Pod Casty For Me
Pod Casty For Me: a left politics and culture podcast about the films of Steven Soderbergh (formerly Clint Eastwood and Paul Schrader), one movie per episode. Hosted by Jake Serwin & Ian Rhine. New episodes every other Friday.
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PATREON PREVIEW: Commentary - Play Misty For Me (1971)
01/09/2026
PATREON PREVIEW: Commentary - Play Misty For Me (1971)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. We're trying something new this week - we've recorded a feature commentary track! Watch Clint Eastwood's 1971 directorial debut PLAY MISTY FOR ME as we talk about it. Sure, we did an episode on this movie already, but that was three years ago. We're different now! We've learned new stuff and forgotten most of what we said then, anyway. In the episode, we'll explain exactly how to sync our conversation with the film, but we've designed this as something you can listen to as a regular podcast episode, too. Let us know if you'd like more of this sort of thing! Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork.
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UNLOCKED: Songs About Clint with Jetski
01/02/2026
UNLOCKED: Songs About Clint with Jetski
This is an unlocked episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. This week we're taking a look at a bunch of songs about, featuring, or otherwise related to Clint Eastwood...which is a great reason to bring on Jetski, aka Ian Ostaszewski, the composer of the Paid Costly For Me theme music! We chat Gorillaz, Metallica, the Beastie Boys, My Chemical Romance, and more - plus Ian's podcast-related birthday present! Let us know if you want more of this, because there are a lot of songs about Clint. Here's the playlist with full songs: Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music (duh) and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork. Follow Jetski: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) / The Boys Run A 10K
12/26/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) / The Boys Run A 10K
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. Merry Christmas, everybody - here's the episode one day early just because we love ya. Not unlike a certain jolly old elf, Ian stopped by Jake's home for a quick visit a few weeks back, and the boys (plus FPG) ran a 10K race together that was, for some reason, in celebration of Bill Melendez's 1965 television special A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS. So we decided to discuss this classic short and Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, who like our usual subject was a Bay Area legend who loved golf and jazz. Plus we threw in a little bit of field audio from our fateful footrace. Enjoy and have a safe and happy holiday! As ever, thanks to Jetski for our music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork. Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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Soderbergh Ep. 22: Contagion (2011)
12/20/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 22: Contagion (2011)
Wash your hands, folks: it's time to talk CONTAGION, Steven Soderbergh's absurdly prescient 2011 pandemic disaster film. We talk public health, hyperlink cinema, Soderbergh's evolving digital aesthetic, the nature of government, and the film's second life as a Covid lockdown classic. With a special Kate Winslet audio collage that Ian definitely asked for! Check it out. Further Reading: The Viral Underclass by Steven Trasher Health Communism by Artie Vierkant and Beatrice Adler-Bolton Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett Further Viewing: OUTBREAK (Petersen, 1995) THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE (Kieślowski, 1991) 28 DAYS LATER (Boyle, 2002) 28 WEEKS LATER (Fresnadillo, 2007) 28 YEARS LATER (Boyle, 2025) BUGONIA (Lanthimos, 2025) JOE DIRT (Gordon, 2001) Kate Winslet's 2020 hand-washing tutorial video: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Zodiac (2007)
12/12/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Zodiac (2007)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. In our first-ever Patreon Listeners' Choice poll, something like 52% of you voted for David Fincher's ZODIAC, the movie we probably should have done within the first five premium eps if we're being honest. But now we've done it! It's all here: Dirty Harry inspiration Dave Toschi, true crime ethics, Bay Area geography, what this movie is actually saying, and about a full hour of Melvin Belli stuff. Enjoy! As always, thank you to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.
