Have You Ever Seen

For the 4th and final time, we're re-reviewing a movie we discussed 10 years ago. Some films age badly, while some become more relevant. Her is extremely relevant! We didn't have any idea just how addicted to devices our culture would get when this movie came out in late-2013. We're a society of people who are lost in their phones, so the science fiction in Spike Jonze's Oscar-winning story might...

Hollywood studios hadn't made very many major movies about AIDS before 1993, so Philadelphia represented a fairly safe way into this difficult subject. Many considered Jonathan Demme's picture soft and weak, but Ryan's solo show tries to explain why his approach was the right one. Casting stars like Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington in the leading roles was a huge step to drawing people in. And whil...

There's no better way to debut Ismail Merchant and James Ivory on this channel than to chat about their finest film. The Remains Of The Day also represents the first time Emma Thompson or Hugh Grant have come up on Have You Ever Seen...although Anthony Hopkins HAS been in one classic Oscar winner that we've covered. Something about lambs. In this case, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's layered screenplay ada...

Do you like taboo subject matter in your movies? Well, the 547th edition of Have You Ever Seen is filled with it. There's pedophilia, suicide, violent sex fantasies, masturbation, infidelity and so much misery...yet writer/director Todd Solondz somehow also made Happiness entertaining. It's complicated material and it's more honest than most movies are about the horrible people within, but they're...

Glenn Ford is in Gilda more than Rita Hayworth is and the story is more about his character than hers, but the film still belongs to the gorgeous redhead. She was a true movie star, who had sass, brains, marvelous screen presence and remarkable sex appeal. It's easy to see why the prisoners in The Shawshank Redemption loved watching Charles Vidor's movie over and over again. It isn't a perfect '40...

During this horror-laden month of movies that featured plenty of serial killers, Norman Bates tops 'em all for cinematic infamy. He may be infantilized, but this sick human being sure can wield variously effective weapons when he feels the need. Now, coming up with a quality sequel to not only a Hitchcock movie---but also to the infamous Psycho---was a huge ask, but Richard Franklin did an admirab...

The Wicker Man is a cult movie about a cult, so that alone makes it a good choice for Scary Movie Month. Robin Hardy's film is really more of a mystery than a horror extravaganza though, as the pious and intentionally unlikable policeman from the mainland (Edward Woodward) slowly finds out just how dedicated the Scottish islanders are to their Lord (Christopher Lee). These people love their apples...

This year's Scary Movie Month has turned into a month of undisputed horror classics, especially in these one-Ryan shows. Halloween was discussed on October 9th. Now it's time for one of the best-made, freakiest frightfests ever. William Friedkin's mega-blockbuster won 2 Oscars---it should have won more---and it remains beloved in the eyes of many, even if repeated viewings dampen the skin-crawling...

Nope is about spectacle, exploitation and selling a product, no matter how that product feels about being sold. The alien---if it IS in fact an alien---is one of the most unique creations in recent history. Which is fitting because Jordan Peele is one of the most original filmmakers going. Still, just like Quentin Tarantino, Peele always finds clever ways to mix in dozens of pop culture references...

Ryan talked alone about the classic slasher flick Halloween on Monday. The solo episode this time gets into the business of one of its offshoots...Friday The 13th. In fact, all 12 of the Fridays are discussed here, so this is not a traditional review of one particular film. Iconic mass murderer Jason Voorhees---and his mother before him---successfully killed people at the cursed Camp Crystal Lake...

It was nearly a year ago that Ryan monologued about Rob Zombie's Halloween. Well, our 540th episode was an overdue time to monologue about John Carpenter's legendary original. In this one-man show, you'll get a record number of asides, but also some theories that might answer questions that people have had about the movie for the past 45 years. This father of all modern slasher movies is influenti...

Our 8th Annual Scary Movie Month has arrived and we kick it off with a film that has several legit frights and some "I'm creeped out in my own basement" staying power. Our 539th episode talks about demonic possession, child endangerment and other weird things. Director James Wan knows how to use jump scares in The Conjuring, but he also knows how to build tension and he really knows how to shoot a...

