Sibling Cinema

Episode 50: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN Not really a Halloween movie, but pretty scary nonetheless. This week we talk about the Coen brothers' lone Best Picture winner, No Country for Old Men. Released in 2007, it follows Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss, a Texas man on the run from a deadly assassin, Anton Chigur, played menacingly by Javier Bardem. Tommy Lee Jones plays the weary lawman desperately t...

Episode 49: WEST SIDE STORY Could it be? Yes, it could. Something's coming, something good. You don't have to wait. Bernstein. Sondheim. Robbins/Wise. It could only be West Side Story , and we've got a podcast all about the 1961 film version. Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer star as star-crossed lovers, but it's Rita Moreno who steals the show as Anita. West Side Story won the Best...

Episode 48: REBECCA Last night, we dreamt we went to Manderley again . . . but we really we just watched a classic movie about it. The 1940 Alfred Hitchcock mystery Rebecca is the subject of our podcast this week. Joan Fontain plays a timid young woman who married a mysterious, wealthy widower, Maxim de Winter, played by Laurence Oliver. When she returns to his famed estate, Manderley, the newly w...

SPECIAL EPISODE: THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987) This week we're taking a brief break from our countdown of Best Picture winners to talk about a movie that got nowhere near Best Picture when it was released in 1987. It's the The Princess Bride directed by Rob Reiner and based on the book by William Goldman. Why you ask are we breaking form this week? That's not your concern. Just buckle up f...

Episode 47: THE DEER HUNTER This week, we discuss our final Vietnam film, Michael Cimino's 1978 epic The Deer Hunter. Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage play three steel town friends whose lives are changed forever when they depart for Vietnam. Also starring Meryl Streep, The Deer Hunter won the Best Picture Oscar for 1978. It ranks #23on our countdown.* Join us next week for ...

Episode 46: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING Join us for this week's podcast as we simply walk into Mordor with Frodo, Sam and Gollum, and also check in with the myriad of other characters in this final installment of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptation. Return of the King was released in 2003 and won the top prize at the Oscars (TM) for the year. We also watched the prev...

Episode 45: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930) This week, we discuss the oldest movie remaining: the Best Picture winner from the third Academy Awards (TM) ceremony covering the years 1929-1930. All Quiet on the Western Front is an early sound film based on Erich Maria Remarque's 1929 German novel. The film follows very young men who eagerly sign up for service in World War I. They soon com...

Episode 44: ROCKY We're heading back to the 1970's, with John Avildsen's 1976 classic underdog tale, Rocky. Written by and starring Sylvester Stallone, this story of a Philadelphia-based, down-on-his-luck boxer who gets the opportunity of his life from heavy-weight champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Rocky's changing fortunes also impact his inner circle: girlfriend Adrian (Talia S...

Episode 43: THE DEPARTED This week we discuss the 2006 crime thriller The Departed , which may or may not be Bonnie's first Martin Scorsese movie. The film stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Matt Damon facing off as double agents straddling both sides of the law. The star-studded cast also features Jack Nicholson as a Boston mob boss, Vera Farmiga as a state psychiatrist, plus Martin Sheen, Mark Wah...

Episode 42: THE SOUND OF MUSIC Join us for a discussion of the beloved musical The Sound of Music. Robert Wise directs this film adaptation of Rogers and Hammerstein's final musical about the Von Trapp family in Austria in the last golden days of the 1930s. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer star. It won the Best Picture Academy Award (TM) for 1965, and ranks #28 on our countdown. Tune in t...

Episode 41: MIDNIGHT COWBOY We've made it into the twenties on our Best Picture countdown and get to chew over John Schlesinger's polarizing 1969 drama Midnight Cowboy. This is our third episode on a Dustin Hoffman film, following Rain Man and Kramer vs. Kramer. Hoffman plays Ratso Rizzo, a lowlife con man, and Jon Voigt shares the lead as Joe Buck, a naive Texas whose dreams are dashed in...

Episode 40: 12 YEARS A SLAVE The subject of this week's podcast episode is Steve McQueen's harrowing depiction of slavery in the American antebellum South. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northrop, a free man from Pennsylvania who gets kidnapped and sold into slavery. Based on an actual slave narrative, the film also stars Lupita Nyong'o, Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Fassbender. It...

