Crit Club

It was getting seriously embarrassing that the Crit Club has been around this long and still did not have a take on Cassavetes . Coire decided to right that wrong this week and picked John Cassaveses’ 1974 film A Woman Under the Influence, a true to life domestic story about mental illness, flailing attempts at emotional intelligence and traumatizing beach days. It led to a great and intense discu...

Apparently not through with winter, the Crit Club has fled to the Great White North, home of Wizard Chris himself, to learn about Canadian history from Matthew Rankin's deeply weird film The Twentieth Century. Telling the story of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, who was apparently something of a weirdo himself, this surrealist acid trip lovingly chides the chilly countr...

As we emerge slowly from the dark doldrums of a cursed winter, the Crit Club is more than eager to take French director Clair Denis up on her offer to Let the Sunshine In. Starring the ever-wonderful Juliette Binoche, and told through a fragmented bits of a broken life, this movie follows a middle age painter in Paris desperately trying to find a connection or maybe herself. Will the Crit Club enj...

After weeks of wrestling with some pretty weighty films, the Crit Club was glad to lighten things up a bit with Police Story, Jackie Chan's cartoonish 80s action flick that propelled him onto the international stage. While the stunts are stunning, the tonal shifts are jarring. Come see if we thought this movie stuck the landing or missed its mark.  Other things we discussed:  - Commando...

This week the Crit Club watched Héctor Babenco's 1981 drama Pixote, about a group of children who fall through the wide cracks in an extremely broken system. It is decidedly not an easy watch, but it left us with a lot to chew on as we discussed both sheer systemic injustices and the filmmaking ethics of putting young actors in potentially harmful situations. Buckle up for a great discussion about...

Punk isn't dead to the Crit Club this week as we warp back to experience the intense angst of 1970s Britain with Derek Jarman's Jubilee. This fever dream roughly posits what Queen Elizabeth I would think of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, only to find the Commonwealth has become a lawless, nihilistic dystopia. Is there no future for this movie or will god save our opinion of it? You should listen and...

Journey back to the turn of the 20th century with Crit Club this week as we sit quietly with Jan Troell's delicate 2008 film Everlasting Moments, a movie about a woman caught in the oppressive conventions of rugged Scandinavian society while exploring her pull towards creative expression. As Maria's attraction to photography blossoms, will her stalwart perseverance through multiple hardships bring...

Tired of being shut in, the Crit Club has taken a virtual trip to the mountains of South Korea, but this idyllic hunting lodge we found has a pretty sinister aura. This week, we try to keep up with Kim Jee-woon's 1998 black comedy The Quiet Family, in which a new family business turns into an escalating series of unfortunate events. Give this episode a listen and see if we're won over by this madc...

This week, the Crit Club revisits the late aughts, and all its existential malaise, with the help of Todd Solondz's 2009 film Life During Wartime. It zooms back into the lives of the Jordan sisters, who were introduced in Solondz's 1998 film Happiness, and catches them at another pivotal point in their lives as they reunited in sun-bleached Florida against a backdrop of a languishing Iraq war. We...

This week, Crit Club heads out on a journey in Mali with Souleymane Cissé's film Yeelen. This movie explores an ancient legend of the Bambara people as the young Nianankoro strikes out on his own to confront his father. It's a classic Wizard Chris pick and leads us into a great conversation about myths, filmmaking and the hero's journey. Other things we talked about:  - Patherfinder - Moonlig...

While the Crit Club bunch might look disheveled and slow, all it takes is a movie like Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro to show everyone just how lightning quick we can be to love a film. We're no sleepy bear of a podcast, we just want you to think that while we stealthily slice our way through this legendary samurai story. Join us while we have a wonderful time discussing this 1962 sequel to Kurosawa's c...

This week, the Crit Club heads into the dystopian, extremely recognizable near future with Ngozi Onwurah's Welcome II the Terrordome. Onwurah explores Black existence in this speculative fiction story, where Black people are forced to live in a squalid, enclosed slum they call The Terrordome. This gut punch of a film, which is also teeming with vibrant expression, refuses to look away from the fur...

Who is this? The question, seen pasted on so many ragged flyers in the hell hole that was 1980s New York City, is one the Crit Club tries to answer this week as we discuss Susan Seidelman's debut film, Smithereens. This small drama, set against the spastic doldrums of a post-punk aesthetic, gave us plenty to discuss about the lifestyle, the nostalgia and the city that inspired it. Come find out wh...

