MRAC Film Club

Episode 142 - Happy 4th of July! As this episode is released it is July 4th, and what better way to celebrate the Independence Day of the United States than to celebrate a national treasure: Nick Cage. We wrap up our Nick Cage month with The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022). This one stars Nick Cage playing himself, and Pedro Pascal as a Cage fan who hires him to appear at his birthday....

Episode 141 - Pack your bags, we are headed to the bayou and the city of New Orleans to watch some more Cage being Cage. Bad Lieutenant; Port of Call New Orleans (2009) stars Nick Cage as a loose cannon of a police lieutenant and was directed by another MRAC favorite Werner Herzog. This one had the potential of being an MRAC favorite but ended up being decisive for reasons you will have to tune in...

Episode 140 - What's better than a movie with Nick Cage? How about a movie with 2 Nick Cages? This week we get meta with the story of Charlie Kaufman (played by Nick Cage) as he struggles to adapt the screen play for the novel The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (played by Meryl Streep). Directed by Spike Jonze, this one is a modern meta classic that features and additional Cage who plays his own...

Episode 139 - Pack your bags! The time has finally some. We have been talking for years about a Nicholas Cage month and that month is now. This month is what we like to call our Lottery style, where we choose one theme submitted by three of us and then each of us takes turns choosing a film each week. For week 1 we are diving in head first with Brian's choice; Mandy (2018). Panos Cosmotos dire...

Episode 138 - Pack your bags and get ready to leave our nation's capital because it is our last month of Top Dog month. But before we leave we watch and discuss Adam McKay's Vice (2018). Vice is a somewhat satirical biopic on Dick Cheney and how he shaped the presidency and politics of his time, spanning 4 decades. We end the month where we began it with a discussion of historical accuracy...

Episode 137 - Pack your bags because we are headed back to the US of A. We recorded this on Memorial Day so Happy Belated Memorial Day everyone. For this week we watch and discuss a complicated figure in our nation's history; Richard Nixon. Frost/Nixon is a 2008 historical fiction directed by Ron Howard. It is a dramatized account of the legendary interviews of the former president Nixon by Da...

Episode 136 - Pack your bags, we are headed to the Soviet Union under the rule of Joseph Stalin. This week we watch and discuss The Death of Stalin (2017), a dark comedy about the death of Stalin (it's not just a clever name) and the ensuing struggle for power amongst his underlings. DISCLAIMER: This episode we had some technical issues due to internet issues. As result there may be some jumps...

Episode 135 - Pack your bags, we are headed to the nation of Tamainia circa 1940. It is week 2 of Top Dog month, a month focusing on films related to authoritarian rule and struggles within government. This week we are watching Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) which features Chaplin playing dual roles as a Jewish barber/ WW1 vet, as well as the dictator Adenoid Hynkel, which is a sa...

Episode 134 - Pack your bags, we are headed to England during the reign of King Henry the 8th. Why? Because it's Top Dog month, and for the next 5 weeks we will be exploring authoritarian rulers and struggles within government. And boy does this week start off with a bang. The discussion gets "fiery" for the film Firebrand (2023). Firebrand is a historical fiction film set during the...

Episode 133 - Pack your bags, and get ready to possibly leave Japan if you can survive the journey through the dark bamboo forest. This week we wrap up our month in Japan by watching and discussing Kuroneko (1968). Directed by Kaneto Shindo, Kuroneko is a classic Japanese supernatural story set during a time of civil war in Japan. After two women are murdered by a gang of samurai, the samurai go m...

Episode 132 - Pack your bags, and make sure you pack lightly because you might have to walk 200 miles across Burma. This week we are watching and discussing The Burmese Harp (1956), a story of a Japanese soldier in WW2 Burma. After the war ends, the solder, Mizushima, goes through a spiritual transformation and adopts the lifestyle of a buddhist monk. A classic Marco choice, join us as we go throu...

Episode 131 - Your bags are packed, but hopefully you packed a proper sword, because this week we dive into a couple of classic samurai films with Harakiri (1962) and the required supplemental Samurai Rebellion (1967). You won't want to miss this episode since one of these films joins the elite MRAC Honors society which has been given to only two other films that we all unanimously rated it a...

