Have You Ever Seen

To close out this epic year of #BlackLivesMatter protests, we're tackling a heartbreaking movie about the real-life murder of a young black man by a white cop. Fruitvale Station was made independently and most the cast & crew were not well known back then, although we all know how big a star Michael B. Jordan has become since. He 's been terrific in all 3 of director Ryan Coogler's films, although...

We'll give you 8 reasons to listen to the 373rd Ellises' Analysis. 1) We talked about whether or not this film needed to be shot in 70mm. 2) We got into how auteurs like the one who made this movie are using their clout to push back against a changing industry. 3) We spent a bunch of time discussing Quentin Tarantino's filmmaking tactics and how he makes you enjoy savage violence. 4) We also talke...

A Christmas movie with a bloodthirsty spirit (that definitely should have been rated R) is probably the ideal choice for the end of this awful year. Violent pranksters that easily multiply, then infest small towns and cause havoc? Yup, seems appropriate for 2020. Joe Dante's mega-hit features some remarkable puppetry & effects by Chris Walas and his team, but the performances by the human actors d...

Tom Hanks the movie star and Robert Zemeckis the master storyteller authored an unusual megahit 20 years ago because it's about loneliness, sadness and the slow march of time. Wait, hold on. Cast Away just might be the signature movie for THIS depressing year…if a feature of 2020 was to have volleyballs becoming the bosom buddies of sad people on tropical islands. Anyway, our chat didn't just focu...

The Christmas season is here! Well, Christmas lasts about 5 months in this part of the world, so it's actually been here since we still needed air conditioning. Anyway, Home Alone! It's the G-rated Straw Dogs. It's also the movie where we root for a housebound child to practically murder 2 men for trying to steal the VCR. Kevin will probably grow up to be a big fan of the 2nd Amendment…or perhaps...

What's funnier than chain gangs and the KKK in the Deep South during the Depression? Perhaps nothing could be. Okay, it sounds like an unfunny subject, but the remarkable Joel & Ethan Coen defy the odds by casting great actors, featuring a lot of dynamite songs and unleashing plenty of goofiness. O Brother helped make George Clooney a movie star, even though he, John Turturro and the hilarious Tim...

So it's Monty Python then. Holy Grails and all that. You know these guys. They're comedy legends. They're The Beatles of satire. Do we need to say more? Okay, we're not the biggest Python nerds of all time and we criticized over-the-top fandom quite a bit here. Also, the movie peters out in the second half and we (prepare to be appalled) just don't get the Knights Who Say Ni. But, faults aside, th...

Despite the great political news in the past few days, we all still need laughs in our lives, so Funny Movie Month continues. Our 367th Ellises' Analysis digs into a 70-year-old mental-illness comedy with the giant, invisible rabbit. It's also a movie that just roots for nice people. Too bad Harvey doesn't cause more guffaws, especially considering it's one of the AFI's highest-ranked comedies. Al...

Heads up, Proud Boys and such, the 366th Ellises' Analysis is politically polarizing, but we make zero none NO apologies for how we feel. We're starting Funny Movie Month the day before the American election because we all need some laughs after a monumentally terrible year. Charlie Chaplin's mixture of politics and humour isn't a smooth one though. We preferred the farcical Hynkel scenes because...

For the last episode in Scary Movie Month, we tethered ourselves to the couch and checked out Jordan Peele's blockbuster follow-up to his blockbuster debut. While Peele's Get Out is leaner and has a more-believable sci-fi premise, Us hits a lot of its own effectively eerie notes. This flick is worth a 2nd and even a 3rd look just to try to spot all the film & TV references and sift through the sub...

The 3rd entry in Scary Movie Month finds us in Japan as we get under the skin of Takashi Miike's Audition. Whether it's one of the first J-Horror flicks or a forerunner to torture porn is up for debate, but you can't debate that this is an intense experience that you'll never forget. We saw the movie a little differently though. We couldn't agree about whether or not the most memorable scenes are...

Rob Reiner took a break from his run of classic '80s comedies to direct a thriller and he scored again, even though he wasn't in his comfort zone. Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her tightrope performance that blends horror with campy comedy about as well you possibly can. She's James Caan's #1 fan and she's also the perfect representation of a toxic fan. Stephen King (who wrote the book) could no do...

