Let's Finally Watch This

It’s time to wrap up our fourth season of  Let’s Finally Watch This . Looking back at our season of heavy-hitters (and a few oddballs), we consider some of the unexpected themes and this season's emphasis on directors. Then we dive into the heart of the episode–our Ranking of Essentialness for this season’s movies! We also share our personal favorites from the season. Thanks for joining us ag...

It's 2015. Franchises rule the box office. Disney, a powerhouse studio for decades, is in the middle of its current run of live-action remakes. This year's movie, Cinderella , is directed by Kenneth Branagh, known for his Shakespearean adaptations and portrayal of Hercule Poirot. The story itself is nothing new, but Branagh presents it with lavishly and directly, making it one of the best-reviewed...

It's 2005. Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, follows that triumph by remaking one of his favorite movies-- King Kong . By taking the original, iconic 1933 film and expanding it with his own knack for special effects and epic-length storytelling, Jackson creates a version that, as critic Roger Ebert says, "is like the flowering of all the possibilities in the original classi...

It's 1995. Combining the blockbuster era with CGI creates the opportunity for all sorts of movies--including ones with jungle creatures rampaging through city streets. Director Joe Johnston, who started his Hollywood career designing spaceships for Star Wars , utilizes computer and practical effects to bring a malevolent board game to life in Jumanji, starring Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, and a yo...

It's 1985. The culture is saturated with youth-targeted science fiction and fantasy films. And then there's Cocoon , directed by Ron Howard, a quirky movie featuring three elderly men as protagonists. Aliens disguised as humans are recovering cocoons from the ocean and storing them in the pool of a rented house when the old men discover that the water of the pool rejuvenates them. It's a fountain...

It's 1975. No one knows it yet, but this is when the Blockbuster Age begins. It starts with a movie called Jaws , directed by an up-and-coming director named Steven Spielberg. If you don't know, Jaws is about a killer shark. It's the reason an entire generation feared going into the water. At the time of its release, it became the highest-grossing film of all time--and also the blueprint for a rev...

It's 1965. Three years previous, director David Lean released his masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia . Now, he returns with another historical epic, exchanging desert vistas for the mountains of Russia and the society of Soviet Revolution-era Moscow. Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel, Doctor Zhivago follows the titular doctor (and poet) as his life and loves intersect with the violence and utopia...

It's 1955. It's a time we look back at with nostalgia, thinking it a simpler, more peaceful time. But in one of first important "juvenile delinquent" films, Rebel Without a Cause, director Nicholas Ray and actor James Dean explore teen culture and find that the kids are not all right. Following a little over 24 hours of the lives of Dean's Jim Stark, the disturbed "Plato," and Judy, the bully's gi...

It's 1945. VE Day was May 8, but the war continues in the Pacific. Meanwhile, MGM entertains Americans back home with musicals such as Anchors Aweigh , starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra as two navy sailors on a four-day shore leave near Hollywood. Hoping to spend time picking up girls, they find themselves involved in the life of aspiring singer "Aunt Susie." An eager boy and a lie are excuse...

It's 1935. One source of escapism during the Great Depression was the big budget spectacle--and Mutiny on the Bounty was one of the most expensive of its time. Based on the books which were inspired by true events, it follows the voyage of the HMS Bounty to Tahiti under the draconian command of Captain Bligh, as the crew, especially executive commander Christian Fletcher, weigh whether such harsh...

It's 1925. The Russian Revolution is over. Vladimir Lenin believes that “the cinema is for us the most important of the arts," leading the Soviet Union to create the world's first professional film school. With a genius for editing that is still discussed today, director Sergei Eisenstein creates a movie that was once considered the greatest movie ever made. Battleship Potemkin tells the inspired-...

It's 1915. Film is innovating, but some companies don't believe that longer features are viable. Enter director D.W. Griffith, who with The Birth of a Nation , pushed the medium forward with a three-plus-hour historical drama that is often considered the first film masterpiece. Featuring white Southerners as the heroes against uneducated, just-freed slaves, it is also undeniably racist and one of...

