The Filmlings

As we bring our discussion of the history of comedy to the modern day, Alex and Jonathan look at three comedy films from the past two decades: Mean Girls (2004), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and The Fall Guy (2024). We discuss the facets of wit as a mode of humor, the way wit has been incorporated into action-comedy through Marvel films and other pop franchises, and what goes into modern meta witty romantic comedy.

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Moving from the absurd to the irreverent, today Alex and Jonathan look at three films which encompass a subset of comedy in which the characters are under the influence in some form or fashion: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), The Big Lebowski (1998), and The Hangover (2009). We discuss the glorification and justification of the stoner, the primary motivations and conflicts which typically arise, and how the charact...

After the collapse of the Production Code, filmmakers now had the ability to put anything and everything in their movies, so they did. Today Alex and Jonathan discuss three films which take comedy beyond rational proportions and talk about The Producers (1967), Airplane! (1980), and The Mask (1994). We discuss the history of absurdist comedy, how blockbusters and parody influenced pop culture, and the introduction of CGI into comed...

With the arrival of sound in Hollywood, a new subgenre of comedy arose, so today Alex and Jonathan discuss the history of the "screwball comedies" while looking at Trouble in Paradise (1932), His Girl Friday (1940), and Some Like it Hot (1959). We talk about how screwballs differed from standard romantic comedies, the emphasis on dialogue that came with the adoption of sound, and the role the Production Code played in sha...

To kick off a new series on the history of American comedy films, Alex and Jonathan travel back to the early days of cinema and look at the physical comedy of the early film clowns in Safety Last! (1923), City Lights (1931), and Duck Soup (1933). We discuss the transition from live performances in theater and vaudeville to the movies, how Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin helped to incorporate character development into comedy films...

To wrap up the tragedy series, Alex and Jonathan look at three films characterized by the ways in which the characters' difference of perspectives causes the primary conflict in part or whole: A Woman Under the Influence (1974), The Elephant Man (1980), and The Farewell (2019). We discuss whether or not the term "tragedy" is still a useful distinction, the role compassion plays in understanding, and why we need a healthy balance of...

As we move into stories of interpersonal tragedies, today Alex and Jonathan discuss three films which deal with themes of betrayal as it applies to family relationships, as in Tokyo Twilight (1957), romantic relationships, as in In the Mood for Love (2000), and friends/allies, as in RRR (2022). We discuss Aristotle's concept of discovery, the tendency for betrayals become cyclical, and whether or not Bollywood is a continuation of ...

In one of the saddest episodes of the show (besides Episode 105), Alex and Jonathan look at films in which the protagonists struggle to navigate circumstances outside of their control with three tragedy classics: Ikiru (1952), Grave of the Fireflies (1988), and Titanic (1997). We discuss Aristotle's conception of the reversal of fortune – known as peripety, how storytellers expose (or impose) meaning in tragedy, and why it's import...

From power to societal marginalization to prejudicial greed, in this episode Alex and Jonathan talk about three films in which the subject characters are faced with various forms of injustice: The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Umberto D. (1952), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). We discuss the ways tragedy films evoke feelings of pity and fear in the Aristotelian view, the similarities between injustice and the absence of com...

The downfall. The tragic flaw. Today Alex and Jonathan kick off a new series about tragic cinema with three stories where the protagonist is ultimately responsible for their own misery: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Brief Encounter (1945), and Tár (2022). We discuss Aristotle's six elements of tragedy, why tragedy doesn't necessarily have to have a sad ending, and scaling tragedy from the intimately personal to a societal scale...

The last of the Cahiers du Cinéma critics-turned-directors to discuss is Jacques Rivette. Alex and Jonathan take a look at his films Paris Belongs to Us (1961), L'amour fou (1969), and Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) and discuss Rivette's obsession with the individual aspects of cinema, his blend of cinematic instinct and collaborative improvisation, and how letting go and having fun resulted in his most popular film.

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One of the less well-known of the Cahiers contributors, but also one of the first to break into directing, Claude Chabrol is the subject of this week's deep dive in which Alex and Jonathan talk about his films Le beau Serge (1958), Les cousins (1959), and Les bonnes femmes (1960). We discuss Chabrol's role in getting the French New Wave off the ground as a movement, the way he uses typical genre techniques to tell personal stories,...

François Truffaut, known as "the destroyer of French cinema" during his time as a critic, is the focal point of this episode and the turning point of our series on the French New Wave. Alex and Jonathan discuss three of his many films, Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Jules et Jim (1962), and Day for Night (1973), and talk about the origins and intentions of the French New Wave, Truffaut's love for American genre films, and how he ai...

Author, critic, teacher, moralist, and editor of Cahiers du Cinema, Éric Rohmer is this month's featured director from the French New Wave. Alex and Jonathan look at three of the six films Rohmer directed based on a series of his own short stories called the "Moral Tales" – My Night at Maud's (1969), Claire's Knee (1970), and Love in the Afternoon (1972). We discuss Rohmer's literary approach to filmmaking, the ways he builds multi...

As we begin our dive into the directors of the French New Wave, Alex and Jonathan take a look at one of the primary disrupters from this heavily disruptive period of cinema history, the singular Jean-Luc Godard. Through three of his classic films – Vivre sa vie (1962), Band of Outsiders (1964), and Pierrot le Fou (1965) – we discuss Godard's place in the New Wave, the ways he was influenced by both classic film and literature, and ...

For the final episode of the fairy tale series, Alex and Jonathan take a look at three films that transpose classic fairy tale stories onto the setting of the modern day: The Red Shoes (1948), Ponyo (2008), and Undine (2020). We discuss how fairy tale elements can help us look at the ordinary parts of life with a new appreciation, how the form and style of a film affects the perception of the magical elements, and ways to incorpora...

Today Alex and Jonathan look at three of the common ways that fairy tales are modified from their original setting to fit various modern sensibilities. We talk about the fairy tale mashup through the lens of Shrek (2001), the science fiction angle via A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), and the misunderstood villain as portrayed in Maleficent (2014). We also discuss how to expand on and subvert fairy tale themes based on a common ...

For as long as fairy tales have been recorded there has been a debate about whether or not they should be modified for children, so today Alex and Jonathan take up the negative side of the discussion with a look at three films with fairy tale elements that are not Disney's idea of kid-friendly: Beauty and the Beast (1946), Ugetsu (1957), Donkey Skin (1970). We discuss the history of fairy tales being told to children, how tone ...

When it comes to fairy tales on film, the elephant in the room has a name: Disney. So today Alex and Jonathan go through the history of fairy tale films as told by the Walt Disney Animation Studios, starting with the first feature length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), through the "Disney Renaissance" with Beauty and the Beast (1991), and up to the modern runaway hit Frozen (2013). We discuss Disney...