You're Missing Out: A National Film Registry Podcast

Mike, Tom, and Kyle close out Season 5 by reflecting on the 1993 class of National Film Registry inductees, handing out superlatives to the standout performances and craftspeople from the season, and formally submitting their Registry picks. Plus, a look ahead to Season 6. 

Since 1989, the National Film Registry has selected 25 films each year that are deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". In each epi...

In the Season 5 finale, Mike, Tom, and Kyle take on Point of Order (1964), Emile de Antonio's radical documentary assembled entirely from kinescope footage of the Army-McCarthy hearings. No narration. No talking heads. Just the hearings themselves and McCarthy slowly unraveling on camera. We dig into what makes this a film and not just a historical record, why de Antonio's editing choices still feel dangerous, and what the Library ...

Sweet Smell of Success (1957) is one of the most visually ruthless films Hollywood ever made — and one that doesn't show up in the conversation as often as it should. We dig into James Wong Howe's New York City cinematography, the Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis dynamic, and what the Library of Congress saw in it when they added it to the National Film Registry.

Since 1989, the National Film Registry has selected 25 films eac...

Our annual tradition kicks off once more, despite delays from both us and the Library of Congress (thanks government shutdowns). Once again, Mike & Tom went in blind, avoiding finding out what got in this year until Kyle revealed it to them live on air. Hear the boys react to a slate of six underseen silent films and then...well, the shelf at a Blockbuster Video in 2003. Enjoy!

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This week, we’re talking about Chulas Fronteras (1976), Les Blank’s vibrant, soulful documentary celebrating the music, culture, and communities of the Texas Mexico borderlands, and we’re joined by Maureen Gosling, whose work as a filmmaker and editor was instrumental in shaping the film itself.

More than a music documentary, Chulas Fronteras captures a living cultural tradition in motion. Through performances by a...

"My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you."

Dr. Vaughn Joy joins us on the show to talk about the musical biopic that won James Cagney his Academy Award, the patriotic propaganda piece Yankee Doodle Dandy. We talk George M. Cohan's cultural significance, the film's seemingly waning place in the consensus cinematic canon, and how the film laid the groundwork for the type of Hollywood pro-Ameri...

“All I want is a place to live and a job.” – Nothing But a Man (1964) 

This week, we’re taking time to honor the life and legacy of filmmaker Michael Roemer, who passed away in May 2025. Roemer’s work has always stood apart as quiet, honest, deeply human, and we start with the film that introduced so many people to his voice: Nothing But a Man. It’s a landmark in independent cinema, a Nationa...

In this episode, Dr. Will Dodson joins us to take a look at Eaux d'Artifice, an early inductee in the registry from avant-garde legend Kenneth Anger. We discuss why the seemingly tranquil film has a lot going on beneath the surface (including the salacious) and tackle an overview of the controversial provocateur's whole film-making career to determine whether Eaux d'Artifice's subversive subtext was missed by the Registry's selecti...

"Dead men tell no tales!"

For this episode, we've recorded a feature length commentary track for the big-budget blockbuster that solidified Douglas Fairbanks' Hollywood immortality, 1926's The Black Pirate. Watch our upload on YouTube (in its original colorized version, done at Fairbanks' insistence), sync it up with your own copy, or just listen along as producer Kyle Lampar takes the lead to discuss his admiration for Hollywood's ...

"Time...marches on..."

Josh Shepperd, author of Shadow of the New Deal, joins the show to talk about the powerful propaganda piece Inside Nazi Germany, an installment of the influential newsreel series The March of Time. The first major Hollywood film to take an explicitly anti-Nazi stance, the short stands as a testament to the power of the visual medium during wartime, and its ability to both present, and manipulate, the truth.

Fo...

"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer"

"A rock? These little bears are nuts"

That's right, folks. It's a Patrick Cotnoir episode. This time, for his fifth appearance, we're talking The Godfather Part II, and...some Ewok movie. Nobody is really sure which one, honestly. It's been five years of this, guys. You know what you're getting here.

Keep up with what Patrick is doing here

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"I know something about this dog. She's going somewhere - she's on her way."

Hunter Robinson, the host of the Tumbleweeds and TV Cowboys podcast, joins the show to talk about one of the biggest movie stars in cinema history. No, not John Wayne, it's Lassie.

We'll talk about the massive Lassie franchise, the dog star at the heart of the film, and even share a personal family connection to the four-legged hero of Hollywood.

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“I like the dark. It's friendly.” – Cat People (1942)

This week, we turn the lights low with special guest Rebecca Rozenberg, Publicity Manager at Simon & Schuster, who brings insight honed from working with bestselling authors and deep industry experience. Together, we dive into Jacques Tourneur and Val Lewton’s Cat People, a landmark psychological horror film that uses suggestion, shadow, and sound to t...

“He was the most trigger-happy man I had ever met.” – Badlands (1973)

This week, we hit the open road with guest Tom Augustine to explore Terrence Malick’s stunning debut, Badlands. Based loosely on the real-life killing spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, the film casts Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as drifting outsiders caught between detachment and violence, beauty and brutality.

With its ly...