Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we discuss John Frankenheimer, a true expert of the craft and a man who could make any kind of film. Our B-Sides today include Prophecy, 52 Pick-Up, Dead Bang, and the HBO Film Against the Wall (for which Frankenheimer won an Emmy!)

Our guest today is the great Blake Howard of One Heat Minute Productions. He’s just wrapping up his podcast series Romin, in which Blake discusses Frankenheimer’s late-period action masterpiece (and certified A-Side) Ronin with incredible film minds (and also two schlubs from The Film Stage). In this episode, Dan tells a fairly interesting first-hand story about original Ronin screenwriter J.D. Zeik!

The superb interview book John Frankenheimer: A Conversation With Charles Champlin is referenced quite a bit throughout, as is this interview with Ben Affleck (which includes a funny memory of the temperamental Frankenheimer on the set of Reindeer Games). Frankenheimer’s BMW Films short with Clive Owen comes up, as does underrated character actor Tim Reid.

We admire the nastiness of 52 Pick-Up, the way that Against the Wall looks, and the ambitions of Prophecy, failed though they may be. Then there’s Dead Bang, a deeply troubled production with a supremely strange William Forsythe performance.

Additionally, Frankenheimer made his bones in live television, specifically being the lead director of Playhouse 90. One episode we talk about a bit is “Forbidden Area.”

Listen and subscribe at thefilmstage.com/pod. Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars, movie directors, and sometimes - sometimes - movie writers! Today, we speak with author and screenwriter Jordan Harper, whose novel She Rides Shotgun got made into a movie of the same name, directed by Nick Rowland and starring Taron Egerton and Ana Sophia Heger. The film is in theaters this Friday, August 1st, 2025.

We spoke with Harper about adapting his novel for the big screen, his reaction to watching the final cut of the film, and those superb lead performances from Egerton and Heger. There’s mention of his other books The Last King of California and Everybody Knows, as well as B-Sides that reminded us of She Rides Shotgun, which include One False Move, Flesh & Bone, A Perfect World, and Lone Star. Harper mentions Freeway as well, which is a great call.

Harper brings up his new novel due out next year: A Violent Masterpiece. There’s also appreciation for Shogun Assassin (a direct inspiration for She Rides Shotgun) and a discussion of genre and genre tropes and why they are so effective when used well.

Be sure to give us a follow on social at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars, movie directors, and sometimes - sometimes - the companies that made the movies those stars and directors made! We were lucky to speak with Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler of Killer Films in honor of Metrograph’s 30th Anniversary program, with screenings starting on August 2nd, 2025.

Vachon and Koffler speak on curating the celebratory program, which includes Office Killer. We also dish on Dan and Conor’s time as interns at Killer many years ago, some B-Sides (including A Home at the End of the World, The Safety of Objects, Dark Waters, and how Killer has survived this ever-changing industry of independent film.

There’s a wonderful discussion about wigs in film (prompted by Colin Farrell’s bad wig in the first act of A Home at the End of the World), an appreciation of Dark Waters getting made and getting discovered to this day, and line producers “carrying the burden of the budget.”

Vachon mourns The Safety of Objects being swallowed by the tragedy of 9/11 while Koffler suggests why the independent ensemble drama has gone by the wayside. There’s discussion on the dangers of saying “good enough” during pre-production as well as Vachon and Koffler shouting out Killer Films B-Sides they personally love (The World to Come, Vox Lux, Dirty Girl). Dan shouts out She Came to Me, an underrated, recent gem.

Be sure to give us a follow on social at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars and movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Sometimes we are lucky enough to even speak with them about their work. And sometimes, they are both a movie star and a movie director. Today that’s Embeth Davidtz, director of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, now in theaters and expanding this weekend.

Our B-Sides include Feast of July, The Gingerbread Man, Mansfield Park, and Bicentennial Man. We speak with Davidtz about her directorial debut, her incredibly diverse acting career, and adapting from the memoir by Alexandra Fuller. There’s extended discussion of Robert Altman’s direction of actors, the underrated qualities of Feast of July (a Merchant Ivory production!), and the ambitions of Bicentennial Man. Not to mention the incredible high-wire act by Davidtz’s in her dual performance in that Chris Columbus sci-fi epic.

There are reflections on working with B-Side friend and frequent guest Alessandro Nivola, the legacy of the Miss Honey character from Matilda, and the “trickery” involved in directing a child like Lexi Venter to an incredibly natural performance.

