Random Acts of Cinema

This year, Mike has selected Lawerence Kasdan's star-studded, rollicking western update as his "gift" for the birthday boy Charlie.  Why?  That's still a little unclear, but your hosts are still delighted by this crowd-pleasing action/western.  So gear up with your pearl-handled colt, fancy 2-gun rig, derringer, boot knife, or a Henry rifle for each hand and ride out with us to save Linda Hunt at...

We've come stumbling out of the desert to share a pretty big episode this week - well, at least its a big one for your two hosts - as we dive back into the landscapes of Wim Wenders in one of his many great meditations on manhood, families, and America.  And Harry Dean Stanton give a largely silent, but career-defining performance. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be disc...

Delmer Daves' all-time classic follows a struggling rancher (Van Heflin) who is recruited to transport a dangerous prisoner (Glenn Ford) to a train station, while being tracked by a violent gang of bandits.  But, since it's a 1950s western, what this movie actually is more of a rumination on what it means to be a man.  Turns out that punctuality is pretty important component of that definition. If...

Take a deep breath and get ready for the break-neck paced day in the life of ace reporter Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) and her conniving editor/ex-husband Walter Burns (Cary Grant) as love, life, and breaking the story are all on the line. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Delmer Daves'  3:10 to Yuma (1957)

This movie has a very accurate title. Director Irvin Yeaworth deserves some credit for this. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Howard Hawks'  His Girl Friday  (1940).

We return to the films of Nagisa Ōshima with a surprising erotic/crime thriller/ghost story set in… 19th-century Japan?  Sounds pretty awesome, right?  Well, guess what? (It is.) If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Irvin Yeaworth's  The Blob  (1958).

What happens when the high-art/low-art contemporary artist Takashi Murakami tackles the high-art/ low-art film genre of…outcast kid moves to a new town but then find a magical creature who he fights against other kids in formulaic Pokémon-esque battles in order to discover the true meaning of friendship?  Well, it turns out you kind of get a film using it's nostalgic fantasy format to grapple with...

Following last week's randomly-selected film, we are surprised that Randy has chosen for us another French absurdist comedy addressing the arbitrary and hypocritical nature of social standards of forbidden behavior.  However this time we're given s somewhat more conventional comedic approach with Sasha Guitry's examination of spousal murder and the odd reactions it can engender in so-called polite...

We're heading back into the biting, social satire of Luis Buñuel with this absurdist comedy Phantom of Liberty .  One scene blends into the next in this near-stream-of-consciousness dream-state that confronts the arbitrary standards of propriety that govern so-called polite society. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Sacha Guitry's Le Poison (195...

Are you ready for a tight, psychosexual thriller?  Well instead, how about a movie that everyone claims to be one of those while it's really mostly a swinging 60s freak-out set in London?  Really though, Michelangelo Antonioni's film is more about the power and violence of capturing life and illusions on film.  Do you want to watch that movie?  What if we promised you mimes...? If you'd like to wa...

Want to listen to two straight guys stumble their way through a reading of Pedro Almodóvar's classic film about a group of strong-willed Spanish women dealing with heartbreak, repression, insanity, and the harboring of terrorists… but it's like, funny?  This might not sound like a good sell, but we sure had fun. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing...

It turns out that well-regarded film preservationist and historian Martin Scorsese also makes movies!  And you know what? Some of them are surprisingly good.  And he made this one with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci (of all people) about the troubled life of boxer Jake La Matta.  It's a sports movie! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Pedro Almodóv...

Hee haw!  It's time to cash in with a guaranteed shot at commercial appeal with a Christmas classic!  But can Frank Capra and James Stewart's heartstring-tugging piece of nostalgia-driven  Americana break through our icy-cold critical defenses?  This holiday-feast-sized episode might just surprise you. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Martin Sc...

Come to think of it, we actually did watch an unofficial "snowy mining trilogy" with last week's McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Gold Rush. Because we ended up watching both the original 1925 version of Charles Chaplin's groundbreaking silent adventure AND the 1942 talkie re-release. Thank goodness.   If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Frank Capra's It'...

… [mumble]… [murmur]… robert… [murmur]… altman… [mumble]… [glasses clinking]… [distant laughter]… brothel… [fiddle tuning] western… beatty… [mumble]… christie… [door creaking]… snowy mining town… If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Charles Chaplin's  Gold Rush  (1925 and 1942).

This movie is about so much more than a rad futuristic red motorcycle ridden by a guy in a rad futuristic red leather jacket.  But don't worry, Katsuhiro Otomo's all-time classic cyberpunk anime is still about those two essential elements.  And I guess it's also about the struggle to find dignity and purpose in the face of the cruel militarized totalitarian dystopian future of 2019. If you'd like...

Ten years after having abandoned a incomplete film, associates of director Jean Renoir gathered the footage and put together this less-than-feature-length film about a two young men who decide to spice up an afternoon by seducing the naive, Parisienne daughter and mother who have come to the country to enjoy a bit of nature.  And one of these characters has an AMAZING mustache.  Listen to this epi...

Gus, River, and Keanu.  Barns falling from the sky, narcolepsy, and Shakespeare.  We know what you're thinking: it sounds like we're describing a movie about young male sex workers struggling to get by in the Pacific Northwest.  Pretty obvious stuff. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jean Renoir's  A Day in the Country  (1936).

This film, and consequently this episode and our discussion, demands a disclaimer up top about its troubling content.  As designed, Lars von Trier's  Antichrist  stoked controversy at its release with its graphic depiction of sex, violence, sadism, misogyny, and death.  If any listeners are sensitive to the discussion of these topics, they are encouraged to skip this episode.   Willem Defoe and Ch...

It's a Halloween miracle!  The kind where one of your favorite podcasts decides to release an episode about a spooky movie a day early so it comes out on the day in question.  Wow.  Good job, us.  We're watching the monster movie cult classic Equinox, which incorporates a sort of talent-reel of up-and-coming special effects maestro Dennis Muren into a mashed together series of narrative scenes dir...

A movie AND the book that it's based on?  What is this, an episode of Random Acts of Cinema or an episode of Chapter One: Take Two , amiright?  Well, it's actually both.  This week we've teamed up with Briana and Maddy to do what they do with Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's classic literary science fiction masterpiece  Roadside Picnic  and Andrei Tartovsky's classic cinematic science fiction masterp...

A historical-psycho-erotic surrealist film exploring themes of womanhood, Christianity, and Freudian-infused takedowns of family and cultural identity?  Plus vampires?!  Hey Criterion Collection: Get out of my head!  Director Jaromil Jireš serves up a whimsically horrifying dreamscape in this seminal Czech New Wave classic. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be reviewing an...

This movie has some killer credits: Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift star in a Vittorio de Sica directed, David Selznick produced, Christian Dior costumed, Truman Capote dialogued romance set during a single night in the main train station in Rome.  But does can a movie with these credits possibly live up to such lofty expectations? If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be...

It's always a special, if troubling, time on this podcast when another David Lynch film is randomly selected.  And this week we have his hotly-debated rejected-pilot-turned-feature film journey into the seductively decadent and disturbingly nightmarish world of Hollywood moviemaking. We even offer up our own - possibly original - interpretation of what the film is actually about.  And that's how y...

Look: will we talk about the use of split screen?  Of course we will.  Will we talk about this early breakout supporting role for John Travolta?  Yep.  Will we talk about how these and more contribute to the manner of director Brian de Palma?  You bet.  But mostly Mike and I have been desperate to talk about Stephen King on the podcast.  So get ready for lots of that.  And lots of pig's blood. If...