It's On The List

The boys get bougie with a double feature of growing class tensions, frivolous rich folks, faux-transgression, and tall aspect ratios. That's right, Gerry and Sammy are talking about Emerald Fennell's latest, Saltburn (2023), paired with Jean Renoir's classic The Rules of the Game (1939). They dive into the films' various stylistic approaches to their stories of class violence,...

It's that time of the month - the boys are back with a double feature of searing Japanese melodramas, talking about Mikio Naruse's Two in the Shadow (1967) and Kenji Mizoguchi's Princess Yang Kwei Fei (1955). Topics discussed include trends of classic Japanese cinema, aspect ratios, and transcending our corporeal trappings. Contains spoilers for both films.

Listen up you crumbs and broads and don't get sore - the fellas are back with a hardboiled, shadow-filled, paranoid noir double feature to celebrate Noirvember 2023. The two films are Robert Aldrich's classic Kiss Me Deadly  (1955) and Jacques Tourneur's lesser known, terrifyingly prescient  The Fearmakers  (1958). Gerry and Sammy discuss the ways in which noirs act as time capsules...

Authorship, business, politics, tragedy: all these forces and more collide in this episode's double feature of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) and David Fincher's Mank (2020). The boys nearly came to blows discussing one of these films, on which they vehemently disagree (guess which one). Will their friendship persevere past this vitriolic opposition? Is the podcast over? Find out...

It's Marty season. The great American auteur returns to cinemas this week with his latest epic,  Killers of the Flower Moon  (2023). In preparation for this new release, Sammy and Gerry are talking about each of their top 5 favorite Scorsese films - they touch on his trademark stylistic and thematic preoccupations, the wide variety within his filmography, his place in the contemporary cinemat...

The boys are getting a little CRAZY this episode, discussing two Asian horror films revolving around insanity and madness: Soi Cheang's New Blood (2002) and Teinosuke Kinugasa's A Page of Madness (1926). Sammy and Gerry discuss the films' formal approaches to depicting mental instability, their thematic similarities, and the radical nature of Kinugasa's visual storytelling. Con...

The boys are going full film-school mode today and talking about some experimental short films - 5 from the queen of surrealist short cinema, Maya Deren, and 5 from the depressing-sensory-overload king, Takashi Ito. Tune for some micro reviews of these beguiling works.

Gerry and Sammy venture into the world of top tier animated kid's movies, talking about the Disney animated classic  Bambi  (1942) and the Hayao Miyazaki sci-fi fantasy Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984). Put in your pacifiers and join us on a trip through highbrow baby cinema. 

Yeehaw cow-people, Sammy and Gerry are traveling back in time to the Wild West on today's episode, discussing the John Ford classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Gore Verbinski's notorious box office bomb The Lone Ranger  (2013). The boys discuss the surprising amount of thematic parallels between the two films, what the films say about politics and America through vastly d...

Sammy and Gerry discuss their top 5 favorite Nolan films

The boys are talking Edward Norton auteurism today - the famed actor and occasional screenwriter/director appears in Wes Anderson's latest, Asteroid City (2023), as well as his passion project which he starred in, directed, produced, and wrote, Motherless Brooklyn (2019). Sammy and Gerry get into the noir-silliness of Norton's gumshoe crime saga, as well as the ever-present artifice of t...

Self-cannibalism, lobotomized sex slaves, and VR psychic cactus sex are merely a few of the depraved topics discussed in this decidedly NSFW episode. The films featured are: Hisayasu Satō's Splatter: Naked Blood , and Shozin Fukui's  964 Pinocchio . Two gnarly examples of low-budget Japanese horror, with particularly gruesome content and aesthetics. Listeners, proceed with caution!

"So bad it's good?" Or "a richly sardonic and brutal takedown of the entertainment industry with a singular tongue-in-cheek tonality?" That's right, the boys are talking Paul Verhoeven's  Showgirls  (1995), paired with David Cronenberg's descent into the evil of the Hollywood Hills,  Maps to the Stars  (2014). Contains spoilers for both films.

