Random Acts of Cinema

But is it a Criterion film?  We drill deep into Michael Bay’s blockbuster to end all blockbusters. And you won’t want to miss a thing.

Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here!

*Come suppor…

Sci-fi/horror.  Bikini lady.  Pre-code.  A story that has been remade for every generation since the dawn of cinema.  Starring Quasimodo and Dracula.  Kind of.  Don’t pretend that you’re not interest…

Today we celebrate Mike’s birthday with the rebirth of Gozer (you know: the Gozerian?) Yep, we’re watching Ivan Reitman’s all-time action-comedy classic: Ghostbusters.  But can we disassociated the p…

Sophia Loren and Marcelo Mastroinanni heat up the screen again in Ettore Scola’s period piece set on the day in 1938 when Hitler visited Mussolini in Rome.  Or at least, that’s what the first 20 minu…

Michael Cimino’s sprawling anti-western is, quite famously, one of those films that questions the very legitimacy of auteur filmmaking.  We’re joined by recurring guest and friend of the podcast Max …

Joe and Steve hit the pavement of San Francisco’s Chinatown and beyond, searching through a tapestry of Asian-American identities for a business partner who has run off with their money… or has he?  …

Content Warning: The films covered in this episode depict various scenes of sexual assault. Listeners who would not like to engage with this kind of material are encouraged to skip this one  

200 eps…

Powell and Pressberger are at it again with another war-time charmer, this time set in rural Scotland!  Local characters, local legends, local color, and local love sidetrack a focused young woman de…

One of the hosts is almost positive that Robert Altman’s cutting satire of the Hollywood studio system has already been covered on the podcast. But that might just be due to the fact that he watches …

Dune. Arrakis. Podcast episode. We’re not the first to reassess David Lynch’s legendarily-disowned adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic novel, but we’re definitely the most recent (a…

This 1966 Jack Nicholson-penned and Jack Nicholson-starring micro-western has all of the earmarks of a shaggy Head-era wannabe freak-out.  But wait… Who’s that over there?  Is that… Harry Dean Stanto…

The podcast FINALLY gets to discuss the master of French noir, Jean-Pierre Melville himself.  Fedoras and trench coats?  A jazzy score?  Twists that you see coming and twists that you don’t?  A lesso…

We’ve podcasted things you people wouldn’t believe. Like the international theatrical release version of Ridley Scott’s tech noir stunner starring Harrison Ford doing his uh… best?… voice-over narrat…

Is the solution to having not enough Lady Snowblood, just making more Lady Snowblood?  The very concept of “the sequel” is methodically hunted down and eviscerated in this follow-up episode on a dire…

Mike likes the sword hidden in a parasol. Charlie likes that it takes place during the Meiji era. But who are we kidding? The best part is that Toshiya Fujita’s visually dynamic action/revenge film r…

Satyajit Ray's first installment of the Apu Trilogy, reigns as one of the greatest depictions of humanity ever recorded on film.  But does it live up to all of the hype?  Yes.  It does.  What a stupi…

“Punk rock died when the last kid said, ‘Punk’s not dead… punk’s not dead.’”  Or maybe it died when Los Angeles punk frontman Jeff Bailey had to duck over the border into Mexico after stealing $1,000…

You know those movies that are about a young person full of promise, who comes to the big city in search of fortune and fame, but inescapable poverty and exploitative gatekeepers drive them to crime,…

Brian De Palma's Philadelphia-based thriller, steeped in paranoia-based conspiracy, pits a low-rent audio specialist (John Travolta) as an "ear witness" to an assassination.  He soon convinces a blac…

Director Agnès Varda leads the viewer through over a decade in the lives of two friends, Apple and Suzanne, as they seek fulfillment and freedom, struggling against the demands of conservative French…