Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood Podcast

Merry Christmas! Here’s your gift! Sorry it’s a bit late but we never officially said we would be exchanging gifts in the first place so... anyway here it is! This episode is a break from our usual format. Absolutely zero New Hollywood or 70s film content to be found under this tree. Instead, Elena wanted to take some time out to do a treatise on Hallmark and streaming-era Christmas rom-com films....

Yet again we gather at the beginning of a new year. The reason? To pit the films of the previous calendar year against the films released 50 years ago. That's right, it's 74 v 24 baby!  Will New Hollywood reign supreme? Or will Alana and Sam pretend like they prefer a bunch of Netflix movies instead? Listen and find out!

What? What are your problems with this episode huh? Go ahead and take a piece of paper and write them all down. Go ahead! Tell us what’s wrong! Well?? Why aren’t you writing?? Look, I promise you we WILL discuss the 1974 Ellen Burstyn vehicle Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. We WILL litigate Scorsese’s overactive camera. And we WILL describe the episode we watched of the sitcom Alice with guest st...

The time has come to wish a hearty Happy Birthday to Elena! We said she could choose any movie she wanted to talk about and out of all the wonderful New Hollywood classics, she chose this one. Love Story itself might be astoundingly mid, but this discussion we had about it was a rollicking good time! More than half of the episode gets spent just gabbing about the our favorite classic film romances...

Join us in celebrating Sam’s birthday with this special episode on the John Frankenheimer film version of Eugene O’Neill’s play The Iceman Cometh. The hosts dig in to the unusual experiment in cinematic stage plays that birthed this project. You might think a four-hour-long play about alcoholism and despair sounds like a weird birthday present to give oneself but this discussion actually turned ou...

The scares continue all through Halloween over here at KYI! The hosts, and their guest Levi Butner, wander the graveyards and get stuck in the muck as they discuss Don Coscarelli’s cult classic Phantasm. The obvious connections to Spielberg and Raimi are noted, as are the film’s roots in the Universal Monster tradition. Join us as we celebrate this massive achievement in low-budget filmmaking. Jus...

Horror comedy comes to life this episode with the Mel Brooks classic Young Frankenstein. This might be the first movie we’ve covered that almost everyone we’ve ever met has undoubtedly seen! The gags remain evergreen, but this watch through the hosts were primarily impressed by the beautiful filmmaking and imaginative storytelling on display. The writing, cinematography, performances, music, and d...

This is a big one, folks. Elena and Sam take a deep dive into cinematic meta-fiction as they explore the relationship between the seminal film 8 1/2 (1963) and its three most prominent New Hollywood descendants: Alex in Wonderland (1970), All That Jazz (1979), and Stardust Memories (1980). We approached this project with the seriousness and rigor we feel it deserves which apparently to us means ma...

Elena and Sam search for the familiar within the unknown as they immerse themselves in the world of Ridley Scott’s genre-defining classic Alien. They ruminate on the disturbing picture it paints of space and the cycles of nature and remark upon the hilarious improv skills of Yaphet Kotto. They also find time to touch on the recently released Alien: Romulus so that they can, you know, hitch onto th...

Put on your spectacles, nerds! We’re talking some long-form PROSE in this episode. Our subject today is Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. That’s right, not a MOVIE like we typically feature on this podcast, but a BOOK instead. We aim to give you a tour through the thrilling yet crass world Biskind maps out in this b...

Ohohoho it’s getting sweaty over here! On this episode we are joined by Ryan and Katie from The List to chat about Cool Hand Luke. Perhaps the defining prison film of the New Hollywood era, Paul Newman’s megawatt star power is put to perfect use as the ultimate lovable loser. We had a ball making the episode and what emerged was more or less a complete exegesis on this multifaceted Christian alleg...

Tonight’s episode of Kael Your Idols will be MASH! That’s right, Robert Altman’s MASH. Join Elena and Sam, that lovable pair of married movie fans as they dish the dirt on this beloved classic of early seventies cinema. A few laughs and a few tears, some contextual analysis of misogyny, and more on this evening’s Very Special Episode of Kael Your Idols! Topics include: the recent death of Donald S...

Get ready for the most disgusting, amoral, nastiest podcast-iest episode ever! We are delighted to bring you a discussion of John Waters masterpiece of filth Pink Flamingos. Underground cinema edges closer to the mainstream with this early 70s midnight movie and Sam and Elena both have appropriately strong reactions to its subject matter. Topics include: what it means to be ‘over the top’, Netflix...

