Wind, Reel, & Print

EPISODE 038: LETTERBOXD TOP 250 SHUFFLE

Featuring: Sansho the Bailiff (1954), Andrei Rublev (1966), Central Station (1998), Eureka (2000)

On this week’s episode of Wind Reel & Print’s Letterboxd Top 250 Shuffle, cohosts Ryan and Kevin pull out the Bingo sheets as they prepare to define what it means to be a Top 250 film. Examines the human condition through personal trauma? Check! Includes overly mature children protagonists alongside emotionally stunted adults? Check! Elevates the cinematic medium through intentional artistic choices? Check! Cinema as a religious experience? BINGO!! This particular collection of films shatters all expectations of what cinema has to offer and sends our cohosts deeper into the ocean.

EPISODE 037: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY (DIRECTORS)

Featuring: The Loveless (1981), Point Break (1991), Detroit (2017)

As a quasi-response to “Nashville”, this week’s WR&P podcast episode centers director Kathryn Bigelow and a trio of titles spanning her entire filmmaking career so far. Bigelow’s knack for rugged masculinity and right-leaning political views challenges the ways we consider gender and patriotism when it comes to discussing American filmmakers. In the post-”Hurt Locker” portion of her filmography, Bigelow settles firmly into the calling card of American mythology, or what Ryan describes as “bizarro Robert Altman”.

EPISODE 036: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY (GENRE)

Featuring: Dracula (1931), The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), Interview with a Vampire (1994), What We Do in the Shadows? (2014)

WR&P co-hosts Ryan and Kevin define the narrative and aesthetic parameters of the “Vampire Movie” by examining four films which cover nearly a century of blood-sucking cinema. With a meta-text predating movies themselves, the vampire archetype and its accompanying narrative encasement creates an iconography which can endure remakes, parodies, satires, and revivals. From Transylvania to New Zealand, the vampire myth continues to travel far and wide to frighten imaginations everywhere.

EPISODE 035: FILM THEORY DISCUSSIONS

What does it mean to watch a movie? Are you watching for the plot or the aesthetics? Are you looking to be entertained or emotionally stirred? Do you want to be able to think about it or do you just want to turn your brain off? These are all important questions to ask when you step into the proverbial theater. WR&P cohosts Ryan and Kevin take the time to consider what they prioritize when they watch a movie.

EPISODE 034: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY (FILM MOVEMENTS)

Featuring: Funny Ha Ha (2002), The Puffy Chair (2005), Mutual Appreciation (2005), Nights and Weekends (2007)

Ryan and Kevin explore the Mount Rushmore of Mumblecore by focusing on films by Greta Gerwig, Andrew Bujalski, the Duplass Brothers, and Joe Swanberg. Though the label is often loathed by the filmmakers who made these movies, mumblecore remains one of the formative film movements within digital filmmaking. Born in the forethought of the 2008 housing crisis alongside the advent of consumer-grade digital cameras, this minimalist New Wave-esque approach to low-to-no budget filmmaking represents an important stepping stone between reality television and online exhibitors such as YouTube and Netflix.

EPISODE 033: BAY AREA FLICKS

As a personal recommendation, Kevin introduces 2005’s “Just Like Heaven” as a San Francisco-based Bay Area movie. Featuring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo and directed by supernatural rom-com expert Mark Waters, this mid-2000s relic leaves whispers of screwball and mumblecore character types within what Ryan describes as “elevated Hallmark”. The discussion soon deviates into a formulation of rewatching movies and finding appreciation in films you used to watch during childhood.

EPISODE 032: WEIRD @ WR&P

Ryan and Kevin refresh their childhood memory by revisiting a Dick Van Dyke B-side in 1968’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. WR&P cohosts discuss why this rewatch settled into disappointment while stressing the negative impacts of industry and market pressures on the creative process.

EPISODE 031: GUEST STARRING SAM ISOLA

Featuring: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Nashville (1975), Secret Honor (1984), Short Cuts (1993)

How do you pinhole a director who dabbled in a little bit of everything? Wind Reel & Print recruits cinema-lover Sam Isola to help dissect the ever-evolving filmmaking style of Robert Altman. Specifically choosing four films outside of his mainstream hits, Sam paints a panoramic portrait of Altman’s personal obsessions, from highlighting America’s fraught history and mythology to fragmenting narratives with ensemble storylines and imperfect technique.

EPISODE 030: LETTERBOXD TOP 250 SHUFFLE

Featuring: Do The Right Thing (1989), Z (1969), Rocco and His Brothers (1960), A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

In one of the more devastating episodes of the Letterboxd Top 250 Shuffle, Ryan and Kevin explore a deeply traumatizing cinematic quartet ranging from blazing political thrillers to tense family dramas.

EPISODE 029: DOUBLE FEATURES & TRILOGIES

Featuring: All About Eve (1950), Showgirls (1995)