a podcast about film and filmmaking - one director at a time

Two reasons this podcast exist: Film Junk and Patrick Ripoll. So I'm always grateful when Patrick returns since he's the OG co-host of this show. He's always doing killer work with Reg on 96 Greers that I highly recommend. But I vividly recall two moments of the past decade: his love of Clouds of Sils Maria and my love for Personal Shopper. Made a mental note to put French filmmaker Olivier Assayas on the list of potential directors and the time has come to cover him.

The epic yearly retrospectives continue as we travel back 30 years to rewatch, reconsider and share favorites along with many memories too! Join me on this 6-hour plus journey alongside Chicago critics Erik Childress and Collin Souter. Many laughs, songs, clips, trailers, excerpts and so much more! Thank you so much for the support and for listening. And of course, thank you so much to Collin & Erik for spending time nerding out about a wide range of titles.

When I first saw Hiroshima Mon Amour, this particular director went on the long list of names I made sure to include. Alain Resnais is an internationally acclaimed film director, associated with both the Left Bank Group and the Nouvelle Vague. His preoccupation with the themes of time, memory and history, and his dazzling exploration of cinematographic technique, made him one of France’s most distinctive and influential filmmakers for over 60 years, inspiring the likes of David Lynch & Michel Gondry. Previous guest and film scholar Kate Blair returns to discuss his work and more!

Over at my old RSS feed for a now-defunct podcast I hosted called Voices & Visions, I would recruit friend and Austin-based journalist Dan Solomon to go back 20 years to talk about a year in music. We would curate a new list of ten favorite records from that year, playing snippets of certain songs and discussing our feelings about music in general. As of 2021, I decided to include my dear friend Jason Simpson, also a writer, to join us in this endeavor. Though V&V no longer exists, I’ve archived all of the episodes here for your listening pleasure.

I’ve had the pleasure of talking with writer/director/actor Keith Gordon (CHRISTINE, DRESSED TO KILL) a half dozen times now. First it started out talking about his directorial career (WAKING THE DEAD, A MIDNIGHT CLEAR), then we began a yearly tradition of discussing underrated films from each decade. He’s a true blue cinephile, a one of a kind talent and an all-around super cool artist that I’m grateful to have corresponded with over these past few years. Here’s to many more!

Not only is Mr. Sorkin a part of the team, but he even asked former co-host Patrick Ripoll and a couple other previous guests, to come back for the first episode under our new format. We talk about director David Lean and so much more. More to say during the introduction but thank you to all for listening and for your support. It's going to be a much better show from here on out!