Episodes
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Reel 99b: Mini-series, Part 4 (Show Me A Hero, continued)
Show Me a Hero is a 2015 miniseries that was produced for HBO and helmed by David Simon, the mind behind The Wire, Treme, The Deuce and Homicide: Life On The Street. So most of his projects are fictional with a dash of real-life in them, but this one is based entirely on a true story and relies...
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Reel 99a: Mini-series, Part 4 (Show Me A Hero)
So to answer your first question: no, we didn't miscount. We're having a technical issue with Episode 98. If we can fix it, great and we'll release it when it's ready. If we can't, we'll have to re-record it. It's actually happened before, for a different reason, and while it's an interesting...
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Reel 97b: Mini-Series, Part 2 (Lonesome Dove)
In which we continue and conclude our discussion of Lonesome Dove. The mini-series is clearly not a strictly American phenomenon (as evidenced by our last episode), but there was a while when that could easily be the argument. It seemed as though mini-series were ubiquitous during the 1970s and...
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Reel 97a: Mini-Series, Part 2 (Lonesome Dove)
The mini-series is clearly not a strictly American phenomenon (as evidenced by our last episode), but there was a while when that could easily be the argument. It seemed as though mini-series were ubiquitous during the 1970s and 80s. The first by-definition mini-series in the US was probably The...
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Reel 96b: Miniseries Part 1 (Fanny and Alexander, continued)
This is the first of five episodes we'll be covering which deal with miniseries, rather than theatrical films. The idea here is that when television decides they're going to do "events" and create these limited series ("limited" in the sense that there's a fixed number of episodes and no more are...
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Reel 96a: Mini-Series, Part 1 (Fanny and Alexander)
This is the first of five episodes we'll be covering which deal with miniseries, rather than theatrical films. The idea here is that when television decides they're going to do "events" and create these limited series ("limited" in the sense that there's a fixed number of episodes and no more are...
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Reel 95b: Careers Cut Short, Part 4 (River Phoenix)
Running on Empty is an interesting film by Sidney Lumet that, in our opinion, doesn't get enough love. Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti play a married couple forced to go underground when their activist ways take an unfortunate turn and someone is accidentally killed. Now, that event took place...
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Reel 95a: Careers Cut Short, Pt.3 (River Phoenix)
In our last episode we looked at Grace Kelly, whose career was cut short by her own choice. She was given the option to be treated like a princess, or to go out and actually be an honest-to-god Princess. She chose both love and duty, since you can't really Princess and be a movie star at the same...
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Reel 94b: Careers Cut Short, Pt.2 (Grace Kelly)
In 1955, Kelly paired up with Alfred Hitchcock again, to make To Catch a Thief, co-starring Cary Grant. Grant plays a retired cat burglar who is suspected of committing a new series of robberies, so he sets up a big job as a kind of sting operation to nab the person who's making him look like…
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Reel 94a: Careers Cut Short, Pt.1 (Grace Kelly)
Sean and I originally came up with something like a half-dozen subjects for this miniseries, including a few actors from Saturday Night Live who made the jump into films. But ultimately it became kind of unwieldy, so we limited ourselves to two full episodes. Hollywood and show business fame in...
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Reel 93b: Searching For God, Pt.2
Terrence Malik has written and directed The Tree of Life, a sprawling story that starts in the 1960s, jumps to present-day and then goes back to the birth of the universe. And that's just in the first few minutes of the film. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain are the O'Briens, a couple that learns...
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Reel 93a: Searching For God, Pt.1
Whether we choose to admit it or not, we're driven by some level of faith that something lies beyond our current plane of existence. Some of us simply hope so, some profess not to care, others will go wholeheartedly into some form of religion. And the search for God--however you view that...
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Reel 92B: Critical Response, Pt.2
In Part 2 of our episode we look at Barry Levinson's Liberty Heights, from 1999. This was the fourth time that Levinson went to the well of life in Baltimore, and the second we've looked at (we still need to get to Tin Men and Avalon). The film is not a response to any of his Baltimore films, but...
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Reel 92A: Critical Response, Pt.1
FIlm directors have to have a thick skin when it comes to criticism. But once in awhile, it gets to them and they let it show. More often than not, they say that the critics are out of touch with audience tastes. Others will own their failures: Roland Emmerich, for example, admitted that...
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Reel 91b: Humphrey Bogart Joins the Resistance, Pt.2
We continue this episode with To Have and Have Not, a 1944 production directed by Howard Hawks. In this film, Bogart plays a sport tourism fisherman who's asked to use his boat to assist the French Resistance in Martinique. He meets up with Marie "Slim" Browning (Lauren Bacall) and that's where…
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Reel 91a: Humphrey Bogart Joins the Resistance, Pt.1
Casablanca is a film that Sean and I have wanted to cover for a long time, but there was a little bit of a struggle to find a good film to pair it with. Not because there were so few, but because there were so MANY. Finally we came up with focusing on Humphrey Bogart himself rather than on the...
