Podcasts about Roger Ebert

Notes and Links to Julian Randall's Work     Julian Randall is a Living Queer Black author from Chicago. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Callaloo, and the Watering Hole. Julian is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and the winner of the 2019 Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award from the Publishing Triangle.   His writing has been published in New York Times Magazine, Ploughshares, and POETRY, and anthologized in Black Boy Joy (which debuted at #1 on the NYT Best Seller list), Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed, and Furious Flower. Julian has essays in Vibe Magazine, Los Angeles Review of Books, and other venues. They hold an MFA in poetry from University of Mississippi.    Julian is the author of five books across three genres. For adults: Refuse (Pitt, 2018), winner of the 2017 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and a finalist for a 2019 NAACP Image Award and The Dead Don't Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi and Black TV Nerd Shit (Bold Type Books, 2024) winner of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award in Life Writing. For middle grade novel readers, he has written the Pilar Ramirez duology, The Chainbreakers and Shook, a middle grade novel in verse, which was published on August 9th, 2026.    Buy Shook   Julian Randall's Website   Review of Shook at BookPage   Support Flourish Community Hub on the Ground in Gary, Indiana     At about 1:45, Julian lays out the sobering situation in Gary, Indiana-support here At about 3:20, Julian talks about feedback he has received on Shook and tour events At about 4:30, Julian talks about favorite bookstores at which to buy his book, including Call and Response At about 5:30, Julian details his reading journey, especially his father's influence on his reading and his language and literature background  At about 7:00, Julian talks about, among others, Artemis Fowl, Langston Hughes, and Van Helsing-influences on his sensibility At about 9:50, Julian riffs on Shawn of the Dead and his reference in the book At about 11:50, Julian responds to Pete's question about his contemporaries and literary influences, including Jason Reynolds and Leah Johnson At about 14:55, Jason expands on the greatness of Leah Johnson At about 16:50, Pete asks Julian about how he “inhabits” his younger characters so well, and Julian adds information about how his writing has been informed by his own experiences  At about 21:20, Julian responds to Pete's question about his basketball player profile  At about 22:20, Julian reflects on the avoidance of moralizing in his writing, and he expands on his admiration for Suzanne Collins, especially her Gregor the Overlander series At about 30:15, Julian talks about seeds for Shook and connections to the pandemic  At about 33:45, Julian responds to Pete;'s asking about the book's sequencing and use of unique “chapters” At about 37:00, Julian connects his writing style in Shook, featuring “beats,” to DVD “scene selection” At about 38:00, Pete lays out some of the book's exposition  At about 39:00, Julian characterizes and compliments his main character, Malik “Shake” Page At about 40:15, Julian talks Malik, backstory, and “My Story” on NBA 2K At about 42:40, Julian talks about a question for his characters, “What is magic for you?” and connections between the calming factor of basketball and anxiety  At about 44:30, Russell Westbrook Love At about 45:40, The two discuss the protagonist's group chat, and the genesis of the book's title and the titular character  At about 47:45, Julian compares the group chat to a “Greek chorus” At about 48:55, The two discuss the book's semifinal game and the importance of trash talking  At about 53:00, Discussion of a damaging injury to Shake leads to discussion of “Up North,” Chicago redlining history, and economic and racial segregation  At about 55:55, At about 57:00, Dr. Betts and real-life inspirations are discussed-Dr. Tara Betts  At about 59:35, Shake and his “widening gulf” with friends discussed At about 1:00:15, Julian talks about a prominent character, Duke, real-life connections, and how he is a quiet “hero” in the book, instructive for Shake  At about 1:04:00, Pete recounts a crushing comparison made by Kaveh Akbar that speaks to the idea of everyone's expansive stories  At about 1:05:20, Dr. Jason Clopton and his fictional doppelganger, Dr. Kendrick J. Drake are lovingly referenced  At about 1:06:40, Julian talks about the “manifestation of the classic middle-school” fear and “anxiety representation” and therapy discussions in his book At about 1:09:50, Pete cites some profound and moving quotes in the book      You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow Pete on IG, where he is @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where he is @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both the YouTube Channel and the podcast while you're checking out this episode.       Pete is very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. His conversation with Jeff Pearlman, a recent guest, is up now at Chicago Review.     Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl      Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting Pete's one-man show, DIY podcast and extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!    This month's Patreon bonus episode is the second episode for Pete's limited podcast series, Rage is a Gift: Evil Empire at 30. Pete reflects on the Importance (and the power of this capital "I") of Rage Against the Machine and their seminal Evil Empire album, which is celebrating 30 years of resistance. The episode focuses on the opening track, “People of the Sun.” The limited podcast series will do a deep exploration of, and reflection on, the lyrics and context of each of the 12 powerful songs on the album.     Pete has added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.     Please tune in for Episode 348 with Daniel Dockery, who has been a Senior Writer and Assistant Editor at Crunchyroll, as well as a Columnist and Assistant Editor at Cracked.com. He's also written for WIRED, Vulture, Polygon, SYFY, Paste Magazine, Roger Ebert, Thrillist, and various other outlets. His first book, Monster Kids: How Pokémon Taught a Generation to Catch Them All, was released by Running Press on October 4, 2022. His upcoming book, I AM THE NIGHT: The Ultimate Unauthorized History of Batman: The Animated Series, is out with St. Martin's Press as of September 1, 2026.      The episode airs on September 8.     Please go to ceasefiretoday.org, and/or https://act.uscpr.org/a/letaidin to call your congresspeople and demand an end to the forced famine and destruction of Gaza and the Gazan people.    You can also donate at chuffed.org, World Central Kitchen, and so many more, and/or you can contact writer friend Ursula Villarreal-Moura directly or through Pete, as she has direct links with friends in Gaza.  

Black on Black Cinema tackles Chameleon Street (1989), Wendell B. Harris Jr.'s astonishing writer-director-star debut based on the true story of Detroit con artist William Douglas Street Jr., who successfully impersonated reporters, lawyers, an Ivy League exchange student, and even a surgeon, performing over 30 real hysterectomies without any medical training. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1990, beating out Reservoir Dogs, and then inexplicably went without distribution for over a year, effectively burying Harris's career before it started.The concept is genuinely brilliant, a razor-sharp satire about race, class, and identity performance in America, anchored by a magnetic, one-of-a-kind lead performance from Harris himself. But the execution is a different story. The film is tonally unpredictable, structurally chaotic, and at times narratively difficult to follow, swinging wildly between avant-garde experimentation and straightforward biopic beats without clear rhythm. We break down what makes Chameleon Street a genuine one-of-a-kind vision worth seeking out, where the filmmaking gets in its own way, and why this would be ripe for a modern remake with better structure and focus.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

This is our NEW RELEASE review podcast, ONE HOT TAKE. If a movie glimpses the magic of life, for fractions of seconds, it is worthwhile. “Amziah” is a dose I wasn't ready for. Synopsis: The Platt family bands together to navigate their new surroundings after a cosmic event transports their suburban neighbourhood to someplace unknown. Sean Burns Sean Burns is a film critic for WBUR's Arts & Culture and a contributing writer at North Shore Movies and Crooked Marquee. He was Philadelphia Weekly's lead film critic from 1999 through 2013, and worked as a contributing editor at The Improper Bostonian from 2006 until 2014. His reviews, interviews and essays have also appeared in Metro, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, The Boston Herald, Nashville Scene, Time Out New York, Philadelphia City Paper and RogerEbert.com. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Burns was a recurring guest on the late David Brudnoy's WBZ 1030 AM radio show, and in 2002 received an award for Excellence in Criticism from the Greater Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists. Currently a member of the Online Film Critics Society and the Critics Choice Association, he's also “the most annoyingest person ever,” according to his niece. WEBSITE: splicedpersonality.com TWITTER: @SeanMBurns One Heat Minute Productions WEBSITE: oneheatminute.com TWITTER: @OneBlakeMinute & @OHMPods MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/en-au/stores/one-heat-minute-productions Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Black on Black Cinema breaks down the National Association of Black Journalists giving Stephen A. Smith its "Thumbs Down" award, reserved for commentary the organization considers especially insensitive, stereotypical, or at odds with NABJ's mission around fair representation of the Black community. NABJ's statement specifically cited Smith's recurring pattern of disparaging commentary toward prominent Black women across politics, sports, and media, saying it reinforces harmful narratives and undermines fair, respectful representation.We agree with NABJ here, and we break down exactly why. Smith has spent years building a media empire on saying whatever gets a reaction, and his commentary toward Black women specifically has followed a consistent, well documented pattern that deserves scrutiny; not just from critics online, but from an organization built to hold Black media figures accountable to Black communities. Smith's response was predictably combative, essentially promising retaliation on his platform. He even ran to Fox News' Sean Hannity to make his thoughts known. A curious platform if he is trying to reach Black people...hmmm. We discuss why that reaction proves NABJ's point more than it disproves it, what accountability from within the profession actually looks like, and why Smith's expanding political platform makes this moment even more significant.We also announce the next film to be reviewed which is the 1989 film "Chameleon Street" which follows a social chameleon who impersonates reporters, doctors and lawyers in order to make money. (Film is available to watch on Tubi for free).Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

This week on Black on Black Cinema, the entire crew returns to discuss the 2026 film that was written and directed by Chris Stokes, "Stepfather." The film stars Taye Diggs as a desperate man who hunts for the perfect family, but when his new wife and daughters fear he may be deranged, escaping him will have deadly consequences.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Mostly Film – Take 243: Harrison Ford In Review — Episode 4Peak Ford. Jonathan and JP cover the three-year stretch — 1992, 1993, 1994 — where Harrison Ford was the biggest movie star in the world outside of his own franchises. Combined worldwide gross across three films: approximately $572 million. All three opened at number one. One of them held number one for six consecutive weeks.First, Patriot Games. Alec Baldwin was unavailable due to a Broadway commitment, McTiernan left when Baldwin left, Tom Clancy publicly asked for his name removed from the production, and Ford stepped into Jack Ryan anyway. The original ending tested so badly they scrapped it entirely and reshot the climax — during which Ford accidentally hit Sean Bean in the face with a boat hook and gave him a scar that the Sharpe makeup department later leaned into for authenticity. The satellite strike sequence caused brief concern at the Pentagon. Roger Ebert complained about the Indiana Jones ending. The question: does Ford make Jack Ryan his own, or is he always playing Alec Baldwin's character?Then The Fugitive. Twenty-five drafts, nine writers, six editors, and a script that still wasn't finished when they started shooting. Baldwin, Costner, Douglas, and Nolte were all considered before Ford. Nobody involved had seen the original TV series. Tommy Lee Jones improvised "I don't care" during a freezing sewer sequence, told Joe Pantoliano nobody would win any awards for this film, then won the Oscar, the Golden Globe, and every critics' prize going. The train crash was 27 cameras, one take, no miniatures. The St. Patrick's Day parade was shot in the real parade with no rehearsal. Seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture. The only TV adaptation ever nominated for that award. The big question for the episode: is The Fugitive the best film Harrison Ford ever made outside of Star Wars and Indiana Jones?Then Clear and Present Danger — three screenwriters, Clancy still not fully happy, and Ford's own stated favourite of the two Jack Ryan films he made. A film whose central thesis is that telling the truth to Congress is more dangerous than participating in a cover-up. It felt provocative in 1994. It has dated extremely well.After 1994, Ford never made another Jack Ryan film. The question that hangs over the episode — and sets up Episode 5: what happens to Harrison Ford's career after the peak?

