Watch With Jen™

Los Angeles based Variety & Fresh Fiction film critic Courtney Howard returns to the podcast for a breezy, nostalgic, spirited, & informal chat about everyone's favorite Peruvian bear. You'll hear us celebrate the imaginative & talented cast & crew of PADDINGTON, PADDINGTON 2, & the most recent installment, PADDINGTON IN PERU, as well as the way its overall themes resonate especially well today. A shorter installment of Watch With Jen that's just an easy chat among friends, it's the perfect thing to take with you on your next marmalade run to the grocery store.

Originally Posted on Jen's Patreon (11/4/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142847261

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Happy Halloween! We don't dedicate too many episodes of Watch With Jen to television shows, mostly because of the time & effort involved in rewatching several seasons over a long period of time. But if a TV series touches us enough, if it's beloved, created & executed with a true original vision, raises & sets the bar, has been unfairly overlooked, or if it's something that has impacted an entire generation of fans, then we want to be sure to celebrate its greatness.

After all, in every generation, a slayer is born, & in our second of two Halloween episodes, past guests Elizabeth Cantwell, Jessica Ellis, & Roxana Hadadi join me to discuss all seven seasons of the landmark Gen X/Millennial favorite "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Honoring its legacy, evolution, the creative minds & talents involved, we take you on a journey of the highs & lows of Joss Whedon's Scooby Gang in Sunnydale, California & all seven seasons of episodes of this WB & UPN series. Comprised mostly of a long conversation between myself, Elizabeth, (+ a cameo by her son Cooper) & Jessica, the final segment of this installment includes a great bonus chat/afterward with Vulture TV Critic Roxana Hadadi as well. (Note: We will return in Season 7 with another conversation focused on the spin-off series "Angel.")

Originally Posted on Patreon (10/28/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142276745

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Watch With Jen is releasing two Halloween episodes this year for your listening pleasure & we're starting with an appreciation of a man who is synonymous with spooky season! New York Times bestselling author S.A. Cosby (All the Sinners Bleed, King of Ashes) & award-winning novelist William Boyle (City of Margins, Saint of the Narrows Street) return to the podcast to discuss their decades long affection for the written & filmed work of prolific horror master Stephen King.

A fast-paced conversation filled with nostalgia, confessions, & stories of a few screenings gone wrong, while we touch on a wide variety of titles including THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE DARK HALF, & THE MIST & offer enough insights for you to need to listen with a notebook & pen, the main films we wanted to cover were SILVER BULLET, MISERY, PET SEMATARY, & SECRET WINDOW. Be sure to share this with any King fans in your life!

Originally Posted (10/20/25) on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/141675016

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It's such a joy to introduce everyone to my delightfully knowledgeable work buddy Pat King (aka PK), who's a veteran bookseller at Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ. One of our most beloved employees with decades of experience, PK is a Book Ninja, in that you can walk in, tell him what you're interested in or the kind of stuff you like & he'll find you your new favorite read. This week, I brought him on to discuss another one of his passions beyond Science Fiction & Horror. As a video game enthusiast & collector, PK is the perfect person to inject the pod (& this heavy year) with a little bit of nostalgia. Sharing our early memories of our first video game systems & favorite games, we move on to discuss the film adaptations of LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER (2001), the first RESIDENT EVIL film (2002), SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (2020), & the recent animated SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE (2023).

Originally Posted on Patreon (10/14/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/141220694

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We're back from our mid-season hiatus! My great pal, author Jed Ayres returns to the podcast once again to explore one of his favorite topics: the hair of Andy Garcia! Lol, no, seriously, while he is admittedly "fascinated" & somewhat obsessed with the man's gorgeous head of hair, over the years, the two of us bonded over our love of Garcia calling Michael Douglas "babe" in Ridley Scott's wild homoerotic action movie BLACK RAIN, having a snowcone fight in 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE, & so much more. In this rollicking episode, we tackle a trio of the actor's lesser known &/or lesser discussed works, including INTERNAL AFFAIRS (1990), THE GODFATHER: PART III (1990), & DESPERATE MEASURES (1998), & break down the mane & mystique of Andy Garcia, who's one of our favorite cinematic presences, "hair actors"*, & purposeful shouters!

*copyright Jed Ayres!

Originally Posted on Patreon (10/8/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/140767594

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Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down over Zoom & chatting with one of my favorite couples, Chris & Elizabeth Cantwell. An L.A.-based television & comic book writer, listeners first heard Chris discuss his work on the brilliant series he co-created HALT & CATCH FIRE in one of Watch With Jen's most popular episodes. His wife is the ever-insightful, poet, teacher, scholar, & Bright Wall/Dark Room essayist & editor Elizabeth Cantwell, who has taught me so much about horror movies over the years.