Be sure to give us a follow on social at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we sometimes talk about movie stars! We sometimes talk about movie directors! Today, we talk about both! Specifically, the B-Sides of the Mission: Impossible franchise.

It’s just Dan and Conor today folks, waxing poetic on Tom Cruise’s legendary franchise and the B-Sides that we were inspired to discuss. We’ve chosen one for each of the Mission movies. It’s also July 3rd on the day this episode is published, so happy 63rd birthday Tom Cruise!

For the first Mission: Impossible, we speak on The Avengers from 1998. An adaptation of the popular British television series from the ‘60s, director Jeremiah S. Chechik’s film was dismantled in post-production, slashed to ribbons following bad test screenings. The final product runs well under ninety minutes and is hard to understand. It sits on the other end of blockbusters in the ‘90s adapted from hit televisions from yesteryear. We also discuss the last five films Sean Connery made (animated film Sir Billi not included), as well as the ones he turned down.

For Mission: Impossible II, we chose another John Woo American motion picture: Paycheck, starring Ben Affleck and The Avengers star Uma Thurman. This is a true B-Side, and the beginning of Affleck’s now-infamous lost half-decade as a fledgling movie star.

For Mission: Impossible III, we return to television inspiration. In honor of director J.J. Abrams, Conor and I go long on No Man’s Land, one of the first produced screenwriting credits of Dick Wolf, who would go on to create the, ahem, Law & Order universe of shows. This Charlie Sheen/ D.B Sweeney vehicle walked so Point Break and The Fast and the Furious could run. There’s chatter about David Ayer, that scene from Fire in the Sky, and how Charlie Sheen is always better when he plays the villain.

For Ghost Protocol, we debate the Brad Bird B-Side Tomorrowland. We discuss libertarianism (for like two minutes) and the misbegotten message of the George Clooney blockbuster.

For Rogue Nation we honor the Hitchcock homage of the opening and discuss one of Hitch’s most underrated films: Topaz. Truly a can’t-miss picture, which spurns a talk about the ideal Hitchcock leading man.

For Fallout, there’s Michael Mann’s Blackhat. We appreciate the still underseen hacker epic, and make the claim that Chris Hemsworth is the best movie star of the original Avengers (Marvel this time, not British) not named Robert Downey Jr.

For Dead Reckoning Part 1, Conor goes long on Hayao Miyazaki’s Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, from the little yellow car to the action to the animation.

And, finally, for The Final Reckoning, we celebrate John Sturges’ Ice Station Zebra. The second act of the final film in the series is a reimagining of sorts of the 1968 submarine epic, with way more stunts and underwater photography.

There’s also mention of the Billy Crystal 1997 Oscars opening, this lovely promo for the Albert Brooks movie Mother (ok it’s not mentioned I just love it), and the Oliver Stone episode of the Light the Fuse podcast.

Listen here and subscribe at thefilmstage.com/pod. Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. 

Today we discuss Mike Leigh, one of our greatest living filmmakers. Born in England in 1943, Leigh remains an artist for the everyday person more than most. And this descriptor is quite reductive, as the writer/director’s aesthetic is deceivingly simple and incredibly effective. Our B-Sides are Life is Sweet, Career Girls, All or Nothing, and Peterloo. Our guest is Alex Heeney, Editor-in-Chief of The Seventh Row, co-author of Peterloo in Process, and host of the Seventh Row Podcast. They’ve covered several of Leigh’s films on the podcast, including Naked and Hard Truths. 

Heeney also put together a short guide just for our listeners! It features a standout 2024 release that’s flown under the radar — with characters as rich and layered as Leigh’s best. It includes a spoiler-free intro, where to watch, and a few thoughtful prompts to deepen the experience. We talk with Heeney about Leigh’s unique, collaborative development for each new film, his early work with the BBC and Channel 4 (Bleak Moments, Meantime, High Hopes among others) before Life is Sweet’s modest breakout success. 

There’s also discussion about Secrets & Lies and the immediate follow-up Career Girls, which feels in many ways like a companion to Naked. We also debate whether or not the flashbacks in Career Girls are the product of memory or a more traditional narrative construction. We celebrate the breadth of Timothy Spall’s range in Leigh’s films (including his powerful turn in All or Nothing), Dan praises Leigh’s incredible short film A Sense of History.

We chat over our favorite Mike Leigh films and some of his films that haven’t worked as well for us. And above all else, we marvel at his ability to find the truth in his characters, big and small.

