We sit down with film historian Joseph McBride to discuss George Cukor's 1944 film, Gaslight. We discuss Cukor's reputation among the great studio directors, his skill working with actors, the social and political dimensions of the film, including what makes diagnosing and resisting gaslighting so challenging. After you listen, you should read Joseph's book on Cukor ! Follow us on Blue Sky! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless!...
Cars, men, masculinity, westerns, scorpions, frogs, wanderers, conservative values, violence, very hot people, and more... it's Nicholas Winding Refn's DRIVE with Roxana Hadadi! Follow us on Twitter and Bluesky and Instagram ! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless !...
Join us and Matt Strohl (Philosophy, Montana) to live from Song to Song and discuss Terence Malick, genuine freedom, the challenges of dealing with aesthetic dismissal, the value of "difficult" art, family, situated abstractionism, art and commerce, temptation, regret, second chances, and much more! Buy Matt's new book, Hard to Watch !...
We get crazy with the flesh with Becca Rothfeld (The Washington Post) discussing David Cronenberg's 1986 film THE FLY. We discuss erotic transformation, de-evolution, gothic horror, mind/body interactions, Veronica's many excellent fits, inside-out baboons, and much more! Buy All Things are Too Small! Follow us on Twitter! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless!...
Death becomes HER?! What does this title even mean? We get into that and more with Sean O'Connell (Managing Editor for @CinemaBlend and co-host of @ReelBlend ). What is this film's ideological stance on the pursuit of beauty? We dig into that. What makes this film a queer masterpiece? Where does it fit into Bruce Willis's career? Who wore it (death) better -- Goldie or Meryl? 💀...
We are joined by Emily St. James to discuss Jane Schoenbrun's excellent sophomore outing. We discuss transformative experiences, leaps of faith, egg cinema, kissing on the astral plane, nostalgia and the specialness of inaccessibility, and (if that's not enough) why we do this podcast at all! It's a very special episode, and we want to hear what you thought about the film! Email us at cowspod@gmail.com! Follow us on Twitter! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless!...
In space, no one can hear you deepfake a dead actor into your movie! We're joined by Scout Tafoya to talk Alien: Romulus. We discuss the film's thematic resonances with the Alien franchise, immigration, the fear of undifferentiation, psychoanalytic readings of the alien, human/android relationships, orphans in space, and go on many long rants about the state of movies and artificial intelligence. Join us! Follow us on Twitter! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless!...
We are joined by Aaron Casias and Carly Gomes of Hit Factory to discuss William Hurt's first film, Ken Russell's wild and delirious Altered States! We discuss solipsism, God, losing faith, hallucinogens, academia, and why regressing into an ape form might be many conservatives ultimate fantasy. Follow us on Twitter! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless!...
We sit down with Katey Rich (The Ankler) to discuss Ridley Scott's macho film about two women's goodbye middle finger to the patriarchy. We discuss the film's radical rejection of stereotypical gender norms, the female gaze, women being friends, why Christopher McDonald is the funniest person ever, and whether Brad Pitt robs convenience stores shirtless or clothed. Come drive off a cliff with us! Follow us on Twitter! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless!...
Crimewave summer continues with Sofia Coppola's film about celebrity thieves! We discuss the movie in the context of Coppola's filmography, her artistic motivations and the creative aspirations of the criminals the movie is about, criminal deniability, and, of course, Leslie Mann! It's all fun and games until someone gets a reality tv show. Follow us on Twitter! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless!...
DePalma, Stone, Pacino, Montana. We are joined by Glenn Kenny (author of The World is Yours: The Story of Scarface ) to discuss excess, capitalism, happiness, tigers, sunken bathtubs, cocaine economics, and also the movie Scarface! Is it "Scar-face" or "Scarf-ace"? Who knows! Join us!...
The guys from Die Hard on a Blank are here to kick off CRIMEWAVE SUMMER and talk all things John Dillinger with us! Crime doesn't pay, but it sure is sexy, ain't it? We unpack several themes of the film: encroaching modernity, the birth of modern celebrity, looking to the past through the lens of the present. Also, we explore the magical look of the movie, due in large part to its unique use of digital cinematography (decreased dynamic range, 360 shutter angle, low light sensitivity). Ch...
Let us all worship at the Church of Baseball! We are joined to talk Bull Durham by Noah Gittell , author of the recent book Baseball: The Movie. We discuss the film's love of the game, its exploration of life after retirement, parenthood, expiration dating, learning how to breathe out of our eyelids, Annie Savoy's timeless style, and Laura's newfound crush, Kevin Costner. Buy Baseball: The Movie! Follow us on Twitter! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless!...
Let's get it started, in the TUB! We sit down with Mitchell Beaupre (Letterbox'd) to discuss male friendship, regrets, the allure of youth, reliving our best and worst days, the comic genius of Crispin Glover, and what happened in Cincinnati! Follow Mitchell on Twitter! Follow us on Twitter! Buy a cows shirt on Threadless!...
