SNOBS ON FILM

Have you ever had one of those days? One of those days where you just wanna hang out with your boys, rob a bank, pay for a loved one’s operation, maybe get out of the country for awhile….. and it all goes to hell? A more serious version of what was just described occurred on August 22, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. The bank robbery—and the combination of surreal events and real life drama that surro...

So it’s 1947 and… something’s in the air. Written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Black Narcissus outwardly uses breathtaking sets and cinematography to hint at the inner conflicts of a host of characters. A company of Anglican nuns are attempting to set up a colonial school and hospital in what used to be the palace-home of a general’s harem. Tensions begin to mount once th...

Woman goes to Spain. Woman brings her friend to Spain. Women meet man. Man propositions women. Women fly off with man. And you can guess the rest… Or can you? One of the many good things about Woody Allen’s 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona is its ability to take interesting turns that feel less like “plot twists” and more like “plot spirals.” It's a story that begins with one person’s sexual int...

In 1999 we were transported back to 1959 to meet a very interesting, determined, and deranged young man named Tom Ripley… Matt Damon is Ripley—the protagonist and antagonist of both the Patricia Highsmith 1956 novel and this, the film adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley. And from the moment Damon appears on screen, there’s a just a hint of oddness in his demeanor that slowly burns...

Two questions: Can a two-hour argument be interesting AND fully define the past, present, and future of a strange love? That’s what we’re gonna dive into as we look at 2021’s Malcolm & Marie—a film that puts two actors in a celluloid ring, straps the gloves on, rings the bell, and let’s the toxic punches fly… John David Washington’s Malcolm Elliott is a filmmaker who has just premiered the mov...

Call Me by Your Name is a 2017 film that was nominated for 4 Oscars, including Best Picture and a Best Actor nod to Timothée Chalamet, the film took home the Best Adapted Screenplay award. Chalamet stars as Elio—a sensitive, brilliant, but emotionally naive 17 year-old who spends an Italian summer learning about love and its inevitable heartbreaks. On the other end of that heartbreak is the gradua...

Let’s talk about The War of the Roses, an 80s movie that shows just how far two people will go when what starts out as the perfect marriage ends up in the ugliest of divorces. This is a film that reunites Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, who star as Oliver Rose and Barbara Rose respectively, with Danny DeVito, who also directed. The three had previously worked together in Romancing the Stone a...

In the 1971 neo-noir thriller Klute, director Alan J. Pakula and stars Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland explore the refuge offered by an unexpected love, along with the fears and demons that continuously tear at it. Fonda’s Bree Daniels is being stalked by a deranged killer, while Sutherland’s John Klute tries to protect her without falling in love with her. But Bree—a prostitute caught between he...

Snobs On Film is a monthly movie podcast, exploring one theme per season. This season: love in its strangest forms, across classic and contemporary film. On this episode of Snobs On Film Power, Prophecy and Paranoia - ‘The Tragedy Of Macbeth’ In Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth , a tale of paranoia begins with a prophecy, and the road from one to the other is littered with treachery, ambition, a...

Join us for the season finale of Snobs On Film: Redemption by exploring classic 80s-style action with Ridley Scott’s underrated Michael Douglas thriller: Black Rain . When New York City cop Nick Conklin chases a Japanese mob figure to Tokyo, Conklin’s demons come along for the ride, quickly derail the investigation, and bury him beneath his own hubris. Soon, Conklin and his partner are outsiders i...

Snobs On Film: Redemption continues with a movie that epitomizes the category of “cult classic”. A night of prophetic somnambulism kicks off the wonderfully weird and bewitching story of Donnie Darko , a film that folds its redemptive qualities into the dreamlike existence of a teen watching his world dissolve into nightmare. Jake Gyllenhaal is Donnie, a kid whose school days and home life are com...

The sublime martial artistry of the 2000 classic, CrouchingTiger, Hidden Dragon , demonstrates only one form of the film’s great battles. The other style of conflict takes place on the war-torn fields of inner turmoil and forbidden love. Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi portray parallel characters whose internal struggle pits what they have outwardly accepted against what they inwardly long for. And w...

SOF’s #1Theme10Films continues with Pulp Fiction! Very few films have explored the serpentine road to redemption as uniquely as Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 seminal hit. While assassins offer their existential thoughts, gangsters go medieval, and a clean-up man expounds on the fine art of removing dead bodies—a boxer looks for vindication in the bowels of retro LA. As the film's plot toys with chronol...

