Le Film

The bustling sounds of Vienna are soon drowned out by the lonely buzzing of streetlights, whose glow casts an uncanny warmth that wraps around figures coming and going into the night. “Another day, come and gone already,” a local prostitute mutters beneath their breath as they exhale a stream of smoke, whose wisps chase after passing cars of would-be clients. “Just a few more months, that’s all”....

We arrive on a dilapidated space station orbiting the planet of Solaris after a lengthy trip aboard a cramped and humid shuttle. All we know about the planet is that it resembles an infinite sea, and that the station has reported multiple sightings of “guests” that the planet is somehow able to manifest. Is the planet attempting to communicate with the cosmonauts on the station, or is it simply ob...

Yukio Mishima, a renowned Japanese author whose talents and beliefs stretched far beyond the confines of pen and paper, explored and attempted to transcend what each of us at some point entertains: the limitations of the human experience. How? By ingesting, deconstructing, and reassembling the narrative of his life to create a multilayered and unwavering testament to living and dying as a work of...

Argentina, South America - amidst the sprawling cityscapes and desolate stretches of open land, one theme connects six different tales in Damián Szifron’s anthology film, Wild Tales, and the theme in question is vengeance.   Filled with subversion, subterfuge, and sinister acts of passion, this film sets out from the very get go with one objective in mind: to encapsulate what drives a person to co...

The sun is setting in Columbus, Indiana while a renowned architect remains comatose in a local hospital. His estranged son from South Korea, Jin, comes to visit and soon meets a kindred spirit, Casey, whose passion for architecture creates a safe haven for Jin to reexamine his fractured and turbulent relationship with his father, while also providing Casey with a newfound outlet to explore the pos...

As evening rolls in across Buffalo, New York, an inmate by the name of Billy Brown is released from prison. Having served his 5 year sentence, he ventures off in search of two things: a bathroom and a way to win back the affection of his parents.   Vincent Gallo’s 1998 feature film, Buffalo ‘66, explores the notion of identity and raises the question of which version of ourselves is more authentic...

The clock reads 4:00AM, and you have awoken 30 minutes before your alarm is set to go off. You reach over to turn it off and catch a glimpse of your lover quietly resting beside you. As you walk down the hall, you hear the gentle snoring of your children who are both dreaming of things you will never know or see. You look outside your window to the neighborhood of Watts, Los Angeles and it looks l...

Walking down the barren streets of a quiet neighborhood in Los Angeles, a thick veil of mystery hangs in the hot humid air. Billboards with strange yet familiar messages and imagery dot the open skyline as though they were distant cousins of the palm trees that fill in the spaces in between. While business moguls settle in for the night in their multi million dollar homes, a dog killer is on the l...

We find ourselves in a small village in Vietnam with singing crickets filling our ears, as a gentle breeze flows in through the window. And although the downpours come and go, many things remain unchanged much like the weeks before. Just like the marching ants and bouncing frogs who fill their wakefulness with daily tasks, so too must you, your neighbors, and all that you will ever know.   Tran An...

This week we discuss Don Hertzfeldt’s 2012 animated feature film debut, It’s Such a Beautiful Day. Composed of three different shorts recounting the minute events that outline the life of Bill, a man in his 40’s, who struggles to make sense of the world around him as his body begins to fail. Filled with reveries, absurdities, and bittersweet moments that expose the inner workings of our daily live...

As the sun rises just beyond the skyline of a bustling Japanese metropolis, we find ourselves floating in what seems to be an endless expanse of water. Slight tremors cause our body to gently toss to-and-fro as a brilliant, amber light beams down upon us. Is this life or is this death, or perhaps something in-between?   Awaking to the sound of stillness in the air, our hands unfurl the covers and...

In response to our recent hiatus, we decided to release this episode as a form of bonus content for all of our listeners. When we recorded it, it was after a late night session where we were joined by our friend, Ashley, for an upcoming episode where we discuss Hideaki Anno's 1998 live action debut, Love & Pop.   Although we don't have a movie to discuss in this episode, we introduce a new segment...

