The Substance

As Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan's most recent collaboration, Sinners, is dominating the domestic and worldwide box office, we thought it would be a good time to look at their first project together, Fruitvale Station. Fruitvale is partially the telling of the tragic story of the killing of Oscar Grant in Oakland CA on New Year's Day 2009, but it's so much more. Beyond being a mere recreation...

Kogonada. Ever heard of him? The South Korean-born American filmmaker began to get attention for his video essays that analyzed themes and motifs from various films and television series before launching as a writer/director with the film we are covering this week, Columbus (2017) . The movie follows two people who are at a place in their lives where they need to make important decisions related t...

It's always great having a returning guest and this week we're welcoming back a friend we talked to back in 2021. Alexis Busetti is a seminary student and podcaster who we've been following and engaging with for several years. Her weekly show That Makes Total Sense!, is a wonderful listen and always has interesting and thoughtful people on. This week, she's back to discuss what we've both learned...

Happy April Fools Day, y'all! Jupiter Ascending is silly and fun and we hope you join author and Kansas City film critic (The Pitch) Abby Olcese as we look at the Wachowskis's ambitious original science fiction fantasy film, Jupiter Ascending. Starring: Mila Kunis, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne, and Sean Bean. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substantive Cinema Episode List Shoutouts: Death of a Unicorn The Monkey We Tel...

Last week we had a great time talking movies with our Canadian friend Marta Djordjevic, so we figured we'd keep it going and double down with another Canadian guest AND a Canadian film (and stay tuned in the post show to potentially hear Marta about this week's film)! I Like Movies is writer/director Chandler Levack's 2022 directorial debut and it's a complete delight. It's very funny, it's sweet,...

Way back when the show relaunched in 2020, we had planned on covering Abbas Kiarostami's Palme d'Or winning Taste of Cherry but I was overruled by my then cohosts who, at the time, were not terribly taken with the film. Now almost five years later, I'm excited to return to it with an even greater appreciation of it. I'm also delighted to be joined on this episode by my internet friend, film histor...

Nazis...I hate these guys. Seth Vargas of the Movie Friends podcast joins us to discuss Jeremy Saulnier's 2015 punk horror masterpiece, Green Room. When a down on their luck punk band takes a blind gig at a venue that ends up being a skinhead bar, things get gnarly. We talk Seth's background in the aughts punk scene, Patrick Stewart's terrifying performance, the struggle of the independent artist,...

Sorry about the unintentional hiatus but we are back! Pre-Super Bowl, I sat down to catch up with Editor Dave to catch up and do a little TTU. David Lynch died and that sucks, but we have an incredible body of work to enjoy forever along with the legacy of inspiration he's left to countless artists. One way or another, Donal Trump won the election and the next four years are gonna be full of t...

We are excited to welcome Alissa Wilkinson back to the show. Alissa is an author and staff film critic for the New York Times. It has been a few years since we had her on the show to talk about the 2019 Greta Gerwig adaptation of Little Women and since then she's written two wonderful books, the most recent being We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine. We talk Jo...

We are back and joined by crime fiction and television writer Megan Abbott with a Substantive Cinema show on one of Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader's most underrated films, Bringing Out the Dead! ⁠Substantive Cinema Episode List Shoutouts: Between the Temples Virtue I Like Movies Follow Megan Instagram Twitter BlueSky Website Follow Us ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Philip's Letterboxd⁠⁠⁠ Shar...

Twenty years ago on Christmas Day, Wes Anderson released his fourth feature film into the world. The star-studded Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was not as an immediate hit as some of Anderson's other films but it's one that has aged incredibly well. Bill Murray leads a cast of phenomenal actors such as Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, and many others as t...

Hey there, and Merry almost Christmas! This week we've got a wonderful conversation about faith and art that covers the width and breadth of global, historical Christianity as well as the importance of one's personal spiritual practices. Our guest today is Rev. Ben Lansing who is a professional comic strip artist by vocation as well as running the Our Church Speaks Instagram account. Ben's passion...

Four weeks in a row, can you believe it?! This week we are back with a Substantive Cinema pick that we've been excited for for quite some time, Walter Hill's underrated masterpiece Southern Comfort . The movie follows a squad of National Guardsmen doing exercises in the Louisiana swamps. After some painfully avoidable events, the men become hunted and are on the run for their lives against an enem...

Hey! This is our third weekly drop in a row and we've got a great one coming next week as well! We are back (but will probably shift back to biweekly shortly so we don't burnout)! This week, we welcome back friend of the show Abby Olcese to talk about her wonderful new book, Films for All Seasons: Experiencing the Church Year at the Movies (InterVarsity Press). You may know Abby from her work at T...

Once again, we recorded this episode a while back (a number of months ago, in this case) but due to the lamentable state of many things in the US, our episode this week feels eerily timely. For our first Noirvember Substantive Cinema epsiode of 2024, we are looking at one of Samuel Fuller's most celebrated and highly regarded films, Shock Corridor . In the movie, Johnny Barrett, a journalist in pu...

We are back! We weren't planning on holding this episode until right before the US Election Day but here we are. Jon Guerra is an immensely talented devotional music singer songwriter and his new project American Gospel is a beautiful, timely project that some of our listeners put on our radar a while back so we were delighted to have this conversation with him! We talk music, faith creativity, fi...

Happy to be back in your feeds! Our old friend Josh Tiessen (see Ep. 61 for his first appearance on the show) is back with an incredible new book and body of work and we're excited to share this conversation with you! Purchase Josh's new book! From Josh's website: Completed between 2020-2023, this new body of work explores two divergent perspectives on wisdom, and how might flourish in...

Notes!

Happy Father's Day! We will hopefully be back on track with our replay schedule here as we build up to our relaunch! Tyler Huckabee is someone who's work and perspective I've appreciated for a long time and it was a real joy to sit down and talk about movies and the work of David Lynch with him. We cover our mutual, less than virtuous, introduction to his work in Mulholland Drive, find...

NOTES

Hi friends! We are in a busy season at the moment and are working on a number of exciting things for The Substance and to help give us some time to do things at a high level, we are going to take a few weeks to replay some classic episodes from our 150+ show library. This episode was remarkable for how high it made it on our highest download charts when our guest doesn’t have a traditional social...

Hey friends! We are in a busy season at the moment and are working on a number of exciting things for The Substance and to help give us some time to do things at a high level, we are going to take a few weeks to replay some classic episodes from our 150+ show library. Our conversation with Bradly in 2021 was the fastest episode to hit 1,000 downloads and for good reason! We talked not only about C...

Philip is traveling for a family funeral and notes will get more filled out soon! Margaret’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/margaretrosebronson Website: https://deconstructiondoula.myflodesk.com

This week on The Substance, we are welcoming back a returning guest and talking about a book that has the best cover we've seen in quite some time! Courtney Ellis returns to the show and this time we are talking about her new book from InterVarsity Press, Looking Up: A Birder's Guide To Hope Through Grief. It's a beautiful book that is part memoir, part counseling session, and part sal...

Happy April Fool's Day! We had a great time covering Manos: The Hands of Fate back in 2022 and we were bummed that we missed it last year but are delighted to be back this April Fool's with another Un-Substantive Cinema show. This year it's Hot Shots! Part Deux , one of the silliest movies of all time. Written and directed by Jim Abrahams (of Airplane!, Top Secret!, & The Naked Gun...