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Soderbergh Ep. 21: Gray's Anatomy (1996)/And Everything Is Going Fine (2010) with Robert Rubsam
12/05/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 21: Gray's Anatomy (1996)/And Everything Is Going Fine (2010) with Robert Rubsam
Open your notebooks and fill up your glasses of water, folks: today we're looking at Steven Soderbergh's two documentaries on Spalding Gray. And Ian's pissed off! We're joined once more by our friend, writer and critic Rob Rubsam, to talk 1996's GRAY'S ANATOMY, a sort of longform music video for Gray's "monolog" of the same name, and Soderbergh's 2010 posthumous "autobiography" of Gray, AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE. How does a figure like Gray emerge and rise to fame? Where does we place him in the long tradition of neurotic white guys who make everything about themselves? Is Jake one of those? And why is Ian so mad about this guy? We answer these questions and more - check it out. Further Reading: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace Me Talk Pretty One Day, etc. by David Sedaris The World According to Dave Barry by Dave Barry À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker Gargoyles by Thomas Bernhard Anything by John Berger Further Viewing: MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (Malle, 1981) SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA (Demme, 1987) VANYA ON 42ND STREET (Malle, 1994) JOHN MULANEY: NEW IN TOWN (Polito & Szymanski, 2012) MIKE BIRBIGLIA: MY GIRLFRIEND'S BOYFRIEND (Barrish, 2013) PARKER GAIL'S LOCATION IS EVERYTHING (Buono & Thomas, 2016) Follow Rob Rubsam: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: The Killers (1946/1964) with Comrade Yui
11/28/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: The Killers (1946/1964) with Comrade Yui
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. Our friend and yours Comrade Yui is back to talk two Ernest Hemingway adaptations in our wheelhouse - THE KILLERS (1946) by CRISS CROSS director Robert Siodmak and THE KILLERS (1964) by DIRTY HARRY director Don Siegel (plus the short Tarkovsky made as a student in 1956!). We get a crash course in noir history, spatial cinematography, and midcentury ideas of the self - along with our earliest-ever Pine Cone Crime Zone. As always, thank you to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork. Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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Soderbergh Ep. 20: The Informant! (2009) with Dan O'Sullivan
11/21/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 20: The Informant! (2009) with Dan O'Sullivan
"Would I lysine to you?" - Mark Whitacre. Hey that's just a joke but maybe they could have used it on the posters for THE INFORMANT!, Steven Soderbergh's 2009 corporate espionage caper about the lysine price-fixing scandal and one of the weirdest guys there has ever been. And joining us to talk big business, the FBI, and organized crime in all its forms is writer and podcaster Dan O'Sullivan ()! Is business run like the mafia or vice versa? Is corruption inherent to capitalism or simply a common side effect? Did Kurt Eichenwald ever go on Twitter? We answer these questions once and for all, so give this one a listen. Further Reading: The Informant: A True Story by Kurt Eichenwald Rats in the Grain: The Dirty Tricks and Trials of Archer Daniels Midland by James B. Lieber Everybody Loves A Good Drought by Palagummi Sainath Further Viewing: PRIME CUT (Richie, 1972) THE INSIDER (Mann, 1999) ERIN BROCKOVICH (Soderbergh, 2000) MICHAEL CLAYTON (Gilroy, 2007) BURN AFTER READING (Coen, 2008) Follow Dan O'Sullivan: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
11/14/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. Finally, we've reached the end of Sergio Leone's filmography with the long-in-development gangster epic ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. This film has many admirers, to whom we say: sorry! We didn't care for it, and we'll tell you why - with a little final examination of the man's work. CW: This episode contains discussion of the film's sequences of sexual violence, so consider skipping this one if you're not in a place to listen to that right now. Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork.
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Soderbergh Ep. 19: The Girlfriend Experience (2009) with Anonymous Mystery Guest
11/07/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 19: The Girlfriend Experience (2009) with Anonymous Mystery Guest
Soderbergh's second film for Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures was THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, a largely improvised look at life on the cusp of the Great Recession starring adult film megastar Sasha Grey. We're joined by an anonymous writer and sex worker to talk about one of Soderbergh's less-appreciated great films, sex work as work, Grey's legacy, depictions of intimacy, and Power Wash Simulator for the Nintendo Switch. Really great episode, we hope you enjoy! Further Reading: Steven Soderbergh: Interviews, ed. Anthony Kaufman Further Viewing: RED DESERT (Antonioni, 1964) KLUTE (Pakula, 1971) CRIES AND WHISPERS (Bergman, 1972) FULL FRONTAL (Soderbergh, 2002) BUBBLE (Soderbergh, 2005) FASHIONISTAS SAFADO: THE CHALLENGE (Stagliano, 2006) MAGIC MIKE (Soderbergh, 2012) ANORA (Baker, 2024) Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Singani 63 with Maxwell Pierson
10/31/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Singani 63 with Maxwell Pierson
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. While making CHE, Steven Soderbergh fell so in love with Bolivia's national liquor, singani, that he decided to export it to the US as Singani 63 - just like Che Guevara would have done. Nah just kidding but we tried it and it's actually quite good! Even better, Pod Casty For Me's own Hotel Detective Maxwell Pierson joins us to get a little loose drinking Singani 63 (and Casamigos tequila) and talk about all kinds of stuff: the colonial history of liquor, Soderbergh's recently revealed unmade Kylo Ren movie, our long podcast journey thus far, and more. A special ep with a special man. Per Maxwell's plug, please check out Donors Choose to support a teacher near you: Follow Maxwell Pierson: Lots to check out here: Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.
