Random Acts of Cinema

Mike likes the sword hidden in a parasol. Charlie likes that it takes place during the Meiji era. But who are we kidding? The best part is that Toshiya Fujita's visually dynamic action/revenge film really lives up to the title. Lady. Snow. Blood. *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...

Satyajit Ray's first installment of the Apu Trilogy , reigns as one of the greatest depictions of humanity ever recorded on film.  But does it live up to all of the hype?  Yes.  It does.  What a stupid question. *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'...

"Punk rock died when the last kid said, 'Punk's not dead… punk's not dead.'"  Or maybe it died when Los Angeles punk frontman Jeff Bailey had to duck over the border into Mexico after stealing $1,000 and a handful of quaaludes from a club owner's safe.  Directors Allison Anders, Dean Lent, and Kurt Voss question all this and more in this classic independent film tracing the struggles of the band m...

You know those movies that are about a young person full of promise, who comes to the big city in search of fortune and fame, but inescapable poverty and exploitative gatekeepers drive them to crime, oh and these movies also have a really good soundtrack?  Well, this is one of those.  And it's probably the best version of all them, thanks to Jimmy Cliff. *Come support the podcast and get yourself...

Brian De Palma's Philadelphia-based thriller, steeped in paranoia-based conspiracy, pits a low-rent audio specialist (John Travolta) as an "ear witness" to an assassination.  He soon convinces a black-mailer (Nancy Allen) whose in over her head as his accomplice.  But deranged killer (John Lithgow) is out to tie off all loose ends.  All this and split screens! If you'd like to watch ahead for next...

Director Agnès Varda leads the viewer through over a decade in the lives of two friends, Apple and Suzanne, as they seek fulfillment and freedom, struggling against the demands of conservative French society over their bodies and presumed gender roles.  An emphatic and highly pragmatic celebration of liberal attitudes toward sex and abortion rights, the film sets itself the lofty task of trying to...

Czech director Juraj Herz takes us on a dreamlike journey into madness of an employee at a Prague crematorium both before and during the German invasion leading to the Second World War. Or is he really trying to account for the madness of collaboration in a nation struggling with its own involvement with the holocaust? Well, we certainly can't say, but this film certainly seems to ask that questio...

You know those drab, mid-century French films where pale, thin guys in suits stare at each other with blank, unreadable expressions on there faces while a voiceover drones on describing this inaction with a slight undercurrent of pseudo-nihilism?  But, like, it's somehow super thrilling AND deeply beautiful?  Robert Bresson brings his stripped-down style to this meditative procedural about a despo...

Now wait just a minute here.  Let me try to get this straight.  You mean to tell me that Jimmy Stewart is a new deputy sheriff in town that doesn't carry a gun, he avoids confrontation with a corrupt saloon owner, and Marlene Dietrich plays a brazen, world-weary singer with a heart of gold?  Well it sure seems like director George Marshall had exactly that in mind in this classic comedy western. *...

To steal (and completely spoil) Mike's joke from the very end of this episode: we hope that you're ready to listen to three men discuss 3 Women .  Because we're joined this week by Patrick O'Riley from the Vintage Video Podcast , who brings us Shelly Duvall and Sissy Spacek in Robert Altman's mind-bending, identity-shattering, dream of a film.  Or film of a dream? This is, apparently, up for debat...

John Singleton transforms the nostalgia-laden, American coming-of-age tale, establishing the iconic South Central setting at a crucial moment in American history.  Already a political film, the director anticipates the Los Angeles riots and secures gangsta rap as the hub of early 90s culture. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store .  T-shirt...

Like the Documentary Now! spoof, we're really more interested in our protagonist Nanook (Allakariallak) than the admittedly-groundbreaking documentarian Robert J. Flaherty.  And sure, it's obviously staged.  But our survivalist hero sure knows how to use the hell out of a walrus tusk knife.  It's mesmerizing. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch...

