I've been pre-scheduling podcast episodes this summer &, forgetting that we are now living in a time of anything goes chaos in the U.S., last week's conversation wound up publishing in the hours after the news involving Iran. Hopefully anyone who knows me knows that I wouldn't normally pivot from major world news to self-promotion but I still wanted to take this opportunity to apologize for any confusion or insensitivity that the accidentally ill-timed new episode caused. To make up for that...
Jun 27, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Season 6Ep. 15
We're back with part two of our ongoing summer series devoted to the newest physical media releases from The Criterion Collection & today's episode is a must for neo-noir fans everywhere. First up, you'll hear from bestselling award-winning authors S.A. Cosby (whose newest novel KING OF ASHES just hit shelves last week) & Jordan Harper (SHE RIDES SHOTGUN & EVERYBODY KNOWS) on director Stephen Frears' outstanding adaptation of author Jim Thompson's THE GRIFTERS. Then we leave the '90s...
Jun 22, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 6Ep. 14
It's cowboys, & truckers, & samurai, oh my! In the first part of a summer suite of Season 6 episodes devoted to Physical Media released this year by The Criterion Collection, you'll hear conversations with some of my dearest friends (& your favorite guests). Just in time for Father's Day, we're embracing Dudes Rock (or at times, ironically, "Dudes Don't Rock") Energy for the first quartet of classic film favorites. I kick things off here in the West with THE GET-OFF author Christa Fa...
Jun 15, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 6Ep. 13
Welcome to the unofficial second half of a delightful extended conversation about actor James Gandolfini that started at the end of April with me interviewing film critic, historian, & author Jason Bailey about his new outstanding biography GANDOLFINI: JIM, TONY, & THE LIFE OF A LEGEND for Poisoned Pen Bookstore. While I highly recommend you check out that earlier discussion on the Poisoned Pen's YouTube or FB Live channels (&/or wherever you get your podcasts), this episode of Watch...
Jun 08, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 6Ep. 12
Since the kind souls at The Criterion Collection generously sent both myself & my dear friend (& kid brother from an Oz mother) Blake Howard the same brand new pristine 4K edition of director Norman Jewison's Academy Award winning 1967 masterpiece IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, we decided to team up to cover it together. Although you'll still hear several traditional Watch With Jen: Physical Media episodes in the future as Season 6 of my podcast continues, this time, we felt like kicking off ...
Jun 05, 2025•21 min
This week, I'm pleased to bring you a cheery conversation with my delightful friend, fellow podcaster, and animation expert Rachel Wagner. Incredibly hardworking and prolific as the woman behind both the website Rachel's Reviews and the popular Hallmarkies podcast, in this breezy, fast paced, nostalgic, well researched discussion, we celebrate the films of the always inventive Aardman Animation, including the Wallace & Gromit claymation stop-motion shorts that first brought them internationa...
May 31, 2025•45 min•Season 6Ep. 11
Earlier in the year, I met the terrific & very prolific author Erica Ruth Neubauer at Poisoned Pen Bookstore when she was in town to promote her newest Jane Wunderly mystery series novel HOMICIDE IN THE INDIAN HILLS. From the moment that I discovered that she had a very cool, intricate tattoo of the game board & weapons from CLUE, I knew she'd be a great guest on Watch With Jen & I was delighted that she said yes. Delving not only into her background falling in love with old movies &...
May 17, 2025•58 min•Season 6Ep. 10
I always learn so much in my conversations with Canadian cinephile, critic, & author Adam Nayman & this episode - devoted to a quartet of big screen adaptations of Ira Levin's buzzy bestselling novels that captivated a generation of readers - is no exception. Listen in as we take you through his career as a master storyteller of what Stephen King deemed "Swiss watch" worthy plots while exploring the films A KISS BEFORE DYING (1956), ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968), THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975), &...
May 05, 2025•59 min•Season 6Ep. 9
It was such a pleasure to reunite with WHAT LIES WEST writer-director Jessica Ellis for this thoughtful, breezy, good-hearted celebration of three films about women's sexuality onscreen. Diving into two very different, boldly inquisitive bright lights of '90s cinema in CHASING AMY & ANTONIA'S LINE, which bookend this conversation, we also explore 2024's lovely, compassionate, surprisingly bittersweet, highly recommended indie MY OLD ASS, which feels like a throwback to the coming-of-age indi...
Apr 21, 2025•48 min•Season 6Ep. 8
It was wonderful to welcome back poet, teacher, writer, & scholar Elizabeth Cantwell this week to explore haunted houses both in film & real life, plus the existential, psychosexual, guilt-filled, Freudian, & supernatural realms of THE HAUNTING (1963), THE CHANGELING (1980), POLTERGEIST (1982), STIR OF ECHOES (1999), & more. I always learn so much when I talk to Elizabeth & we laughed far more than one would think going in given the topic, so this episode instantly became one...
