Podcast appearances and mentions of john deley

The eighth installment in one of the most entertaining franchises ever made, The Final Reckoning is Tom Cruise's Return of the King. Whether it suffers from too much exposition is a matter of taste (and debated by the hosts), but both agree that the movie does what only its star can do: deliver thrills that derive from both the plot and the knowledge that what they are seeing is, in some sense, real. Buster Keaton, Jackie Chan, and Tom Cruise all make themselves as much of a character in the films as the fictional people they are portraying, which puts the viewer in a strange and wonderful place. Tom Cruise has saved the world yet again, and may (as Steven Spielberg told him) have saved the industry. Want to read about the first film in the franchise? Renowned film editor Paul Hersch's memoir, A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away: My Fifty Years Editing Hollywood Hits–Star Wars, Carrie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Mission: Impossible, and More details his working with Brian DePalma on the first of the eight MI films. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find over three hundred episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us any time at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan Moran's substack, Pages and Frames, where he writes about books and movies, as well as the many film-related interviews on The New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Caper movies aren't like others involving criminals: there's an aesthetic to a caper that's as important to the thieves as it is to the viewers. Heist is David Mamet's 2001 caper film that stands as his Singin' in the Rain—an apt comparison, since “caper” meant “to dance” long before it took on its criminal meaning. Join us for an appreciation of one of Gene Hackman's best yet least-discussed performances and of Mamet's highly unrealistic dialogue. (Yes, you read that correctly–and we love David Mamet.) David Mamet's short book On Directing Film is a great companion to Heist. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our over three hundred episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan Moran's substack, Pages and Frames, where he writes about books and movies, as well as the many film-related interviews on The New Books Network.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Caper movies aren't like others involving criminals: there's an aesthetic to a caper that's as important to the thieves as it is to the viewers. Heist is David Mamet's 2001 caper film that stands as his Singin' in the Rain—an apt comparison, since “caper” meant “to dance” long before it took on its criminal meaning. Join us for an appreciation of one of Gene Hackman's best yet least-discussed performances and of Mamet's highly unrealistic dialogue. (Yes, you read that correctly–and we love David Mamet.) David Mamet's short book On Directing Film is a great companion to Heist. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our over three hundred episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan Moran's substack, Pages and Frames, where he writes about books and movies, as well as the many film-related interviews on The New Books Network.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Caper movies aren't like others involving criminals: there's an aesthetic to a caper that's as important to the thieves as it is to the viewers. Heist is David Mamet's 2001 caper film that stands as his Singin' in the Rain—an apt comparison, since “caper” meant “to dance” long before it took on its criminal meaning. Join us for an appreciation of one of Gene Hackman's best yet least-discussed performances and of Mamet's highly unrealistic dialogue. (Yes, you read that correctly–and we love David Mamet.) David Mamet's short book On Directing Film is a great companion to Heist. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our over three hundred episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan Moran's substack, Pages and Frames, where he writes about books and movies, as well as the many film-related interviews on The New Books Network.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/performing-arts

It's our 300th episode and we honor a listener request for this milestone. The Fisher King (1991) could not be made today–not because of politics or cultural changes, but because it's impossible to neatly classify. A love story, a tale of redemption, a disturbing study of psychosis, a romantic comedy, and an Artthurian quest, the film combines genres in ways that some audiences–or at least producers–might not appreciate. But the film is hilarious, frightening, and ultimately affirming of its two lead characters' decisions to abandon their despair and find meaning in their lives. Interested in reading about Terry Gilliam? Check out this collection of interviews from the University of Mississippi Press. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our hundreds of episodes here on the New Books Network or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan Moran's substack, Pages and Frames, where he writes about books and movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

It's our 300th episode and we honor a listener request for this milestone. The Fisher King (1991) could not be made today–not because of politics or cultural changes, but because it's impossible to neatly classify. A love story, a tale of redemption, a disturbing study of psychosis, a romantic comedy, and an Artthurian quest, the film combines genres in ways that some audiences–or at least producers–might not appreciate. But the film is hilarious, frightening, and ultimately affirming of its two lead characters' decisions to abandon their despair and find meaning in their lives. Interested in reading about Terry Gilliam? Check out this collection of interviews from the University of Mississippi Press. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our hundreds of episodes here on the New Books Network or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan Moran's substack, Pages and Frames, where he writes about books and movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

