For some strange reason, Jack listens to other podcasts sometimes, and when he does he tries to find movies he hasn't heard of before for a little series now in its penultimate outing: What the Devil is That? In this case, the excellent 80's All Over (check your local listings via Scott Weinberg and Drew McWeeny on Twitter and so on) mentioned it in their September of 82 episode... and Jack conveniently blocked out whatever else they said after those two words came forth.

Should their words of warning not gone on deaf ears? Hear us now speak for a ludicrous amount of time in Alan Rudolph's ENDANGERED SPECIES (which is, yes, in part curious about why it has this title).

We're back after a Christmas where we got very big on food, so how do we get small again? On Christmas Day an unlikely blockbuster film- from the director of Citizen Ruth and Nebraska- featuring Matt Damon as a man who shrinks down to 5 inches tall was released and somehow this was the one that caught Jack and Andrew's attention. Korey came along out of tiny curiosity (ho ho, get ready, there are a number of small puns). We saw it. Is it a BIG deal?

Email: [email protected]

https://www.facebook.com/wagesofcinema

https://www.twitter.com/wagesofcinema

Song: Duke Ellington (Jubilee Stomp)

Now, we didn't quite intend to do an entire episode, let alone one going past an hour long, about the new Luca Guadagagno film "Call Me By Your Name" (there are still many other films Jack has seen that could/will be talked about from 2017 that haven't yet). But Jack didn't see this with Andrew, Jack saw this his wife Korey, and... well, if you want to know more about her thoughts on the movie, just imagine everything Rotten Tomatoes is telling you with its 96% score... and reverse that. Jack didn't quite see it that way, but did he love it? Well...

We saw the Timothee Chalamet/Armie Hammer romantic drama scripted by James Ivory and now you can hear our thoughts - fyi mild/major SPOILERS at 22 minutes in (just hear for The Psychedelic Furs song "Love My Way", which was featured in the film, as your cue)

Well... what is there to say except a new Star Wars movie is out, we talk about it, and spoilers are at 45 minutes into this...

Listen.... just listen.... what do you hear?

Jack... Andrew... a little Korey (at the start)... Matt of the https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com blog....

It's so much more!

PS: PORG!

Send all your email to [email protected]

Hope you're ready for the return of a series we haven't done in a while; you may recall Wages of Cinema has in the past reached out to local (to the NYC area) filmmakers, actors, artists, playwrights, etc, and had conversations with them on mic about their lives, careers, the projects they're working on and have worked on and the process as they see it. We now return to this for a conversation that Jack has been wanting to have for a while: filmmaker-photographer-actor-producer-Doctor-Who-Godzilla man, Alex Valderana.

To explain in brief: Valderana is the main mind and creative force behind the non-profit/fan-made web-series NIGHTWING: ESCALATION, whose 3rd season has been going on the past few months on YouTube (some clips are featured, details below, also SPOILERS), and he is a photographer in the growing industry (yes, industry) of professional Cosplayers. Alex talks becoming a 'Kaiiju' fan at an early age, going to Hofstra university for film, the ups and downs of making a Batman *feature* right out of that school, and what's gone into the long journey to bring this down-and-dirty independently made web-series to production. Among other topics: Dark Knight Rises and Batman & Robin; the making of Jaws; the perils of college filmmaking; what goes into collaboration.

Also, make sure to check out Alex and the Nightwing team the weekend of December 1st-3rd at NY Winter Con (website at http://nywintercon.com/); Nightwing Escalation is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxvWTFAHBeD6WNNy-HzXplg on YouTube; his website is http://www.valderana.com/; and December 8th is the premier of a Catwoman fan-series (details in the podcast).

(Clips include from NIGHTWING: ESCALATION actors Katerina Mermelstein, Leer Leary, Alex Valderana, Dina Cataldi, David Howard Thornton and the trailer from BATMAN: HOTHOUSE)

"Shall we?"

It's finally here! How many of you were so aching to see Justice League? Did Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice whet your appetite (or as our usual/special guest star Matthew Catania of the https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com blog says phonetically, Beavis Dodge, maybe our next Scotus)? How about Cyborg? Or Steppenwolf? Or... no, no wake up, we're still podcasting here!

