Ticket Stubs

Grab the cigarillos and hoist the balaclavas: we go us a score in the works! This episode's exploration of crime cinema guides us through the seedy underbellies of Boston...or New Orleans...or Sawmills...or wherever the heck Killing Them Softly, Andrew Dominik's 2012 political diatribe in hood's clothing, takes place. But before we revel in the muck, we partake in a Blue Plate Special selection that salvages something from John Waters's 1972 cult behemoth Pink Flamingos, find a lot to love with the new A24 slasher Bodies Bodies Bodies, and celebrate the bittersweet conclusion of Better Call Saul. We eventually get around to casing the goldmine of a genre movie that is the subject of this episode, one which prompts a discussion of all things Brad Pitt, a consideration of Dominik's updating of novelist George C. Higgins and his source material, and really just find every opportunity to heap love upon Sam Shepard's brief but legendary walk-on performance as Dillon, the man himself.

Feel free to skip to 2:16:04 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.

https://crimereads.com/killing-them-softly/

https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/20/storm-in-my-house-the-thrilling-formula-of-bodies-bodies-bodies/

Have you ever wanted your carefree, blissful poolside tan interrupted by an assaultive collection of hateful bile? Then sit back in your lounge chair and apply the sun screen because we've got a show for you: this week's episode has us parsing 2000's witty and strange British crime flick Sexy Beast! But before we catapult face first off the diving board, we snack on an endlessly sumptuous Blue Plate Special, covering topics as varied as Dennis Hopper's unlikely 1980 punk masterpiece Out of the Blue, new release Bullet Train and a spirited post-screening reaction it inspired, and the outright cancelled release of Batgirl and the larger restructuring of Warner Brothers and HBO Max it foretells. We finally get around to executing this week's job, promoting a discussion of the British crime film and its narrative/aesthetic interests, how Jonathan Glazer's direction upsets them, and endlessly delight in Sir Ben Kingsley's immediately iconic performance as the villainous Don Logan.

Feel free to skip to 2:19:55 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.

https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/01/out-of-pocket-8-just-for-one-day/?fbclid=IwAR3MXnLIPQgQWmm6e0BCQrRxsyZSB7CbticwNboOhdGEvfHB3B97aSnpWSQ

Hop on into the squad car and bear witness to one of the most notorious cops in cinematic history with Bad Lieutenant, Abel Ferrara's controversial 1992 masterpiece. But before we scrutinize this grisly mugshot of a movie, this week's Blue Plate Special find us fielding 2022 thoughts on Steven Spielberg's 1979 disaster 1941 (with us so far?); glancing into the hall of mirrors psychological gauntlet Synecdoche, New York from none other than Charlie Kaufman; and find a lot to love in Nope, Jordan Peele's latest blockbuster chiller. The time finally arrives to merge onto this episode's degenerative off-ramp of a movie, forcing us to confront an outright daring Harvey Keitel performance while grappling with what sets Ferrara and his direction apart within the crime genre, not to mention a discussion of content that warranted the film its infamous NC-17 rating. It goes without saying this episode isn't for the faint of heart but perhaps you'll agree that the unlikely redemption makes the brutalist filmmaking all the more rewarding.

Feel free to skip to 3:02:35 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.

https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2022/07/20/weve-all-been-through-a-lot-the-atonal-satire-of-1941/

https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2022/07/25/out-yonder-the-timeless-and-timely-nope/

One minute you're playing expert spoiler to would-be forgers at an art auction, the next minute you're saving one such forger before he falls to his death off a speeding bullet train. As disgraced British Prime Minister Boris Johnson would say, "...them's the breaks!" This week's episode, perhaps the most special in our history, has us palling alongside a delightful pack of miscreants with 1977's The American Friend! But before we get around to our latest entry in our series of crime films, this week's Blue Plate Special finds us contrasting the listless Airport 1975 with the eclectic brilliance of The Red Shoes, Menace II Society, and Moulin Rouge! before celebrating the lives of James Caan and Tony Sirico. Upon checking off all our boxes and stocking up on all the essentials, we finally hit the open road with none other than director of The American Friend himself, Wim Wenders- who joined us live and in person at the Huffman Brothers Productions Studios! Listen as the German New Wave icon dishes on the arduous production process with madman Dennis Hopper, his tempestuous collaboration with Patricia Highsmith, where his relationship with Francis Ford Coppola currently stands, and what he remembers about Caldwell County's own Willard Blevins from the early 1980s. We were incredibly honored to have Mr. Wenders on the pod and I think our conversation with him lived up to the hype!

Feel free to skip to 2:33:35 for our conversation with Wim Wenders and 3:06:05 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.

It's your lucky day: you just secured a pair of highly sought after backstage passes to the show of a lifetime, brought to you by the many talented ladies and handful of gentleman at Crazy Horse West. That's right, you walked right into...The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, John Cassavetes's crime genre turn of the mid 70s? Well, why we clean up the unexpectedly bloody stage, treat yourself to an opening act Blue Plate Special discussion of Elvis (the man, the myth, and the latest maximalist spectacular from Baz Luhrmann), the new chiller The Black Phone (starring none other than Ethan Hawke), and the promising film project on the horizon (no pun intended) from Yellowstone star Kevin Costner. This week's featured attraction finds us ruminating on the intensely casual cinema of Cassavetes, finding a lot to love in the confident disaster that is Ben Gazzara's performance, and pleasurably surveying what happens when an artist of the highest order decides to take what would otherwise be a soulless "one for them" and turn it into the sort of explosive concoction only they could've made.