It's our 300th episode and we honor a listener request for this milestone. The Fisher King (1991) could not be made today–not because of politics or cultural changes, but because it's impossible to neatly classify. A love story, a tale of redemption, a disturbing study of psychosis, a romantic comedy, and an Artthurian quest, the film combines genres in ways that some audiences–or at least producers–might not appreciate. But the film is hilarious, frightening, and ultimately affirming of its two lead characters' decisions to abandon their despair and find meaning in their lives. Interested in reading about Terry Gilliam? Check out this collection of interviews from the University of Mississippi Press. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our hundreds of episodes here on the New Books Network or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan Moran's substack, Pages and Frames, where he writes about books and movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/performing-arts

“Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.” So said W. H. Auden and so we see demonstrated in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960), which boldly employs every convention of the horror film in order to achieve a stunning, authentic portrait of a disturbing mind at work. But Mark is no ordinary slasher: he's an artist who is also a perfectionist and whose compulsion to destroy is like the compulsion to create. As Mark gives his all for the sake of his art, so did Michael Powell, whose reputation never recovered from the scandal of this film. It was released in the same year as Psycho, which it resembles, yet the two audiences across the Atlantic had very different reactions to their homegrown killers. The University Press of Mississippi offers an excellent series of collected interviews. Here's their volume on Michael Powell. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our hundreds of episodes here on the New Books Network or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan Moran's substack, Pages and Frames, where he writes about books and movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

“Some writers confuse authenticity, which they ought always to aim at, with originality, which they should never bother about.” So said W. H. Auden and so we see demonstrated in Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960), which boldly employs every convention of the horror film in order to achieve a stunning, authentic portrait of a disturbing mind at work. But Mark is no ordinary slasher: he's an artist who is also a perfectionist and whose compulsion to destroy is like the compulsion to create. As Mark gives his all for the sake of his art, so did Michael Powell, whose reputation never recovered from the scandal of this film. It was released in the same year as Psycho, which it resembles, yet the two audiences across the Atlantic had very different reactions to their homegrown killers. The University Press of Mississippi offers an excellent series of collected interviews. Here's their volume on Michael Powell. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please subscribe to the show and consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our hundreds of episodes here on the New Books Network or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan Moran's substack, Pages and Frames, where he writes about books and movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Have you seen our site? https://netovampire.com/Video art by Seraph Im Angel https://linktr.ee/SeraphImAngeBoy/7th Son by “Cosmo” Music Mas Cafe by Cafe RosaThree Wise People by E's Jammy JamsAlmost A Year Ago by John Deley & the 41 PlayersLove's Aftermath by Asher FuleroFaultlines by Asher FuleroPeaceful Mind by Astron Tides by Window of KenDigital Solitude by Silent PartnerThe Marble Cinematic University by Ezra Lipp7th Son Theme by Hugo Pierre MartinFXElevator_opening by GilPS -- https://freesound.org/s/241763/ -- License: Creative Commons 0elevator travel 7a by Yoyodaman234 -- https://freesound.org/s/341192/ -- License: Creative Commons 0Bath running 2.wav by deleted_user_2104797 -- https://freesound.org/s/166327/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

In Walden (1854), Henry David Thoreau said he wanted to “drive life into a corner” and “reduce it to its lowest terms.” We often feel the appeal of that idea: to get away from civilization and really “live.” But would that always be a pleasurable series of epiphanies? Would the natural world always provide a backdrop against which we could explore our “real” selves? Thoureau also said that “a man is free in proportion to the number of things he can let alone.” Sounds good–unless that freedom from society and materialism reduces one to a new and worse kind of servant. Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes (1964) toys with these questions while simultaneously keeping its audience surprised and off-balance. It's a movie in which everything is buried in sand and the sand is a metaphor for everything. Woman in the Dunes is based on Kobo Ave's novel, which you can find here. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our hundreds of episodes here on the New Books Network. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan's substack Pages and Frames where he writes about books and movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In Walden (1854), Henry David Thoreau said he wanted to “drive life into a corner” and “reduce it to its lowest terms.” We often feel the appeal of that idea: to get away from civilization and really “live.” But would that always be a pleasurable series of epiphanies? Would the natural world always provide a backdrop against which we could explore our “real” selves? Thoureau also said that “a man is free in proportion to the number of things he can let alone.” Sounds good–unless that freedom from society and materialism reduces one to a new and worse kind of servant. Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes (1964) toys with these questions while simultaneously keeping its audience surprised and off-balance. It's a movie in which everything is buried in sand and the sand is a metaphor for everything. Woman in the Dunes is based on Kobo Ave's novel, which you can find here. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our hundreds of episodes here on the New Books Network. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan's substack Pages and Frames where he writes about books and movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Every Western since Stagecoach seems to have been touted as “about the western.” To what degree is that true for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, George Roy Hill's 1969 contribution to the genre? Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about how the film wonderfully reminds its viewers why they love westerns as it also offers its more hip viewers a vision of an alternative lifestyle–think Easy Rider with horses. Tom Clavin's Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West is a look at the real-life Butch Cassidy, Sundance, Etta, and others. You can hear Dan's interview with Tom Clavin here on the New Books Network. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please consider leaving us a rating or review. You can find our hundreds of episodes here on the New Books Network. Follow the show on X and on Letterboxd–and email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com with requests and recommendations. Also check out Dan's substack Pages and Frames where he writes about the connections between books and movies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

