Director's Club

This episode is about the same running time as The Conjuring 2! Why does a horror movie need to be well over two hours? One might inquire to breakthrough horror filmmaker James Wan and that's exactly what I set out to do for this Halloween spooktacular! This is my favorite month of the year for a reason! Well, actually we have another delightful episode due in large part to a very special guest ma...

The new episode arrives a few days later than planned (since it was scheduled to be our September episode) but nevertheless, we have a delightfully animated episode on tap here featuring another two of my favorite podcasters. The talented, prolific Billy Ray Brewton (of The Incinerator Podcast & Movie Mixtapes) joins me alongside his good friend and co-host Ryan Verrill, who also has own podca...

Wendell B. Harris Jr. is an American independent filmmaker trained in drama at Interlochen and Juilliard. His family founded Prismatic Images, a multi-award-winning film/video/audio production facility in Flint, Michigan, in 1979 and he broke onto the scene by making the breakthrough Sundance smash, Chameleon Street just one year after Steven Soderbergh broke with his debut film. One of my favorit...

Delightful guests Jack Draper and Clay Williams of a new favorite show of mine, Exiting Through The 2010s , make their debut to talk about a mutual favorite directors of theirs: Mr. Carl Franklin (ONE FALSE MOVE, DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS). We focus on the five films he made all in a row, most of which are highly acclaimed and one of them should be far more acclaimed than it seems to be. Wondering whi...

Soon enough Bill Ackerman will be bringing us an official director-centric episode soon and I will be discussing another in early July. For this excursion into something besides movies, in case you didn't know, I once hosted called Voices & Visions and I would recruit friend and Austin-based journalist Dan Solomon to go back 20 years to talk about a year in music - an art form that I love ever...

Two years ago Bill Ackerman and Patrick Ripoll joined forces to do a deep dive into the filmography of Wong Kar-wai, an Asian filmmaker who found great acclaim with his quirky tales of loneliness and longing set among a world of urban alienation in contemporary Hong Kong. Now they return to do a deep dive into the filmography of Tsai Ming-Liang, an Asian filmmaker who found great acclaim with his...

Every year I ask my friend Patrick to provide me with something special in the form of a podcast gift. His friendship of course is the real gift but his presence for this episode is also a present. Not only does it celebrate my 45th birthday (May the 4th be with me) but we also decided to celebrate this here podcast! I asked Patrick this time to revisit the first two films we actively disagreed on...

For this episode I recruited two terrific and talented film writers and commentators especially since two of the movies we talk about happen to be all-time favorites for the both of them. Guest co-host and Supporting Characters host Bill Ackerman returns as well as Chicago film critic Marya Gates for a delightful discussion on the work of Joan Micklin Silver . She's responsible for a number of exc...

Yep, more bonus content to close out the month before Bill comes aboard in April with an epic series on Jean-Luc Godard. For this delicious treat of an episode, up front you get a delightful conversation featuring Matt Strauss from Tao Group Hospitality who oversees a number of New York restaurants and food + beverage venues in and around NYC. He has a lot to say about his exciting feast planned f...

As if 2 hours plus for PTA Part II wasn't enough, you are about to get even more content all about my favorite filmmaker. This time I interview author/writer extraordinaire Ethan Warren about his recently released book, The Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson: American Apocrypha that I highly recommend. We talked for 40 mins about what inspired him to write it, along with thoughts on PTA in general. So...

Way back in 2012 before THE MASTER had come out, for Episode 35, my former co-host Patrick and I enlisted Steve Prokopy to talk about my favorite director of all time. There were some disagreements here and there but it was a memorable discussion back then. Now that PTA has released four fascinating movies since the last time we recorded, it’s about time I recruit one of the people responsible for...

One of my favorite films of the year so far is Alex Heller's THE YEAR BETWEEN , now available on VOD. The reason for that is detailed further in my review during the first ten minutes but after that, stay tuned for guest correspondent (and Mental Filmness film festival founder) Sharon Gissy as she speaks with the writer/director and star of this excellent, insightful look at Bipolar disorder and s...

We found… a way. You may be wondering why there hasn’t been an official new episode for a while? Well, I’ve been spending the past six weeks binging on movies from 1993 for an annual tradition that has taken place for the past 8 years! Yes it’s that time folks. The yearly retrospectives continue as we travel back 30 years to rewatch, reconsider and share favorites along with many memories too! Joi...