Movie of the Year: 2006VolverThe Volver Podcast Episode Enters the BracketThe Volver podcast episode brings Pedro Almodóvar's beloved ghost story into the full Movie of the Year 2006 bracket. This week, Greg and Mike hold down the fort while Ryan sits this one out. Fortunately, they have serious backup. New Yorker television critic Inkoo Kang joins the panel to talk grief, ghosts, and the women of La Mancha. Together, they ask whether Almodóvar's warmest film has what it takes to survive the tournament.The conversation covers the film's supernatural heart, its unforgettable women, and its thoroughly rotten men. Additionally, the crew builds a Mount Rushmore of It Girls and runs through The Five. As always, the bracket outcome stays a secret here. Consequently, you will need to listen to find out how Volver fares.About the FilmVolver is a 2006 Spanish comedy-drama written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Penélope Cruz stars as Raimunda, a working-class mother in Madrid whose life unravels after a sudden death at home. Meanwhile, her sister Sole discovers that their late mother Irene, played by Carmen Maura, may have returned from the grave. The film is set partly in La Mancha, the windswept region where Almodóvar grew up.Volver premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, where it won Best Screenplay. Notably, its six lead actresses shared the Best Actress prize, an almost unheard-of collective honor. Cruz later earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, a landmark for Spanish-language performances. Roger Ebert gave the film four stars and named it among his four-star movies of 2006. You can find full details on the film's cast and awards at IMDb.The 2006 field is stacked with heavyweights. Volver joins previous entries like The Prestige, Little Miss Sunshine, and Borat in the fight for the crown.Guest Panelist: Inkoo KangInkoo Kang is the television critic at The New Yorker, where she has covered TV since 2022. Before that, she served as a TV critic at The Washington Post and The Hollywood Reporter. Her byline has also appeared at Slate, MTV News, The Village Voice, and TheWrap over a career spanning more than a decade. In practice, that résumé makes her one of the sharpest working critics on storytelling, performance, and cultural memory. Her perspective on Almodóvar's women makes this Volver podcast conversation essential listening.Ghosts and Grief on the Volver PodcastVolver treats death with a shrug and grief with a casserole. The Taste Buds dig into how Almodóvar builds a ghost story without a single scare. Irene's return plays as domestic comedy first and emotional reckoning second. However, the laughs never cheapen the loss underneath them.Inkoo, Greg, and Mike explore how the film's La Mancha setting shapes its view of mortality. The village women tend graves like gardens and speak of the dead like neighbors. As a result, the supernatural feels less like fantasy and more like tradition. The panel asks whether that matter-of-fact approach to death is exactly why the film hits so hard. Ultimately, Volver argues that the dead stay with us because we keep setting a place for them.Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters on the Volver PodcastEvery meaningful relationship in Volver runs between women. Raimunda and her daughter Paula protect each other through the film's darkest turn. Sole and Raimunda circle each other with the friction only sisters manage. Above all, Irene's return forces three generations to confront secrets that shaped them all.The panel unpacks how Almodóvar stages forgiveness as the film's true climax. Specifically, they discuss the confessions between mother and daughter that reframe everything before them. Inkoo brings a critic's eye to Cruz's performance, which anchors the whole ensemble. Moreover, the group considers how the film honors caretaking as heroic labor. Cooking, cleaning, and burying become acts of love here, not background noise.Ugh, Dudes: The Men of VolverThe men of Volver are a rogues' gallery of predators, cheats, and dead weight. Consequently, the Volver podcast panel dedicates a full segment to asking a simple question. Why does Almodóvar write men this way, and what does their awfulness reveal?The panel argues that the film's male characters function as weather, not people. They cause damage, and then the women clean up after the storm. By contrast, the women get every ounce of the film's interiority and warmth. The crew debates whether this imbalance is a flaw or the entire point. Nevertheless, everyone agrees on one thing. The dudes in this movie? Ugh.Rushmore: It GirlsPenélope Cruz became a global It Girl on the strength of this performance. Therefore, the crew carves a Mount Rushmore of It Girls in her honor. Greg, Mike, and Inkoo each argue for the four faces that defined It Girl status across eras. The picks range from obvious icons to deep-cut favorites, and the debate gets appropriately heated. Listen to the episode to hear which four faces make the mountain.The Five on This Week's Volver PodcastThe episode also features The Five, a recurring segment built on movie archetypes. The panel receives five iconic character types and must argue for the 2006 star who best embodies each one. This week's archetypes are a murderers' row: Scout Finch, Batman, Ripley, Robin Hood, and Frankenstein's Monster.Consequently, the debate ranges across the entire 2006 landscape. Who carries Scout's wide-eyed moral clarity? Which star wears Batman's brooding armor? Moreover, who earns Ripley's steel, Robin Hood's roguish charm, or the Monster's tragic misunderstood soul? Greg, Mike, and Inkoo each make their cases, and the picks get delightfully contentious. The answers stay spoiler-free here, so hit play to hear who claims each archetype.Why Volver Still MattersVolver endures because it treats ordinary women's lives as the stuff of grand cinema. Twenty years later, its blend of melodrama, comedy, and ghost story still feels singular. Cruz's Oscar-nominated turn opened doors for Spanish-language performances in Hollywood's biggest categories. Furthermore, the film cemented Almodóvar's late-career run as one of world cinema's great streaks.The Volver podcast conversation makes the case that the film's warmth is its weapon. Plenty of movies mine grief for devastation. By contrast, Volver mines grief for connection, and that choice keeps audiences returning. The title means "to return" in Spanish, after all. Great films do exactly that.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 2006Movies of 2006: Intro Part 12006 Bracket Reveal and Sweet 16Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story2006 Mixtape Part I2006 Mixtape Part IIBrickThe Puffy ChairThe Devil Wears PradaLittle Miss SunshineThe PrestigeBoratAll Movie of the Year episodesFAQ: Volver Podcast and FilmWhat is the Volver podcast episode about?In this Volver podcast episode, Greg and Mike from Movie of the Year discuss Pedro Almodóvar's 2006 film with guest critic Inkoo Kang. Topics include ghosts and grief, the film's women, its terrible men, a Mount Rushmore of It Girls, and The Five.What is Volver about?Volver follows Raimunda, a Madrid mother played by Penélope Cruz, as she covers up a death at home. Meanwhile, her late mother apparently returns from the grave to settle unfinished business with her daughters.Who directed Volver?Pedro Almodóvar wrote and directed Volver. The Spanish filmmaker set the story partly in La Mancha, the region where he grew up.What does Volver mean?Volver means "to return" in Spanish. The title comes from a classic tango and...

This is our NEW RELEASE review podcast, ONE HOT TAKE.David Robert Mitchell keeps the catastrophe in the corner of the eye, where suburbia has always kept its violence, and lets the audience do the turning.Synopsis:The Platt family bands together to navigate their new surroundings after a cosmic event transports their suburban neighbourhood to someplace unknown.Sean BurnsSean Burns is a film critic for WBUR's Arts & Culture and a contributing writer at North Shore Movies and Crooked Marquee. He was Philadelphia Weekly's lead film critic from 1999 through 2013, and worked as a contributing editor at The Improper Bostonian from 2006 until 2014. His reviews, interviews and essays have also appeared in Metro, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, The Boston Herald, Nashville Scene, Time Out New York, Philadelphia City Paper and RogerEbert.com.A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Burns was a recurring guest on the late David Brudnoy's WBZ 1030 AM radio show, and in 2002 received an award for Excellence in Criticism from the Greater Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists. Currently a member of the Online Film Critics Society and the Critics Choice Association, he's also “the most annoyingest person ever,” according to his niece.WEBSITE: splicedpersonality.comTWITTER: @SeanMBurnsOne Heat Minute ProductionsWEBSITE: oneheatminute.comTWITTER: @OneBlakeMinute & @OHMPodsMERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/en-au/stores/one-heat-minute-productionsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode of Across The Margin : The Podcast features an interview with poet and film producer Janet R. Kirchheimer. Janet is the author of How to Spot One of Us, a collection of poems about the Holocaust and her family (Clal, 2007). She is also the producer of the award-winning film AFTER: Poetry Destroys Silence, a cinematic performance documentary in which contemporary poets, both Jewish and non-Jewish, confront the Holocaust and its aftermath and discuss the responsibility of the spoken word to respond. The first of its kind, where poetry and cinema combine and transcend, AFTER is an exploration of poetry written about the Holocaust and unthinkable trauma in general. In it, contemporary poets talk about the importance and necessity for poetry in a world that still grapples with genocide. Rather than seeing the devastation, AFTER shows how poets respond to catastrophe and write in its aftermath. The film is ultimately about human resiliency, the power and courage to forge new lives, and the value of poetry in looking to the past to help create a better future. Named one of the best films of 2024 by Rogerebert.com, AFTER won Best Feature Documentary at the 2025 Montreal Independent Film Festival. It is a film that, dazzlingly, interlaces sequences of music, archival footage, personal photographs, and documents to offer a modern chronicle of poets examining history and the current day. AFTER serves as both a model and a warning for an increasingly divided and violent planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a small hiatus, we're back! We hope you enjoy the hot fresh(ish) indie hit we're talking about in this one. Do you have any set production horror stories?Travis Hopsin for Roger Ebert: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/found-footage-patterson-project-movie-review-2025Our website!https://www.casualhorrorpod.comFollow us on social media!https://bsky.app/profile/casualhorrorpod.comhttps://www.tumblr.com/casualhorrorpodhttps://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/casual-obsessionFollow the hosts on their individual accountsNina (They/Them)https://letterboxd.com/ninawolverinahttps://bsky.app/profile/ninawolverina.bsky.socialhttps://www.tumblr.com/ninawolv3rinaNoah (He/They)https://letterboxd.com/Bubbadabadhttps://bsky.app/profile/bubbadabad.bsky.socialhttps://www.tumblr.com/bubbadabadJade (She/Her)https://www.tumblr.com/whatisityouprayforhttps://letterboxd.com/thefakestfanEmma (They/Any)https://bsky.app/profile/jellyfwitch.bsky.socialhttps://letterboxd.com/emmapanada

This is our NEW RELEASE review podcast, ONE HOT TAKE.Nobody in this house locks anything. There's a pool, there are children, there's a killer renting across the road, and the gate swings free for 10 hours of television. The Bowdens are obsessed with their own security and incapable of practising any.Synopsis:A happily married couple faces a growing threat when a notorious killer from their past, Max Cady, is released from prison and seeks revenge.Sean BurnsSean Burns is a film critic for WBUR's Arts & Culture and a contributing writer at North Shore Movies and Crooked Marquee. He was Philadelphia Weekly's lead film critic from 1999 through 2013, and worked as a contributing editor at The Improper Bostonian from 2006 until 2014. His reviews, interviews and essays have also appeared in Metro, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, The Boston Herald, Nashville Scene, Time Out New York, Philadelphia City Paper and RogerEbert.com.A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Burns was a recurring guest on the late David Brudnoy's WBZ 1030 AM radio show, and in 2002 received an award for Excellence in Criticism from the Greater Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists. Currently a member of the Online Film Critics Society and the Critics Choice Association, he's also “the most annoyingest person ever,” according to his niece.WEBSITE: splicedpersonality.comTWITTER: @SeanMBurnsRoxana HadadiRoxana HadadiRoxana Hadadi is a Vulture/New York Magazine TV critic who also writes about film and pop culture, with the closed captions on and motion smoothing off.One Heat Minute ProductionsWEBSITE: oneheatminute.comTWITTER: @OneBlakeMinute & @OHMPodsMERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/en-au/stores/one-heat-minute-productionsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

To quote Roger Ebert: movies are emotion machines. And in this episode we discuss a most finely-tuned piece of emotional machinery, 1979's Oscar juggernaut Kramer vs. Kramer. From its cast full of career best performances to the somewhat undersung sure hand of writer/director Robert Benton (RIP), this film offers soul enriching depth combined with exceedingly watchable family drama. There's kinda nothing quite like it. Topics include: Dustin Hoffman being a huge jerk, the 1980 Oscars, and Meryl Streep's influence on her character.