When George V. Higgins's first novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, was published in 1970, it was widely acclaimed as an insider's look at Boston's criminal underbelly. Three years later, Peter Yates directed Robert Mitchum in one of his best performances as the mid-level gunrunner who is tempted to help “uncle” by turning in his associates to the cops. Join Mike and Dan as they talk about how Robert Mitchum eating pie is better than a thousand bank robberies and how the dialogue for which Higgins is so rightly praised is like the kind of negotiations we make all the time at work, regardless of what we're selling. Hide the irons inside that rustling shopping bag and give it a listen! If you're interested in the terrific novel upon which the film is based, you can find it here. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please leave us a rating or review, follow us on X and Letterboxd, email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com, and let us know what you'd like us to watch and discuss. Also check out Dan's Substack site, Pages and Frames, for essays about books and films. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

When George V. Higgins's first novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, was published in 1970, it was widely acclaimed as an insider's look at Boston's criminal underbelly. Three years later, Peter Yates directed Robert Mitchum in one of his best performances as the mid-level gunrunner who is tempted to help “uncle” by turning in his associates to the cops. Join Mike and Dan as they talk about how Robert Mitchum eating pie is better than a thousand bank robberies and how the dialogue for which Higgins is so rightly praised is like the kind of negotiations we make all the time at work, regardless of what we're selling. Hide the irons inside that rustling shopping bag and give it a listen! If you're interested in the terrific novel upon which the film is based, you can find it here. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please leave us a rating or review, follow us on X and Letterboxd, email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com, and let us know what you'd like us to watch and discuss. Also check out Dan's Substack site, Pages and Frames, for essays about books and films. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Imagine you're in a bar, holding forth about the news of the day–maybe it's 1985 and, like everyone else, you're talking about Iran-Contra, Oliver North, and the CIA. As you signal to the bartender that you're ready for another, an unassuming, somewhat chubby guy next to you smiles and says, “You really want to know how all of that went down?” Then he begins a two-hour monologue that gets crazier every twenty minutes. American Made is that monologue, shot with all the speed and adrenaline as its artistic model, Goodfellas. Mike and Dan talk about why the immediacy of first-person narrative works so well here and why it wouldn't work at all with other people's stories. So bury that duffel bag of cash and then give it a listen! Those interested in a less cinematic look at Iran-Contra may want to read Firewall by Lawrence E. Walsh or Del Hahn's Smuggler's End:The Life and Death of Barry Seal. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for essays and short pieces about books and films. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Imagine you're in a bar, holding forth about the news of the day–maybe it's 1985 and, like everyone else, you're talking about Iran-Contra, Oliver North, and the CIA. As you signal to the bartender that you're ready for another, an unassuming, somewhat chubby guy next to you smiles and says, “You really want to know how all of that went down?” Then he begins a two-hour monologue that gets crazier every twenty minutes. American Made is that monologue, shot with all the speed and adrenaline as its artistic model, Goodfellas. Mike and Dan talk about why the immediacy of first-person narrative works so well here and why it wouldn't work at all with other people's stories. So bury that duffel bag of cash and then give it a listen! Those interested in a less cinematic look at Iran-Contra may want to read Firewall by Lawrence E. Walsh or Del Hahn's Smuggler's End:The Life and Death of Barry Seal. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for essays and short pieces about books and films. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

