エピソード

  • THE STORY OF US/In Memory of Rob Reiner (1947-2025) - with Nitish Pahwa

    THE STORY OF US/In Memory of Rob Reiner (1947-2025) - with Nitish Pahwa
    2025/12/30
    In honor of the late Rob Reiner we are looking at The Story of Us, the 74th highest-grossing movie of the year, finishing just ahead of earlier entry Blast from the Past. Opening #2 behind Fight Club on October 15th and going on to gross $59 million worldwide on a $50 million dollar budget. Starring Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Reiner himself, Rita Wilson, Julie Hagerty, Paul Reiser, and Tim Matheson, The Story of Us is one of Reiner’s worst-reviewed movies, who, after an unbelievable run of movies in the late 80s and early 90s started running into trouble in the late 90s and early 2000s with the likes of this, Rumor Has It, and the aggressively sentimental and fluffy The Bucket List. Is The Story of Us as bad as critics said? Or does it belong alongside When Harry Met Sally, Reiner's romcom masterpiece that it goes so far out its way to evoke? We welcome Slate's Nitish Pahwa to discuss marriage, casting, bad writing, unnecessary monologues, and the greatness of Rob Reiner. Nitish is on Bluesky @nitishpahwa.com
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1 時間 29 分
  • See Also: A VERY ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS

    See Also: A VERY ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS
    2025/12/24
    Merry Christmas and happy every other holiday! In this episode, John and Julia each recommend five of their favorite "alternative" Christmas movies. The like of It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, Love Actually, Miracle on 34th Street, and, yes, even Die Hard are off-limits. Instead, we present 10 movies that are maybe not in your annual Christmas rotation but ought to be! Enjoy! Julia's picks: The Ref (1994) Carol (2015) The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941) A Christmas Tale (2008) The Shop Around the Corner (1940) John's picks: Rare Exports (2010) A Midwinter's Tale (1995) 8-Bit Christmas (2021) About A Boy (2002) Little Women (1994)
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1 時間 26 分
  • GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI - with Sean Malin

    GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI - with Sean Malin
    2025/12/16
    It's Christmas time, so we're looking at a movie that tells the story of a mysterious man who spends a lot of time on the roof with his animal friends and has the ability to sneak into your house undetected as if by magic: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai! Ghost Dog appears nowhere on the 1999 box office charts because it technically didn’t have a major theatrical release in the US until March of 2000 (it did begin its festival run in 1999, starting in May at the Cannes Film Festival where it was nominated for the Palme D’or) Starring Forest Whitaker and written and directed by Jim Jarmusch with a score by Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, Ghost Dog is a movie unlike any other, aggressively defying genre and staying laser-focused on its bizarre but endearing vision. This week, John and Julia are joined by returning guest Sean Malin, author of the just-released book The Podcast Pantheon to talk Whitaker, Jarmusch, podcasts, Jon Hamm, and Christmas movies!
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1 時間 38 分
  • See Also: SHATTERED GLASS (2003)

    See Also: SHATTERED GLASS (2003)
    2025/11/26
    The first of what will be a series of smaller episodes where we take a look at a movie that is somehow related to our most recent subject. This time, our See Also recommendation for The Insider is Billy Ray's superb 2003 docudrama/thriller Shattered Glass. Featuring incredible performances from a uniformly excellent cast, especially Hayden Christensen as the title character and Peter Sarsgaard as New Republic editor Chuck Lane, Shattered Glass deserves it place among the best movies about journalism and the best movies of 2003. It's also newly relevant in the midst of the Olivia Nuzzi of it all, and we talk about how the cult of personality around "The Writer" has impacted journalism for the worse. You can watch Shattered Glass right now for free on Tubi.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    58 分
  • THE INSIDER - with Lindsay Beyerstein

