Watch With Jen™

An episode that we've been planning since we recorded our first conversation devoted to Martin Scorsese in Season 2, this week, I was so honored to welcome back my favorite crime writer working today to dissect one of her most significant sources of inspiration, the fascinating & controversial writer-director Paul Schrader.

Novelist Megan Abbott is the Edgar-winning author of such acclaimed, rich works as GIVE ME YOUR HAND, YOU WILL KNOW ME, THE TURNOUT, DARE ME, QUEENPIN, and more. Her newest book, BEWARE THE WOMAN, is set to release on May 30 from Penguin Random House and is already available for pre-order.

Much like when we discussed Martin Scorsese and opted to tackle some of her underrated or under-discussed favorites from his filmography, we did the same here. For this episode, Megan selected five Schrader films that are often overlooked, including HARDCORE, PATTY HEARST, THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS, LIGHT SLEEPER, and AUTO FOCUS. Sprinkled into this deeply analytical & appreciative conversation, I've included first-person accounts from filmmaker Paul Schrader that I encountered in the book SCHRADER ON SCHRADER during my research. Except, as I was unable to find them voiced by Schrader himself, doing the honors today, we have past guest and veteran film critic Sean Burns graciously bringing the man, the myth, the Michigan accent to life for your listening pleasure. The result is an episode that I know film buffs will cherish. It's two sharp women on Schrader, seediness, Scottsdale, & sex. What more could you want?!

Originally Posted on Patreon (3/4/23) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/79557830

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Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

We are back in 2023 with the first episode of the fourth season of Watch With Jen & it's a nice long, chatty, analytical one that's as surprisingly moving as it is filled with great Hollywood stories. RAVENOUS, OCEAN'S ELEVEN, & MATCHSTICK MEN screenwriter Ted Griffin (who also created FX's TERRIERS & produced THE WOLF OF WALL STREET) returns to the podcast to pay tribute to his old late mentor, the beloved yet still widely unsung writer-director Curtis Hanson.

A man who began his career as a film critic, journalist, & photographer for "Cinema" magazine before he cut his teeth at Roger Corman's American International Pictures, Hanson went on to become a terrific director of crackerjack Hitchcockian thrillers before directing his masterpiece LA CONFIDENTIAL, & delving into more character-driven work like WONDER BOYS & IN HER SHOES.

Focusing on the start of his career & rise to become a master of genre filmmaking, in this roughly ninety-minute conversation, we discuss the works THE SILENT PARTNER (adapted from a Danish crime novel by Hanson for director Daryl Duke), THE BEDROOM WINDOW, BAD INFLUENCE, THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, & THE RIVER WILD.

A heartfelt ode to Hanson - the man as well as the filmmaker - this was such a wonderful discussion & Ted Griffin went above & beyond in calling the director's old friends, family, & collaborators, including the incredible cinematographer Robert Elswit, in order to paint the most accurate portrait of Hanson. I'm so honored to be in a position to not only hear all of these stories but share them with all of you as well, & I know you'll enjoy our celebration of the life & career of the great Curtis Hanson.

Originally Posted on Patreon (2/27/23) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/79288476

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Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Behold our final episode of not only this 3-part holiday bonus special, but also the final episode of Season 3. For fun last night, I used a calculator to add up the number of installments of Watch With Jen that have been uploaded in the show's history so far & was stunned to discover that this one is number 170! That's A LOT of conversations about film, you guys, & I want to thank you so much for digging it & joining us along the way. I hope you will return for what is shaping up to be a thrilling Season 4!

Today's episode involves a handful of larger-than-life figures that most of us in the past few generations grew up loving in the form of Tennessee Williams, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, John Huston, Elvis Presley, & Angela Lansbury. Joining me to discuss the newly released & remastered edition of THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, we have my very good friend & one of the show's most frequent guests, author William (Bill) Boyle, plus one of the greatest film writers & Elvis experts working today, the wondrous Sheila O'Malley on BLUE HAWAII.

Sheila & I had a ball tackling the scandalous world of sexy, violent pre-code Hollywood midway into the second season & I was so honored to have her back once again to cover a topic she's so passionate & knowledgeable about. Both Bill & Sheila will be back in Season 4, as will all of the other guests you heard this week, & I know you'll get a kick out of this chatty, celebratory, funny, & eye-opening roughly 52-minute episode.

