The Gauntlet

The Incredible Journey (1963) / MVP2: Most Vertical Primate (2001)

This week we’re going beast mode as we discuss the homeward bound trio of Fletcher Markle’s kids classic and Robert Vince’s skateboarding chimpsploitation

An Autumn’s Tale (1987) / Far From Heaven (2002)

This week autumn leaves are falling as we discuss two tales of love and transition in Todd Haynes’ modernist melodrama and Mabel Cheung’s immigration romantic comedy

The Lusty Men (1952) / Knightriders (1981)

This week we’re hitting the rodeo circuit and traveling with a troupe of jousting motorcyclists as we discuss Nicholas Ray’s sensitive cowboys and George Romero’s chivalrous knights

First Graders (1984) / Three O’Clock High (1987)

This week we’re getting schooled by Abbas Kiarostami and Phil Joanou as they take us on a ride through the ups and downs of the educational experience

McQ (1974) / Police Beat (2005)

This week we're investigating two Emerald City policiers: one with an unlicensed Duke wielding a MAC-10 and another with a lovesick beat cop wielding a green card and the American Dream

No Greater Glory (1934) / My Little Loves (1974)

This week we’re storming the trenches of childhood as we discuss Jean Eustache’s little loves and the little rascals of Frank Borzage’s turf war

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) / Halloween Resurrection (2002)

This week we take the stand to defend a pair of maligned sequels as we discuss the heresies of John Boorman’s arthouse exorcism & Rick Rosenthal’s dangertainment for a new millennium

La Fin Du Monde (1931) / Yakuza Apocalypse (2015)

This week it’s the end of the world as we discuss the excessive and apocalyptic visions of Abel Gance and Takashi Miike

Stalin (1992) / Stemple Pass (2012)

This week we’re looking for love in all the wrong places as we confront two notorious bad boys in Ivan Passer’s sweeping HBO biopic of Stalin and James Benning’s durational landscape portrait of the Unabomber

Salto (1965) / Clearcut (1991)

This week we got kidnapped by Graham Greene and led astray by Zbigniew Cybulski as we discuss two confrontational films by Polish directors in which there is no escaping the past