Film Versus Film

A live recording from Hoyts cinema on the eve of the US Election, with special guest Dr David Smith from the US Studies Centre, discussing Alex Garland's Civil War (2024) and all things US Election. Featuring our three hosts- Bruce Isaacs, Craig Anderson & Herschel Isaacs, in a special live recording to complete the US Election Series. *This podcast does not represent the views of the US Studies Centre or The University of Sydney.

We're looking at the way party aligned actors manipulate the narrative surrounding presidents and presidential candidates. One of these films is a star-studded hollywood comedy, and the other a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Yes, we're looking at the D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus' The War Room and Barry Levinson's Wag The Dog.

This episode is all about conspiracies, or is it? Two films made twenty years apart, that bookend the grand period of US counterculture paranoia. One film is from the early sixties and introduced cinema audiences to the concept of brainwashing, and the other is a suspense-riddled thriller with an unlikely investigator. We're discussing John Frankehimer's The Manchurian Candidate and Brian De Palma's Blow Out.

Two Oscar nominated comedies that tell us a lot about the US election. One is a prince and the pauper tale, the other a microcosm of election meddling. Join us as we discuss Ivan Reitman's Dave and Alexander Payne's Election.

Two films that deal with dramatic endings to leaderships. One is about the scandal that brought down US president Richard Nixon, the other is about the events that lead to the dismissal of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. One won four Oscars and the other three Logies. Yes, today we're looking at Alan Pakula's All The President's Men and Kennedy/ Miller's TV Series' The Dismissal.

Join as we compare one of the greatest films of all time with an anomaly from the 1990's. One is about American idealism (or is it naivety) and the other a thinly veiled portrait of Bill Clinton's election campaign. We're doing Frank Capra's Mr Smith Goes To Washington (1939) and Mike Nichols' Primary Colors (1998). Brought to you in partnership with the United States Study Centre- https://www.ussc.edu.au/  

Starting next week, a six-part series discussing movies that engage with the US Electoral Politics, culminating in a free cinema screening of A24's Civil War on the night before the US election. Presented In Partnership With Film Studies At The Faculty Of Art And Social Sciences & United States Studies Centre - https://www.ussc.edu.au/

Two exciting thrillers that push the line of logic, storytelling and movie tropes. Join us as we unpack the madness of Brian De Palma's Body Double and David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.

One film was sanctioned by the mainstream and became a box office smash, the other was considered an abomination for the director and its star.  Both films were met with protests by the gay community for equating homosexuality to serial killing! Yes it's time to look at William Friedkin's 1980 film Cruising and Paul Verhoven's 1992 film Basic Instinct.

Today we are riding into the sunset on a horse… or is it a house lifted by balloons?  Join us as we look at two films about a young adventurer and an elderly frustrated mentor. We're looking at Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Pete Docter/ Bob Peterson's co-directed Up. 

Two very exciting portraits of women on the edge, one is an aging film star living in a decaying mansion, the other a well-to-do woman who hates her husband. Join us at we look at the Oscar-nominated mystery films- Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard and David Fincher's Gone Girl.

Today we're looking at two stories that discuss a horrific chapter of modern history. . One film is considered high art and the other exploitation. Today we're looking at Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter and Jonathan Glazer's The Zone Of Interest.

On this episode we're looking at the myth of mobsters with two films that explore power through violence. Both films follow Italian- Americans characters, and are directed by Italian-American directors who were leaders of the American New Wave. Today we're comparing The Godfather (1972) Versus Goodfellas (1990).

Trucks with precious cargo heading across barren wastelands and doing everything they can to not explode. Today we're looking at Clouzot's Wages of Fear and George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road.

One film launched a lucrative franchise and the other made us scared of the sky. This episode it's all about suspense with Alfred Hitchcock''s The Birds and Ridley Scott's Alien.