Phil and Emily are joined by writer and podcaster Katharine LaRonde to dig into Joe Roth's America's Sweethearts (2001). Julia Roberts plays the overlooked assistant stuck managing the press junket for her superstar sister (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and her sister's washed-up, soon-to-be-ex-husband (John Cusack), whose divorce turns out to be the only story the reporters actually want. It spirals into a movie that can't decide if it's mocking the junket circus or just running one.The three dig into the film's Hollywood-satire instincts that never quite land a punch, John Cusack playing a guy who's spent a year and a half hiding from his own life at Alan Arkin's wellness retreat, and Roger Ebert's read on the movie as a watered-down Singin' in the Rain. There's a real case here for reading America's Sweethearts as the movie that wanted to skewer Hollywood but fell in love with it instead. Promising, self-conscious, and never quite committed, same as the movie.Follow the show & guest:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsKatharine LaRonde - https://www.instagram.com/katlaronde/

Our exit today has us fighting crime while being impeccably dressed. This week, we are talking about The Tuxedo, written by Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi, Michael J. Wilson and Michael Leeson and directed by Kevin Donovan.Along the way, we talk about the awkward age gap between Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt, James Bond spoofs, alternate Bond casting, Jim Carrey, Forrest Gump's special effects, the Editing Oscar, Jane Schoenbrun, our second James Brown cameo of the season, and a bizarre Roger Ebert review.Theme music by Jonworthymusic.Powered by RiversideFM.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CFF Films⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with Ross and friends.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Movies We've Covered on the Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Letterboxd.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Movies Recommended on the Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Letterboxd.

Kerry and Collin dig into this oddball Danny Boyle film and come up with different takes. Collin loves Boyle's infectious and inventive style, while Kerry found it to be a bit much and a somewhat lacking in true Christmas sentiment. It's certainly different from many of the films talked about recently. What invisible signal can cats actually see (supposedly)? What is the appropriate amount of money to give to the poor when you have money to give away? What is the 180-degree rule? All these questions, plus another round of the Blu-ray Gift Exchange.  Go to MovieZyng to start or continue your DVD/blu-ray/4K collection.   Visit collinsouter.com RogerEbert.com Follow Collin and Kerry on Letterboxd. Read Collin's tribute to Glen Hasard.  Blu-rays featured: Criterion: "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974) Sony: "I Swear" (2026) "7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958) Warner Archive: "Start The Revolution Without Me" (1970) "Last Summer" (1969) "Bonnie Scotland" (1935) "Lilly Turner" (1933) Universal: "The Song of Songs" (1933) "The Flame of New Orleans" (1941)

Sheila O'Malley is one of our greatest film writers, historians, & critics of screen acting. Her essays & reviews on The Sheila Variations blog & Roger Ebert's site are always must-reads, & I've been incredibly fortunate to have had her on the pod a few times to discuss some of cinema history's best & brightest performers. This time, she's back to share her thoughts on the vulnerable, intelligent, & understated character actor Dana Andrews, who to Sheila's mind is the recipient of many "10-second Oscars," wherein the smallest choices he makes in a scene or given line-read change the temperature of a film for good. In this warm, wonderful chat, we cover Andrews in LAURA, FALLEN ANGEL, DAISY KENYON, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, BALL OF FIRE, & more.Guest Bio: Sheila O'Malley has been writing for Rogerebert.com since 2013. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, Sight & Sound, and other outlets, including Film Comment, for which she had a biweekly column called Present Tense. She has written numerous booklet essays and video essays for Criterion Collection releases. She is the author of The Art and Making of Frankenstein, a book detailing the making of Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein. Sheila is a member of the New York Film Critics' Circle and the National Society of Film Critics.Originally Posted on Patreon (8/4/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/FilmIntuition/posts/165775594Listen to the Watch With Jen™ Podcast on RSS, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, Apple, Pandora, and MoreDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalShop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

In this milestone episode of Deepen with Christina, host Christina Weber introduces her new business partner and Managing Partner at WeDeepen: veteran Hollywood film producer René Besson. Bringing three decades of high-stakes entertainment production, storytelling, and ad industry expertise to the love movement, René shares the exact moment he realized WeDeepen was his ultimate "why." Inspired by a legendary Roger Ebert quote about empathy, this episode pulls back the curtain on the business, vision, and heart driving the expansion of WeDeepen—shifting culture from passive "Netflix and chill" consumption to living life as the empowered lead character in your own story. Main Topics Covered From Hollywood to Human Connection: Why a 30-year veteran film producer pivoted his storytelling superpowers to the love and relationship industry. The Roger Ebert Empathy Machine: The transformative quote that ignited René's mission to build WeDeepen into a global household name. Living Your Life Like a Movie: Moving past passive consumption ("Netflix & chill") to becoming the main character of your own intimacy journey. Protecting the "Magic" of the Medicine: Balancing business operations, investor relations, and scalability without corrupting the sacred container of live relational events. Building the Advisory Infrastructure: Why high-net-worth investors and corporate leaders are prioritizing relational education over traditional business metrics. Truth or Dare Masterclass: René steps into a "Dom" persona to command support for WeDeepen, and Christina reveals her most unusual youth encounter. Key Takeaways Empathy is the Ultimate Machine: True human growth requires stepping outside our personal bubble to deeply identify with the hopes, fears, and dreams of others. Align Your Superpower with Your Why: High-level execution and operational mastery only activate when deeply connected to a soul-aligned purpose. Every Person is the Lead Character: In relationships, understanding that everyone is navigating their own hero's journey is the key to non-reactive, receptive connection. Invest in Relational Education: Suffering through years of trial-and-error in dating is unnecessary when structured tools, community, and expert guidance are accessible. Connect with the Guest About René Besson: René Besson is Managing Partner at WeDeepen, a relationship transformation company, where he leads investor relations, financial strategy, and operations. Before WeDeepen, he spent three decades as a Hollywood film and television producer, delivering studio-quality work within independent budgets for major studios and A-list talent. He's a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America. His career has moved from managing high-stakes productions to managing high-stakes relationships — on screen and off. Website: wedeepen.com Instagram: @renebesson Connect with the Host Website: wedeepen.com Instagram: @christinaweber Your intimacy journey is the single greatest story you will ever tell. If you are ready to stop watching life from the sidelines and step into your lead role, subscribe to the podcast, leave a five-star rating, and share this episode with someone ready to upgrade their story. Explore upcoming WeDeepen Love Immersions and join the community at wedeepen.com!

This week, it's time to talk about one of the most notorious films of the '90s, a movie that is arguably more remembered for Roger Ebert's scathing review of it than for the movie itself. So we have to ask: is NORTH as bad as its reputation? Could Rob Reiner - who had directed so many classic films - stumble this much in his generational run? Couldn't the insane cast this movie assembles save it somehow? Well, it's time to find out - since Elijah Wood is in it, we've got to talk about NORTH!

Here's… The Movie Plug! This time with a new theme! This is the beginning of the Roger Ebert's Great 4 Stars theme where we visit movies Roger Ebert has reviewed as a “Great” 4 (out of 4) Star. These are classic movies with cinematic importance.With that the Time Sink boys are here to plug in The Shining, the ultimate horror movie by the revered Stanley Kubrick. Plug in to hear what the Time Sink and Roger Ebert have to say!Arlan's Letterboxd ReviewKaptainKristian's The Invisible Horror of The ShiningChapters:(0:00) Intro/Follow Up(9:06) General Consensus(19:35) Spoilers / Memorable Scenes(1:10:03) Scores

The episode kicks off with Walter's fiery, unfiltered commentary on a deadly shooting at a Seattle Food Festival, where he sounds off on how the shifting roles of men and women in society are creating a dangerous generation of aimless youth. The show then pivots to global geopolitics as former marine Edward Jones breaks down Houthi attacks in the Middle East and their surprising impact on the oil market. You'll also get your entertainment fix with a box-office report on the massive success of The Odyssey (please, no spoilers!) and a hilarious tale of a live-mic blunder involving Roger Ebert. Finally, stick around for spine-tingling urban legends about haunted, impossible phone numbers.

Between the blockbuster successes of Airplane! and The Naked Gun!, Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Bros. took a more scattershot satirical turn with Top Secret!, which parodies everything from Cold War spy thrillers to Elvis rock and roll musicals to WWII espionage dramas to '60s beach party movies to an entire flashback remake of The Blue Lagoon. Skillfully surfing these crashing waves of colliding genres is none other than an impossibly young, beautiful, and charming Val Kilmer in his film debut, deftly demonstrating he can do pretty much anything with dazzling aplomb, including a show-stopping oner shot backwards. Kilmer plays Nick Rivers, an anachronistic American rock star on a cultural exchange to East Germany who gets caught up with an inexplicably still-active French Resistance to rescue an imprisoned scientist forced to build a diabolical doomsday weapon. Join Javi, Paul, and the cunningly clandestine Producer Brad as they go skeet surfing through this tsunami of sight gags that includes a giant pooping pigeon, an underwater saloon fight, and the greatest on-screen performance ever by a cow wearing boots. Show Notes: US Theatrical Release Date: June 22, 1984Weekend Domestic Box Office Chart for June 22, 19841984 Top-Grossing Movies (Inflation-Adjusted) - The NumbersAFI|Catalog - Top Secret!Roger Ebert's Top Secret! movie review & film summaryFILM: 'TOP SECRET!', PARODY OF SPY MOVIES - The New York Times1984 Sears Christmas Wish Book (with Fred Savage modeling)The First Giant Restaurant Chain: Howard Johnson's: Rise and FallThe Most Unsung Leading Man of His Generation: Val Kilmer (1959-2025)Pinto Madness – Mother JonesTheme music by Mike McGuillAdditional voicework by Russell BentleySummer of '84 voiced by Colby ElliottFollow us!InstagramBlueskyemail: Multiplexoverthruster@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a new minisode where we look at a list of Roger Ebert's 10 least favorite Sci-Fi movies and talk about what's next for the podcast!Terrible Terror:Facebook: https://facebook.com/terriblet...Instagram: https://instagram.com/terrible...Twitter: https://twitter.com/T_T_Podcas...YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@terribleterrorpodcastTwitch: https://twitch.tv/terribleterr...Suno: https://suno.com/@terribleterrorsDiscord: https://discord.gg/vvKuCVNYCheck out the Terrible Terror Store On TeePublic! The new Corn Tree design is now available:http://tee.pub/lic/e7et5lQSSbwCheck out Dubby and use TerribeTerrors for 10% off your next order: https://www.dubby.gg/

Do YOU read Sutter Kane?In this episode we reflect on the work of the recently departed Sam Neill through our discussion of Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World and John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. We discuss the similarities between the films as road movies, Wim Wenders sort-of predicting screen addiction, TV mini series, Stephen King, culture war, voiceovers in movies, and Sean makes disparaging comments about The Lord of the Rings movies that he probably doesn't mean. Join us here again in one week for another episode ... but on what? And leave us a comment about your favorite Sam Neill films! Jordan Hoffman's Review of Until the End of the World on The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/aug/27/until-the-end-of-the-world-review-wim-wenders Roger Ebert's Review of Until the End of the World - https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/until-the-end-of-the-world-1992 Roger Ebert's Review of In the Mouth of Madness - https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/in-the-mouth-of-madness-1995 Variety's Review of In the Mouth of Madness - https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/in-the-mouth-of-madness-2-1200440408/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel ( http://www.youtube.com/@4milecircusprod ) and make sure you set the reminders up, so you'll know when the next livestream episode is coming. Find The Celluloid Mirror (including bonus episodes) at its home on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/4milecircus Regular episodes (as well as some other posts) are free to the public, we also have posts for free subscribers, and plenty for paid subscribers. Join us! Learn more about our work in general at http://www.4milecircus.com Subscribe to the audio only version of the show by searching The Celluloid Mirror on your favorite podcast platform. Music "Twisted" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"