Episode 39: THE FRENCH CONNECTION We make another visit to the 1970s for this week's episode. The French Connection is a gritty crime drama that turned Gene Hackman into a leading man in 1971. Hackman plays Detective Popeye Doyle, a decidedly unglamorous narcotics investigator in New York City. He partners with Roy Scheider in an attempt to uncover a heroine smuggling operation. Known for its...

BONUS: EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's 2022 sci-fi comedy/drama/adventure is the subject of this bonus episode. It is not part of our Best Picture countdown, because it won the Best Picture Oscar after we started this thing. It stars Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis, in the story of a laundromat owner who's life gets turned...

Episode 38: IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT 1967 was a volatile year, and its Best Picture winner, Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night was a volatile picture in many ways. Rod Steiger plays a small-town Mississippi police chief who reluctantly accepts the help of a Philadelphia detective played by Sidney Poitier to solve the murder of a local VIP. The detectives clash with each other, but more...

Episode 37: SPOTLIGHT Our special guest star Lindsey is back by popular demand! She joins Bonnie and Dennis to break down the Best Picture Oscar winner from 2015, Tom McCarthy's Spotlight. The film follows the investigative reporting by a team of Boston Globe journalists as they uncover the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in the early 2000s. Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel McA...

Episode 36: FORREST GUMP We are back with another classic. Robert Zmeckis's 1994 smash hit Forrest Gump. It cleaned up at the box office and the Academy Awards, beating out stiff competition like Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption. Tom Hanks was at his peak as Forrest, as he takes us on a tour of 20th Century American history, along with Gary Sinise as Lt. Dan and Robin Wright as Jenny....

Episode 35: BEN-HUR We are back with another William Wyler picture. This is our second of the three Best Picture winners directed by Wyler. Perhaps his most famous production, the 1959 Biblical epic Ben-Hur features Charleton Heston as the title character. Based on Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, Ben-Hur cleaned up with 11 Oscars (TM) including Best Picture. How well does it hold up? Listen along as...

Episode 34: THE STING Director George Roy Hill reunites with his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford in The Sting, the winner of seven Oscars including Best Picture for 1973. Like Butch and Sundance, The Sting is an old-timey buddy picture fueled by charm and vibes, relying heavily on the charisma of its leads and the appeal of its period setting. The Sting trad...

Episode 33: THE LOST WEEKEND Writer/Director Billy Wilder is famous for his witty, cynical comedies, but his first Best Picture winner is the very serious expose on alcoholism, The Lost Weekend. Ray Milland stars as a writer whose life spirals out of control during a whiskey-fueled bender. It was the Academy Award winning Best Picture from 1945. Bonnie and Dennis caught up with The Lost Weekend an...

Episode 32: TITANIC The one and only Titanic is the subject of this week's episode. At the time of recording, we had no idea it would be in the news. James Cameron's romantic historical epic from 1997 is a movie Bonnie loves to hate. Did it improve on a rewatch? Tune in to find out! Starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio as the young lovers, Titanic  won the Best Picture Academy Awar...

Episode 31: FROM HERE TO ETERNITY Join hosts Bonnie and Dennis as they dive into the classic film, "From Here to Eternity," directed by Fred Zinneman, in the latest episode of Sibling Cinema. Prepare to be transported to the shores of Hawaii as they unravel the loyalties and betrayals of American servicemen and their love interests in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor....

Episode 30: THE HURT LOCKER Get ready for a fiery episode of Sibling Cinema as hosts Bonnie and Dennis lock horns in a heated debate over the war thriller, "The Hurt Locker." Will they find common ground or stand firmly on opposing sides? Explore the storytelling, suspense, and the extraordinary performance of Jeremy Renner that propelled "The Hurt Locker" to win multiple Acade...

Embrace the delightful eccentricities of "You Can't Take It With You" as Sibling Cinema brings you a whimsical episode like no other. Join hosts Bonnie and Dennis as they unravel the enchanting world of this classic Frank Capra comedy. Will they be swept away by the endearing quirkiness of the film or find themselves questioning its enduring popularity? Through lively discussions, th...

Prepare for an epic journey as Sibling Cinema dives into the enthralling world of "Gladiator." Join hosts Bonnie and Dennis as they unlock the secrets behind Ridley Scott's sweeping historical epic starring Russell Crowe. In this exhilarating episode, the siblings grapple with the grandeur and spectacle of the film, leaving you on the edge of your seat wondering whether they succumb...