Your Favorite Flick

Looking for Adventure? Van Hughes and I have a Big one for you today. We're talking Pee-wee! Van has a truly lifelong and abiding love for this movie, and he shares what makes it so special with eloquence and a laugh.

Van is an actor and musician, and his new single "Location" is now available wherever you get your music. It's bold, it's catchy, and it's terrific! You can follow Van: @vanhughesmusic on Instagram.

It's The Lost Boys. It's Joel Schumaker going over the top Joel Schumacher-style. It's Kiefer Sutherland being cool AF. It's Diane Wiest coming off an Oscar win. It's the two Coreys first joint outing! All this and vampires! How did we get this lucky?

My pal Andy Chrestman is with us today to bite into it. (I apologize. That had to be done.) Andy is a writer, and he's watched this movie more times than he cares to count. We get into performances, aesthetics and how brilliantly this film fit into and represents the 80's.

Andy is working on a memoir, so he hasn't posted as much of his writing over the past few years, but here is his Medium archive: https://medium.com/@achrestman

If his pieces don't move you, we are very different people.

Join us on Sunday when friend and superfan (of the show; not of mine) Phil Murray will be discussing Dazed and Confused.

A note of apology: We had planned to put out Good Will Hunting with Chris Bravender today, but I messed something up with the recording/editing. Chris has graciously offered to re-record that one if it's not salvageable, so it will be headed your way soon.

Tinker Tailor Solder Sa? That's right, my old friend Sahil Godiwala, who barely knows how to listen to a podcast, joins us to talk about this masterpiece of a movie, based on a masterpiece of a novel by John le Carre. We can't shut up about Oldman's performance as George Smiley in this one. I will tell you that, even as two people who have discussed this movie with each other ad nauseam, we make some new discoveries as we hash it out on mic. Enjoy!

Gene Gallerano, co-director of the new "creature feature" The Yeti, joins us. It is showing at 150 AMC Theatres around the country this Saturday night, April 4th, as part of their Thrills and Chills series. Please check your local listings, as they say.

Today, Gene is here to discuss the Paul Newman classic Cool Hand Luke. Gene has a great eye for cinematic technique and, even more importantly to my mind, a storyteller's feel for character and theme. I was enlightened by a number of things Gene brought to the table, and I'm sure you will be too!

You know that feeling when you awake in a painting after an accident and find out and realize that a guy straight off an Oscar win for Best Supporting is your spirit guide? Well, if you do, have I got an episode for you! We're talking What Dreams May Come, the Robin-Williams-and-Annabella-Sciorra-starring afterlife drama from 1997. My Aunt Butsy joins me as we talk grief and death but also hope and redemption. Please join us.

We're talking MCU for the first time today, people. Knowing my friends, it won't be the last. But for my money, we're kicking off with the cream of the crop in Black Panther. Coming off the Oscar success of Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, and the rest of the Sinners team, we thought it would be a great time to bring you our thoughts on this earlier collaboration.

This movie gets deep, and so does LaNija. We came to this movie with very different experiences and perspectives, and both fell in love with it immediately. I hope our conversation can add a little something to your appreciation of this classic.

Join Paul Sparacello, who has unwittingly been my friend for over a quarter century, for an exploration of An American Werewolf in London, a movie that we argue does about the best job possible of combining comedy and horror into one tasty package. (Tasty is a werewolf joke...because they bite people...you know. Fine, I'll stop.)

We're going up to two shows each week on a trial basis. This weekend, be on the lookout for Black Panther with my friend LaNija Redmond. She and I came to that movie from very different experiences and vantage points but both found something that we deeply treasure.

Welcome to the long-awaited premiere of co-producer Julia Mott to whom I am lucky enough to be married.

We're digging into Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece in this one. (That's right. I called it his masterpiece. Come at me!) We have a lot of fun in this one focusing on our favorite sequences, a few of the many outstanding performances, as well as trying to figure out what the heck QT is up to, in the best possible ways.

Don't forget to rate, review and follow the show. Find us @yourfavoriteflick on Instagram and BlueSky, @favoriteflick on Letterboxd, or email us at [email protected].

Check out our house band, The Hons, on Bandcamp, as well. Trust me, you won't regret spending the $10 to buy their album To Skyward.

