Here is a podcast/radio interview from my appearance on Morning Feed with Ed Feldman from October of 2011, when I was promoting the Medium Rare Cinema screenings of Dream Lover and Comfort and Joy . Like my other appearances on Morning Feed , the topics are wide ranging starting with Harry Dean Stanton and Death Watch and concluding 2 hours later with a brief reference to Ilsa star Dyanne Thorne. In between there are discussions of Emilio Estevez’s magnum opus Wisdom , what a wonderful blowhard ...
Nov 27, 2012•2 hr 12 min
Here’s a podcast with Tim League, creator and CEO of The Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest. This was recorded around November 2010 and the interview was initiated because Tim and Alamo Drafthouse Films were putting out Chris Morris’ Four Lions as their first film. You can hear my interview with Chris Morris here . This very weekend, Drafthouse Films is releasing Miami Connection , a goofy kung fu film that had been thought lost since its original 1987 release. Tim and I also discuss his involv...
Nov 10, 2012•1 hr 38 min
Here is a podcast with actress Summer Qing (also known as Qing Xu), who plays the wife of Bruce Willis ‘ character in Rian Johnson ‘s twisty action sci-fi film Looper. Summer’s role is the main motivation for Willis’ entire journey through time. Summer was also in a few Chen Kaige films, like Farewell, My Concubine , and one of his early films, which I ask Summer about, Life on a Strin g . This is a unique interview for me, because it’s the first one I’ve ever done using Skype (so the sound qual...
Sep 29, 2012•29 min
During the audio commentary for The Goonies , there’s a moment when the actor who played Chunk , Jeff Cohen (who is now an attorney), points out that a certain shot of his hands are “not my hands.” That’s about the way it should be, where the only person who notices that an insert shot, like the shot of a hand, is the actor playing the part who knows specifically that he’s not in the shot. But what happens when a production is so slapped together that these very basic elements are poorly done an...
Sep 01, 2012
Here is my 5 minute interpretation of John Bruno’s Virus , a sci-fi thriller from 1999 starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Sutherland, and William Baldwin. As a movie, about a mysterious electrical life-force that animates killer robots on an abandoned Russian research vessel in the South Pacific, Virus is somehow simultaneously frantic and low energy. It’s the slowest moving 90 minute haunted house movie on record. Bruno was obviously hired because he helped design the visual effects on Terminato...
Apr 25, 2012•5 min
Here is volume 2 of the 5 Minute Feature Film series, this time on Michael Oblowitz’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s This World, Then the Fireworks . The 5 Minute Feature Film series is where I take a full length movie and cut it down to 5 minutes in length, re-score it, but tell basically the same story, while simultaneously analyzing the film. You can find part one here , where I made a 5 minute version of the Nicolas Cage/Nicole Kidman vehicle Trespass . This World, Then the Fireworks, starring...
Apr 17, 2012•5 min
Below is a q+a with actor Fran Kranz, who plays Marty, the resident stoner in the new meta-horror-comedy The Cabin in the Woods . It was recorded after a screening of the film on April 9th in Philadelphia. The Cabin in the Woods is the feature directing debut of Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard. It was produced under the aegis of Joss Whedon with whom Goddard also wrote a handful of episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel for. Kranz is generally enthusiastic about the film, as he should be...
Apr 11, 2012
As a companion piece to my analysis of Nicolas Cage’s current career , below is a visual summation of his 2011 movie Trespass, co-starring Nicole Kidman and Cam Gigandet. I’ve edited the entire thing down to just under 5 minutes, briefly glossing over important plot points (without major spoilers), yet you’ll still get the sense of just how repetitive the movie is. There are plenty of examples of the gun waving and threatening that is the film’s raison d’etre, some of the dialogue, some of Nicol...
Apr 08, 2012•5 min
It’s quite a bold move to try to explore mediocrity. Most of us never rise above it anyway. But if you have talent and you use it to look at those who can’t get past the middle, it can be seen as condescending and/or gloating. That’s why the context of mediocrity is so important; when you have the Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster , which is a 2 ½ hour magnum opus on playing to the middle and not having your heart in your art, the key is that Metallica appears to have no idea how cynica...
Mar 22, 2012
Billy Crystal showing us how he can count I was on Gtown radio on Friday morning to talk about the Medium Rare Cinema screening of the uncut version of Burn! (being shown at a new location), but also to talk about the Oscars. I took the opportunity to discuss my experience in voting in the Online Film Critics Society awards, and the various stages which prevent any real surprises, and how that holds true in the Oscar voting as well. Because of the quick turnaround time, this isn’t as polished as...