We covered our first Ozu movie earlier this year and our first Mizoguchi review dropped just 3 days ago, so it was way past time to talk about Federico Fellini. The flamboyant Italian made several classics, but 8½ seems to be the favourite for many fellow filmmakers who've followed in his footsteps. This is about as influential as any movie we've discussed in years. It's a director's dream too (so...

We're still over a week away from Scary Movie Month, but Ryan is here to monologue about a Japanese ghost story anyway. Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu has long been ranked on many esteemed critics' lists of great films...including the Sight & Sound. And it should be. It's beautifully made and, while it isn't particularly frightening, it's eerie. Ugetsu's story is basically just a love of money & power v...

Rushmore's got Wes Anderson, Bill Murray and...yeah, Jason Schwartzman. That's a combination that's hit a lot of cinematic home runs and, to many, this was a grand slam. For a second-time filmmaker, this is an undeniably assured movie. Anderson hits a lot of the same character beats here that he does in all his movies and his (team's) production design & costume choices have been called "twee" for...

While United 93 avoids politics, we sure got political during this 535th episode. But the whole world supposedly changed on this very day 22 years ago and we felt the need to comment on that and what such upheaval has meant to all of our lives. More than 3000 people died during the terrorist attacks on 9/11, but our "civil" society quickly became more divided than ever. As such, we HYES'ers dealt...

Since this 534th episode of Have You Ever Seen hits the airwaves on Labour Day, it felt right to talk about a character who has FOUR different jobs in one movie. Mrs. Doubtfire is a funny film that has...well, to be honest, lost a lot of its comedic zing 30 years on, although the serious scenes still have a lot of emotional sting. This might be the most-personal movie the lovable Robin Williams ev...

The Night Of The Hunter is Exhibit A when you talk about films that are revered more now than they were when they came out. To many, this KEEPS getting better every time they see it. We're fans too. Charles Laughton was better known as a clever actor, but this was his directorial debut. For a first-time director, he pulled off a stylish allegory and scary fairy tale that's filled with surreal imag...

The 532nd edition of Have You Ever Seen talks about a noir that not everyone is aware of, but they should be. Pickup On South Street crackles. Richard Widmark plays a pickpocket, but he remains an anti-hero from the start to the finish...even though crime stories are often about redemption after bad behaviour. He's got (an eventually) loyal "dame" in Jean Peters, he's got a shack right on the rive...

And thus the people who started this podcast to review the AFI's Top 100 Lists have now made a point of talking about the Sight & Sound list. S&S critics ranked Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles in the #1 spot last December, which is the main reason we committed 200 minutes to watch it...let alone decided to review it. Ryan went on a passionate rant about their controversial Top...

Martin Scorsese is the master director of movies that glamorize scumbag criminals without passing judgement on their terrible behaviour. He's (almost) in Goodfellas territory here, featuring a reprehensible-but-charismatic criminal who's too young for all this power and opportunity to do bad things. Perhaps Marty is also showing us a funny version of his own drug-addled past in The Wolf Of Wall St...

As we "celebrate" the Civic Holiday, Bev takes the week off and Ryan monologues in the 529th episode of Have You Ever Seen. The underrated Hal Ashby always got great performances out of his actors during that incredible run he had in the '70s. In Coming Home, he uses a plethora of classic songs---so many classic songs---to back up his stars' excellent work. Oscar winners Jon Voight and the remarka...

If Harrison Ford isn't the most-successful movie star in history, then he's at least on the shortest of shortlists. And he's almost a silent-film actor in The Fugitive, while Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones as his dogged antagonist is positively verbose. Ford gets to play smart, determined and driven to find the one-armed man who killed his wife, despite having a terrible lawyer representing him. Jon...

John Garfield didn't even live to see 40, but he DID make several good films in the '40s. In Body And Soul, he's a decent guy who finds himself in a love triangle and makes many bad career decisions. It's the age-old story of a boxer who gets mixed up with the wrong people. Robert Rossen's acclaimed picture isn't remarkably original, but it's a well-made film. The man who directed The Hustler knew...

Bev is not a fan of biopics or of Sean Penn, but even she knows that Gus Van Sant's Milk is a great example of both. Harvey Milk was a passionate, charming, hard-working activist who was gunned down by Dan White just as he was starting his political career, but there WAS some whitewashing of his personal life in this. Still, Penn is so authentic. The movie, which mixes in plenty of real footage, v...