The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm Podcast

Hi there! Matt was on a different podcast, and we are sharing it, with you, RIGHT HERE! It's called 'Cold War Cinema,' and you can find it here and here. 

Join Ellis and hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as they discuss:

• The Phoenician Scheme’s connections to the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA-backed cultural operation from 1950 that weaponized writers, artists, and other thinkers for intelligence operations.

• How Anderson’s film reveals the Cold War origins of the contemporary world in its critiques of capitalism and the neoliberal project. 

• The ways that The Phoenician Scheme breaks Anderson’s hermetically sealed aesthetics and alludes to its formal limitations.

To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema. 

For more from your hosts:

• Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic. 

• Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas.

Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com

alright that's all. we'll be back on friday with certified copy, which i need to watch RIGHT NOW

Corbin and Matt talk about THE SOCIAL NETWORK, David Fincher's (and also Aaron Sorkin's) parable about the fouding of Facebook and the terrible dream of what felt like was coming next. Topics include: capital and moral hazard, the Winkelvosses and Eduardo, the movie's make believe version of Zuckerberg, Fincher setting the palette for the future by accident, and a bunch of other stuff. I dont know if you can see, but this episode is very long.

Corbin rec. Ellis rec. Next episode is about "Certified Copy." Have a good day!

Documentarian CHRISTOPHER JASON BELL (MeansTV, 'Miss Me Yet,' the upcoming 'Failed State') joins us to talk about 'A Married Couple,' Alan King's 1969 documentary about a disintegrating Canadian marriage. Topics include: reality TV, the weird sexism in the movie's reception, documentary performance, the parade of hideous outfits this guy wears, and the terrible language of irrational arguements stuck deep in a nightmare mire.

I will not be indexing our recs this week, there are simply too many of them. Next week's episode will return to the DIGITAL MINES as we talk about "The Social Network," David Fincher's symphony for the end of human communication. Check it out!!!

Ellis and Corbin talk about post-continuity infused, found footage horror extravaganza PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. Topics include: real estate in 2006 (the true horror), why there wasn't a second demonologist in San Diego at the time, the editing style, HDR cameras, porn aesthetics, and other stuff.

Read some Fabulous Criticisim about Paranormal Activity here.

NOTICE: OUR NEXT EPISODE IS NOT ABOUT THE SOCIAL NETWORK, LIKE WE SAID HERE. It is about "A Married Couple." Watch it here.

We had to do it, so we did. Topics include: the insane camera setup they used on this, Cameron: Movie Napoleon, the...particular aesthetics, and the faint nostalgia for Michael Bay real heads feel while watching this thing. There's stuff we like about it, too.

Read this to learn stuff about Avatar.

Ellis rec here. Corbin rec'd a video game, again. Next week: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.

Speed Racer. It's a masterwork. It also might give you a headache. We must live in that contradiction. Topics: Comic Books and post-continuity cinema, the movie's collage-like qualities, the alternate vision for Hollywood it presents, and the movie as a product of globalization.

Matt's recommendation. Corbin's. Next episode is about "Avatar," which you can watch on Disney+, if you dare.

Ellis and Corbin and ERIC MARSH discuss "Che: Part One," Steven Soderbergh's process-oriented tale of the Cuban Revolution, and the first movie ever shot on a 4K Movie Camera. Topics include: Oakley Sunglasses, Soderbergh during this time, digital cinematography blessing his particular way of working, and why CAPITALIST STREAMING PLATFORMS make this movie hard to watch.

Ellis: 'Song at the end is "Carlos Puebla – Hasta Siempre, Comandante," which is about Che.'

Our next episode is about SPEED RACER. Tremble in fear.

Eyy! Rachel Getting Married! It's a heavy movie! We talk about Ann Hathaway playing into public type, the incredibly strange casting, Demme as a physical filmmaker working in a kinetic-digital world, rehab, European family vs American Family, 'Realism,' and other stuff.

Hey: there's a weird little background sound in this episode. Sorry we hope it doesn't drive you insane. We were recording at Workers' Tap and the music was a little loud. We swear the episode is good enough that you will be able to ignore it.

Interesting interview about the movie's sound mixing here. Good essay comparing the movie to Mike Leigh's work here.

Matt recommends the new Adam Curtis thing. It's called 'Shifty.' Corbin recommends "On Fire" by Galaxie 500. Our Next Episode is about "Che," a movie that is very hard to watch on the internet. More information on this in the audio of the episode.

Some big news: Corbin and Matt lost their minds and recorded about film academy stuff for two hours. Our topic is Hollywood Continuty and its accelerants and defectors, which we process through the frame of Tony Scott's 2006 sort-of-sci-fi movie Deja Vu. Topics are wide and varied and include: comic book storytelling, film scanning, the digital console, Jim Caviezel, Ozu (again), and Michael Bay, the angel and the demon in one manifestation and the role of superhero movies in rebelling AGAINST post-continuity.

Read Bordwell on late (intensified) continuity here. Read Shaviro on Post-Continuity here.

Corbin rec's Mulaney's latest special, which is not NEW. Matt rec's his own Substack.

Next week's episode is about RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. check that out it's great

We still got a will and a burning rage to win, folks, because Ellis and Corbs are talking about WALK HARD! Topics: Non-linear editing and audience testing, Judd Apatow, John C. Reilly, bizzaro Phil Hoffman, the evolving form of the comedy star during this time, the superior (but rarely seen) director's cut of this movie, and the weird line between parody and pastiche the movie straddles. Weirdly long?

Corbin's Reco Here. Matt recommends The Ankler, a newsletter about Da Movie Buziness.

Next week's episode is an episode about post continuity. Check out "Deja Vu" by Tony Scott and one of the Michael Bay Transformers movies if you want to be totally abreast of the thing we're doing but it's not necessary.