Mar 22, 2012
Though it might have been his open plea to loosen monogamy’s grip on society, sex columnist Dan Savage’s veritable mantra that “all relationships end, except the one that doesn’t,” is oddly logical. At first it seems callous and cynical, relying on the notion that we all die alone, but, apart from ignoring the notion of successful bigamists, it makes a lot of sense. Why do we put so much stock in every relationship when 99% of them will end eventually, and unhappily at that? You could then make ...
Mar 22, 2012
It was then. That doesn’t make it right. But that doesn’t make it different either.” – Comedian Greg Proops on why racist behavior in old movies shouldn’t be excused, but it shouldn’t make them worthless either. The above quote is a canny way to explain away dated material without condemning it for being what it is. But what about material that was dated when it came out, only the creator didn’t seem aware of it? What about someone like expert blowhard and author Norman Mailer, who in 1987 decid...
Mar 22, 2012
Here is the third in a series of no doubt 4 million appearances (or maybe less) that I made on Ed Feldman’s Morning Feed . Originally the interview ran at an epic length, 3 and 1/2 hours. Now, after some judicious editing, it runs at a mini-epic length of 2 hours, but you’ll still get plenty of Mr. Feldman ranting and raving and leching on young female celebrities while I make fun of him for it. My appearance coincided with a screening of Looking for Mr. Goodbar that we held at Medium Rare Cinem...
Mar 21, 2012
I don't like year-end lists. No one likes Gone Fishin' I am not a fan of year-end lists. They are entirely reductive and self-congratulatory. However the text below was triggered by another critic, Examiner.com’s Jason Roestel, who asked me to contribute to his year-end piece . So this is a version that fixes as many grammatical errors as I originally had, as well as some significant bonuses that do not appear in Jason’s article. The questions are numbered in the order Jason asked them in. 1) Fa...
Jan 05, 2012
Here’s a podcast with Danny Buday, the writer/director of Five Star Day . Now I’m totally aware that most people will not have heard of this film, Mr. Buday’s first. That’s because Five Star Day , as of November 4th, has received a limited theatrical release, as well as a simultaneous release on Facebook. The movie itself is about a grad student, played by Cam Gigandet, who is to disprove the accuracy of astrology for his ethics class. He titles his paper, “A propaganda campaign of bullshit.” An...
Nov 06, 2011•21 min
Here’s my second radio appearance on Morning Feed with Ed Feldman. This time I was promoting the Medium Rare Cinema screening of the Richard Dreyfuss vehicle The Big Fix but the conversation once again jumps around a lot to movies being released around that time (June 2011) such as Submarine , Tree of Life , Super 8 , as well as my insistence that as many people as possible see the documentary about A Tribe Called Quest, Beats Rhymes & Life . And most importantly, you get to hear a clip from...
Oct 13, 2011•1 hr 33 min
Here’s a podcast with Ann Louise Bardach, journalist for The New York Times, Newsweek, Slate, etc., and the screenwriter of Dennis Hopper’s Backtrack , the director’s cut of which I reviewed here . Now Backtrack was an incredibly troubled production, sitting on the shelf for two years before being dumped by its bankrupt distributor in a cut retitled Catchfire, shorn of 20 minutes that Hopper intended to be part of the film. It wasn’t until 1992 when Live Home Video put out a VHS of Hopper’s pref...
Oct 03, 2011•16 min
This is my appearance with Ed Feldman on his show Morning Feed, on Gtown Radio , on May 19th, 2011. As of this writing, I’ve appeared 4 times, this being the first, and it runs just a shade under 2 hours. I was there to promote the Medium Rare Cinema screening of John Woo’s Bullet in the Head , but that’ s only a minor sniff of the various topics covered. I will post the next few shows in the upcoming weeks. Those of you who don’t live in Philadelphia will be happy to know that I’ve edited out a...
Sep 27, 2011•1 hr 57 min
The initial financial failure of Disney’s Tron (directed by Steven Lisberger) was attributed to the enormous expectations based on the egregious expense of the project because of the complicated computer effects. Tron was simplistic story-wise, and the replication of the feel of a video game would become commonplace not long after its 1982 release. The $20 million had been spent on the technological advances which ironically succeeded in developing a following for a video game based on the movie...
Sep 25, 2011•3 min
Below is an interview with director Billy Corben, who made the two Cocaine Cowboys films, Raw Deal, Limelight , Square Grouper (his new documentary about pot smuggling in Florida, which he happened to be promoting at the time of this interview), and The U , which is relevant now since its subject is Miami University’s football team, and Billy is the go-to expert talking head for any news station or TV show that happens to be covering the current scandal. Tommy Smothers lookalike Our interview fo...