"So this is how democracy dies... with thunderous applause." Today, the boys are talking about two films that are far more similar than they may initially appear to be: Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible Parts 1 and 2, and George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Political maneuvering, betrayal, and cross cutting abound. Contains spoilers for both films

Sammy's busy with finals, so Gerry steps up for another rambling, incoherent solo episode where he discusses the films of Ari Aster, as well as the reaction to those films and the culture around Aster. Discussed are A24 groupies, Letterboxd posers, misanthropy, YouTube critics, and more. Contains spoilers for Hereditary and Midsommar.

On today’s episode, the boys are joined by the Midwest’s resident expert on late style, Collin Brinkmann, to discuss later works from master filmmakers Michelangelo Antonioni and Manoel de Oliveira: Identification of a Woman (1982) and Gebo and the Shadow (2012). Topics covered include the evolution of these two filmmakers across their accomplished and prolific careers, generalizations around late...

It's almost Halloween (it's April) so Sammy and Gerry decided to get spooky with it, talking about John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (1987) and Gore Verbinski's The Ring (2002). The two films tackle the transmission of evil in different ways, and both serve as time capsules of the fears of their respective eras. Also discussed are 9/11, Gerry's early internet memories, t...

With the recent release of John Wick 4 (2023), the boys decided to talk Wick's latest adventure alongside one of the many influences on the franchise: Jackie Chan in The Legend of Drunken Master (1994). Discussed are: gun fu, kung fu, drunken boxing, kicks, falls, stairs, headshots, nunchucks, knives, stoicism, honor, and the many other elements that put John Wick and Jackie Chan at the top o...

The boys tackle two warped relationship dramas that follow lead characters with phallic names - Reynolds Woodcock, played by Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread , and Dixon Steele, played by Humphrey Bogart in Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place . They're two of cinema's greatest faux-masculine bad boys, filled with mommy issues and violent dispositions - but...

Well folks, awards season is in full swing, and per usual, some lame ass movies are up for the most prestigious awards. Join Sammy and Gerry as they posit a brighter alternative reality, one where the movies that they liked are the ones that get nominated, going through their own picks for nominees and winners in the first official "It's On The List Oscars!"

Whaddup you PERVERTS! The boys have a leering and voyeuristic double feature in store for you from two of Hollywood's most accomplished deviants. Discussed in this episode are: Brian DePalma's Obsession  (1976) and Alfred Hitchcock's  Torn Curtain  (1966). Gerry and Sammy dive into the suspense, the thrills, the kills, the chills, and everything in between from these masters of the...

Happy M Night opening weekend! The boys tackle a home invasion double feature, talking about Shyamalan's latest, Knock at the Cabin (2023), and Michael Haneke's provocative meta classic, Funny Games (1997). Is Shyamalan at the peak of his cinematic abilities, or will his haters be vindicated? Are we going to Hell for enjoying violent movies? Listen and find out. Contains spoilers for bot...

While Sammy is off in Japan enjoying his winter with his girlfriend, Gerry stepped up to the plate to deliver you a solo episode about an undisputed 2010s classic of male grindset, Limitless, as well as a summary of the filmography of its director, Neil Burger. Is he a hack, or a competent journeyman director? Listen and find out. Spoilers for Limitless

Today's episode is a comprehensive behemoth of all things film from the year of our Lord 2022. Sammy is sick in Japan and Gerry is tired in Wisconsin, so this remotely recorded episode is a bit scrappy: bear with Sammy's coughing and sneezing and the street sounds from Gerry's studio apartment as the boys talk their top 5 best and top 5 worst of 2022, as well as their top 5 first-ti...

The boys are talking about the two autobiographical works from Jewish American filmmakers that were released in 2022: that's right, you guessed it, Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans and James Gray's Armageddon Time. Sammy and Gerry discuss the relation of memory to film, how these films navigate their personal and universal elements, and why it's okay to be self-aggrandizing if...