Take 241: Harrison Ford In Review — Episode 2The Peter Weir years. Jonathan and JP dig into the two-film stretch that makes the strongest case for Harrison Ford as a serious actor — and the one that proves audiences weren't ready to follow him there.First, Witness. The film every major studio passed on, that John Badham dismissed as "just another cop movie," that Sylvester Stallone turned down and later called one of the worst decisions of his career. The film that got Ford his only Oscar nomination, that Roger Ebert called a thriller Hitchcock would have been proud of, and that Peter Weir shot with the same cinematographer, composer, and editor he'd bring to the very next film. The barn-raising sequence. The dance to Wonderful World. The final porch scene with no dialogue at all. The big question: is this the best performance Ford ever gave?Then The Mosquito Coast. The film Weir had been trying to make since 1981, the one Jack Nicholson left over salary, the one Paul Schrader wrote, the one River Phoenix made at 15 years old before Stand By Me had even come out. Ford playing Allie Fox — brilliant, volatile, increasingly unhinged, dragging his family into the jungle on the conviction that America is finished and he can build something better from scratch. A character so far from Han Solo and John Book that audiences simply didn't show up. $14.3 million on a $25 million budget. Zero Oscar nominations. A genuine financial disaster.And underneath both films, the same question: Weir and Ford missed the Witness Oscar ceremony because they were already in Belize shooting Mosquito Coast. The film they skipped the ceremony for then flopped. Ford went back toward safer, more commercial roles. Indiana Jones. Patriot Games. The rest of the career we all know.Did the failure of Mosquito Coast close a door? And if audiences had embraced it — what kind of actor does Harrison Ford become?

Movie of the Year: 2006Little Miss Sunshine (feat. Don Shanahan from Every Movie Has a Lesson!)Little Miss Sunshine Podcast: The Hoovers Hit the BracketThe Little Miss Sunshine podcast episode has arrived, and the Taste Buds are packing into the VW bus. This week, Movie of the Year puts one of 2006's biggest indie success stories through the tournament. Ryan, Mike, and Greg welcome film critic Don Shanahan to help judge the Hoover family's run at the crown. Together, the panel digs into the family dynamics, the unforgettable ending, the film's surprising philosophical streak, and the husband-and-wife directing team behind it all. Additionally, the crew squares off in a round of Trivia and builds a fashion-themed Rushmore. Can a sunny yellow bus carry this movie deep into the 2006 bracket? Push, hop in, and find out.About the FilmLittle Miss Sunshine follows the Hoover family on an 800-mile road trip from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach. Seven-year-old Olive has qualified for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant, and the whole dysfunctional clan piles into a failing Volkswagen bus to get her there. The passenger list includes a failed motivational speaker, a suicidal Proust scholar, a Nietzsche-obsessed teen who refuses to speak, a heroin-snorting grandpa, and one very determined mom. Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris from Michael Arndt's screenplay, the film premiered at Sundance in January 2006. It became a box office sensation, grossing over $101 million on an $8 million budget. Moreover, it earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Alan Arkin won Best Supporting Actor, and Arndt took home Best Original Screenplay. RogerEbert.com called it a gentle family satire in the tradition of the countercultural comedies of the 1970s. Now the film faces its toughest challenge yet: the Movie of the Year 2006 bracket.Guest Panelist: Don ShanahanThe Taste Buds welcome film critic Don Shanahan to the panel. Don is a Chicago-based, Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and the founder of the long-running review site Every Movie Has a Lesson. He also serves as Editor-in-Chief and Content Supervisor of the film department at Film Obsessive. Furthermore, Don co-hosts the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast on the Ruminations Radio Network. A school teacher by day, he writes his reviews with life lessons in mind, from the serious to the farcical. Don is a director and co-founder of the Chicago Indie Critics and a voting member of the Critics Choice Association and the Online Film Critics Society. Consequently, few guests arrive better equipped to grade a movie about winners, losers, and everything in between.The Hoover Family at the Heart of the Little Miss Sunshine PodcastEvery great road movie needs great passengers, and this one has six. The panel starts with the family itself. Richard preaches his nine-step winning program while his own career collapses. Sheryl holds everyone together with fried chicken and sheer will. Frank arrives fresh from a suicide attempt, and Dwayne has taken a vow of silence until he becomes a fighter pilot. Meanwhile, Grandpa coaches Olive's pageant routine with methods no pageant has ever approved. The Little Miss Sunshine podcast crew debates what makes this dysfunction feel so real. Notably, the film establishes the entire family in one legendary twenty-minute dinner scene. The Taste Buds and Don break down how each Hoover carries a private definition of failure. Ultimately, the group asks the big question: is this the best movie family of 2006?Breaking Down the Ending on the Little Miss Sunshine 2006 PodcastYou know the scene. Olive takes the stage at the pageant, "Super Freak" drops, and the movie explodes. The panel dedicates a full segment to one of the most famous endings of the decade. By contrast with the polished pageant contestants, Olive's routine is pure chaos, and the family's response is pure love. The Hoovers stop trying to win and start dancing. Don and the Taste Buds debate whether the finale earns its catharsis or leans on shock value. In addition, the crew discusses how the ending flips the film's winners-and-losers thesis on its head. Does the dance number seal the film's bracket run, or does it divide the panel? The episode holds nothing back.Nietzsche, Proust, and the Philosophy of LosingFew crowd-pleasers smuggle in this much philosophy. Dwayne worships Nietzsche and wears his contempt for conformity on his sleeve, or at least on his t-shirt. Frank, meanwhile, claims the title of preeminent Proust scholar in America. The panel unpacks why Michael Arndt built his comedy on these two thinkers. Frank's hospital-parking-lot speech about suffering becomes the film's secret thesis: the years of struggle are the years that make us. However, the movie never turns into a lecture. Instead, it hides its ideas inside gas station stops and highway breakdowns. The crew debates whether the philosophy holds up or simply decorates the road trip. Specifically, they ask what Nietzsche would think of a nine-step program for winning.The Directors: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie FarisHusband-and-wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris spent decades directing music videos before this debut feature. Their work with bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and R.E.M. sharpened an eye for visual storytelling on tight budgets. As a result, Little Miss Sunshine looks sun-bleached, precise, and effortlessly funny. The panel examines how the duo directs comedy through reaction shots rather than punchlines. The famous bus-pushing sequence becomes a masterclass in physical comedy and ensemble blocking. Additionally, the group traces the pair's later career through Ruby Sparks and Battle of the Sexes. Why did two music video veterans wait so long for a second film? The panel has theories, and some of them are even kind.TriviaNo Movie of the Year episode is complete without Trivia. The Taste Buds and Don test each other on all things Little Miss Sunshine. Production history, casting near-misses, pageant facts, and VW bus mechanics are all fair game. The film's six-year development saga and its record-setting Sundance sale provide plenty of ammunition. Who takes the crown this week? Listen and find out.Rushmore: FashionThis week's Rushmore segment tackles fashion. Each panelist carves their personal Mount Rushmore of movie fashion into the mountainside. Little Miss Sunshine gives the category a strong starting point. Olive's oversized glasses and red cowboy boots, Dwayne's brutal statement tees, and Richard's aggressively beige wardrobe all deserve consideration. Nevertheless, the panel ranges across all of film history for their picks. Expect passionate defenses, questionable taste, and at least one choice that starts an argument.Why Little Miss Sunshine Still MattersTwenty years later, Little Miss Sunshine remains the gold standard for the crowd-pleasing indie. It proved a tiny comedy could outgross blockbusters and crash the Best Picture race. Furthermore, its skepticism about hustle culture and toxic winning has only grown more relevant. Richard's nine steps sound like half the internet in 2026. The film also launched Abigail Breslin, revived Alan Arkin, and showed the world Steve Carell could break hearts. Above all, it argues that losing together beats winning alone. That message keeps the Little Miss Sunshine podcast conversation alive two decades after the bus first rolled. For more from the season, check out the Movie of the Year 2006 intro episode and the 2006 Mixtape.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 2006Movie of the Year 2006: Intro Part 1Movies of 2006: Bracket Reveal and Sweet 16Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story2006 Mixtape Part IAll Movie of the Year EpisodesFAQ: Little Miss Sunshine Podcast and FilmWhat is the Little Miss Sunshine podcast episode about?The Taste Buds and guest critic Don Shanahan judge Little Miss Sunshine in the Movie of the Year 2006 bracket. Topics include the Hoover family, the ending, the film's philosophy, and directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.What is Little Miss Sunshine about?A dysfunctional family drives a broken-down VW bus from New Mexico to California so young Olive can compete in a beauty pageant. Along the way, every member confronts their own definition of failure.Who directed Little Miss Sunshine?Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris directed the film. The married duo made their feature debut after a celebrated career in music videos.Who wrote Little Miss...

