Film School

Another year gone! 2024, we hardly knew thee... What will you remember this year for? What's going to come to mind when you think of 2024? What were the victories and the defeats? The adventures? The high points and the low points? Josh and Ira answer those questions for themselves, and invite you to consider and answer for yourself. Here's to 2024!

Buddy the Elf--what's your favorite color? Will Ferrel brings us a modern holiday classic as the man who was raised by elves up in the North Pole and has just found out he was adopted...so off he goes to meet his real father in the land of humans: New York City. It's Ferrel at his best, the fish out of water, the giant fool with a heart of gold and innocent wisdom...which is also perfect for Chris...

I've seen what we could be like together... Nicholas Cage has it all! The penthouse apartment, the eight-figure bank account, and all the solitude in the world. What else could a man want? Well, he's about to fin dout. A mysterious Don Cheadle plops him into the middle of what his life would have been like had he chosen love and family instead. It's  A Christmas Carol meets  It's A Wonderful Life...

You gentlemen aren't REALLY trying to kill my son, are you...? Might be Ira's favorite Hitchcock. It's the prototypical spy film, predates even James Bond, except that this spy is actually just a regular dude. Handsome Cary Grant, of course, but he's pulled into an international conspiracy entirely by mistake. Chock full of some of the most iconic sequences ever put to film. What a time '59 must h...

Finishing something can make a lot of things suddenly become clear. There are revelations about our work that can literally only be gained by seeing something through and marking it as "done" in our own heads. So...what have we learned, Josh and Ira, in finishing our own projects? We discuss. Also, Josh recommends Annihilation which is playing on Pluto TV, and Ira recommends Succession with is on...

You shouldn't keep souvenirs of a killing... We're back to Vertigo! The last time we watched this one, it was late summer of 2021, deep in the AFI's Top 100 list. Top ten, in fact. Seems like an age ago, and yet, the movie took us right back there. It's still great, undeniably one of Hitch's absolute best; probably the closest he ever got to a proper film noir, stunningly shot in San Francisco, a...

Josh calls DVD Extras his film school. The interviews, commentaries, documentaries, featurettes, and other bonus material has been as valuable in his filmmaker education as any class or study. We talk about the benefits of all this extra material around movie making that you might not be tapping into. Also, Josh recommends Kitchen Nightmares , and Ira recommends the original Star Trek movies, and...

An innocent man has nothing to fear... Alfred is doing something new this time: he's telling a true story, every word of it, top to bottom. Henry Fonda plays Manny Balestrero, bass player at the famous Stork Club and father of two, just scraping by to support them. And then he's fingered for being the hold-up man terrorizing the neighborhood shops and offices. But he didn't do it. Except the polic...

Harold Bloom defined 'strangeness' as a mark of originality that is endemic and absolutely  required for any work of literary art to be considered a masterpiece or a classic. Dan Simmons goes further to define it as a quality in the writing or storytelling that indicates to us, the reader (or viewer for Film/TV), are in the presence of an intelligence that is unique or different enough to be able...

A man... a statesman... is to be killed... Hitchcock does his one and only remake! Twenty+ years earlier, back in his British period, he did this story once before, under the exact same name! So...does he mix it up? Does he IMPROVE on the original? We watch and find out!

Let's suck in the guts, guys. We're the Ghostbusters... Bustin' still makes us feel good! The boys are back and saving New York yet again from the spookies. It's been five years, everyone has done a bit of going their separate ways, but there are shenanigans afoot. Ghosts need busting! Can they capture some of the magic of the original? We watch and find out. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

They're here... This movie is the perfect horror film for beginners; Spooky 101, if you will. It's not super violent, super scary, or super disturbing...but it DOES bring the noise. It IS scary, and unquestionably a horror movie that gets appropriate crazy by the end. It exists in that weird middle-ground between E.T. and Nightmare on Elm Street, and in that way, there's nothing out there quite li...