Stick around for the curtain call to not only get a preview of what's ahead but also hear a little from a *very* special guest who will be joining us next episode!

Feel free to skip to 2:28:24 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.

https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2022/06/26/breathing-fire-the-life-not-lived-in-elvis/?fbclid=IwAR3Fe3-GczP0bSLBUhaUPZz3gMILtZeDUnRmgANInMxPipPaKKVm9e6ZBu8

https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2022/06/28/well-call-you-the-moving-isolation-of-the-black-phone/

Sit right here and have another beer in Mexico...it very well may be your last! Our latest look at crime cinema has us trudging through the muck of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, director Sam Peckinpah's unforgiving neo-western from 1974. But before we descend into oblivion, we load up a Blue Plate Special where we discuss Kathryn Bigelow's appropriately titled Strange Days, parse the latest David Cronenberg release Crimes of the future, and celebrate the dearly departed character acting legend Phillip Baker Hall. Upon eventually taking the off-ramp to Hell, we consider the game changing filmography of Peckinpah, the beauty of Warren Oates, and weigh what exactly today's film in question adds to the genre complexion of New Hollywood's cynicism.

Feel free to skip to 2:12:05 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.

Hop in the getaway car as we fumble through an already ill-conceived score gone wrong with part 2 of our ongoing deep dive on crime cinema with 1973's The Friends of Eddie Coyle, the godfather of Boston crime yarns. But on the way to the heist, we first gorge ourselves with Blue Plate Special topics as varied as Alex Garland's latest assault on the modern subconscious (Men), the unexpected yet welcome brilliance of Top Gun: Maverick, the utterly rotten and dishonorable Paramount+ televisual product The Offer, and a mourning of the loss of star Ray Liotta. Upon arriving to the subject of today's episode, we tackle what this movie gains from the monumental star presence of Robert Mitchum and how this work effectively threads the needle as a gripping genre offering and simultaneous paranoid, Watergate-era New Hollywood statement. Whew, ok, we think we'd like our phone call now...

Feel free to skip to 2:31:07 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.

https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2022/06/01/out-of-pocket-6-original-sin/?fbclid=IwAR3BPlW0vNqw_eTfiKwJ3TlE9cpsPHfvS2oTXTN6n4YGO17Iolxvx98n5RE

We decided to finally spring ourselves out of hiatus jail and make a semi-triumphant return with Each Dawn I Die, an underrated 1939 gem from the hallowed Warner Brothers gangster film canon! But first...this week's full-fledged gruel of a Blue Plate Special involves discussions of a host of new releases, including The Batman, Ambulance, The Northman, and Memoria, as well as belated thoughts on the Will Smith-Chris Rock fiasco and the ongoing disaster that is the Jonathan Debt (Johnny Depp to some) and Amber Heard defamation trial. Finally, we bust out of this joint with a celebration of the classic Hollywood gangster film tradition, delight in all things Jimmy Cagney, and in general just have a blast getting back into the swing of things.

Feel free to skip to 2:33:09 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.

All aboard as we celebrate one, two, three, four, scratch that, fifty episodes of Overlapping Dialogue with a movie so big that even this podcast couldn't sink it: Titanic! But before we rally to the lifeboats or slide hopelessly to our chilly doom, this week's Blue Plate Special finds us chowing down on a whole host of recent watches, including Smooth Talk, The Green Fog, Kameradschaft, Mud, and Far From Heaven. Once the appetizers are dispatched, we feast on James Cameron's gargantuan main course of a production, working our way through the various historical contexts the movie situates itself in, unpack the film's at once broad yet entirely effective characterizations of class, and answer the question of whether or not this really was the last great Hollywood movie made at this scale and execution. Spoiler alert: it was. It really was...

Feel free to skip to 3:11:33 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.

Remember that gum you like? Well, it's going to come back in style...and leave you with plenty to chew on. This week's episode finds us cautiously shuffling through the enchanting, delicious nightmare known as Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the prequel/marginal-sequel to the beloved cult classic TV show that fills in a few gaps while crafting whole new gulfs along the way. But before we traipse through the labyrinthian corridors of the Red Room, we discuss a recent profile of Francis Ford Coppola that acts as its own coda to our recent Godfather episodes, followed by a fully-loaded Blue Plate Special with topics as diverse as the most recent acts of cultural terrorism perpetrated by the Walt Disney Company with their Storyliving suburban experience, discussions of trailers for the forthcoming summer releases Elvis and Nope, and a bite-sized review of Netflix's The Power of the Dog. We eventually take in the wispy Douglas firs and Norma's signature cherry pie upon entering the city limits of Twin Peaks, with an introduction covering our own journeys with the show and director David Lynch generally, how its narrative and aesthetic concerns evolved not only over time but between iterations and mediums, interpret how exactly Fire Walk With Me simultaneously expanded the emotional and mythological scope of the series, talk about the ways in which The Return would go on to further enrich all that came before it, and what exactly the entire Twin Peaks phenomenon "means" to us. Don't worry, there are no clear-cut, easy answers to be found, only a profound sense of emotional catharsis. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

Feel free to skip to 3:45:17 for the beginning of our audio commentary.

As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, comments, and requests.