Pod Casty For Me

OCEAN'S ELEVEN was a monster hit, and so naturally Steven Soderbergh made a sequel. An extremely normal sequel that didn't confuse or piss off almost everyone who saw it. We're getting silly today talking about OCEAN'S TWELVE - a very silly movie - with writer and film critic Rory Doherty! We're both sick right now so that's all the episode description you get, sorry! Good movie, good ep - check it out.

Further Reading:

"Why OCEAN'S 12 Is Actually A Good Movie" by Matt Goldberg

Further Viewing:

TO CATCH A THIEF (Hitchcock, 1955)

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (Nolfi, 2011)

Follow Rory Doherty:

https://x.com/roryhasopinions

https://letterboxd.com/roryjdoherty/

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Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

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This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

In 1998, Steven Soderbergh produced Gary Ross's PLEASANTVILLE, a visually inventive satire of nostalgia and small-town repression - and in 2025, we did a dang Patreon episode on it. We talk passion, desire, old TV, and the ongoing push for safe limits on production working hours following the death of camera operator Brent Hershman.

Watch Haskell Wexler's Who Needs Sleep?

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Steven Soderbergh's second release of 2002, after FULL FRONTAL, was another very odd move: a remake of Andrei Tarkovsky's SOLARIS (well, more of a new adaptation of the Stanislaw Lem novel). Underappreciated at the time, Soderbergh's SOLARIS has grown in reputation as one of the great science fiction films of the 2000s - so we brought on a bonafide science fiction expert, Aaron Thorpe, to talk about it! Join us for a thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation about the purpose of science fiction, comprehending the vastness of space, grief, blackness in sci-fi, and OSMOSIS JONES. Don't worry, it's plenty stupid, too.

Further Reading:

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Sculpting in Time by Andrei Tarkovsky

Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects by Graham Harman

Myths of the Near Future by J.G. Ballard

Further Viewing:

SOLARIS (Tarkovsky, 1972)

CONTACT (Zemeckis, 1997)

EVENT HORIZON (Anderson, 1997)

OSMOSIS JONES (Farrelly, 2001)

STAR TREK: NEMESIS (Baird, 2002)

Follow Aaron Thorpe:

https://x.com/afrocosmist

https://x.com/thetrillbillies

https://substack.com/@spacelight

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Support us on Patreon:

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Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

This week we're taking a look at a bunch of songs about, featuring, or otherwise related to Clint Eastwood...which is a great reason to bring on Jetski, aka Ian Ostaszewski, the composer of the Paid Costly For Me theme music! We chat Gorillaz, Metallica, the Beastie Boys, My Chemical Romance, and more - plus Ian's podcast-related birthday present!

Let us know if you want more of this, because there are a lot of songs about Clint.

Here's the playlist with full songs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPxgPXB-kIxujvyWI6Wkyu0QqmdcZiLdA

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music (duh) and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Follow Jetski:

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https://jetski0.bandcamp.com/

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Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

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Yeah, like we weren't going to go over two and a half hours on FULL FRONTAL. Following the generational run of OUT OF SIGHT, THE LIMEY, ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC, and OCEAN'S ELEVEN, Steven Soderbergh did what anyone would do: he shot a semi-improvised ensemble Hollywood satire on a consumer grade digital camera. The result, FULL FRONTAL, is a fascinating film about connection, mediation, performance, and the film industry, so who better to talk about it with than our Hollywood bigwig buddy, filmmaker and producer Chadd Harbold? This is a really good one, folks - don't sleep on it!

Further Reading:

"Digital Release: Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal" by Lawrence Garcia

"Just Like A Movie: Full Frontal As Postmodern Love Story" by Daniel McKleinfeld

"Soderbergh Lets It All Hang Out: Full Frontal at 20" by Craig J. Clark

Further Viewing:

BAMBOOZLED (Lee, 2000)

STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002)

Follow Chadd Harbold:

https://x.com/chaddwithtwoDs

https://vimeo.com/chaddharbold

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Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

Our dear friend Comrade Yui joins us to discuss Lee Sang-il's 2013 remake of UNFORGIVEN, which stars Ken Watanabe and transposes the action to Meiji Japan. We talk Japanese history, Westerns vs. jidaigeki, Pokémon metaphysics, and pantsing. Great ep, please enjoy.

