CineJourneys (master feed)

Description: The second chapter of our Classic Suspense Journey is called “Buckle Up.” We watched Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (1953), which is widely considered to be among the best suspense films of all time. We followed it with William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (1977), which had some distribution challenges (mostly due to being released close to the time frame of...

Description: Jill and Aaron welcome Keith Enright, The Completionist. Keith is a longtime friend of both Criterion Now and CineJourneys, and he was primarily the motivator for us to schedule a Coen Brothers Screwball Comedy Journey. This episode is a brief conversation after the conclusion of the journey, and we talk some about the Coen Brothers being part of the Minneapolis community, but more ab...

Description: This is the first episode of Read Her to Heaven, which is our new Journey where we look at film related books. We were delighted to have Erica Shultz as our inaugural guest. She is the author of The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film. which is as crazy and also hilarious as it sounds. We released our YouTube Channel. Future podcast episodes will appear on the...

Description: This is the third chapter of our Coming of Age Journey, and we really dived deep into Dazed and Confused. We also discussed Rohmer’s The Green Ray, and the pairing worked well because there’s a clear connection between the work of Rohmer and Linklater. The Green Ray is cited as a direct influence. As for Dazed and Confused, we shared a couple stories from Melissa Maerz&#82...

Description: Ryan Verrill joins the podcast to announce that we are joining Someone’s Favorite Productions network. We also get into the November 2024 announcements on the heels of having already reacted (somewhat critically) to the CC40 boxset. We are pleased with this month, and we show a different side of Mifune to show our gratitude. Links: Criterion Now – Episode 152 – Video...

Description: Jill and Aaron take a look at the recently announced Criterion Collection 40 box set, which was based on the selections of guests who have visited their closet and recorded a video. We think this was a bad idea and strays from their vision, and we are not exactly sure who this is for. Links: Criterion Now – Episode 151 – Video Criterion Collection – CC40 Details Foll...

Description: Imogen Sara Smith joins for our special episode 150, which we recorded without interruptions. We talk about a number of subjects including the thrill and rarity of seeing a repertory nitrate screening. She talks about her craft process, and how she approaches writing about film. We talk about modern French film and specifically how Celine Sciamma has pushed the boundaries of telling a...

Description: Jill and Aaron return the Criterion Now podcast with a long overdue episode. We get into the ownership situation with Criterion Collection and Indian Paintbrush, and what we expect from it. We also look at the recent and upcoming releases, and what we are looking forward to seeing as new or for the first time. Links: Criterion September 2024 Reaction with Josh Hornbeck CineJourneys &#...

Description: Jill and Aaron welcome Joe Petrucelli. Joe is a founding member and listener of the Criterion Now podcast, but we didn’t get to meet him until he joined CineJourneys. He has been here since the beginning and watched this begin with no website, then barely a website, and now a full website, so we reflect on that experience with him. We also talk about the Japanese Films Journey,...

Description: Jill and Aaron welcome Caitlin Kuhwald. We had the great pleasure of working with Caitlin on the art for CineJourneys, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. Usually when people see the website, the art is what they compliment. We also talk about Screwball Comedies and her Criterion covers. Links: Caitlin Kuhwald Illustration   Follow Us: Cinejourneys – Substack...

Description: Jill and Aaron welcome Andrew Pierce from The Curb. He is also co-chair of the Australian Film Critics Association, and has written books on Australian Cinema. This past year he started voting for the Golden Globe Awards, which was really intriguing to hear about. Andrew takes his credibility serious and the Globes have a checkered past, and this year was surprising in that the Awards...

Description: Jill and Aaron are ready and excited for the imminent launch of the CineJourneys website. In this call we give a preview of what’s to come, and we share a call where the remainder of the 2024 Journeys are unveiled. Current subscribers are excited and we think you will be too. Once the site launches, we will have registration open for all remaining 2024 Journeys, plus we’ll...

Description: Jill and Aaron catch up a bit on exciting topics such as David Zaslav, Dune 2, Naked Attraction, and we give a tribute to David Bordwell who is responsible for a lot of people’s journeys into cinephilia. We also wrap up Modern Classics by discussing two of the films that resonated the most, Marie Antoinette and There Will be Blood. We also get a surprise guest for a Paddington 2...

Description: Michael Schulman, New Yorker staff writer and author, joined us to discuss the Oscar experience. Michael recently wrote the wonderful book, Oscar Wars. We talk about this year’s Oscars and a couple of the controversies, and then we dive into one of his book chapters. This was when Gregory Peck was President of the Oscars and with his all Candice Bergen, he made sweeping reforms...

Description: Derek Smith from Slant Magazine joins Aaron and Mark Hurne to dig into Awards Season. He has seen pretty much everything and then some, and he just recently participated in Virtual Sundance and shares some highlights. We also talk about Modern Classics and how he inadvertently suggested a 14-hour film, and also whether any films from 2023 have potential to become classics. For the Osc...

Description: We had a great time hosting Rodney Wade, who was one of the more active participants in our first ever Journey, Noirvember. We talk about the films, the overall experience, and what we learned from it going forward. Follow Us: Cinejourneys – Substack , Facebook Group Jill Blake – BlueSky Aaron West – Letterboxd Rodney Wade – Letterboxd

Description: Welcome back! We have another episode. This time it’s a deep dive into true crime documentaries, and how they’ve changed throughout the years from informational to entertainment (or info-tainment) and how the seeds were there within classic documentaries. Since we’ve been watching Noir films in November, true crime files like a worthwhile supplemental topic. Follow Us: Cinejourneys &#...

Description: We are joined by Marya E. Gates, the “professional cinephile” who has worked with TCM, FilmStruck, Netflix, Criterion, and many others. She famously coined Noirvember 14 years ago. It was a way to further her cinephile journey, and has grown to become a phenomenon in the years that followed. She talks about that in detail during our discussion, and we unpack many other topics such as...

Description: Noirvember is our first Journey. As of today, we’ll be spending the month soft-launching our platform and enjoying noir films with friends. In this episode we discuss what Noirvember is going to look like for us, including the film list and how we’ll unpack these films. In response to some questions, we discuss how the CineJourneys platform integrates with Substack. Since...

Description: Drew Morton is our first guest to CineJourneys, but he’s someone we’ve talked to plenty in the past. We get into 31 Days of Horror, and the near impossibility of completing it every day, and how we are watching horror films in October. Drew talks about his visit to the Stanley Hotel from The Shining (1980). We also talk about Jill’s aversion to slasher films, and how...

Description: Jill and Aaron return to podcasting with a brand new show and brand new project called CineJourneys. We give an intro to this new project and where we expect it to go. For the inaugural episode, we talk about Hayao Miyazaki. We have some fun with an Onion article about him having to resign his HVAC job. We then dive in deeper into Miyazaki’s aesthetic and widespread appeal, and...

We are pleased to have Dave Eves back on the show. We talk best of 2022, February and March announcements, and the Sight & Sound list.

Now that we’re back, we had some catching up to do. This week Drew Morton joined to go back through all of the months that we missed during hiatus — August 2022 through January 2023.

Filmmaker Sean Baker and his co-director for Take Out and frequent collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou join to discuss Take Out, Criterion, and other topics.

Jill and Aaron are now officially back from hiatus and ready to resume the show. This is us getting warmed up.