The Wages of Cinema

Snakes. Monkey Brains. Giant Bugs. Crocodiles. Rats. Sean Connery. What do all these things have in common? They were all on the set for director Steven Spielberg’s constant, undivided amusement! (Well, duh). In this mini-episode, culled from the 2MMM, Jack and Andrew see all three films from when Spielberg and Lucas decided to get together and play in 1930’s Saturday matinee/James Bond style sand...

Before the intrepid hosts get into the Two-Minute Movie-Mile, Andrew is upset about Pacific Rim 2 being shelved indefinitely, and Jack recounts his trip to Retro Con in Oaks, PA, and his purchase of an unusual NES (movie-related) game from 1986. Then, the movies on tap for this week are… dominated by Jack, who else, but there’s some good talk for animation (80’s robot action, Spielberg mo-cap and...

Ingrid Bergman. Immediately you'll think of a scene set in the fog outside of an airplane, where Laszlo is about to get on a plane - but beautiful Ilsa will be getting on there too, all because Rick has to give up what he's had, once again, and... of course it's one of THE noble gestures in cinema. Casablanca, often called the greatest Hollywood film, was something that Bergman didn't find that co...

Country music in Nashville. Yuppies in San Francisco. Henry Gibson. Michael Keaton. So many other things to list - what do they have in common? Well, probably not much, except they are Andrew and Jack's LIST movies of the week! Robert Altman's NASHVILLE (reviewed by Andrew) John Schlesinger's PACIFIC HEIGHTS (reviewed by Jack)

This week, Andrew saw.... almost nothing. This leaves Jack to carry nearly all of the load of the 2 Minute Movie Mile, and he saw a bunch of new releases and a couple of classics. The two hosts come together to talk about a film they watched together: Walt Disney's first feature film (and the first ever in animation with synchronized sound). Movies: STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON - BOYZ N THE HOOD - THE E...

Did you know that the word 'dinosaur' actually means 'Awful Terrible Lizard'? Or something like that? And what does 'UCB' mean, is that code for something top-secret (or something totally not)? And what happens when one has to change their name to not sound like a former child star turned pop disaster? If any of these questions interest you, then you may want to take a listen to this conversation...

What do Hitchcock, Kung-fu Panda, Revenge of the Sith, Tarkovsky and They Live all have in common? Nothing. Except, maybe, that the power of artistic expression influences a bearded guy who looks and sounds like he's done possibly some drugs... by that we mean the drugs of KNOWLEDGE. And analysis. And ideologies. And Coca-Cola. Join us for a discussion of Slavoj Zizek, and the two films directed b...

What do William Shakespeare and Stanley Kubrick have in common? Aside from being two of the top people in their respective plains of theater and cinema? How about men's rise to power? How to get it, how to hold on to it? What it means to *be* something? Here, Jack and Andrew take a look at stories involving men like Redmond Barry (cum Barry Lyndon), Marc Antony and Brutus, who looked at where they...

PARENTAL ADVISORY NOTICE (fy) for Explicit Language... Check out the big-movie-watching brain on Andrew! This time, for the first time since the first Two-Minute-Movie-Mile, Andrew sees more movies than Jack, but altogether the movies discussed go from auteurist spectacles in blockbuster form (Coppola and Nolan) to animated films (Wes Anderson and Miyazaki). Before this, Jack and Andrew discuss th...

This is Martin Scorsese. Who is he? Well... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQKS4_Y7QCI Featuring guest Romney Rosario! subscribe to us on iTunes, and like our facebook.com/wagesofcinema page, follow Jack at @JackGattanella on Twitter, and email at wagesofcinema@gmail.com

Because what goes better than Scorsese and his calling card about Keitel and De Nrio and life in Little Italy in the early 70's and atomic-age ants with exposition by Edmond Gwenn? Martin Scorsese's MEAN STREETS (1973) Gordon Douglas' THEM! (1954)

This week, Jack and Andrew start off taking on a listener comment about the previous episode on movie scores (looking at you John Williams and Dvorak), and then go right into the movies the hosts saw, together and separate, ranging from Hollywood product, new the not-so-new, and some independent and documentary fare, too. Once again Jack hogs the mic, but only after the 34:15 mark into ‘Marathon’...

Movies need music sometimes. Or much of the time. For some filmmakers, their works won't fly without the melodies the composers work for them. People like John Williams. Danny Elfman. Nino Rota. Trent Reznor. Jonny Greenwood. Miklos Rosza. And of course Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone. These and more are discussed on this very MUSICAL episode of the show. Oh, and we make a theremin joke. Spoi...

