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© Jason Sacks
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Jason and his friends talk about old and new movies
218 Episodes
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Paul Moyer joins Jason Sacks for the first of a series of discussions of 1970s dystopian cinema. This time: George Lucas's THX-1138 and Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running. Join Jason and Paul for a thoughftul and (we think) fascinating discussion of alienation, ecological collapse, the trauma of the 1960s, and the impact of loneliness in these two fascinating films. It's an hour of so of great listening.
Eric Hoffman joins Jason to talk about one of Alfred Hitchcock's classic films, the 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. You may be familiar with the 1950s version of this film starring Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day, but the earlier movie is actually better than th remake, with more complex characters, more clever scenes and a more satisfying climax. Eric and Jason explore what makes the earlier film better as well as how it fits into Hitchcock's long career. It's a fast paced hour long conversation we think you will enjoy.
Shawn and Paul are back to continue our look at the amazing films of John Carpenter. This time, the trio take a look at the two TV movies Carpenter directed in 1978-79, Someone's Watching Me! and Elvis!. Both movies are early work by a director learning on the job, and both are surprisingly pretty great on their own terms. Whether you know these films or not, we think you'll enjoy this listen.
In honor of Jason's upcoming trip to Japan, Eric is back to talk about two classic Japanese crime dramas - one of which is frequently listed as one of the greatest films ever to come out of that country.A Fugitive from the Past is a deeply immersive and deeply impressive cop drama from director Tomu Uchida, while Vengeance is Mine is a deeply upsetting journey inside the mind and life of a serial killer/rapist/general terrible person, from director Shohei Imamura. Uchida and Imamura both show sympathy for their reprehensible lead characters, but do both of them make the audience feel that same sympathy? Eric and Jason debate, compare and contrast to come to some interesting insights.
Michelle is back to continue our look at the films of Billy Wilder. This time we look at the the three films he made which start Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon: The Fortune Cookie, The Front Page and Buddy Buddy. Are these three late career Wilder films lost classics or signs the old man didn't have his old fastball? Hmm, well, let's just say these are not the best films in Wilder's catalog...
Eric is back again, and as usual, he and Jason are talking about Japanese films. In fact, they're continuing their series on the work of Shohei Imamura with two fascinating, odd, contrasting films: The Eel and The Pornographers. The former is an intriguing tale of redemption, guilt and the obscure love of a fish. The latter is, well, about the obscure love of a fish, as well as bizarre families, an intiguing filmic style, and some very unsexy pornography.These are fascinating works of film art. Even if you're not familiar with them, we think this will be a good listen.
Paul and Shawn are back! And now it's time to dig into the real beginnings of John Carpenter's rise to filmic greatness. Yes, it's time to talk about Halloween and The Fog. Both are great, but what did people think of Halloween at the time it came out, and does the film still stand up today? And is The Fog a brilliant ghost story or a slightly dull muddle? Hmm, could that be a preview of the interesting discussion in this episode? Spoilers say, yes, we have a great disagreement. What do you think? Be sure to send us your opinions...
Paul and Shawn are back, and this time the guys are taking on a new project. It's time to dig into the movies of the great John Carpenter. We're not going to go completely chronological through his filmography (this later movies are famously bad) but we wanted to get his two earliest movies out of the way.Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13 are early works, but both have a lot to make them highly enjoyable. The slacker energy of Dark Star is especially fun for everybody this week.Join us for the kickoff of what should be a fun series!
Michelle is back for our continuing discussion of Billy Wilder films. At this point we've watched and discussed 18 Wilder films which span the gamut of his career. There always comes a moment when doing a director durvey when we hit a few more minor obscure films in their filmography and that time is now for the great Wilder.So this time we discuss a few notable films you might be less familiar with: The Emperor Waltz, The Spirit of St. Louis and The Major and the Minor.All are relatively deep cuts, but all represent interesting moments in Wilder's career and are totally deserving of in-depth discussions diving deep into common themes and approaches. We hope you enjoy this pod as we begin to wrap up the great director's career.
