Stone Cold Classic

Buster Keaton's movies are among the few that people still watch in the 21st century, and it's mostly thanks to his Tom Cruise-esque willingness to do crazy nonsense in the name of entertainment. Today we discuss Keaton's favorite of his own films, "The General," a movie full of incredible shots, stunts and sequences that still manage to stun. Mostly 'cause they did all this wild boy stuff FOR REAL. I mean they just let a train fall into a river. They really did that.

Where to BEGIN? Magnolia is a three-hour symphony of grief and rage, as ambitious and uncompromising as Paul Thomas Anderson was back in 1999. It's an unapologetic stab at cinematic greatness and even when it falls short it's always fascinating. Like a lot of young cinephiles, it helped turn Matt and Dan into budding arthouse fans at a tender age, but David has NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE?!?!?! Get ready for a lot of Cruise chat, a lot of PTA chat, and a few words about them big old beefy froggies.

In remembrance of Sidney Poitier, Matt, David and Dan talk about the man's best movie, "In the Heat of the Night." Topics include Sidney Poitier (duh), Looney Tunes (of course) and the surprising durability of Scooby Doo (naturally). 

In honor of the recently departed Peter Bogdanovich, Matt, David and Dan discuss one of the man's best films, and one of the greatest comedies of the 1970s, What's Up Doc? Topics include Barbara Streisand's basement mall, Bogdanovich's incredible facility with cartoony visual gags, and a very brief history of Bogdanovich's insane life.Matt recommends pretty much all of Buster Keaton's directorial efforts, which you can mostly find on YouTube, though they're all over the streaming map. Consult justwatch.com for more info!David recommends Bullit, available to stream on HBO Max and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms. He also recommends Shoot 'Em Up, available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Dan recommends Buyer & Cellar, a play written by Jonathan Tollins, available to purchase from Amazon and Samuel French, if that's still a thing.

"Gene Kelly insults a wealthy benefactor and steals his friend's girlfriend" is not a premise that should work, but it somehow does in this Vincent Minelli masterpiece. Matt, David and Dan talk this swooning, elegant little number with singer, dancer, actress, musical aficionado and also David's wife, Heather Woodward. Topics include George Gershwin, the state of musical theater in movies and, once again, Gene Kelly's fabulous ass.Dan recommends The Red Shoes, available to stream on Criterion Channel, HBO Max and Amazon Prime, or available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.David recommends Anchors Aweigh, available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Matt recommends On The Town, available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Heather recommends 1776, available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.

It's a legitimate question! Dan, David and Matt talk Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a testy little Oscar winner, the auspicious debut of Mike Nichols, and a film that inspires controversy then and now, at least among the three of us. There's also a surprising amount of Licorice Pizza chat, so get in on that discourse.Matt recommends Fences, available for rent or purchase on all major digital platformsDan recommends Carnal Knowledge, available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.David recommends Gone Girl, available to stream on Hulu and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.

The Beatles...is there anything new left to say about them? No! But that won't stop us from trying! So today, Matt, David and Dan talk the lads' first feature film, produced at the absolute height of Beatlemania, "A Hard Day's Night." It's a rollicking good time and it pretty perfectly encapsulates why these four fellas became the most legendary pop group of the 20th century.Dan recommends "Purple Rain," available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Matt recommends the Beatles Anthology miniseries, which is actually quite hard to find turns out. Buy the out-of-print DVDs or just torrent the thing, I'm not a cop.David recommends A Hard Day's Write, a book that summarizes the story behind every single Beatles song. Available at several booksellers, I'm sure!

Ah, 2021. A year so deeply chaotic and unpredictable that reflecting on it for a few idle minutes will make you feel insane. Not unlike the previous year, or the four years before that. Anyway, at least movie theaters reopened! And we saw lots of good shit in theaters! (Well, David and Matt did. We'll get into that.) Join us as we count down our top five movies of 2021, the year the movies came back somewhat!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, MOVIE HOUSE! Today we talk about the most Christmas movie Christmas movie of them all, It's A Wonderful Life. Our assessment? It's...good!David recommends The Thin Man, available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Dan recommends Vertigo, available to stream on Criterion Channel and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Matt recommends The Best Years of Our Lives, available to stream on Kanopy and available for rent or purchase on iTunes and Amazon.

Sure, there are plenty of theatrically released movies that have become holiday perennials, but we all know the thing that's really defined Christmas for the last sixty years is TELEVISION BAY-BEEEEE! So we've decided to talk about two undeniable classics of the form and one personal wild card: A Charlie Brown Christmas, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Christmas Toy.Matt recommends The Snowman (1982), available to stream on Amazon Prime and available for rent or purchase on Amazon. It's also on YouTube for free in low quality, if that's your jam.David recommends Klaus, streaming exclusively on Netflix.Dan recommends Derek DelGaudio's In & of Itself, streaming exclusively on Hulu.

It's the best Christmas movie of the last thirty years and feel free to fight us (well, Matt) about it! We're talking Batman Returns, an unclassifiable piece of blockbuster entertainment and maybe the most unfiltered Burton-y Burton movie ever made. It's impeccably designed, it's incredibly acted and it has a searing, malevolent horniness that you just don't see in comic book movies these days. It's awesome. Merry Christmas and good will towards men, women and animal/human hybrids of all stripes.Dan recommends Jackie Brown, available to stream on HBO Max and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.David recommends Batman: The Animated Series available to stream on HBO Max and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms. He also recommends Darkman, available to stream on Peacock and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Matt recommends The Age of Innocence, available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms, and mother! which is available to stream on Paramount Plus and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.

