Episode 88: Some of the Best of 2025
The Brattle Film Podcast
Our annual tradition of looking back on the past year in movies engenders passionate debates as we discuss the Brattle's biggest ever "Some of the Best of" program (30 films!), touching on cinema trends of the past year and giving some love to some of our favorite lesser known titles of 2025.
info_outline
Episode 87: A Tribute to Robert Redford
The Brattle Film Podcast
We bid a fond farewell to the legendary actor, director, producer, humanitarian, activist, and cultivator of emerging talent with a program of films from the period in which Robert Redford came into his fullest self. Starting with the pivitol year of 1969, when he made Downhill Racer and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, through the early '80s when he made his astonishing directorial debut, Ordinary People, and set the image for his future on screen with The Natural. Recalling many stories and anecdotes we pay tribute to one of the biggest icons of the movies at the end of a year that saw...
info_outline
Reissue: Boston on Screen, Part 4: Behind the Scenes
The Brattle Film Podcast
For the final episode of our Boston on Screen series, we're joined by Adam Roffman for a look behind the scenes of many of the films featured in our three previous episodes. Adam, an on-set dresser, documentarian, and former programmer of the Independent Film Festival of Boston, shares his stories of working on The Town, Little Women, American Hustle, Patriots Day, The Heat, and countless other Boston productions, as well as what the future of production looked like during the COVID-19 pandemic.
info_outline
Reissue: Boston on Screen, Part 3: Indies & Sci-Fi
The Brattle Film Podcast
For our third episode, looking at the way Boston is depicted in movies, we look at the wave of independent pictures that began shooting in the city during the 1990s, as well as some of the more outlandish genre pictures that have used (or destroyed) the city.
info_outline
Reissue: Boston on Screen, Part 2: The Institutions
The Brattle Film Podcast
For this second part of our reissued Boston on Film series, we go beyond the crime movie to focus on how the institutions of Boston – educational, social, scientific, medical, legal, and the press – are depicted on screen. Because the focus of these pictures is not on the underground criminal element, they are more likely to feel like time capsules giving us a glimpse into a Greater Boston that many of us have never seen.
info_outline
Reissue: Boston on Screen, Part 1: Crime Movies
The Brattle Film Podcast
For Thanksgiving, we're reissuing all 4 of our Boston on Screen episodes. Inspired by partnering with the Massachusetts Historical Society for a program focusing on the dichotomy of Boston’s image in Hollywood films, we did, what turned out to be, a four part series with a selection of pictures that could be called "The Boston Crime Wave," or, as Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr calls this subgenera, "Boston Triple Decker Films," or, as Boston crime novelist Chuck Hogan refers to them, "Boston No-R movies." We explore what these films get right and what they get wrong in how they depict and...
info_outline
Announcement and Listener Messages from Episode #86
The Brattle Film Podcast
We're unable to bring you our planned Episode #87, "Give Thanks for Chicago." So we'll be re-running our Boston on Screen series for Thanksgiving. But first, take a listen to voice messages from listeners who called in with their responses to Episode #86, "Scariest Movie Moments."
info_outline
Episode 86: Halloweek, Scariest Movie Moments
The Brattle Film Podcast
For Spooky Season, Allisa, Ian, Ivy, and Ned share their personal top five scariest movie moments and invite our listeners to share their own rankings of this most subjective of cinematic rankings.
info_outline
Episode 85: Hal Hartley
The Brattle Film Podcast
On the occasion of his latest feature, Where to Land, coming to the Brattle, we welcome indie cinema icon Hal Hartley to discuss his text-built and performer-driven films, the ways the industry has evolved over the decades of his career, as well as his fondness for Kojak and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
info_outline
Episode 84: Cat Fancy, A Feline Film Feast
The Brattle Film Podcast
We wrap up the summer with an episode and a film series devoted to movies about house cats, of which there are a lot more than you can shake a stick at. Whether they appear in animated movies, horror films, comedies, or historical fictions, felines play an outsized role in cinema, despite being notoriously difficult to train in the craft of acting.
info_outlineWe wrap up awards season with more thoughts on the terrific year in film that was 2023, including discussions about the 10 Best Picture nominees, the documentary and international feature nominees, the idiocy of this year's Oscar controversies as well as other internet hot takes that surrounded the big movies before and after their releases, and we shine our appreciation on the big swings taken by actors and filmmakers this year.