In the one-hundred-and-ninety-seventh episode, we look at The Courtier's Reply, starting with Trump disagreeing with judges and both Trump and Ben Shapiro trying and failing to dunk on AOC.In Mark's British Politics Corner, we look at Boris defending Brexit, Farage ignoring the need to defend his £5 million bung, and Robert Jenrick claiming there's nothing to see here.In the Fallacy in the Wild section, we check out examples from Edison the Man, Parks & Recreation, and Roger Ebert's review of Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo.Jim and Mark go head-to-head in Fake News, the game in which Mark has to guess which of three Trump quotes was made up by Jim.Then we talk about Schrödinger's Senator, Mitch McConnell.And finally, we round up some of the other crazy Trump stories from the past week.The full show notes for this episode can be found at https://fallacioustrump.com/ft197One of our favourite young listeners, Scarlett Garrett (One Eyed Nick's daughter), has signed up to travel to Cambodia in 2028 to do volunteer work helping local communities and has just started her fundraising for her trip. If you'd like to chip in, her GoFund me is here: https://gofund.me/fb032b741You can contact the guys at pod@fallacioustrump.com, on BlueSky @FallaciousTrump, Discord at fallacioustrump.com/discord or facebook at facebook.com/groups/fallacioustrumpAnd you can buy our T-shirts here: https://fallacioustrump.com/teeSubscribe to Fallacious Trump to make sure you never miss a logical fallacy. Rather than just mindless anti-Trump rhetoric, we apply skepticism and critical thinking to our Donald Trump analysis by exploring his liberal use of logical fallacies and cognitive biases, along with a bit of humor and news about US politics. (But there is also some of that much needed anti-Trump rhetoric.)Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Episode Summary Erin and Rachel return to the Hundred Acre Wood for Winnie the Pooh (2011), the sequel to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). Although it's stuffed with as much fluff as its protagonist, nostalgia and a 69-minute run time make this benign film pleasantly watchable.  Episode Bibliography Anderson, J. [@jenna.sais.quoi.paris]. (n.d.). Reels [Instagram profile]. Instagram. Retrieved July 5, 2026 from https://www.instagram.com/jenna.sais.quoi.paris Anderson, S. & Hall, D. (Directors). (2011). Winnie the Pooh [Film]. Walt Disney Animation Studios. Armstrong, J. (2011, July 25). Winnie The Pooh's Directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall: Back to the Hundred Acre Wood – Animated Views. Animated Views. https://animatedviews.com/2011/winnie-the-pooh%E2%80%99s-directors-stephen-anderson-and-don-hall-back-to-the-hundred-acre-wood/ Chang, J. (2011, April 1). Winnie the Pooh. Variety. https://variety.com/2011/film/reviews/winnie-the-pooh-1117944948/ Chen, T. (2016, September 16). People On Tumblr Are Obsessed With This Guy Who Gets Coffee On Movie Sets. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tanyachen/people-on-tumblr-are-obsessed-with-carlos-the-coffee-guy Culture Editor. (2011, April 18). Review: Winnie the Pooh. Platform. https://web.archive.org/web/20161229101056/http://platform-online.net/2011/04/review-winnie-the-pooh/ Denham, J. (2016, September 19). The guy that makes Disney animators coffee has been getting 'caffeination' credits for years. The Independent. https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/the-guy-that-makes-disney-animators-coffess-has-been-getting-caffeination-credits-for-years-a7316541.html Desowitz, B. (2011, July 15). Reinventing 'Winnie the Pooh'. Animation World Network. https://www.awn.com/animationworld/reinventing-winnie-pooh Don Hall (filmmaker). (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Hall_(filmmaker) Ebert, R. (2011, July 13). “Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon”. RogerEbert.com. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/winnie-the-pooh-2011 Goldstein, G. (2011, July 15). Movie Review: ‘Winnie the Pooh'. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-jul-15-la-et-winnie-the-pooh-20110715-story.html Hill, J. (2010, June 3). GeneralDisney's going Back to the Future with Winnie the Pooh. Jim Hill Media. https://limegreen-loris-912771.hostingersite.com/disneys-going-back-to-the-future-with-winnie-the-pooh/ King, S. (2011, July 13). New ‘Winnie the Pooh' movie goes back to its Hundred Acre Wood roots. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-xpm-2011-jul-13-la-et-winnie-the-pooh-20110713-story.html Milne, A.A. (1926). Winnie-the-Pooh (E.H. Shepard, Illus.). Methuen.  Milne, A.A. (1928). The House at Pooh Corner. (E.H. Shepard, Illus.). Methuen. Ness, M. (2016, December 1). Hunting for Honey in the Franchise: Disney's Winnie the Pooh (2011). Reactor. https://reactormag.com/hunting-for-honey-in-the-franchise-disneys-winnie-the-pooh-2011/ Nimri, N. (n.d.) Self care is collective care is community care. Slow Factory. https://slowfactory.earth/readings/self-care-is-collective-care-is-community-care/ Radish, C. (2011, July 7). Don Hall and Stephen Anderson Interview WINNIE THE POOH. Collider. https://collider.com/don-hall-stepen-anderson-interview-winnie-the-pooh/ Rudulph, H. W. (2015, April 27). Get That Life: How I Co-Wrote the Music and Lyrics for "Frozen". Cosmopolitan. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/interviews/a39513/get-that-life-kristen-anderson-lopez/ Scott, A. O. (2011, July 14). 'Winnie the Pooh,' From Disney - Review - The New York Times. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/movies/winnie-the-pooh-from-disney-review.html Soteriou, H. (2011, April 18). Winnie the Pooh returns to animate cinemas. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-13066105 Stephen Anderson (artist). (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Anderson_(artist) Watts, T.W., Duncan, G.J., & Quan, H. (2018). Revisiting the Marshmallow Test: A conceptual replication investigating links between early delay of gratification and later outcomes. Psychological science, 29(7), 1159-1177. Doi: 10.1177/0956797618761661 Winnie the Pooh (2011). (n.d.). Box Office Mojo. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1449283/ Winnie the Pooh (2011). (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1449283/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_winnie%20the%20pooh Winnie the Pooh (2011 film). (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie_the_Pooh_(2011_film) Winnie the Pooh (soundtrack). (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie_the_Pooh_(soundtrack) Zahed, R. (2011, July 10). Back to the Days of Christopher Robin & Pooh. Animation Magazine. https://www.animationmagazine.net/2011/07/back-to-the-days-of-christopher-robin-pooh/ Zooey Deschanel Performs Three Songs for Winnie the Pooh. (2011, March 31). ComingSoon.net. https://web.archive.org/web/20110826070731/http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=75804

Nick Digilio joins Kerry and Collin to talk about one of his favorite directors, Renny Harlin, and the 1996 action flick, "The Long Kiss Goodnight," starring Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson. With a script by Christmas enthusiast Shane Black, the film absolutely belongs in the pantheon of great Christmas-based action films as it offers some of the best '90s-brand mayhem along with some holiday music and twinkling lights. Before they get deep into that discussion, Nick treats us to an exclusive update on his podcast and some of the changes to come. After the discussion on "The Long Kiss Goodnight," the three pay tribute to the late, great Bonnie ("Stay a little Jesus") Tyler. And of course, there is the Book segment, in which Kerry talks about three movies from "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die." NOTE: Early in the show, Collin mistakenly says he's waiting for Warner Archive to release a film called "Bad Ronald" on blu-ray. Warner Archive did release it on blu-ray in 2018 and you can buy it at MovieZyng.  Buy Nick's book "40 Years, 40 Films" from Eckhartz Press.  Go to MovieZyng to start or continue your DVD/blu-ray/4K collection.   Visit collinsouter.com RogerEbert.com Follow Collin and Kerry on Letterboxd. Book films covered: "L'Avventura" (1960) "The Spirit of the Beehive" (1973) "Center Stage" (1991)

This is our NEW RELEASE review podcast, ONE HOT TAKE.Christopher Nolan turns one of the oldest stories ever told into something tactile again. You don't just watch The Odyssey. You feel the weight of timber, salt and exhausted bodies.Synopsis:After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso along the way.Sean BurnsSean Burns is a film critic for WBUR's Arts & Culture and a contributing writer at North Shore Movies and Crooked Marquee. He was Philadelphia Weekly's lead film critic from 1999 through 2013, and worked as a contributing editor at The Improper Bostonian from 2006 until 2014. His reviews, interviews and essays have also appeared in Metro, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, The Boston Herald, Nashville Scene, Time Out New York, Philadelphia City Paper and RogerEbert.com.A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Burns was a recurring guest on the late David Brudnoy's WBZ 1030 AM radio show, and in 2002 received an award for Excellence in Criticism from the Greater Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists. Currently a member of the Online Film Critics Society and the Critics Choice Association, he's also “the most annoyingest person ever,” according to his niece.WEBSITE: splicedpersonality.comTWITTER: @SeanMBurnsDREW TAYLOR is a reporter for The Wrap. He has written for The New York Times, Vulture, Vanity Fair, The Playlist, and Collider. He also wrote The Art of Onward, which gives an inside look at the making of the 2020 Pixar film. The book is available to purchase here. He also co-hosts a weekly podcast about animation called Fine Tooning, which is available on all podcast platforms.Twitter: @drewtailoredInstagram: @drewtailoredPodcast: Light the FuseOne Heat Minute ProductionsWEBSITE: oneheatminute.comTWITTER: @OneBlakeMinute & @OHMPodsMERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/en-au/stores/one-heat-minute-productionsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Movie of the Year: 2006The Devil Wears Prada (feat. Katie Walsh!)The Devil Wears Prada Podcast Episode: Fashion, Power, and the Best of 2006Welcome to The Devil Wears Prada podcast episode from Movie of the Year: 2006. This week, the Taste Buds enter the gleaming offices of Runway magazine. Furthermore, they bring backup. Film critic Katie Walsh joins Mike, Greg, and Ryan to decide whether David Frankel's fashion-world comedy can survive the 2006 bracket. Along the way, the panel debates feminism in the workplace, the myth of the suffering artist, and the eternal question of Andy's terrible friends. Additionally, the episode features a full Anne Hathaway Career Retrospective bracket. Consequently, this one runs deep on both style and substance.About the FilmThe Devil Wears Prada arrived in the summer of 2006 and promptly stole it. Director David Frankel adapted Lauren Weisberger's bestselling novel about a young journalist grinding through an impossible job. Anne Hathaway stars as Andy Sachs, an aspiring writer who lands a position at Runway magazine. Her boss is Miranda Priestly, the most feared editor in fashion, played by Meryl Streep in an Oscar-nominated performance. Moreover, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci deliver career-launching supporting turns. The film earned over $300 million worldwide and near-universal acclaim. Notably, Roger Ebert praised Streep's icy, understated Miranda as the engine of the whole picture. For more background, the Wikipedia entry on The Devil Wears Prada covers its production and legacy in detail. The film now faces its toughest challenge yet: the Movie of the Year 2006 bracket.Guest Panelist: Katie WalshThe Devil Wears Prada 2006 podcast episode welcomes a genuine authority to the panel. Katie Walsh is a Los Angeles-based film critic who reviews weekly releases for the Tribune News Service and the Los Angeles Times. Additionally, she serves as Vice President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Her writing has appeared in GQ, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Vulture, Slate, and The Playlist. She co-hosted the podcast Miami Nice and has guest-hosted Switchblade Sisters. Furthermore, she frequently appears on KCRW's Press Play and has taught film criticism at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. In practice, that means the Taste Buds must actually defend their takes this week. Someone in the room knows what she is talking about.Feminism and the WorkplaceIs Miranda Priestly a feminist icon or a cautionary tale? The panel digs into how the film frames women, power, and ambition. Miranda runs an empire, yet the film punishes her with a collapsing marriage. Meanwhile, Andy gets scolded by nearly everyone for taking her job seriously. The episode asks whether the movie critiques workplace sexism or accidentally reproduces it. Notably, Katie Walsh brings a critic's perspective to how 2006 audiences read Miranda versus how we read her now. Two decades of think pieces have flipped the film's villain into its hero. Ultimately, the panel debates whether that reversal says more about the movie or about us.Can Art Only Come from Suffering?Andy suffers for a job she claims to hate, all in service of her writing dreams. Consequently, the Taste Buds tackle a bigger question: does great art require misery? The film suggests that paying dues at Runway makes Andy a better journalist. However, it also shows the cost. She loses friends, a boyfriend, and nearly herself. The panel weighs the romantic myth of the starving artist against the reality of creative work. By contrast, some of the best art comes from stability, support, and cerulean-blue sweaters chosen by someone else. Above all, this segment asks what we actually owe our ambitions.Andy's Friends: The Worst People in FashionEvery rewatch of The Devil Wears Prada produces the same realization: Andy's friends are monsters. They mock her job, demand free designer swag, and play keep-away with her work phone. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Nate pouts because she missed his birthday party for her career. Therefore, the panel litigates the great question of the film's second act. Are these people grounding Andy in reality, or are they sabotaging her? Specifically, the group ranks the friends from least to most insufferable. Nevertheless, at least one Taste Bud attempts a defense of Nate. It does not go well.Anne Hathaway Career Retrospective: The BracketSpecial segment time. The Devil Wears Prada podcast crew builds a full bracket to determine Anne Hathaway's most iconic role. The field spans her entire career. The Princess Diaries, Brokeback Mountain, Rachel Getting Married, Les Misérables, The Dark Knight Rises, and Interstellar all enter the arena. Additionally, deep cuts and dark horses make surprise appearances. Seeding arguments get heated. Upsets happen. As a result, friendships within the panel are tested. Does Andy Sachs herself take the crown, or does an Oscar-winning turn steal it? You will have to listen to find out. Check Anne Hathaway's full filmography on IMDb and play along at home.Why The Devil Wears Prada Still MattersTwenty years later, The Devil Wears Prada refuses to fade. The film remains a Rosetta Stone for conversations about work, ambition, and the price of excellence. Miranda's cerulean monologue is still the definitive speech about how culture actually functions. Moreover, the movie launched Emily Blunt, redefined Anne Hathaway, and gave Meryl Streep one of her signature roles. A 2026 sequel proved the appetite never left. In addition, the film's questions have only grown sharper in the era of hustle culture and quiet quitting. Is Miranda a monster or simply held to a different standard? Ultimately, that debate keeps the film alive, and it makes for a fierce competitor in the Movie of the Year 2006 tournament.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 2006Catch up on the season so far, from the 2006 season introduction to the music that defined the year:Movie of the Year 2006: Intro Part 1The 2006 Bracket Reveal: Meet the Sweet 16Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull StoryThe 2006 Mixtape, Part IAll Movie of the Year episodesFAQ: The Devil Wears Prada Podcast and FilmWhat is this episode of The Devil Wears Prada podcast about?The Taste Buds and critic Katie Walsh debate whether The Devil Wears Prada deserves to advance in the Movie of the Year 2006 bracket. Topics include workplace feminism, art and suffering, Andy's awful friends, and a full Anne Hathaway career bracket.What is The Devil Wears Prada about?Aspiring journalist Andy Sachs takes a job assisting Miranda Priestly, the tyrannical editor of Runway magazine. Consequently, Andy must decide how much of herself she will trade for success.Who directed The Devil Wears Prada?David Frankel directed the film. He later directed Marley & Me and worked extensively on Sex and the City. Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the screenplay from Lauren Weisberger's novel.Who stars in The Devil Wears Prada?Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci lead the cast. Streep earned an Academy Award nomination for playing Miranda Priestly.More Questions About The Devil Wears PradaIs Miranda Priestly based on Anna Wintour?Widely, yes. Author Lauren Weisberger worked as an assistant to Vogue editor Anna Wintour, and Miranda is broadly understood as her fictional counterpart. However, Streep has said she modeled the performance on powerful men she knew rather than on Wintour.Who is the guest on this episode?Film critic Katie Walsh joins the panel. She reviews films for the Tribune News Service and the Los Angeles Times and serves as Vice President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.What is the Anne Hathaway Career Retrospective?It is a bracket-style special segment. The panel seeds Anne Hathaway's most famous roles against each other and votes round by round until one iconic performance remains.Why does The Devil Wears Prada still matter?The film remains the defining movie about ambition, mentorship, and toxic workplaces. Moreover, its cultural conversation keeps evolving, as the 2026 sequel proved.