What do Howard Hawks and Terence Malick have in common? Well... maybe not much. But you won't know until you hear Jack talking about the Howard Hawks production of THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD and Andrew on Terence Malick's 1973 masterpiece debut BADLANDS

1! 1 Movie! Ah-ah-ah! But no, that's TWO! TWO MOVIES! Ah-ah-ah! No, I read that wrong, it's uh, 2 MINUTE MOVIE REVIEWS! TOO MANY MOVIES TO COUNT!! AH-AH-AH-AH ok I'll stop now. After talking about a newscaster in 1982 ruining the end of a classic film, and what makes the hosts unnerved watching a movie, a bevvy of horror movies are discussed by Andrew (listen up MARIO BAVA fans!), while Jack check...

A man of many hats, Devin Klos is an actor - you can see him in the image weidling a "laser-sword" in the pilot for LOSERS - and also a writer (his first book, 'Demiurge', is coming soon), musician (available for weddings) and does two podcasts of his own, one on sports called "Bush League", and another on how movies and art gets made called "I Work in Production". Good talk! Visit Devin on Soundc...

So, question to ask: is Gone with the Wind racist? Should it be banned? Should that even be a real question (given that it's the highest grossing film - still, of all time adjusted for inflation)? But what about historical context? Or, for that matter, the AFI top 100 lists? Wait, what about that last part? Jack and Andrew in the main discussion on this episode of the Wages of Cinema discuss the r...

What do American Graffiti and Sergeant York have in common? Aside from 'MERICA (as the kids now say it)? How about depictions of characters at crossroads in life? What to do with oneself in society? Uh... other things? We explore George Lucas' seminal rock n roll teenagers flick that is his only non-franchise hit, and Howard Hawks' sophisticated telling of a simple man who became a hero.

After a brief discussion about whether or not Lebron James can act (based off of the trailer for TRAINWRECK of all things), and a few imitations (by email request!) it's Moooooovie time! Lots of movies, both new and classic, some hardcore auteurs to discuss (Herzog, Bergman, Dreyer, PT Anderson), including some tough 90's flicks, war movies (not of the conventional kind), and much much more. And w...

You can look at his IMDb. Or that image that says everything he's done and then some - insert DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY, JAMES BOND, SHERLOCK HOLMES, LORD OF THE RINGS, STAR WARS, REAL-LIFE WW2 BAD-ASS SPY, RASPUTIN, FU MANCHU, METAL AND HAMMER GOD - but we at the Wages of Cinema know that a few more words must be spoken for a man who worked in over 200 films. A career as wide-ranging as Al...

Men at the crossroads. Lancelot of the Lake. Robert Dupea. Worlds involving the Round Table with daring-do in England, and the existential desolation of oil and cold south-north-west coast. Sword fights and disagreements over toast. Chivalry and piano. CINEMASCOPE and BBS. Here we got a film that may have not been seen like Sword in the Stone or Excalibur, but it's worth talking about another Arth...

We start off with a talk about the very departed James Horner (Aliens, Wrath of Khan, so many more). Then at around the 8 minute mark we get to talking about new/classic movies we've seen with two minutes a piece. We go across from new blockbusters to Harold Ramis comedies to Charles Laughton, to Bela Tarr, James Gunn and Satyajit Ray (the latter gets 4 mins). Jack, as usual, gets into marathon mo...

And now for part 2 of our conversation with John Lazration. Here, William Paterson University and the short films and skits are discussed, the graduate school (online) experience, and crafting the sci-fi short film BICYCLES (which you can see here: https://vimeo.com/111946953). Had a good talk, check it out. Other clips featured include audio from WAITING FOR KENNY (https://vimeo.com/7685192) and...

On the latest segment of the Local Vocal series, we're very happy to speak with John Lazration, a filmmaker, musician, 3D print-maker and artist from New Jersey, who's new short film BICYCLES is now making the rounds at festivals. In this first segment Jack and John talk about growing up in different parts of Jersey, Kubrick, Braveheart, and 90's MTV, animation, and what gets someone to want to ma...

On a very special episode of the Wages of Cinema, we have a special guest - only this isn't a 'Local Vocal', at least officially. This is a look at this year's Cannes Film Festival - the 68th to be exact - at the winners, the best of the lot and the worst... All by someone who was there! Kent Turner, founder-editor of the independent/art-house/foreign film site-cornucopia Film-Forward and is a wri...