Wind, Reel, & Print

EPISODE 036: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY (GENRE)   Featuring: Dracula (1931), The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), Interview with a Vampire (1994), What We Do in the Shadows? (2014)   WR&P co-hosts Ryan and Kevin define the narrative and aesthetic parameters of the “Vampire Movie” by examining four films which cover nearly a century of blood-sucking cinema. With a meta-text predating movies themse...

EPISODE 035: FILM THEORY DISCUSSIONS   What does it mean to watch a movie? Are you watching for the plot or the aesthetics? Are you looking to be entertained or emotionally stirred? Do you want to be able to think about it or do you just want to turn your brain off? These are all important questions to ask when you step into the proverbial theater. WR&P cohosts Ryan and Kevin take the time to...

EPISODE 034: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY (FILM MOVEMENTS)   Featuring: Funny Ha Ha (2002), The Puffy Chair (2005), Mutual Appreciation (2005), Nights and Weekends (2007)   Ryan and Kevin explore the Mount Rushmore of Mumblecore by focusing on films by Greta Gerwig, Andrew Bujalski, the Duplass Brothers, and Joe Swanberg. Though the label is often loathed by the filmmakers who made these movies, mumble...

EPISODE 033: BAY AREA FLICKS   As a personal recommendation, Kevin introduces 2005’s “Just Like Heaven” as a San Francisco-based Bay Area movie. Featuring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo and directed by supernatural rom-com expert Mark Waters, this mid-2000s relic leaves whispers of screwball and mumblecore character types within what Ryan describes as “elevated Hallmark”. The discussion soon d...

EPISODE 032: WEIRD @ WR&P   Ryan and Kevin refresh their childhood memory by revisiting a Dick Van Dyke B-side in 1968’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. WR&P cohosts discuss why this rewatch settled into disappointment while stressing the negative impacts of industry and market pressures on the creative process.

EPISODE 031: GUEST STARRING SAM ISOLA   Featuring: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Nashville (1975), Secret Honor (1984), Short Cuts (1993)   How do you pinhole a director who dabbled in a little bit of everything? Wind Reel & Print recruits cinema-lover Sam Isola to help dissect the ever-evolving filmmaking style of Robert Altman. Specifically choosing four films outside of his mainstream hi...

EPISODE 030: LETTERBOXD TOP 250 SHUFFLE   Featuring: Do The Right Thing (1989), Z (1969), Rocco and His Brothers (1960), A Woman Under the Influence (1974)   In one of the more devastating episodes of the Letterboxd Top 250 Shuffle, Ryan and Kevin explore a deeply traumatizing cinematic quartet ranging from blazing political thrillers to tense family dramas.

EPISODE 029: DOUBLE FEATURES & TRILOGIES   Featuring: All About Eve (1950), Showgirls (1995) On recommendation from MOViES4MANiACS’ Jesse Hawthorne Ficks , WR&P hosts Ryan and Kevin examine the narrative similarities of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s classic Hollywood picture “All About Eve” and Paul Verhoeven’s raucous dark comedy “Showgirls.” They note how both these films leverage performance a...

EPISODE 028: BAY AREA FLICKS   Featuring: The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)   In this special Bay Area double feature, Ryan and Kevin explore the differences between a locally-made San Francisco film and a Hollywood movie set in the same city. While Joe Talbot’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” boasts a heightened indie appeal with the support of Sund...

EPISODE 027: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY (DIRECTORS & ACTORS)   Featuring: Le Petit Soldat (1963), Une Femme est une Femme (1961), Bande à part (1964), Alphaville (1965) After introducing the Godard-Karina timeline with Vivre sa vie, Kevin takes Ryan deeper into the pairings’ cinematic universe. Ryan highlights how each film stands as unique cinematic experiences, both upholding promises of New Wa...

EPISODE 026: DOUBLE FEATURES & TRILOGIES   Featuring: Pink Flamingos (1972), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)   While centering the word “disgust”, Ryan and Kevin explore drag queen characters and the traditions of rage bait in a special double feature highlighting John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos” and Stephan Elliott’s “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”. Rya...

EPISODE 025: WEIRD @ WR&P   Standing firmly in its “mild cult following”, Ryan and Kevin aka Thing 1 and Thing 2 delve deep into the magical madness of 2003’s The Cat in the Hat. This Dr. Seuss adaptation certainly presents as a wacky wonderland full of jokes and hijinks, however, over the film’s 82-minute runtime, it slowly uncovers sweet-and-sour secrets. From director Bo Welch’s experience...