All this month the Dang Fellas (nomenclature still under review) will be talking classic holiday entertainment, and we're kicking it off with Miracle on 34th Street, the movie that legally PROVED Santa Claus is REAL because the POST OFFICE gives him MAIL!!! Topics include the power of politics over raw facts, the fun of Santa Claus, and the overall medium-temperature feelings we all have about Santa Claus, what with being Jewish and everything.Matt recommends Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas, available to stream on Amazon Prime and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.David recommends the "Santa/Petting Zoo" episode of Nathan For You, available to stream on HBO Max and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Dan recommends watching West Side Story (1961) before chasing it with future Christmas release West Side Story (2021), and then maybe washing it all down with the entirety of the Twin Peaks saga, starring Richard Beymer and Russ Tamblyn. The original West Side Story is available for rent or purchase on iTunes and Amazon, and you can stream all three seasons of Twin Peaks on Hulu or Paramount Plus. (And you can do Fire Walk With Me on HBO Max!)

We already did a big round of Alicia Keys jokes back in 2019 so we'll spare you...it's Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a masterful French romance from Celine Sciamma. Topics include the ever-present debate about sex scenes in movies, both online and offline, digital photography in period pieces and how to make a spring-loaded, perfect tragic melodrama.Matt recommends In The Mood For Love, available to stream on Criterion Channel and HBO Max.David recommends Brooklyn (2015), available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Dan recommends The Glass Menagerie, in any format you can get your hands on.

*FRENCH SCREAMING* It's time to discuss the 2009 French stop-motion comedy A Town Called Panic, or Panic au Village. Topics include the luminaries of stop motion animation, the box office value of pure goofiness and, of course, Monkeybone.David recommends Whatever Tree, available on Vimeo, and Cartoon Madness, a weekly outdoor screening of classic cartoons in the very heart of Hollywood, California.Dan recommends Team America: World Police, available to stream on Netflix and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Matt recommends Das Rad, or Rocks, an animated short film available to stream on YouTube.

You probably haven't heard of this bit of LGBTQ-focused Japanese psychedelia from the late 1960s, and neither had we until our guest Conner Shin brought it to our attention. Turns out it's wildly unique, pretty influential and just plain great. Topics include Asian bath house culture, the surprising durability of LGBT stories across countries and cultures, and of course...ska.Matt recommends Portrait of Jason, available to stream on Kanopy and Criterion Collection and available for rent or purchase on iTunes and Amazon.Dan recommends Chronicle of a Summer, directed by Jean Rouch, available for free on Vimeo, or Joean Rouch's The Mad Masters, which is VERY difficult to find.David recommends Hedwig and the Angry Inch, available to stream on Kanopy and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Conner recommends Jodorowsky’s Dune available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms, and Come and See, available to stream on Criterion Channel.

They say every great filmmaker eventually tries his hand at a western, a musical or a 17th century satirical antihero story about a dipshit social climber. Stanley Kubrick chose a musical...jk, it's the third one and it's called Barry Lyndon. Topics include Stanley's intense working methods, Ryan O'Neal's nutty accent and that oh-so-charming voice over narrator.David recommends The Favourite (2018), available for rent or purchase on most digital platforms, but not iTunes for whatever reason.Dan recommends Claire's Knee, available to stream on Criterion Channel.Matt recommends What's Up Doc?, available to stream on HBO Max and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.

Matt, David and Dan talk about the career-making hit for Brian De Palma, Stephen King and Sissy Spacek, Carrie! Topics include Brian De Palma's unapologetic horniness, Stephen King's insane work ethic and a surprising amount of chat about Sydney Lassick.David recommends Scanners, available to stream on HBO Max and Criterion Channel, and available for rent or purchase on Amazon and iTunes.Dan recommends Making The Shining, available to stream on YouTube.Matt recommends On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, available at most bookstores! He also recommends the work of Joe Hill, especially Horns and Locke and Key.

Matt, David and Dan talk the French art-horror movie Eyes Without a Face with actor and comic Ryan Hitchcock! Topics include "elevated" horror, the New Beverly Cinema and a special little Peter Lorre movie called Mad Love.Matt, David, Dan and Ryan recommend Mad Love, available for rent or purchase on Amazon and iTunes.

Matt, David and Dan talk about Black Sunday, Mario Bava's masterful gothic horror debut, and the movie Tim Burton has been aping maybe forever. (Even Big Fish!) We talk about favorite Goth Girlfriends, Dan's favorite catacomb movies and the awesome power of creaky practical effects.David recommends Planet of the Vampires, available to stream on Paramount Plus and available for rent or purchase on iTunes.Dan recommends Suspiria (1977), available to stream on Kanopy.Matt recommends Phantom of the Paradise, available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.

The fellas do their first ever double feature, the extremely short and incredibly iconic Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. Topics include the career of horror legend Boris Karloff and his rival Bela Lugosi, the massive differences between the movie and the novel and a brief, polite disagreement about which of these two movies is better.Matt recommends Freaks (1932), available to stream on HBO Max and available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.David recommends Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), available for rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.Dan recommends National Theater Live, a Fathom event series where UK National Theater productions are shown in movie theaters. He particularly recommends Danny Boyle's production of Frankenstein with Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch, if you can manage to snag a ticket.