The Recommendation Game

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) directed by Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger. Three teenagers are accused of this horrific crime of killing three children, supposedly as a result of involvement in Satanism. As in their previous documentary, things turn out to be more complex than initial appearances and this film presents the real-life courtroom drama to the viewer, as...

Cry Freedom (1987) directed by Richard Attenborough. Donald Woods is the chief editor at the liberal newspaper 'Daily Dispatch' in South Africa. He has written several editorials critical of the views of Steve Biko, but after having met him, he changes his views and attracts attention from the security police. When Steve Biko dies in police custody, he writes a book about Biko. The only wa...

Murs Murs (1980) directed by Agnes Varda. When her own mooted U.S. project fell through, Varda found herself stranded back in California, temporarily separated from Demy, and with her seven-year-old son in tow. Rather than give in to disappointment, she got back to work and created Mur Murs and _Documenteur _. A film that, like Thom Andersen’s remarkable Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003), is a study...

Godzilla Minus One (2023) directed by Takashi Yamazaki. In postwar Japan, Godzilla brings new devastation to an already scorched landscape. With no military intervention or government help in sight, the survivors must join together in the face of despair and fight back against an unrelenting horror. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend...

It Was Just an Accident (2025) directed by Jafar Panahi. An unassuming mechanic is reminded of his time in an Iranian prison when he encounters a man he suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss it. Spoilers are a given. We are R...

Boyz n the Hood (1991) directed by John Singleton. One of the greatest debuts in American cinema, John Singleton’s first feature is a harrowing and compassionate immersion into the lives of three Black teenage boys grappling with the uncertainty of their futures. Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, the precocious Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the street-smart Doughboy (Ice Cube), and the athletical...

Maborosi (1995) directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. Despite her outwardly happy and tranquil life as a wife and new mother, Yukimo (Makiko Esumi) is regularly troubled by a horrific nightmare about the death of her grandmother. When tragedy strikes her husband, Ikuo (Tadanobu Asano), the stress forces Yukimo into hermit-like solitude until a kindly widower (Takashi Naitô) attempts to draw her from her s...

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) directed by Peter Weir. In 1805, aboard the H.M.S. Surprise, the brash Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and his trusted friend, the ship's scholarly surgeon, Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), are ordered to hunt down and capture a powerful French vessel off the South American coast. Though Napoleon is winning the war and the men and their...

The Mastermind (2024) directed by Kelly Reichardt. In a sedate Massachusetts suburb circa 1970, unemployed family man and amateur art thief J.B. Mooney sets out on his first heist. With the museum cased and accomplices recruited, he has an airtight plan. Or so he thinks. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen...

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (2024) written and directed by KEVIN COSTNER. In 1859 families discover the lure of the Old West as they settle in territories from Wyoming to Kansas. Meanwhile, a gruff cowboy soon finds himself on the run with a prostitute and a young boy after killing a fellow gunman. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to r...

The Giant (1956) directed by George Stevens. When ranch owner Jordan visits Maryland to purchase a horse, he falls in love with Leslie and marries her. After they return to Texas, she employs Jett Rink to work at the family's homestead. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to disc...

The Eight Mountains (2022) directed by Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch. Two young Italian boys spend their childhoods together in a secluded alpine village roaming the surrounding peaks and valleys before their paths diverge. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype t...

M (1931) directed by Fritz Lang. One day we'll explain why the episodes are out of order, maybe when we get to 300 episodes in about 5 years. In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre), a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others...

La Chimera (2023) directed by Alice Rohrwacher. Just out of jail, rumpled English archaeologist Arthur reconnects with his wayward crew of tombaroli accomplices – a happy-go-lucky collective of itinerant grave-robbers who survive by looting Etruscan tombs and fencing the ancient treasures they dig up. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommen...

The Constant Gardener (2005) directed by Fernando Meirelles Assigned to a new post, reserved British diplomat Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) relocates to Kenya with his lovely young wife, Tessa (Rachel Weisz), an activist for social justice. When Tessa is found murdered out in the wilderness, circumstances point to her friend, Dr. Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Koundé), but it is soon clear that he's not the...

Soundtrack to a Coup D'etat (2024) directed by Johan Grimonprez. Filmmaker Johan Grimonprez examines the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss it. Spoilers are a given. We are Ricar...

Here(2023) directed by Bas Devos. A Romanian construction worker and a Belgian-Chinese doctorate student cross paths in Brussels just before the former is about to move back home. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss it. Spoilers are a given. We are Ricardo Deakin and O...

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) directed by George Miller. Snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers, young Furiosa gets caught in the crossfire of two tyrannical warlords. As the tyrants fight for dominance, Furiosa soon finds herself in a nonstop battle to make her way home. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has...

The Taste of Thinhs (2023) directed by Tran Anh Hung Cook Eugenie and her boss Dodin have grown fond of one another over 20 years, and their romance gives rise to dishes that impress the world's most illustrious chefs. When Dodin is faced with Eugenie's reluctance to commit, he begins to cook for her. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommen...

The Haunting (1963) directed by Robert Wise. When Dr John Markway, a scientist, invites Eleanor and Theodora to the ancient Hill House to investigate reports of paranormal activities in the mansion, things start getting out of hand. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss...

The Fifth Seal (1976) directed by Zoltán Fábri. In 1944 Budapest, one of a group of four friends poses a hypothetical moral question to the others, an act that will unexpectedly alter their lives forever. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss it. Spoilers are a given. We...

WEDDING WEEK EPISODE!! Whisper of the Heart (1995) directed by Yoshifumi Kondō. Based on the manga with the same title, this animated film follows Shizuku, an inquisitive young girl and a voracious reader, who longs to be a writer when she grows up. One day she notices that all of her library books have previously been taken out by one Seiji Amasawa. Amid chasing after a large cat, befriending an...

A Brighter Summer Day (1991) directed by Edward Yang. The intricacies of young love, masculinity, and identity are illuminated through the eyes of a 14-year-old Taiwanese boy as he moves through a pivotal era in his life. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss it. Spoiler...

Red River (1948) directed by Howard Hawks. Headstrong Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) starts a thriving Texas cattle ranch with the help of his faithful trail hand, Groot (Walter Brennan), and his protégé, Matt Garth (Montgomery Clift), an orphan Dunson took under his wing when Matt was a boy. In need of money following the Civil War, Dunson and Matt lead a cattle drive to Missouri, where they will get...

The Holdovers (2023) directed by Alexander Payne. A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school's head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podc...