EPISODE 024: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY   Featuring: The Student of Prague (1913), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Metropolis (1927), M (1931)   In an attempt to unravel this early 20th-century genre from its War World I context, Ryan presents German Expressionism as a convergence of several industry pressures. Coinciding with art movements from the same era, the cinematic version of Expressionis...

EPISODE 023: META MOVIES   Featuring: The Power of the Dog (2021), Sukiyaki Western Django (2007), The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)   In the preliminary episode of this quasi-Olympic competition for the title of best international Western, Ryan and Kevin focus on films from Korea, Japan, Italy, and New Zealand. Ranging from bombastically absurd to spirituall...

EPISODE 022: BAY AREA FLICKS   Featuring: Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Hollywood Chinese (2007)   It’d be difficult to talk about the Bay Area without discussing the region’s prominent Asian American community and John Carpenter’s “Big Trouble in Little China” seemed like the perfect opportunity to start that conversation. Accompanied by Arthur Dong’s 2007 documentary “Hollywood Chinese”, R...

EPISODE 021: LETTERBOXD TOP 250 SHUFFLE   Featuring: The Shining (1980), Paper Moon (1973), Apur Sansar (1959), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)   Within the context of children and trauma, bowling with bumpers offers a safeguard against the pitfalls of gutterballing. Yet, the restrictive boundaries remain an airtight personal prison, a stronghold fortress of subconscious trauma responses eer...

EPISODE 020: WEIRD @ WR&P   Featuring: Gremlins (1984), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)   Joe Dante’s “Gremlins” takes over the studio and threatens the hosts with a good time. Combining classic Spielbergian filmic language with Dante’s knack for meta-mindset, both the original and the sequel deliver on its perceived promise of weirdness.

EPISODE 019: THEATER ADVENTURES   After watching Hayao Miyazaki's iconic action drama “Princess Mononoke” in theaters, Ryan and Kevin take a moment to discuss the film's story, characters, themes, and social commentary. The WR&P hosts also highlight the difference between a subbed and dubbed version.

EPISODE 018: Revisiting “Our Top 4 Favorite Films”   Ryan and Kevin summarize recent changes to their respective Letterboxd Top 4 films by explaining what qualifies for the list and what they consider when making swap-outs. Kevin leaves off Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight” for a Thai coming-of-age picture, while Ryan reaffirms his love for "Come and See” and Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse”.

EPISODE 017: LETTERBOXD TOP 250 SHUFFLE   Featuring: Nobody Knows (2004), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Man Escaped (1956), Aftersun (2022)   This latest episode of the anticipated Letterboxd Top 250 Shuffle features a quartet of films that scratch at an existential itch by affirming life as a resounding act of faith. Here at Wind, Reel, & Print, we reserve the belief that cinema bears the p...

EPISODE 016: NEW ADDITIONS   In the podcast’s formal introduction to director Richard Linklater, the WR&P hosts dissect the genre-bending “Hit Man” starring Hollywood’s newest movie star Glen Powell. In discussing Linklater’s prolific filmography, Ryan and Kevin touch on how the filmmaker chooses to extend his creative range while remaining loyal to his actor-friendly writing process and rehea...

EPISODE 015: BAY AREA FLICKS   Steeped in classic Bay Area imagery and counterculture ideology, Hal Ashby’s definitive “Harold and Maude” is a seemingly perfect example of Bay Area Cinema. But the podcast conversation deviates from local geography and cultural history, as Ryan highlights the film’s proto-Wes Anderson-isms and Kevin traces the film’s metamodern philosophical ponderings.

EPISODE 014: INDIE CINEMA   Featuring Shadows (1959), The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), She’s Gotta Have It (1986), Shakespeare in Love (1998)   In an effort to track recent film history, podcast hosts Ryan and Kevin examine the trajectory of independent cinema through a collection of films by John Cassavetes, Roger Corman, Spike Lee, and Miramax. The discussion wanders away from the films themse...

EPISODE 013: WEIRD @ WR&P   Using Michael Haneke's 1997 film “Funny Games” as a conversation focal point, Ryan and Kevin discuss the critical separation of content and form. Can you like a movie's cinematic style while absolutely despising the film's storyline? Haneke aims to challenge what it means to enjoy a movie.

EPISODE 012: META MOVIES   When it comes to combining the magic of cinema with the boundaries of reality, few blur the lines more than the legendary Orson Welles. Ryan and Kevin examine 1973's “F for Fake” as Welles' strongest example of cinematic mastery, noting how the filmmaker bends and breaks the filmic form to fit his hypothesis on the truth of art forgery and the lies of creative origin.