Originally Posted on Patreon (12/22/22) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/watch-with-jen-76243968

Welcome to the second of three bonus episodes on films you can now find on physical media. Zeroing in on some of my favorite contemplative foreign & art-house releases, in this 82-minute installment of Watch With Jen, we discuss three films you can now find on Criterion disc, including THE POWER OF THE DOG, DRIVE MY CAR, & THE INFERNAL AFFAIRS TRILOGY, as well as MONSIEUR HIRE, which Cohen Films just made available on Blu-ray. An engaging, alternately soulful & funny chat, in a gem of an episode, you'll hear from three more of my dearest friends & your favorites from the show, including author/critic Walter Chaw, author/blogger Jed Ayres, & author/screenwriter Jordan Harper.

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

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Originally Posted on Patreon (12/21/22) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/watch-with-jen-76199157

Welcome to the first of three bonus physical media episodes that I'll be releasing this week to celebrate the end of the third season, the end of the year, and above all, to thank you for your support throughout 2022. In this installment, which is devoted to '22 releases, you'll hear film critic Sean Burns and critic/podcaster Blake Howard on TOP GUN: MAVERICK, "New York Times" bestselling author S.A. Cosby on NOPE, & crime writer Nikki Dolson on THE BAD GUYS, DC's LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS, & MOONFALL (which made us laugh so hard that I deleted sections of us just howling). Blake - the absolute prince among men that he is - gave us all the coolest holiday present by editing the TOP GUN section himself & splicing in audio from the film so you can lose yourself in its soundscape & it sounds amazing so I know you'll love it!

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

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Originally Posted on Patreon (12/20/22) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/watch-with-jen-s-76157436

For the third season finale of Watch With Jen, I was thrilled and proud to welcome back one of my dearest pals and the hardest-working man in pod-business, Mr. Blake Howard.

The brains behind the stellar One Heat Minute Productions that launched with an in-depth minute-by-minute investigation and appreciation of Michael Mann's "Heat," he's released numerous pods since, including "All The President's Minutes," "Josie and the Podcats," "Zodiac: Chronicle," and also, the excellent "Increment Vice," hosted by our good friend, the film essayist Travis Woods. With several more releasing now like "Miami Nice," "Rum and Rant," "Too Much Movie," plus essays on heist films at Vague Visages, his busy family life with his lovely wife and two young children, and a new career as a teacher, Blake Howard is one of the busiest and most talented people I know... and also, the nicest.

In this thoughtful, funny, and passionate episode devoted to one of our favorite filmmakers, Blake and I discuss the career of Australian master director and recent honorary lifetime Oscar winner Peter Weir. Celebrating his diverse career of groundbreaking work that set a new bar for Australian film and helped kick off the country's new wave in the 1970s along with fellow directors like George Miller and Bruce Beresford, in this fast-paced conversation, we investigate what makes GALLIPOLI, WITNESS, and THE TRUMAN SHOW (still) so powerful, entertaining, and profound.

Our final regular season episode of the year, Watch With Jen will be delivering a bonus Physical Media episode in mid to late December first for our Patreon subscribers (before making it available to all). We will also return in February of 2023 with Season 4 and have many exciting future installments in various planning stages that you're sure to love. Thank you so much for your loyalty, enthusiasm, and support, and for making this year our biggest yet.

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Logo: KateGabrielle.com

Originally Posted on Patreon (12/5/22) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/75508099

This week, I'm so pleased to welcome back to the podcast a very talented, supportive, and funny friend. Currently based in Newark, Delaware, Mitchell Beaupre is not only the Senior Editor at one of my favorite services (via Letterboxd), but they're also the co-host of the Weekend Watchlist and Four Favorites podcasts, which you can find in the stream for The Letterboxd Show. Additionally, a prolific freelance film journalist and stellar interviewer for prestigious outlets such as "The Film Stage," "Paste Magazine," "The Playlist," and "Little White Lies," you can keep up with all of their impressive work on Twitter @ItIsMitchell.

The biggest fan of Willem Dafoe, Mitchell's passion for their favorite character actor shines through in this rich, in-depth feature-length conversation. Zeroing in on TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A. (which is a legit obsession for both of us), THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, SPIDER-MAN, THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU, 4:44: LAST DAY ON EARTH, and THE FLORIDA PROJECT, we cover everything from the way Dafoe uses his sexuality and spirituality to seduce and captivate to his generosity with other actors and joy just doing the work every day as a self-described restless "nomad."

It's an engaging and thoughtful episode that acting nerds will especially appreciate. And since Mitchell's earlier appearance covering Jim Jarmusch movies was one of the most popular installments of Watch With Jen released this season, I know you'll enjoy this one as well!

Note: There is only one regular episode left of Watch With Jen S3! Next week's Peter Weir discussion with Blake Howard marks our season finale, save for a bonus physical media episode that will drop sometime in December, initially as a Patreon exclusive, in order to thank you for your kind support.

