Deep Cut: A Film Podcast

Armed with a press pass and the Japanese language level of a 3 year old, Ben took to the cinemas of Tokyo during the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival. Ben’s coverage spans a varied 17 films over 10 days of the festival: buzzy and fresh Japanese films ( Bring Him Down to a Portable Size ; The Last Blossom ; All Greens… ) international film festival darlings ( Lost Land ; Palestine 36… ), and...

While attending the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival, Ben was able to interview director Chihiro Amano for her film Sato and Sato . Sato and Sato covers the 15 year span of a relationship as it slowly unravels, covering marriage, parenting, and the ways relationships morph over time. In our short interview, we talk about changing gender dynamics as depicted in Amano’s film, how she worked wi...

We have a very special guest this week: Lee Isaac Chung ( Minari, Twisters) brings one of his favorite movies of all time, Steven Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence, to the podcast as his Deep Cut Pick! Isaac chats about his awe and love for the film, what he’s learnt as a filmmaker from working with Spielberg on Twisters , and his own transition into blockbuster filmmaking.  We also discuss Hayl...

“Kurosawa, you dog.” – Eli.’ “It’s like edging, in cinema.” – Wilson “What is this, looney tunes?” – Ben Kurosawa can only make the kind of movie that leaves us both perplexed, impressed and dropping memorable reactions. Listen on as we unpack the film’s critique of the next generation of hustlers and entrepreneurs, figure out what it’s trying to say through its allegory, and finally answer if any...

Eli joins the other boys hot off of his Lincoln Center press screenings to tell us the must-watches and the maybe-skip-overs of this year’s New York Film Festival. But before that, Wilson and Ben briefly get their words in for the latest Paul Thomas Anderson joint, One Battle After Another . Catch Eli talk about other NYFF titles like Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice , Olivier Laxe’s Sirāt, and po...

We are very excited to welcome Prof. Lisa Dombrowski to our podcast! She is a Professor of Film Studies and East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. She’s the author of the books: The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I’ll Kill You! (2008), the editor of Kazan Revisited (2011), and co-editor of ReFocus: The Later Works and Legacy of Robert Altman (2022). (Ben worked on that last one!)  We took...

We are joined by special guest Alex Heeney, the founder and editor in chief of Seventh Row, to dive into Luca Guadagnino's 2017 coming-of-age masterpiece, Call Me By Your Name . They talk about their deep personal connections to the film, with Alex recounting her experience at the world premiere at Sundance and Wilson sharing his obsessive journey preparing for the New York Film Festival premi...

We continue our series on Akerman with a double-bill of personal documentaries about her mother, and of home. News from Home immediately follows her seminal Jeanne Dielman, and No Home Movie is the final film of Akerman’s filmography. In this episode, we thread the throughline across Akerman’s career in comparing both films, see the influence of structural and slow cinema, and marvel at her capaci...

It’s about time. We tackle Chantal Akerman’s Sight and Sound topping Jeanne Dielman , and begin our series on her singular career. Ben introduces Akerman’s career, spotlighting her fierce conviction and crystalline vision, Eli loops in a melodramatic reading, and Wilson zeroes in on an ending that explosively caps off a 3.5h opus. And if you’re struggling with how to approach this film, as enterta...

After a rocky relationship between Deep Cut and Mr. Pablo Larrain, we come back to the final film in Larrain’s “important 20th century white women” trilogy (as Ben describes it). Will Larrain redeem himself with a portrait of the final days of Maria Callas’ life? Or will he and Stephen Knight sh*t the bed again? Wilson praises Angelina Jolie’s comeback performance, Ben praises how pretty the film...

We are joined by Asian Film Archive programmer Alexander Lee for our second installment in our Hong Sang-soo series! Alex talks to the guys about pairing Hong Sang-soo deep cuts with Eric Rohmer classics, and specifically the pairing of Night and Day with Love in the Afternoon. Eli chats about the narrative motifs that are on display in this film, Wilson tries to unlock the secret of Hong’s use of...

Deep Cut partners with Asian Film Archive which is presenting Twin Tales: Éric Rohmer and Hong Sang-soo, a special programme featuring six pairings of films by French New Wave director Éric Rohmer and prolific Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo. Buy tickets here! We’ve teased this for YEARS! And it’s finally here. The DC Trio break the ice by introducing notorious Korean director Hong Sang-soo to the...

