Random Acts of Cinema

Legendary 1980s/90s Hong Kong/Hollywood action auteur John Woo sets an early pace for his legendary career with a period-kung fu movie about two swordsman-buddies caught in the midst of a bloody revenge plot between warring clans.  Spoiler alert: there's a martial arts master whose style is "asleep." Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server  here ! *Come support the podcast and get yourself o...

From the clanky jangle of that first Tom Waits song to that jangly clank of the last Tom Waits song, you know you are in for a treat.  Jim Jarmusch pops back up on the show with his humanist anthology of five stories set in cabs, each taking place in a different city on the same night.  Winona, Gena, Giancarlo, Armin, Rosie, Isaach, uh.. Beatrice, Roberto, and … Matti?  Look he went truly internat...

Cat, piano, well, watermelon, mirror, bananas.  You know, you're basic horror movie formula.  Director Nobuhiko Obayashi spins a eerily formulaic but wildly unanticipate-able story of teens.  And death. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here ! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store .  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more!...

What says "Merry Christmas" more than a sexy tale of infidelity and alienation set against the backdrop of soviet invasion and oppression?  In the Criterion Collection?  Not much. Join us as we discuss Phillip Kaufman's adaptation of Milan Kundera's novel of Prague Spring and its aftermath, starring some distractingly beautiful people. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server  here ! *Come su...

It's Orson Welles! It's Shakespeare! Everyone involved is at the top of their game! Filmed across continents on location! It was a labor of love 3 years in the making!  Yep. No problems here. None at all. No need to investigate further… Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here ! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store .  T-shirts, h...

Albert & Allen Hughes   take a stab at the classic tale of the American twentieth century with a star-studded cast and a sweeping narrative starting in the Bronx of 1968, the bloody jungles of Vietnam, back to a changed America, and then… an iconic 90s heist scene? Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here ! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at o...

David Lynch's follow-up to one of the most disturbing and lovingly crafted pieces of auteur cinema ever made is… an Oscar-bait biopic? Sure: he brazenly assaults Victorian (and maybe even a few modern) sensibilities by frankly visualizing the appearance and living conditions of a young man cast from polite society. And, yeah-yeah, who are the REAL monsters, amiright? But more that this, Lynch taps...

This week, it's Moonstruck.  Thank God: it's Moonstruck. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here ! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store .  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing David Lynch's  The Elephant Man (1980).

If you throw everything at the wall (romance, screwball comedy, noir thriller, globe-trotting action) you will ALMOST predict one of the great disasters of the twentieth century.  This coincidence is inevitably repeated a ton on the IMDb trivia page. But spare yourself from being spoiled and just watch Frank Borzage's charming tale of star-crossed lovers set against a backdrop of 1930s Hollywood g...

Get ready for another action-packed…Yasuhiro Ozu movie?  Well, at least compared to his other masterpieces.  Buckle up for this bracingly gentle study of a middle-aged married couple as they lightly bicker and tell harmless lies to one another all in service of slowly coming to understand and maybe even love each other.  Hope you survive the experience! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord serve...

Two unlikely kindred souls find purpose and companionship as they wander through the cross-continental 1970s in search of a sense of… just a little stability. Wim Wenders sets the tone for his career as a quiet student of humanity with a big ol heart. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server  here ! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch stor...

Is this the one where Keanu takes a bunch of future drugs?  I mean that DOES sound kind of like a Cronenberg movie…. No wait!  It's the head exploding one.  Except that maybe, just maybe, this early 80s psychic thriller offers a whole lot more than just exploding heads.  But don't worry: if you really like exploding heads, this film still has you covered. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord ser...

Soviet cinema at its most… spiritual?  Iconoclast director Sergei Parajanov's deeply personal exploration of the cultural echoes found in the life of 18th-century Armenian troubadour/monk Sayat-Nova uses manuscript-inspired tableaux vivants, exquisite staging, and a profoundly rich symbolic vocabulary to sneak this one past the censors.  Sort of. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server  here...