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Reel 90b: At the Ballet, Pt.2
In the second half of our episode, we take a peek at THE COMPANY (2003), a fictional story involving a real ballet company, with a couple of actors thrown in who aren't professional ballet dancers. As with any Altman film, there's a lot going on, usually simultaneously, and there are are a couple...
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Reel 90a: At the Ballet, Pt.1
In today's episode we're going to have a look at a couple of films made several decades apart that look at the goings-on behind the scenes in ballet companies. In this half of the episode, we're reviewing THE RED SHOES (1948), directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. We have...
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Reel 89b: Backstage Adaptations, Pt.2
In Part 2 of today's episode, we look at TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY, directed by Michael Winterbottom. Steve Coogan is an exaggerated version of himself (we hope), playing the title character in the film adaptation of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. He's…
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Reel 89a: Backstage Adaptations, Pt.1
Hey there! LTNS! Today we take a look at a pair of films that deal with the creation of a film, but the catch is that the source material is notoriously difficult to adapt. Consequently the crux of the story we see involves the difficulty the creators are having putting the thing together. We…
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Short Subject: Sean Looks Back at the Sundance Film Festival
As you no doubt know, actor/director/producer Robert Redford died last week at the age of 89. Now, lots and lots of people took the time to look back at his film career, so Sean and Claude took a different tack and reviewed a different aspect of Redford's legacy: the Sundance Film Festival.…
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Reel 88a: Backstage Drama II, Part 1
Way, way back in Episode 12, we looked at Stage Door and All About Eve, a couple of films about the theater industry that had practically no theater in them. We're going back to that well only only 76 episodes later, with today's look at two films that also deal with stage performers and the…
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Reel 88b: Backstage Drama II, Part 2
In the second half of our episode, we check out Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), which is definitely a tonal shift from the first half. Kristen Stewart is the American assistant to an international star of stage and screen played by Juliette Binoche. The death of a former mentor leads her to consider...
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Reel 87b Semi-Autobiographical Films, pt.2
From New York we head down to Baltimore, Maryland for DINER (1982) written and directed by Barry Levinson. This film was, in fact, shot in and around Baltimore, and Claude takes the time to flex his Baltimore geography knowledge. (By the way, when you're visiting the gravesite he mentions during...
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Reel 87a: Semi-Autobiographical Movies, Pt.1
This episode takes you to the places where a pair of directors grew up. Coincidentally, these places are also the stomping grounds for Your Humble Hosts. We begin with MEAN STREETS (1973) . directed and co-written by Martin Scorsese, which is set in New York City. (Yeah, it was filmed in Los...
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Reel 86b: The Magnificent Andersons, Pt.2
In Part Two of our episode, which isn't quite as packed as Part 1 (largely because it's a shorter, more straightforward story), we look at Wes Anderson's THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, starring Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston and a half-dozen or so other people as their adult children and in-laws. At the...
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Reel 86a: The Magnificent Andersons, Pt.1
In today's episode we are looking at the work of two directors named Anderson, although they're not related to one another. We begin with Paul Thomas Anderson's MAGNOLIA, from 1999. This is a film that has the complexity of a Robert Altman film, in that we have many parallel stories in a few...
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Reel 85b: Denzel Still on the Case, Pt.2
In this half of our episode we lighten the tone just a little bit for another Carl Franklin joint, Out of Time, starring Denzel Washington again (of course) along with Eva Mendes, Dean Cain and the always-delightful John Billingsley. In this film Denzel plays a police chief in Florida who needs…
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Reel 85a: Denzel Still on the Case, Pt.1
This is the second of two episodes in which we look at films in which Denzel Washington is a lawman of some kind. We start with the 1995 neo-noir Devil in a Blue Dress, directed by Carl Franklin and co-starring the likes of Don Cheadle and Jennifer Beals. It's a period piece, set in post-WW2...
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Reel 84b: Denzel on the Case, Pt.2
In the second half of our episode, Denzel returns to the United States, and to New York City for Inside Man (2006), a Spike Lee joint. This is a crime thriller that has Denzel's character matching wits with a bank robber. There are lots of twists and turns and you're never sure who the titular...
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Reel 84a: Denzel on the Case, Pt.1
This is the first of two episodes we'll be doing, featuring Denzel Washington as a law enforcement officer of some kind. We open up with The Mighty Quinn, a 1989 film that Washington made right on the heels of his stint in the television show St. Elsewhere. (Don't mistake it for his film debut,...
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Reel 83b: In the Style of Howard Hawks, Pt.2
In Part 2 of our triumphant return (shrug), we look at 2015's The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott. This film is set on two different planets: one of them has billions of people on it, and the other has...one. And we manage to jump back and forth between the two with tension and humor, and it's…
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Reel 83a: In the Style of Howard Hawks, pt.1
The show returns to begin 2025 with a look at a pair of films that, on their surface, couldn't possibly be more different from one another--but in fact they have more in common than you'd think. Both of them owe some debt to Howard Hawks, whether in visual style or dialogue patterns, or something...
