The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm Podcast

Corbin and Ellis are joined by MATEA, Portland's Elvira ( Letterboxd here, subscribe today !), for a conversaion about the early indie horror touchstone "Let Scare Jessica to Death." Topics include: the shifting uses of mental health care as a literary device, the bitter end of the sixties playing out on screen, the thin line between madness and a vampire invading your mind, and the movie's wild s...

Corbin and Matt talk about "The Apprentice," a movie that persues an impossible goal and comes out Interesting. Topics: Sebastian Stan, who is incredible, where orbin was when Trump won, Fred Trump, and how "Humanization" is actually like, the only honest way of telling this story.  Corbin reccomends "Persona 5," he guesses. Available wherever you buy games. Matt reccomends "It Happened One Night,...

Ellis and Da Corb talk about "The Breaking Ice," a lil' character drama about three people in a chilly city on China's border with North Korea. Topics: America in the 50's and China in the now's, capital's universal qualities, China's particular qualities, and a depressing story that happens in a Safeway. Watch the movie here .  Ellis's reccomendation can be heard here . He totally reccomended it...

Cory Atad (The Baffler) Joins Dr. Movies and The Corb to talk about "MEGALOPOLIS," a movie about Francis Ford Coppola getting extremely baked and creating a drastically less efficent method of public transit.  Corbin writing this right now just wants to say: my opinion on this movie has curdled into something meaner and less forgiving after recording this episode. I have come to think of it as a m...

Matt and Corbs talk about the recently departed Frederic Jameson and his thoughts on VIDEODROME, David Cronenberg's 1983 masterpiece about the terrifying merger of man and machine occuring en masse in front of your very eyes and also the pleasures and perils of having a gigantic hole in your abdomen that someone can stick living videotapes inside, compelling you to murder people on behalf of a sha...

Jackie Chan. Early eighties. Fred Astaire. Buster Keaton. Buddy if you need convincing to watch The Young Master please, get your fun switches cleaned.  Check out a good essay about Jackie here . Corbin reccomends a sandwhich. Next week's episode is about VIDEODROME. Then: MEGAOLOPOPPOIS! 

Big Matt and Lil' Corbs talk about 'CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI,' a movie about a dissident who get sent to the world's cruddiest village by Benito Mussolini. He learns lessons. Topics include: Pringles, anarchism, its similarities and differences to "The Tree of Wooden Clogs," another movie about pesants, and which came first: Christianity or History?  Matt reccomends Roger Waters' new Dark Side of t...

Ellis and the Corbot talk about "DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD," Radu Jude's recent bang bang exploration of the feeling of being alive under late capitalism. Subjects include: terrible Romanian techno, exploitated people observing other exploited people for the purpose of exploitation, and international business's wholesale domination of our lives. Corbin reccomends concerts by...

Ellis and Corbin talk about "The Rocketeer," a Walt Disney Live Action Classic™ about a guy who acquires a Rocketpack and becomes... not like, a superhero but like... a guy with a jetpack and good intentions?  Topics include: Fredric Jameson, the nexus of technological emergence in turn of the century California, and the deep and profound tragedy at the center of this movie: lazy casting.  Corbin...

Ellis and Corbs talk about "Los Angeles Plays Itself," Thom Anderson's lengthy video essay about Movie City's place in the Movies, and the Movies place in Movie City. Topics include: Modernist Architecture: is it evil? The germ of the other American cinema we see in the end of this movie, and filming driving in Los Angeles and in Portland.  Corbin's reccomendation is an album, you can find it on a...

Corbin, Matt, and SPECIAL GUEST MATEA (Check out her ROBUST Letterboxd here ) talk about CRUEL INTENTIONS, a truly wild erotic thriller/black comedy from the precise moment when the Americans were most sick and tired of their own bullshit. Topics include a lengthy diatribe about Clinton and Bush, the gauzy-TV look of the movie, and the movie's depiction of Step-sisters as well as the culture's. Ch...

Big Corbs and the El Train talk about "All That Heaven Allows," Douglas Sirk's MASTERFUL melodrama about conformity, love, and how your daughter likes Freud too much. Topics: Digital Restoration: Not Actually That Bad, justice for the daughter, television, and the relationship between beaknikism and nostalgia.  Good essay about the movie here . Matt's reccomendation is in theaters. Corbin's is Tet...

Corbin and Ellis talk about NORTH BY NORTHWEST, a movie about Cary Grant, world class charmer, getting chased around America by a faint idea about the Cold War. Topics: Grant, who is charming and handsome, the movie as a of proto-action thriller and how it succeeds and doesn't in that capacity, and style Hitch vs. Neurosis Hitch.  Matt's reccomendation may or may not be in theaters. Corbin reccome...

