Shut Up and Watch This

This week’s pick is Sofia Coppola ’s 2006 history and period-defying MARIE ANTOINETTE . Ashley fought choosing this cream puff of a film for a long time because, though it is delightful, it just didn’t stick with her the way other films by Coppola have. A story of a privileged woman seemingly oblivious to the pain and suffering of a nation. What does it mean? Does it mean anything? Is it all frivo...

Stephen Frears’ MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE is an odd film. Set in South London during the Thatcher Era, our main character Omar, son of an immigrant from Pakistan, is working for his uncle to make a run-down coin-op laundry profitable again. He enlists his childhood friend Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), a recovering fascist punk to help out. Together Omar and Johnny find humor, danger, and improbably, lo...

Can a podcast have an existential crisis? In this case, yes. Spurred by a viewing of 1987’s truly dreadful, sexist Overboard, Ashley decided that the original concept just wasn’t working for her anymore. So we decided to watch a film that both had seen before, but not together, and some balance was restored to the universe. This week we talk Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF...

Good things come to those who work hard, we’re told. Those who’ll do anything to accomplish their goals will surely succeed because that is the promise of America; freedom, success and a new car. 12-year-old orphan Ale has a plan to earn a life for himself and his sister Izzy in Willets Point, Queens in this week’s pick, CHOP SHOP by director Ramin Bahrani. Symbolizing freedom for Ale is a beat up...

Our 50th episode just happened to fall during a global pandemic that has upended everything everywhere, so we decided to talk about what brings us comfort, hope, and a little laughter in scary times. We’re listing our top five(ish) comforting things, which are *mostly* movies. Spanning from the 1930’s to last Tuesday, Film Noir to YouTube, we hope at least one will soothe your troubled mind, or at...

Part of the magic of college is that you get to learn a bunch of new stuff, not just from your professors, but also all the weird stuff that you get introduced to from a jumble of friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends that you meet. A visit to someone’s trashed out apartment can introduce you to something that could change the course of your life. For Ashley that something...

We suddenly have a lot of time on our hands, so why not watch a few epic French films? Dave’s pick this week is Claude Berri’s JEAN DE FLORETTE , a tale of rural betrayal, drought, and broken dreams set in the beautiful Provençal region of France. Ashley is taken with what at first seems to be a simple story about a man who wants to grow flowers, but quickly takes on the weight of a Greek or Shake...

Much like Titanic, we all know how this one is going to end. So as with most films based on real events, David Fincher’s ZODIAC (2007) is all about the journey. But also a little bit about the unreliability of handwriting analysis, how communication amongst law enforcement agencies is hard, and that the press isn’t always so good at supporting the public interest. Part police procedural, part jour...

Sometimes the marketing people get it all wrong and they do it on purpose. Case in point is this week's film, Atom Egoyan's EXOTICA (1994). No, it's not a grade B mid-nighties erotic thriller, but a quiet, introspective film about several emotionally damaged people, the tenouous threads that connect them, and the complicated ways in which they heal and hurt each other. This week Dave introduces As...

Werner Herzog’s BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS , or BL:POCNO as we like to call it (no one calls it that), is a very weird movie. It is also a pretty good movie. A good-weird film that somehow Dave missed despite his film school education and fondness for New German Cinema directors. There is plenty for us to unpack here from the highs and lows of Nicolas Cage’s varied career to Herzog’s...

Take almost any state highway in Texas and you’ll find a trail of little towns, each with a square of brick buildings arranged around a courthouse, or just a row of storefronts in older towns. Towns like Goldwaithe, Zephyr, Santa Ana, Archer City, Paris, and the roads between them. Wim Wender’s 1984 film PARIS, TEXAS explores what is lost and found in these little places and the spaces between; wh...

This week we discuss Ashley’s pick, Mike Judge’s little seen cult film IDIOCRACY . In 2016, much of the independent press made comparisons between Idiocracy and the current political situation in the United States. Find out why they are wrong. Plus, we’ll answer questions like: Does Ashley even like this film? What IS the most nuanced stoner film of the mid-oughts? And...just what was 20th Century...

