Cows in the field

The cows journey to Hamunaptra to find some ancient artifacts, and along the way revisit perhaps Brendan Fraser's most famous works. Laura confesses her love for Brendan Fraser and Justin confesses his love for Arnold Vosloo, and attempts to make the case that the Mummy is a misunderstood villain. The cows enjoy the dual parallel love stories and show appreciation for the depiction of a health...

Have you ever seen two cows swing through the trees? We talk about Brendan Fraser's ultimate committed performance as George of the Jungle in this most silly and juvenile and heartfelt movie. We wonder about heroic fools, praise the film's strategy of giving the central arc to Ursula, and comment on the film's questionable presupposition of human language learning. Along the way, Justi...

The cows begin their Frassersance mini-series with this wonderful curio of the 90s, about a pair of high school dorks (Sean Astin and Pauly Shore) who find a frozen caveman (Brendan Fraser) in their backyard. We discuss the film as an adoption story, and explore what parents can learn from the innocence of their children. We also dig into Pauly Shore's character Stoney Brown, who embodies the...

We are joined this week by special guests Robert and Sheryl Khoo (parents of a co-host of this very podcast) to talk about Mike Judge's TPS-ridden middle-class satire, Office Space! We talk about our experiences working within soul-crushing bureaucracies, and also the surprising upsides of meetings. We consider the case for Lumbergh and the plight of the middle manager, and wonder whether it i...

We sit down at the poker table with Anders Schoubye to discuss perhaps the greatest poker movie ever, confronting our true calling, and what the movie gets right, and wrong, about poker and gambling. Who is team Damon and who is team Teddy KGB? Tune in to find out! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We are joined by the writer, director, and producer of The Last Days of Disco, Whit Stillman , to talk about his film, his fascination with complex female friendships and group social life generally, as well as the appeal of shaggy narratives. Whit regales us with stories that inspired the film, his experience with disco, his days in publishing, and getting to know George Plimpton. If you haven’t...

We get into the ring with Blake Howard ( One Heat Minute Productions ) to discuss Michael Mann's incredible biopic of Muhammad Ali. Despite being a major box office failure, we make the case for revisiting this stunning and complex portrayal of the greatest boxer as he transitions from brash fighter to heroic inspiration for a social movement. We explore how Michael Mann and his astounding cas...

Join us for a noodle-filled extravaganza as we dig into Tampopo with Nick Riggle (Philosophy, University of San Diego). We explore the interrelations between film and cuisine, and why ramen makes an ideal subject for a food film combining elements of both high art and (so-called) low art. Our love of Guy Fieri comes up more than once as we wonder about the role of the film's many zany side vig...

The cows are joined by author and film critic Tom Shone (The Nolan Variations) to discuss Christopher Nolan's epic dream-heist blockbuster, Inception. We discuss Nolan's obsessions with knowledge and self-deception and his ambivalent obsession with fantasy and escapism. We explore the film's central premise -- that the cinematic experience is akin to a shared dream -- and how Nolan wea...

The cows are joined by friend Edward Lewis to revisit one of the greatest films of all time, the shortest three hour movie, Milos Foreman's Amadeus. We witness genius through Salieri's eyes, marvel at his ability to appreciate and translate the beauty of Mozart's music to the uninitiated, and resign ourselves to our own mediocrities. We also discuss the relationship between historical...

The cows are joined by friend Adam Kane to talk about Tom Cruise's first outing as Ethan Hunt. We discuss what makes spy movies so appealing and fun, and situate the movie in the broader cultural context of the post-Cold War nineties. We explore the weird and wonderful career of Tom Cruise and how he managed to harness Brian DePalma's stylistic flourishes to create one of the tightest, mos...

Emily VanDerWerff (Vox) joins us to discuss Ari Aster's folk horror masterpiece, Midsommar. We discuss how the film subverts folk horror genre tropes to craft a compelling story about the loss of a relationship, self-discovery, and adoption into a new family. Emily articulates a trans reading of the film, and we discuss how it grapples with the challenge of accommodating our desires for indivi...

The cows revisit True Lies with Van Lathan (The Ringer), discussing how James Cameron inverts the hero’s journey to tell a story about a spy struggling to connect emotionally with his wife and kids while saving the day and causing a lot of mayhem and destruction in the process. Is it the best action comedy of all time? Is it Arnold’s best performance? How does its portrayal of terrorism and Americ...