This week on Black on Black Cinema we break down the collapse of Graham Platner's Maine Senate campaign and why none of us were surprised. For months, white leftists rallied behind Platner despite a tattoo associated with WW2 fascism, resurfaced posts disparaging veterans and sexual assault survivors on Reddit, and troubling accounts from past relationships. None of it mattered until an ex-girlfriend came forward with a serious sexual assault allegation, and only then did the Democratic Party's left wing scramble to distance themselves and Platner suspended his campaign.We ask the real question: why did it take THIS allegation to move people who already had every reason to walk away months ago? We break down how "winning at all costs" politics let a deeply flawed candidate skate through a primary while the warning signs sat in plain sight, and what this says about who gets the benefit of the doubt and for how long.Then we announce our next film: Stepfather (2026), Chris Stokes' Tubi thriller starring Taye Diggs as a man obsessed with building the "perfect family." We preview what to expect from Diggs' performance and Stokes' latest entry into his growing catalog of Tubi originals.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Earlier this year, I had a blast revisiting five of my favorite Joan Cusack performances for RogerEbert.com's Women Writers Week celebration. My friend, the prolific MovieMom.com critic Nell Minow, who also writes and edits for Ebert's site, was my editor for the article, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring her back to Watch With Jen to explore a handful of our favorite Cusack roles that I wasn't able to cover in the piece. Touching on almost her entire filmography in this briskly energetic conversation, we pay close attention to WORKING GIRL, TOY STORY 2 (& 5), SCHOOL OF ROCK, MY BLUE HEAVEN, ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, and several others.Originally Posted on Patreon (7/8/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/FilmIntuition/posts/163253169Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalShop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Of all the Christmas films that have been covered on this show that feature little to no actual Christmas in it, the Preston Sturges comedy "Christmas In July" has the least amount, yet it still gets featured on Christmas movie listicles and has a holiday-themed blu-ray cover as well. Peter Sobczynski returns to talk about this quick little farce from one of the most influential writer-directors to ever work in the business. Why is the film considered underrated? What are the eleven rules of box office appeal? Does Dudley Moore get mentioned in this episode? All this, plus the latest and greatest in physical media for the month of June.  Go to MovieZyng to start or continue your DVD/blu-ray/4K collection.   Visit collinsouter.com RogerEbert.com Follow Collin and Kerry on Letterboxd. Blu-rays featured: Warner Bros. "Eraser" - 4K (1996) "They Will Kill You" - 4K (2026) Focus Features: "Lorne" (2026) Warner Archive: "Pretty Maids All In A Row" (1971) "It's A Wise Child" (1931) FilmMasters: "The Little Princess" (1940) Criterion: "Hairspray" - 4K (1988)  "Desperate Living" - 4K (1977)

This week on Black on Black Cinema we take a deep dive into Above the Rim (1994), the final entry in Barry Michael Cooper's Harlem Trilogy following New Jack City and Sugar Hill. Directed by Jeff Pollack in his feature debut, the film stars Duane Martin as Kyle Watson, a high school basketball star torn between two men; Shep (Leon), a security guard with a complicated past seeking redemption, and Birdie (Tupac Shakur), a dangerous local drug dealer who wants to use Kyle's talent for his own ends. Marlon Wayans, Bernie Mac, Wood Harris, and Tonya Pinkins round out the cast.We break down what works, what doesn't, the Harlem Trilogy peaks and valleys, Tupac's performance legacy, and why Above the Rim remains a film of moments rather than a complete film.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Movie of the Year: 2006Mixtape, Part IIThe 2006 Mixtape Part 2 Podcast Finishes the PlaylistThe 2006 Mixtape Part 2 podcast picks up exactly where Part I left off. The full five person panel returns to finish what they started: a definitive, collectively built playlist of the best songs of 2006. Ryan, Mike, and Greg, the Taste Buds behind Movie of the Year, are once again joined by guests Nate Ragolia and Taylor Wilhite. Consequently, the debates get sharper as the remaining playlist slots get scarcer.Part I established the ground rules and the early picks. Now, in Part 2, the panel faces the harder half of the job. The obvious anthems are gone. Therefore, every remaining selection demands a real argument, a defense of taste, and a willingness to absorb four rounds of pushback.How the 2006 Mixtape Podcast Format WorksThe Mixtape episodes mark a deliberate departure from the standard Movie of the Year format. Normally, the show runs films through a bracket, as it did in the 2006 bracket reveal. The Mixtape works differently. Each panelist adds one song per round to a shared playlist. There are no eliminations and no head to head matchups. Instead, the tension comes from scarcity and pride.Every pick claims a slot that another panelist wanted. Moreover, every pick invites immediate judgment from the rest of the table. The format rewards conviction above all. A safe choice earns shrugs. A bold choice, defended well, earns respect. In practice, the round-robin structure turns a simple playlist into a portrait of five distinct musical sensibilities colliding in real time.Guest Panelists: Nate Ragolia and Taylor WilhiteNate Ragolia returns for the second half of the Mixtape. Nate co-hosts Debut Buddies, a podcast dedicated to firsts of all kinds, and he has authored three published books. His background as a writer and critic gives his picks analytical weight. Additionally, he arrives with the confidence of someone who has already survived one full round of Taste Bud scrutiny in Part I.Taylor Wilhite also returns to complete the panel. Taylor is a former PopFilter mainstay whose appearances are now rare, which gives the Mixtape episodes a sense of occasion. Longtime listeners know his taste and his willingness to fight for it. Together, the two guests expand the show's usual trio into a five voice ensemble. As a result, the playlist reflects a far wider slice of 2006 than any single host could deliver.The Music of 2006, RevisitedThe year 2006 offered an unusually rich field for a project like this. Pop radio belonged to Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, and Rihanna. Meanwhile, Gnarls Barkley's Crazy became an inescapable cultural event. Emo and pop-punk hit a commercial peak, hip-hop delivered landmark records, and indie rock crossed over to mainstream ears. The full sweep of the year is documented at Wikipedia's 2006 in music page, and it is staggering in retrospect.Movie of the Year usually spends its energy on cinema, the kind of work chronicled at RogerEbert.com. However, the Mixtape episodes prove the same critical instincts apply to music. The panel treats each song the way the show treats films like Brick or Tristram Shandy: with curiosity, skepticism, and a genuine desire to figure out what holds up twenty years later.Completing the PlaylistPart 2 covers the closing rounds of the mixtape. The panel works through the final picks, and the stakes rise with every turn. Notably, the late rounds force each panelist to confront what the playlist still lacks. Does it need another ballad? Another guitar record? Another undeniable radio smash? Each answer reshapes the final product.The completed tracklist stays a surprise until you press play. No spoilers here. Nevertheless, expect passionate defenses, at least one pick that baffles the room, and the special satisfaction of hearing a playlist snap into its final form. By the end, the panel delivers a mixtape that could only exist through this exact collision of five sensibilities.Why the 2006 Mixtape Part 2 Podcast Still MattersThe 2006 Mixtape Part 2 podcast completes the season's most distinctive experiment. The Movie of the Year season began with the 2006 intro episode and a field of 128 films. The Mixtape widens that lens. It argues that a year of culture includes its soundtrack, and that the songs of 2006 shaped memory just as powerfully as its movies did.Above all, the episode captures why list making endures as a critical exercise. A playlist forces choices, and choices reveal values. Ultimately, the 2006 Mixtape Part 2 podcast delivers both a finished tracklist and a spirited argument about what deserves to last. Subscribe, listen to both parts, and then build your own version. Yours will differ, and that is exactly the point.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 20062006 Mixtape, Part IMovie of the Year: 2006 Intro, Part 1Movies of 2006: Bracket Reveal and Sweet 16Tristram Shandy: Movie of the Year 2006Brick: Movie of the Year 2006Browse All Movie of the Year EpisodesFAQ: 2006 Mixtape Part 2 PodcastAbout the EpisodeWhat is the 2006 Mixtape Part 2 podcast about?The 2006 Mixtape Part 2 podcast is the concluding half of a special Movie of the Year episode. The five person panel of Ryan, Mike, Greg, Nate Ragolia, and Taylor Wilhite finishes building a collective playlist of the best songs of 2006, one pick at a time.Do I need to listen to Part I first?Listening to Part I first is recommended. Part I establishes the format, introduces the panel, and covers the opening rounds. Part 2 continues directly from that point and completes the tracklist.Who are the guests on the 2006 Mixtape Part 2 podcast?Nate Ragolia and Taylor Wilhite return for Part 2. Nate Ragolia co-hosts the Debut Buddies podcast and has authored three published books. Taylor Wilhite is a former PopFilter regular who now makes occasional guest appearances.About the Mixtape and the MusicHow does the Mixtape format work on Movie of the Year?Each panelist takes turns adding one song per round to a shared 2006 playlist. There is no bracket and no eliminations. Every pick must survive the scrutiny of four other panelists with strong opinions about the music of 2006.What songs are on the 2006 mixtape?The full tracklist stays a surprise until you hear the episodes. The picks span pop, hip-hop, indie rock, R&B, and the emo and pop-punk wave that defined 2006 radio. Listen to both parts to hear every selection and the arguments behind them.Who are the Taste Buds?The Taste Buds are Ryan, Mike, and Greg, the three core hosts of Movie of the Year on the PopFilter network. Each season they run a bracket style competition to crown the best film of a single year. The current season covers 2006.What were the biggest songs of 2006?2006 produced era defining hits like Gnarls Barkley's Crazy, Justin Timberlake's SexyBack, and Beyonce's Irreplaceable. The year also marked a commercial peak for emo and pop-punk. The Mixtape episodes dig into which songs actually deserve playlist immortality.Where can I listen to the 2006 Mixtape Part 2 podcast?You can stream the episode right on this page using the player above. Movie of the Year is also available on all major podcast platforms through the PopFilter network.

