A Very Good Year

This week, we’re joined by the other co-author of the must-read new book “Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema”; film critic Caden Mark Gardner discusses the cinema of 1995, including such now-classics as “Safe,” “Heat,” and “Devil in a Blue Dress.” 

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“Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema” (out Tuesday) is one of our favorite film books of the year, and we’re welcoming both of its authors as consecutive guests. This week, film critic Willow Catelyn Maclay joins us to talk about the movies of 1969, from the ahead-of-its-time freedom of “Funeral Parade of Roses” to the Gotham grime of “Midnight Cowboy” to the delightful silliness of “Gamera vs...

The essayist, poet, and film critic Phillip Lopate joins us to discuss his new collection “My Affair with Art House Cinema” and the cinema of 1959, in which one series began with “The 400 Blows,” one series ended with “The World of Apu,” and Otto Preminger hit the courtroom in “Anatomy of a Murder.”

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Nobody we know knows more about silent cinema than film critic, historian, and social media mastermind Marya E. Gates. She joins us to talk about movies from literally a century ago, from the brilliance of “Sherlock Jr.” to the sexiness of “Forbidden Paradise” to the surrealism of “Ballet Mécanique.”

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Larry Karaszewski isn’t just an award-winning screenwriter and producer — he’s also a serious cinephile, as evidenced by the fact that we asked him for a top five for the year of his birth, 1961, and he came back with six double-features. We talk about them all on this super-sized episode, with inspired pairings of American independents, Natalie Wood vehicles, Marcello Mastroianni classics, and more. 

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Mark Harris has written three of the essential film books of our time, and one of them — “Pictures at a Revolution” — tells the story of Hollywood in flux by detailing the making of the five nominees for best picture of 1967. So he joins us to talk about that year, from the groundbreaking “The Graduate” to the nose-thumbing of “Bonnie & Clyde” to the sheer craft of “In the Heat of the Night.”

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Writer, editor, and director Carrie Courogen is the author of the breathtakingly good new book “Miss May Does Not Exist,” and since it’s a biography of Elaine May, she joins us to talk about 1987 — not only May’s unjustly maligned “Ishtar,” but the sheer perfection of “Broadcast News” and “Moonstruck.” 

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Film critic, historian, and TCM stalwart Ben Mankiewicz joins us, on the eve of a new season of his essential podcast “The Plot Thickens” to discuss the nuclear meltdowns of “Fail-Safe,” the political paranoia of “Seven Days in May,” the complex delights of “Marriage, Italian Style,” and more of the movies of 1964.

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Film critic, podcaster, and historian Alexandra West joins us to talk about her new book “Gore-Geous: Personal Essays on Beauty and Horror” and the movies of 1976, from the bloodbaths of “Carrie” and “Taxi Driver” to the erotic power plays of “In the Realm of the Senses.” 

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Screenwriter and director Richard Shepard’s new film is catnip to us (and probably you too, if you’re listening to his show): “Film Geek,” an essay film about growing up as a movie-crazy kid in NYC in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. He joins us to talk about 1983, including Scorsese’s “King of Comedy,” Fosse’s “STAR 80,” and Forsyth’s “Local Hero.” 

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Critic, podcaster, and author Alonso Duralde was just beginning his professional life in 1991, and witnessed the early pangs of what became known as the New Queer Cinema, a key point in his new book “Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film.” He joins us to talk about that moment, including the delights of “Madonna: Truth or Dare,” the coding of “Thelma & Louise,” and the genuine transgressiv...

Glenn Kenny is the author of the new book “The World Is Yours: The Story of ‘Scarface,’ and is one of our favorite film critics and scholars in general. He’s here to talk about the mighty 1954, a less-discussed year that gave us everything from “The Seven Samurai” to “Rear Window” to “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.” 

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Indiewire’s Kate Erbland was a literal child in the year 1990, but she luckily had parent who put very few viewing boundaries on her, which was how she ended up seeing “Die Hard 2,” “Ghost,” and one of her all-time favorite movies, “Pretty Woman.” She joins us to talk about those and MANY more.

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Film critic and journalist Tomris Laffly was just starting to figure out who she was as a filmgoer in 1997, so she joins us to share some of her favorite memories of that year: the heartache of “Good Will Hunting,” the dark humor of “The Ice Storm,” and the majesty of “Titanic.”

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In advance of Friday’s theatrical debut of his Sundance hit “Stress Positions,” comedian, actor, writer, and cinephile John Early joins us to discuss all things 2002, from the earnestness of “Crossroads” to the sexiness of “Unfaithful” to the status of his Toni Collette website. 

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Filmmaker, actor, TV writer, and film critic Siddhant Adlakha was in a moment of transition in 2013, and vowed to see as many new movies as possible for the sake of career clarity. He walks us through some of those discoveries, from the spectacle of “Ram-Leela” to the melancholy of “Inside Llewyn Davis” to the intimacy of “Short Term 12.”

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Daily Dead columnist Scott Drebit’s new book is “A Cut Below: A Celebration of B Horror Movies, 1950s-1980s,” so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he picked 1979, a banner year for horror. He joins us to discuss the working-class scares of “Alien,” the insanity of “Zombie,” the inexplicable PG rating of “Tourist Trap,” and more. 

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“Variety” TV critic Alison Herman had just moved to Los Angeles in the year of our lord 2017, and she joins us to recall, with fondness, the cockeyed comedy of “Phantom Thread,” the deft commentary of “Get Out,” and the totally not-divisive pleasures of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”

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It’s a special MID-WEEK EPISODE, in honor of Friday’s release of acclaimed director Bob Byington’s latest, “Lousy Carter.” Join us as we talk with Bob about the current indie landscape and the films of 1994, from the art of “Red” to the commerce of “Speed” to the pleasures of “The Hudsucker Proxy.”

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