Random Acts of Cinema

Each week friends Mike and Charlie have Randy (the random number generator) select a film for them to watch from the Criterion Collection. Then they discuss and review it for your listening pleasure. It’s a podcast about the love of film, expanding horizons, painstakingly cataloging the duration of every long take, and friendship.

239 - The Lower Depths (1936) and The Lower Depths (1957) 07/21/2026

239 - The Lower Depths (1936) and The Lower Depths (1957) It’s a podcast double doozer! Renoir and Kurosawa both adapt the same play, over 2 decades apart. Mifune and Gabin play the same roll. One is set in the source’s original Russia and the other in Edo-period Japan. Both are about hope and despair at the limit of human poverty. Is there more to this comparison than… the comparison? *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jacques Tati’s Playtime (1967). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/42161345

LD154 - Blackmail (1929) 07/16/2026

LD154 - Blackmail (1929) Hitch is back! His/England’s/Europe’s first commercial talkie sets the tone and themes for a lifetime of adult-themed psycho-sexual thrillers. Complicated protagonists, with questionable values, make questionable choices (all in good fun) until evil men force them to come to terms with their own sense of self-worth. Sounds like a recipe for… blackmail! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing BOTH Jean Renoir’s The Lower Depths (1936) and Akira Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths (1957). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/42120760

779 - Blind Chance (1987) 07/13/2026

779 - Blind Chance (1987) Krzysztof Kieslowski returns to the podcast with his 1981 break-out smash hit (or at least it would have been if Polish censors hadn’t suppressed it for 6 years and only then to release a heavily cut version). It’s almost as if there is one narrative where the film got released as planed, another where Kieslowski couldn’t release it, and yet another where Randy didn’t pick it for this podcast. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Aflred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/42062960

1 - The Grand Illusion (1937) 07/04/2026

1 - The Grand Illusion (1937) 1. One. Un. Eins. Welcome to the first episode of the Spirit Guides… is what I would say if we watched the films of the Criterion Collection in numerical order. It took us nearly seven seasons, but we’ve finally been assigned spine number one: Jean Renoir’s The Grand Illusion. Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, and (scene-stealing) Erich von Stroheim, trace the lives of prisoners-of-war and their captors during World War I. Escapes, indignities, and unexpected friendships mark the scenes, but it’s really an exploration of how humanity must compete with national duty. A powerful, but unheard message, in the prelude to the second World War. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Blind Chance (1981). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/41962970

99 - Gimme Shelter (1970) 06/29/2026

99 - Gimme Shelter (1970) This week we are joined by special guest Max to (sub in for Mike and) discuss one of the great concert films of all time. Music. Death. Controversy. The Rolling Stones and the directing trio of the Maysle brothers and Catherine Zwerin find themselves in the middle of a decade-defining disaster: 1969’s free concert at Altamont. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Blind Chance (1981). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/41857010

52 - Yojimbo (1961) 06/15/2026

52 - Yojimbo (1961) Huh… Apparently Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune made a few movies together. Wonder if this one is any good? *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion (1937). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/41647595

LD366 - Boogie Nights (1997) 06/11/2026

LD366 - Boogie Nights (1997) Sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll. These are the things that you come to Random Acts of Cinema for. Paul Thomas Anderson almost manages to reach our podcastly levels of hedonism and vice in his late 90s indie apogee covering the late 70s porn apogee. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/41616615

490 - Wings of Desire (1987) 05/18/2026

490 - Wings of Desire (1987) Imagine a world where, whenever you think you are alone, there are always a bunch of dudes in trench coats quietly standing behind you and resting their hands on your shoulder. And they can read your mind. And they talk about you to their friends. And sometimes they sneak into your dreams. Now imagine that there is nothing creepy about that and it's actually very reassuring. And that maybe we can find world peace through understanding and a new kind of politically-informed spirituality. Thanks to these trench coat guys. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/41328390

861 - 45 Years (2015) 05/14/2026

861 - 45 Years (2015) Andrew Haigh directs a totally-not-boring movie about people talking about a marriage that seems find but maybe it really isn’t. But, like I said, in a totally-not-boring way. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/41289955

