One of my very favorite people on the planet joins me to talk about a director that was covered a decade ago but deserves revisiting especially in light of his more recent work. The wonderful Sharon Gissy, creator of the Mental Filmness Film Festival returns to the show to talk all about groundbreaking director Todd Haynes. I know many years ago on the show I brought attention to his masterpiece SAFE but wanted to revisit it now given the times we live in and to hear Sharon’s thoughts especially on that one and several others from his filmography.

Chicago film critics and pals Collin Souter & Erik Childress return as we all look back at an entire year in cinema and this one could very well be the longest episode of the show ever. There's so much to cover, so much to revisit and there are song cues and sound clips to bring you back 30 years to review the year 1992. Strap in for yet another exciting edition of the yearly retrospective.

Still shocked that I didn't love it as much as I had hoped while my guest felt very differently. Since Paul Thomas Anderson is my favorite director, I randomly called my friend Patrick Ripoll on Zoom and had to ask him what he thought of Licorice Pizza. Harkens back to the good ole days of Director’s Club featuring the original hosts talking about another movie you should see!

Most of my new episodes this year are all about revising, rethinking and revisiting directors covered here in the past. Returning guest Ryan McNeil of The Matinee.Ca is back alongside the one and only Marya Gates making her Director's Club debut that I could not be more excited about since it turns out, Jane Campion is her favorite director.

I announce the winners of the Blu-Ray giveaway during the introduction and talk about future plans and possible revisions. Here, I just put three excerpts together of moments where I discuss the film PUMP UP THE VOLUME with others including writer/director Allan Moyle and actress Samantha Mathis. Mathis also talks about River Phoenix and working with Peter Bogdanovich which I felt was timely to include. Later on I play an extended clip from Corey Pierce’s The Soundtrack Of Your Life which is a now-defunct podcast that I highly recommend checking out all episodes of which I linked below.

This time you're in for a treat because you can actually win a couple of Blu-Rays by listening to the episode and following the instructions given (all entries/emails must be in by Jan 11th). After summarizing the year that was, we run down a list of categories/awards like we do every time as well as a list of honorable mentions before revealing our top ten favorite films of the year. Prepare yourself for a song later on to celebrate someone who is definitely there in spirit but couldn't join us this time, the one and only Bill Ackerman of Supporting Characters.

Austrian-German filmmaker Fritz Lang, who is sometimes referred to as the “inventor of film noir," was initially known as a silent film director that made an eventual science fiction cult classic known as METROPOLIS. But as we both say in this episode, M stands for masterpiece so we cover that title along with his first feature made in America with Spencer Tracy, FURY, along with THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE. For the what we watched segment, I bring up the little-seen coming-of-age dramedy PINK SKIES AHEAD and there is also a review of a certain MATRIX sequel that has just come out as well.

Whether it's discovering who Adrienne was as an artist or seeing how the family responds to tragedy, there is something for everyone here, as hard as it is to watch at times especially if you're a fan of her work and wish we could have so much more. Andy's brave and compassionate approach is truly something to treasure and there's no doubt Adrienne would approve. Thank you so much to Andy for not only this film but for a lot of joy and insight in remembering a true talent, taking from us way too soon. I'm grateful to Adrienne for the legacy she left and please go back and celebrate all of her work as an actress/writer/director.

For this episode, we go through Polley’s exceptional directorial work starting with her debut feature AWAY WE GO and ending on the hybrid docudrama STORIES WE TELL. And of course, there’s a lot to say about the rather divisive TAKE THIS WALTZ as well. Be sure to preorder Polley’s first memoir coming out next year and check out her interviews and podcasts because she’s passionate, articulate and remarkably brave and revealing in so many ways.

One of the best guests you can have on any movie podcast would be Supporting Characters host Bill Ackerman, who returns for a yearly visit, this time to talk about the down & dirty gritty auteur Abel Ferrara. Usually for October, we try our best to talk about a horror director and though Ferrara isn't classified as one, you can certainly look at his films as being disturbing with some horrific scenes and well, THE ADDICTION does have vampires after all. Bill saw probably three times as much as I did though I managed to comment on about ten titles throughout the conversation. The ones everyone has likely seen are what we talk about at length including MS. 45, KING OF NEW YORK, BAD LIEUTENANT, TOMMASO and more!