Originally recorded just to cut together into a larger episode alongside other chats about recent Criterion 4K releases, since the podcast is still on a break while I'm dealing with an autoimmune issue, I thought it'd be fun just to release it as an enjoyable, short, thoughtful, story-filled summer coda to the pod. It's also a vital reminder that, while you're planning your vacations in August, to try to avoid any undertaking which requires driving a big rig filled with unstable nitroglycerin across rickety bridges when you're on the run with fake papers in Latin America. That's right, Chris & Elizabeth are here to discuss William Friedkin's masterful 1977 picture SORCERER, which has gained new appreciation over the last decade especially, yet remains one of his most unsung, fascinating, mind-bogglingly ambitious works.

Originally Posted on Patreon (7/29/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/watch-with-jen-5-135241438

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Welcome to the fourth installment in our Summer '25 suite of episodes devoted to recent Physical Media releases from The Criterion Collection. This will be the last new episode of Watch With Jen before I go on a brief summer hiatus but I'm hoping to return with more wonderful shows & conversations you'll love in mid to late August. SAINT OF THE NARROWS STREET novelist William Boyle returns this week to discuss Claude Berri's lush, tragic masterpieces JEAN DE FLORETTE & MANON OF THE SPRING, my hilarious & brilliant Boston buddy Sean Burns joins me for Bruce Robinson's cult classic WITHNAIL AND I, & Blake Howard & I venture to Hong Kong for some "California Dreaming" & Tony Leung c/o Wong Kar-wai's CHUNGKING EXPRESS. During our pod break, you'll find more updates & film content on our Patreon (patreon.com/FilmIntuition) where you can sign up as a free member or one who donates monthly (for as little or as much as you wish) to help keep this show running, & check out everything from videos on overlooked film recs to essays on some of the movies most obsessing me at the moment, including a recent piece on WITHNAIL AND I. I'm wishing everyone a happy, healthy, & safe summer break.

Originally Posted on Patreon (7/7/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/133594248

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I've been pre-scheduling podcast episodes this summer &, forgetting that we are now living in a time of anything goes chaos in the U.S., last week's conversation wound up publishing in the hours after the news involving Iran. Hopefully anyone who knows me knows that I wouldn't normally pivot from major world news to self-promotion but I still wanted to take this opportunity to apologize for any confusion or insensitivity that the accidentally ill-timed new episode caused. To make up for that gaffe, I thought I'd deliver this third conversation in our summer suite of episodes devoted to Physical Media early, just in case you're heading to the airport or about to unplug for the next week or so since it's a big time for summer travel here in the states. (So far, nothing Earth-shattering has happened that I'm aware of as I type this but as a friend joked, it's getting harder & harder to find a day without a catastrophe.) In any case, may this be a distraction for you.

In last week's new Watch With Jen, we led you down the dark streets of neo-noir. This installment is centered on American independent filmmakers (or in the case of Billy Wilder, very independently minded ones) & is devoted to matters of the heart. Kicking things off, VULTURE's brilliant TV critic & Peabody Awards juror Roxana Hadadi joins me to discuss Sean Baker's Oscar winning ANORA, SAINT OF THE NARROWS STREET novelist William Boyle returns to tackle CHOOSE ME by one of his favorite filmmakers Alan Rudolph, & I reunite with the knowledgeable film essayist Peter Avellino to talk about the magic of Billy Wilder's SOME LIKE IT HOT. Emotional, sparkling, & warm, I know this conversation will delight. Thanks so much for listening!

Originally Posted on Patreon (6/27/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132487075

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We're back with part two of our ongoing summer series devoted to the newest physical media releases from The Criterion Collection & today's episode is a must for neo-noir fans everywhere. First up, you'll hear from bestselling award-winning authors S.A. Cosby (whose newest novel KING OF ASHES just hit shelves last week) & Jordan Harper (SHE RIDES SHOTGUN & EVERYBODY KNOWS) on director Stephen Frears' outstanding adaptation of author Jim Thompson's THE GRIFTERS. Then we leave the '90s behind & go further back in time to catch up with the brilliant film essayist & historian Priscilla Page on two of her all-time favorite films in director Michael Mann's THIEF & Arthur Penn's NIGHT MOVES. Scholarly, fresh, funny, & filled with razor sharp analysis, hold onto your wallet, car, & any missing girls or crooks in your orbit & just try to keep up with all of these cons.

Originally Posted on Patreon (6/22/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/131774814

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

It's cowboys, & truckers, & samurai, oh my! In the first part of a summer suite of Season 6 episodes devoted to Physical Media released this year by The Criterion Collection, you'll hear conversations with some of my dearest friends (& your favorite guests). Just in time for Father's Day, we're embracing Dudes Rock (or at times, ironically, "Dudes Don't Rock") Energy for the first quartet of classic film favorites. I kick things off here in the West with THE GET-OFF author Christa Faust on WINCHESTER '73, & then check in with my B-Side Podcast buddies Dan Mecca & Conor O'Donnell out in the East for an in-depth look at THE WAGES OF FEAR, YOJIMBO, & SANJURO.

Originally Posted on Patreon (6/15/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/130547493

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