Logo: KateGabrielle.com

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Originally Posted on Patreon (11/30/22) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/75311857

Watch With Jen started 2022 with an episode featuring fan favorite S.A. Cosby, so as we begin wrapping up our third season, it's only fitting that we bring Shawn back to discuss more movies he loves. As kind and genuine as he is knowledgeable and gifted, the first time I ever chatted with Shawn was one week before he released the book that would become a smash success and put him on the map.

The remarkable Blacktop Wasteland won an avalanche of well-deserved praise and awards, including the Anthony and the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Hardcover Fiction Novel. Impressively, his follow-up title Razorblade Tears met and/or exceeded all expectations, becoming a runaway New York Times bestseller, earning Shawn another boatload of accolades, including repeat honors from organizations that celebrated Blacktop Wasteland the previous year. Perhaps the most staggeringly awesome achievement for Razorblade Tears, however, was when it was included as one of the titles on former President Obama's list of summer reads! Yet still as gracious as ever and well-loved among his colleagues, we're all so very proud of Shawn, and, considering that he was working intensely on the final edits of his next novel All the Sinners Bleed (out June 2023), I appreciated all the more his taking the time to tackle a filmmaker that fascinates him in this roughly one hundred minute conversation.

While the first part of our chat is devoted to his own work because fans always want to know what's going on with the screen adaptations of his books and all other news (including my attempts to make him blush with questions from his best friend Nikki Dolson), we then venture north to Toronto to look at the weird, wild, kinky, yet morose filled world of Armenian-Egyptian-Canadian writer-director Atom Egoyan.

Drawn to stories of tragedy, regret, alienation, isolation in modern society, and our struggles to connect with one another, in this episode, we look at his two career high-water marks of the 1990s with Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter, as well as his biggest box office hit from 2009 in Chloe. Analyzing the films' rich characterization, performances, and our impressions of what Egoyan is trying to say, while we do get deep, we also entertain, whether it's in the tale I share about this time in college when this woman in the quad tried to recruit me to join her escort agency (she had the wrong girl!) or Shawn talking about the beauty of ambiguous endings while touching on his own work. Cinephiles will dig this episode.

Logo: KateGabrielle.com

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Originally Posted on Patreon (11/14/22) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/74615939

A film critic for publications such as LA Weekly, New York Magazine, Vulture, The New York Times, and formerly, The Village Voice, the brilliant Bilge Ebiri is one of my favorite journalists working today. And recently, he was kind enough to name Watch With Jen one of the best current film podcasts in an article for Vulture. Additionally, a writer-director who's known for the films New Guy, Purse Snatcher, and for assistant directing The Barber of Siberia, Bilge and I had so much fun with our Colin Farrell episode last March that while talking about In Bruges, we knew immediately that Ralph Fiennes should be next.

Celebrating the great range and remarkable films of the powerful and unpredictable performer who fluctuates between charm and menace, while we cite numerous movies from Fiennes' career, in this nearly two-hour episode, we spend the most time on Sunshine, The End of the Affair, Coriolanus, The Invisible Woman, and The Dig. One of my favorite things about chatting with the great Bilge is just how wonderfully descriptive he is, often using his hands to drive home precisely what it is that makes actors' faces and physicality so unique. The end result is a delightful and illuminating conversation about acting, character, filmmaking, and storytelling - including what Fiennes has in common with Prince - that cinephiles are bound to appreciate.

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Logo: Kate Gabrielle (KateGabrielle.com)

Originally Posted on Patreon (11/7/22) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/74350007

Returning to Watch With Jen this week, we have my very talented friend and an official (and very popular) friend of the show. William Boyle is the acclaimed novelist behind such titles as Gravesend, The Lonely Witness, A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself, City of Margins, and Shoot the Moonlight Out. In addition to crafting these wonderfully humanistic Lumet-like character-driven ensemble crime epics, Bill is quite the pop culture buff and one hell of a good movie trivia game player as well.

Someone with whom I frequently discuss great character actors - such as Jennifer Jason Leigh and Nicolas Cage - in this thoughtful feature-length conversation, we take a look at the films, themes, actors, and style of the work of writer-director John Sayles.

A humanistic sociologist of sorts with a passion for exploring human relationships among largely hardworking, blue-collar characters, while Sayles has a career that's spanned several decades, we opted to zero in primarily on his prolific, acclaimed '80s and '90s output via the films Matewan, Eight Men Out, City of Hope, Lone Star, and Limbo.

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Logo: Kate Gabrielle (KateGabrielle.com)

Originally Posted on Patreon (10/31/22) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/74025916