Follow Comrade Yui:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb3MlmPw9MfDK4chNVQ4gdA

https://x.com/Comrade_Yui

https://www.patreon.com/c/comrade_yui/

Yui's review of UNFORGIVEN (2013):

https://letterboxd.com/comrade_yui/film/unforgiven-2013

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Ante up, listener! It's the OCEAN'S ELEVEN episode. After the unbelievable one-two punch of BROCKOVICH and TRAFFIC, Steven Soderbergh took a victory lap by remaking a dull Rat Pack movie into one of the most entertaining films ever made - and it made a bunch of money and everyone loves it. Including our guest, filmmaker and YouTuber Patrick Willems! We talk heists, movie stars, Vegas, pleasure - this is a real fun one, folks. Enjoy.

Further Reading:

Rebels on the Backlot by Sharon Waxman

The BFI Companion to Crime, ed. Phil Hardy

Further Viewing:

GIDGET (Wendkos, 1959)

OCEAN'S 11 (Milestone, 1960)

THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN (Dearden, 1960)

THE GREAT ESCAPE (Sturges, 1963)

THE DIRTY DOZEN (Aldrich, 1967)

THE HOT ROCK (Yates, 1972)

ROUNDERS (Dahl, 1998)

TERRIERS (Griffin, 2010)

NOW YOU SEE ME (Leterrier, 2013)

Follow Patrick Willems:

https://www.youtube.com/@patrickhwillems

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https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

Jake's 23-year-old coworker Zoomer Josh is back, and this time we made him watch UNFORGIVEN. We talk Westerns, Hackman, the anti-ICE demonstrations in LA, and Josh's journey as a young cinephile. Plus: a dumb game!

Follow Zoomer Josh: https://x.com/josh_axa

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

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Support us on Patreon:

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Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

The second half of Soderbergh's unbelievable year 2000 was TRAFFIC, his sprawling adaptation of the 1989 Channel 4 miniseries about the many sides of the drug trade. At the time, it was hailed as a highly nuanced and humane look at narcotics. But how does it look from 2025? Joining us to discuss is professor and author of our much-cited Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge, Benjamin Y. Fong! We talk macroeconomics, "Mexico filter," drug movies, Benicio Del Toro's accent, and a whole lot more. Really fascinating episode, we hope you enjoy!

Further Reading:

Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge by Benjamin Y. Fong

Rebels on the Backlot by Sharon Waxman

In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio by Philippe Bourgois

Steven Soderbergh: Interviews, ed. Anthony Kaufman

Further Viewing:

"No, Mexico isn't actually that orange. Hollywood is just racist." from Mashable

MIKEY AND NICKY (May, 1976)

TRAFFIK (Reid, 1989)

HIGHWAY PATROLMAN (Cox, 1991)

LEAVING LAS VEGAS (Figgis, 1995)

ENTER THE VOID (Noe, 2009)

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (Jarecki, 2012)

THE SPECTACULAR NOW (Ponsoldt, 2013)

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (Guerra, 2015)

MONOS (Landes, 2019)

BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS (Ross brothers, 2020)

Follow Benjamin Y. Fong:

https://benfong.com/

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

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Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

In the aftermath of DIRTY HARRY, there were plenty of films looking to get in on the semi-legal vigilante craze. One of the most successful of these was Phil Karlson's WALKING TALL, starring the great, recently departed Joe Don Baker as real-life Tennessee lawman Buford Pusser, who was all too willing to tell the world how he beat the corruption out of McNairy County with a fencepost. Except that he was kind of full of hot air, and the whole thing is - at least for Ian - one of the most nakedly fascist films we've ever watched for the show! This episode was a long time coming, so we hope you enjoy.

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Community Justice Exchange's Directory of Immigration System Bail Funds

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

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Support us on Patreon:

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Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

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