I want to podcast with you. Without speaking. On this episode of Deep Cut Upkeep we step into 1950s Mexico City and dive into the lush world of Luca Guadagnino’s Queer . Wilson expands more on his love for the film and why it topped his 2024 film list. Eli talks about the narrative constraints of this (bio)pic about William S. Burroughs. Ben draws links between Queer and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A...

As voted for on our Patreon , we return to Kelly Reichardt with her 2010 Western, Meek’s Cutoff.  Ben argues that no discussion of the American Western is complete without Reichardt’s film, Wilson highlights the film’s fraught production that miraculously led to its poetic ending, and Eli frames the film within the larger context of America’s problematic Manifest Destiny.  We get serious, analytic...

Wilson comes on the podcast to talk about all the films he saw at the 49th edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Come listen to us talk about the newest films from around the world, including Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy, Lav Diaz’s Phantosmia , Andrea Arnold’s Bird , and many more.  Join our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro...

Released as an exclusive Patreon post at the end of 2024, we’re now releasing this video podcast to publicly to commemorate ONE HUNDRED EPISODES! What a milestone. See you at 1000!  The summer of 2024 saw Ben, Wilson, and Eli all together in the same place for the first time in six years! To mark the momentous reunion, we recorded a special video episode. It's time to go all the way back to th...

We’re back in West Wallaby Street to discuss the latest adventure in the Wallace and Gromit universe: Vengeance Most Fowl, directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham! This time around, Wilson finally feels seen as the film tackles the inequality in the Wallace and Gromit relationship head-on. Ben argues that the film functions as a surprisingly relevant anti-AI fable and Eli explains a joke that...

Director Andrew Ahn is back for a three-peat with his new film The Wedding Banquet, a re-imagining of Ang Lee’s 1993 classic.  We chat with Ahn about his updates to the original to capture the new nuances of queer lives today, get behind the scenes tidbits of his time working with his incredible AAvengers cast, and see how the original and his remake have shaped him on a personal level.  The Weddi...

We can’t believe it’s finally here! After much anticipation, we finally have creepers on screen, A Minecraft Movie, starring Jason Mamoa and Jack Black is easily the movie blockbuster release of the year— wait wait wait Sorry, this is actually about the Robert Pattinson starring movie in which he plays the dual roles of Bruce Wayne / The Batman— wait wait wait Sorry, this episode is about the othe...

Do you know how much of A Real Pain it is to keep the years straight with us straddling three different global release windows? We do!  We got Caught by the Tides and are a little late with this one but nevertheless, join our Conclave for the fifth (!) time as we huddle around the Ghostlight to talk about the films of the last year! We cover award-winning films ( Anora, The Brutalist, No Other Lan...

We’ve finally done it: all seven Edward Yang films discussed on Deep Cut. The only podcast to give Edward Yang the time and space he deserves as one of the all time greatest directors (and Wilson’s favorite director)! We end our coverage on Yang with what is considered to be his magnum opus, 1991’s A Brighter Summer Day, an intimate epic of teenage angst, romance, and rebellion that also captures...

We’re thrilled to be joined by Natalie Ng, a huge Edward Yang fan and friend of the podcast, to dive into Yang’s feature debut, That Day, On The Beach ! Natalie, who works at the Asian Film Archive, tells us about AFA’s recent Edward Yang retrospective (complete with a physical exhibition) and shares her deep love for Yang’s work. Together, we explore the film’s place in Yang’s filmography, its in...

We prepare for Edward Yang’s game of Mahjong and all we’re looking for is a fourth player (you!). The last of his works to get restored, and possibly his most cynical film, we find much to discuss with A Confucian Confusion’s evil twin in Yang’s filmography. Ben explores Yang’s depiction of sexual relationships, Eli expounds on Yang’s fascination with intergenerational misunderstandings, Wilson co...

Girl, so Confucian. We sit down to unpack Edward Yang’s dark horse masterpiece, 1994’s A Confucian Confusion . Eli talks about his first time watching this zany comedy and how it reminded him of a lot of college friend groups. Wilson explains why he thinks this is Yang’s true deep cut film, and doubles down on the film’s belief on ‘emotional work’. Ben discusses how Yang injects A Confucian Confus...

The classic genres… horror, rom-com, monster film, bunny-comedy? In our preparation for the recently released Vengeance Most Fowl, join us as we cover Nick Park’s 2005 Wallace & Gromit feature, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, co-directed with Steve Box. Eli recounts the experience he had watching this in theaters as a kid. Wilson talks about why stop motion animation scares him. And Ben leads us...