711 - A Hard Day’s Night (1964) 05/05/2026

711 - A Hard Day’s Night (1964) Did you know that the Beatles also made movies?!? Yeah, so did we. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Andrew Haigh 45 Years (2015). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/41153545

1202 - Lone Star (1996) 04/27/2026

1202 - Lone Star (1996) This is not your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate’s neo-noir western. This is John Sayle’s interrogating generational legacies of racism, corruption, compromise, and passion in a south Texas border town. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night (1964). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/41026230

1197 - The Young Master (1980) 04/21/2026

1197 - The Young Master (1980) Come listen to two woodworkers talk about this one guy who specializes in wooden bench-style kung fu. Oh, and Jackie Chan is in it also. I guess he directs it too. But let’s get back to this bench… *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing John Sayle’s Lone Star (1996). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40960440

592 - Underworld (1927) 04/17/2026

592 - Underworld (1927) “Once a lawyer, always a drunkard, and now looking like 2010s David Bowie.” So says newly-minted gangster “Rolls Royce” Wensel describing himself to the POSSIBLY love of his life, the daring thief “Bull” Weed. And it turns out that this, the first American gangster movie (yay!), was also a love triangle (boo!). *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jackie Chan’s The Young Master (1980). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40907735

1306 - A Weekend In The Country (1996) 04/12/2026

1306 - A Weekend In The Country (1996) A classic Bergman film. Well, a classic Martin Bergman film. About Temecula. Where your favorite podcast hosts first met. Anyway… two neurotic New Yorkers - with ulterior motives - take on a couple of quick gigs in the wine country of (southern) California. Perhaps romance is in the air for this strangely legit cast? *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Josef von Sternberg’s Underworld (1927). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40815055

1230 - Not A Pretty Picture (1975) 03/31/2026

1230 - Not A Pretty Picture (1975) Content warning: This episode addresses a film that explicitly addresses issues related to and depicts the actions of violent sexual assault. Director Martha Coolidge blends drama and documentary in an unflinching consideration of her rape as a younger woman. Ostensibly a dramatic recreation of the events surrounding and during the assault, she breaks through the dramatic wall to discuss the project and personal recollections of herself an the actors in this daring and groundbreaking film. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Martin Bergman’s A Weekend in the Country (1996). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40683715

1282 - The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021) 03/23/2026

1282 - The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021) Who’s ready for an anthology movie about mostly Americans in France writing about mostly not Americans in France for an imagined audience of mostly Americans in America? And sometimes everyone speaks French. But mostly they don’t. Wes Anderson works with his ever-growing company of highest-profile players to construct this triptych of art and insanity, love and revolution, and food and crime. And a deep admiration for the talents and obsessions of midcentury American magazine writers. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Martha Coolidge’s Not A Pretty Picture (1976). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40581365

23 - Robocop (1987) 03/17/2026

23 - Robocop (1987) Dead or alive, you’re listening to me. Paul Verhoeven somehow achieves both badass copaganda action movie and cutting satire of American violence, consumerism, corporate greed, and bad TV. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40508055

268 - Youth of the Beast (1963) 03/10/2026

268 - Youth of the Beast (1963) Seijun Suzuki dreams up yet another ever-so-slightly-surreal Yakuza picture. Thank god. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop (1987). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40384100

1186 - The Tall T (1957) 03/02/2026

1186 - The Tall T (1957) That Pat Brennan… what a man! Come listen to us face an ethical quandary when we stumble upon a real treasure of a western, that is still undeniably a 1950s western. What am I talking about? Let’s just say that it can be summed up in two words: Henry Silva. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Seijun Suzuki’s Youth of the Beast (1963). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40267790

1264 - The Wiz (1978) 02/23/2026

1264 - The Wiz (1978) The more you learn about this movie, the more clear it becomes that what you’d think to be the good parts are the bad parts, and that the bad parts are really the good parts. Making movies is hard. Sidney Lumet directs a visually stunning reimagining of the Wizard of Oz and then some other stuff is in it too. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Budd Boetticher‘s The Tall T (1957). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40199975

741 - My Winnipeg (2007) 02/18/2026

741 - My Winnipeg (2007) We know y’all are some nasty freaks out there who have been waiting a long time for this one to drop. Guy Madden comes back with an irreverently cinematic fake/real/fake documentary about his home town of Winnipeg. It’s black and white, it’s out of focus, the cuts are fast and many. It’s psycho-sexual. It’s arty AF. Is he going to vignette any shots? Uh, yeah. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz (1978). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40147840

