Thank God that Peaches Christ and Michael Varrati of the Midnight Mass podcast joined us for our third jump into the works of John Waters.  Otherwise our conversation would lack a noticeable measure of knowledge, context, insight, wit, and depth.  Which is what this film deserves.

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Max Ophüls’ La Ronde (1950).

This week’s guest Robert Saucedo, film-buyer of The Alamo Drafthouse, welcomes us to mid-80s, small-town Texas as commented upon by Talking Heads lyrics and the deadpan, obliquely humorous observations of David Byrne.  John Goodman heads a cast of highly idiosyncratic, so-weird-they’re-normal/so-normal-they’re-weird characters honoring the state’s sesquicentennial by putting on their own “Celebration of Specialness.”

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs (1970).

Oops! We uploaded the wrong audio file this morning! To those of you who thought we recorded “an avant-garde art piece”: we apologize. We’ve since fixed it and this new version should make a little more sense. Anyway…

Guillermo del Toro’s devastating mash-up of children caught in the brutality of a Spanish Civil War-period thriller with the high-concept visuals of a supernatural presence has all of the hallmarks of a… Guillermo del Toro movie.  Well, two of his movies, I guess.  But the point is that few can use fantasy to probe at the still fresh wounds of societal trauma as well as he can.

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing David Byrne’s True Stories (1986).

The devil walks among us!  And his name is… Chris Cooper?  That can’t be right.  Find out the real name of Satan by listening to our thoughts on John Sayles’ period drama about the fight for labor rights between 1920s West Virginian coal miners and the company men sent to put sow discord and drive out union members by any means necessary.

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone (2001).

Beatlemania is both plot device and backdrop in first-time director Robert Zemeckis’ period comedy about a cluster of Jersey teens screaming and shenanigan-ing around New York City in pursuit of the Fab Four on the day of their generation-defining appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.   If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone (2001).

This week we are joined by Cameron Kunzelman of Just King Things, Game Studies Study Buddies, and a host of other podcast projects as part of Ranged Touch in order to break down the layers of perceived reality in David Fincher’s mind-bending Michael Douglas-led thriller.  Or does Cameron only think he’s participating in a harmless movie podcast?  Wait a minute… is The Game even in the Criterion Collection?  Is this microphone even real?  Is there a team of paramedics secretly waiting in the next room if this recording gets too out of hand?

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Richard Zemeckis’ I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978). 

With his ensemble album smash hit Buena Vista Social Club musician Ry Cooder introduced the world to a generation of twentieth-century Cuban musicians made obscure by time, trends, and world politics. Then he worked with past collaborator director Wim Wenders, returning to Havana, to put these talented performers on the big screen. An array of talented characters tell their own stories and showcase their timeless skills.   If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing David Fincher’s The Game (1997).

It’s time for our annual review of the highs and lows of a bunch of movies picked by a random number generator.  And it turns out that this system really paid off this year, bringing us a truly eclectic list of memorable, challenging, and occasionally delightful Criterion films.  But which of these select few will go home with a coveted Randy award?

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be kicking off season 4 with Wim Wenders’ Buena Vista Social Club (1999).

Briana and Maddy of the Chapter One: Take Two podcast join us this week to discuss director René Clair’s screwball jaunt through the centuries as a mischievous and thoroughly evil witch (Veronica Lake) and her father (Cecil Kellaway) plot to torment the modern-day descendent (Frederick March) of the pilgrim who burned them at the stake.  With his political future, public reputation, impending marriage, life, and sanity at risk, can this proto-Bewitched cast a love spell instead?6

Join us next week for the fourth annual Rando Awards ceremony!

This week we are joined by Michael Patrick Jann, director of the upcoming film Organ Trail and member of The State, to watch John Hughes’ all-time classic teen drama The Breakfast Club.  We talk a little about fashion, a little about lunch, and a lot about the ego, Jungian self, and gestalt therapy.  And, it should be said, crass sex jokes.

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing René Clair’s I Married a Witch (1942).