The Recommendation Game

Robocop (1987) directed by Paul Verhoeven. Basil Poledouris In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) so they can use his...

Wendy and Lucy (2008) directed by Kelly Reichardt. Wendy (Michelle Williams), a near-penniless drifter, is traveling to Alaska in search of work, and her only companion is her dog, Lucy. Already perilously close to losing everything, Wendy hits a bigger bump in the road when her old car breaks down and she is arrested for shoplifting dog food. When she posts bail and returns to retrieve Lucy, she...

Thief (1981) directed by Michael Mann. A highly skilled jewel thief, Frank (James Caan) longs to leave his dangerous trade and settle down with his girlfriend, Jessie (Tuesday Weld). Eager to make one last big score in order to begin living a legitimate life, Frank reluctantly associates with Leo (Robert Prosky), a powerful gangster. Unfortunately for Frank, Leo wants to keep him in his employ, re...

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022) directed by Laura Poitras. From Academy Award winner Laura Poitras comes an epic, emotional and interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the opioid crisis. T...

EPISODE 200!!!! HOLY CRAP Lawrence of Arabia (1962) directed by David Lean. Due to his knowledge of the native Bedouin tribes, British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) is sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness) and serve as a liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks. With the aid of native Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif), Lawrence rebels against the...

After Life (1998) directed by Hirokazu Koreeda In this acclaimed Japanese film, a group of people who have recently died find themselves in a limbo realm resembling a relatively mundane building. Counselors, including Takashi (Arata) and Shiori (Erika Oda), are on hand to help new arrivals pick one memory from their lives to bring with them into eternity. Once the memories are chosen, the staff ma...

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) directed by Joseph Kosinski. After more than 30 years of service as one of the Navy's top aviators, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. Training a detachment of graduates for a special assignment, Maverick must confront the ghosts of his past and his deepest...

Museum Hours (2012) directed by Jem Cohen A Vienna museum guard befriends a visitor, and the two explore their lives, the city and the ways artwork reflects the world. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss it. Spoilers are a given. We are Ricardo Deakin and Orla McNelis,...

Tokyo Story (1953) directed by Yasujirō Ozu A profoundly stirring evocation of elemental humanity and universal heartbreak, Tokyo Story is the crowning achievement of the unparalleled Yasujiro Ozu. The film, which follows an aging couple’s journey to visit their grown children in bustling postwar Tokyo, surveys the rich and complex world of family life with the director’s customary delicacy and in...

The Hole (1998) directed by Ming-liang Tsai While never-ending rain and a strange disease spread by cockroaches ravage Taiwan, a plumber makes a hole between two apartments and the inhabitants of each form a unique connection, enacted in musical numbers. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and...

HAPPY HOLIDAAAAYS!!! Little Women (2019) directed by Great Gerwig. In the years after the Civil War, Jo March lives in New York and makes her living as a writer, while her sister Amy studies painting in Paris. Amy has a chance encounter with Theodore, a childhood crush who proposed to Jo but was ultimately rejected. Their oldest sibling, Meg, is married to a schoolteacher, while shy sister Beth de...

6 WHOLE YEARS! Happy Birthday to us This week's film is No Way Out (1987) directed by Roger Donaldson. Navy Lt. Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) meets a young woman, Susan Atwell (Sean Young), and they share a passionate fling. Farrell then finds out that his superior, Defense Secretary David Brice (Gene Hackman), is also romantically involved with Atwell. When the young woman turns up dead, Farrell is...

Le Havre (2011) directed by Aki Kaurismäki. In this warmhearted comic yarn from Aki Kaurismäki, fate throws the young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a kindly old bohemian who shines shoes for a living in the French harbor city Le Havre. With inborn optimism and the support of his tight-knit community, Marcel stands up to the officials doggedly...

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020) directed by Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross An intoxicating blend of documentary and fiction, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets surveys the bar-going life with a remarkably sober eye. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss it. Spoilers are a given....

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953) directed by Jacques Tati. When the ever-hapless Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati) decides to vacation at a beautiful seaside resort, rest and relaxation don't last long, given the gangly gent's penchant for ridiculous antics. While simply out to enjoy himself, the well-meaning Hulot inevitably stumbles into numerous misadventures, including an utterly disastrous attempt...

The Truffle Hunters (2021) dircted by Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw A handful of men search for rare, expensive, and delicious white Alba truffles deep in the forests of Piedmont, Italy. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss it. Spoilers are a given. We are Ricardo Deak...

The Killing (1956) directed by Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr., and Marie Windsor, The Killi...

Spencer (2021) dircted by Pablo Larraín. The marriage between Princess Diana and Prince Charles has long since grown cold. Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at the queen's estate. There's eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game, but this year, things will be profoundly different. This is The Recommendation Game, a...

Claire's Knee (1970) directed by Eric Rohmer. “Why would I tie myself to one woman?” asks Jerôme in Claire’s Knee, though he plans to marry a diplomat’s daughter by summer’s end. He spends his July at a lakeside boardinghouse, nursing crushes on the sixteen-year-old Laura and, more tantalizingly, her long-legged, blonde, older half sister, Claire. Baring her knee on a ladder under a blooming cherr...

Flee (2021) directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Flee tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband. Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, he tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee...

The Invisible Life Of Eurídice Gusmão (2021) directed by Karim Aïnouz. Kept apart by a terrible lie, years pass as two sisters forge their respective paths through their city's teeming bustle, each believing the other to be half a world away. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype t...

Petite Maman (2021) directed by Céline Sciamma. Nelly, an 8-year-old girl, has just lost her beloved grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother's childhood home. One day, her mom abruptly leaves, and Nelly meets a girl her age as she's building a tree house in the woods. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the o...

To Be or Not to Be (1942) directed by Ernst Lubitsch As nervy as it is hilarious, this screwball masterpiece from Ernst Lubitsch stars Jack Benny and, in her final screen appearance, Carole Lombard as husband-and-wife thespians in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who become caught up in a dangerous spy plot. To Be or Not to Be is a Hollywood film of the boldest black humor, which went into production right be...

Pig (2021) directed by Michael Sarnoski. Living alone in the Oregon wilderness, a truffle hunter returns to Portland to find the person who stole his beloved pig. This is The Recommendation Game, a bi-weekly podcast where two film lovers take turns to recommend a film the other has not seen, they watch and then skype to discuss it. Spoilers are a given. We are Ricardo Deakin and Orla McNelis, two...

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Young orphan Sheeta and her kidnapper, Col. Muska, are flying to a military prison when their plane is attacked by a gang of air pirates led by the matronly Dola. Escaping from a mid-air collision via a magic crystal around her neck, Sheeta meets fellow orphan Pazu and the pair join forces to discover the mystical floating city of Laputa...