Episode 130 - Pack your bags! We are headed back to Japan by none other than our resident Japanophile, Marco. The theme of this month is a cinematic critique of Japanese history, and week 1 we watch and discuss the film The Life of Oharu (1952) directed by the great Kenji Mizoguchi. This film looks at the treatment of women and the overall social structure of feudal era Japan through the perspecti...

Episode 129 - Pack your bags and don't forget to pack your funny bone. We are headed to Transylvania to wrap up spring break and our Gene Gone Wilder month. This week we watch another classic, Young Frankenstein (1974), written by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, directed by Mel Brooks. A parody of the classic story of Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein stars Wilder along side Peter Boyle, Madeline K...

Episode 128 - Pack your bags because we are headed to the Wild West, as seen though the eyes of comedy legend Mel Brooks. For the second time this month we enjoy the paring of Brooks and Gene Wilder as we watch and discuss Blazing Saddles (1974). Wilder plays the Waco Kid, who had the fastest hands in the west before crawling into a whiskey bottle. He teams up with newly appointed Sheriff Bart (Cl...

Episode 127: Pack your bags, we are headed to the land of chocolate. It's week 2 of Gene Wilder month, and this week we are looking at the classic Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory (1979), a tale of Charlie Bucket and 4 horrible children as they journey through the chocolate factory of Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder). We break it down and discuss watching this growing up as well as our observati...

Episode 126 - It's Spring Break! So, back your bags because we are headed to... Gene Wilder? Yes it's Gene Gone Wilder month for March and we will be breaking down the film career of comedy legend Gene Wilder. For week 1 we start at the beginning with his first major film role and the first of his collaborations with the great Mel Brooks. In The Producers (1967) Wilder stars an accountant...

Episode 125 - Pack your bags, and make sure to pack some bootlegged whiskey, because we are headed to prohibition times Chicago to wrap up DePalma month. This week we watch and discuss The Untouchables (1987) which is one of DePalma's more well know films, stars Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert DeNiro. Based on the story of Elliot Ness vs Al Capone and the the war on illegal booze in the...

Episode 124 - Pack your bags because we are headed to Los Angeles CA, a departure for DePalma and his East Coast set thrillers. This week we are watching and discussing Body Double (1984), which is about a struggling actor who is looking for an apartment and ends up stumbling into quite the situation when he witnesses an eyeful from the window of the home he is house sitting for in the Hollywood h...

Episode 123 - It's week 3 of DePalma Month, and we are bringing out the big guns for this one. We welcome DePalma fan and horror podcasting legend, the southern gentleman himself Gregamorits from the Land of the Creeps podcast. Greg helps us break down the conspiracy thriller Blow Out (1981), as well as some discussion of the supplemental Snake Eyes (1998). We had a lot of fun with this one an...

Episode 122 - Welcome back to DePalma month. This week we are joined by one of our old friends OOTim. If you enjoyed OOTim's analytical breakdown of Blade Runner, then you are sure to enjoy his breakdown of a less analyzed film; The Fury (1977). The Fury is DePalma's lesser known psychic supernatural thriller film that came out in the mid-1970's. The more well-known version of this would be Carrie...

Episode 121 - Pack your bags! We're headed to Staten Island via New Jersey and NYC, because it's Brian DePalma month and we are watching and discussing Sisters (1972). Brian DePalma has an enormous resume spanning decades through various genres from cult classics to blockbuster hits. For this month we are focusing on the genre he is most know for, thrillers, and starting at the beginning w...

Episode 120 - This is the time of the year we look forward to most of all. It's a time for us to reflect on all of the films we watched this year on MRAC and give out our annual awards. We have 26 awards to give out, plus additional awards we may have added or forgotten. Plus QQ may do her thing and add an award, and we might get an appearance from another feline. Anything can happen on the aw...

Episode 119 - We are wrapping up French Romance Month this week as we watch and discuss The Science of Sleep (2006). This is a quirky film by the great Michel Gondry which features his signature stop motion animation and dreamlike imagery through the story of Stephane, who comes to France from Mexico for a job opportunity, and meets Stephanie. The story blends dream and reality as Stephane confuse...

Episode 118 - This week we are still in France covering another unconventional romance film. This week we watch and discuss The Man Who Loved Women (1977) directed by Francois Truffaut. In this film the man, named Bertrand, really loves women. The film begins with his funeral and then through a series of flashbacks we witness his escapades and his love of women. One of us did not like this film an...