Today we're going behind the scenes of movie-making, with two films that lift the veil on the Hollywood studio system. Both films have a happy ending, even if they shouldn't have. That's right, today we're talking about Robert Altman's The Player and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Both films are obsessed with what happened, but one drives us to a conclusion and the other frustrates us forever.  Today we're looking at Oliver Stone's JFK and Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall.

Two films with characters who inhabit uncomfortable spaces. One a serious story about a comic book super villain, the other a female Frankenstein, it's Todd Phillip's Joker versus Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things.

One film is the story of a sick kid in bed hearing a love story, and the other, a love sick kid in bed, erasing a love story. One, a comical swashbuckling romance, and the other a mystery un-love story that became the poster child for the genre known as ‘mind-benders'.

Join us as we wrap up the Oscars for 2024 as well as draft the seven best "Best Picture" winners from the year 2000 onward. Trivia, fun and academia.

With one week out from the Oscars, we talk through our predictions for the top awards and our favorite films of 2023. We've watched them so you don't have to!

Join us as we draft the 10 Worst "Best Picture Winners" from the Oscars from the past 23 years. Then, join us next week for our predictions for 2024, followed by our 'results card' and finally an episode where we draft the 10 Best from the new millennium. Normal episodes will resume shortly after.

We're taking take on two classics of the Holiday season. Both films have become iconic Christmas classics and both films are about a patriarch, on Christmas Eve dealing with family tensions, work tensions and that annoying wooden staircase railing. It's Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life Versus National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Listen as we further expand on growing up on Dharug land in Western Sydney. A space that has defined us as people and influenced our cultural and political perspectives for the better. Join us as we create a map of memories that are also strongly linked to our love of film!

After a slew of upsets on our “Worst 10” Draft, the team returns to rank the Ten Best films that we've covered over the first year on the Podcast. Join us for Trivia, strategy, betrayal and drama as we fight over the Top 10. With special guest - Poppy McKinnon.

Join us as we rank the 10 Worst Films that we've covered on the podcast so far in an exciting drafting game. Will Borat make the Top 10 Worst? Will the grubby assault storyline in Revenge of the Nerds push it to the bottom? Or will Ron Silver's over-the-top performance place Blue Steel in last position? Listen as we battle it out!

Two of the most iconic films of all time! Films that reset the mold, caused decades of philosophical discussion and feature a protagonist who ventured into a world that is similar, yet different to our own. Join us for 1939's The Wizard of Oz versus 1999's The Matrix.

Two police stories set in the big city! One film stars Jamie Lee Curtis as a rookie cop who is being gas-lit by a psychopath, and the other stars a slew of Hollywood leading men in a movie full of intrigue. This week we're looking at Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel and Martin Scorsese's The Departed.

Two fish-out-of-water comedies that took the world by storm, both of them broke box office records, both of them expanded the cultural lexicon and both films took their TV star lead actors all the way to the oscars. Today we're talking about Crocodile Dundee and Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

It's time for some maypoles and sacrifices! One film is about a very British police investigation on a small island, and the other is about American college kids visiting an overly friendly festival in Sweden. Today it's Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man versus Ari Aster's Midsommar.

We're heading to the old west and looking at the portrayal of two very different cowboys. One is a pretty horrible brother-in-law grappling with his sexuality, and the other is an old widow who wants to give it all away. Today we're discussing Jane Campion's Unforgiven and Clint Eastwood's The Power Of The Dog.

In this episode we look at two conspiratorial masterpieces that feature reluctant heroes who discover that the world around them is manufactured to control them. One film is directed by genre master John Carpenter and the other by a rising star of America's new black vanguard. Today we're looking at 1988's They Live versus  2023's They Cloned Tyrone.

In this episode we are going behind the scenes with two incredible making-of-stories. One film charts the tumultuous production of one of the most famous films of the 1970's Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and the other charts the hopes and dreams of a filmmaker who inherited the dream created by Coppola, but not the audience, or privilege. Yes today we're the Sundance Award winning American Movie to the well-regarded Hearts Of Darkness; A Filmmaker's Apocalypse.

