Random Acts of Cinema

We’re back with directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (AKA “The Archers”) for one of their all-time biggest pictures.  This time they rework and update a Hans Christian Andersen folk tale i…

We’re back for a little welcome murder and mayhem with Jonathan Demme’s genre-defining take on, well, not just serial killer procedurals, but Hannibal Lector-based serial killer procedurals.  We cove…

After months of campaigning and hype, constant drama and re-selection of the hosts, and hours of red carpet interviews, it’s finally happening.  Looking back of the year of randomly chosen (and a few…

Weddings! Funerals!  Business meetings!  But like, in a sweet and poignant way.  We are joined by Kevin Allison (of RISK! and The State) to discuss Edward Yang's subtle and deliberate drama chronicli…

We are joined by comedian and director Michael Patrick Jann (of The State and Michael Patrick Jann Can’t Direct Traffic) to discuss director Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero. A film where oil tycoon Felix H…

It’s a big one. It’s our 100th episode so we’re watching Criterion spine number 100. And we brought in our first 3-peat all-star guest and super fan Shelley to talk with us all about the legacy of Be…

As it turns out, the coexistence of two movies dedicated to the exploits of the fictionalized eighteenth-century German adventurer Baron Munchausen far from exclude one another from narrative authori…

Is it a western/film noir mash-up, a subtly coded red scare-era warning, or a a heart-on-its-sleeve anti-racism morality tale? It definitely has a little of each, but is there enough of any to give S…

Can Roy Scheider (playing Joe Gideon - a gossamer thin veiled version of director Bob Fosse) keep his addictions and self-destructive inclinations in check long enough to finish edits on a motion pic…

“Dolls” mean pills.  There, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way... Mark Robson’s epic movie about three women finding their ways through the obstacle-ridden world of entertainment, offers a soa…

It’s been a while since Randy picked something from a nation’s film output with which we have little-to-no familiarity.  And a little 1970s Filipino cinema is just what we needed to break us out of t…

What’s better than a 1970s, grimy, sun-baked, L.A.-based neo-noir about a well-intentioned stripclub owner (played with all of the nervous swagger of a Ben Gazzara in his prime) with a gambling probl…

Ivan Reitman, the master of the 1980s family-friendly action comedy, steps boldly into the 90s with a playful reinvention of one of the most singular R-rated action movie marquee names of the 20th-ce…

For Charlie's annual birthday episode, his very good friend Mike has chosen Terence Young's filmed adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel Dr. No.  That's right, there's technically a James Bond movie in t…

In a kind of alternate universe version of Trois Colours: Bleu, Juliette Binoche finds herself once more playing a Parisian woman, with an artistic bent, having lost her husband and daughter, navigat…

This week we are joined by podcaster Alexei Toliopolous (@ThisisAlexei) of Total Reboot, Finding Desperado, and Finding Drago to discuss his pick: Australian director Gillian Armstrong's first featur…

Three-peat!  Director Akira Kurosawa's first color feature finds the tragedies and human strength in a small shantytown, inhabited by an ensemble cast each facing their own poverty-driven struggles. …