    THE INSIDER - with Lindsay Beyerstein
    2025/11/18
    Michael Mann's The Insider is easily the most glaring omission from the our initial 18, universally regarded as one of the best – if not THE best – movie of 1999. Finishing in 69th place, sandwiched between two previous entries, Girl Interrupted at 70th and Mystery Men at 68th, The Insider stars Russell Crowe, in an Oscar-nominated performance, and Al Pacino alongside an incredibly deep supporting class (including the greatest character actor alive, Stephen Tobolowsky) Directed by Michael Mann and adapted from the 1996 Vanity Fair article "The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Marie Brenner, The Insider received rave reviews, wound up on countless year-end top 10 lists, and was nominated for a slew of Oscars, including Mann for directing and screenwriting, but was shut out by the juggernaut that was American Beauty. Since it's widely regarded as one of Mann's best films and one the best films ever made about journalism, we invited investigative journalist Lindsay Beyerstein to tell us how well the movie mirrors real life and to dig into what it's like to watch a movie about CBS News struggling to maintain its integrity as a journalistic entity in the bleak future of 26 years later. Lindsay is on Bluesky @beyerstein
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1 時間 14 分
  • TRUE CRIME (1999) and JUROR #2 (2024) - with Aaron from HIT FACTORY

    TRUE CRIME (1999) and JUROR #2 (2024) - with Aaron from HIT FACTORY
    2025/11/04
    True Crime was the 94th-highest grossing movie of 1999, grossing just $17 million on a $50 million budget with a fairly limited release. Starring and directed by Clint Eastwood, True Crime was largely forgotten and remains overlooked most likely due to its release at what can be described as Eastwood’s most prolonged artistic lull in the mid 1990s, starting with 1997’s Absolute Power and Midnight in the Garden of Eden, 2000’s Space Cowboys, and 2002’s Blood Work. That lull would end with 2003’s acclaimed Mystic River, which earned Oscars for both Sean Penn and Tim Robbins as well as Best Director and Best Picture nominations for Eastwood. But True Crime is still an interesting entry on Eastwood's resume, exploring many of the themes of injustice and moral ambiguity that he frequently explores in his work. So does the similarly-themed 2024 film Juror #2, which Eastwood directed in his mid-90s. So this week we're talking about them both, and joining is us is Aaron from the podcast Hit Factory.
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1 時間 50 分
  • THE SIXTH SENSE (Julia's Version) - with Sooz Kempner

    THE SIXTH SENSE (Julia's Version) - with Sooz Kempner
    2025/10/21
    The Sixth Sense was one of the biggest movies of the year, second only to The Phantom Menace. And since it's Halloween and Julia had never seen it before, we thought it was time to take a second look. A movie best remembered for its plot twist (and the meticulous build up to it), The Sixth Sense is nonetheless at its core a drama about grief. Once you know the ending, the experience of the movie changes. But is it still good? Does M. Night Shyamalan's breakthrough film deserve its status on the 1999 Mount Rushmore? For our second go-round on The Sixth Sense, John and Julia invited comedian, actor, and singer Sooz Kempner - who didn't understand the ending to The Sixth Sense when she saw it at the age of 14 - to talk plot twists, child actors, Bruce Willis, and jump scares. You can find Sooz on Bluesky @soozuk Her website is https://www.soozkempner.co.uk/
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1 時間 10 分
  • OCTOBER SKY - with Amanda Jane Stern

    OCTOBER SKY - with Amanda Jane Stern
    2025/10/07
    October Sky was the 63rd-highest grossing movie of the year, just behind The 13th Warrior. Opening on February 19th with just shy of $6 million, it went on to gross $34.7 million worldwide on a $25 million budget. October Sky was adapted from the memoir Rocket Boys (an anagram of "October Sky") by NASA engineer Homer Hickman and directed by Joe Johnston, beautifully shot by journeyman cinematographer Fred Murphy with a score by Mark Isham it starred newcomer Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Lauren Dern, William Lee Scott, Chad Lindberg, Natalie Canderday, Chris Ellis, and in a really wonderful performance, American Pie’s Sherminator himself, Chris Owen. A critical hit and modest commercial success, October Sky was largely forgotten by the time award season rolled around, and it is now a fondly if faintly remembered gem (as well as the breakout film for its young star!) This week, Julia and John welcome actor/writer Amanda Jane Stern from the podcast Don't Be Crazy to talk about her new film, Joe Johnston's aggressively earnest style, and boys and their rockets. Amanda is on Bluesky @amandajanestern.com
    続きを読む 一部表示
    1 時間 28 分