In this episode we're infiltrating the third reich with two WW2 epics made 40-years apart. One is a 1960's blockbuster, the other is a knowing homage to genres. Today we're talking about Brian Hutton's Where Eagles Dare versus Quentin Tarintino's Inglourious Basterds. We also talk about watching Goonies in Capetown.

A real tear-jerker, as we compare two of the most romantic films ever made! One is the story of two women who fall in love over the painting of a portrait, and the other a pair of neighboring cuckolds who refuse to commit the same act of love that has harmed them. Today we're looking at Wong Kar Wai's In The Mood For Love and Sceline Sciamma's Portrait Of A Lady In Fire

Today we're looking at two ground-breaking horror films from the year 1960. Both films ushered in new eras of what was acceptable in the world of cinema, from morals and censorship, to form and the representation of serial killers, to the complicity of the audience. One film destroyed the director's career, the other cemented the director as the greatest auteur of the 20th century.

Today we compare what many consider to be the best time travel film of all time to the Oscar-winning story of Aliens who teach a linguist how time doesn't work.

We're back for S02 with multiple multi-verses! A superhero 'cartoon', versus a bizarre sci-fi comedy that won 7 Oscars! What do these two films have in common? And what does the “multiverse” actually mean in a post-truth, post-science world?

Today it's high concept horror versus low-rent slasher with Dario Argento's Opera Versus Lucia Gudagino's 2018 remake of Argento's most famous film Suspiria. A  very special episode in honor of the Randwick Ritz Cinema and the Italian Cultural Institute of Sydney's celebration of filmmaker Dario Argento.

Our special BarbieHeimer episode! One is about an iconic doll brought to life, and the other is about the biggest weapon of mass destruction of all time. Both films are about a huge cultural figure that defined the 20th century. Both films are about a character dealing with a giant ontological shift in their world, and both films are made by extremely well regarded auteurs. Individual discussions for each film begin at Oppenheimer (9:55) and Barbie (38:16).

Two of the most beloved nostalgic franchises of all-time go head to head in this battle of the blockbusters. How will these two films perform at the box office and which film does the best job of carrying the torch into the 2020's?

We discuss our plans for Series 2, a new format, upcoming blockbuster reviews and reveal a very funny and possibly tragic outtake.

In our Series 1 finale, join us for two intense Sci-Fi Action interrogations of the body & technology as we compare Verhoven's ultra-violent RoboCop (1987) to Cronenberg's body horror The Fly(1986).

We take a look at two very different and flawed interrogations of race, the Richard Pryor comedy The Toy (1982) and Oscar Winner for Best Picture Green Book (2018).

Join us as we compare two amazing examples of true-crime storytelling with the granddaddy of murder-documentaries in Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line (1988) and Bong Joon Ho's personal message to a serial killer with Memories of Murder (2003).

We take on the bastion of cinematic super-spydom, James Bond 007, as we compare the outlier 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service to Daniel Craig's last outing with as the hero with a license to kill in 2021's No Time To Die.

Join us as we look at two perspectives on American capitalism. One a morality tale by a filmmaker who wears his heart on his sleeve, the other a carnival of excess. Join us as we compare the masculinity, and morality inside of Oliver Stone's Wall Street (1987) and Martin Scorsese's The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)

In our Stephen King episode, we compare two very different horror movies. We look at the myths and conspiracies behind Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) and the nostalgic digital clown fest in It: Chapter One (2017).

Today we look at the same hero and villain facing off in films that exist in different decades and different worlds. One version is camp and expressionistic, the other bleak and engaged with social paranoia.

We look at two films that deal with surveillance and society, from San Francisco in the seventies, to East Germany in the eighties. Pop on your retro headphones, it's time for The Conversation (1974) Versus The Lives Of Others (2006)

Two very different POV's on being a teenager, popping pimples, heading off to college and finding your place in the world.  It's  Revenge of The Nerds (1984) versus Booksmart (2019).