Film School

When we talk about "genre" as it relates to movies, books, comics, etc. what do we mean? What IS "genre?" Josh and Ira break down how we use that term on Film School.

Also, Josh recommends MasterChef…

"The earth knows it's wrong for us to survive..."

We're diving into Miyazaki's second feature film! The world is a wasteland called the "sea of despair." But one intrepid young heroine might have the…

Discovering the object of the game is the object of the game...

It's hard to follow up a classic thriller like Seven, but that's exactly what David Fincher had to do with his next feature film, The G…

I know what came over you: High Anxiety. You've still got it!

Well, it turns out we couldn't quite get ol' Hitch out of our system, and neither could Mel Brooks. The king of satire does his signature…

Leave your crystal balls out of this, George...

It's Hitchcock's final film. After 6 decades, 53 films, and 50 years, Alfred Hitchcock finally reached the end. His last feature is remarkably light fa…

When you're entering into a new chapter of life--any kind; moving, finishing a big project, marriage, divorce, kids, a breakthrough in therapy, new job...--how do you handle that? Is there anything y…

Don't forget: Bob's your uncle...

It's Hitchcock's penultimate film! Second-to-last! And first film in the wild 70s, an era where the R-rating became a thing, and a new frontier opened up in cinema t…

Do you take naps? If you don't, why is that? And if you do, do you feel guilty about it? Or are they a regular part of your routine (at least when life allows it)? We discuss our stance on all the ab…

Does the word "topaz" mean anything to you?

The Cold War rages on in the world, and Hitchcock delivers a political/spy thriller centered on the lead-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, apparently even ba…

When making art like writing or telling a story, when do you compromise? Or DO you compromise? The word is so loaded with negative connotation, but its definition is so slippery, maybe even personal.…

How would you like to live behind what you call the Iron Curtain...?

It's the height of the cold war. Hitch swaps his nationless networks of mysterious criminals for a far more real-world one: East G…

"Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper."  David Lynch pushed the boundaries of filmm…

You, Freud. Me, Jane?

Alfred takes on sex, lies, and money missing from the big safe at work. It's half trippy para-psychology Spellbound, part neo-noirish femme fatale Vertigo, this time with a retu…

The Darkness is out there. Everyone can feel evil working in the shadows of the real world, however figurative or literal you want to attribute it. So, naturally, evil plays a big part in our stories…