The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) is joined by writer/producer Eileen Shim to gush over Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's legendary high fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings. A long discussion ensues about all three films – The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King – and what the trilogy means to the team. The conversation is so big it even spills over into usually off-topic segments! Craig is in awe of the Helm’s Deep sequence and Jackson’s grit. Daniel views the Appendices behind-the-scenes documentaries as a “filmmaking Bible.” Eileen and Connor weigh the merits of The Hobbit films. Edwin is absent for dubious reasons.

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) journeys to the heart of Ray Ramayya’s bizarro good-bad masterpiece, Ryan’s Babe, programmed for Connor’s birthday! Three of them highly recommend the experience. They also ask what makes a bad movie good? Edwin likes classics like Mac and Me, while Connor prefers newer, weirder stuff like After Last Season. Daniel shouts out The Snowman. Craig explains how the origins of Secret Movie Club are inextricably linked to “so-bad-it’s-good” cinema. A new segment debuts.

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) debates whether or not the “perfect” movie exists, using John Hughes’ 1986 teen comedy treasure, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, as a starting point. Are the best movies perfect? And does a movie being perfect make it the best? Daniel surprises no one by bringing up Hot Fuzz. Edwin chooses Assault on Precinct 13 and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Connor and Craig can’t stop talking about Robocop. Also discussed: Ferris Bueller’s white privilege, John Hughes’ overshooting.

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Alex Olivier, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) converses about John Huston’s 1948 Humphrey Bogart-starring adventure classic, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, programmed along with The Maltese Falcon for Alex’s birthday! The team also shares their opinions on the Classic Hollywood era of film. Craig, Daniel and Alex love the movies, while Connor and Edwin can only appreciate and admire them. Edwin does love Singin’ in the Rain though. Daniel reads a list of his favorites. Alex talks about why he likes noir.

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) is joined by filmmaker Eva Doležalová to talk about Nacho Vigalondo’s twisty two-million debut, Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes), and Eva’s own experiences making her shorts Raven, Carte Blanche, and the upcoming Serpentine! Sci-fi seems to be the realm of high-concept low-budget greatness, with films like Coherence, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Melancholia, Shivers, and Cube; though Craig also brings up noir-riff Brick and horror-comedy Braindead. Connor expresses his admiration for M. Night Shyamalan. Edwin throws in Trainspotting to the mix.

https://vimeo.com/evadolezalova

https://rsafilms.com/us/directors/eva-dolezalova

The Secret Movie Club Team (Cattor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Moott, and Craig Hammill) gets down in the muck and offends everybody (not really) by chatting about the differences between morals and ethics in Election, Clint Eastwood’s murderous ambitions in Absolute Power, Godard’s revolutionary period, representations of journalism and law in films like All the President’s Men and Michael Clayton, and the distinction Olivier Assayas makes of a political film versus a film about politics. If you DO happen to be offended by this episode, please contact Edwin at [email protected] with any and all complaints.

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) discusses the original 1961 West Side Story directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, the brand new Steven Spielberg-helmed adaptation, and remakes at large! Are remakes always bad? What makes a great remake good? Connor wants Hollywood to let him remake Ghost Ship. Craig and Daniel disagree on which version of The Man Who Knew Too Much they love more. Edwin attempts to pick a fight about Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars. They also chat about Cape Fear, The Blob, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, John Carpenter’s The Thing, The Departed, and Ringu and The Ring among others!

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill, and newcomer Alex Olivier!) debriefs their successful Palm Springs Getaway weekend where SMC showed 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lawrence of Arabia, and the original West Side Story all on magnificent 70mm! Then they attempt to explain what the heck 70mm is, chat about the future of film projection, and share their optimism or pessimism about the state of the format, all aided by projectionist Alex! Edwin also makes an overdue apology as America waits with bated breath.

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) discusses Wes Anderson's 1996 debut feature BOTTLE ROCKET as well as the moviemakers cited as part of the 1990's American New Wave-Steven Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Robert Rodriguez, Allison Anders, Richard Linklater-among others. The Team talks about what makes a generation of moviemakers unique as well as their own personal feelings, affinities for specific moviemakers. 

The Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) discuss cinema and TV stories that have found lives that extend decades.  Star Trek, Breaking Bad, Twin Peaks, the Japanese anime Evangelion, Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy all get discussed.  The team talks about how this can backfire when folks try to engineer these stories to be cash cows or "expanded universes" rather than letting the audience dictate when they want more of a certain kind of story.