Watch This With Rick Ramos

Bukowski's Drunken Streets: Marco Ferreri's Tales of Ordinary Madness Continuing our exploration of The City of Angels, Mr. Chavez & I dive into the great Los Angeles novelist, short story writer, poet, and "Dirty Old Man" Henry Charles Bukowski (1920 - 1994). Bukowski holds a special place in my heart and memories; Beginning with Notes of a Dirty Old Man and continuing through novels (Women, Ham...

Down These Dark Streets: James Ellroy - Feast of Death Continuing our travels through Los Angeles, Mr. Chavez & I focus our discussion on the great LA Crime (Historical Crime) Novelist, James Ellroy. Famous for his LA Quartet - including  The Black   Dahlia ,  L.A. Confidential ,  The Big Nowhere , and  White Jazz , as well as the autobiographical  My Dark Places , Ellroy has written some of the m...

Another Lost Angel: Paul Schrader's Hardcore This week we continue our descent into Ibrahim Chavez's Los Angeles with a look at Taxi Driver screenwriter, Paul Schrader's blunt and brutal examination of the Los Angeles/San Diego/San Francisco sex trade of the late 1970s. Schrader's upbringing in a strict Calvinist environment would shape his social outlook and influence his abandonment of religion...

At Night and From a Distance: Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself We're starting the month of December (and ending 2023) with a dive into Los Angeles in a month of programming curated by our own Ibrahim Chavez. Our first episode of December is a look at film critic and teacher, Thom Andersen's "video essay" Los Angeles Plays Itself  (2003). A legend in the world of documentary filmmaking, And...

Beyond Laughter: Richard Pryor - Live in Concert & Live on the Sunset Strip  This week Mr. Chavez & I close out November with a look at - arguably - the greatest stand-up comic the craft has ever produced, Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor, Sr. I have been an admirer of Mr. Pryor for nearly five decades now and am unable to remember a time when I was not aware and was not in total awe of him. O...

Ransom: Akira Kurosawa's High & Low There are no shortage of names that define our undersrtanding and foster our enjoyment of Cinema. Scorsese, Fellini, Bergman, Leone, Eisenstein, Spielberg, Chaplin, Keaton, Lumet, Ford, Hawks . . . the list could run for pages (and fortunately for us it does). There is a name that cannot be left off . . . Best known for his Ji daigeki - Historical (Action) Drama...

When a Promise Meant Something: Sean Penn's The Pledge  November is the month of Rick Ramos and this week we continue - following Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon and Walter Hill's Hard Times - with a look at Sean Penn's 2001 The Pledge . Featuring an underrated (and I would argue tragically underseen) Jack Nicholson performance that sidesteps all of the Nicholson tropes that we have b...

Oil & Blood: Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon Take a listen as Mr. Chavez & I kick off the month of November with a series of films curated by your host and producer, Rick Ramos. We begin with a discussion of Martin Scorsese's newest film - currently in theaters - Killers of the Flower Moon , a beautifully realized adaptation of David Grann's 2017 non-fiction best seller, Killers of th...

1933 . . . Words Didn't Buy Much - Walter Hill's Hard Times  On this week's episode, Mr. Ramos celebrates his 49th birthday looking at the purpose and drive of WatchThis W/RickRamos, some of his favorite films, why he loves them as he does, and culminating with a look at one of his favorite films, Walter Hill's directorial debut,  Hard Times (1975). Why this films is a longstanding favorite is a m...

Your #1 Fan: Rob Reiner & Stephen King's Misery This week Mr. Chavez & I close out October and Halloween with one of the great Horror/Thrillers of the 1990s, Rob Reiner's adaptation of Stephen King's  Misery .  A tale of King's personal struggles with the writing medium, alcohol and drug abuse, and the perils of fame told through the life of the fictional author Paul Sheldon. With the creation of...

Never Sleep Again: The Horror of Freddy Krueger This week Ibrahim & i talk one of the iconic Horror figures of the late 20th Century, Wes Craven's pedophile, nightmare murderer Freddy Krueger. Through seven original films, a remake  (which we only touch on), and a  Friday the13th  crossover, Krueger has taken on a cryptic and overwhelming cult of popularity. Created by Craven and realized through...

Full Moon Fever: John Landis's An American Werewolf in London Halloween is around the corner . . . this week Mr. Chavez & I continue our look into the Horror Genre with a screening and discussion of John Landis's 1981 Horror Classic, An American Werewolf in London . There's a whole lot going on in Landis's film (some good, some bad, some exteme), but the great gift - that it continues to deliver o...

