The Cold Open Podcast

In The Cold Open #26, The Force Awakens Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels begin with a brief discussion of Sisters, Krampus, and the magical powers of Whiskey Punch before getting to their SPOILER FILLED take on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. They dissect the film through varying lenses, including casting, writing, cinematography, editing, and audience reception. Of the many digressions alo...

In The Cold Open #25, the Thanksgiving Break Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels begin by discussing their favorite Thanksgiving related bits of media–A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving for Robert and the original Twilight Zone TV series for Matt. We then discuss, with many digressions along the way, Sicario, The Martian, Spectre, and Netflix’s Jessica Jones. Finally, we end the show by touc...

In the Cold Open #24, The Decline of Western Civilization/Back to School Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels begin by recounting their differing responses to a recent Wilco concert.  They then delve into Straight Outta Compton and Shaun the Sheep. Lastly, they discuss Penelope Spheeris’ astounding Decline of Western Civilization documentary trilogy, which has been remastered and released as...

In the Cold Open #23, the Maximum Security Media Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels reveal the five essential pieces of media they’d each choose to have for the rest of their lives were they forced to make that choice.  In addition to innumerable digressions about a little bit of everything, this includes discussions on the output of The Fall and The Avett Brothers, Max Ophüls’ The Ea...

In the Cold Open #22, the Doc Days of Summer Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels begin with a discussion of their recent early summer movie going experiences, including both Pitch Perfects, Mad Max: Fury Road (as well as its antecedents), Tomorrowland, Hot Pursuit, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ex Machina, and It Follows.  From there we move on to a close look at three documentaries recently rele...

In the Cold Open Podcast #21, The Fast and Furious Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels discuss their diametrically opposing points of view about Furious 7, the latest installment of the Fast and Furious franchise.  This leads to our talking about the prevalence of comic books as source material for movies and TV shows and whether or not we may be reaching a saturation point.  We then wrap th...

In The Cold Open Podcast #20, The March Madness Spring Break Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels revisit Television Delivers People, Richard Serra and Carlota Fay Schoolman’s landmark 1973 video art piece.  We look at it as a work of art in an of itself and also consider it in light of its considerable prescience as it applies to the rapidly changing landscape of contemporary televisio...

In The Cold Open Podcast #19, The Winter is Coming Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels start with an old man digression about weather that unexpectedly leads to our naming our favorite gambling movies, Robert Altman’s California Split and John Dahl’s Rounders.  We then go into a spoiler heavy break down of Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar as a singular film and in the context of both his car...

In The Cold Open Podcast #18, The Welcome to Fall Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels start off by discussing the lasting influence of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, which was released 20 years ago this month.  We then go into a spoiler heavy break down of David Fincher’s Gone Girl as a film and in the context of his career. Our outro this episode is Trent Reznor & Atticus...

In The Cold Open Podcast #17, The End of Summer Odds & Ends Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels talk about a little bit of everything.  First, we discuss how having children has ruined our love of summer and that somehow leads to a breakdown of The Rock and Robert’s undying adoration of bad movies (Roadhouse, Point Break, etc.).  Along the way we note how we deal with theater disruptions...

In The Cold Open Podcast #16, The TV of Our Lives Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels, two latchkey kids raised on TV, begin by discussing World Cup Soccer before moving on to the TV they’ve watched in their lives in five year intervals beginning at age five (1972 for Robert, 1974 for Matt). This sprawling discussion details the dramatic changes in the way TV is consumed that have occu...

In The Cold Open Podcast #15, The Welcome to Summer Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels begin by discussing Parquet Courts’ recent show at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland before segueing into a look at summer movie season so far.  We then wrestle with the implications of “Cahiers du Buffy,” Emily Nussbaum’s response to Matt Zoller Seitz’s “Please, Critics,...

In The Cold Open Podcast #14, The Once There Was Only Dark Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels begin by discussing Britney Spears’ Las Vegas show, Piece of Me and Best Picture winner 12 Years A Slave before moving on to Season Two of Netflix’s House Of Cards and the first edition of True Detective, HBO’s new anthology series.  Our outro this week is Britney Spears’ “Work B**ch,” the opening...

In The Cold Open Podcast #13, The Music of Our Lives Edition, two California kids, Matt Reynolds (SoCal) and Robert Sickels (NoCal) discuss the music they’ve listened to in their lives in five year intervals beginning at age five (1972 for Robert, 1974 for Matt). This wide-ranging and freewheeling discussion touches on the dramatic changes in the way music is consumed that have occurred over the c...

In The Cold Open Podcast #12, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels commence with a discussion of the implications of Andy Greenwald’s essay, “The Year TV Got Small.”  We then move on to Mob City, TNT’s “epic television event,” which is loosely based on John Buntin’s fantastic book, L.A. Noir. This ultimately leads to a far ranging discussion of Los Angeles as...

The Cold Open #6 features a conversation with producer and director Carl Deal, who has worked on films including Fahrenheit 9/11, Capitalism: A Love Story, Trouble the Water, and his latest doc, Citizen Koch (co-produced and directed with his partner, Tia Lessin), which recently had its world premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.  After discussing Carl’s work and the state of document...