As Titanic continued its months-long reign at the box office, its closest challenger (before Lost in Space would dethrone it, that is) at the multiplex starred none other than one of its star-crossed lovers. Yes, Leonardo DiCaprio owned the box office in the weeks ahead of Titanic’s Best Picture win, pulling double double duty as … Continue reading "224 – The Man in the Iron Mask"

After the notorious failure of Elizabethtown, Cameron Crowe took a few years off and attempted to rebound with a warm-hearted family film, 2011’s We Bought A Zoo. The film starred Matt Damon in the very loose true story of a father struggling to raise his two children in the wake of his wife’s death, and finds the … Continue reading "223 – We Bought A Zoo"

After winning Best Picture and Best Director for his zeitgeist-seizing debut feature American Beauty, Sam Mendes instantly became a director who generate awards chatter no matter the project. In 2009, he took a noticeable tonal downshift with Away We Go, a minor key comedy about a young pregnant couple on a road trip to decide … Continue reading "222 – Away We Go"

We’ve previously discussed the work of Jason Reitman with our Men, Women, and Children episode, and this week we have another Reitman bomb: 2018′s The Front Runner. The film features Hugh Jackman as Senator Gary Hart and dramatizes Hart’s failed presidential campaign that was thwarted by an infidelity scandal. Released on Election Day after a very … Continue reading "221 – The Front Runner"

It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a little tradition, so naturally Vanity Fair’s Katey Rich makes her annual return to us this week to discuss James Gray’s The Lost City of Z. The film had a long pre-production history, including promises of Brad Pitt in the lead, that long positioned it as the film that might … Continue reading "220 – The Lost City of Z (with Katey Rich)"

As The Fabelmans is welcomed into theatres and Spielberg nostalgia is about to come back into conversation, we naturally are here to talk about one of his least discussed films: 1989′s Always. Based on the 1943 Victor Fleming film A Guy Named Joe, Always follows an aerial firefighter played by Richard Dreyfuss who dies saving his friend (John Goodman) in a mission, … Continue reading "219 – Always"

Vanity Fair’s chief critic Richard Lawson return to us this week to talk about a piece in a trend of films about aging women self-actualizing, Lorene Scafaria’s The Meddler. Starring Susan Sarandon as a widow ingratiating herself to her writer daughter (played by Rose Byrne) and her circle of friends, The Meddler provides a hilarious … Continue reading "218 – The Meddler (with Richard Lawson)"

Happy Halloween, Garys! Get ready for lots of whispers and accents as we close spooky season with one of our oft-referenced favorites, 1996′s uberflop Mary Reilly. A riff on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tale starring Julia Roberts as an Irish maid who falls for both personalities of the mad scientist, the film was … Continue reading "217 – Mary Reilly"

Welcome all our new CIA listeners, because this week we are talking about 2016′s Snowden. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as controversial whistleblower Edward Snowden, the film follows Snowden’s journey through exposing the surveillance state and his exile to Russia, all while maintaining his relationship with girlfriend Lindsay Mills (played by Shailene Woodley). With Oliver Stone at … Continue reading "216 – Snowden"

On the eve of the return of The White Lotus, we’re taking a look at the Mike White oeuvre with returning guest Jorge Molina and 2017′s Beatriz at Dinner. Starring our beloved Salma Hayek as a holistic masseuse trapped at a toxic dinner party held by her wealthy clients, the film debuted at Sundance and … Continue reading "215 – Beatriz at Dinner (with Jorge Molina)"