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Soderbergh Ep. 18: Che: Parts 1 & 2 (2008) with Andrés Pertierra
10/24/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 18: Che: Parts 1 & 2 (2008) with Andrés Pertierra
The leftist podcast about Steven Soderbergh movies has finally arrived at CHE, Soderbergh's two-part biopic of (Argentine) Cuban Revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Joining us to provide the kind of deep historical context you know we go crazy for is historian of Cuba and scholar of Latin American and Caribbean history Andrés Pertierra! We have never read more in preparation for an episode, folks, so we hope you dig this one as much as we did. Hasta la victoria siempre, amigos. Further Reading (direct from Andrés!): Anderson, John Lee. Che: A Revolutionary Life. Grove, 1997. The great (Pulitzer Prize!) winning intro text: Ferrer, Ada. Cuba: An American History. Scribner, 2021. Some relevant books on Cuban Revolution and other countries: Gleijeses, Piero. Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976. University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Schoultz, Lars. That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution. University of North Carolina Press, 2009. Yordanov, Radoslav. Our Comrades in Havana: Cuba, the Soviet Union, & Eastern Europe, 1959-1991. Cold War International History Project. Stanford University Press, 2024. Key texts for context on what's happening internally: Guerra, Lillian. Visions of Power in Cuba: Revolution, Redemption, and Resistance, 1959-1971. University of North Carolina Press, 2012. Mesa-Lago, Carmelo. Cuba in the 1970s: Pragmatism and Institutionalization. University of New Mexico Press, 1978. Further Viewing (shout out to Andrés for these, too!): THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (Salles, 2004) FRESA Y CHOCOLATE (Gutiérrez Alea & Carlos Tabío, 1984) Follow Andrés: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: The Hit (1984)
10/17/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: The Hit (1984)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. We celebrate the late Terence Stamp by taking a look at Stephen Frears's 1984 proto-LIMEY existential gangster film, THE HIT. Plus: a little bit of Pasolini's TEOREMA talk for good measure. Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork. Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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Soderbergh Ep. 17: Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
10/10/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 17: Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
We're going back to Vegas for one more job...it's the thrilling conclusion to the trilogy, OCEAN'S THIRTEEN! Well, maybe "thrilling" is arguable. But the episode sure is! We're talking Oprah, Steve Wynn, Mexican labor action, Five Diamond status - it's all here, folks. Further Reading: Further Viewing: DOWN BY LAW (Jarmusch, 1986) SEA OF LOVE (Becker, 1989) HARD EIGHT (Anderson, 1996) SHREK THE THIRD (Miller, 2007) THE TURIN HORSE (Tarr & Hranitzky, 2011) MANK (Fincher, 2020) BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS (Ross brothers, 2020) Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Clint Character Tier List with Aaron from Hit Factory
10/03/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Clint Character Tier List with Aaron from Hit Factory
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. Friend of the show Aaron from Hit Factory joins us to assemble the definitive Tier List of characters played by Clint Eastwood. Along the way, we answer important questions like: What is a Tier List for? What makes a good character? Has Ian developed any insane theoretical frameworks lately? What happens in Joe Kidd, again? Plus, a Pine Cone Crime Zone about Tarzan. See our final tier list here (SPOILERS!!!): https://imgur.com/a/K3oBYpS As always, thank you to for our theme music and to for our artwork. Follow Aaron: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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Soderbergh Ep. 16: The Good German (2006) with Peter Raleigh