Jack and Andrew were talking about this movie for a while. How did we find this epic team up of Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg and... hey someone's missing, right? No way they were able to bring back you-know-who but... hey, he's doing press for the movie, no way! (oh, and Danny Elfman does the score - huzzah!0

Justice League spoilers start 40 minutes in. Hope you enjoy!

https://www.twitter.com/wagesofcinema

https://www.twitter.com/mattthecatania

https://www.facebook.com/wagesofcinema

https://www.facebook.com/MatttheCatania

Song: The White Stripes - "The Hardest Button to Button"

(PS: Jack is especially proud of the first thirty seconds of this episode, for what it's worth)

Take some Flash Gordon, throw in several grams of Douglas Adams, a good teaspoon of 80's synth, and of course in the package that original comes from Jack "King" Kirby (from his work on Thor but also, more importantly, the Fourth World series for Marvel's rival DC), and you got yourself a recipe for RAGNAROK, friends. This is not your usual Marvel motion picture! ... Okay, it kind of is, but the director, Taika Waititi, is here to make it much more of those things I mentioned, not to mention Jeff Goldblum runs a planet, which... well, who *wouldn't* want to live there?

We saw the third Thor movie - in the midst of "Phase Three" as it's called at the MCU - with the one and only Matthew Catania of the "Matt the Catania" blog (be sure to follow the links in this doobly-doo as he says) - and SPOILERS come in at 33:17 (or right after Goldblum does his Goldblumiest in the clip).

https://www.facebook.com/wagesofcinema

https://www.twitter.com/wagesofcinema

https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MattTheCatania/

https://www.twitter.com/wagesofcinema

Did we mention we hit 100 episodes? Well... WE DID! To celebrate, the hosts look back at their favorite episodes (actually, one episode a piece, with a few honorable mentions sprinkled about).

Fyi, these may feature our special Guest Star Matthew Catania, who you can find at https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

What is YOUR favorite episode? Let us know at [email protected] or on Facebook and Twitter at the same name

And now we go into that most terrifying and horrifying genre of all: HORROR COMEDIES!

Nah, just kidding, but this is one neither Jack nor Andrew heard before (which is strange considering Jack's deep-dive into the works of Roger Corman over the summer, an act Andrew found absurd, but no matter). This is a movie "from the producer of Little Shop of Horrors" as it says on the poster, which may be (in 1989 when this came out) a case of someone telling the truth AND kind of not being truthful at the same time (one might think, 'oh hey, I liked the Rick Moranis musical, let's go to this', not knowing they mean the *1960* Corman-directed original, which has its own cult audience). This is... well, is it spooktacular? Absolutely. But is it *funny*? Leave it to Jack and Andrew to find out on this tenth, Halloween-released installment of Jim Wynorski's Transvylvania Twist.

Oh, and Boris Karloff is in it. How is that POSSIBLE? We explain as well...

Hey... WE MADE IT! 100 friggin' episodes! This is wonderful news, and more importantly we couldn't have come this far without the support and plays from all of YOU out there in the Wages-World. Thank you, and we are pleased to bring you a giant 3-Part episode 100 for your listening pleasure.

In this first segment, Jack and Andrew read a listener posting on social media (don't forget you can always do the same, [email protected], plus find us on Facebook and Twitter) asking about the most faithful adaptations of books to screen; Jack catches up (around 22 minutes in) on a hallowed classic of science fiction/horror from the 1950's (this also leads to a digression about the upcoming Guillermo del-Toro film The Shape of Water, which looks to be inspired in creature-form from the Black Lagoon guy); Andrew watching the OJ documentary from last year again reminds Jack he just watched a Dr. Dre/Jimmy Iovine doc on HBO; who created Wonder Woman gets a biopic, and Jack and Andrew talk about the real-life figure and movies dealing with bondage/more taboo sexual subject matter in major release.

Clips from trailers from CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, THE SHAPE OF WATER, and PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN

Song is Jubilee Stomp by Duke Ellington (in public domain)