Apr 13, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 7
And now for something completely different... featuring one of past guests & fellow authors Ace Atkins, Megan Abbott, & William Boyle's dearest friends. The first half of this week's episode with Oxford, Mississippi based ADVENTURE TIME & SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS screenwriter, voice actor, & author Jack Pendarvis is a freewheeling anything goes conversation about writing, shovels, William Faulkner cosplay, hitchhiking with butter knives, Saint Augustine, showers, & anything else...
Apr 07, 2025•55 min•Season 6Ep. 6
Brilliant DARE ME, THE TURNOUT, & BEWARE THE WOMAN author & Criterion Collection cinephile Megan Abbott returns once again to Watch With Jen for a thoughtful, well-researched, & intriguing conversation about one of twentieth century cinema's most misunderstood and beloved screen icons, Doris Day. Investigating the subversive ways that Day's work raised questions about the evolving attitudes regarding sex, gender, desire, courtship, marriage, & male-female dynamics in particular, ...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 6Ep. 5
Spring into romance with this lovely, jubilant celebration of a trio of knowledgeable RogerEbert.com critic & editor Nell Minow's favorite underrated classic romcoms: THEODORA GOES WILD, I LOVE YOU AGAIN, & BALL OF FIRE. Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop (+ Direct Link to the Mug ) Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive Originally Posted on Patreon (3/24/25) here : https://www.pa...
Mar 24, 2025•48 min•Season 6Ep. 4
It's here! Recording my 250th episode introduction was tougher than I thought it'd be for a few reasons. The first is, of course, because I'm a total cheeseball & much too earnest, which is a curse both Midwestern & Italian-American since I tend to treat everyone like family and am much too passionate about what interests me. But the second reason is because right now it's such a rough time in our history (& most of our lives) that celebrating this accomplishment feels silly & se...
Mar 17, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Last week's launch of Season 6: Episode 1 generated more downloads than we'd received for quite some time & I want to thank you so much for warmly welcoming back the podcast in 2025 in the same week we celebrated its fifth anniversary. A few days ago, I uploaded a new film recommendation video in a supplemental series for patrons that I'm calling Watch With Jen: Bonus Recs & I'm keeping them unlocked to the public for a few months before they'll become strict subscriber exclusives. We've...
Mar 10, 2025•1 hr 33 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Welcome back to Watch With Jen. Just in time for the fifth anniversary of the podcast (which officially began on March 3, 2020), I'm releasing the first of at least a two-part episode devoted to L.A. Movies. Like everyone else, I watched in horror as the Santa Ana wind wildfires ripped through a city that I dearly love at the start of 2025. Unable to contribute financially to the many worthy charities and Go Fund Me accounts that were launched in its wake, nor volunteer on the ground from where ...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 42 min•Season 6Ep. 1
It's finally here! Behold our Season 5 finale episode, which, in true Watch With Jen form is a group chat extravaganza celebrating the best new physical media releases in recent months. In this feature-length compilation, you'll hear thoughtful, articulate, occasionally personally revealing, funny, & fresh spins on NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (with novelist S.A. Cosby), Scarface - 1932 (with critic Sean Burns), THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY & GALAXY QUEST (with novelist Jed Ayres), myself on PAPER MOO...
Dec 28, 2024•2 hr 3 min•Season 5Ep. 33
In this super-sized celebration of the Muscles from Brussels, three of my dearest friends and your listener-favorite guests return to the podcast to discuss the life and career of action star Jean-Claude Van Damme. Offering an extensive overview of his entire filmography, courtesy of the show's two certified Van Damme experts in film essayist Priscilla Page and novelist Jed Ayres, and with sharp insights on the industry from novelist-screenwriter-producer Jordan Harper, this sunny, research-fill...
Dec 09, 2024•2 hr 20 min•Season 5Ep. 32
A film critic for publications & companies such as LA Weekly , New York Magazine , Vulture , The New York Times , The Criterion Collection, & formerly, The Village Voice , the brilliant Bilge Ebiri is one of my favorite journalists working today. Reuniting with Bilge to celebrate & evaluate the filmography of the great actor Russell Crowe, in this warm, chatty conversation, we look back at the movies that made Crowe a star along with some of his most legendary turns, including PROOF,...
Dec 02, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 5Ep. 31
To celebrate the 55th birthday of "Sesame Street," I had a wonderfully inspiring chat with the legendary Noel MacNeal about his incredible decades-spanning career. From wrangling puppets on "Sesame Street" in 1982 to becoming "Bear in the Big Blue House" in 1997 to currently working as the resident puppeteer on "Last Week Tonight" Noel's rich, candid, & witty stories about everything from the tricks of the trade to how children on the spectrum & with special needs respond to puppet chara...
