Random Acts of Cinema

It's been a long time since we've had a musical on this podcast.  And this is a big one. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' adapt the stage musical (which is - sort of - and adaptation of Romeo and Juli…

Acclaimed American director Sydney Pollack examines the lives of struggling New York City actors working on a competitive and fraught soap opera.  Dustin Hoffman plays Michael Dorsey, a talented, but…

Get ready, Randy has picked another big one for us.  And he actually picked the first film by a celebrated director for once.  David Lynch's Eraserhead is such a desperately ambitious, risk-everythin…

This is a big one that we’ve been waiting for: Jean-Luc Godard’s highly influential, widely lauded, experimental, sci-fi/noir mashup.  Hard bitten detective Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine)has trave…

What happens when two seemingly incompatible masters of their craft with nothing to prove get together to make an discomforting powder keg character study that dramatically ratchets its way into a de…

A couple of lonely hearts (played by Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco) find true love in this affecting documentary-style romanctic drama directed by Leonard Kastle.  Oh, and they con then kill a bu…

The back room boys are at it again!  That’s right, we’re jumping back into the endlessly charming (so far) films of Powell and Pressburger.  Sammy Rice (played by David Farrah) is a scientist working…

Julliette Binoche deadpans.  Sudden fade to black! Dum dum da dummmmm..!  Repeat that about four more times and you have one of the most iconic pieces of 1990s European cinema.  Does this formula hol…

If you are celebrated auteur Jean-Luc Godard, it’s the 1960s, and your cranking out about 7 movies a year, the odds are strong that there’s going to be some winners and losers in the mix.  And the qu…

When you imagine the lead character in the Talented Mr. Ripley, do you picture a wild-eyed Dennis Hopper in coveralls and a cowboy hat wandering around 1977 Hamburg?  No?  Well apparently Wim Wenders…

Who is up for a largely improvised drama set in poverty-stricken Thatcher-era London?  Anyone?  Ok, we get it, but what if we told you it was directed by Mike Leigh and it features early virtuoso per…

Come join us as we discuss director G. W. Pabst's adaptation of Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill's legendary musical set in the London underwold.  Gang boss Mackie Messer (aka Mack the Knife played by …

[Insert eye-rolling pun about dipping our toes back into familiar Waters here]... That's right, we're once more spending the day with the Dreamland Players, reveling in the trash and the wigs of Jon …

It looks like Randy finally decided to pick for us a good, old-fashioned, big-budget, mid-century, historical war epic.  Michael Caine plays Peter O’Toole playing David Bowie as Michael Caine in the …

Hey maaaan... remember the 60s?  Doesn’t matter, because this isn’t really that movie.  Unless your idea of the decade is an hilariously acerbic Richard E. Grant (as the eponymous Withnail) drunkenly…

As the spookiest of holidays approaches, Randy (the random number generator) has selected an appropriately themed film for us to watch.  That is, if we can handle all of these darn thrills and chills…

Will we be doing the entire episode doing our best Jack Nicholson impressions, or will we give this very serious movie the very serious attention it deserves?  The only way to find out is to join us …

Oh boy.  Here's a blast from the not-so-nostalgic past.  Geoffrey Rush plays piano virtuoso David Helfgott, in Scott Hick's most 90s biopic of all 90s biopics.  Talent and determination are hindered …