All of the nearly three hundred episodes we've done so far have been enthusiastic celebrations of artists whose work we admire so greatly that we had to invent a podcast to talk about it. But in this very strange episode, we talk about a film so awful in so many ways that we are baffled by how it came from the same man who directed four unquestionable masterpieces in a row. The Rainmaker (1997) is–and we mean this without irony–a fascinating film that does everything that films like The Conversation and The Godfather Part II avoid. It works on paper: there's Coppola, of course, but also a bestseller as its source material, Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Mickey Roarke, Danny DeVito, Jon Voight, Danny Glover, and (inexplicably) Roy Scheider. But even Sheriff Brody can't kill this beast. Rather than offer a litany of complaints, we talk about the concept of a “shadow movie”: the movie that could have been, the one lurking beneath the film we actually see. This is the only episode in which we don't follow our usual three-part structure, because we didn't know if we'd be releasing this one. But we think that we can learn more about films from even one as terrible as this. If you're interested in the source for Coppola's film, you can find the novel here. Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Please leave us a rating or review, follow us on X and Letterboxd, email us at fifteenminutefilm@gmail.com, and let us know what you'd like us to watch and discuss. Also check out Dan's Substack site, Pages and Frames, for essays about books and films. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Every movie in our current moment, regardless of quality, seems to have spawned sequels, prequels, and reboots; in this episode, we lament that the one film that we wish had been the beginning of a series didn't make enough money to do so. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Peter Weir's 2003 adaptation of Patrick O'Brien's novels, is rich, unironic, and inspiring; it's a study of leadership, the tension between technology and human skill, and the ways in which discipline and restraint yield more genuine emotion that what we see now, when people post about their “struggles” every thirty seconds. Join us for a conversation about a film that makes its viewers wonder how they would fare as sailors and that makes them think about the shortcomings of their bosses. The film is based on Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey / Maturin series; Master and Commander is the novel in which the captain and doctor meet. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for essays and short pieces about books and films. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

A Serious Man (2009) may seem much different from the Coens' adaptation of No Country for Old Men, which they released two years earlier. But they both concern a likable man who finds himself posing questions that the universe–or any of its weisest men–cannot answer. And even if there are glimpses of answers to the question “What does Hashem, or God, want,” neither late-thirties Larry or late-sixties Sheriff Bell can read the writing on the wall (or, in the case of A Serious Man, the writing on the teeth). The film begins with a quotation from Rumi, “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you.” Join us for a conversation about one of the Coens' best films and a terrific look at people to whom things happen and are forced to receive the will of a God who never tips His hand about His intentions. There's been a great deal written about Joel and Ethan Coen; if you want to hear them talk about their work in their own words, check out this collection of interviews. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Actors win awards and gain our admiration when they convince us that they have “become” someone else–it's what we mean when we say that so-and-so “inhabits” a role. But that's not the only benchmark: a good actor is also someone whose statements are interesting to hear and whose voice engages the listener, whether or not we “believe” that he's really Charles Foster Kane or Norman Bates. That's how Mike approaches James Woods in True Believer (1989). He and Dan also talk about the title and how it reflects an element of the film more interesting than the mystery at the heart of its plot. So grab that hair tie, fix that ponytail, and give it a listen! James Woods's character, Eddie Dodd, is based upon the lawyer Tony Serra; you might be interested in this recent biography of him. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Actors win awards and gain our admiration when they convince us that they have “become” someone else–it's what we mean when we say that so-and-so “inhabits” a role. But that's not the only benchmark: a good actor is also someone whose statements are interesting to hear and whose voice engages the listener, whether or not we “believe” that he's really Charles Foster Kane or Norman Bates. That's how Mike approaches James Woods in True Believer (1989). He and Dan also talk about the title and how it reflects an element of the film more interesting than the mystery at the heart of its plot. So grab that hair tie, fix that ponytail, and give it a listen! James Woods's character, Eddie Dodd, is based upon the lawyer Tony Serra; you might be interested in this recent biography of him. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Political noise is as American as baseball and apple pie and in this election season it's impossible to tune it out completely: it's on our televisions, radios, phones, and computers. Brian DePalma's Blow Out (1981) follows a man who is able to hear something underneath all the noise: a perfect character to think about this election season. The real debate for Mike and Dan is whether or not the film makes a statement about the United States and each takes a different side. But they do agree that Blow Out is a wonderful downer and one of DePalma's best. In this episode, Mike mentions Don DeLillo's Underworld, which offers a conspiratorial tone that contrasts with the one that marks Blow Out. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Political noise is as American as baseball and apple pie and in this election season it's impossible to tune it out completely: it's on our televisions, radios, phones, and computers. Brian DePalma's Blow Out (1981) follows a man who is able to hear something underneath all the noise: a perfect character to think about this election season. The real debate for Mike and Dan is whether or not the film makes a statement about the United States and each takes a different side. But they do agree that Blow Out is a wonderful downer and one of DePalma's best. In this episode, Mike mentions Don DeLillo's Underworld, which offers a conspiratorial tone that contrasts with the one that marks Blow Out. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

