Awesome Movie Year

The eighth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features Jason’s personal pick, romantic comedy classic When Harry Met Sally . Written by Nora Ephron, directed by Rob Reiner and starring Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby, When Harry Met Sally was a box-office hit and an Oscar nominee for Best Original Screenplay, and has become one of the most influential ro...

The seventh episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features one of the year’s most notable foreign films, Pedro Almodovar’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! . Directed and co-written by Almodovar and starring Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Loles Leon and Francisco Rabal, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! was the highest-grossing domestic film of the year in Spain and was nominated for 15 Goyas, S...

The sixth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features Josh’s personal pick, dark teen comedy Heathers . Written by Daniel Waters, directed by Michael Lehmann and starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Kim Walker and Lisanne Falk, Heathers was a box-office failure but has since gained a reputation as one of the best teen movies of the ’80s. The contemporary r...

The fifth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features our pick for the year’s most notable documentary, Michael Moore’s Roger & Me . Written and directed by Moore, who also narrates and appears onscreen, Roger & Me premiered at the 1989 Telluride Film Festival and went on to become one of the most influential documentaries ever made. The contemporary reviews quoted in...

The fourth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features the year’s biggest flop, Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen . Directed and co-written by Gilliam and starring John Neville, Sarah Polley and Eric Idle, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen had a troubled production and a truncated release, but went on to critical acclaim and cult success. The contemporary rev...

The third episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features the Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival, Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies and Videotape . Written and directed by Soderbergh and starring James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Laura San Giacomo and Peter Gallagher, Sex, Lies and Videotape debuted at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival and went on to be nominated for an Oscar fo...

The second episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features our pick for a notable filmmaking debut, Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything . Written and directed by Cameron Crowe and starring John Cusack, Ione Skye and John Mahoney, Say Anything was Crowe’s first feature film as a director, after having previously written the screenplays for Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Wild Life ....

The first episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features the top-grossing film in North America, Tim Burton’s Batman . Directed by Burton from a script by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren and starring Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Michael Gough, Batman was 1989’s number one movie at the North American box office and number two worldwide. The contemporar...

In the second of two special holiday episodes, we’re looking ahead to 1989, the year we’re covering in our next season, to talk about Christmas classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation . Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik from a screenplay by John Hughes and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was the third...

In the first of two special holiday episodes, we’re looking back to 1994, the year we covered in our debut season, to talk about Christmas cult classic The Ref . Directed by Ted Demme from a screenplay by Richard LaGravenese and Marie Weiss and starring Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey, Judy Davis and Robert J. Steinmiller Jr., The Ref was a box-office failure but has since become a holiday favorite. The...

In this epilogue to our season on the awesome movie year of 2007, we talk about alternate movies we considered including in all of our different categories this season, and read suggestions from some listeners about which movies they hoped we would cover. Visit https://www.awesomemovieyear.com for more info about the show. Make sure to like Awesome Movie Year on Facebook at  http://www.facebo...

In the finale of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007, we’re talking about this season’s audience choice pick, teen comedy Superbad . Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, directed by Greg Mottola and starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader, Emma Stone and Martha MacIsaac, Superbad beat out Knocked Up and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story in our...

The twelfth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features Edgar Wright’s future cult classic Hot Fuzz . Written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent and Timothy Dalton, Hot Fuzz was the second feature film from the cult-favorite team of Wright, Pegg and Frost, who previously made Shaun of the Dead . The conte...

The eleventh episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features a new category for this season with our producer David Rosen’s personal pick, David Wain’s The Ten . Written by David Wain and Ken Marino, directed by Wain and starring a large ensemble cast including Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen, Justin Theroux, Ken Marino, Liev Schreiber and many more, The Ten premiered at th...

The tenth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features the Best Picture Oscar winner, the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men . Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy) and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Kelly Macdonald and Woody Harrelson, No Country for Old Men premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and w...

The ninth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features the World Cinema Audience Award winner from the Sundance Film Festival, John Carney’s Once . Written and directed by John Carney and starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Once premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and won the Oscar for Best Original Song. Our guest for this episode is actor and singer Megan Rior...

The eighth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features Jason’s personal pick, indie comedy Juno . Written by Diablo Cody, directed by Jason Reitman and starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Olivia Thirlby, J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney, Juno premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for four Oscars. The contempor...

The seventh episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features one of the year’s most notable foreign films, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Persepolis . Written and directed by Satrapi and Paronnaud (based on Satrapi’s graphic novels) and starring the voices of Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian and Gabriele Lopes, Persepolis premiered a...

The sixth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features Josh’s personal pick, Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding . Written and directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black and Zane Pais, Margot at the Wedding premiered at the 2007 Telluride Film Festival and went into limited release later that year. The contemporary reviews quoted in...

The fifth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features our pick for one of the year’s most notable documentaries, Seth Gordon’s The King of Kong . Directed by Seth Gordon and featuring video game champions Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell, The King of Kong premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and went into limited release later that year. The contemporary reviews quoted...

The fourth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features the Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival, Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days . Written and directed by Mungiu and starring Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov and Alexandru Potocean, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was a key building block in the Romanian New Wave. The contemporary reviews quoted...

The third episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features the year’s biggest flop, the Lindsay Lohan thriller I Know Who Killed Me . Directed by Chris Sivertson and starring Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough, Brian Geraghty and Garcelle Beauvais, I Know Who Killed Me was a critical and commercial failure that basically ended Lohan’s career as a movie star. The contemporary revie...

The second episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features our pick for a notable filmmaking debut, Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone . Directed and co-written by Ben Affleck and starring Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Ed Harris, Amy Ryan and Morgan Freeman, Gone Baby Gone was Affleck’s first feature film as a writer and director, launching a whole new phase of his career. The conte...

The first episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features the top-grossing film in North America, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 . Directed and co-written by Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace and Bryce Dallas Howard, Spider-Man 3 was 2007’s number one movie at the North American box office and number three worldwide. The con...

In this epilogue to our season on the awesome movie year of 1994, we talk about alternate movies we considered including in all of our different categories this season, and read suggestions from some listeners about which movies they hoped we would cover. Visit https://www.awesomemovieyear.com for more info about the show. Make sure to like Awesome Movie Year on Facebook at  http://www.facebo...