dig into the real beginnings of John Carpenter's rise to filmic greatness. Yes, it's time to talk about Halloween and The Fog. Both are great, but what did people think of Halloween at the time it came out, and does the film still stand up today?

And is The Fog a brilliant ghost story or a slightly dull muddle? Hmm, could that be a preview of the interesting discussion in this episode? Spoilers say, yes, we have a great disagreement.

What do you think? Be sure to send us your opinions...

Paul and Shawn are back, and this time the guys are taking on a new project. It's time to dig into the movies of the great John Carpenter. We're not going to go completely chronological through his filmography (this later movies are famously bad) but we wanted to get his two earliest movies out of the way.

Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13 are early works, but both have a lot to make them highly enjoyable. The slacker energy of Dark Star is especially fun for everybody this week.

Join us for the kickoff of what should be a fun series!