Peak Viewing

Who could’ve predicted that Martin Scorsese would make a film about His Holiness the Dalai Lama? In one of his more underseen films (the reasons for that we get into), Scorsese is able to tell a tragic story of persecution and faith while also highlighting a unique culture and spirituality. We get into all that plus Disney’s cowardly burying of this movie, and how most of what we know about Buddhi...

Today we’re hitting the slots and talking about Casino, a three-hour epic that’s more or less “what if Goodfellas but in Las Vegas.” The result? A pretty good movie! We discuss the unique narration choices, Sharon Stone’s terrific performance, the seven (!) Rolling Stones needle drops, and get into several tangents about revisiting Bram Stoker’s Dracula, craving blueberry muffins, and Mitch McConn...

This week we discuss The Age of Innocence, Scorsese’s attempt at adapting the Edith Wharton novel of the same name. If you ask Samuel, who read and thoroughly enjoyed Wharton’s novel, this adaptation gets most of the way to conveying the same social critique and parched emotions, though it still leaves a lot out. We get into all the comparisons, along with the benefits of narration, Michael Ballha...

(CW: Mild discussion of sexual assault throughout the episode.) We’re returning to Scorsese! This week we’re kicking off the second half of his filmography with his early 90s thriller Cape Fear. Did Scorsese make this as a favor to Universal? Yes. Rather than phone it in, did he do everything he could to make this a campy over-the-top rollercoaster ride? Also yes! In addition to breaking down De N...

We’re closing the book on Kelly Reichardt with her latest film The Mastermind. This subversive heist film has everything: great 70s vibes, a jazzy score, Vietnam parallels, and a man who is anything but a mastermind. We also create a custom month-by-month watching experience for Reichardt’s filmography, give our rankings on her movies, and announce the next miniseries!

This week we’re on time and talking about Showing Up, a movie about creativity, responsibility, and the intersection of those two things. It’s slow and ponderous, cozy and contemplative, poignant and profound. It also features Andre 3000 and is Kelly Reichardt’s funniest movie (well, maybe until next week). We discuss our thoughts, along with our problems with the Incredibles sequel, Henry’s frust...

First Cow is a heartwarming tale of friendship, opportunity, and oily cakes, set in the lush and untamed land of Oregon nearly 200 years ago. It’s a movie with unabashedly wholesome vibes, while still inserting a pretty scathing critique of capitalism in its infancy. We get into all that, plus our thoughts on baked goods, rebates, and natural flavors that we supposedly used to get from beavers.

Anthology films can be a mixed bag, so it’s safe to say that Certain Women has us more mixed than any Kelly Reichardt movie so far. Laura Dern’s story is good but occasionally too on-the-nose, Lily Gladstone’s chapter is the highlight of the movie, and Michelle Williams made Samuel so mad that he couldn’t see straight. Still, the landscape is gorgeous, the performances are excellent, and there’s e...

We were shocked to find that a slow cinema icon like Kelly Reichardt had made a thriller movie, and yet that’s exactly what we get this week with 2013’s Night Moves. This tense and taut thriller is jam-packed with great performances, meditations on isolation, and amazing moody vibes. Topics discussed include improperly ending phone calls, how to clean saunas, and Samuel’s truly unhinged tire chang...

Meek’s Cutoff is an “inspired by true events” western that tells the story of a group of settlers who get lost in 1845. It’s one of the most surprising and subversive westerns you’ll come across, presenting a female perspective that is missing from like 95% of stories in this genre. We get into all the things that impressed us about this movie, including the gorgeous cinematography, the interestin...

Wendy and Lucy is one of the saddest films we’ve covered. It’s a story of a person that society usually chooses to ignore, and forces viewers to confront the grave realities of homelessness. Also, there’s an entitled teenage grocer that Henry may or may not want to punch in the face. Safe to say, we’re feeling our feelings this week! We also discuss the mutt-ness of dogs, the ethic and morals of g...

This week we’re trekking to the hot springs and getting EXISTENTIAL! Reichardt’s sophomore film, Old Joy, is a fascinating meditation on friendship, generational splintering, and Bush era stagnation, all set in the Pacific Northwest that will eventually become a staple of her films. Topics discussed include going to record stores, staying mindful, facial hair growth conspiracies, camping mattress...

