ABC Movies

This week, it's two films about the vast, unknowable world of children: Petit Maman and Where Is the Friend's House.    

This week, it's two films valiantly trying to capture the slippery, universal experience of ~~being online~~. It's We're All Going to the World's Fair (2022), and Unfriended (2014). 

It's 420! Zone out to two Linklater films: his latest rotoscope cartoon, the '60s nostalgia fest Apollo 10 1/2, and a film you may have seen on VHS 10,000 times, Dazed and Confused. 

This week, we're looking at two ~~erotic thrillers~~ !! A much-maligned genre making a small, tentative comeback, in part thanks to this week's movie, Deep Water (2022); we're also talking about one of the genre's foundational texts, 1981's Body Heat. 

This week, it's two extremely different movies about almost exactly the same extreme situation: being a 13-year-old girl. It's Turning Red (2022) and Eighth Grade (2018). 

This week, we're talking about two philosophical science fiction films made by critics-turned-directors: After Yang (2022, Kogonada), and Alphaville (1965, Jean-Luc Godard). 

This week, it's two films nominated for Best Documentary Feature: Summer of Soul (Amir Questlove Thompson, 2021), and Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 2021; also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Best International Feature, a first!). Like all great documentaries, these movies make you ask what a documentary really is, anyway. 

This week, we're looking at two films that untangle the messy web of supposedly criminal acts -- A Hero (Asghar Farhadi, 2021) and Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959). 

This week, it's two transcendent European movies about Europeans makin' movies: 2021's Bergman Island and 1973's Day For Night. 

This week we're looking at a very small category: directorial debuts from actors in which they do not appear as actors. So, we've got The Lost Daughter (2022, Maggie Gyllenhaal), and Night of the Hunter (1955, Charles Laughton).

We're looking back at the best of 2021 -- shows we talked about on the podcast, and those we didn't (one guess which one of us saw more movies lol). Happy New Year! 

This time, it's two loose semi-sprawling good-time movies -- Licorice Pizza (2021) and After Hours (1985).   

This week, we're talking about Jane Campion's new film, the taught revisionist western The Power of the Dog (2021), and another film about dark psychosexual obsession in the Old West, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. 

This week, it's two sides of the same coin: Spener (2021) and The Queen (2006). 

This week, it's two (spoiler alert!) very succesful adaptations of supposedly unfilmable nerd-classic books: Dune (2021) and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). 

This week, we're looking at the most recent movies by what I'm going to say without doing any research is the oldest living actor-director in the world: Clint Eastwood. It's Cry Macho (2021) and Richard Jewell (2019). 

This week, we're talking about two movies that get at the nature of what it means to share your life with another person, when that person might not really be a person at all -- I'm Your Man (2021) and Her (2013). 

This week, it's two strikingly similar movies from strikingly talented directors: The Card Counter (2021, Paul Schrader) and Hard Eight (1996, Paul Thomas Anderson). 

This week, we're doing the record-setting Sundance feel-good movie Coda (2021) and the Amazon feel-bad movie The Sound of Metal (2020). Two movies about music and hearing, this week! 

This week, we're talking about The Green Knight (2021) and another big retelling of Arthurian legend, Excalibur (1981). One is definitely way better! 

This week, we're looking at two late-period Nic Cage masterpieces: Pig (2021) and Joe (2013)

Two movies about the delusions and danger social media exposes us to, and compels us to submit ourselves to: Zola (2021) and Ingrid Goes West (2017).

This week, we're looking at two very different takes on musicals about life in the city: In the Heights (2021) and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). 

This week, two buddy road films that subvert the genre in some ways and ... not others. It's Plan B (2021) and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004). 

This week, we're **back in theaters**! Madness. And we're talking two extremely lighthearted films (lol), 2021's The Killing of Two Lovers and 2011's A Separation. 

This week, we're looking at two movies about the quest for musical perfection: new Indian Marathi-language film The Disciple (2020, now on Netflix in the US) and the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). 

Happy belated 420! This week, we're talking about two stoner action movies (or at least one): Nobody (starring Bob Odenkirk, 2021) and Mandy (starring Nicholas Cage, 2018).  

This week, it's two small British films that unexpectedly took the Oscars by storm: The Father (2020) and Philomena (2013).

