Film School

Don't let him kiss you Hawkeye! Robert Altman's episodic tour through the absurdity of war stars Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt, and Donald Sutherland as army surgeons who skip seamlessly from elbow-deep blood and guts to chasing tale, antagonizing Nurse Hoolihan, and putting together a football team. Yes. A literal football team. This movie is pretty bonkers…but it's also a pretty profound commentary...

How close is too close? How far is too far? Just how close / invested / inside our characters should we go when we're writing their story? As with most things, it's all about a balance? Josh and Ira share how they find that balance in their own writing, what has worked for them, and what hasn't.

Cary Grant stars in (one of) his iconic roles as Roger Thornhill, the very normal, very dapper bachelor thrown into a very abnormal, dangerous game of spies and assassins and femme fatales all because of mistaken identity. Hitch and 50s aesthetic were both at the height of their powers, and it was 3 years before Bond. One of the greatest spy films ever made, if not the best. This week on the 'cast...

Twizzlers or Red Vines? Reese's Pieces or Milk Duds? Coke or Slushie? Butter on that Popcorn? We all have our favorite movie theater snacks, so what are yours? Josh and Ira shared theirs, plus some of the wonderful memories that talking about all that junk food prompts, days gone by when there was more time to just pop into the movie theater and leave the real world for a while. We get nostalgic a...

You're gonna need a bigger boat. Jaws: the genesis of the summer blockbuster, and the film that launched Steven Spielberg into the stratosphere. Dude was 26 when he made this move. TWENTY. SIX. And it defined an entire genre of films. We still make Shark Movies to this day. So, let's go back to the original "don't go in the water" scary movie. This week on Film School!

You're sitting in front of yourself at 24 years of age. What would you say to them? What have you learned that they haven't? What would you want to tell them that you know they  wouldn't understand? Ya boys dive deep this week into life lessons, regrets, and triumphs.

Yo, Adrian! Stallone takes the turn that made him a star in one of the most successful examples of the "Performance" Genre in all of history. Rocky is a bum. He roughs people up for the mob. But he has a dream: to earn respect in the boxing ring. In  Rocky , he gets his chance, and finds love along the way. Does this movie earn its reputation as one of the best underdog stories ever? Listen and fi...

Every story that works has 5 fundamental building blocks: Inciting Incident, Progressive Complications, Crisis, Climax, and Resolution. This week, Josh and Ira dive into the definition of each of those terms, and how they apply to the stories we love and create. For more reading on this very topic, straight from the source, check out Shawn Coyne's brilliant work over at storygrid.com

Chaplin makes his second appearance on The List as the hapless Klondike Gold Rush prospector...and he does not disappoint. We weren't too hot on Chaplin's previous film Modern Times . This time around, the gags are fresher, the story is tighter, and the music is absolutely breathtaking. It's epic, funny, poignant, and romantic. Even to this day, some of the visuals Chaplin employs are confounding....

Happy New Year! So...are you a resolutions kind of person? If not, do you set any kind of intentions or goals around this time of year? And if you are, welcome to the club! Josh and Ira share what they're looking forward to and planning in 2020. We're living in the future!

Wait. Is that Bob Saget? Robert Altman does his thing in what's aimed as an epic, grand portrait/commentary on middle America. It has no less than  twenty-four main characters, a run-time of over two and a half hours, and a full HOUR of original country music. With all that's going on, does it all come together in the end. Listen and find out!

Yippie-ki-yay motherf—er! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! This holiday season, we're watching the film that's become the festive touchstone of this generation, and the one that defined Bruce Willis' career as an action star. Josh has never seen this one! Boy, is he in for a treat! It's a showdown at the Nakatomi Tower. And don't forget to bring your shoes!

We blinked and 2019 is coming to a close. Josh and Ira reflect on a year of movies. For all its flaws, the AFI's Top 100 list has DELIVERED, and ya boys discuss the highs, the lows, the takeaways, and the laughter. It's been a transformative experience already. If you haven't listened to the back-catalogue yet, this is your perfect guide! Also, check out our BONUS extended conversation on our  per...

This means WAR! The Marx brothers dominated the comedy space in the early 30s, and it's easy to see why in what's considered to be their best film. Groucho is a ridiculous dictator with a taste for war, and Chico and Harpo are spies working for the other side...or are they? It's hard to find a sillier comedy...which is all the more rare because it's a SCATHING commentary of a post-Great War world....

How do you handle your online platform? What social media do you use? And how do you use it? Social media and the internet in general have a massive impact on our daily lives, so these are important questions as a creative person, or just a person full-stop. How do we navigate the benefits of these powerful tools without letting them consume us? We try to answer that question this week. Enjoy!

There's a lot to be said for making people laugh! Joel McCrea takes a wacky turn as a famously successful comedy director who wants to suffer so he can make a serious movie. His solution: hit the road and pretend to be poor. Along the way, he falls in love with aspiring actress Veronica Lake. Sounds like a dynamite premise, yes? Let's find out if it delivers. This week on Film School!

One the most common questions storytellers get asked is 'where do your ideas come from?' And while that's a deeply personal and probably unanswerable question in any objective or concrete sense...Josh and Ira dive into how and where it happens for them. In the process, they discover it's a question worth asking and answering.

The Wolfman is EVERYWHERE. George Lucas makes his first appearance on the list with this 50s nostalgia cruising culture classic, starring Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, and a soundtrack that doesn't quit. It's a teenage "last night in town" story, but how does it hold up? We watch and debate it this week! Enjoy :)

We all have (at least) that one big dream, the one that is hard to even think of because we want it so much. It's scary to talk about something we're afraid we'll never get. But it's also important. SO important. So this week…ya boys talk about that big, scary stuff that they really, really want. More than anything. The BIG dreams.

Money money moneymoneymoneymoney! It makes the world go round! Liza Minelli and Bob Fosse dominate this late-period musical about love, nazi's, and a divey cabaret bar that echoes the ecstacies and miseries of growing up. It made Minelli a star, and it cemented Fosse as one of the greatest directors to ever work in musicals. This week on Film School!

We draw from Rachael Aaron's "2,000 to 10,000" this week, a book that's ostensibly on increasing productivity. For Ira, however, it cut much deeper recently, and it turns out that one of the central tenants in Aaron's book is kind of THE thing: Joy. Excitement. Inspiration. Whatever you want to call it; it's the key to everything. Buckle up: epiphanies are ahead!

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more! Paddy Chayefsky's script is the real star of this bonkers film. It starts out very conventionally: an aging, depressed news anchor and his equally aged and depressed producer are being pushed out from their network. But when the anchor announces he's going to kill himself on air, things get crazy...and then crazier and crazier. This film is...

You'll only fail if you quit. We've all heard that advice. And oftentimes, that's good advice. But...what if quitting was not only okay, but absolutely crucial to success. Knowing when and what to quit is one of the most important things to learn in life. This is a big topic, certainly not one that can be covered in a single episode, but Ira recently went through an experience that taught him a lo...

Bogart and Hepburn star in this epic John Huston flick that was filmed ON LOCATION in Africa, something that was quite incredible for the time. It's WWI, the Germans are invading, and our two plucky heroes decide they need to take down a warship with a 6lb gun all by themselves...and fall in love along the way. The titular "African Queen" steals the show as the run-down river steamer, a boat that...

You've probably heard of the storytelling advice 'show, don't tell.' It's one of the most important things to keep in mind when telling a story. But, what does that REALLY mean? And WHY do we need to do it? Josh and Ira dive into that this week, including a very unique perspective on this common axiom that comes from their background as actors. We got you covered. Enjoy!