The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) gets together to discuss SMC’s recent double feature screening of romcom classic Notting Hill and modern gem Lovers Rock! Programmed by Team member Joshua Oakley, Notting Hill and Lovers Rock are paired because, while they are wildly different films about romance, they both take place in West London. The Team also dives into the art of movie pairings, a huge part of programming films at SMC. Connor “shares” some of his ideas. Craig and Daniel wax Eisensteinian about the collision of films when watched together. Edwin makes a startling confession.

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) cozies up to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 Spellbound, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck with a famous and startling dream sequence by Salvador Dalí! Hitchcock, our director of 2023, is a progenitor of the romantic thriller, so the Team also looks at other romthrills. Connor analyzes their split lineage that leads to both erotic thrillers but modern action movies as well. Craig nominates Pedro Almodóvar as his favorite descendent of Hitch, while Daniel goes with Park Chan-wook. Edwin needs his romantic thrillers done right, by which he means 1991’s Shattered and NOTHING ELSE.

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) enters the mind of skater-auteur Spike Jonze and his directorial debut, the darkly comic Being John Malkovich, written by Charlie Kaufman. BJM is one of Connor’s favorite films and he gushes about its existential horror and daring style! Edwin prefers Jonze’s follow-up Kaufman-collab, Adaptation. Craig admires his shorter work, including an Apple ad he made with FKA Twigs and his incredible music and skateboard videos. Daniel talks about how inspiring Jonze’s wild approach was to him as a young filmmaker!

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) rides the bull for the full eight seconds with the Jackass series, co-created by Johnny Knoxville and Spike Jonze, featuring Knoxville and a group of other knuckleheads doing ridiculous and vulgar pranks and stunts! The Team also analyzes high art and low art, the dubious distinction between the two, and whether or not these terms are even valid. Daniel and Connor bond over their adolescent obsessions with skater culture and recreating their own Jackass-style stunts. Craig doesn’t understand why people have to gatekeep art. Edwin gatekeeps art.

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) sits down to talk about Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which just topped Sight and Sound’s “Top 100 Greatest Films” critics’ list in 2022! The movie’s ascendance to number one was controversial for multiple reasons and the film itself splits our heroes. They also exchange a few words about the full list published by BFI, what they think about lists like this, and finally give their own top ten lists that they would have submitted to the poll! #potatogate

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) reconvenes to detail what they’ve been up to for the last five weeks while they weren’t recording and what they’re hoping to bring into 2023. Connor is stoked about his big, cool box! Edwin brags about “watching” a lot of films and gaslights the others. Daniel went road trippin’ around the country. Craig deals with the technical aspects of editing a movie. And considering this is the Secret MOVIE Club Podcast, a few films are also discussed: Blood Beat, Surf Nazis Must Die (sorta), and Avatar: The Way of Water. Welcome back, Secret Movie Clubbers!

Screenwriter Steve Grest (originator of the Defend This Movie idea) returns to the pod to debate Secret Movie Club programmer and founder Craig Hammill about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, starring Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, and Ke Huy Quan! The 1984 sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark was controversial upon release for its dark content, and Steve agrees that it is a joyless, annoying slog. Craig admits that Temple has its problems, but he also thinks the film is a nightmarish joy brimming with classic Spielbergian cinema. Listen, and we’ll let you decide who wins!

Secret Movie Club programmer and founder Craig Hammill is joined once more by SMC blog writer Patrick McElroy to start 2023 with a recap of our director of 2022, John Ford, maybe the most important American filmmaker of all time. Craig and Patrick love the old man and his films, which include classic westerns like The Searchers and Stagecoach as well as acclaimed dramas like The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley. Along with diving deep into his movies, Craig and Patrick also delve into Ford’s Catholicism, his Irish heritage, his belief in America, and his incredible grasp of the art of cinema.

Check out Patrick at: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.mcelroy.3726 or his IG: @mcelroy.patrick

To close out 2022, the Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) toasts silent classic, The Phantom Carriage, directed by and starring Victor Sjöström, a sort of Swedish Christmas Carol or It’s a Wonderful Life set around New Year’s Eve! The Team also continues their journey through the holidays with NYE in film: Daniel thinks it’s about time to talk about About Time, Craig keeps going with The Godfather series, Edwin likes to end the year with Schwarzenegger’s End of Days, and Connor broadcasts from the local Dave & Buster’s. Happy New Year!

Ho ho ho! The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) unwraps their gifts from themselves: they did a Secret Santa but with movies! Edwin has a hard time opening the 2003 martial arts film, Ong-Bak. Connor isn’t quite sure how to operate the star-studded disaster movie, Airport ‘77. Daniel didn’t ask for – but is pleasantly surprised by – 2014 indie sci-fi comedy, The Infinite Man. And, in a Christmas miracle, Craig gets exactly what he wanted: Spielberg’s new autobiographical film, The Fabelmans! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Secret Movie Clubbers!