In this episode, we discuss the entirety of Varrick World. Connor talks The Unmakers. JP talks his superhero inspirations. Thomas talks Slim. Ned talks NPC origins. All this and more on The Obligatory Talkback! • • • Patreon: patreon.com/improvtabletop Twitter / Instagram / Facebook / TikTok: @ImprovTabletop Email: ImprovTabletop@gmail.com Donations: ko-fi.com/improvtabletop • • • Audio Credits The following music was used for this media project: Music: Guzheng City by Kevin MacLeod Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/7523-guzheng-city License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Artist website: https://incompetech.com "Sour Tennessee Red" by John Deley and the 41 Players used courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library License.

The second-best movie based on an Elmore Leonard novel, Out of Sight (1998) does what Netflix and other platforms try to do all the time: throw a bunch of stars together in an effort to increase the quality of the “content.” But those half-assed efforts never come close to Out of Sight, which has a roster of A-list actors, a terrific screenplay based on quality source material, a great score, and a director who makes us feel as cool as his characters. Like Mozart, Steven Soderbergh makes complicated artistic maneuvers look effortless–and like Elmore Leonard, Soderbergh knows the difference between good bad guys and bad bad guys. Out of Sight was adapted by Scott Frank from Elmore Leonard's 1996 novel, found here. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Robert Benton's 1979 interior drama turned out to be one of the biggest films of the 70s. While we might appreciate Dustn Hoffman now more often than we watch his movies, this marked another example of him owning the decade. It's his movie, despite the attempt to give balance to the two Kramers fighting for the legal and moral right to raise their son. If you haven't seen this since it played in theaters for months and then became a cable-TV staple, it's worth rewatching; if you've never seen it, give it a look. Either way, be sure to listen to our conversation (and debate) about it once you finish. Kramer vs. Kramer was adapted from Avery Corman's bestselling novel, found here. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

For years, Dan avoided this movie, fearing it was like a Hallmark Holiday Classic or Very Special Episode of Mad About You. But after our episode on Broadcast News, Mike insisted Dan give it a watch. Join us as we talk about the ways in which the film surfs just above the sharks of sentimentality that threaten it at every plot point and offers a great combination of characters, problems, and new problems once original ones are solved. Patrick McGilligan's Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson and Marc Eliot's Nicholson are good starting points if you're interested in the life of the actor. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

If L. A. Confidential (1997) were two degrees campier, it would seem like Dick Tracy–but Curtis Hanson made sure to capture the spirit of James Ellroy's novel while making its labyrinth plot understandable to viewers. Join us for a conversation about how the film examines the need for heroes yet seems to only offer them in a way to which the movies have made us accustomed. Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but how much sunlight do we really want illuminating the institutions that hold society together? Do we want to live in Chinatown or on the set of Badge of Honor? If you haven't read James Ellroy's novel, you can find it here, as well as Steven Powell's new biography of James Ellroy, Love Me Fierce in Danger. You can also listen to Dan's interview with Steven Powell here on the New Books Network, as well as a conversation between Dan and Steven about L. A. Confidential on the page and screen. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

