Full Cast And Crew

Wrapping up the South Beach sojurn into the world of Miami Vice (at least until the Michael B Jordan/Austin Butler film 'Miami Vice 85' comes out next year) with a revisit of Michael Mann's 2006 film. Mann started from a place of "what if we did Miami Vice for real"...real grimy drug-dealing procedurals, real violence and treachery, the real cost of undercover work. And what if we filmed it during the summer in Miami, during Hurric...

Welcome to the existential wormhole that IS [indistinct chatter]...a new regular Friday drop covering topical and episodic ephemera. THIS WEEK:  "Judgement" at Nuremberg indeed; the Hershey biopic you knew you didn't need or want; despite reviews the Michael Jackson biopic will make billions; what do we think about when we think about songs and musicians that we love; Benn Jordan & Rick Beato; Jacob Collier and the collective human...

I've long wanted to revisit some of the great episodes of the Miami Vice TV series, and to find out if it's more influential than truly "great".

So I finally did, and the result is a Roland Jazz Chorus-and-pastel-linen-suit-jacket infused trip down memory and musical lane.  In this episode I take a fresh look at the two-part pilot and am reminded of the surprising context of the famous 'In The Air Tonight' nighttime driving scene.

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You see this watch?

I hadn't seen Pulp Fiction probably since it came out in 1994, so when my family (including a teenager) wanted to watch it this weekend I wondered if it would hold up and if it would hold the attention of today's kids. Find out how it went in this episode!  PLUS: plenty of alternative casting options and scene-setting for where the world of independant cinema was in 1994, a very strange and transitional year whe...

Since I contain multitudes, have run out of ideas, and since I aspire the podcast to embody Paul Krassner's iconic satirical magazine The Realist's motto of "Irreverrance is our only sacred cow", I am debuting the first in a series of occasional episodes where I revisit those films so firmly ensconced in our collective filmgoing conscience that we can be forgiven for forgetting if they're actually, you know...any good.

So let's sta...

Somehow, I've never seen this film before for reasons to do with "the 90's" as described in the episode.  What a great experience to watch a ruthlessly efficient screenplay in the hands of such an excellent and fun cast. Plus, it turns out there's plenty of funny off-screen content surrounding this production, including casting drama, studio interference, and some deft machinations from both screenwriter Dale Launer and director Jo...

In this urgent plea for understanding in these troubled times, I veer off the normal charted waters of the podcast and into the knotty, twisted reality of a dawning awareness that all has not been as it seemed in the world of my most beloved snack food, Bachman Twist Pretzels.

In this episode I will for the first time reveal the fruits of my investigative efforts uncovering the truth about Bachman Twist Pretzels no longer having a ...

One of the greatest, most thought-provoking yet totally accessible films is this masterpiece of cinema from Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

It's the true story of a Tehran man who impersonates a famous filmmaker and convinces a family that he's going to cast them in a movie.  Kiarostami then reconstructs the events that occurred using the real people involved, including the imposter.

Part documentary, part fiction, and entirely...

From Senator Geary to Frankie Five Angels, Duvall's Tom Hagen navigated a twisty and often dirty road in the second Godfather film.

Watching the movie through the lens of Tom Hagen, it's clear tha the film in its own way really focusses on Tom and Michael and how the changing times and Michael's increasing paranoia have removed the family so far from "The Good Old Days".

The last two brothers left standing at the end of II are Tom ...

'Night of the Juggler' is either one of the best 70's film titles or one of the worst. Honestly I enjoy it, for it's uniqueness and complete (well...near complete) relevence to the film's plot.  It's certainly memorable, if not directly speaking to the film's setting...which is mostly in the daytime of a VERY 1978 NYC.

'Night of the Juggler' had long been sort of like that Jerry Lewis Holocaust film; never-seen, long-rumored to be ...

Robert Duvall passed away at the age of 95 after more than 60 years as a working actor at the highest levels.

One quick way to pay tribute to him is to revisit perhaps his most iconic and substantive role, that of Tom Hagen in The Godfather.

Quietly the most important character linking the people and events in the film, Duvall's portrayal navigated complex internal issues like: when is a son not a son, and what is the reward for co...

Chris Smith and Sarah Price's Sundance-winning first documentary feature, 'American Movie,' remains an iconic and thoroughly modern film to revisit or to experience for the first time.

Like all truly great documentaries, it's ostensibly about a finite thing: hardscrabble, complicated Midwestern working-class 30-year-old lives at home, delivers newspapers, works at a local cemetery, and has big dreams of writing, producing, directin...

The sequel to Denis Villeneuve's 'Sicaro' is an impressive off-ramp from the first film's focus on drug cartels trafficking narcotics and stacking bodies.

Italian director Stefano Sollima (Gomorra, ZeroZeroZero) focuses more intently on Josh Brolin's Matt Graver and Benicio Del Toro's Alejandro Gillick characters, as they face a (final?) confrontation with the outer limit of their own moral codes.

For me, Day of the Soldado is the ...

Denis Villeneuve's film 'Sicario' remains a vital and prescient glimpse into extra-judicial Governmental activities and the blurring of lines on both sides of the drug war, all brilliantly rendered by top-notch cinematography from Roger Deakins and a host of career-best performances from actors like Emily Blunt, James Brolin, Daniel Kaluuya, and, especially, Benicio Del Toro. 

Harrowing, procedural, understated, and complicated, th...