Razor's Ink Podcast with Jonathan B. Ferrini

Find out inside my podcast what happens when being wanted becomes a man's only currency.

Training for the Fight and "The Sweet Science".

Comparing two bookend movies: No Country for Old Men and The Last Picture Show as portraits of the American west where meaning fades, then vanishes entirely.

Darkness, Silence, Fate, and Chance create the antithesis of a western movie.

Where Love Is Worth the Distance

The Funeral Before the Film: What the Logos Are Really Telling You

A complex song about a radio signal that didn’t ask permission to cross the border.

The Psychology of the Director Cameo

Blue Eyed Soul. Still righteous, still soul.

A film analysis including the terrifying idea of "evil by procedure" and contemplating was justice complete?

Songs written like news dispatches filed after midnight from the field, providing no comfort or a way out, but staying with the damage reported.

Breaking Hollywood’s Mold: Broderick Crawford’s Enduring Influence.

Lessons from Midnight Cowboy and Moonstruck

Silence as damage; masculinity; male withdrawal; and class identity.

Casting, characters, and critique of a film about pornographic movie making.

The Odessa File, The Boys from Brazil, and Marathon Man explore post-war anxieties, unfinished justice, and the lingering effects of history.

Ambition, Ethics, and the Cost of Belonging in Wall Street’s Get-Rich-Quick Culture

Creative Freedom; Cultural Shifts; Gutsy Studio Chiefs; and Rebel Filmmakers spark innovation.

All in the Family; The Jeffersons; Sanford and Son; Good Times; Chico and the Man.

How Eddie Haskell (Leave it to Beaver) and Maynard G. Krebs (Dobie Gillis) shaped American television of the fifties to early sixties.

Simon and Garfunkel; Dylan; and Steely Dan.

Brinkmanship at sea during the cold war offering enduring lessons for a world on edge.

The "Mayberry" sitcom providing escapism for the tumultuous sixties.

What the film got right and wrong about Hollywood of 1969.

What does the character “Ricky Roma” teach us about dialogue?

How did winning the OSCAR affect two acting careers?

Listen to me “set the stage” from the opening pages of a dying surgeon’s tattered diary revealing an extraordinary life filled with love and loss.

What lyrics teach us about the “mean, mean, mean, mean, mean green.”

What the series got “right” about the cultural and ecological mosaic of the 50th state.

A redux of an early episode of The Razor's Ink Podcast, in which we explore the daunting task of writing music.

What’s the real reason Colonel Kurtz was assassinated?

Two movies about nuclear war were released in the same year: one farcical, the second, “deadly” serious. Join me as I discuss the latter.

I describe the significance of this legendary movie which has nothing to do with its “X” rating.

Let’s examine the socio-economic subtext to the movie and surmise why reprehensible Alex may appear sympathetic at film’s end.

My memorial to the death of British actor Terence Stamp (1938-2025) whose acting genius melded with exquisite filmmaking resembling the Vesper Martini.

Visiting marvels of movie magic; historic Shepperton and Pinewood studios.

Imagine reading Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” inside a speeding Corvette.

Two movies about a Black detective seeking justice thirty years apart with a new spin on racism.

Check out a music genre bending composer, musician and brilliant businessman at my podcast.

Let’s explore three very different detective shows who helped re-define an entire genre

The 1970’s New York City subway system serves as a protagonist with a New Yorkers attitude: “Just another day inside the subway”.

Listen to four revered performers covering two hit songs including Wilson Pickett and The Four Tops delivering inspired covers.

A raw story concerning suicide by alcohol, perfectly served “neat”, but marred by “on the rocks” or with a “back”. Find out inside.

Let’s examine two lyricists and performers with different styles but sharing the same happy heart pumping lyrics of love and understanding.

The antithesis of a talent show you must see to believe.

A World War II film showcasing condemned military convicts unleased against the German high command including themes about nonconformity with an antiwar message.

Deconstructing one of Dylan’s most abstract compositions.

The last vestiges of humanity inside Australia following worldwide thermonuclear war.

Escapism written for kids with adults in mind

A movie about midlife crisis provides us the opportunity to imagine a timely remake.