Here's our first special just in time for this weekends Oscar ceremony. This one is me flying solo on mic, as I take you through my personal favorites for eleven of the biggest categories (we even included editing for Brother Jeff, despite his being officially dead to this podcast). Please know that these are my personal favorites and not predictions. If you try to fill out your Oscar pools with these picks, you'll be going down in flames.

I also add in a recommended watch based on each nominee in these categories, so that's 55 additional movies to check out. As if your lives weren't already busy enough.

In case you don't want to listen to me talk for over a half hour without interruption (very few do) or you want to revisit them, here are those picks and movie recs for you:

Best Picture

Bugonia 10 Cloverfield Lane

F1 Ford vs. Ferrari

Frankenstein Poor Things

Hamnet Remains of the Day

Marty Supreme The Hustler

One Battle After Another The Big Lebowski

The Secret Agent The Conversation

Sentimental Value 8 1/2

Sinners Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Train Dreams The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Best Director

One Battle After Another Paul Thomas Anderson Boogie Nights

Sinners Ryan Coogler Fruitvale Station

Marty Supreme Josh Safdie Uncut Gems

Sentimental Value Joachim Trier Robert Redford - Ordinary People

Hamnet Chloé Zhao Nomadland

Best Actor

Marty Supreme Timothée Chalamet Tom Cruise - The Color of Money

One Battle After Another Leonardo DiCaprio Catch Me if you Can

Blue Moon Ethan Hawke Before Sunrise

Sinners Michael B. Jordan Black Panther

The Secret Agent Wagner Moura Civil War

Best Actress

Hamnet Jessie Buckley Wicked Little Letters

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You Rose Byrne Bridesmaids

Song Sung Blue Kate Hudson Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line

Sentimental Value Renate Reinsve Geena Rowlands - A Woman under the Influence

Bugonia Emma Stone Easy A

Best Supporting Actor

One Battle After Another Benicio del Toro Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Frankenstein Jacob Elordi Peter Boyle - Young Frankenstein

Sinners Delroy Lindo Get Shorty

One Battle After Another Sean Penn The Falcon and the Snowman

Sentimental Value Stellan Skarsgård Dune

Best Supporting Actress

Sentimental Value Elle Fanning A Complete Unknown

Sentimental Value Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas Natasha Lyonne - His Three Daughters

Weapons Amy Madigan Field of Dreams

Sinners Wunmi Mosaku Viola Davis in Widows

One Battle After Another Teyana Taylor Taraji P. Henson in Baby Boy

Best Original Screenplay

Blue Moon Robert Kaplow Jack Fincher - Mank

It Was Just an Accident Jafar Panahi Hwang Jo-yun, Lim Jun-hyung, Park Chan-wook - Old Boy

Marty Supreme Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie - Good Time

Sentimental Value Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner - The Fabelmans

Sinners Ryan Coogler Quentin Tarantino - From Dusk till Dawn

Best Adapted Screenplay

Bugonia Will Tracy Seth Reiss, Will Tracy - The Menu

Frankenstein Guillermo del Toro William Hurlbut - The Bride of Frankenstein

Hamnet Chloé Zhao & Maggie O'Farrell Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard - Shakespeare in Love

One Battle After Another Paul Thomas Anderson Charlie Kaufman - Adaptation

Train Dreams Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar Jim Jarmush - Dead Man

Best Film Editing

F1 Stephen Mirrione Chris Lenzon & Billy Weber -Top Gun

Marty Supreme Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie Thelma Schoonmaker - Goodfellas

One Battle After Another Andy Jurgensen Joe Hutshing & Pietro Scalia -JFK

Sentimental Value Olivier Bugge Coutté Monika Willie - Tar

Sinners Michael P. Shawver Alan Heim - All that Jazz

Cinematography

Frankenstein Dan Laustsen Michael Ballhaus - Bram Stoker's Dracula

Marty Supreme Darius Khondji Michael Chapman - Raging Bull

One Battle After Another Michael Bauman John A. Alonzo - Chinatown

Sinners Autumn Durald Arkapaw Asakazu Nakai - Seven Samurai

Train Dreams Adolpho Veloso Rudolph Mate - The Passion of Joan of Arc