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In our first-ever Patreon Listeners' Choice poll, something like 52% of you voted for David Fincher's ZODIAC, the movie we probably should have done within the first five premium eps if we're being honest. But now we've done it! It's all here: Dirty Harry inspiration Dave Toschi, true crime ethics, Bay Area geography, what this movie is actually saying, and about a full hour of Melvin Belli stuff. Enjoy!

As always, thank you to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Open your notebooks and fill up your glasses of water, folks: today we're looking at Steven Soderbergh's two documentaries on Spalding Gray. And Ian's pissed off! We're joined once more by our friend, writer and critic Rob Rubsam, to talk 1996's GRAY'S ANATOMY, a sort of longform music video for Gray's "monolog" of the same name, and Soderbergh's 2010 posthumous "autobiography" of Gray, AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE. How does a figure like Gray emerge and rise to fame? Where does we place him in the long tradition of neurotic white guys who make everything about themselves? Is Jake one of those? And why is Ian so mad about this guy? We answer these questions and more - check it out.

Further Reading:

"The Catastrophe" by Oliver Sacks

"Vanishing Act" by Alex Williams

"In New Film, Spalding Gray Tells His Own Tale" by Karen Michel

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace

Me Talk Pretty One Day, etc. by David Sedaris

The World According to Dave Barry by Dave Barry

À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust

Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald

The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker

Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard

Anything by John Berger

Further Viewing:

MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (Malle, 1981)

SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA (Demme, 1987)

VANYA ON 42ND STREET (Malle, 1994)

JOHN MULANEY: NEW IN TOWN (Polito & Szymanski, 2012)

MIKE BIRBIGLIA: MY GIRLFRIEND'S BOYFRIEND (Barrish, 2013)

PARKER GAIL'S LOCATION IS EVERYTHING (Buono & Thomas, 2016)

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https://www.robertrubsam.com/

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This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

Our friend and yours Comrade Yui is back to talk two Ernest Hemingway adaptations in our wheelhouse - THE KILLERS (1946) by CRISS CROSS director Robert Siodmak and THE KILLERS (1964) by DIRTY HARRY director Don Siegel (plus the short Tarkovsky made as a student in 1956!). We get a crash course in noir history, spatial cinematography, and midcentury ideas of the self - along with our earliest-ever Pine Cone Crime Zone.

Patreon.com/ComradeYui

As always, thank you to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

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"Would I lysine to you?" - Mark Whitacre. Hey that's just a joke but maybe they could have used it on the posters for THE INFORMANT!, Steven Soderbergh's 2009 corporate espionage caper about the lysine price-fixing scandal and one of the weirdest guys there has ever been. And joining us to talk big business, the FBI, and organized crime in all its forms is writer and podcaster Dan O'Sullivan (The Outfit)! Is business run like the mafia or vice versa? Is corruption inherent to capitalism or simply a common side effect? Did Kurt Eichenwald ever go on Twitter? We answer these questions once and for all, so give this one a listen.

Further Reading:

The Informant: A True Story by Kurt Eichenwald

Rats in the Grain: The Dirty Tricks and Trials of Archer Daniels Midland by James B. Lieber

Everybody Loves A Good Drought by Palagummi Sainath

"Why Capitalism Loves Corruption" by Gareth Fearn

Further Viewing:

PRIME CUT (Richie, 1972)

THE INSIDER (Mann, 1999)

ERIN BROCKOVICH (Soderbergh, 2000)

MICHAEL CLAYTON (Gilroy, 2007)

BURN AFTER READING (Coen, 2008)

Follow Dan O'Sullivan:

https://x.com/osullyville

https://bsky.app/profile/osullyville.bsky.social

https://headgum.com/the-outfit

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This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

Finally, we've reached the end of Sergio Leone's filmography with the long-in-development gangster epic ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. This film has many admirers, to whom we say: sorry! We didn't care for it, and we'll tell you why - with a little final examination of the man's work.

CW: This episode contains discussion of the film's sequences of sexual violence, so consider skipping this one if you're not in a place to listen to that right now.

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Soderbergh's second film for Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures was THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, a largely improvised look at life on the cusp of the Great Recession starring adult film megastar Sasha Grey. We're joined by an anonymous writer and sex worker to talk about one of Soderbergh's less-appreciated great films, sex work as work, Grey's legacy, depictions of intimacy, and Power Wash Simulator for the Nintendo Switch. Really great episode, we hope you enjoy!

Further Reading:

Playing The Whore: The Work of Sex Work by Melissa Gira Grant

"The Teenager & The Porn Star" by Dave Gardetta

"Exploitation Under Capitalism" by Mary Mother of God

"Whorearchy 101" by Jack Parker

Soderbergh interview by Ben Walters

Steven Soderbergh: Interviews, ed. Anthony Kaufman

Further Viewing:

RED DESERT (Antonioni, 1964)

KLUTE (Pakula, 1971)

CRIES AND WHISPERS (Bergman, 1972)

FULL FRONTAL (Soderbergh, 2002)

BUBBLE (Soderbergh, 2005)

FASHIONISTAS SAFADO: THE CHALLENGE (Stagliano, 2006)

MAGIC MIKE (Soderbergh, 2012)

ANORA (Baker, 2024)

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This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

While making CHE, Steven Soderbergh fell so in love with Bolivia's national liquor, singani, that he decided to export it to the US as Singani 63 - just like Che Guevara would have done. Nah just kidding but we tried it and it's actually quite good! Even better, Pod Casty For Me's own Hotel Detective Maxwell Pierson joins us to get a little loose drinking Singani 63 (and Casamigos tequila) and talk about all kinds of stuff: the colonial history of liquor, Soderbergh's recently revealed unmade Kylo Ren movie, our long podcast journey thus far, and more. A special ep with a special man.

Per Maxwell's plug, please check out Donors Choose to support a teacher near you: https://www.donorschoose.org/

Follow Maxwell Pierson: https://x.com/MaxwellPierson1

Lots to check out here: https://singani63.com/

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

The leftist podcast about Steven Soderbergh movies has finally arrived at CHE, Soderbergh's two-part biopic of (Argentine) Cuban Revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Joining us to provide the kind of deep historical context you know we go crazy for is historian of Cuba and scholar of Latin American and Caribbean history Andrés Pertierra! We have never read more in preparation for an episode, folks, so we hope you dig this one as much as we did. Hasta la victoria siempre, amigos.

Further Reading (direct from Andrés!):

Anderson, John Lee. Che: A Revolutionary Life. Grove, 1997.

"The Cuban Exodus" by Andrés Pertierra

Further Viewing (shout out to Andrés for these, too!):

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (Salles, 2004)

CONDUCTA IMPROPRIA (Almendros & Jiménez Leal, 1984)

CHE and the Digital Cinema Revolution!

Soderbergh getting heckled at Q&A

FRESA Y CHOCOLATE (Gutiérrez Alea & Carlos Tabío, 1984)

END OF A REVOLUTION (Moser, 1967)

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https://bsky.app/profile/andrespertierra.bsky.social

https://originesacubanhistorypodcast.libsyn.com/

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