Random Acts of Cinema

Elaine May steps into the grungy streets of 70s crime drama, bringing along John Cassavetes and Peter Falk at their most bitter and unhinged. A hidden gem?

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If you would like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be watching and reviewing Robert Siodmak & Edgar G. Ulmer's People on Sunday (1930).

Can you still call a film a Defending Your Life-situation if it doesn't involve Albert Brooks? This and more is debated on this week's episode covering Hirokazu Kore-Eda's imagined limbo, where slightly-sullen social workers/indie filmmakers help to transition their deceased clients into eternity.

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If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky (1976).

Granted: the headline is the secret-not-secret anti-establishment themes cleverly-not-cleverly baked into a Czech new wave film made with state money while under communist control. But what if it's also just really really funny? Milos Forman's break-out film (that almost got him arrested) follows the events of a ball celebrating the achievements of an elderly chairman of a regional fire brigade. The bumbling firemen's community make every wrong move while trying to put together a dignified evening of pleasant entertainment for the townsfolk, putting the raw humanity and folly of modern life under an unflinching microscope. But again, what if it's just really really funny?

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If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Hirokazu Kore-Eda's After Life (1998).

Paul Newman plays a literary baseball player who is the reluctant friend of a dying catcher. And he doesn't like paying taxes. And it's in a live made for tv movie from the 50s that was collected and presented by a PBS affiliate in the 80s before it was given the Criterion treatment. And it's named after a line in a country song.

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If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Miloš Firemen's The Fireman's Ball (1967).

Pedro Almodóvar returns to the podcast for his final (for now?) directorial entree (that we've reviewed) to the Criterion Collection. Is his foray into psycho-thriller a welcome maneuver away from his female cast-led, queer-gaze, sexy, soapy, campy, farcical roots? Or… did he somehow just manage to do it all at once! How can all of these even work? (That's a trick question. Of course it works. It's Almodóvar)

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If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Daniel Petrie's Bang the Drum Slowly - The Golden Age of TV (1956).

A sumptuous period piece directed by David Lean and featuring noted star of stage and screen Alec Guinness? That must mean... Dickens? This is, apparently, one of the most beloved British films ever made. Well, let us be the judge!

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If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Pedro Almodóvar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990).

Her beauty brought powerful men down to their knees. Her freedom brought down nations. But how long can a woman flaunt the proprieties of Victorian Europe before she herself becomes a morality tale for the age? Max Ophüls' lavish biopic of legendary dancer, mistress, and all-together provocative personality struggles with these very ideals... in gorgeous Cinemascope!

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If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing David Lean's Great Expectations (1946).

Ben Franklin. Rocky. Gritty. Tracy Lord. C.K. Dexter Haven. Macaulay Conner.

Sounds like this story is set in Pittsburgh.

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If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Max Ophüls' Lola Montès (1955).

Two. White. Guys. Break. Down. Spike. Lee's. Do. The. Right. Thing. In. 2026.

Did we just nail it?

No. But we try our best.

Oh, and we forgot to mention that Radio Raheem's LOVE/HATE monologue is an adaptation of Robert Mitchum's serial killer preacher sermon from Night of the Hunter. We're pathetic.

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If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story (1940).

Orson is back! But this time it's with a notorious film in which he struggled with the studio to realize his true vision… you know what? Let's just say it's an Orson Welles' film. A group of filmmakers and film historians gave themselves the task to dissect the various edits and versions of the film to attempt a construction of Welles' original vision. Is it a long lost masterpiece? Or is nothing quite as it seems…?

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If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989).