If L. A. Confidential (1997) were two degrees campier, it would seem like Dick Tracy–but Curtis Hanson made sure to capture the spirit of James Ellroy's novel while making its labyrinth plot understandable to viewers. Join us for a conversation about how the film examines the need for heroes yet seems to only offer them in a way to which the movies have made us accustomed. Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but how much sunlight do we really want illuminating the institutions that hold society together? Do we want to live in Chinatown or on the set of Badge of Honor? If you haven't read James Ellroy's novel, you can find it here, as well as Steven Powell's new biography of James Ellroy, Love Me Fierce in Danger. You can also listen to Dan's interview with Steven Powell here on the New Books Network, as well as a conversation between Dan and Steven about L. A. Confidential on the page and screen. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) are collectively known as “The Man with No Name” trilogy and are often thought of as one long movie about the hero's adventures, much like we think of the original three installments of Indiana Jones. Quentin Tarantino has called the third film the most well-directed film ever made, but Mike contends that For a Few Dollars More is superior to the other two. Join us for a conversation about this most dreamlike of Westerns that operates like a buddy-cop movie and reminds us the question posed by classicists, “Could Achilles beat Odysseus in a fight?” In other words, who would be more afraid of angering: Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef? If you're interested in learning more about Leone's work, you might want to read Alireza Vahdani's The Hero and the Grave: The Theme of Death in the Films of John Ford, Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) are collectively known as “The Man with No Name” trilogy and are often thought of as one long movie about the hero's adventures, much like we think of the original three installments of Indiana Jones. Quentin Tarantino has called the third film the most well-directed film ever made, but Mike contends that For a Few Dollars More is superior to the other two. Join us for a conversation about this most dreamlike of Westerns that operates like a buddy-cop movie and reminds us the question posed by classicists, “Could Achilles beat Odysseus in a fight?” In other words, who would be more afraid of angering: Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef? If you're interested in learning more about Leone's work, you might want to read Alireza Vahdani's The Hero and the Grave: The Theme of Death in the Films of John Ford, Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not (1944) is more Hollywood than Hemingway–something for which we should all be grateful. The film is a wonderful example–perhaps the best–of onscreen chemistry and remains wildly entertaining even aside from the onscreen courtship of Bogart and Bacall. Join us as we talk about banter as a tool of seduction, the ways in which films let us “borrow the nature” of their actors, how To Have and Have Not feels like Casablanca II, and if Howard Hawks has an odd obsession with Hoagy Carmichael. In this episode, Dan mentions William J. Mann's recent book Bogie and Bacall, a terrific dual biography of the stars. You can hear Dan's interview of the author here. And if you don't believe that the source material for the film is as bad as we say it is, you can find Hemingway's novel here. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Howard Hawks's To Have and Have Not (1944) is more Hollywood than Hemingway–something for which we should all be grateful. The film is a wonderful example–perhaps the best–of onscreen chemistry and remains wildly entertaining even aside from the onscreen courtship of Bogart and Bacall. Join us as we talk about banter as a tool of seduction, the ways in which films let us “borrow the nature” of their actors, how To Have and Have Not feels like Casablanca II, and if Howard Hawks has an odd obsession with Hoagy Carmichael. In this episode, Dan mentions William J. Mann's recent book Bogie and Bacall, a terrific dual biography of the stars. You can hear Dan's interview of the author here. And if you don't believe that the source material for the film is as bad as we say it is, you can find Hemingway's novel here. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Everyone loves a good heist movie that depends on the combination of cold, logical planning and some element going sideways–and Thief is one of the best. Its 1981 release date is seen in every frame and the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream makes for great nostalgic viewing. But the film has real power as a character study of a highly skilled man trying to get something beyond his reach and wants what he cannot steal. James Cann's performance as Frank is one of his best; he even seems to channel his most famous role when he needs Frank to let off steam. Give it a listen and learn how Michael Mann answers the question of whether there is honor among thieves. Want to read more about Michael Mann? Jean-Baptiste Thoret's Michael Mann: A Contemporary Retrospective examines Mann's “contemplative way of filming that combines fascination and melancholy.” Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Everyone loves a good heist movie that depends on the combination of cold, logical planning and some element going sideways–and Thief is one of the best. Its 1981 release date is seen in every frame and the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream makes for great nostalgic viewing. But the film has real power as a character study of a highly skilled man trying to get something beyond his reach and wants what he cannot steal. James Cann's performance as Frank is one of his best; he even seems to channel his most famous role when he needs Frank to let off steam. Give it a listen and learn how Michael Mann answers the question of whether there is honor among thieves. Want to read more about Michael Mann? Jean-Baptiste Thoret's Michael Mann: A Contemporary Retrospective examines Mann's “contemplative way of filming that combines fascination and melancholy.” Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Do you need to be a wolf to protect the sheep? That's the question at the heart of Training Day (2001), in which Ethan Hawke plays the lead and Denzel Washington plays himself–at least for the first hour. What happens in the film once the sun goes down gets Mike and Dan arguing as they haven't in a while: does the movie become yet another one where people go through a house with pistols drawn and shotgun blasts take out kitchen counters? Or is there a deeper reason why the film must end as it does? Listen and decide! During the conversation we also bring in Meeting Evil, and The Screwtape Letters–both terrific books. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Collateral was made in 2004, ten years after Speed—and while both films have the same story of a good guy trying to stop a killer in real time, Collateral feels decades away from the innocence of Speed. Much of that has to do with the villain, who espouses a set of assumptions about the world that we se all around us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Shark Tank. On a lighter note, the movie also ends the debate of how Superman could disguise himself with a simple pair of glasses. It's a movie made for the hosts: Michael Mann for Mike and Tom Cruise for Dan. Jump in the taxi and give it a listen! If you love Michael Mann, you love Heat. Mann's new novel, Heat 2, can be found here. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Collateral was made in 2004, ten years after Speed—and while both films have the same story of a good guy trying to stop a killer in real time, Collateral feels decades away from the innocence of Speed. Much of that has to do with the villain, who espouses a set of assumptions about the world that we se all around us on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Shark Tank. On a lighter note, the movie also ends the debate of how Superman could disguise himself with a simple pair of glasses. It's a movie made for the hosts: Michael Mann for Mike and Tom Cruise for Dan. Jump in the taxi and give it a listen! If you love Michael Mann, you love Heat. Mann's new novel, Heat 2, can be found here. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out Dan's new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our descent into Los Angeles.” So begins The Graduate (1967), which everyone loves but which many of us loved for one reason when we were younger and one when we became a little more seasoned. “Plastics” is a great joke when you're 20; how does it sound decades later? The movie hasn't changed, but we have. It's still terrific: Mike and Dan talk about the intelligence of the actors and the ways in which targets of the film's satire (such as the cult of enthusiasm parents create around their kids) is even more pronounced today than when the film was made. They also talk about what many viewers seem to omit from their memories of the film's famous ending. Pictures at a Revolution, Mark Harris's 2009 book, tells the story of the five Best Picture nominees in 1968, The Graduate among them. It's a terrific read. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our descent into Los Angeles.” So begins The Graduate (1967), which everyone loves but which many of us loved for one reason when we were younger and one when we became a little more seasoned. “Plastics” is a great joke when you're 20; how does it sound decades later? The movie hasn't changed, but we have. It's still terrific: Mike and Dan talk about the intelligence of the actors and the ways in which targets of the film's satire (such as the cult of enthusiasm parents create around their kids) is even more pronounced today than when the film was made. They also talk about what many viewers seem to omit from their memories of the film's famous ending. Pictures at a Revolution, Mark Harris's 2009 book, tells the story of the five Best Picture nominees in 1968, The Graduate among them. It's a terrific read. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our descent into Los Angeles.” So begins The Graduate (1967), which everyone loves but which many of us loved for one reason when we were younger and one when we became a little more seasoned. “Plastics” is a great joke when you're 20; how does it sound decades later? The movie hasn't changed, but we have. It's still terrific: Mike and Dan talk about the intelligence of the actors and the ways in which targets of the film's satire (such as the cult of enthusiasm parents create around their kids) is even more pronounced today than when the film was made. They also talk about what many viewers seem to omit from their memories of the film's famous ending. Pictures at a Revolution, Mark Harris's 2009 book, tells the story of the five Best Picture nominees in 1968, The Graduate among them. It's a terrific read. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