09/26/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 16: The Good German (2006) with Peter Raleigh
After 2005's digital day-and-date experiment BUBBLE, Soderbergh swung hard in the other direction with a Golden Age Hollywood pastiche: his (loose) adaptation of Joseph Kanon's postwar Berlin mystery THE GOOD GERMAN. Joining us is film writer and literal historian Peter Raleigh! We talk adaptation, aesthetic imitation, Denazification, CASABLANCA, and much more. Check it out! Further Reading: The Good German by Joseph Kanon Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt Commemorating Hell: The Public Memory of Mittelbau-Dora by Gretchen Schafft and Gerhard Zeidler Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties by David de Jong Further Viewing: FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (Hitchcock, 1940) CASABLANCA (Curtiz, 1942) TO BE OR NOT TO BE (Lubitsch, 1942) A FOREIGN AFFAIR (Wilder, 1948) THE THIRD MAN (Reed, 1949) JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (Kramer, 1961) EUROPA (Von Trier, 1991) BARB WIRE (Hogan, 1996) PHOENIX (Petzold, 2014) TRANSIT (Petzold, 2018) Follow Peter Raleigh: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Legally Blonde (2001) with Veronica Phillips
09/19/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Legally Blonde (2001) with Veronica Phillips
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. A year after ERIN BROCKOVICH, another unashamedly feminine legal professional challenged norms and won at the box office in LEGALLY BLONDE. Here to talk gender performance, turn-of-the-millennium feminism, and Reese Witherspoon's many crimes is writer Veronica Phillips! Really fun episode. Plus, Carmel gets its own Columbo in the Pine Cone Crime Zone. Follow Veronica: As always, thank you to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.
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Soderbergh Ep. 15: Bubble (2005) with Evan from Left of the Projector
09/12/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 15: Bubble (2005) with Evan from Left of the Projector
Another Pod Casty For Me Experience: we're talking Steven Soderbergh's 2005 experiment BUBBLE - day-and-date release experiment, digital cinematography experiment, first-time actor experiment, improvised script experiment - with our buddy Evan from Left of the Projector! And this one's set at a factory, so you know we go crazy on it. We get into film distribution economics, working people on film, first-time actors, naturalism, digital cinema, eastern Ohio accents, and much more. Really tremendous film and tremendous conversation. It's also Jake's dang birthday, so you better enjoy this episode!!! Further Reading: Further Viewing: HARLAN COUNTY USA (Kopple, 1976) STROSZEK (Herzog, 1977) BLUE COLLAR (Schrader, 1978) SLACKER (Linklater, 1990) CLERKS (Smith, 1994) CITY OF GOD (Meirelles and Lund, 2002) ELEPHANT (Van Sant, 2003) FISH TANK (Arnold, 2009) WESTERN (Grisebach, 2017) THE 15:17 TO PARIS (Eastwood, 2018) BAD TRIP (Sakurai, 2021) Follow Left of the Projector: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Robocop (1987) & Jake's Trip to Amsterdam
09/05/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Robocop (1987) & Jake's Trip to Amsterdam
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. This week we're looking at another one of Dirty Harry's spiritual children, Paul Verhoeven's 1987 ROBOCOP. Violence, corporate greed, police stuff - much to talk about here. But we're also talking about it because Verhoeven is a Dutch guy and Jake just got back from a trip to Amsterdam, which we gotta talk about too! OCEAN'S TWELVE locations, European public infrastructure, visiting the Anne Frank House during Israel's genocide of Palestinians - big ep. Plus: a message from Hotel Detective Maxwell Pierson. Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork.
