We Like Movies

20 years ago this week, 2 of the Sundance Film Festival’s favorite sons both leveled-up with their respective genre exercises and experienced creative breakthroughs. Yet, for some reason, Steven Soderbergh’s melancholy daylight noir, THE LIMEY and David O. Russell’s Heller-esque military satire, THREE KINGS rarely get mentioned in the same breath as either director’s later successes. We’re here to...

———Editor’s Note: Apologies for the tardiness of this episode. Technical issues led to the late posting. But it sounds great now and we’re really proud of the conversation. Thanks for listening!——— We’re talkin’ AD ASTRA, we’re talkin’ box office, we’re talkin’ festival reactions, and we’re talkin’ awards predictions. We talk, you listen, you comment, we read… It’s the podcasting circle of life! E...

It’s a complicated movie with a complicated legacy. These are complicated times. So it’s going to take a complex conversation to properly excavate the Best Picture winner from 1999 on the week of its 20th anniversary. Join us as we celebrate and ruminate [on] AMERICAN BEAUTY, a film that–for better or for worse–defined the end of a decade and a bygone era of incorrigible ennui. Listen closer. This...

“You're the most beautiful, exciting thing I've ever seen in my life and I don't know anything about you!” Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.comDonate: Thanks! Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS

A new Oeuvre journey begins this week as we inaugurate our excavation into the career of one, John McTiernan. His incredible run from 1986 to 1990 represents a singular rise from relative obscurity to industry relevance, prominence, and pertinence. Join us as we set the table for his unique career path, attempt to divine meaning from his bizarre debut, and deep-dive into three of his most beloved...

If you’ve ever considered joining Mindhead, were always intrigued by the premise of “Chubby Rain,” or get nervous when someone asks you if you’re willing to cut your hair, then you’re probably going to get a lot out of this week’s episode. We’re revisiting the forgotten comedic gem BOWFINGER, a film that got lost in the late summer of 1999 amid the feeding frenzy for repeated viewings of the THE S...

In the tenth installment in our ongoing series about 1999 we revisit M. Night Shyamalan’s zeitgeist-rattling supernatural thriller THE SIXTH SENSE; a film we had previously covered in our AFI Top 100 series and had been disproportionately hard on. This time around we look at the film with fresh eyes, examine its relationship to the horror movies that bookended it on the calendar (THE BLAIR WITCH P...

“The continent of Europe is so wide, mein herr. Not only up and down, but side to side, mein herr. I couldn't ever cross it if I tried, mein herr. But I do… What I can… Inch by inch… Step by step… Mile by mile… Man-by-man.” Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com Donate: Thanks! Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS

Roughly three or four times a decade we declare a national cinematic holiday in honor of the man who’s been reinventing the rules of mainstream cinema for the last quarter century. Regardless of how you feel about ONCE UPON A TIME ... IN HOLLYWOOD, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Quentin Tarantino’s “9th” (mmm, “10th”?) feature film as writer/director is one of the most hotly-anticipated and...

We’re a week late for our 20th anniversary celebration of Stanley Kubrick’s provocative final masterpiece, Eyes Wide Shut. But the added buffer gave us more time to stew and reflect upon the truly bizarre cultural real estate that the film occupies in the the filmmaker’s career, in Cruise and Kidman’s respective filmographies, and within the weird and wonderful contextual sphere of the summer of 1...

It took practically the entire decade but teenagers of the nineties were finally gifted with their own defining sex comedy at the halfway point of the last year of it. July 9th, 1999 saw the release (snicker) of the Weitz Brothers’ gross, sweet, schmaltzy, and sporadically hilarious love letter to Losin’ It, The Last American Virgin, and, of course, Porky’s. Join us as we tiptoe carefully around t...

On June 30th, 1999, Trey Park and Matt Stone’s HARD-R animated musical SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT first hit theaters. Released less than two years after the premiere of the Comedy Central series’ pilot episode, South Park’s move to the big screen was only a modest financial success. But it proved to be a legitimate creative breakthrough and eventual Oscar nominee that laid the track for Pa...