Hosts Bill Ackerman and Jim Laczkowski were asked to talk with two filmmakers about their latest work - both of which has received awards consideration and acclaim. First up, Jim speaks with Lukas Dhont about his coming-of-age tale CLOSE which is opening on February 3rd here in Chicago. Then, Bill had the opportunity to interview Mia Hansen-Løve about her latest drama ONE FINE MORNING . Incredibly...

It's the most wonderful time of the beginning of the year! The title of this episode says it all and I'm so grateful to my two guests for joining me for this epic reflection on the film year that was 2022! Now I'll be going back to 1993 for February's retrospective episode so until then enjoy 6 hours of nerding out. Also please be sure to check out the two new podcasts soon to be added to the Now...

Guest host Bill Ackerman invites author, film historian and Twitch Of The Death Nerve co-host Samm Deighan to discuss the work of Ken Russell, the visionary talent who directed groundbreaking profiles of artists for the BBC before attaining international acclaim and notoriety through bold, often controversial films like WOMEN IN LOVE, THE MUSIC LOVERS, THE DEVILS, THE BOY FRIEND, MAHLER, TOMMY and...

Mindframes hosts Michael Cockerill and Dave Canfield join me for this special tribute to honor our dear friend Sergio Mims. Several years ago, I did an episode on one of his favorite directors, Michael Curtiz . Of course you are encouraged to listen to that. But I asked Mike & Dave to join me to revisit two titles in particular from Curtiz as well as recommend several others as a way of honori...

Normally something like this would be a bonus episode, but this is a special exception. As Erik wrote: Sergio Mims, our noted film scholar and friend, was well on his way to becoming “King Commentary” with all his official contributions to Blu-rays for Kino, Vinegar Syndrome and others. During the pandemic at the peak of lockdown, Collin Souter of Christmas Movies Actually, suggested that our good...

There's something strange... in your podcast feed... but don't call me. I have no idea how it got there. Perhaps the devil? Maybe an alternate version of me came here from a different universe and placed it here? Regardless, I think a few years back I strung together some scary songs and weird sounds but I added a little bit extra to accompany it. Better live up to the title of being "craaaazy!" C...

A special bonus episode is here to highlight one of the many excellent offerings from the Mental Filmness Film Festival . Hopefully the title alone is enough to get you intrigued to check out the title I’m focusing on for this conversation. Philip Józef Brubaker is my guest today and a multi-talented one at that. He has created and edited comedic shorts, experimental films, video essays, documenta...

What an episode in so many ways that it’s hard to know where to begin in even writing an introduction. The first ten minutes are mostly about me remembering a friend and film critic near and dear to many of us along with promoting and supporting an upcoming film festival as well. I hope you won’t skip over the beginning since it would mean a lot if you listened to the tribute about someone very im...

Guest host Bill Ackerman invites writer Gianna D’Emilio to discuss the work of Mia Hansen-Løve, the acclaimed writer/director of films like THINGS TO COME, BERGMAN ISLAND, EDEN and GOODBYE, FIRST LOVE. In anticipation of her latest effort, ONE FINE MORNING, they take a close look at her first seven features. Read “Girlhood, Postfeminism and Contemporary Female Art-House Authorship: The “Nameless T...

Oh hello there! This is my way of reviewing new releases once in a while and provide them here for you - monologue-style. This time I'm providing some reviews for early September including something very special: a bonus interview with the writer/director of one of the new films I’m reviewing. Neil LaBute has been making interesting features for well over 20 years and his latest is a creepy little...

Guest host Bill Ackerman invites film/culture writer Heather Drain and writer/programmer Justine Smith to discuss the films of Stephen Sayadian (aka Rinse Dream), the singular talent behind films like NIGHTDREAMS, CAFÉ FLESH and DR. CALIGARI. As an added bonus, Bill also includes a new interview with writer/historian/film preservationist Daniel Bird, who produced the 2021 4K restoration of DR. CAL...

As you'll hear during the introduction, David Lynch is an important filmmaker to me for a variety of reasons. Mary Sweeney collaborated with him for about 15 years as an editor, producer and writer. Talking with her was an absolute joy. Mary is truly an accomplished, multi-talented human being in so many ways. I was honored to spend 30 minutes with her over the phone to talk about her experiences...