Aug 31, 2011•1 hr 31 min
Amanda in Primal Doubt Here’s a podcast with Amanda Fuller, the star of Red, White & Blue . This interview was recorded in August of 2010, but because of the quick blip on the theatrical radar the film got, I decided to wait until it came out on DVD to release the interview. Now, considering Amanda and I do discuss the conclusion of Red, White & Blue in quite a bit of detail, I wanted to give those who wanted to see the film (which came out on DVD in May) a chance before ruining the fina...
Jul 13, 2011•1 hr 14 min
Here’s an audio excerpt from a q+a that M. Night Shyamalan did after a screening of Unbreakable at last October’s Philadelphia Film Festival. Since there were no mics in the audience, only M. Night is completely audible, so I deleted the first question and you just have Night’s answer. Basically the question was about the significance of water in his films. The other topics include a very lengthy and emphatic elucidation on how to get your scripts financed and why the CGI in Signs was so bad. Ev...
Jun 14, 2011•11 min
Here’s a podcast with Josh Shelov, the writer/director of The Best and the Brightest . While the film is screening in Philadelphia as you read this (that is, if you’re reading this as soon as I post it, so, that would just be me), it will open in a more traditional fashion in the next few months. The Best and the Brightest is a farce about the very difficult struggles of getting your child into an exclusive pre-K if you live in New York City. The movie, which stars Neil Patrick Harris, John Hodg...
Apr 22, 2011•1 hr 4 min
The following is a review of Source Code , but I also conducted an interview with director Duncan Jones, which you can listen to at the bottom of the page. If anyone’s ever watched an airplane edit of a film, they know that often changes are made which make no sense within the logic of the movie, but are inserted to make sure the viewer isn’t reminded in any way that they are indeed inside of a contraption that could crash and burn at any time. One of the most unique examples that I’ve ever come...
Apr 05, 2011•12 min
Here’s a podcast with Australian director Rolf De Heer. It was originally recorded in August of 2008 and there was even an unedited and intro-free version on the site before. I’ve cleaned it up significantly, trimming 20 minutes and tightening it up to the point where it flows considerably better than it did before. Now since it was one of my very first podcasts, the sound quality is not terrific, as it was recorded using an analog recorder on an incoming overseas call from Australia. However, i...
Feb 04, 2011•1 hr 16 min
Here’s an audio interview with Joe Winston who directed, along with his wife Laura Cohen, the documentary adaptation of Thomas Frank’s best-selling book, What’s the Matter With Kansas? Though you might think that this will be a discussion between two commie liberals bashing on heartland folk, that assumption would only be half right, because there’s a lot of introspection here, as well as an analysis of being honest with your subjects. And we tried to take the Creation Museum seriously. Anyway, ...
Jan 24, 2011•41 min
Here’s both a roundtable q+a with 127 Hours director Danny Boyle and an audience q+a recorded after a screening the night before the roundtable was held. There’s a bit of overlap in the 50 total minutes (20 for roundtable, 30 for audience q+a) but considering the audience q+a (which is moderated by Philadelphia Inquirer critic Carrie Rickey) is much longer, Danny gets into more detail. The roundtable includes Sal Cannestra from 215 Magazine, David Onda from Comcast.net, Blaire Flory from Triangl...
Nov 19, 2010•50 min
Here’s a podcast with Chris Morris, the writer/director of the suicide bomber satire, Four Lions . While Morris is not particularly well known in the US, he has a huge following in the UK, where his satirical TV shows like Brass Eye, Nathan Barley, and the surrealist shock comedy Jam , have made quite an impression. And for those who wonder why the notoriously press-shy Morris consented to an interview (he hadn’t volunteered for one in almost 15 years), I certainly asked that question, as well a...
Nov 09, 2010•16 min
Here’s a podcast about the film Conviction with star Sam Rockwell, director Tony Goldwyn, and subject Betty Anne Waters. [You can read a review of the film here .] While this may seem like a normal roundtable podcast , it is not. This is because I recently got a complaint from another reporter that I was using his questions and stealing his soul while he, I, and other journalists were attending a to-be-recorded, public roundtable. This, despite the fact that this person had appeared in many of m...
Oct 20, 2010•26 min
Here’s a podcast with Karl Urban, co-star of the action-comedy Red with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, and Brian Cox (who was also in a 2008 movie named Red ). This is a recording of a conference call between Karl and 3 journalists, including me. It runs quickly and it is short (under 15 minutes). Now, Karl is a professional (he’s probably already done these press tours for Star Trek , Pathfinder, The Chronicles of Riddick , and the two The Lord of the Rings films he...
Oct 07, 2010•15 min
