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Christine Vachon - the legendary producer behind films like The Brutalist, Past Lives Carol, Far From Heaven, Boys Don’t Cry, and many more - joined Cooper and Tabitha for a live conversation at the Sonoma International Film Festival to uncover the film that blew her young mind...Joseph Losey’s 1948 The Boy with the Green Hair. In this episode, Christine shares why this story of a kid who literally wakes up different has stuck with her, what it says about standing out in a conformist world, and how it connects to the kinds of outsider stories she’s championed her whole career. It’s part Hollywood oddity, part timeless fable—and a perfect excuse to dive into why movies about being different matter so much.

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Recorded live on the shores of the Salish Sea at the Port Townsend Film Festival, this episode features Cooper in conversation with filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke. From Thirteen, to Lords of Dogtown to Twilight, Catherine is known for films that offer an unflinching, naturalistic lens on youth culture. The film that blew her mind? Hal Ashby’s 1971 Harold and Maude, a cult classic that challenges traditional notions of propriety, death, youth, and love.

Here Catherine reflects on how the unconventional love story shaped her creative vision, from its bold visual style to its fearless embrace of the offbeat and the taboo. She shares how stories about outsiders, misfits, and rule-breakers inspired her own filmmaking journey. We hear about her background in architecture and set design, how acting classes informed her work as a director, and her experience of co-writing Thirteen with 13-year-old Nikki Reed.

Plus, the fan who fainted upon meeting Catherine and what it means to her to see cast members like Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson continue to make their own waves on and off screen. 

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From The White Lotus, Reality Bites, and Happy, Texas to War for the Planet of the Apes and Diary of Wimpy Kid, Steve Zahn is celebrated for his ability to bring nuance, empathy, and authenticity to a wide range of characters - qualities that also mark the performances in Michael Cimino’s 1978 The Deer Hunter. Starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, with John Cazale and Meryl Streep in supporting roles, the film offers a naturalistic depiction of working class life in 1970s America.

With an estimated 50+ viewings to date, Steve has thought A LOT about this film. With Cooper and Tabitha, he unpacks The Deer Hunter’s complex interplay of community, friendship, trauma, and war within the Vietnam era. We learn about his first cassette tape purchase, the draw of military history, the power of song to express what speech cannot, and why he insists that his own kids pay attention to the movies.

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On the heels of our conversation with Chaz Ebert discussing Life Itself, we are sharing this episode from our friends at Filmspotting. As we learned from Chaz, even Roger himself once admitted to getting one review wrong!

In this episode, critic and author Matt Singer joins Filmspotting co-hosts Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen to consider the enduring impact of Ebert and his longtime partner Gene Siskel, and to dissect five other reviews they may have gotten wrong. Originally dropped in October, 2023, the episode followed publication of Matt’s book, “Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed Movies Forever”, a vivid telling of the definitive story of Siskel and Ebert and their iconic show, “At the Movies.” 

Listen and subscribe to Filmspotting on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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The Film That Blew My Mind is nominated for Best Indie Podcast Webby Awards. Please show your support and cast your vote for the People’s Voice Award at the link below. Thank you! https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2024/podcasts/features/best-indie-podcast

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For our final episode of season one, we took our show on the road to record an episode before a live audience at the Sonoma International Film Festival. John Cameron Mitchell, the ultimate multi-hyphenate and creator of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, joined Cooper and Tabitha on stage for a conversation about Robert Altman’s legendary Nashville. With a cast composed of Karen Black, Keith Carradine, Ronee Blakely, Lily Tomlin, Shelly Duvall, Geraldine Chaplin, Jeff Goldblum, and more, the film knits together the stories of twenty four characters as they navigate their time and place in their own, idiosyncratic ways.

John shares his own experience seeing the film, a halfway-fruitful exchange with Nashville screenwriter Joan Tewksbury, and personal encounters with Samuel Beckett and Robert Altman himself. Plus, how the scene with Keith Carradine singing the Oscar-winning song “I’m Easy” inspired parts of John’s own film Shortbus (2006), what he learned from the Sundance labs with Michelle Satter, and why bedwetters are his kind of people.

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It is hard to pinpoint when Chaz Ebert first experienced Life Itself, Steve James’s documentary about her late husband and legendary film critic, Roger Ebert. Initially conceived as a multi-year project to capture Roger’s vibrant life and career, the film also documented what would become the final weeks of Roger’s life. Film icons like Werner Herzog, Ava Duvernay, and Martin Scorsese illustrate the ways in which Roger’s work inspired them individually and impacted culture on a broad scale. Tracing Roger’s journey from cub reporter to cultural icon and devoted family man, the film is a testament to his ardently populist sensibility, larger-than-life personality, fierce love of movies, and the vigor with which he met every day even as he endured life with cancer and its effects.

In conversation with Cooper and Tabitha, Chaz reveals the one movie review Roger acknowledged he got wrong, her reluctance to continue filming as Roger’s health deteriorated, what it meant to experience the film’s premiere with an audience at Sundance, and how their shared concern for humanity continues to inspire her work today. 

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As an NYFD firefighter working the overnight shift at Engine Company 55, Steve Buscemi popped a VHS tape into the station’s player and experienced John Huston’s Fat City for the first time. Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name and adapted for the screen by its author Leonard Gardner, the film centers around boxing and life in the hard-scrabble central California town of Stockton. Former champ Tully (Stacy Keach) sets his sights on returning to the ring when he meets Ernie (Jeff Bridges), an eighteen-year-old who he takes under his wing. As their friendship and rivalry unfold, we meet the sherry-loving Ooma (Susan Tyrell), Ernie’s pregnant girlfriend Faye (Candy Clark), and boxing manager Ruben (Nicholas Colasanto), all of whom round out Huston’s tale of hope, desperation, and dignity.

We learn about Steve’s real-life encounter with Susan Tyrell, what he learned from his time as a teenage usher at the Belair Theater in Valley Stream, NY, and how Fat City inspired his own directorial debut, Trees Lounge.

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As an 18-year-old on the verge of breakout success, Ethan Hawke encountered Reds for the first time. The epic love story and historical drama brings us writer/activist Jack Reed and journalist Louise Bryant in the midst of World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the birth of the socialist party in the U.S. Directed by, co-written by, and starring Warren Beatty, Reds is famous for extraordinary performances from Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Maureen Stapleton, and Edward Hermann. The film earned Beatty Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director.

Ethan, Tabitha, and Cooper get into film craft, authenticity, feminism, collaboration, creativity, and Ethan's outgoing message on his answering machine circa 1990. Plus, what makes Reds one of Ethan's all time favorites.

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