We crack open a few cold ones (figuratively) with Paul Keelan (Cinematic Underdogs) to unpack and disagree about the Oscar-nominated Another Round. How does the film experiment with existentialism, and how does it explore our complicated relationship with alcohol? Is it worthy of being recognized as among the best films of the year, or is it just Old School dressed up with Kierkegaard quotes? We a...

We head down to the Big Easy with Nicolas Cage scholar Keith Phipps (author of The Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career) to discuss Werner Herzog's hallucinatory tale of a bad cop trying to do the right thing, of addiction in the swamp, of nature's ever-encroaching wildness into our staid lives. We dive deep into Cage and Herzog both, exploring why they make a...

Do you suffer from intergenerational trauma that is manifesting itself in physical malformations on your body and raising red flags for your significant others? Then join us and Jed Shepherd (writer/executive producer of Host) to discuss David Cronenberg's self-described "more realistic Kramer vs. Kramer," a film about a couple working through some issues while plagued by demonic child...

The cows take the 405 to Sherman Oaks with friend Andrea Rosen (Fleming Museum of Art) in this revisit of Amy Heckerling's totally wicked rom-com about modern girl friendships. We discuss the nature of Chers and Karens, how power relations structure what counts as knowledge, and who does and does not count as "clueless." We revisit our past selves in high school, reflect on the linguis...

The cows are joined this week by Dan Harris (Philosophy, Hunter College) on their journey through past lives to uncover and exorcise a few trillion-year-old traumas. We consider how Paul Thomas Anderson depicts a divided soul across three individuals struggling to find order and humanity in a chaotic, animalistic, world, and explore how trauma and masculinity intertwine to forge vulnerabilities, a...

We are joined by Kieran Setiya (Philosophy, MIT) to discuss what makes life worth living, what's lost in an infinite time loop, and to what extent flourishing within such a loop is possible. Along the way, we explore grief, the midlife crisis, atelic actions, the Buddhist concept of Saṃsāra, Kierkegaard, female agency in a world dominated by the male perspective, and the metaphysics of time lo...

The cows reverse entropy to discuss Christopher Nolan's bewilderingly dense sci-fi masterpiece in this surprise bonus episode. Part one is a spoiler-free pitch for the movie, while part two explores themes and philosophical issues. Justin argues that the movie is a thematic trilogy with Inception and Interstellar about the evolving nature of parenthood, while Laura makes the case that Kat (Eli...

The cows are visited by longtime San Francisco resident and old friend Robert Pierce to discuss Francis Ford Coppola's 70s paranoia thriller. Situated in the tumultuous transition period of the mid-1970s, the movie captures the cynicism of a generation slowly being engulfed by the temptations of urban renewal and fears of privacy violations. We consider how Coppola and Hackman craft a compelli...

The cows revisit the Arthurian legend with Bilge Ebiri (New York Magazine and Vulture). We discuss how the film weaves together opera and Jungian  archetypes while exploring humanity's complex and often violent relationship with nature, the challenges of self-governance, the allure of a benevolent dictator, and the tragedy befalling the virtuous leader who desires not to lead. Thematic links t...

The cows hit the links with Tim Gilman (WMBR 88.1 FM Boston) to finish off 1996 with a comedy that just might be a bit deeper than it lets on. Why is Happy so angry? Could it be in reaction to the contempt shown by the moneyed elite to the working class, a response that reflects the current rise in popularity of populist demagogues across the world? Or might it be a reflection of his inner turmoil...

The cows watched Sofia Coppola's latest and came to very different conclusions, which necessitated an emergency episode to sort it all out. Join us for a maybe autobiographical discussion of the complexities of modern parenting, gendered divisions of cognitive labor, and not losing yourself when asked to shoulder the emotional labor of your friends and family.  Advertising Inquiries: https://r...

The cows freeze in Minnesota with friend Molly Perkins in this revisit to the Coen Brothers' 1996 folktale noir. Themes of faith, deception, encountering the inexplicable, Scandinavian roots, and ecstatic truth are all discussed, along with highlights of favorite supporting cast members and a head-to-head comparison of psycho killers Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) and Anton Chigurh (Javier Ba...