Content warning: this film contains depictions of suicide. Come check out Mike and Charlie realizing exactly what they've gotten themself into AFTER watching this movie and getting about halfway through our discussion about it.  Yukio Mishima and Domoto Masaki's rich confrontation of Noh-style staging with richly visualized sensuality propels a short film about a married couple's suicided followin...

Kansas.  The Great Salt Lake.  Peaches Christ.  Michael Varrati.  Abandoned carnival.  Am I listing the components of an unlikely-to-happen but likely-to-be-wild road trip?  Or is it the perfect formula for a really fun episode where two of our favorite guests return to discuss the weirdly atmospheric ultimate-indie horror film?   Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here ! *Come support...

Directing duo Arie and Chula Esiri tell two separate stories of would-be Nigerian emigrants navigating through a dehumanizing world that uses poverty and debt to perpetuate a cycle of exploitation that cares little for dignity and decency.  Beautifully shot on film on location in Lagos, Mofe and Rosa each strain towards a better life. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server  here ! *Come sup...

Look: if for some reason you DON'T want to watch Richard E. Grant rant about the entrenched conspiracy between the wretchedly corrupt spheres of big business and government in the form of consumer advertising, then I guess this isn't the movie and podcast episode for you.  And if you still aren't interested once you learn that it's a HandMade Films production reuniting Grant with director Bruce Ro...

Balancing on the razor-thin edge between the pedantic "what would REALLY happen if a guy kept slowly shrinking?" with "sure nerd, but let's still make it a fun story", Jack Arnold directs a domestic drama, a survivalist story, and everything in between as he questions foundational questions of existing in his classic science fiction tale.  Perceptions of safety, masculinity, and the infinite shift...

In celebration of Fred Olen Ray's 70th birthday, we're sharing an bonus episode of  Going Over Our Freds (a podcast hosted by our past-guests Kennedy and Meridith) that Mike joined in on a while back.  Enjoy their discussion of Cyberzone  (also known as Droid Gunner ), starring… Marc Singer!

Kevin Allison ( Risk! and The State ) joins us to talk about Kyoshi Kurosawa's hypno-thriller - a term I've invented which cheapens the film - and he directs the conversation toward Carl Jung's concept of the "shadow", which thankfully re-elevates the film. Join our  Patreon and support the podcast!  Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here ! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or...

This week the question is asked: does having had read The Deadly Percheron  enhance the viewing experience of this grimy, English, 80s neo-noir about sex work, blackmail, and unrequited love?  It turns out that this doesn't really matter, because… Bob Hoskins. Join our  Patreon and support the podcast!  Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here ! *Come support the podcast and get yourself...

Coming of age story?  Sexual awakening?  Road trip movie?  These all characterize Alfonso Cuarón's tale of two young men and  one women whose lives intersect for a brief period one summer… kind of.  While this film displays a keen understanding of convention it constantly subverts expectations and values along and becomes something all the more charming, touching, challenging, and political at hea...

  Certainly not the arty-ist neo-noir ever made, but it's certainly the most Jean-Pierre Melville-ian neo-noir ever made.  And that's more than enough to make this one of the most widely-beloved of all Criterion films.  Alain Delain (who sadly passed away between our record and the release date for this episode) brought Tokyo-cool, Parisian romanticism, and American grime to this epitome of the "c...

Can Master Wong navigate China into the 20th-century and past the obstacles of modernity, invasive western culture, and a whole host of outside threats to tradition?  Of course he can.  But even he's got to admit: he looks pretty good in a boater hat and sunglasses.  Tsui Hark's epic kung fu period action/comedy pits western powers, local corruption, modern technology, and the stubborn refusal to...

When 20 or so upper class reveler's end up at a post-opera gathering hosted by one of their peers, everything seems perfectly… polite.  But then director Luis Buñuel imparts upon them the one unbreakable rule of the film: no one can ever leave the well-appointed drawing room.  Ever.  What follows is a study in the logistics of human survival, depravity, and an allegory of the lies we tell ourselve...