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Soderbergh Ep. 14: Nightwatch (1997)/Criminal (2004)
08/29/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 14: Nightwatch (1997)/Criminal (2004)
A little something different this week: we're looking at two Soderbergh-scripted adaptations of international genre films! First, Soderbergh adapted Ole Bornedal's 1994 NATTEVAGTEN as 1997's NIGHTWATCH, also directed by Bornedal, starring post-TRAINSPOTTING, pre-PHANTOM MENACE Ewan McGregor as a night watchman at a spooky morgue. Next, Soderbergh turned Fabián Bielinsky's 2000 Argentine heist smash NUEVA REINAS (NINE QUEENS) into 2004's CRIMINAL, the directorial debut of Gregory Jacobs starring John C. Reilly and Diego Luna. Why did Sodey do this? Is there anything of the man in these adaptations? Do you need to watch four films before you listen to this episode? The answer to the last question is no! Fun ep, please enjoy. Further Reading: Steven Soderbergh: Interviews, ed. Anthony Kaufman Further Viewing: LOCAL HERO (Forsyth, 1983) THE KINGDOM (Von Trier et al, 1994) HARD EIGHT (Anderson, 1996) PUSHER (Refn, 1996) FUNNY GAMES (Haneke, 1997/2007) FIGHT CLUB (Fincher, 1999) LA CIENAGA (Martel, 2001) BORGEN (Price et al, 2010) ZAMA (Martel, 2017) LA FLOR (Llinás, 2018) Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Silence (2016) with Robert Rubsam
08/22/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Silence (2016) with Robert Rubsam
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. Writer and PCFM official Catholicism Correspondent Rob Rubsam is back for another Martin Scorsese examination of faith: 2016's SILENCE. We talk Jesuits, Japan, nuance, and our own religious baggage. Great, thoughtful ep - hope you enjoy! Follow Rob Rubsam: Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork. Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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Soderbergh Ep. 13: Ocean's Twelve (2004) with Rory Doherty
08/15/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 13: Ocean's Twelve (2004) with Rory Doherty
OCEAN'S ELEVEN was a monster hit, and so naturally Steven Soderbergh made a sequel. An extremely normal sequel that didn't confuse or piss off almost everyone who saw it. We're getting silly today talking about OCEAN'S TWELVE - a very silly movie - with writer and film critic Rory Doherty! We're both sick right now so that's all the episode description you get, sorry! Good movie, good ep - check it out. Further Reading: Further Viewing: TO CATCH A THIEF (Hitchcock, 1955) THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (Nolfi, 2011) Follow Rory Doherty: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Pleasantville (1998)
08/08/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Pleasantville (1998)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. In 1998, Steven Soderbergh produced Gary Ross's PLEASANTVILLE, a visually inventive satire of nostalgia and small-town repression - and in 2025, we did a dang Patreon episode on it. We talk passion, desire, old TV, and the ongoing push for safe limits on production working hours following the death of camera operator Brent Hershman. Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.
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Soderbergh Ep. 13: Solaris (2002) with Aaron Thorpe
08/01/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 13: Solaris (2002) with Aaron Thorpe
Steven Soderbergh's second release of 2002, after FULL FRONTAL, was another very odd move: a remake of Andrei Tarkovsky's SOLARIS (well, more of a new adaptation of the Stanislaw Lem novel). Underappreciated at the time, Soderbergh's SOLARIS has grown in reputation as one of the great science fiction films of the 2000s - so we brought on a bonafide science fiction expert, Aaron Thorpe, to talk about it! Join us for a thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation about the purpose of science fiction, comprehending the vastness of space, grief, blackness in sci-fi, and OSMOSIS JONES. Don't worry, it's plenty stupid, too. Further Reading: Solaris by Stanislaw Lem Sculpting in Time by Andrei Tarkovsky Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects by Graham Harman Myths of the Near Future by J.G. Ballard Further Viewing: SOLARIS (Tarkovsky, 1972) CONTACT (Zemeckis, 1997) EVENT HORIZON (Anderson, 1997) OSMOSIS JONES (Farrelly, 2001) STAR TREK: NEMESIS (Baird, 2002) Follow Aaron Thorpe: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Songs About Clint with Jetski
07/25/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Songs About Clint with Jetski
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. This week we're taking a look at a bunch of songs about, featuring, or otherwise related to Clint Eastwood...which is a great reason to bring on Jetski, aka Ian Ostaszewski, the composer of the Paid Costly For Me theme music! We chat Gorillaz, Metallica, the Beastie Boys, My Chemical Romance, and more - plus Ian's podcast-related birthday present! Let us know if you want more of this, because there are a lot of songs about Clint. Here's the playlist with full songs: Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music (duh) and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork. Follow Jetski: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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Soderbergh Ep. 12: Full Frontal (2002) with Chadd Harbold
07/18/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 12: Full Frontal (2002) with Chadd Harbold
Yeah, like we weren't going to go over two and a half hours on FULL FRONTAL. Following the generational run of OUT OF SIGHT, THE LIMEY, ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC, and OCEAN'S ELEVEN, Steven Soderbergh did what anyone would do: he shot a semi-improvised ensemble Hollywood satire on a consumer grade digital camera. The result, FULL FRONTAL, is a fascinating film about connection, mediation, performance, and the film industry, so who better to talk about it with than our Hollywood bigwig buddy, filmmaker and producer Chadd Harbold? This is a really good one, folks - don't sleep on it! Further Reading: Further Viewing: BAMBOOZLED (Lee, 2000) STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002) Follow Chadd Harbold: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Unforgiven (2013) with Comrade Yui
07/11/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Unforgiven (2013) with Comrade Yui
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. Our dear friend Comrade Yui joins us to discuss Lee Sang-il's 2013 remake of UNFORGIVEN, which stars Ken Watanabe and transposes the action to Meiji Japan. We talk Japanese history, Westerns vs. jidaigeki, Pokémon metaphysics, and pantsing. Great ep, please enjoy. Follow Comrade Yui: Yui's review of UNFORGIVEN (2013): Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.