Conveniently this week’s episode is about a man suffering from creative block, and I’m currently too drifty to be able to write this blurb. I may need some time at an Italian spa to get going again. If you hadn’t guessed, Dave and I are talking Fellini’s 8½ (1963), Dave’s pick. This film is madcap and chaotic, but also nostalgic and deeply meaningful. Join us for one of our best conversations as w...

What criteria defines a classic film?  An advancement in film technology? A technically flawless script? A unique blend of genre? For Ashley the criteria has to include some expression of humanity. The depth of humanity on display in Guillermo del Toro’s dark fantasy, PAN’S LABYRINTH (2006) made it an instant classic in Ashley’s mind. Dave started watching years ago, but he never saw the whole fil...

You know the feeling when you meet a really great guy at a press/scientist mixer and he takes you back to his warehouse and shows you his teleporting machine? And then your ex-boyfriend/boss starts stalking you and making veiled threats via science magazine covers? So you go to deal with ex-guy and then new guy gets sad and drunk-teleports himself, accidentally fusing his DNA with a house fly. You...

People are complicated, neither wholly bad nor good; they make bad decisions, they hurt people they love, and yet they are also capable of great kindness and laughter. They long for things: to be better, to be different, for connection with others. Writer Mike White is able to capture that humanity in characters that are simultaneously the best and worst of us. Ashley’s picks, THE GOOD GIRL (2002)...

Ashley has a major gap in her knowledge of American history, and it is shaped like the modernist Watergate Hotel in Washington DC. This week, Dave’s pick, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976) seeks to fill that gap with intrigue, secret parking lot meetings, inappropriate nicknames for anonymous sources, and a whole lot of phone calls. For Dave this is a flashback to film school and one of his favorite...

Some films become so much a part of who you are that you can’t remember a time that they were not part of your life, and so it is for Ashley with this week’s pick, the 1995 BBC miniseries PRIDE AND PREJUDICE . Staring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, this is the definitive adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel, and it has been beautifully restored for the Blu-ray re...

This week we’re going back to 1984 to review BEVERLY HILLS COP . What could possibly go wrong for a street smart detective from Detroit who heads to Beverly Hills for an unauthorized investigation into his friend’s murder? Apparently, much less than one might expect from that sort of set up. This fun, breezy film featuring a star-making turn by Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, was one of teen Dave’s fa...

Sometimes you just need to watch something delightful and frivolous. Screwball comedies like Gregory LaCava’s MY MAN GODFREY (1936) are just the thing. Fueled by a major crush on William Powell , this is one of Ashley’s favorite films. She’s tried to show it to Dave before on a few occasions, but due to circumstances and sleepiness, he’s never made it through until now. On this episode we talk the...

Ashley HATES westerns, generally speaking, which is why Dave has been reluctant to make Sergio Leone ’s restored 1968 classic ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST required viewing. Then our local art cinema happened to have a showing, and Dave couldn’t resist the urge to see it on the big screen once again. This film has everything: saloons, vengeful sharpshooters, corrupt railroad entrepreneurs, a retire...

This week we finally review HANDS ON A HARDBODY: THE DOCUMENTARY (1997) thanks to a tip from Ashley’s brother about streaming options. This surprisingly moving film by S.R. Bindler documents the human drama surrounding an endurance competition to win a Nissan Hardbody pickup where 24 contestants stand with their hands on the truck until only one is left standing. This was Ashley’s introduction to...

Dave’s been sitting on this one for awhile, a little hesitant about Ashley’s reaction. This week’s pick, THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER (1989) is definitely not for everyone. Peter Greenaway’s film is visually and structurally bold. It is shocking in it’s portrayal of violence and barbarism, and the titular Thief is perhaps one of the worst humans to ever appear on screen. Yet there i...

Home is one of the most powerful words in any language. It is not simply a place, but a symbol of something more, a visceral feeling of safety, of belonging, of community. So what happens to a person when that place, that community, that belonging is slowly but surely dismantled? In this week’s extra episode, we review THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO . This film confronts the effects of gentri...

When Ashley first saw WOMAN ON THE RUN at the Noir City Film festival in 2015, she just knew her good friend Dave, a proud San Francisco native, would absolutely love it. It only took four years for him to see it, partly because Ashley couldn’t remember what it was called. Shot on location in mid-century San Francisco, this noir thriller by director Norman Foster features great visuals, an outstan...