Movie Nights with Dad

Riley and Mark take on The Night of the Hunter — Charles Laughton's one and only film as a director and one of the strangest, most beautiful thrillers ever made. They dig into what Robert Mitchum's preacher is doing that makes him so deeply unsettling, how Laughton's own theatrical background shaped every frame of this film, and why it bombed on release before becoming one of the most...

Riley and Mark dig into On the Waterfront — Elia Kazan's 1954 masterpiece and the film most people point to when they talk about what method acting looks like at its best. They get into what Brando is doing scene by scene that no one had done before, the film's complicated political subtext, and whether Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint get enough credit for holding their own. The 'I cou...

Riley and Mark take on Since You Went Away — the 1944 wartime drama following an American family while the father serves overseas. They dig into how the film navigates propaganda and genuine emotion, what Claudette Colbert and a very young Jennifer Jones bring to their roles, and whether a nearly three-hour wartime tearjerker still earns its runtime. Made while the war was still happening — that c...

Riley and Mark dig into A Tree Grows in Brooklyn — Elia Kazan's directorial debut and one of the most quietly devastating family dramas Hollywood ever produced. They get into what James Dunn does in his Oscar-winning role, how Dorothy McGuire holds the whole film together, and why this movie gets overlooked despite being genuinely great. Kazan would go on to define American film acting — this is w...

Riley and Mark take on 3 Godfathers — John Ford's 1948 Western in which three outlaws crossing the Mojave desert become unlikely protectors of a newborn child. They dig into the film's quiet religious allegory, what John Wayne does in a role that requires more restraint than he usually gets credit for, and whether Ford's sentimentality earns its tears. A Christmas movie in December that doesn't fe...

Riley and Mark dig into Beyond Tomorrow — a 1940 Christmas fantasy that most people have never heard of and probably should. They get into what makes it feel different from other holiday films of the era, whether the ghost story premise actually works, and why a movie this charming managed to fall through the cracks of film history. Consider this your introduction.

Riley and Mark dig into The Jazz Singer — the film that introduced synchronized sound to Hollywood and changed everything overnight. They get into what it actually feels like to watch the moment sound arrives on screen, the complicated legacy of Al Jolson, and whether this is a great film or just a historically important one. That distinction matters more than it might seem.

Riley and Mark tackle Intolerance — D.W. Griffith's massive 1916 epic, made partly in response to the controversy surrounding Birth of a Nation. They get into what it's like to watch four parallel storylines cut between each other across three-plus hours, whether the ambition justifies the runtime, and what Griffith's filmmaking contributed to cinema despite the deeply troubling legacy behind it....

Riley and Mark take on Metropolis — Fritz Lang's towering science fiction epic and one of the most ambitious films ever made. They dig into how Lang built an entire city on screen in 1927, what the film's class warfare story is actually trying to say, and whether the heart-mediates-between-head-and-hands message lands or falls flat. Nearly 100 years old and it still looks like nothing else.

Riley and Mark tackle The General — Buster Keaton's Civil War epic and arguably the greatest action film of the silent era. They dig into how Keaton pulled off one of the most dangerous stunts in film history with no safety net, what sets his deadpan style apart from Chaplin, and why this film flopped on release before becoming a classic. The Chaplin vs. Keaton conversation is unavoidable and they...

Riley and Mark dig into Modern Times — Charlie Chaplin's final appearance as the Tramp and one of the great arguments for silent film in the sound era. They get into what makes Chaplin's physical comedy hold up nearly 90 years later, what the film is actually saying about industrialization, and whether Paulette Goddard is as under-appreciated as she should be. Pure physical performance with no dia...

Riley and Mark take on Psycho — the film that single-handedly changed what horror movies were allowed to do. They dig into why killing off your protagonist in the first act was so shocking, what Anthony Perkins brought to Norman Bates that no one else could have, and whether the film's psychiatrist ending is as clunky as it feels. Perkins was a stage actor before Hollywood found him — that backgro...

Riley and Mark tackle The Birds — Hitchcock's most audacious and deliberately unexplained film. They get into why the complete absence of a reason for the attacks is a feature rather than a flaw, what Tippi Hedren is doing in a role that's easier to underestimate than it should be, and whether the film's ending is brilliant or a cop-out. Fifty years of debate on that last question and it still isn...

Riley and Mark take on Vertigo — Hitchcock's most psychologically complex film and arguably his most divisive. They dig into whether Scottie Ferguson is a tragic hero or just a deeply troubled man, what Kim Novak does that most people underestimate, and why the film's final act still unsettles audiences 65 years later. One of the few Hitchcock films where the performance carries more weight than t...

Riley and Mark kick off Movie Nights with Dad with Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window — a near-perfect thriller built entirely inside a single apartment. They dig into Hitchcock's voyeuristic setup, what James Stewart and Grace Kelly are actually doing beneath the surface, and whether the film's suspense still holds up 70 years later. A single-set film reviewed by a man who has spent decades on stage...