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Soderbergh Ep. 11: Ocean's Eleven (2001) with Patrick Willems
07/04/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 11: Ocean's Eleven (2001) with Patrick Willems
Ante up, listener! It's the OCEAN'S ELEVEN episode. After the unbelievable one-two punch of BROCKOVICH and TRAFFIC, Steven Soderbergh took a victory lap by remaking a dull Rat Pack movie into one of the most entertaining films ever made - and it made a bunch of money and everyone loves it. Including our guest, filmmaker and YouTuber Patrick Willems! We talk heists, movie stars, Vegas, pleasure - this is a real fun one, folks. Enjoy. Further Reading: Rebels on the Backlot by Sharon Waxman The BFI Companion to Crime, ed. Phil Hardy Further Viewing: GIDGET (Wendkos, 1959) OCEAN'S 11 (Milestone, 1960) THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN (Dearden, 1960) THE GREAT ESCAPE (Sturges, 1963) THE DIRTY DOZEN (Aldrich, 1967) THE HOT ROCK (Yates, 1972) ROUNDERS (Dahl, 1998) TERRIERS (Griffin, 2010) NOW YOU SEE ME (Leterrier, 2013) Follow Patrick Willems: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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PATREON PREVIEW: Baby's First Unforgiven with "Zoomer" Josh Aalcides
06/27/2025
PATREON PREVIEW: Baby's First Unforgiven with "Zoomer" Josh Aalcides
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to to hear more for just $5 a month. Jake's 23-year-old coworker Zoomer Josh is back, and this time we made him watch UNFORGIVEN. We talk Westerns, Hackman, the anti-ICE demonstrations in LA, and Josh's journey as a young cinephile. Plus: a dumb game! Follow Zoomer Josh: Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork. Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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Soderbergh Ep. 10: Traffic (2000) with Benjamin Y. Fong
06/20/2025
Soderbergh Ep. 10: Traffic (2000) with Benjamin Y. Fong
The second half of Soderbergh's unbelievable year 2000 was TRAFFIC, his sprawling adaptation of the 1989 Channel 4 miniseries about the many sides of the drug trade. At the time, it was hailed as a highly nuanced and humane look at narcotics. But how does it look from 2025? Joining us to discuss is professor and author of our much-cited Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge, Benjamin Y. Fong! We talk macroeconomics, "Mexico filter," drug movies, Benicio Del Toro's accent, and a whole lot more. Really fascinating episode, we hope you enjoy! Further Reading: Rebels on the Backlot by Sharon Waxman In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio by Philippe Bourgois Steven Soderbergh: Interviews, ed. Anthony Kaufman Further Viewing: MIKEY AND NICKY (May, 1976) TRAFFIK (Reid, 1989) HIGHWAY PATROLMAN (Cox, 1991) LEAVING LAS VEGAS (Figgis, 1995) ENTER THE VOID (Noe, 2009) THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (Jarecki, 2012) THE SPECTACULAR NOW (Ponsoldt, 2013) EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (Guerra, 2015) MONOS (Landes, 2019) BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS (Ross brothers, 2020) Follow Benjamin Y. Fong: Follow Pod Casty For Me: Support us on Patreon: Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
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