19 - Shock Corridor (1963) 02/10/2026

19 - Shock Corridor (1963) Samuel Fuller turns a critical eye on the state of mental health treatment in the United States to, uh… well, not really. Mostly he just uses a stage theater’s idea of a mental hospital as a narrative device for exploring three major American anxieties in the 1960s. Want to complain about nukes? Have a patient do a one-man show for a while about how we went insane after building them. And you know what, that’s the tame one of the three. For a B-movie about a reporter going undercover in a mental ward to solve a murder, things get wild. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Guy Maddon’s My Winnipeg (12007). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/40055630

752 - Vernon, Florida (1981) 02/02/2026

752 - Vernon, Florida (1981) Documentarian of the ages Errol Morris turns his gentle eye toward the old fellers of a small town in Florida and just sort of lets them do their thing. Talking about gobblers, wigglers, growing sand, ambidexterity, fake (or maybe real) jewels, seeing the perfection of God in nature, and the magical definition of the word “therefore.” *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor (1963). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/39959710

LD99 - Burn! (1969) 01/28/2026

LD99 - Burn! (1969) Gillo Pontecorvo directs a cast of unknowns in his big swing on the historical action/drama about a British agent sent to use all of his cynical wile to foment a slave revolt on Portuguese colony island. Keep careful eye out for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo by Marlon Brando at his understated best. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Errol Morris’ Vernon, Florida (1981). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/39907335

498 - Paisan - War Trilogy (1946) 01/21/2026

498 - Paisan - War Trilogy (1946) Roberto Rossellini travels length of the Italian peninsula in the immediate aftermath of WWII to share 6 stories about the lives of Italian civilians and partisans and their relationships with foreign Allied troops. Love, tragedy, heroism, and sacrifice result from the difficulties of communicating purpose and need of individuals confronted with the inhumane machine of war. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Gillo Pontecorvo’s Burn! (1969). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/39807985

469 - The Hit (1984) 01/13/2026

469 - The Hit (1984) What does it mean to die? What does it mean to truly live… on a road trip across Spain with Terence Stamp, John Hurt, and Tim Roth in a giant white Mercedes Benz? Director Stephen Frears grabbles with these enduring questions in his sun-soaked take-down of the neo noir. Ten Years after snitching on his compatriots, a criminal in hiding is rousted from his dreamy Spanish village life by two hit men sent to exact retribution. But he seems oddly cool about it all. What gives? *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Roberto Rossellini’s Paisan - War Trilogy (1946). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/39712800

1048 - Dos Monjes (1934) 01/05/2026

1048 - Dos Monjes (1934) One, two monks kneel before you That’s what I said now Monks, monks who adore you Just go ahead now One has diamonds in his pockets And that’s some bread now This one says he has tuberculosis It’s in his lungs now… Juan Bustillo Oro takes us on a Rashomon-esque journey into nightmarish memory in this 1930s Mexican classic. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Stephen Frears’ The Hit (1984). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/39590665

326 - Metropolitan (1990) 12/30/2025

326 - Metropolitan (1990) Finally, a movie comes along with the guts to ask the question: can you be a Fourierist AND a Vebleninian at the same time? Explore this question and more at the Manhattan debutante ball season after parties of Whit Stillman’s career defining entrée about class, love, and pretentious discussion topics. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Juan Bustillo Oro’s Dos Monjes (1934). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/39563415

575 - The Killing (1956) 12/22/2025

575 - The Killing (1956) Kubrick is on the podcast! Or at least one of his films was finally randomly selected for the first time. And he gives us a self-produced, time-zagging, bracingly-funny, bloody, homage-satire of hard-boiled noir. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan (1990). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/39501245

1000 - Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) 12/15/2025

1000 - Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) We return once more to the Godzilla Showa-era films with Jun Fukuda’s 1974 introduction of some kind of a… Robo-Godzilla! I think that’s what they call it. And some aliens. Oh, and there’s a new surprise secret monster called King Caesar also. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server ! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our . T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing (1956). /episode/index/show/randomactsofcinema/id/39414900

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