The Sundae Presents

Dean closes out this season's regular episodes by showing Ciara his favourite Spike Lee film, Summer of Sam. They talk about punk vs disco, the madonna-whore complex and its relationship with Do the Right Thing.

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Spike Lee on his film heroes for GQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfRMe-gnP6s

Spike Lee's Ebert Director Award speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8nJq82e80Q

Danny Aiello's "Papa Don't Preach" response song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xg11hwVs-M

Martin Scorsese's Violence of Grace: https://thesundae.net/2017/04/02/martin-scorseses-violence-of-grace/

Ciara makes Dean finally watch Winter Brothers, the debut film of their favourite Icelandic director, Hlynur Pálmason. They talk about its desolate landscapes, haunting ambiguities and floppy dicks.

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Jessica Kiang's review of Winter Brothers: https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/winter-brothers-review-1202513383/

Roger Ebert's review of Joe Versus the Volcano: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/joe-versus-the-volcano-1990

Professor Martyn Poliakoff explains the iodine clock reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWJpKNQfXWo

Dean makes Ciara watch a fourth film shot in his hometown, an Arthurian epic by Exorcist II director John Boorman: Excalibur, which features zero locust POV and tons of before-they-were-famous casting. They talk about Cahir Castle, Gabriel Byrne's soap opera career, and what are movies even supposed to be like, anyway?

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Top Gun: Maverick: The Sundae Presents Bonus Episode 5: https://thesundae.net/2023/07/30/top-gun-maverick-the-sundae-presents-bonus-episode-5/

For the first episode of the year, Ciara chose John Ford's late career masterpiece The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance as Dean's third encounter with both Ford and John Wayne. They talk about its unusually unscenic take on the frontier, the role of violence in politics and how it reflects on the western's place in American culture.

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David Coursen on The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: https://parallax-view.org/2009/05/21/john-fords-wilderness-the-man-who-shot-liberty-valance/

Kent Jones on Quentin Tarantino on John Ford: https://www.filmcomment.com/article/intolerance-quentin-tarantino-john-ford/

2024 is gonna be jerkin'. Keep your eyes peeled. Or your ears, I guess.

In our Christmas special, Ciara makes Dean fulfil his only goal before turning 30: finally watching Die Hard. They talk about masculinity, Christmas movies, and who was offered the role before Bruce Willis.

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Dean fulfils a long-held ambition to introduce Ciara to his boys, director Joseph Losey and actor Dirk Bogarde, with their 1963 film The Servant. They talk about its homoeroticism, the class anxieties of 60s London and whether Dean hates James Fox.

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Josephine Botting on The Servant for BFI: https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/servant-dirk-bogarde-joseph-losey-harold-pinter

Colm Tóibín on The Servant for Criterion: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8180-the-servant-a-cruel-servility

Ciara gets to show Dean a film for the first time in months, and it's a big one: John Schlesinger's multi-Oscar-winning Midnight Cowboy. They talk about disability, poverty and sexuality, its satire of Andy Warhol's Factory and how dumb Joe Buck is.

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Roger Ebert on Midnight Cowboy in the 90s: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/midnight-cowboy-1969-1

For our third Halloween Spooktacular, Dean shows Ciara one of the most iconic horror films of their adolescence: Saw. They talk about how it riffs on and/or rips off Se7en, the strange politics of John Kramer, and the shadow of the real torture of the Bush administration.

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"Hollywood, the Bush Years, and America’s Memory Hole" by Ciara in Current Affairs: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/11/hollywood-the-bush-years-and-americas-memory-hole

The Sundae Presents, Episode 8: The Evil Dead / Evil Dead II: https://thesundae.net/2021/10/24/the-evil-dead-evil-dead-ii-the-sundae-presents-episode-8/

After months of broken promises and outright lies, it's here: Ciara and Dean finally dig into Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. They talk about the origin of the titular band, its religious epic structure, and why Jack Black swore to never write another film.

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I Miss You More Than I Did Yesterday: https://thesundae.net/2019/05/20/i-miss-you-more-than-i-did-yesterday/