Dead Format

The boys continue reaping what they sow this season as we dive into Beth de de Araújo 2022 debut "Soft & Quiet". We get into how good both the script and direction are, how realistic the evil at the heart of this is, the insane degree of technical difficulty and mostly wince at how nerve shredding and painful this whole experience winds up being. For Ben's money at least this is one of the most im...

The boys return this week to try to say anything at all about the mind numbing 1990 proto legacy sequel to "Chinatown", Jack Nicholson's "The Two Jakes". We talk Nicholson the GOAT, Polanski, Robert Evans, cocaine, playing mobile games to avoid paying attention, a legendary tale of development hell and largely try to answer the twin questions of "why the hell make this movie in the first place?" a...

Prodigal podcasting brother Erik rejoins us this week to celebrate the 10th birthday of the insanely influential Adam Curtis video essay "HyperNormalisation". Like the movie this conversation is freewheeling, tangent filled and generally all over the place as we try to tease out what this movie actually has to say a decade later while mostly respecting the hell out of how it formally goes about sa...

Ben and Tim conclude our summer block with Paul Schrader and his beautiful, heartbreaking story of accountability and redemption "The Card Counter". We get into Paul posting, Global War on Terror, torture, PTSD, poker vs blackjack and so much more. This ended up being one of the realer episodes of DF to date and hope you enjoy listening as much as we did talking about this stone cold masterpiece....

The boys are back this week with good friend of the show Aaron to talk about David Fincher's Facebook focused character study "The Social Network". We get into big tech, Trent, Zuckerberg, intellectual property, impressive adaptations, all of the insanely good performances, how well even the 'victims' of the movie are still doing today, how this diagnosis an entire generation of tech misanthrope a...

The boys are back in the Bayou this week to talk about the utterly demented yet oddly heartfelt Werner Herzog crime thriller addiction parable "Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans". We get into the many careers of Herzog, learning about art house cinema as teens in the early 00s, properly harnassing Nicolas Cage, post Katrina NOLA, getting sober, smoking crack and how much this movie actual...

Ben and Tim are joined this week by Charles Austin (Trouble in River City, Episode 1) to talk about our boy Soderbergh and his 2009 bonkers biopic "The Informant!". We talk about the real Mark Whitacre & what a cool insane liar he was, Kurt Eichenwald's tentacles, how Tim microtargeted this episode for Charles, James Bond music, living with bipolar disorder, casting stand up comedians and how to g...

Friend of the show Jonah ships back up to Boston with the boys to discuss Ben Affleck's 2010 Heat tribute "The Town". We talk about the many ups and downs of Ben's career, mean Jon Hamm, FBI crime statistics, why no one robs banks anymore, all of the great performances outside of Ben Affleck and of course we remember some guys from the 2010 Red Sox. Also discussed: The Rules of Attraction, Star Wa...

Ben and Tim are joined by Hesse Deni (Trouble in River City, Seeking Derangements, Movie Mindset) to talk about Neil Jordan's 1994 classic "Interview with the Vampire". We talk about Jordan's catalog, Kristin Dunst's goat tier performance, Tom Cruise as irl Lestat, Anne Rice's zesty vampires changing the world and so much more. Also discussed: Tony, Pennies from Heaven, Alex Garland's Elden Ring,...

The boys are back this week in 2012 as we dig into Andrew Dominik's brutal, bitter Boston by way of Louisiana crime thriller "Killing Them Softly". We talk about the unfortunately career of Dominik, how cool his movies are, Nick Cave, The Counselor, consumer confidence, the 2008 Financial Crisis, James Gandolfini and how far ahead of it's time it was in hating both America and Barack Obama from th...

Friend of the show Jeremy returns as we try to discuss Troy Duffy's 2000 Boston crime thriller "The Boondock Saints", a movie that we all hate so much that this really becomes more a discussion of the 2003 making of documentary "Overnight". We get into Troy Duffy, his cool overalls, how hard directing movies is, delusional thinking, the incredible levels of bridge burning on display, enslaving you...

The boys are back in the South this week to get into Steven Soderbergh 1989 debut "Sex, Lies and Videotape". We talk about the American Jeremy Irons, drunk driving in Baton Rouge, asexuality, art hoes, the Fraiserurbane vibes, how old everyone used to look back in the day and how bonkers it is that a 26 year old Soderbergh directed this. Also discussed: Ghost in The Shell 2, The Mist, Allied and C...

Tim and Ben are joined by friend of the show Nick to discuss Kenneth Lonergan's brutal yet hopeful "Manchester by the Sea". We talk about the incredible comeback story this movie represents for Lonergan, the John Krasinski connection, Michelle Williams as a genius of crying, emasculating Matthew Broadrick, yet another reminder how how good 2016's movies were and how this movie captures Ben's lived...

