269. 'Night of the Juggler' (1980)
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'Night of the Juggler' is either one of the best 70's film titles or one of the worst. Honestly I enjoy it, for it's uniqueness and complete (well...near complete) relevence to the film's plot. It's certainly memorable, if not directly speaking to the film's setting...which is mostly in the daytime of a VERY 1978 NYC. 'Night of the Juggler' had long been sort of like that Jerry Lewis Holocaust film; never-seen, long-rumored to be secretly great...elusive. But KinoLorber has finally rescued the film from obscurity with a new 4K transfer, available now on YouTube and other streaming...
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268. Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen in 'The Godfather'
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Robert Duvall passed away at the age of 95 after more than 60 years as a working actor at the highest levels. One quick way to pay tribute to him is to revisit perhaps his most iconic and substantive role, that of Tom Hagen in The Godfather. Quietly the most important character linking the people and events in the film, Duvall's portrayal navigated complex internal issues like: when is a son not a son, and what is the reward for completing a lifetime of thankless tasks. All of these complicated things rest on Duvall's ability to read to us onscreen a whole host of emotions and thoughts. So in...
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267. 'Hooper' (1978)
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Choosing 'Hooper' out of a combination of desperation and momentary podcast apathy, and seeking a distraction and light entertainment, I discover instead a beautifully realized love letter to Hollywood stunt performers inside an impressive movie-about-making-movies.
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266. American Movie (1999)
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Chris Smith and Sarah Price's Sundance-winning first documentary feature, 'American Movie,' remains an iconic and thoroughly modern film to revisit or to experience for the first time. Like all truly great documentaries, it's ostensibly about a finite thing: hardscrabble, complicated Midwestern working-class 30-year-old lives at home, delivers newspapers, works at a local cemetery, and has big dreams of writing, producing, directing, and acting in films... but it's also about so much more: friendship, alcoholism, Midwestern blue-collar life, filmmaking, and nothing less than the pursuit of the...
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265. Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)
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The sequel to Denis Villeneuve's 'Sicaro' is an impressive off-ramp from the first film's focus on drug cartels trafficking narcotics and stacking bodies. Italian director Stefano Sollima (Gomorra, ZeroZeroZero) focuses more intently on Josh Brolin's Matt Graver and Benicio Del Toro's Alejandro Gillick characters, as they face a (final?) confrontation with the outer limit of their own moral codes. For me, Day of the Soldado is the rare sequel that gets better the more I watch it, and that doean't merely rehash the best-known sequences from the original (although it does that, too) but instead...
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264. Sicario (2015)
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Denis Villeneuve's film 'Sicario' remains a vital and prescient glimpse into extra-judicial Governmental activities and the blurring of lines on both sides of the drug war, all brilliantly rendered by top-notch cinematography from Roger Deakins and a host of career-best performances from actors like Emily Blunt, James Brolin, Daniel Kaluuya, and, especially, Benicio Del Toro. Harrowing, procedural, understated, and complicated, the film unfolds with confidence in the journey it takes viewers on, with a refreshing lack of hand-holding and over-explanation.
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263. Bob Weir 1947-2026
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An appreciation of the life and musical legacy of the peerless and uniquely self-deprecating Grateful Dead co-founder and éminence grise.
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262. Paul Newman in 'Nobody's Fool' (1994)
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For my final episode of 2025, it's 'Nobody's Fool' one of my favorite films, and a true comfort watch in keeping with the theme of last week's episode. Sweet, subtle, well-cast and directed, and slyly much more than it seems, it's both a paen to small-town life and a surprisingly unblinking look at the cost children pay for their parent's mistakes...and for the ones they make all on their own.
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261. Comfort Content For Troubled Times
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The news is unrelenting. Shootings in Bondi Beach. Terror in the classrooms at Brown University. The terrible deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife in LA. The news is shocking and we become numb to the rippling effects but our minds and bodies internalize the fear, anxiety, and worry. As I am between episodes at the moment, I thought it might be different to try and episode highlighting the calming music, tv shows and movies I find myself turning to in times of trouble. Please share your personal favorites with me, as I'd like to compile a playlist of sorts to share with...
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260. Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' (1960)
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From a chance viewing of Saul Bass' iconic 'Psycho' titles on TCM sprung this exploration of the straightforward, human experience of watching 'Psycho' with an eye and ear towards how audience expectations were stoked and then subverted by Hitchcock. From the casting of Janet Leigh to the surprise departure of her character not even halfway through the film, the film toys with audience expectations and loyalties, and makes them complicit in the voyeurism and violence and judgement that unfolds. Hitchcock's decision to attempt a relatively low-budget thriller of the sort directors like...
info_outlineFinishing up my four-part exploration of The Exorcist, this episode considers the film's exorcism scenes, its ambiguous ending, and lasting legacy. My newfound appreciation for the towering achievement represented by this film is perhaps news only to me, but totally genuine nonetheless.