We bring you a special new episode ahead of our usual schedule! The excitement of the release of the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has got all of the millions of the fans of the recent entries of the franchise abuzzing. So of course, given that the 1968 original is squarely a New Hollywood landmark we had to watch EVERY SINGLE MOVIE IN THE SERIES! Good thing these movies totally rip! First we...

Question: If a movie about doppelgängers is itself a doppelgänger of another movie about doppelgängers… uh… like… what’s up with that, huh? Our hosts will attempt to answer at least a version of that question as they voyeuristically peek into the world of Brian De Palma’s “Obsession”. This episode could prove extra confusing if you haven’t actually seen the movie given that: not only is it relativ...

It’s Problematic Art Week on KYI! This episode Elena and Sam are joined by animator Frank Gidlewski for a round-table on Ralph Bakshi’s 1973 Künstlerroman "Heavy Traffic". There is much talk of the film's depictions of various taboos both sexual and racial, so, be warned. Also much rumination on the woes of the modern film/animation landscape so… TW for that as well, if you’re an an...

Destiny’s dance continues! This week the hosts go around and around in their conversation on Sydney Pollack’s 1969 ode to the hopelessness of human existence (under capitalism)! This 1930s era Jane Fonda vehicle proves to be delightful fodder for Elena and Sam to morbidly contemplate its grim vision of fate. And speaking of grim fates: the film also co-stars Gig Young… Yeesh! Topics include: the b...

It’s Watergate time on Kael Your Idols! Sorry to jump right in to it but we didn’t want to bury the lede. In this episode the hosts get drawn into a web of lies and cover-ups as they discuss the 1976 classic “All The President’s Men”. This tale of the greatest newspaper caper ever provides the perfect launching off point for discussing a plethora of New Hollywood character actors and themes. You c...

This week on the ol’ podcast: Barbara Loden’s massively under-seen film Wanda (1970). We held this conversation a few months ago in the wake of the film placing 49th on the most recent Sight and Sound poll. Is this reputation warranted? Has the movie gone too quickly from being something no one ever heard of to supposedly being considered one of the greatest films of all time? Join Elena and Sam f...

If you want to sing out! Sing out! Kael Your Idols is pleased to bring you another Very Special Episode as we turn our attention and our empathy towards the career of Hal Ashby. The hosts are joined by film person Michael J. Dougherty to trace the tragicomic trajectory of this titan of 70s cinema; starting with Ashby's work as an acclaimed editor and terminating with the studio shutting him o...

Welcome to 2024 fellow Kael Your Idolators! For this first episode of the New Year we’re gassed up, got the meter running, and we’re offering you a midnight ride into the twisted minds of De Niro, Scorsese, and Schrader. These three New Hollywood geniuses unite for the first time to create one of cinema’s greatest achievements: Taxi Driver. Join Elena and Sam in this wide-ranging discussion that a...

1973 vs 2023: the match-up of the century! To celebrate the new year we are counting down our top 5 films from these two years in cinema. Which movies were our favorites? Which movies missed the mark? And will 1973 or 2023 reign supreme? Listen to find out.

The pod is taking a slight temporal detour this week and covering The Right Stuff - a film that began its development during New Hollywood and was finished and released in the wake of the Heaven’s Gate debacle. Sam and Elena pontificate about whether or not this ambitious space epic retains the artistic spirit of the 70s or if it can’t quite achieve liftoff beyond merely ‘fun movie about the early...

This week Kael Your Idols welcomes filmmaker Levi Butner to discuss George Lucas’s mega-hit American Graffiti. The film is, in a sense, the director’s first prequel - showing a day in the life of some Modesto teens in 1962 way way back before those pesky social changes came to define the decade. Topics include: similarities to Dazed and Confused, Lucas’s incest obsession, and what it takes to get...

Love! Betrayal! Sunsets! That’s right - Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven gets the Kael Your Idols treatment this week. A Texas farm sets the scene for this unusual love triangle unfolding amidst some very loopy voice-over narration. This deeply mysterious film attempts to uncover the hidden beauty and ulterior meaning behind life, nature, and the joys of farm work, all in typically beautiful Malic...