It's On The List

After many months on hiatus, Sammy and Gerry have returned for one last ride. They're talking everything in film from the year 2025. They'll go through their favorite and least favorites from the year, as well as other notable titles they watched. Join the boys one last time in the concluding episode to the  It's On the List  odyssey - they may be back one day, so treat this more as...

Sammy and Gerry tackle one of the great pop melodramatists of his time - you know him, you love him, it's the one and only Cameron Crowe. The boys discuss his despairing Y2K head-trip, Vanilla Sky (2001), and his beautifully bittersweet family drama  We Bought a Zoo (2011). They discuss the effectiveness of his cornball leanings, his excellent direction of actors, and the amount of times that...

On this VERY belated podcast covering April's Milwaukee Film Festival, Gerry takes on hosting duties by himself to discuss the films he saw. Titles include: The Shrouds, Cloud, Black Dog, Magic Farm, WTO/99, and more! (00:00) Intro (02:39) The Shrouds (11:10) Dead Lover (12:30) Midnight Shorts (19:34) AJ Goes to the Dog Park (20:44) Black Dog (23:14) Cloud (26:59) Magic Farm (30:04) WTO/99 (3...

Genre schlock or high art? The answer is yes. Sammy and Gerry are talking about Giallo maestro Mario Bava's  A Bay of Blood  (1971) and New York crime/horror filmmaker Larry Cohen's  God Told Me to  (1976), two films that explore violence and the cinematic apparatus from a variety of angles. Deranged content is discussed, and this episode contains spoilers for both films. (00:00:00) Intr...

In the last episode, Gerry and Sammy discussed films about trains - one of cinema's oldest subjects, and a topic which innately ties into cinema's essence of moving images. This episode, we're leaning in the other direction, toward isolated locations and still images. The films discussed are Here (2024), Robert Zemeckis' experimental melodrama from last year, and Contactos (197...

We're talking about train movies - more specifically, Nazi train movies. Discussed today are: John Frankeneheimer's suspense-filled  The Train (1964) and Lars Von Trier's stylish neo noir  Europa  (1991). Contains spoilers for both films.

Another year goes by, another Dracula adaptation hits the cinemas... Sammy and Gerry are discussing 3 of the most famous film adaptations of the classic text - the 3 which are entitled "Nosferatu:" F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent classic, Werner Herzog's 1979 reimagining, and the latest version from Robert Eggers. The boys discuss which features of the original text the respective fi...

Another year has come and gone, the unstoppable march of time continues to yield physical and psychological torment, and another crop of new films has hit the public consciousness. Sammy and Gerry dive into the cinema that 2024 had to offer: their favorite films from the year, their least favorites, and the best older films they watched in the year of our lord 2024. It was the best of times, it wa...

On this holiday weekend, Gerry and Sammy are feeling thankful for the films of Howard Hawks - one of the greatest Hollywood auteurs. Discussed are: the similarities and subtly radical differences between Hawks' aviation melodrama  Only Angels Have Wings  (1939) and his dour car racing film  Red Line 7000 , Hawks' prioritizing of characterization over narrative propulsion, his recurring t...

Spooky season is reaching its climax, so Sammy and Gerry decided to dive into two equally revered and beloved horror films: Edgar G. Ulmer's classic The Black Cat (1934), and Stacy Title's misunderstood masterpiece (according to some, at least) The Bye Bye Man (2017). They discuss The Black Cat 's unique place in Ulmer's filmography, its lasting thematic potency, and the excell...

In anticipation of  Megalopolis ' release this weekend, Sammy and Gerry are discussing their top 5 favorite films by Francis Ford Coppola. They discuss the arc of Coppola's career, from his low budget 60s work to his renowned 70s blockbusters to his more experimental late period, delving into his rigorous style, unabashed earnestness, and all of the different ways that his interests mani...

The title says it all - Sammy is going on a trip to Lisbon, so he and Gerry decided to discuss some films about Portugal: Raul Ruiz's sprawling epic, Mysteries of Lisbon (2010), and Rita Azevedo Gomes' stunningly beautiful The Portuguese Woman (2018). They discuss the distinctly different stylistic approaches of these two filmmakers, how these films break traditional narrative forms, and...