You can subscribe here. Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we return to one of our earlier subjects: Ryan Gosling! Our B-Sides are The Ides of March, Gangster Squad, Only God Forgives, and First Man. Our guest is our dear friend Cory Everett, creator of Cinephile: A Card Game!

We talk about Gosling’s television career as a young man, his quick rise to stardom, and surprise nomination for Half Nelson fairly early on in his run. He’s been searching for his lifelong directorial muse. There’s been Derek Cianfrance, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Damien Chazelle. Will he ever find the one?

There’s that iconic Rachel McAdams kiss at the MTV Movie Awards, the acceleration of his “coolness” after the success of The Notebook all the way through the release of Drive, and that iconic, ever-changing voice of his. There’s also those beautiful, weird Gosling eyes.

There’s also discussion about George Clooney as a filmmaker, his first film and Charlie Kaufman dislike of it, and his progression (regression?) as a director. The merits of Winding Refn are also debated. We all remember when William Friedkin ridiculed Nicolas Winding Refn for calling Only God Forgives a masterpiece. And if you have not as of yet, you should watch the documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.

Listen and subscribe at thefilmstage.com/pod. Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we discuss Clint Eastwood, the director and the movie star. Our B-Sides are Breezy, White Hunter Black Heart, Blood Work, Flags of Our Fathers, and The Mule. Our guest is the impeccable Mitchell Beaupre, Managing Editor at Letterboxd.

We talk about Clint’s Casper cameo and how that was probably the first thing all three of us saw him in a movie, John Wayne’s disdain for Eastwood’s on-screen persona, his uncanny direction of actors as well as his smart casting (ahem, The 15:17 to Paris notwithstanding) of actors. Often, if Clint is in one of his own movies, he will surround himself with talent as good (if not better) than himself.

There’s significant appreciation for his underseen Honkytonk Man, there’s honest discussion of his ambitious performance in White Hunter Black Heart (playing a version of filmmaker John Huston), and we three reappraise his Flags of Our Fathers nearly twenty years after its underwhelming release. It’s way better than you remember!

Additional topics include Spielberg’s protégés (from Phil Joanou to Kevin Reynolds to Brad Silberling), Breezy’s beautiful rendering of the post-60s counterculture depression, and Blood Work’s silly (and wonderful) twist ending.

Listen and subscribe at thefilmstage.com/pod. Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

It’s a day to celebrate! We discuss the legend Maggie Cheung! Our B-Sides include Lost Romance (a.k.a. Story of Rose), Full Moon in New York, Green Snake, and Sausalito. Our esteemed guest for this episode is Nick Newman, host of the Emulsion podcast for The Film Stage.

We talk about the Hong Kong New Wave, Maggie’s aborted performance in Inglourious Basterds, the true B-Sidey-Ness of Sausalito, and Maggie Cheung’s brief, lovely, recent Sight and Sound interview.

There’s also Nick’s Sight and Sound List, that GQ piece, Julia Ormond’s tackling a famous Audrey Hepburn role, and Nick’s great interview with filmmaker Olivier Assayas back in 2022.

By 2004, at the young age of forty, Cheung retired from acting. Her legacy has only cemented further in the decades since her final films, something we discuss in this episode as well.

Be sure to subscribe at thefilmstage.com/pod and give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we talk about the great Debra Winger! Our B-Sides include Legal Eagles, Betrayed, The Sheltering Sky, and Forget Paris. Our guest is the inestimable Murtada Elfadl, Culture Writer, Critic, and Film Curator.

We discuss Winger’s stratospheric rise to stardom, her indescribable performance in Terms of Endearment, and her (unfair?) reputation for being “difficult.” There’s also plenty of discussion about Rosanna Arquette’s documentary Searching for Debra Winger, a film in which Arquette speaks with many famous actresses about aging in Hollywood. The motivation of the piece was partly motivated by Winger’s exodus from the business for over half a decade in the mid-1990s.

There’s also conversation about Shirley MacLaine's 1984 Oscars speech, Tom Berenger being deeply proud of Betrayed and his performance in the film, and all those NBA players that appear in Forget Paris. Janet Maslin and Roger Ebert’s superb reviews of Betrayed are mentioned, as is Debra’s perfect laugh.

Finally, we touch on when Raquel Welch sued MGM and won for being fired from Cannery Row (Winger replaced her in the role), Winger’s dropping out of A League of Their Own after Madonna was cast, Melanie Griffith and William Hurt being director Bernardo Bertolucci’s first choices for the leads in The Sheltering Sky, and Debra Winger’s infamous Watch What Happens Live episode.

Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!