Nov 18, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 5Ep. 30
My dear friend, Letterboxd managing editor Mitchell Beaupre returns to the show to discuss the filmography & mystique of one of cinema's coolest counterculture icons, Elliott Gould. Giving a thoughtful overview of the way that his work has evolved over the years, in this engaging conversation, we focus on three of what we consider to be Gould's greatest cinematic staples: THE SILENT PARTNER, THE LONG GOODBYE, & CALIFORNIA SPLIT. Mitchell's Bio: Mitchell Beaupre is the Managing Editor for...
Nov 10, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 29
It’s Jen x2! In easily the most stressful week of an incredibly fraught fall, I know we could all benefit from a little extra kindness and positivity, which just so happen to be two of the qualities most filmgoers associate with actor Paul Rudd. Chatting with Vulture' s delightful TV critic Jen Chaney, who literally wrote the book on writer-director Amy Heckerling's masterful 1995 romcom CLUELESS, the two of us spent a breezy hour celebrating some of Rudd's most iconic & intriguing roles, in...
Nov 03, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 28
Author Stephanie Wrobel takes a break from the busy book tour for her acclaimed, addictive new mystery novel THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL to talk about writing, what it takes to navigate multi-character arc narratives, & lessons in suspense from the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. In addition to covering her exciting mystery, we discuss three of the biggest Hitchcockian sources of inspiration for the work via the films PSYCHO, ROPE, REBECCA, & much more. Bio: Stephanie Wrobel is an internat...
Oct 24, 2024•59 min•Season 5Ep. 27
We don't cover TV very often on Watch With Jen so you know that when my guests & I dedicate an entire episode to a television series, it's something we wholeheartedly recommend you seek out. (In fact, THE AMERICANS, COLUMBO, TERRIERS, HALT & CATCH FIRE, MR. INBETWEEN, & SUCCESSION are among the few exceptions to this film-centric show in over 200 podcast installments.) As the opposite of a true crime buff who usually avoids serial killer stories in entertainment (except ZODIAC), this...
Oct 14, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 5Ep. 26
One of my most soulful & philosophical guests, my good friend, Vulture TV critic Roxana Hadadi returns to Watch With Jen to discuss character actor Edward Norton's career. Paying particular attention to his '90s & early aught heyday, in this thoughtful conversation, we discuss his films & performances in PRIMAL FEAR, AMERICAN HISTORY X, FIGHT CLUB, 25TH HOUR, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, & more. Along the way, we share our connections to & memories of some of these generation &/or ...
Oct 08, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 5Ep. 25
This week, I was delighted to be joined by two New York Times best-selling novelists who happen to live right here in Arizona & both of whom I met through Barbara Peters' wonderful world-famous independent Poisoned Pen Bookshop in Scottsdale. Jenn McKinlay is the award-winning bestselling author of several mystery & romance series & her work has been translated into multiple languages & in countries all over the world. Hard at work on her next books, Jenn's latest releases includ...
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 5Ep. 24
Welcome to the second physical media episode of season five. Inundated by first-rate releases on disc over the last several months, this casual installment primarily consists of my takes on the stack of films you see in the cover photo, but I wanted to break up the rhythm of this one by inviting friends like Sean Burns & Blake Howard to help me cover a trio of titles as well. Additionally, Sean & Blake dive into a few bonus releases they've picked up or worked on (not included in the lis...
Sep 24, 2024•1 hr 39 min•Season 5Ep. 23
This month, I was pleased to welcome back Dan Mecca & Conor O'Donnell, two friends & the hosts of The Film Stage's excellent podcast The B-Side, which covers movie stars in a fascinating way, by focusing not on the films that made or kept them famous but on the ones that actors made in between. Equally skilled at coming up with highly original show themes for their guest appearances here, Dan & Conor joined me in Season 4 to discuss the role of work in the films of director Ron Howar...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr 45 min•Season 5Ep. 22
It's the season five return of my good friend & longtime Watch With Jen fan-favorite guest, cinephile, Hardboiled Wonderland blogger, & author Jed Ayres. This time, Jed & I journey into stealthy mid-twentieth-century international spy terrain via four noir war films from the masterful British director Carol Reed. Kicking things off with the incredible classic THE THIRD MAN, we then join the pursuit of James Mason in Reed's expressionistic ODD MAN OUT & THE MAN BETWEEN before we l...
Sep 04, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Season 5Ep. 21
This week, I'm honored to be joined by not one but two brilliant screenwriters, Larry Karaszewski & Daniel Waters. Larry Karaszewski & his writing/directing/producing partner Scott Alexander are best known for writing unusual true stories such as the films ED WOOD, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, MAN ON THE MOON, AUTO FOCUS, BIG EYES, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, & the hit television miniseries THE PEOPLE VS. OJ SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY. The team has won Emmys, Golden Globes, Producers, &am...
Aug 20, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Season 5Ep. 20