For our 20th episode, we discuss Ruben Östlund’s 2017 feature film, The Square.   “The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations. “   In an attempt to generate excitement around a new art exhibit, Christian, a chief curator for a renowned museum in Stockholm, attempts to revamp local interest and secure future funding for the museum, while navig...

Join us this week where we discuss Zack Snyder’s 2016 feature film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ultimate Edition).   In the midst of political and existential upheaval following the events of 2013’s Man of Steel, Superman is at odds with his newfound role as Earth’s savior, while across the way from Metropolis, Gotham City’s own vigilante, Batman, takes matters into his own hands to determ...

Join us this week where we discuss Ana Lily Amirpour’s 2014 feature film debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.   Night falls over the desolate, crime-laden streets of Bad City, and should you be one of the unfortunate few to roam the lonely roads at such an untimely hour, you better hope that the footsteps trailing from behind are entirely in your head.   The story follows the townspeople of an...

Join us this week where we discuss Kongdej Jaturanrasmee’s 2019 Thai drama, Where We Belong.   Sue, a student living in the eastern province of Chanthaburi in Thailand, is spending her final week making preparations for her departure to study abroad in Finland. This proves to be quite the undertaking for Sue, as she has never traveled outside of her hometown and is leaving against her estranged fa...

Jojo, a young German boy living in the midst of WWII, is faced with a dilemma when he discovers that his mother is protecting a young Jewish girl in their attic. His entire worldview is put into question; should he hold onto the blind, unyielding worldview that his country has instilled within him since birth or should he dismantle it and start anew?   Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit serves as a moder...

The year is 1994, and Summer is just around the bend in Vienna. A train is preparing to depart from its station, with its next stop arriving in Paris. Inside, a visiting American named Jesse offers a proposal to a French woman, Céline, whom he had recently met; to disembark from the train and spend the day with him before he has to fly back to the United States the following morning.   Richard Lin...

We arrive during the shifting of the seasons in a small Danish town, where the local townsfolk go about their daily lives in preparation of Winter. Lucas, a former teacher, makes the most of this difficult transitional period in his life by serving as a beacon of light at the local daycare center he works at, maintaining social connections that he holds dearly, and by holding out for hope that he...

The year is 1940, one year after the Spanish Civil War officially came to an end, and the townspeople of a small village in the Castilla region of Spain are left to pick up the pieces of their former lives to try and find some sense of normalcy under the newly appointed regime of Francisco Franco's Nationalist dictatorship.   A traveling projectionist arrives to showcase his latest addition to the...

Waking up for the day, you take no notice of the changes around you: the same old weathered texture on the wall up above, the way the pattern on the drapes lets in small shafts of light every time the fan passes by. Rising up for the day, you get in the shower, and as the water pours over you a memory comes to you. It's a small vignette of someone who, against your better judgement, seems to fit r...

"Love isn't patient, and kind, and humble. Love is messy, and horrible, and selfish, and bold. It's not finding your perfect half. It's the trying, and reaching, and failing." And so we find ourselves in the fictional town of Squahamish, a town like any other in the Pacific Northwest, where lives are predetermined to take root and fall by the wayside to comfort and normalcy. The year is 2020 and w...

Walking into class, the old familiar chatter and disruption from the classmates around you fills your ears and slowly resembles the white noise that rests in the background of your senses. Sitting down, you look out the window and see the steady downpour of rain caressing the glass.   The door closes, you look ahead and see the teacher placing her bag on her desk. She closes her eyes and takes a d...

In the sunny, suburban streets of Long Island, New York, a young woman carves her wheels into the pavement; an ollie here, a kickflip there, and a desire to fill the spaces in-between with something more, something substantial.   In 2016, Crystal Moselle befriended a group of skateboarding women in New York City, and through the unique set of circumstances, developed into a creative partnership th...

“Life is filled with it's little miseries, each of us in his own way must learn to deal with adversity in a mature and adult fashion." So says one of the characters of 1984's Top Secret before jumping out of a window.   This week, we switch it up a bit and take a nosedive into an amalgamation of WWII resistance films, beach parties, and good old fashioned rock 'n' roll. Written and directed by Jim...