The first entry in our 5th Annual Scary Movie Month has us visiting '60s London to gaze at the beautiful, but deeply messed-up Catherine Deneuve. This isn't Roman Polanski's best-known work, but his strange thriller deserves to be re-discovered. Speaking of the victim who created a victim, we spent a solid 10 minutes (starting at the 6-minute mark) discussing Polanski's real-life rape case and how...

The 361st Ellises' Analysis is dedicated to our late dog Fox for reasons that will quickly (and often) become apparent. That little Pomeranian is all over this podcast! Anyway, we're split on yet another movie, but we don't disagree about the quality of the outstanding look and style of Twelve Monkeys. Terry Gilliam's quirks are perfectly suited to this time-travel movie. Wait, is it a time-travel...

Almost Famous is one of the most charming and enjoyable pictures of the past 20 years, so it provides us with much fat to chew on in the 360th Ellises' Analysis. Well, okay, only one Ellis loves it. The other Ellis is no fan of Cameron Crowe's ultra-personal road movie about friendship, love and rock 'n' roll. A big part of the disagreement is that we're split on the effectiveness of Kate Hudson's...

The Death Of Michael Corleone provides us with gallons of juice for the 359th episode of The Ellises' Analysis. While probably no movie could have lived up to the first 2 mafia classics (both of which are in our archives), does The Godfather Part III hold up after 30 years? Well, some of it is good. Some of it is enormously disappointing…or even downright terrible. Better people than us have fired...

Todd Haynes' sensitive, personal and deliberately paced drama was Bev's #1 movie of 2015. She's got good taste. It's a quietly beautiful character study of two lesbian lovers who weren't allowed to be themselves in 1950s America. The great Cate Blanchett is dynamite in the title role, but this project belongs to Rooney Mara's character (who is compelling too). The film truly puts you in the time a...

Our 357th episode finds us talking about that legend of legends, Akira Kurosawa, and his 70-year-old classic Rashomon. Simply put, this film is about honour and dishonour (ie. lying). Who's telling the truth? Can we ever know the REAL truth? This is a difficult storyline with a rapist destroying what seems to be a bad marriage. And how did that samurai end up dead? Points of view are clung to. Kab...

August is the perfect time to jam about an R-rated animated musical that remains funny, smart and controversial 21 years after it was released. Trey Parker & Matt Stone's South Park movie is as far from a Disney picture as it gets, but it's also about as meta as it gets. There's clever text AND clever subtext here. It's also more than happy to rag on political correctness while not being at all po...

Our 355th episode closes out July with the ideal movie for the middle of the summer…Midsommar! Ari Aster's provocative breakup movie isn't as outstanding as his marvelous debut (Hereditary), but it's got a lot of meat on the bear-bone. And if you enjoy foreshadowing in your films, you'll be in heaven with this one. Geez, it's painted on the walls! Both of us do have major problems with the ending,...

Welllllll, let's go and shake (or stomp) it up in our 354th edition as we chit chat about Ritchie Valens, the beloved Mexican-American teenaged pop star whose career was cut tragically short. With the ending of a fateful plane crash hovering over the whole story, it's probably inevitable that writer/director Luis Valdez was not going to make a fun movie, but we had a lot of giggles in this podcast...

Brandish your totems (whether they be tops, chess pieces or wedding rings) and dream a complicated dream as the 353rd episode of The Ellises' Analysis pulls back the covers on Inception. The iconic Christopher Nolan (who is just as much of a brand name as any of his actors are) is the master of "popcorn surrealism", but does he suffer from "George Lucas Syndrome"? Oh, these phrases we've coined…or...

Unchain some melodies in the 352nd episode of The Ellises' Analysis. You'll laugh, you might cry and you'll reminisce about pennies & pottery. What our Ghost chat has more than anything though are tangents. We hashed out why Jerry Zucker (yup, the Airplane guy) has directed so few movies in his successful career. We pondered what is Ghost's REAL love story. We discussed our feelings about that dif...

We're re-branding…again! This episode would have been "The Next 200 Project" but from now on we'll go by "The Ellises' Analysis" (just to twist your tongue into a few knots). If you only ever thought of this podcast as "The Top 100 Project" anyway, then, well, nothing to see here. As for episode #351, we have the privilege of tackling one of the best reality-based space films ever made. Apollo 13...

As global chaos continues with protests against racism, not mention a pandemic and political malfeasance all over the place, what you probably need is to plant a smile on your face. Solution? Cue up our gab about one of the bestest Pixar movies. Inside Out is creativity personified. Speaking of creative, we spent time recasting the voices of Riley's emotions (although who would really WANT to chan...