Uh oh. It's a movie based on a play. Can the screen presences of Hollywood legends Sydney Poitier and Ruby Dee possibly transcend this stage-to-screen adaptation that only adds a couple of quick cut-away scenes of a single alternative setting to an otherwise one-room story? Well… yes. Pretty easily, it turns out.   If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and review...

Special guest Max Rieger joins us this week as we dive into the volatile and fascinating world of 1938 Mexico in order to follow the last day in the life of… an alcoholic English misanthrope played by hunky 1980s dreamboat Albert Finney.  Director John Huston's adaptation of Malcolm Lowry's so-called "unfilmable," semi-autobiographical novel is a raging, Joycian, stagger through a world on the pre...

Look, of course we want to just talk about Kevin Kostner's 1991 masterpiece (the one they got right).  But it's just not in the collection.  So I guess we'll just watch this "Prince of Thieves" adaptation starring some guy named Errol Flynn in a pointy hat and tights.  Maybe it's good? If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing John Huston Under the Volc...

Want to listen to a couple of dummies realize that there are such things as era-jumping supernatural romance films that are set in Hong Kong?  And that everyone else already knew this? No?  Well, at least they're happy to report that it was a delightful surprise when they finally got around to seeing Stanley Kwan's beloved film. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discuss...

Arousing action/drama by legendary director Robert Aldrich? Starring Jimmy Stewart?! Yes, please! Add to this some tense survival stakes, and a real man's-man ensemble cast, and a dusty Sahara-meets-Lifeboat-meets-The-Great-Escape plot contrivances, and you know you're in for a good time. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Stanley Kwan's  Rouge ...

Just in time for the spookiest day of the year, we take a look at Nicolas Roeg's classic meditation on death and loss set in perhaps the most melancholic and atmospheric place in the world.  Ah, Venice… Venice in the Winter, that is.  Things get sad and steamy for Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie who play a married couple mourning the death of a child try to move on while on a business trip am...

It's Fellini-time!  Somehow it took our random number generator 4 seasons to finally pick a film in the Criterion Collection by this legendary Italian director.  But is all of the glamour and allure only ephemeral vanity in the acrid meaningless of it all?  Hmmm, someone should make a movie about that… If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Nicolas R...

A "forgotten man" named Godfrey (played by the charming William Powell) finds a path to redemption when he's hired on as the butler to the rich, bored, and otherwise useless Bullock family… for some reason?  And he sure shows them a thing or two about their vapid existence as they all inevitably fall in love with him… for some reason?  Regardless, this is a top-form Depression-era Hollywood wish-f...

Perhaps the most Finnish way to make a love letter to Finland is to make a movie that emphasizes a kind of remote inhabitability of a place and its people.  No really: this movie about a deadpan population, their apathetic bureaucracy, an undercurrent of white nationalism in the streets of Helsinki, frigid weather, and truly unappetizing-looking food.  And somehow under the direction of Aki Kauris...

Time to mark off another square on your Terry Gilliam bingo card, because this week we are journey through time and space into the exquisitely crafted universe of a mad god.  Which, coincidentally, is also the plot of his movie. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Aki Kaurismäki's  The Other Side of Hope  (2017).

Content Warning: If you know, you know.  Because this is Funny Games .  A movie celebrated and criticized for its brutal and emotionally devastating depiction of violence, mental and physical torture, murder, and emotional distress.  We discuss these features directly in this episode and consequently not all listeners may want to listen along.  Skip this one if you are emotionally susceptible to t...

It turns out that while Mike knows EXACTLY what happed to the girls who disappeared on a school trip in Victoria on Valentine's Day 1900, Charlie really doesn't.  Director Peter Weir's period-set mystery explores the unknowable horror of gloves and corsets within the restrictive confines of the Australian landscape.  Or maybe its the other way around?  If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's...

It's weird to think of a film in the Criterion collection that took twelve years to make that doesn't involve production delays.  I mean, who does Richard Linklater think he is?  Some sort of anti-Gilliam: casting children with the intent that they will literally mature into their roles, smoothly wrangling a crew for over a decade, adapting to the passage of time, all with a seeming sense of ease,...