That 70s Movie Podcast

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Michael and Jonathan jump in the ocean for the 1975 thriller, "Jaws." Though we usually see eye to eye (or at least close to it), it was "disagreement" week on the podcast. Michael argued that Jaws is peak joyride filmmaking, with great character development, director Steven Spielberg's masterful ratcheting up of...

Send us Fan Mail This week on "That 70s Movie Podcast," Jonathan and Michael hit the frontlines for Woody Allen's 1975 comedy classic "Love and Death" and also his four other "early funny ones" - "Take the Money and Run," "Bananas", "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (*But Were Afraid to Ask)," and "Sleeper." I...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael are jumping in the phone booth for the 1976 crime drama, "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie." We loved the moral ambiguity at the heart of the movie, the focus on character over plot, the night-for-night shooting, and above all the extraordinary performance by Ben Gazzara as LA club owner -- and degenerate gam...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael climb the gate for the 1976 classic "Mikey and Nicky." We were thrilled to finally discuss a film directed by the legendary Elaine May -- one of the few female directors who cracked this glass ceiling in the male-dominated New Hollywood.  We loved May's directorial choices and her razor-sharp script. We...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael check under the hood for the 1971 cult classic "Two Lane Blacktop." We were joined this week by film critic extraordinaire and author of "Sofia Coppola: The Complete Unofficial Guide," Christina Newland. We talked with Christina about director Monte Hellman's existential approach to filmmaking...

Send us Fan Mail This week on that '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael get brutally honest about the 1989 indie classic, "Sex, Lies and Videotape." One of the credos of the podcast is that not every '70s film was made in the 1970s, and "Sex, Lies and Videotape," written and directed by Steven Soderbergh, is the kind of small, personal, character-driven film that...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael wave the white flag for the 1975 classic "Dog Day Afternoon." This is 70s, New York filmmaking at its absolute peak. Phenomenal acting performances from Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, and Chris Sarandon, inspired direction from the underappreciated master Sidney Lumet, Dede Allen's brilliantly...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael go the extra mile for the 1976 thriller "Marathon Man." While we enjoyed many of the stylistic elements of this film, we had a blast discussing the many glaring plot holes (we came up with 12), including poorly placed carriage bombs, bad tonsorial choices, inexplicable post-stabbing decision-making, strangel...

Send us Fan Mail ⁠Buy Us A Coffee⁠ ! This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael pour a tall one for the 1966 classic "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" In this episode, we marveled at the GOAT-level performances from Elizabeth Taylor (Martha) and Richard Burton (George), praised Mike Nichols' highly cinematic take on a classic American play, and debated what...

Send us Fan Mail This week on "That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael go up the river for the 1978 crime drama "Straight Time." We loved this nuanced and thematically rich late '70s cult classic, particularly for Dustin Hoffman's grounded and bravura =performance as Max Dembo, an ex-convict trying to follow the straight and narrow ... and failing miserably. But...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael hit the gas for Steven Spielberg's 1971 chase movie, "Duel." We talked at length about Steven Spielberg's legacy as a director and how "Duel" showcases his abundant skills but also shows a very un-Spielbergian edge. We praised the masterful ways Spielberg creates tension and suspense in t...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael press play for the 1971 psychological thriller, "Klute." We loved everything about this movie -- from Jane Fonda's unflinching portrayal of Bree Daniels, a Manhattan call girl caught up in a murder investigation led by Detective John Klute (played by Donald Sutherland), to Alan J. Pakula's inspired...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That 70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael separated the wheat from the chaff on the 1978 film "Days of Heaven" ... and we also remembered the career of Robert Duvall, who passed away last month. Both of us praised Duvall's extraordinary career and his roles in some of the greatest films of the 1970s. But we focused most of our discussion on his stell...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Jonathan and Michael grabbed some popcorn and headed to the local movie theater to check out  the 1971 coming-of-age story "The Last Picture Show." We talked at length about the uniformly extraordinary acting performances in this movie, from Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson to Cybil Shepherd and Ellen Burstyn; praised Peter Bogdanovich's fantastic directio...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Jonathan and Michael go high-speed on the 1971 classic "The French Connection." We talked at length about the film's multiple, bravura chase scenes and asked if the famous car-train sequence is even the best one in the movie! We debated whether Popeye Doyle, played by Gene Hackman, is a good cop, and questioned whether his character was too one-dimensiona...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael tackle the 1979 sports drama, North Dallas Forty. We talked at length about the evolution of sports movies and how the '70s were a golden age for gridiron warriors, punching pugilists, and biking Italians. We heaped praise on Nick Nolte's performance as well as G.D. Spradlin, Charles Durning, and Mac Davis i...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Jonathan and Michael jumped into the ocean to discuss the Robert Altman neo-noir classic, "The Long Goodbye."  We agreed that this is one of Altman's best-directed movies and a fantastic example of revisionist noir. We talked at length about Philip Marlowe's steadfast moral and ethical code, and how it ran headfirst into the changing social mores of...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael get lathered up for the 1975 classic "Shampoo." In this episode, we went deep on "Shampoo's" uniquely political frame; why the backdrop of the 1968 presidential election is its own character in the movie, and whether the film's critique of liberal apathy about the election of Richard Nixo...

Send us Fan Mail This week on that '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael are on a mission ... to talk about the 1967 neo-noir classic "Point Blank." Yes, we know this is not officially a '70s film, but in its structure, themes, and vibe, it fits very much with the New Hollywood of the 1970s. In fact, as we discuss in this episode, "Point Blank" laid the foundation...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael climb into bed for the 1969 Paul Mazursky-directed satire, "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." We both agreed that even though it was released in late 1969, the film qualifies as a '70s movie, both in terms of structure and content. We loved all four leading actors, notably Dyan Cannon and Robert C...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael decided to go in a different direction -- and turned on the green light to discuss the 2025 blockbuster "One Battle After Another." We talked about Paul Thomas Anderson's legacy as a director, the influence of '70s cinema on his filmmaking, and how this film was a departure in form from his previou...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael were joined by Ron Brownstein as we opened up the floodgates on the 1974 neo-noir thriller, "Chinatown." Ron has written extensively about Los Angeles in the 70s, and he regaled us with stories about the making of the film and, in particular, the drafting of Robert Towne's screenplay, which we all agree...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael turn the firehose on the 1974 disaster movie "The Towering Inferno." We praised the movie's stellar special effects and stunt work, as well as its suspenseful set pieces, while acknowledging that the acting and dialogue were perhaps not the best. We also talked about our favorite disaster movies, explor...

Send us Fan Mail This week on "That '70s Movie Podcast," Jonathan and Michael knocked on the door of the 1973 revisionist Western, "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid." We talked at length about James Coburn's astonishing performance as Pat Garrett and why this film is Sam Peckinpah's definitive statement on the Old West (we weren't shy, however, about addressing...

Send us Fan Mail This week on That '70s Movie Podcast, Jonathan and Michael had a worry-free conversation about the 1975 Robert Altman classic, "Nashville." We were joined by Northwestern University Communications Studies professor Heather Hendershot, who is the author of a recent BFI book on the movie. While Jonathan and Heather had nothing but praise for a film widely considered A...