Ben and Tim head down to the Gulf Coast for the first of Tim pick in our summer block, Mira Nair's 1991 "Mississippi Masala". We get into the real life odyssey Nair went through in her career to arrive at this excellent movie, location shooting in Africa, hiring Ken Park's director to be your DP, Denzel's crazy charisma and crazier mouth injury, teen Zoran talking his mom out of doing Harry Potter...

With a Manchester By the Sea episode officially on the books go back to the halcyon days of 2023 with Ben and friend of the show Erik as we do insanely deep on Kenneth Lonergan's 2011 masterpiece "Margaret". We get into the 6 years this spent in post-production hell, PTSD, narcissism, Matthew Broderick slander, high school, 9/11, Jean Reno, experimental soundmixing, Bashar Al-Assad and so much mor...

Ben and Tim are joined by Caucasian Kaiju expert and Pod About List co-host Cameron Fetter to discuss Steven Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster classic Jaws. We get into the rise and further rise of Spielberg, Jaws pinball, submechanophobia, the incredible adaption of a pretty crummy novel, the wild production, ugly 70s actors and Ben makes the case for this movie as a microcosm for the spirit of the pe...

The boys are back this week discussing the first direct sequal to a previous episode's movie, Stefano Sollima's "Sicario: Day of the Soldado". We talk about how cheap and bad this looks by comparison, how little it has to say, how much the original 130 page (!!!) script did along with privite militaries, Isabela Merced going "Come and See" mode, natty Josh Brolin and some Sicario 3 rumors that are...

Tim and Ben strap on their night vision goggles and go weapons free to talk Denis Villeneuve's narco-procedural horror/thriller "Sicario". We get into the curious case of Taylor Sheridan, the CIA, Ready or Not, Kiki Camarena, Zero Dark Thirty, bumming cigs, psychic scammers and the many Oscar snubs endured by Roger Deakins. Also discussed: Séance, High Art, Vampire, JFK and The Night Comes For Us....

In a very special episode the boys are joined by former PNAC host and pro cat nurse Erik to talk Mel Gibson's psycho War World 2 biopic "Hacksaw Ridge". We talk the rise and fall and rise and fall of Mel Gibson, the Chinese box office, even more about how good 2016 films were, how cheap and inept every second of this is along with the absolutely bonkers persecution fantasy cooked up for it's viewe...

The boys are back this week talking Gregg Araki's 2004 child abuse coming of age drama Mysterious Skin. We get into working with child actors, shoegaze, how cool Preston is, Awesome Culture and appreciate the insane degree of difficulty this tightrope act of a movie manages to pull off with absolutely brutal success. This is another one where both of us really hope you actually watch the movie ins...

Fun time is over as Ben brings the boys back into their element with S Craig Zahler's brutal, nasty crooked cop heist nightmare "Dragged Across Concrete". Tim is left utterly confused as to what this movie is and we get into the bizarre hardboiled cop meta-satire and we talk Mel Gibson, the myth of Zahler as right-wing auteur, how the movie uses it's cheapness to it's advantage and wonder is this...

Tim and Ben conclude the Spring of Love by going back to 1999 with Robert Iscove's delightful high school Pygmalion riff "She's All That". The boys talk high school, M Night's ghostwriting, what a good song "Kiss Me" still is along with teen movies that still believe in a future that could be good and how even 25+ years later the idea that a 20 year old Rachel Leigh Cook looks disgusting in a pair...

The boys are back this week to talk about Maren Ade's nerve shredding, demented daddy-daughter dramedy "Toni Erdmann". We get into how much of this movie is actually about work, globalization, The EU, an American Dad comparison somehow and learning self-respect via getting butt naked in front of your coworkers to celebrate birthday. Also discussed: Speed Racer, Woman of Fire, Dead Man, Mysterious...

The boys get romantic again this week as we go back to Ang Lee's 2005 queer cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain". We talk about Lee as demented auteur, the murder's row cast and crew, the insanely good acting performances plus talk a lot of Oscar controversey and the long life this movie still has as a meme in spite of it's greatness.  Also discussed: Tetsuo: The Iron Man, The Shipping News, Forza...

The boys celebrate Tim's birthday this year with a much better episode than the last bday one we did! We get into Guillermo del Toro's nasty, classical 2021 noir "Nightmare Alley". Tim argues for the novel was one of America's greats, we get into another tortured production, push back against the idea of "Guillermoslop", crown Cate Blanchett as the living queen of noir and agree that deep down eve...