This week, we're deep in the Pikeaverse. It's two movies starring Rosamund Pike: I Care a Lot and A Private War.

This week, it's two newly minted Oscar-nominated-films, Minari and Judas and the Black Messiah. It's another of our signature awards season catchup episodes! 

This week, it's two films about semi-rejecting American capitalism for a life on the road: fresh Golden Globe winner Nomadland (Chloé Zhao, 2021) and Lost in America (Albert Brooks, 1985).

This week, it's two of the many, many films about drinking. First, it's the lovely new full-bodied Danish film Another Round (2020), paired with an insouciant little indie, Smashed (2012). 

This week, we're talking two movies looking at long-term friendship: The Climb (2020) and Romi and Michelle's High School Reunion (1997). It's good! 

This week, we look at two surprisingly similar stories born from the #MeToo movement: 2020's Promising Young Woman and 2019's Bombshell. 

This week, we look back at some of the truly great films released in this truly awful year. Plus: Caleb finally agrees to talk about I'm Thinking of Ending Things!

This week, it's two slice of life films about the UK, (at least partially) dealing with the Black experience there. It's Steve McQueen's Lovers Rock (2020) and Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies (1996). 

This week! It's two movies starring the avatar of upper-middle-class anxiety, Jude Law: The Nest (2020) and I Heart Huckabees (2004). 

This week, two movies about families of scammers fooling others and learning about themselves. It's Kajillionaire (2020, Miranda July) and Paper Moon (1973, Peter Bogdanovich). 

This week, we talk two new streaming docs, Time and Dick Johnson is Dead, and about the whole idea that suddenly documentaries are huge! 

This week, it's two movies about the compromises we seem to have to make to get our creative projects made. It's 2020's Sundance Best Director winner The 40-Year-Old Version (directed by Radha Blank) and 1989's The Big Picture (directed by Christopher Guest). 

This week, it's two stories of despair and failure (and Jesus) in the South: The Devil All the Time (2020) & Wise Blood (1979).

This week, it's two films by the totally singular Kelly Reichardt: First Cow (2020) & Wendy and Lucy (2008). Longtime listeners know this one is very emotionally important for the show (especially Chris)!!

This week, it's two movies about inescapable, transmittable horror: She Dies Tomorrow (2020) and It Follows (2014). 

This week, we're stuck in a loop! Stuck in a loop. It's Palm Springs (2020) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014). We're stuck in loop! 

This week, it's two different looks at extremism in film: the drama Young Ahmed (2020, Best Director at 2019 Cannes for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne); and the comedy Four Lions, (2010, Chris Morris). 

This week, we're talking about two acclaimed directors' first movies not in their native language. It's Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Truth (2020, French and English), and Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster (2015, English). 

This week, it's two (mostly fictional) looks at (totally real) writers as they work on their (also totally real) books: Shirley (2020, Josephine Decker) and American Splendor (2003, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini). 

This week, it's two movies about race, America, violence and our own minds -- both from visionary director Spike Lee. They're the new Netflix original Da 5 Bloods (2020) and the stone-cold classic Do The Right Thing (1989).

This week, it's two extremely different looks at life in the biosphere: the documentary Spaceship Earth (2020) and the Pauly Shore vehicle Bio-Dome (1996). Title music is "Life Story" by Kevin Hairs, who has a GREAT NEW EP! More info here: https://kevinhairs.bandcamp.com/releases

This week it's two bizarre horror comedies: Deerskin (2020) and Butt Boy (2019). Even better, they're both on independent streaming services, where renting them puts money towards your local arthouse theater. Deerskin is through Virtual Cinemas, and Butt Boy is on the new Alamo Drafthouse streamer, Alamo On Demand. Title music is "Life Story" by Kevin Hairs, who has a GREAT NEW EP! More info here: https://kevinhairs.bandcamp.com/releases

This week, stay home and relax with these two movies about abortion!  Two very different takes on abortion, and abortion access: the 2020 neo-realist drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always and the 2014 Jenny Slate comedy Obvious Child.  Title music is "Life Story" by Kevin Hairs, who has a GREAT NEW EP! More info here: https://kevinhairs.bandcamp.com/releases