A great movie that is very difficult movie to recommend because of its subject matter, Paul Schrader's Auto Focus (2002), the story of TV-star Bob Crane, is another of Schrader's portraits of a man whose self-destruction we watch with admiration for the writing and unease at what we're seeing. It's a combination of The Lost Weekend, Reefer Madness, and Sunset Blvd. with Willem Defoe at his creepiest. But it's much more than perfect recreations of Hogan's Heroes or Greg Kinnear's incredible performance: it's a movie about the power of movies and images and of how nothing seems real until it is filmed—an idea we see all the time as people hold up their phones to record their vacations, kids' sporting events, or office birthday parties. It's a shocking film, but Schrader seems to have been as shocked to make it as we are to see it. Auto Focus is based on Robert Graysmith's The Murder of Bob Crane. If you are interested in the details of Crane's murder—which remains a cold case—you may want to read John Hook's Who Killed Bob Crane? The Final Close-Up. A more traditional biography of Crane that seeks to tell more than what Schrader does in Auto Focus was published in 2015. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

A great movie that is very difficult movie to recommend because of its subject matter, Paul Schrader's Auto Focus (2002), the story of TV-star Bob Crane, is another of Schrader's portraits of a man whose self-destruction we watch with admiration for the writing and unease at what we're seeing. It's a combination of The Lost Weekend, Reefer Madness, and Sunset Blvd. with Willem Defoe at his creepiest. But it's much more than perfect recreations of Hogan's Heroes or Greg Kinnear's incredible performance: it's a movie about the power of movies and images and of how nothing seems real until it is filmed—an idea we see all the time as people hold up their phones to record their vacations, kids' sporting events, or office birthday parties. It's a shocking film, but Schrader seems to have been as shocked to make it as we are to see it. Auto Focus is based on Robert Graysmith's The Murder of Bob Crane. If you are interested in the details of Crane's murder—which remains a cold case—you may want to read John Hook's Who Killed Bob Crane? The Final Close-Up. A more traditional biography of Crane that seeks to tell more than what Schrader does in Auto Focus was published in 2015. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A great movie that is very difficult movie to recommend because of its subject matter, Paul Schrader's Auto Focus (2002), the story of TV-star Bob Crane, is another of Schrader's portraits of a man whose self-destruction we watch with admiration for the writing and unease at what we're seeing. It's a combination of The Lost Weekend, Reefer Madness, and Sunset Blvd. with Willem Defoe at his creepiest. But it's much more than perfect recreations of Hogan's Heroes or Greg Kinnear's incredible performance: it's a movie about the power of movies and images and of how nothing seems real until it is filmed—an idea we see all the time as people hold up their phones to record their vacations, kids' sporting events, or office birthday parties. It's a shocking film, but Schrader seems to have been as shocked to make it as we are to see it. Auto Focus is based on Robert Graysmith's The Murder of Bob Crane. If you are interested in the details of Crane's murder—which remains a cold case—you may want to read John Hook's Who Killed Bob Crane? The Final Close-Up. A more traditional biography of Crane that seeks to tell more than what Schrader does in Auto Focus was published in 2015. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

A dramatized thought experiment like best episodes of Star Trek, Forbidden Planet (1956) is a wonderful reminder of how people in the past envisioned the future. Part prophecy—looking forward—and part analysis of the timeless human condition, the film wraps heavy ideas about the cost of knowledge and the ways we interact with our own creations into melodrama. Yes, it's a reimagining of The Tempest, but it's also Faust, Frankenstein, and “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” from Fantasia. Join us for a conversation about the limits of technology and the ways in which anything we create bears our own failings. If you're interested in further reading, Dr. Morbius has many literary antecedents, from Prospero in The Tempest, to Dr. Faustus, Dr. Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

A dramatized thought experiment like best episodes of Star Trek, Forbidden Planet (1956) is a wonderful reminder of how people in the past envisioned the future. Part prophecy—looking forward—and part analysis of the timeless human condition, the film wraps heavy ideas about the cost of knowledge and the ways we interact with our own creations into melodrama. Yes, it's a reimagining of The Tempest, but it's also Faust, Frankenstein, and “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” from Fantasia. Join us for a conversation about the limits of technology and the ways in which anything we create bears our own failings. If you're interested in further reading, Dr. Morbius has many literary antecedents, from Prospero in The Tempest, to Dr. Faustus, Dr. Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Kafkaesque” is the word usually used to describe After Hours, Martin Scorsese's 1985 comedy—a fair point, since there's a scene in the film that dramatizes Kafka's “Before the Law.” But the writer whose imagination this film really taps is Lewis Carroll: as in Alice in Wonderland, a naïve but likable young person chases a white rabbit to a different part of town, is threatened by an angry woman who wants to chop off his head, and learns, “We're all mad here.” Join us for an appreciation of this terrific film we've used to test other people's sense of humor. If you haven't read Lewis Carroll in a while, you can get a copy of all the Alice books here. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

“Kafkaesque” is the word usually used to describe After Hours, Martin Scorsese's 1985 comedy—a fair point, since there's a scene in the film that dramatizes Kafka's “Before the Law.” But the writer whose imagination this film really taps is Lewis Carroll: as in Alice in Wonderland, a naïve but likable young person chases a white rabbit to a different part of town, is threatened by an angry woman who wants to chop off his head, and learns, “We're all mad here.” Join us for an appreciation of this terrific film we've used to test other people's sense of humor. If you haven't read Lewis Carroll in a while, you can get a copy of all the Alice books here. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the proper—or most effective—response to a barrage of horror and pain? The closest that screenwriter Paul Schrader ever came to a comedy (albeit a very dark one), Bringing Out the Dead (1999) is low on special effects depicting medical emergencies but high on drama. Join us for a conversation about one of Scorsese's sleepers, a movie about a man who wants to find something like religious faith in a world with no spiritual oasis. It also dramatizes the incredible cost paid a moment of peace. The film is based on Joe Connolly's 1988 novel, which was a minor sensation when published. Follow us on X and Letterboxd–and let us know what you'd like us to watch! Incredible bumper music by John Deley. Also check out the new Substack site, Pages and Frames, for more film-related material. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network