Snobs On Film: Redemption returns with a film so full of tension and intrigue that it could only have come from the legendary Master of Suspense. Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious features a conflicted Cary Grant, whose love for Ingrid Bergman sets him at odds with his duty as a spy. Bergman is the key to bringing down a network of Nazis in post-war Brazil, and her willingness to enter into a web of li...

Demons, angels, warlocks, and cops: the perfect ingredients for a redemption story so twisted it could make the Devil smile. Snobs On Film: Redemption continues with 2005’s comic book occult film, Constantine . Keanu Reeves is Alan Moore’s demon-hunting detective whose life (and death) of sin has predetermined his fate. But can Constantine earn salvation when Rachel Weisz offers him a last shot at...

This week, Snobs On Film: Redemption discusses 2010’s Biutiful, a haunting film seemingly shot on location in the landscape between choice and consequence. Oscar winner Javier Bardem is Uxbal, a struggling father whose illness has placed a ticking clock on his life and therefore threatened the livelihood and future of his children. To redeem himself and offer his daughter and son a world better th...

There are redemption films, and there are REDEMPTION films. Elia Kazan's On The Waterfront is the latter. The #1Theme10Films Snobs On Film: Redemption season hits a new high with an episode that explores one of the greatest movies of all time. Acting icon Marlon Brando is a former boxer turned mob enforcer with a disappointing past and a heart full of remorse. But when Brando falls in love, he mus...

The new season of SOF continues! Next up in our “One Theme. Ten Films.” reviews: the 1992 Black cult classic, Boomerang! love is in the air – or is it redemption? Directed by Reginald Huddlin, Eddie Murphy stars as Marcus: a cocky-as-hell ad executive who also happens to be the definition of a suave, successful, and insatiable player. But the tables are turned when Marcus gets a taste of...

One theme. Ten films. Snobs On Film is back with a season that explores the theme of redemption as it plays out in ten very different movies! First up? Denzel Washington’s Flight, a story that begins with a literal descent and features a self-destructive pilot who seems determined to keep falling. Join us as we discuss Denzel’s performance, the impact of Robert Zemeckis's powerful film, and the na...

For the first time ever, The Music Snobs meets Snobs On Film in one unforgettable episode to celebrate both podcasts’ season finales!!! Listen as the Snobs combine the two shows to go deep on the (im)perfect marriage of cinema and sound. The crew explores the natural relationship between music and movies while questioning which artform impacts the audience the most. The ensuing debate inevitably l...

It’s been 30 years since Da Mayor told Mookie to, “Always do the right thing,” in Spike Lee’s masterful third film. In this riveting episode of SOF the fellas take a look at ‘Do the Right Thing’ and ask: exactly what is the right thing? And after three decades, what’s our response to this movie’s character arcs and the layers of storytelling that combine to form one of cinema’s most iconic pressur...

From Pam Grier to The Rock, a pantheon of black action heroes can be found in Hollywood’s past and present. On this episode of Snobs On Film, the crew examines the impact that POC actors have had on the action genre and (of course) asks an uncomfortable question: why has the film industry and the public been so much more accepting of black actors as leads in action films than in dramas ? Afterward...

After a decade of blockbuster films and last year’s record-breaking Infinity War , it’s time for Snobs On Film to go deep on Avengers: Endgame and examine the unprecedented success—and question the impact—of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Can the studio maintain its dominance? Has the MCU been a boost for the film industry, or is it the bane of modern cinema? The crew explores these issues and mor...

Snobs On Film takes a look at the rise of Jordan Peele, Barry Jenkins, and films like ‘Sorry to Bother You’, and wonders: are people of color being better represented by today’s unconventional storytelling than by the hyper-realism of classics like ‘Menace II Society’ and ‘Boyz N the Hood’? Afterwards, the crew gets inspired by Peele’s newest film during a roundtable that gives each Snob a multipl...

As filming begins on the franchise’s 25th installment and we near the end of Daniel Craig’s epic run as James Bond, a certain question has come to mind concerning our favorite secret agent. In the era of #metoo, “diversity”, and Hollywood shake ups—does this mean #BondToo? Join us as SOF takes a look at the Craig films and discusses how a feminist present will impact the future of cinema’s most ce...