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Reel 82b: In the Style of Ingmar Bergman, Pt.2
In this half of the episode, we look at Bergman Island (2021), written and directed by Mia Hansen-Løve. It stars Tim Roth and Vicky Krieps as a couple who have come to Faro Island as fans of Ingmar Bergman and want to take the tourist view while they complete their own work in a house they've...
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Reel 82a: In the Style of Ingmar Bergman, pt.1
In our last episode we took a look at films that followed Alfred HItchcock's filmmaking style. This time around we're looking at films that have deep echoes of the work of Ingmar Bergman. We start with Away From Her (2006), written and directed by Sarah Polley. Julie Christie plays a woman whose...
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Reel 81b: In the Style of Hitchcock, Pt.2
In this half of the episode, we're looking at Tell No One, a French film from 2006 directed and co-written by Guillaume Canet. COMING ATTRACTIONS: In our next episode we go from Hitchcock to Bergman, as we look at a pair of films styled after that director. We start with Away From Her (2006) and...
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Reel 81a: In the Style of Hitchcock, Pt.1
In today's episode we explore films that look like they could be produced by Alfred Hitchcock, but they weren't. We start with Diva, from 1981.
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Reel 80b: Political Thrillers, Pt.2
In this half of the episode, we're reviewing the 1969 film Z, directed by Costa-Gavras. In this film we're in a European country that totally isn't Greece, and we see both sides of an ideological war between two extreme factions. It's a gripping story with an ending that's all too familiar, if...
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Reel 80a: Political Thrillers, Pt.1
In this episode, we'll be taking a look at a pair of political thrillers, both of them based on real-life events. (It should be noted, however, that one of them is definitely fiction. Thinly-disguised fiction, but fiction nonetheless.) We start with The Battle of Algiers (1966), co-written and...
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Episode 79b: The Dark Side of TV, pt.2
We conclude this overstuffed episode with a look at 1976's Network, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring William Holden, Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway. Finch plays a television news anchor who decides to say exactly what's on his mind, and the audience reaction comes as a huge surprise to…
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Reel 79a: The Dark Side of TV, pt.1
Both Sean and I like both of these films so unabashedly that we wound up with a truly overstuffed episode. This time around we're looking at a pair of films that turned out to be oddly prophetic in their vision, although one of them missed the mark, but only slightly. In this part of the episode…
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Reel 78b: Love the Film, Hate the Side Effect Pt4
In this half of the episode, we look at When Harry Met Sally... and we learn that not all rom-coms are alike, even if most of them look alike and--unfortunately--sound alike. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Next time around we take a look at the dark side of television, starting with A Face in the Crowd…
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Reel 78a: Love the Film, Hate the Side Effect Pt3
We're wrapping up our brief series of films that can definitely be enjoyed on the individual level, but the ripple effects they caused tend to make the films that follow in their wake to be somewhat less than amazing. And this week we begin with Halloween, from 1978 and directed by John…
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Reel 77b: Love the Film, Hate the Side Effect, Pt.2
In Part 2 of our episode, we review The Accidental Tourist (1986), directed by Lawrence Kasdan and starring William Hurt and Geena Davis. Hurt plays a man who's learning to navigate his life after a broken heart, a broken marriage and a broken leg. It's a truly delightful, quiet film that will…
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Reel 77a: Love the Film, Hate the Side Effect, Pt.1
This is the first of two episodes where we look at a pair of films that don't have a ton in common with one another, but instead have created some cultural ripples that haven't always had a positive effect. We begin with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), the first time we've ever gone to the...
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Reel 76b: The Gangster Film as Allegory, pt2
In this episode we review the 1981 film Thief, directed by Michael Mann and starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld. Caan plays a safecracker who's finding it quite impossible to break out of his life of crime. On the other hand, maybe he does find a way... COMING ATTRACTIONS: In our next episode...
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Reel 76a: The Gangster Film as Allegory, pt1
Both Episode 75 and 76 (this one) have been called "allegory" episodes, but in the interest of transparency we should note that in both cases they're specifically anti-Capitalist allegories. Last time around it was Westerns, and this week we're looking at Gangster movies. And we begin with The…
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Reel 75b: The Western as Allegory, Pt2
In Part 2 of our episode, The Claim (2000) was directed by Michael Winterbottom and stars Peter Mullan, Sarah Polley, Wes Bentley and Milla Jovovich. This one has a similar theme to McCabe, though the romance side is pushed a little more forward. But there are many striking similarities between…
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Reel 75a: The Western as Allegory, Pt1
This week (and next) we'll be looking at films that use genre as an overlay for their larger message. And we begin with two films that use the Western genre to convey their messages. We start with McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), directed by Robert Altman and starring Warren Beatty and Julie...
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Reel 74b: The Wages of Greed, Pt2
In Part 2 of our episode, we look at There Will Be Blood (2007), directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis, along with Paul Dano and Kevin J. O'Connor. Day-Lewis is one of the early oil tycoons whose greed takes him down a strange and destructive path. COMING ATTRACTIONS: In...