Wizard Chris had the pick this week, and he took Crit Club on a dangerous journey to Japan's underground with Branded to Kill, an outré assassination story heavily weighted with themes of desire, purpose, professional hierarchy and the smell of rice. Come listen to see if we decide whether this movie deserves to be #1 or covertly shot through plumbing fixtures. Other things we discussed:  Kil...

It's early January, so the Crit Club is yearning for warmer climates and a little bit of TLC. Hopefully, 1985's Desert Hearts will give us just that. This directorial debut by Donna Deitch is notable in American and queer cinema as being an early film to showcase an earnest romance between two women. Will the winds of Reno win us over, or will we wish the dry air of the Great Basin treated us more...

Happy end of the year festivities to all! As a celebration of this and a chance to take a mild breather from the heavier films of the past few weeks, the Crit Club is watching the Katherine Hepburn/Cary Grant 1938 rom com Holiday. It was a chance for us to talk rom coms, the Golden Age of Hollywood, and maybe even some holidays. Come listen and see if we're wooed over by the sparks flown by these...

Is there a better way to celebrate this week than with John Waters exploring the holiest of holies in his electric 1970 film Multiple Maniacs? The Crit Club doesn't think so. This blasphemous bit of counter culture celluloid set us talking about everything from queer cinema, Waters' legacy and the history in which this side show was made. It's rosaries and lobsters all the way down, folks.  O...

Oh ho! Looks like Louis Malle wants to send Crit Club down the rabbit hole with Black Moon, his 1975 surrealist contemplation on innocence and maturity. But will the acclaimed director of My Dinner With Andre succeed, or will his playful, animal-laden exercise fail to charm the Club? Find out by listening! Other things we talk about in this episode: - Holy Mountain - El Topo - Schitt's Creek - Mul...

We had such a good time in France, that we decided to stay. Crit Club is once again holed up with an Agnès Varda film in what became a mini marathon of the hallowed director. This week, we're discussing Varda's 1962 classic Cléo From 5 to 7, which follows a young starlet in bustling Paris as she waits for potentially life-threatening test results. Join us in peeling apart this small, electric film...

Faced with an abundance of wanderlust, the Crit Club has struck out on the road, without shelter nor law. This week we discuss Agnès Varda's 1985 film Vagabond (Sans Toit Ni Loi), the price of freedom, the constraints of civilization and Greek metaphors. Come join! Other things we talked about this episode:  Bartleby the Scrivener The Master Star Trek: Discovery Indian Match Making The Secret...

Crit Club returns to at least half of its members' roots as we watch this 1976 documentary about a coal miner strike in the eponymous Harlan County, Kentucky. Come for this riveting and revolutionary look at small community collectively fighting for their livelihoods and stay for continuous dunking on capitalism.  Other things mentioned in this episode:  - Hades - Titus - What We Do in t...

Not ready for the spooky season to be over? Join the club. The Crit Club!  We're back this week with our Halloween themed episode where we discuss Vincent Price's 1973 schlocky romp Theater of Blood. The Criterion Channel has a lot of fun horror selections for scary October (and the far more frightening November), but only one movie has the costumes, the monologues and the fake mustaches of T...

To quiet things down a bit, Crit Club takes a look at Hirokazu Kore-eda's 2008 meditative family drama Still Walking. It was Angela's pick, and as her, Coire, Wizard Chris and Peter form a family of their own in discussing this move, will they fall to the same brooding in-fighting and passive aggressive shaming on display in the film? Why don't you listen and find out, nosy.  Other media we d...

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Actually, it's Albert Brooks' 1979 directorial debut Real Life, and Crit Club wants to talk about it. Peter, Coire, Angela and Wizard Chris are back this week to talk about this dark mockumentary, how it stands the test of time now in our reality show lives and where it ranks in the history of comedy. Come listen! Other media discussed during this episo...

The Crit Club crew (Coire, Peter, Angela, and Wizard Chris) takes on Cheryl Dunye's 1994 The Watermelon Woman, a playful fake documentary about Dunye's search for a 1930's Black film actor whom she only knows as the watermelon woman. Part of the new queer cinema, the Watermelon Woman is a stage for Dunye to share her experience as a young, Black lesbian and explore the culture that came before her...