The Gauntlet

The Fan (1982) / Love and Death on Long Island (1997)

This week we’re feverishly writing fan mail as we fall into a trance with Eckhart Schmidt and Richard Kwietniowski shows us it’s never too late to fall in love with a hot C-list actor

58 - Anatomy of Hell (2004) / How I Ended This Summer (2010)

This week we locked ourselves in for a two-hander, as Catherine Breillat helps us get under each other's skin and Alexei Popogrebski cools us down with a bucket of Russian Arctic water.

57 - Times Square (1980) / The Apple (1998)

This week, mom and dad are out of town and we’re throwing a house party with Allan Moyle's punk anthems, Samira Makhmalbaf's stolen ice cream, and a six-pack of self-discovery.

56 - Come Back, Africa (1959) / Ici et Ailleurs (1974)

This week we explore hybrid documentaries, as Lionel Rogosin secretly captures South Africa under apartheid and Anne-Marie Miéville helps Jean-Luc Godard confront ghosts of past and present.

Thunder Birds (1942) / Night Witches in the Sky (1981)

This week we soar through the clouds alongside two real life aviators, as Wild Bill Wellman helps us get our wings while Yevgeniya Zhigulenko leads us on night bombing raids

Simone Barbes or Virtue (1980) / The Taking of Beverly Hills (1991)

This week we're pulling an all-nighter as we take tickets in a porno theater with Marie-Claude Treilhou and stage an explosive coup in Beverly Hills with Sidney J. Furie

Lancelot du Lac (1974) / The 13th Warrior (1999)

This week we explore Medieval tomes of spiritual agony, listening carefully to Robert Bresson’s clanking armor and filling in the gaps of John McTiernan’s massacred Viking epic

Lookin’ to Get Out (1982) / Fat Choi Spirit (2002)

This week we’re testing our luck, risking it all in blackjack and mahjongg as we hit the tables with Hal Ashby and Johnnie To

The Hidden (1987) / Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs (2005)

This week we’re putting on our tinfoil hats as we try to track down materialistic and murderous aliens with Jack Sholder while a sweaty Dan Aykroyd tells us the damage is already done

The Five Heartbeats (1991) / Platform (2000)

This week we’re getting sentimental as we hit the road with Robert Townsend and The Five Heartbeats and tour the countryside with Jia Zhangke and the Fenyang Peasant Cultural Group