Phil and Emily are joined by critic and editor Isaac Feldberg to continue their Richard Kelly Reichardt mini-series with Kelly Reichardt's quiet breakthrough, Old Joy (2006). Isaac edits at Letterboxd Journal and writes for RogerEbert.com and Fangoria, and as a former Eagle Scout, he might be the perfect guide to a movie about two guys going camping.Made for roughly $30,000 and shot in the forests east of Portland, Old Joy follows old friends Kurt (Will Oldham) and Mark (Daniel London) on a weekend trip to a hot spring deep in the Cascades. Almost nothing happens, and somehow everything does. It became Reichardt's calling card, earned rapturous reviews including four stars from Roger Ebert, and announced one of American cinema's most quietly essential filmmakers.The gang gets into why Reichardt remains a beloved secret, the kind of filmmaker fans swear will one day get a Criterion box and a wave of "how did we not know about this?" They dig into the ache underneath the film's radical simplicity, the suspense of a friendship that can't quite say what it means, the tender and unspoken queerness running through it, and why these two men sound less like a Richard Linklater hangout and more like real life. Plus Lucy the dog, "the John Cazale of canine performers," the perfect Old Joy double feature, and the image of a slug on a mossy boulder that Ebert never forgot.Why do we remember the small moments more than the big ones? Old Joy has a few answers. Come sit with it.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsIsaac Feldberg —https://www.instagram.com/ijfeldberg

This is our NEW RELEASE review podcast, ONE HOT TAKE.About forty percent of Supergirl absolutely rips. It imagines a space western with two compelling young women at its centre and briefly convinces you that's exactly where superhero cinema should be heading. Then it remembers it's a superhero blockbuster.Synopsis:Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, joins forces with an unlikely companion on an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected adversary strikes too close to home.Sean BurnsSean Burns is a film critic for WBUR's Arts & Culture and a contributing writer at North Shore Movies and Crooked Marquee. He was Philadelphia Weekly's lead film critic from 1999 through 2013, and worked as a contributing editor at The Improper Bostonian from 2006 until 2014. His reviews, interviews and essays have also appeared in Metro, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, The Boston Herald, Nashville Scene, Time Out New York, Philadelphia City Paper and RogerEbert.com.A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Burns was a recurring guest on the late David Brudnoy's WBZ 1030 AM radio show, and in 2002 received an award for Excellence in Criticism from the Greater Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists. Currently a member of the Online Film Critics Society and the Critics Choice Association, he's also “the most annoyingest person ever,” according to his niece.WEBSITE: splicedpersonality.comTWITTER: @SeanMBurnsOne Heat Minute ProductionsWEBSITE: oneheatminute.comTWITTER: @OneBlakeMinute & @OHMPodsMERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/en-au/stores/one-heat-minute-productionsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Pope Leo’s Chicago street cred, David Lee Roth’s new tour, tributes to Tom Dreesen and Roger Ebert, a new controversy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, toy guns, and the worst commencement address ever are among the minutiae topics discussed this week by Rick and Dave. [Ep432]

Pack your bags and head to small town Champaign, Illinois with Producer Brandon for one last year of the Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival, affectionately known to movie-lovers as Ebertfest. Brought back for a final year, festival organizers Chaz Ebert and Nate Kohn programmed a lineup of modern classics and under-the-radar films audiences may have missed. First, Brandon sits down with actress Betty Gabriel following a screening of her film, Get Out (now coming up on its 10-year anniversary). Critically acclaimed for her role as housekeeper-with-a-disturbing-secret Georgina, Betty reflects on being a part of Jordan Peele's beloved horror-social satire's legacy. The conversation then pivots to Betty's current and upcoming projects in television and film. Get Out is currently available to stream on HBO Max.Next, Brandon is joined by writer-director Tracie Laymon & actor French Stewart of the Barbie Ferreira & John Leguizamo dramedy, Bob Trevino Likes It. The film follows a lonely young woman (Ferreira) who strikes up a relationship online with a stranger (Leguizamo) who shares the name of her own narcissistic father (Stewart).After premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival, the crowd-pleasing film received both the Narrative Feature Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. Tapping into her own experience with her own father, Tracie discusses the semiautobiographical nature of her film and how the personal themes and narrative have resonated with audiences from all walks of life. In this joint interview, French Stewart provides insight into his role as an unsupportive father and how he approached playing this antagonistic character with pathos and three-dimensionality.  Tracie then touches on how following the worldwide success of Barbie, Mattel Studios hired her to write and direct a live-action film based on the discontinued 90's cult toy, Tony The Tattooed Man. Bob Trevino Likes It is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+Watch the trailerTo read more about Ebertfest ‘The Last Dance,' visit: ‘The Last Dance' Ends a Beautiful, Impactful Run for the Long-time Roger Ebert Film FestivalIn the famous words of Ebertfest founder, Roger Ebert: “the balcony is closed”Support the show---Subscribe to learn more about filmmaking, production, media makers, creator resources, visual storytelling, and every aspect that brings film, television, and video projects from concepts to our screens. Check out the MediaMakerSpotlight.com show page to find even more conversations with industry professionals that inspire, educate, and entertain!We on the Women in Film & Video (WIFV) Podcast Team work hard to make this show a great resource for our listeners, and we thank you for listening!

Send us a text or a voicemailA horror podcast visits an Irish inn to scatter the ashes of their former co-hosts, unaware the property is said to be haunted by a witch with a penchant for humans with black lungs. On Episode 725 of Trick or Treat Radio our feature film discussion is Hokum from director Damian McCarthy! We also talk about the prospect of an Evil Dead prequel, how successful horror films build dread, and what we have in common with Wilfred Brimley. So grab your witch repellent spray, ring the bell for the Honeymoon Suite, and strap on for the world's most dangerous podcast!Stuff we talk about: The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Evil Dead Wrath, prequels, grindhouse, AARP, Wilfred Brimley, Rocking a Mel Gibson, grey jaw temples, Al Pacino, Masters of the Universe, House of Usher, The Mummy's Shroud, Eye of the Cat, Willard, Frankenstein Created Woman, Food of the Gods, Aliens, Lake Mungo, Nightfall, Bitter Feast, Dark Souls, Zombie Beach, The Haunting of Helena, Blood Spirit, Kristina Klebe, Killer Mermaid, Patrick Melton, Feast, Saw IV, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Fear of the Walking Dead, The Gift, Ken Burns, Kevin Burns, Steve Minor, Lake Placid, Friday the 13th, Day of the Dead, House, Halloween H2O, Carol Kane, Adams Family Values, Roger Ebert, I Bury the Living, The Last Dinosaur, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, E.G. Marshall, Creepshow, Two Evil Eyes, Jared Leto, Morbius, Brian May, Hokum, Damian McCarthy, Adam Scott, Florence Ordesh, Severance, Conquistador, Step Brothers, destiny vs. personal choice, Forbidden Fruits, Widow's Bay, folk horror, scary Irish woods, witching and bitching, Diablo Cody, Lisa Frankenstein, Jennifer's Body, Jack the Jackass, raging assholes, a moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips, and Witches Get Stitches.Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradioJoin our Discord Community: discord.trickortreatradio.comSend Email/Voicemail: mailto:podcast@trickortreatradio.comVisit our website: http://trickortreatradio.comStart your own podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=386Use our Amazon link: http://amzn.to/2CTdZzKFB Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/trickortreatradioTwitter: http://twitter.com/TrickTreatRadioFacebook: http://facebook.com/TrickOrTreatRadioYouTube: http://youtube.com/TrickOrTreatRadioInstagram: http://instagram.com/TrickorTreatRadioSupport the show

Black on Black Cinema announces our next full review: Above the Rim (1994), the final entry in Barry Michael Cooper's Harlem Trilogy. Directed by Jeff Pollack and starring Duane Martin, Tupac Shakur, Leon, Marlon Wayans, Bernie Mac, and Wood Harris. Above the Rim follows high school basketball star Kyle Watson torn between Shep, a fallen athlete trying to redeem himself, and Birdie, a dangerous drug dealer who happens to be Shep's brother. Tupac Shakur's final theatrical film before his 1996 death is reason enough to revisit it.Then we get into the real conversation: Donald Trump has become everything racists feared a Black president would be. Barack Obama had to be practically perfect to even be considered; Harvard Law, Constitutional law professor, decorated Senator, devoted husband and father, scandal-free, measured, dignified. Every box checked. Meanwhile Trump arrived with business failures, fraud convictions, hush money payments, multiple affairs, and a career built on corruption. Ta-Nehisi Coates called Trump "the first white president;" not merely because he's white, but because his entire political existence hinges on the fact of a Black president. His campaign started with birtherism. Coates wrote: "It is as if the white tribe united to say — if a Black man can be president, then any white man, no matter how fallen, can be president." We unpack what that means in 2026.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Rob St. Mary and Rob Spencer join Mike to dig into Proyas's tale of John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), who wakes in a cheap hotel room with no memory, a dead body nearby, and a city that refuses to add up. Detective Bumstead (William Hurt) closes in while the pale, bald Strangers rearrange reality every time the clocks stop — building a world that is simultaneously a locked-room mystery, a Philip K. Dick nightmare, a Kafka story with a superhero ending, and a filmmaker's self-portrait: the Strangers as producers, Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) as the compromised writer, and Murdoch as the protagonist who tears through the painted backdrop and seizes the apparatus.The conversation covers the film's screenplay stages and two finished cuts, the studio-mandated voice-over that Proyas spent a decade trying to undo, and Roger Ebert's role as the mechanism of the film's survival. Mike and the Robs also place Dark City within the remarkable 1998–99 cluster of simulated-world films — The Truman Show, The Matrix, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor — and examine what it means that Murdoch's triumphant ending leaves the city still a construct, still running on hidden machinery, with only the god changed.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Rob St. Mary and Rob Spencer join Mike to dig into Proyas's tale of John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), who wakes in a cheap hotel room with no memory, a dead body nearby, and a city that refuses to add up. Detective Bumstead (William Hurt) closes in while the pale, bald Strangers rearrange reality every time the clocks stop — building a world that is simultaneously a locked-room mystery, a Philip K. Dick nightmare, a Kafka story with a superhero ending, and a filmmaker's self-portrait: the Strangers as producers, Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) as the compromised writer, and Murdoch as the protagonist who tears through the painted backdrop and seizes the apparatus.The conversation covers the film's screenplay stages and two finished cuts, the studio-mandated voice-over that Proyas spent a decade trying to undo, and Roger Ebert's role as the mechanism of the film's survival. Mike and the Robs also place Dark City within the remarkable 1998–99 cluster of simulated-world films — The Truman Show, The Matrix, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor — and examine what it means that Murdoch's triumphant ending leaves the city still a construct, still running on hidden machinery, with only the god changed.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

