Our summer travels continue this week to Italy, where Federico Fellini is our guide. The title translates to “the sweet life” in English, and that’s what star Marcello Mastroianni seeks in Rome, over the course of seven days. Mastroianni is a tabloid journalist, and we follow him through seven stories, during the film. Anita Ekberg is the female star probably most known to American film fans. La Dolce Vita ranks among Fellini’s best, and the movie also gives us a glimpse of modern Italy, a generation removed from World War II.

La Dolce Vita

Shelly Brisbin with Micheline Maynard and Dr. Drang

Get in touch with the show at [email protected] or on the socials.

The Movie: review/commentary on a single classic film

The Self-Referential LTS

Next time, we’ll watch

We’re back. And what’s this? A car bombing, a travesty of justice, the culmination of our least-favorite “Magnum” storyline… it must be a season eight episode! We’re devastated. At least it’s got Lance LeGault in it, as well as the summary execution of dozens of happy little pears. The pears know what they did.

Jason Snell, Philip Michaels and David J. Loehr

Two first-timers, a second-timer, a third-timer, and an old pro walk into a game show. It’s not a joke, it’s the 35th edition of Random Pursuit! And we put a new-to-Erika edition of Trivial Pursuit, the 25th Anniversary Edition, thoroughly through its paces. Thank you Listener Matthew!

Random Pursuit XXXV

Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky with Annette Wierstra, Erik Stadnik, Kyle Anderson, Nick Scott and Tony Sindelar

Listener Matthew -

Annette Wierstra -

Erik Stadnik -

Kyle Anderson -

Tony Sindelar -

This battle is still in progress. Please stay on the line. Your call is very important to us.

Dog & Pony Show VII, Part 11

Tony Sindelar with Aleen Simms, Dan Moren, Erika Ensign, Jane Ritt and Mikah Sargent

Edited by Erika Ensign.

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a bunch of monks sitting around copying stuff. Jelani Sims returns to discuss Walter M. Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959).

John McCoy with Jelani Sims

The Internet Archive has all episodes of the 15-part NPR Playhouse adaptation which aired in 1981.

It’s back to the past for the penultimate episode of The Acolyte, and your Star Wars pals Dan, Tony, and Kat are here to discuss people who detest camping, Jedi away missions, and tightening the narrative screws, amidst other digressions.

Dan Moren, Tony Sindelar and K Benesh

The Summer of the Planet of the Apes continues with 2014’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” It’s a sequel that’s superior in almost every way, but somehow seems a little less fun, since we can no longer root for the apes. Now there are bad guys on both sides, as Gary Oldman and a chimpanzee named Caesar act out a tragedy of Shakespearean levels.

"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"

Jason Snell with Brian Warren, Annette Wierstra, David J. Loehr and John Moltz

“The Friday Night Slaughter” refers to the moment when all the sketches for the night’s show are on the chopping block. Matt has flashbacks to when he first met Harriet. And he remembers a writer who used to work at Studio 60 who no one else remembers. It reminds us of our old cohost, Wrian Barren, a troubled young fella with great hair that he always kept covered with a backwards baseball cap. We might not like fictional, anagram-named characters. We might not love this episode of the TV show. But we still love Sorkin’ In It with you.

Lex Friedman and Brian Warren

Shot in the postwar ruins of occupied Tokyo, Akira Kurosawa’s early buddy-cop thriller will make you feel every drop of sweat in its sweltering summer heat wave. A rookie cop (Toshiro Mifune) loses his gun to a pickpocket; the gun ends up in the hands of a desperate ex-soldier with nothing to lose. As his weapon gets used in a series of escalating, awful crimes, the young detective and his savvy mentor (Takashi Shimura) must race through the underworld to track down the shooter and get it back. Stray Dog is a top-notch police procedural, but it’s also a surprisingly kind, humane, and empathetic look at a city emerging from wartime.

Stray Dog

Nathan Alderman with Shelly Brisbin, Micheline Maynard and Randy Dotinga

Get in touch with the show at [email protected] or on the socials.

The Movie: review/commentary on a single classic film

The Self-Referential LTS

Next time, we’ll watch

This vampire party isn’t over! The epic final battle remains epic as we ask questions like Do vampires poop? What is the sound of one invisible vampire missing? What is the curse of Strahd? And most importantly, Will this fight ever end?

Dog & Pony Show VII, Part 10

Tony Sindelar with Aleen Simms, Dan Moren, Erika Ensign, Jane Ritt and Mikah Sargent

Edited by Erika Ensign.