Welcome to Season 4 of Let's Finally Watch This. It's 1905. Movies are in their infancy, including Dutch film. This silent Dutch comedy, directed by Willy Mullens, begins with a man napping in a beach chair until he is surrounded by the incoming tide. And then he removes his pants to keep them dry. And then...well, the movie is less than 6 minutes long, so I don't want to spoil it. What The Misadv...

Here's a surpise mega-length bonus episode for you! We join forces with Kordell Cabe and Justin Warfle, hosts of The Consensus Movie podcast, to journey through the last century of cinema history and share our favorite movies from each decade. Join us for a wide-ranging discussion of the movies that have impacted us from the 1920s on.

It's time to wrap up our third season of Let's Finally Watch This . We start by making a few observation about this season as a whole before diving into the heart of the episode--our Ranking of Essentialness for this season's movies! We also share our personal favorites from the season. Thanks for joining us for yet another journey through the decades of film! Show Notes

It's 2014. Franchise movies abound, and American blockbusters are making bank around the world. But some directors, like Wes Anderson, are making movies that defy blockbuster conventions and that experiment with film style. The Grand Budapest Hotel , considered by many to be Anderson's magnum opus, follows concierge Monsieur Gustave and his Lobby Boy protege Zero as Gustave inherits a famous paint...

It's 2004. Teen movies exploded as a genre in the 1980s and have continued largely unabated since. With Mean Girls , comedian Tina Fey helps bring forth a teen movie that resonates with its viewers, both reflecting high school girl culture and critiquing it. The plot follows previously homeschooled Cady Heron's involvement in the popular girl clique "The Plastics," her slow transformation into a P...

It's 1994. The top-grossing film is The Lion King , but right after that is Forrest Gump . Gump, played by Tom Hanks, wins audiences with his memorable phrases ("Life is like a box of chocolates"), his optimistic outlook, and his "right place, right time" escapades through American history. It's a comedy, a drama, and a movie that left its mark on culture. What Forrest Gump offers casual movie fan...

It's 1984. A glance at the year's top ten grossing movies shows we're deep into the blockbuster era. Director James Cameron makes his mark on science fiction with The Terminator , an action-thriller that combines the relentless threat of a horror movie with a time travel backstory--and it captured the culture's imagination. It's a film that even if you haven't seen it, you know about Skynet, the T...

It's 1974. It's the height of New Hollywood, and Chinatown , directed by Roman Polanski, is a quintessential example of the darker subject matter and bleak outlook often associated with the movement. Considered one of the greatest movies of all time, this neo-noir crime drama follows private investigator J. J. Gittes, played by Jack Nicholson, as he digs into a world of government corruption, murd...

It's 1964. The Golden Age of Hollywood is over, and New Hollywood is about to begin, an era known for anti-heroes, changing morality, and less traditional plots. At the same time, the spaghetti western emerges, ushered in with A Fistful of Dollars , starring Clint Eastwood as the "man with no name" and directed by Sergio Leone. This is a different type of western, a grittier, less black-and-white...

It's 1954. The American occupation of Japan had ended a few years before, and Japanese cinema is beginning to make an impression on the world scene. Released the same year as the original Godzilla , Seven Samurai is an essential classic from director Akira Kurosawa. Poverty-stricken farmers threatened with bandits decide to hire samurai to protect their village. This seemingly simple plot begins a...

It's 1944. The Second World War is still raging, and the two top grossing films are musicals. However, Double Indemnity , directed by Billy Wilder, is a different sort of film, a seminal example of film noir. It begins with insurance salesman Henry Neff confessing to a murder, and it follows his involvement with unhappy wife Phyllis Dietrichson and their plan to kill her husband and collect the in...

It's 1934. It Happened One Night , a film nobody thought would do particularly well, sneaks in just before the Hays Code is enforced. The movie, directed by Frank Capra, follows pampered heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) as she tries to escape her controlling father and join her fiancé. She meets with ex-reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable) on the bus to New York. Hijinks ensue, and love blo...

It's 1924. Buster Keaton, one of the cinematic greats of this era, is at the height of his career. Called "The Great Stone Face" due to his distinctive stoical expression, Keaton's films include dangerous physical stunts and impeccable comedic timing. Sherlock Jr. is no exception. Keaton plays a movie projectionist who hopes to become a great detective as he tries to untangle mysteries and win the...