The Love of Cinema

This week, Dave is drinking again! United Airlines will do that to you, even after a 6-month hiatus. After a pair of un-stuffy mini-reviews of “Superman” (2025) and “Eddington”, the boys head back to 2003 to discuss the legendary film year. Our featured conversation is a first-time visit to “House of Sand and Fog”, the Sir Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly, and Shohreh Aghdashloo film, directed by Vadim Perelman, shot by Roger Deaken...

This week, the boys get trippy with the 1980 psychedelic sci-fi transformation drama “Altered States”, a film so divisive that writer Paddy Chayefsky put his three Oscars in a closet and penned his adaptation of his own novel under a pseudonym. The Ken Russell-directed film introduced the film world to William Hurt and let Bob Balaban keep his beard, and it also unleashed Bigfoot on major metropolises. We also revisit F1: The Movie...

This week, the boys go treasure hunting with John Huston’s 1948 masterpiece “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”. Dave and Jeff hadn’t seen it before, John has seen it several times because he’s a fancy film school nerd bro, so we grab a few whiskeys and beers and talk about it! We also catch up on the California tax credit news for film and entertainment, John gives some spoiler-free mini-reviews of “28 Years Later” and “F1”, and we...

This week, the boys discuss the remarkable film year of 1953, the events that transpired around the world in that year, and Fritz Lang’s “The Big Heat”. Perhaps an early trailblazer of the detective-with-a-personal-vendetta genre (is it a film noir???), this fascinating film led to a productive conversation! We drank a bit this week, too. Grab a cold one and listen or watch on YouTube!

Our phone number is 646-484-9298. It accepts t...

This week, the boys head back to 2007 to spin another Roger Deakins film, “No Country For Old Men”, currently streaming on Paramount+. While other shows have covered the film, we shoot from the hip and discuss how it felt to re-watch it and what it means to us. F those other stuffy critic narcs. The cinematographer from Dave’s homeland had a helluva a year with three award-winning films, this one winning Best Picture at the Oscars,...

This week, the boys pull up their dacks, lace up their blunnies, pull over their cardies, eat a bikkie, grab a tinny, and lob in for the Ridgy Didge himself, Baz Luhrmann’s first feature film, “Strictly Ballroom”. This isn’t any ear bashing- we loved it! It made us three happy little Vegemites. After Jeff gives a quick mini-review of “Mission: Impossible— The Final Reckoning”, our native Aussie and gutless wonder, Dave, knackered f...

The boys head to Japan this week to discuss Akira Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo”. Starring Toshiro Mifune, the film is considered one of the most influential movies of all time. It’s so influential that an entire series of westerns ripped it off so good they couldn’t be released in the US for years due to threats of lawsuits. Anyway, this film is awesome, but did the boys think it stands up to the other Kurosawa greats? Grab a beer and tune ...

After Dave treats us to a “Thunderbolts*” mini-review and John discusses “The Accountant 2”, the boys dive into the year 1934 to discuss “The Thin Man”, a film so successful and unique it spawned FIVE sequels and made a dog one of the most famous dogs in cinema history. Written by a husband-and-wife team, “The Thin Man” is a detective “pseudo-comedy” whodunit with tension, laughs, fun, mystery, and intrigue, all done by some stella...

This week, John was the only one of us who saw “Sinners” on Easter, so he offers a spoiler-free mini-review before the boys get to their featured conversation, “Black Swan”: Films of 2010. The random year generator spun 2010, a repeat for us (The Social Network, Incendies), so we break down the film year, the news year, and dive into a conversation about this psychological thriller that hit three artists- two of whom once took danc...

This week, the boys stay positive as they take a look at Ridley Scott’s first proper film, “The Duelists,” from 1977! Starring Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel, and Albert Finney, this self-funded film is stunning to watch, but is it interesting to endure? We drink and discuss! John and Dave also caught “The Amateur” (2025) in the cinema and offer a mini-review before John discusses some upsetting WGA hiring statistics. Grab a drink ...

This week, we head to 1964 to discuss John Frankenheimer’s “The Train,” a film that begs the question: How much do train mechanics know about art? Just kidding, it’s an awesome film with Burt Lancaster in the lead performance butting heads with legendary antagonist Paul Scofield as an SS Captain hoping to smuggle French art from Paris to Germany before the Allies liberate France’s capital city. Fortunately, the French have the infa...

This week on the show, Jeff’s audio is crap, but the conversation is great! John kicks us off with a mini-review of Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag”, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. Once he gives his thoughts, we gripe about filming expenses in LA and the US as a whole and compostables before getting to our featured conversation, “Dial ‘M’ For Murder”, the Alfred Hitchcock classic. Our second time visiting 1954, we g...

The week on the show, we welcome back our music sponsor and artist in residence, DASEIN, using John’s crap audio to discuss Spielberg’s 2nd of 4 (at least) WWII epics, “Empire of The Sun.”  The random year generator spun 1987, a year we visited to discuss Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor”, but we still gave you some set-up of what was happening around the world to add context to why in the hell two movies about empires set in China w...

This week, the boys return to 1989 for the second time to discuss “The Abyss”, James Cameron’s underwater sci-fi thriller that paved the way for much of T2 and Titanic. Starring Ed Harris, May Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn, the film looks real… because it is! After John kicks things off with a mini-review of “Last Breath”, we set up what was happening in 1989 before diving deep into the film. Jeff had a first-time watch...

This week, the boys head back to 1962 to discuss Blake Edwards’s “Days of Wine and Roses”, starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. We’ve previously discussed the 1962 films “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”, and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence”. We start the conversation with thoughts on the Oscars, the state of cinema, and more! Grab a beer- or coffee- and join us for a conversation about this excellent fi...

This week, the boys head back to 2009… or 2013… to discuss “Mr. Nobody”! After Jeff and Dave give quick thoughts about “The Gorge,” we follow the random year generator to 2009, set up the film year, and discuss some world events before getting to our featured conversation.

Our phone number is 646-484-9298. It accepts texts or voice messages. 

0:00 Intro; 13:35 “The Gorge” mini-reviews; 17:41 Gripes; 20:26 2009 Year in Review; 41:01...

This week, the boys head back to 1996, a peak movie year featuring dozens of movies we’ve all seen multiple times! Dave kicks things off with mini-reviews of “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Companion”. John gives some quick thoughts about “Nickel Boys”. For our featured conversation, we chose “Primal Fear”, the movie that gave us Edward Norton and helped Richard Gere prepare for “Chicago”. Set in and out of a Chicago courtr...

This week on the show, the boys head to Jerusalem! The random year generator spun 2005, so we chose “Kingdom of Heaven” (Directors Cut Roadshow Version) to see what Ridley Scott had in mind for his swords and sandals epic with lots of class and grace surrounding the religious tension that has disrupted the peace in Jerusalem for the last 1500 years or so… probably longer. What a cast, too! 

Our phone number is 646-484-9298. It acce...

This week on the show, we welcome back our music sponsor and artist in residence, DASEIN, to discuss Ingmar Bergman’s time-tested masterpiece, “The Seventh Seal”: Films of 1957. While our audio is kooky today, our conversation is fun and moving! Dasein gives a mini-review of Steven Soderbergh’s new film, “Presence,” and then John revisits Jeff’s “A Real Pain” mini-review from last week before we get into our featured conversation.