New miniseries time! We’re kicking off our series on Kelly Reichardt with her directorial debut, the festival darling River of Grass. We’ve got sleepy characters, American malaise, and Reichardt’s honest filmmaking style that is devoid of judgment or audience manipulation. And it’s only 76 minutes! We get into all the thematic stuff we found here, along with our thoughts on color theory, pictures...

(CW: Discussion of sexual assault throughout the episode.) We’re ending our miniseries on Sergio Leone with a truly epic film, Once Upon a Time in America. This film, which took the better part of a decade to fully make, is four hours long, rife with symbolism, and spans something like sixty years. It’s a monumental work of art that is also incredibly difficult to watch in numerous ways that have...

(CW: Mild discussion of sexual assault throughout the episode.) Leone’s penultimate film requires some compartmentalization from its viewers. On the one hand, Duck, You Sucker (which is sometimes called A Fistful of Dynamite) features a protagonist who is one of the most racist and vile stereotypes we’ve ever seen, and you’re supposed to like him! On the other hand, Leone’s filmmaking continues to...

(CW: Brief discussion of the sexual assault scene from 1:20:00 to 1:25:00.) The whole Dollars thing is so last week. Now it’s all about the Once Upon a Time stuff with Once Upon a Time in the West! This cinematic epic feels in many ways like the pinnacle of Leone’s “adult fairytale” storytelling, mixed expertly with slow pacing that’s punctuated by brutal violence. We discuss the undeniable techni...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is arguably one of the most iconic films of all time. A true landmark piece of filmmaking that went on to redefine the western genre, the Italian film scene, and morally ambiguous protagonists in film forever. Today on the podcast we both watched it for the first time and had some very surface-level questions. Where have we heard this film’s motif before? Is “the Goo...

(CW: Mild discussion of the sexual assault scene throughout the episode.) For a Few Dollars More is the name of Leone’s second western, and it can also describe a couple parts of the movie: it was made for a few dollars more, and at the box office it made a few dollars more. In our opinion, it’s a great step up: the bigger budget is a noticeable improvement, the trio of characters have some fun dy...

This week we dip our toes into Leone’s Dollars Trilogy with the first film, A Fistful of Dollars. We’ve got gunslingers, tricksters, Spanish countryside, whistling, and enough stolen plot points to warrant a lawsuit! While this is neither of our favorite westerns, it undoubtedly features a fantastic finale that got us very excited for the next two films in this trilogy. We also discuss time-of-day...

We’re kicking off our Sergio Leone miniseries with The Colossus of Rhodes, a sword-and-sandal epic centered on one of the seven wonders of the world. This film, which came near the tail-end of the peplum film’s heyday, is a serviceable good time, and gives us a lot to look forward to over the next six weeks. We discuss the next time we’ll cover a historical epic, the funhouse design of the Colossu...

Our journey through the cinematic endeavors of Star Trek comes to a close this week with 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. This sequel may not quite live up to the first Kelvin movie, but it was certainly a step in the right direction, and we would have loved to see one or two more sequels with this same formula and tone. We discuss the lighter tone, the development of Kirk and Spock, end credits watching...

Star Trek Into Darkness stinks! The lightning-in-a-bottle magical energy of the first Kelvin film has been replaced with a serious tone, less characterization, worse VFX, and a muddied plot. The result? We (mostly Henry) kinda hated this movie. We get into all the ways it goes wrong, including the return of an iconic villain, the continued objectification of women, the disappointing reduction in l...

We’ve entered the Kelvin timeline! The 2009 reboot of Star Trek brought with it a lot of things: fresh faces on iconic characters, modern cinematic action, and enough lens flares to blind a small child. That said, we really enjoyed revisiting this one! Is Star Trek actually just a utopia because they got rid of email? How much was Kirk living rent-free in the head of “cupcake guy”? Will we ever st...

(CW: Brief discussion of the sexual assault scene from 1:18:00 to 1:21:00.) Y’all are wrong about Star Trek: Nemesis. We get disliking the CGI, and the silly off-road vehicle action, but everything related to Picard’s clone works. Tom Hardy gives a performance full of emotion that is achingly sincere, and the bittersweet mood for the main cast is just right. We discuss the confusing reaction criti...

Star Trek: Insurrection is a film of peaks and valleys. On the one hand, the villain isn’t particularly memorable and the drone special effects suck. On the other hand, it provides some pretty damning commentary on the perils of forced relocation. But then back on the other hand, it muddies the forced relocation message with a bunch of twists out of nowhere! All of this left us very mixed. Does th...