Eric is back so it's time for him and Jason to dig into obscure masterpieces. Today the guys take on two brilliantly intense fils by British master Peter Watkins: Edvard Munch and The War Game. Eric fills Jason in on Watkins's long and well documented history of making avant-garde films, then the guys dig deep into two of the most highly serious but emotionally satisfying movies of their experience. The Munch film in particular has so much complexity and integrity to it that the film sets a standard for biopics that may never be reached again.
I saw 93 movies released in 2026 so I feel like that's enough to give you a top 10, along with some honorable mentions and a few bottom feeders. Let me know what you think of the list!
Jacques Tati directed some of the most wonderfully humorous and charming comedies of all time. Eric Hoffman joins Jason to discuss Tati's short filmography and delight in Tati's meticulous attention to detail, his clashes between urbanism and tradition, and his deep influences on other filmmaking greats. This was Jason's first time watching a Tati film and he was blown away by the experience. It's an hour of great discussion we're sure you'll enjoy.
Michelle is back to continue Billy Wilder-Cast, this time with maybe one of the darknes movies ever committed to film, Ace in the Hole, and one of the most fun (but still kind of dark), Witness for the Prosecution. Do Jason and Michelle git whiplast from discussing these very different movies or do they find some intriguing common ground? (Spoiler: there is some common ground)
Shōhei Imamura's 1968 epic Profound Desires of the Gods is a brilliant, dizzying, extremely complex drama/satire focusing on a Japanese island in transition. The film focuses on one family on the island, a group of highly inbred people, and how the whole island reacts when post-WWI modernity starts to come to the island.In other words, Profound Desires is just the kind of strange, heady and often surreal movie Eric and Jason love to talk about for this podcast. And talk they do, with 75 minutes of attempts to wrangle this unwieldy masterpiece into some kind of shape...
Eric is back this week, and the guys dive deep into Japanese film as they often do. This week, a look at two classic, contrasting takes on a Japanese legend, The Ballad of Narayama. Keisuke Kinoshita's 1958 version is sylized Kabuki brilliance, while Shōhei Imamura's 1983 take on the same material is deliberately strange: alienating, surreal and often brilliant in its own way.Eric and Jason compare and contrast these two versions and find some interesting insights into the way art can illuminate history.
Shawn and Paul are back, which means it's time for the guys to wrap up their look at the Alien and Predator franchises with a review of Alien: Romulus and Predator: Badlands. Will the guys like the kids of Romulus and the family dynamics of Badlands ior will they demand the return of Sigourney and Arnold?
Michelle is back, so that means it's time again for our series looking at the films of the great Billy Wilder. This time: two of Wilder's silliest and most edgy movies -- at least, edgy for the 1960s -- Irma La Douce and Kill Me, Stupid!. Both films have a broad, wacky comedy sensibility, both involve some bed-hopping and other sexual transgressions, and both are very worthy of discussion on this week's show!
When Paul Moyer joins Jason to talk movies, that means it's '70s dystopia times. This time: two different sci-fi visions of the future from the mid-1970s. Rollerball seems prophetic in some ways, a deeply intriguing tale of future sports that imagines a future similar to the one we're living in now. Logan's Run, on the other hand, seems a little half-baked and poorly thought through, a clever idea contained in a movie that can't quite carry it. The discussion makes for an hour of interesting listening we hope you'll enjoy.If you did enjoy the episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a review in the Apple Podcasts app. Thanks!
This week Eric Hoffman joins Jason to talk about two 1970s films that take on the idea of a pandemic in very different ways. In George Romero's The Crazies, a virus is loose in a small Pennsylvania town that makes all its residents crazy. Jason loves the low budget, handmade feel of the film while Eric was frustrated by its amateurishness. But Eric and Jason agree on No Blade of Grass, a heavy downer of an ecological fable directed by Cornel Wilde. Whether you've seen these movies or not, we think the pod is worth a listen. And of course, there are SPOILERS aplenty!
Michelle is back to continue our discussion of the films of Billy Wilder. This time, two films which are on and around the second world war: the wartime prison drama Stalag 17 and the mapcap Cold War comedy One, Two, Three. Michelle has some nuanced takes on Stalag 17 that Jason finds fascinating, but no nuance is needed to know that One, Two, Three is an absolute wild delight.Good listening from them as always!
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