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Robert Forster, a genius character beloved by just about everyone who saw him in anything, passed away in October as we were preparing to record our previous episode. Today Matt Brown looks at his 1969 breakout film, Medium Cool, while…
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Blu-ray review: MATEWAN Sticks Up For The Little Guy
John Sayles’ retelling of the Matewan Massacre is a vivid look at the perils, and necessity, of organizing.
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DIAHANN CARROLL (1935-2019)
Groundbreaking actress, singer, and activist Diahann Carroll died at the beginning of this month at the age of 84, and we’re here to talk about some of her work: Carmen Jones (1954), Hurry Sundown (1967), Claudine (1974) and — of…
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A photo finish: was film, or TV, the narrative medium of the decade?
My best of the year and best of the decade lists for film will be on Letterboxd before the end of the year, but by the end of September I was also aware of another, marginally more unsettling feeling: that…
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RUTGER HAUER (1944-2019)
Rutger Hauer was a wild actor with a widely diverse array of roles — some of them all-time great (Blade Runner!), some of them…. not so much. We look at Nighthawks and Flesh + Blood as ways of getting at…
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TONI MORRISON (1931-2019)
Author Toni Morrison leaves a huge shadow behind her as she leaves this world and moves on to the next — and we are ill-equipped to discuss. We give it a crack, though, with talk about Beloved and Tar Baby.
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Blu-ray Review: Into THE INLAND SEA With Donald Richie
Criterion devours its own tail with a movie based on a book based on a trip by a critic who has provided a lot of Criterion commentaries.
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RIP TORN (1931-2019)
Or as we like to say on the podcast, RIP Rip. We look at two wildly different films from the great character actor’s legacy: Coming Apart (1969) and Extreme Prejudice (1987).
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LARRY COHEN (1936-2019)
This month, death takes a holiday — so we return to an honouree from earlier in the year, B-movie director Larry Cohen, with discussion of his films Black Caesar and God Told Me To.
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JOHN SINGLETON (1968-2019)
John Singleton passed away, way too young, in April of this year, having directed only 10 features. We look back at some of the most important, from Boyz n the Hood to 2 Fast 2 Furious.
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