Ellis and Corbin talk about "THE RULES OF THE GAME," and are kind of bowled over by how much there is in it. Topics include: farce in collapse, the movie's technical achivements, and how it functions as a frustrated, bordering on nihlistic flipside to Renoir's other prewar masterpiece.  Corbin reccomends "Link's Awakening," available on your Nintendo Switch or your Nintendo Game Boy. Matt reccomen...

Matt and Corbin talk about THE ROARING TWENTIES, a remarkably sedate gangster picture featuring the talents of JAMES CAGNEY, America's mean lad. Topics include: a weirdly progressive view on the twenties, Bogey, and Matt's band. Matt reccomends this song .  Corbin reccomends the act of zoning out in front of Mario Kart. Next week's episode is about "The Rules of the Game," a very famous movie. Wat...

Ellis and Smith discuss 'Another Round,' Danish director Thomas Vinterberg's tribute to the wonder and dangers of both booze and male friendship. We discuss the little liberation of .05, the modern condition vs the human condition, and MADS. Ellis reccomends 'The Roaring Twenties,' which talk about on next week's episode. Watch it here . Corbin reccomends 'Doppelganger,' a book by Naomi Klein, ava...

Corbin and Matt talk about LOST HORIZON, Frank Capra's fantasy movie about how the road to utopia runs through the elimination of soceity. Corbin gets a little irritated. Corbin's reccomendation here . Matt reccomends Tubi.  Next week's episode is about 'Another Round,' which you can watch here .   

Ellis and Corbin talk about "GOOD MORNING," Ozu's little fable about two brave little boys and their quest to acquire the most forbidden of all fruits... a television. It's also about adults running their mouths.  Matt and Corbin both reccomended books . Corbin also reccomends "Hit Man," the new Richard Linklatter movie, which you can watch on Netflix (Ugh). Next week's episode is about Frank Capr...

Folks it's time to say "Symptomatic," because we're watching SHANE! Topics include: why is this movie basically Heaven's Gate, the weird glimpse of Hollywood's narrative future it provides, and just how guilt a violent person needs to feel to experience some degree of redemtpion in the eyes of the audience. Warning: Corbin sounds a little weird  Watch Corbin's reccomendation here . Matt reccomende...

Hey! Me and Matt had a little scheduling SNAFU this week so we are releasing and episode we recorded a while back, just in case we got off schedule. It's about "Werckmeister Harmonies," a movie by Bela Tarr, Mr. Turin Horse Himself.  Watch Corbin's reccomendation here , if you dare. Matt's can be listened to here .  Next week's episode has been AUDIBLED. We are doing "SHANE," the western classic b...

This movie whips so hard. Listen to me and Matt try to say something aside from "this whips." Watch it here . Check out Matt's reccomendation here . Corbin's reccomendation is currently in theaters. Next week's episode is about "Mephisto," which you can watch here .   

Corbin and Matt, two male American movie enthusiasts, watched a Martin Scorsese movie, so you KNOW they're juiced. Topics include: what in the movie ACTAULLY a little blasphemous, the ongoing translations of Judas in these movies, David Bowie's Stoic Pilate, and Peter Gabriel. Corbin's reccomendation can be acquired here . Matt's is here . Next week's episode is about TOUCH OF ZEN, which can be se...

Corbin and Matt talk about THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW, Marxist Neorealist Pier Paolo Pasolini's pretty straight on take on the book of Matthew. Topics: Where's Mary Magdeline?, a political Jesus, yet another disappointing crucifixion, and the temptation to find some sense in Judas. Check out a good essay on the move here . Corbin's reccomendation  can be seen on Mubi , if you're that ki...

This week, Corbin and Ellis talk about THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, a lengthy epic about Jesus from right before New Hollywood started. Topics: Max Von Sydow, John Wayne, Political Jesus, and Nikolai Jokic.  Next week (By this I mean in the next few days, on account of this episode's lateness) we are talking about THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW, a neorealist take on the story of Jesus, whi...

In this, the first episode of TPNWICMFP's first ever JESUS MONTH, Corbin and Matt discuss "KING OF KINGS," a silent picture (With color segments!) from the father of the film epic, CECIL B. DEMILLE. Topics include: why we aren't we doing one specific movie, DeMille's odd theater aesthetic, the scenes that work (The Ressurection!), the scenes that don't (The Crucifixion), and the question of sin-em...