Who you gonna call? It's hard to understate just how large of an impression this movie made on the kids who grew up in the 1980s (and 90s). This movie felt like it was EVERYONE'S favorite movie. Deadpanned Bill Murray, nerdy Harold Ramis, golden retriever Dan Akroyd, skeptical/wtf Ernie Banks, goofy Slimer, possessed Sigourney Weaver, that-neighbor Rick Moranis...it's alchemy. One of those films t...

What's it liked to get older? As Josh and Ira dip their toes into 'middle age,' things start to change. You're not old yet, but you're not young anymore. Some things improve. Some things get worse. Ya boys talk about it. Enjoy! Also, Josh recommends  Seinfeld which is currently on Netflix, and Ira recommends Alien 3 , which is currently on Disney+.

I think, Captain Wiles, we're tangled up in a murder... Old Al is trying his hand again at a comedy. This time, its a country community with a dead body on their hands, and they don't want anyone to know about it. Hitch's comedies have been hit and miss so far. How does this one stack up? We watch and discuss :)

How many drafts is the right number of drafts??? Is it okay to write the thing once and then call it done? Or do we need to write and rewrite and edit and write some more and more and more? Or...is it something in between? Josh and Ira discuss what works for them! Also, Josh again recommends  Chernobyl on Max, and Ira recommends  Mountain Queen which is on Netflix.

The cat has a new kitten... Hitch and Grace Kelly team up again, this time with Cary Grant swapped in for Jimmy Stewart, and the vast, gorgeous French Riviera rather than a single, confined apartment. Grant plays a jewel thief being framed for a robbery he didn't actually commit, and Grace is the woman he falls for. We watch and discuss!

Back in Ira's DJing days, he put together literally hundreds of sets. An interesting pattern developed during that time: no matter how much his skill increased as he went (and it did), some sets just worked better than others. Some were great, others weren't, and no amount of skill could make a set great that wasn't from the outset. So...just how much of greatness comes from the Muse? And how much...

That's a secret, private world you're looking into out there... It's Hitchcock's first true classic. Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly star in one of the crime film concepts for the ages: a man is laid up with a broken leg and a view out his window into the apartment courtyards behind his building...and he thinks he witnesses a murder. What a delight to revisit this film and watch it again (the first...

The feedback loop is at the heart of developing any skill. But, the vast majority of the work we do as storytellers is done alone. So, where and when do you open yourself up for other people to comment on? And once get that feedback, what do we DO with it? We discuss! Also, Josh recommends some of his all-time favorite shows,  The Office (UK), Arrested Development, Whites, W1A,  and  People Just D...

Do you really believe in the perfect murder...? Hitchcock certainly does! This time, it's a man who wants to knock off his cheating wife. Can he get away with it??? Or can the old school, meticulous, quiet Scotland Yard inspector see through it all and figure it out? We watch and find out :)

Have you ever thought of your script, book, or film as a persuasive argument? It is. Drama quite literally arises from two (or several) characters with very different, very persuasive points of view clashing with each other. That's called rhetoric. And if our characters' rhetorical skill can only ever be as strong as the person who wrote that character...well, maybe we all of us writers need to wo...

I want to make a confession... Hitchcock has a nose for a character in a bind, and that's on full display with this one, where a priest takes confession from a murderer, then becomes the main suspect in that very same murder. Will he break his oath as a priest and tell the authorities the truth? Or will he hang for another man's crime? We watch and find out!

So, you've heard about a movie that has MULTIPLE endings. Maybe they're in the actual film, maybe they're extras on the DVD, or maybe they're just rumors and old scripts. What place do those hold in the context of good storytelling? Are they untapped goldmines, or are they the cast-offs of the perfecting process? We discuss! Also, Josh recommends  X-Men '97 on Disney+, and Ira recommends  Andor al...

You do my murder, and I do yours... We might best know Patricia Highsmith from  The Talented Mr. Ripley , but  Strangers on a Train  was her shocking debut novel, and folks: it slaps even as a movie, and ESPECIALLY in the hands of an Alfred Hitchcock who really feels like he's learned a thing or two about telling suspenseful stories. This one is a TRIP. Buckle up!