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Spike Lee’s seminal masterwork—in which race-relations and temperatures rise to a breaking point on a summer day in Brooklyn—we’re re-releasing our corresponding AFI Top 100 podcast episode. The film ranks [criminally low at] 96th on the 2007 version of AFI’s list and we recorded our conversation about it just over 3 years ago. Join us as we break-down and talk-...

On our triumphant return to the present tense we sound off about the wild, weird, and existentially-conflicted fourth installment in one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed film franchises of all time. We then turn our attention to another subject that weighs heavily on our minds and is also experiencing a bit of an existential crisis of late- the summertime box office. The mercury’s risi...

On this week’s edition of our ongoing series “Retrospectating 1999” we revisit the forgotten German crime caper Run Lola Run. Now, this film is technically attributed to 1998, which is when it premiered in Germany, Venice, and Toronto. But it first screened in the U.S. during the Sundance and Seattle Film Festivals (where it racked up multiple awards) respectively before finally getting a statesid...

"Howard Beale is processed instant God, and right now it looks like he may just go over bigger than Mary Tyler Moore!" Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com Donate: Thanks! Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS

"Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above." Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com Donate: Thanks! Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS

It’s been a long time since we’ve dipped our cinematically-inclined toes into the television pool. But what better reason to do so than the conclusion of the most cinematic show ever to grace the small screen? Join us for a break-down, wrap-up, and maybe even a defense of the wildly divisive final season of HBO’s beloved and reviled 73 episode experiment in long form storytelling. Email: wlmpodcas...

On the third Wednesday of May in the year 1999, an unprecedented cinematic event took place in movie theaters around the world. Twenty years later, we’re still trying to answer two questions about the most anticipated / most disappointing film of the 20th Century: “What the hell happened?” and “What does it all mean?” Join us for another edition of our ongoing series “Retrospectating 1999” in whic...

Marvel superfans and friends of the podcast, Anders Dahl and Ryan Julio join us this week as we lightning-round the 21 previous installments in the MCU’s Infinity Saga before digging deep into the franchise’s victory lap- the three hour emotional rollercoaster known as AVENGERS: ENGAME. A lot of personal growth, unexpected revelations, and soul-searching goes on in this episode so be forewarned- t...

What a long, strange trip it’s been. We began our journey through Steven Spielberg’s 32-film oeuvre in August of 2017. 20 months later we’ve finally arrived at our 8th and final podcast in the series- a thorough and passionate reflection and ranking episode. Join us as we curate our personal hierarchies of the man’s filmography, break down his budgets and box office receipts, rank performances, sc...

This installment is affectionately titled "Playing with House Money” and covers one film per year over four years, spanning 2015-2018: -BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015) -THE BFG (2016) -THE POST (2017) -READY PLAYER ONE (2018) Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com Donate: Thanks! Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS

Twenty years ago today a film was released that caught director Doug Liman, writer John August, and a cast of hot young upstarts at a moment of perfect aesthetic and artistic unanimity. GO wasn’t a big hit at the time and was even dismissed by Leonard Maltin as a “junior Pulp Fiction.” But the film has aged in a lot of fascinating ways over the last two decades and on this week’s episode we engage...

We’re catching it up and breaking it down this week with a veritable smorgasbord of scintillating topics: -Celebrating the beginning of the season with our favorite baseball movies (00:03:00) -A SPOILER HEAVY litigation of the various interpretations of Jordan Peele’s US (00:14:20) -A preemptive defense of Harmony Korine’s latest ode to hedonism, THE BEACH BUM (00:26:56) Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.co...

Twenty years ago this week a film came along that not only changed the way that we looked at science fiction, visual effects, and Keanu Reeve’s capacity for star power. It also legitimatized the fetishization of mirrored sunglasses, duster jackets, and leather pants. So pop your red pill, crank up the Rammstein, and dog-ear your copy of “Simulacra and Simulation.” We’re heading down the rabbit hol...