Come on a journey with us to the other side of the French New Wave: working alongside the more renowned likes of Godard, Truffaut, and Varda, critics/filmmakers Alexandre Astruc and Paul Vecchiali are two of the unsung greats of French cinema. Gerry and Sammy discuss Astruc's Balzac adaptation, Albert Savarus  (1993), and Vecchiali's tragic comedy,  Femmes Femmes  (1974), discussing the...

Gerry and Sammy examine two of China’s greatest filmmakers - King Hu and Jia Zhangke - by talking about their films Legend of the Mountain (1979) and Mountains May Depart (2015). They discuss the films’ interesting depictions of the passage of time, their larger connections to China’s culture and politics, the beauty of Hu’s and Jia’s bold stylistic decisions, and more. Contains spoilers for both...

Two maestros of fascinating genre-blending released two of their strangest genre mashups in the late 2010s: M. Night Shyamalan's trilogy capper Glass (2019) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish (2017). The boys discuss how these auteurs play with genre, the silly strangeness of Glass , and the humanist beauty of Before We Vanish . Contains spoilers for both films.

TIFF? NYFF? Cannes? Outdated, normie festivals. All of the cool kids were attending the annual Milwaukee Film Festival, which was held from April 11th-April 25th in the utopian Midwest city by the lake. While Sammy was busy doing lame things such as working full time in Madison, WI and spending time with his family, Gerry saw 9 films at the festival and is here to give you the lowdown. The films i...

This episode covers (relatively) lighter fare after consecutive episodes of much weight and intensity. Sammy and Gerry talk about Claire Denis'  Let the Sunshine In  (2017) and Mabel Cheung's  Eight Taels of Gold  (1989). They discuss the ways in which the films explore romance, balancing comedy and heavier subject matter, the wonderful central performances, the cynicism and (potential h...

Gerry and Sammy welcome a returning guest back to the pod: William Mai is here to discuss all things Tobe Hooper, focusing on his seminal classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and his lesser-known final film Djinn (2013). They discuss Hooper's career at large, his varied filmography and stylistic modes, and examine how Hooper's filmmaking kept evolving with the times. Contains spoil...

Sammy and Gerry delve into the darkest parts of humanity in this episode, covering Monte Hellman's  Igauana  (1988) and Frank Borzage's  Moonrise  (1948). The films depicted tormenters and the tormented, as the characters seek revenge or redemption after suffering through severe pain and inflicting it themselves. Next week's episode will certainly be lighter. Contains spoilers for b...

The boys are back to discuss 3 very important filmmakers - the French duo of Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, as well as the man who studied under them, Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Costa. Sammy and Gerry talk specifically about Straub and Huillet's Fortini/Cani (1976) and Costa's In Vanda's Room (2000), but also about the background of these artists - the Straubs' Brechtia...

The boys are bringing you an Old Hollywood double bill featuring two films starring the inimitable screen presence Gary Cooper: King Vidor's fascinating adaptation of Ayn Rand's deranged conservative text  The Fountainhead  (1949) and Ernst Lubitsch's hilarious  Bluebeard's Eighth Wife  (1938). Gerry and Sammy discuss how these filmmakers use Cooper's specific persona and...

The boys honor a subject near and dear to their hearts: Real American Heroes. The films discussed in this episode are Clint Eastwood's bizarre modernist meta-drama The 15:17 to Paris (2018) and John Ford's courtroom drama/superhero origin story Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Topics covered include late style, how to command a room, selfie sticks, and more in this journey into the beating hear...

Love, loss, jealousy, coping, beauty, wide-lenses... we're talking about all of the important things in life today, discussing Harmony Korine's The Beach Bum (2019) and Terrence Malick's Song to Song (2017). We discuss the montage-heavy mode of editing/narrative construction in both films, the intuitive nature of Malick's filmmaking, and how these films depict grief, forgivenes...

Our latest behemoth annual recap episode has arrived. We talk all things film from the year 2023: our favorite films, our least favorite films, our favorite older films that we watched last year - we indulge in both love and hate, singing the praises of one of the year's biggest films ( Oppenheimer ) and debating the merits of another ( Barbie )... so sit back, relax, and journey with us thro...

Happy holidays to the It's On the List groupies - we've got a Christmas film double feature for you that will take you to both ends of the Christmas film spectrum: first, we're talking about Alexander Payne's latest film  The Holdovers  (2023), following it up with a very different sort of holiday story in Bob Clark's  Black Christmas  (1974). Discussed are the ways in whi...