The Horror Double: Invasion of the Body Snatchers  This week Ibrahim & I look at a classic (a standard) of the Horror Genre -  Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 & 1978) and Body Snatchers (1993). Based on the 1954 Jack Finney Sci-Fi Novel, directors Don Siegel, Philip Kaufman, and Abel Ferrara have taken drastically different approaches to this material. Each film is a classic in their own righ...

Bloody Giallo - Dario Argento's Suspiria This week Ibrahim & I dive into the world of Italian Giallo Cinema with a look at Dario Argento's 1977 "masterpiece"  Suspiria . Combining violence, sexploitation, the supernatural, and vibrant color, Argento's film is one that is considered one of the most influential films in the genre. For those familiar with the podcast it should come as no surprise tha...

Dark, Wild Woods: Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves This week Mr. Chavez & I sink into the world of Fairy Tales and Warped Childrens' Stories to examine Director Neil Jordan's 1984 Horror/Fairy Tale  The Company of Wolves . This is an intersting film with beautiful production design. One of us appreciates it more than the other and so the arguments begin. Take a listen as we discuss fairy tales...

Beyond Black Tropes:  Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (Part II) A second episode uploaded and ready for your enjoyment, as Mr. Chavez and Mr. Ramos continue our look at The History of Black Horror Cinema through the Shudder Network and Xavier Burgin's Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019). Take a listen as we move out of the "Blaxploitation" era and into the modern era of Black Ho...

First to Die: Black Noire: A History of Black Horror (Part I)  The first of a two-part looking at The History of Black Horror Cinema. On this episode we discuss the Shudder Network Documentary Black Noire: A History of Black Horror (2019), focusing on the history, films, tropes, and achievements of African-American Horror Cinema. Including interviews with scholars, writers, directors, and actors,...

Horror Well-Cut: Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now This week Ibrahim & I continue our descent into Horror Cinema with a look at a British Classic, Nicholas Roeg's  Don't Look Now (1973). Beautifully edited, masterfully directed, and sensitively acted (from stars Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland), Nicholas Roeg's film examines the struggle of a married couple as they attempt to continue living aft...

A Mary Shelley Dick Joke: Mel Brooks's   Young Frankenstein There's absolutely no caption, intro, blurb, or description that can capture the magic and brilliance of Mel Brooks's masterpiece (arguably one of three), Young Frankenstein (1974). From a script by Brooks and star, Gene Wilder, two comic geniuses salute, honor, and show great love for the Classic Universal Horror films of the 1930s, 40s,...

Family Plot: William Friedkin's Film of Tracy Letts's Killer Joe This week Ibrahim & I remember the iconic filmmaker, William Friedkin. Friedkin was director of numerous classic films including:  The French Connection (1971),  The Exorcist (1973),   Sorcerer (1977), and  To LIve and Die in L.A. (1985). His career would see numerous hits and misses, however many would agree that it ended with one o...

The Prometheus Warning: Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer   Take a listen as Mr. Chavez makes his triumphant return and we dive into Christopher Nolan's masterpiece bio-pic of J. Robert Oppenheimer - The Father of the Atomic Bomb. A fascinating film that the two of us are thrilled to have seen in 70MM IMAX and are even more thrilled to discuss. A great film and - hopefully - a great discussion. Take...

Based On a True Story: William Friedkin's The Brink's Job This past week we said farewell to one of the greats of 70s & 80s Cinema, William Friedkin. Known for  such classics as The French Connection ,  The Exorcist , and  To Live and Die in L.A , Friedkin was a difficult and polarizing figure in the world of cinema. What cannot be argued was his briliance. For this week's episode I remember Mr. F...

Murder Comes Home - Carl Franklin's One False Move  This week I take a look at Carl Franklin's 1992 directorial debut, the powerful and disturbing, One False Move . Featuring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thorton, Cynda Williams, Earl Billings, Jim Metzler, and Michael Beach,  in a film the great film critic Roger Ebert called, "a powerful directing job. He (Franklin) starts with an extraordinary screenp...

Taking Chances . . . Bitter Stories Neo-Noir - Walter Hill's  Johnny Handsome  A solo episode for your enjoyment. This week I recommend a classic Walter Hill film showcasing the violence, grittiness, and power of action and neo-noir cinema. Featuring an all-star cast including Forrest Whitaker, Ellen Barkin, Lance Henriksen, Elizabeth McGovern, Morgan Freeman (in a rare - questionably - villainous...

A Continuing Story to Tell - The American Western: Dead for a Dollar & Old Henry  Rick Ramos flies solo and talks Walter Hill's Dead for a Dollar (2022), featuring Christoph Waltz and Willem Defoe and Potsy Ponciroli's Old Henry (2021) starring Tim Blake Nelson, Steven Dorff, and Trace Adkins. One good film (if not somewhat disappointing) from one of our greatest action directors and one exception...