This week Black on Black Cinema finally gives Sugar Hill (1994) the deep analysis it deserves. Directed by Leon Ichaso and written by Barry Michael Cooper — the architect behind New Jack City and Above the Rim — Sugar Hill is the second and most emotionally dramatic entry in Cooper's Harlem Trilogy. Wesley Snipes as Roemello Skuggs, a high-level Harlem drug dealer who wants out. He's got money, power, a woman he loves in Melissa (Theresa Randle), and a future waiting for him if his volatile brother Raynathan (Michael Wright) and the game itself will let him leave.We break down what makes Sugar Hill flawed but still underrated. Cooper's layered screenplay that tries to give Roemello genuine intellectual depth (Georgetown scholarship-eligible, chess player, art collector), Michael Wright's explosive performance as the brother who can't escape the past, and Leon Ichaso's atmospheric direction that turns Harlem into a character of its own. Terence Blanchard's jazz-inflected gives the film a serious connection to Spike Lee's own work. Clarence Williams III steals scenes effortlessly, and Ernie Hudson has a good time as a villain this time around.We discuss why it got overshadowed by New Jack City, how it works to keep the idea of Wesley Snipes being one of the coolest dudes in this era. Sugar Hill has its flaws from scenes that in hindsight are oddly placed (potentially post edit bay issues), some characters who aren't as explored as actual human beings, but there is still something here worth talking about and the effort of making a gentlemen gangster film with the same actor who was notorious for playing one of the most brutal gangsters in the 90s era is something to admire here.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Originally written for Clint Eastwood by friend of the show Elmore Leonard, Richard Fleischer's 1974 Charles Bronson vehicle MR. MAJESTYK is that classic action film setup: a melon farmer accidentally ends up in the middle of a mob hitman's prison transport escape and teams up with a beautiful migrant labor organizer to save his crop. It's a hell of a lot of fun, and probably should have been Patreon episode 3, but here we are. We talk Bronson, small grower economics, and a whole lot about the United Farm Workers, Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong, and Cesar Chavez. Good ep! Roger Ebert's profile of Bronson: https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/charles-bronson-its-just-that-i-dont-like-to-talk-very-much Paul Koslo interview: https://iamlegendarchive.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_10.html Review of Christian Paiz's Strikers of Coachella: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/coachella-united-farm-workers/ Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers by Frank Bardacke: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2213-trampling-out-the-vintage As always, thanks to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork. Additional production by Ryan Torgeson.

Ian Hunter has spent four decades building miniatures, supervising visual effects and thinking like a filmmaker on some of the most demanding productions in Hollywood. In this episode, he traces a career that began in a garden shed with a punched-up piece of German black velvet and ended up — via James Cameron, Tim Burton, the Coen Brothers, and Christopher Nolan — on some of the most iconic screens in the world.Ian grew up surrounded by art. His father painted oils and acrylics, played music and did pastel portraits, and encouraged his three sons to make things — even when those things destroyed the materials he'd given them. The moment that really clicked, Ian recalls, was being handed a model kit as a kid and taking to it immediately. That creative instinct only grew stronger. In high school, he and his brothers were making Super 8 films, scratching laser effects onto the film with a pin and blowing up overloaded resistors for explosions. One of those films required them to fake-rob a local bank — and the encounter that followed, with the surprisingly enthusiastic vice president of the Monrovia Wells Fargo, led to a meeting with the mother of Rick Baker, whose work Ian had recently encountered in a traveling special effects exhibition and been completely floored by.After drifting away from an aerospace course at Cal Poly Pomona and working in an acid bath plastics factory, Ian answered a classified ad looking for model makers — and on the strength of a modest portfolio, was hired the same day. His first feature was The Abyss. He and fellow model maker Jim McGee built the flooded engine room of the Montana submarine with almost no direction beyond James Cameron's bare-bones description, and shipped it to South Carolina having never seen a frame of the live action. The production was not without its disasters — Ian found himself entangled in the notorious wax crane fiasco, and talks about the valuable early lesson of knowing when to call something out before it goes wrong.From there, a friend pointed him toward Boss Film, Richard Edlund's company in Marina del Rey, where a chance encounter with departing model supervisor Mark Stetson changed everything. What was supposed to be a one-week favour on a music video turned into six years. Working with Stetson took Ian from being a junior model maker building things in isolation to visiting sets, talking directly with directors, and understanding that miniature work only succeeds when it becomes invisible — just more shots in a movie, telling the story rather than showing off the technique.Among the projects from that period, Ian talks at length about Total Recall — including the behind-the-scenes chaos of a scale miscommunication on the final day of shooting, a scene involving a little person that nobody had accounted for, and the moment he glued a Coke can to a model building because they were running out of time. That Coke can, dressed up and shot from the front, made it into the finished film. So did one in Waterworld. And Inception. And Interstellar. And, after the story apparently got around, director Fede Álvarez greeted Ian on Alien: Romulus by asking exactly where he was planning to hide it.Ian built the suburb for Edward Scissorhands — deliberately making it more bland and mundane than real life — and talks about one of his proudest in-camera shots: the final view through the bedroom window and out over the snow-dusted neighbourhood, achieved with a 1:24 scale model and real snow shakers on the night. On Batman Returns he built the Penguin's zoo, and describes receiving one of his all-time favourite compliments from Tim Burton — who, after watching a pyrotechnics test, asked simply: "Where did you shoot this?" Not realising he was looking at a miniature. The zoo also gave Ian one of his best examples of a happy accident: a polar bear sculpture that was supposed to explode but instead toppled slowly sideways with flames coming out of its feet. Tim Burton loved it. The entire subsequent engineering challenge was figuring out how to recreate the mistake.On the X-Files movie, Ian and his partner Matthew Gratzner built a collapsing federal building on a tight budget, referencing Oklahoma City bombing photographs for the detail of damaged concrete and exposed floors. The late Roger Ebert reviewed the finished film and said the sequence should have been cut — because it was too reminiscent of real tragedy. Ian reflects on that as a marker: they'd gotten past the technique and into the emotion.The conversation turns to Christopher Nolan, with whom Ian has worked across multiple films. Ian describes Nolan as collaborative but definitive, someone who discusses a shot in depth and then tells you exactly what he wants. He talks about the liberation Nolan offered on Interstellar when he told the crew to stop following the previs — pre-vis is just a guy at a computer on a Friday trying to get the shot out the door, Nolan told them; if you can see a better angle, do that instead. The result was that the miniature crew started shooting faster, and a number of shots that had been planned as digital moved across to the physical side. Ian also describes the meticulous sun-angle calculation that went into matching the Inception hospital sequence — setting up models in a parking lot at a precisely calculated skewed angle to hit the exact quality of light that had been captured in Calgary on a specific date.On First Man with Damien Chazelle, Ian had drawn storyboards before the first meeting proposing a documentary approach — cameras attached to the spacecraft, nothing sweeping or cinematic, everything either very close or very wide as if shot from another ship. Chazelle walked in and described exactly the same idea. They spent twenty minutes together going through the sequence, working to an animatic cut to music, and Ian went off and shot it. That shorthand — that moment of being in sync before the conversation has really started — is something Ian describes as central to how he has survived in an industry where so many practical effects houses have not. He's a model maker, yes. But more than that, he's a filmmaker.This podcast is completely independent and made possible by listener support. If you'd like to help me keep making these episodes, you can join my Patreon community here: https://patreon.com/jamiebenning Watch more on YouTube:Check out the Filmumentaries YouTube channel for behind-the-scenes clips and extra content: https://youtube.com/filmumentariesAll my links

EPISODE 143 -  “GUESS WHO'S NUMBER ONE?: STEVE & NAN RANK TRACY/HEPBURN FILMS” - 6/08/2026  One of the most dynamic duos in film history is undoubtedly the teaming of SPENCER TRACY and KATHARINE HEPBURN. This chemistry was electric. Over the course of their careers, they appeared in nine films together — covering a wide range of genres. They were in everything from Westerns (“The Sea of Grass”) to film noirs (“Keeper of the Flame”) to what would become their specialty, romantic comedies (“Pat and Mike”). They also appeared in the seminal 1960s social comedy/drama “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.” This week, Steve & Nan will do the impossible  — they will attempt to rank the nine films this duo made together. Form worst to best! How will your favorite stack up? SHOW NOTES:  Sources: Wikipedia.com TCM.com; IMDBPro.com; IBDB.com; RogerEbert.com Movies Mentioned: Woman of the Year (1942), co-staring Fay Banter, Reginald Owen, Minor Watson, William Bendix, Gladys Blake, and Dan Tobin; Keeper of the Flame (1942), co-staring Richard Whorf, Stephen McNally, Forest Tucker, Howard De Silva, and Margaret Wycherly; Without Love (1945), co-starring Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn, Patricia Morison, Felix Bessart, Carl Esmond, and Gloria Grahame; The Sea of Grass (1947), co-starring Melvyn Douglas, Robert Walker, Phyllis Thaxter, Harry Carey, and Edgar Buchanan; State of the Union (1948), co-starring Angela Lansbury, Howard Lindsay, Van Johnson, Roger Moore, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Margaret Hamilton, and Charles Lane; Adam's Rib (1949), co-starring Judy Holiday, Tom Ewell, David Wayne, Jean Hagen, and Hope Emerson; Pat and Mike (1952), co-starring Aldo Ray, William Ching, Sammy White, Charles Bronson, Chuck Connors, Phyllis Povah, and Jim Backus; Desk Set (1957), co-starring Gig Young, Joan Blondell, Dina Merrill, Sue Randall, and Neva Patterson; Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967), co-starring Sidney Poitier, Katharine Houghton, Beah Richard, Roy Glenn, Cecil Kellaway, Isabel Sanford, and Virginia Christine; --------------------------------- http://www.airwavemedia.com Please contact sales@advertisecast.com if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black on Black Cinema announces our next film review: Sugar Hill (1994), directed by Leon Ichaso and written by Barry Michael Cooper; the second film in his legendary Harlem Trilogy alongside New Jack City and Above the Rim. Wesley Snipes stars as Roemello Skuggs, a high-level Harlem drug dealer who decides to walk away from the life to start fresh with his girlfriend Melissa (Theresa Randle), only to discover that leaving isn't something the game allows. Co-starring Michael Wright, Clarence Williams III, Ernie Hudson, and Abe Vigoda.Then we get into it: Reparations for Black Americans. We agree it should happen, the historical, economic, and moral case is ironclad. But what does repayment actually look like in practice? Direct cash payments? Targeted investment? Tax free benefits? Educational and business funds? And who qualifies for it? Is it just direct descendants of enslaved people only, or a broader class of Black Americans impacted by systemic racism? We break down the competing frameworks, the political obstacles, and what an honest reparations conversation looks like beyond the talking point.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Black on Black Cinema dives deep into Is God Is (2026), Aleshea Harris' feature directorial debut adapted from her Obie Award-winning stage play. Starring Kara Young as "The Rough One" and Mallori Johnson as "The Quiet One," the film follows twin sisters bearing the disfiguring burn scars of a childhood tragedy, ordered by their bedridden mother to kill the abusive father who destroyed their family. With Janelle Monáe, Sterling K. Brown, Vivica A. Fox, Erika Alexander, and Mykelti Williamson rounding out the cast, and Tessa Thompson and Janicza Bravo producing.We analyze Harris' genre-blending, part western grind house, part noir, part dark comedy; and how she translates her stage play to cinema. We break down how the film confronts generational trauma, absent and intimate partner violence, and the totality of Black womanhood with brutal honesty. Sterling K. Brown cast against type as a villain is inspired. Black women's rage played straight, not for laughs or shame, is the film's greatest achievement.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

We keep bringing up the beloved American film critic Roger Ebert over and over again, and we've decided it's time to finally exorcise this demon. Before we put Roger in the penalty box for a while, we're going to put our accumulated knowledge to good use and play a long-threatened game: The Roger Ebert Mystery Box Challenge, in which we attempt to predict his reviews for movies we've covered on this podcast. The balcony is open! Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - patreon.com/michaelandus