What's a moody anti-Western got to do with mythmaking, outlaws, celebrity, bold robbers, parasocial relationships, betrayal, guilt, capitalism, Roger Deakins, Brad Pitt, and Casey Affleck? A lot, it turns out! Join us and Edward Lewis to explore the contours of Andrew Dominik's retelling of the end of Jesse James' life. We on Twitter! We on the web!...
Nicolas Cage has been on a run of making several movies a year for decades now, and Sympathy for the Devil is one of his latest experiments, a pulpy chamber piece road trip mystery suspense film co-starring Joel Kinnaman. We sit down with the film's director Yuval Adler (who also happened to get his PhD in philosophy from Columbia in the 90s!) and welcome back Matt Strohl (Philosophy, U. Montana) to discuss the film's inception, what it is like to work with Cage, how the film holds us in...
Today we explore the dark recesses of the human soul with Agnes Callard (Chicago). We discuss von Trier's minimalist staging, the movie's parable, the duality of human nature, the lies we tell ourselves and others, the film's political angle, and the role of anger in response to true evil. Cows on Twitter!...
John Milius's 1984 film Red Dawn has a reputation as being a jingoistic conservative fever dream, but we talk with Nat Hansen, who argues that its political outlook is more complex and more interesting. Along the way, we also discuss the film's portrayal of masculinity, the toll of war, the film's many references, from The Battle of Algiers to Alexander Nevsky. Follow us on Twitter: @cowspod Buy a t-shirt or mug: cowspod.threadless.com...
We go BACK to Arrakis, desert planet, homeworld of the spice and the Fremen and keeper of Shai Hulud. We're joined again for the journey by major spice-head John DeVore to discuss Villeneuve's two films in relation to Lynch's 1984 version and Frank Herbert's book. Along the way, we consider the worm Uber, the possibility of bad trips with the Water of Life, the lack of St. Alia of the Knife, the deliberate backgrounding of the more mystical elements of the novel, and the film'...
Join us and critic Sean Burns to give out silly meaningless awards to our favorite films of 2023! Who will take home the top prize? Who will win best lisp? Tune in to find out!
We are joined by Fran Hoepfner (BW/DR, Fran Magazine) to experience the triumph and tragedy of the Von Erich family. We discuss wrestling (duh), Zac, brothers, fathers, bodies, cults, the American political circus, all while trying to figure out our wrestling names and signature moves.
Take the plunge with us and Veronica Fitzpatrick (BW/DR, Brown University) as we explore the moral complexities of narratives, relationships, and justice. Justice for Sandra? Justice for Samuel? Tune in to find out!
We're joined by two philosophers of art to discuss how they've helped each other come to a greater appreciation for this quirky but lovable entry into the Fast and Furious franchise. We discuss how art can change depending on the context in which it is embedded, and the ways the franchise could have gone after this film. We also compare notes on the different ways we've come to appreciate this film over time. This episode is sponsored by The Art of the Trailer . Learn how to become a...
The cows look back on 2023 with a Cows in the Field super-quiz -- how many questions can you get right?? Then, we reprise our Blair Witch episode, wherein we explore why the Blair Witch Project was the tenth highest grossing movie of 1999, why it took so long for Hollywood to capitalize on found footage horror, the nature of horror itself and why we desire to be horrified, as well as what makes the Blair Witch Project so especially horrifying.
Join us and Emily St. James to discuss Fred Claus (streaming now on Max)! We marvel at the film's strange and unnecessarily complicated backstory about the cosmology of sainthood, discuss Santa Claus's moral epistemology, elf-yourself levels of CGI, why everyone deserves a second chance, and somehow spend five minutes discussing the phenomenon of "ugly hot".
Time to get HUSH HUSH with Blake Howard ( One Heat Minute Productions ). Noir, moral compromise, postwar LA, the American Dream, police, the LAPD, Dante FREAKING Spinotti, and MORE!
Joe is going to die. But he has a chance to be a hero, and live like a king. Only, that means he'll have to jump into a volcano. Is Joe's story all of ours? We sit down with Chad Perman (Founder of Bright Wall / Dark Room ) to dig into what makes this zany, existential, transcendent, hilarious, slapstick, profound movie so good. Along the way, we discuss the Kantian sublime, Heidegger's notion of being-toward-death, the meaning of life, and flibbertigibbets! Before the episode, you&#...
"The smaller the audience, the bigger the history." So, at least, said Tony Wilson, co-founder of Factory Records and larger than life character at the center of Michael Winterbottom's 2002 punk pseudo-music-doc, our topic today! We are joined by Professor of Italian Studies at Boston College to explore the pull of nostalgia, anticipated retrospection, how the film's blend of fact/fiction/and legend reflects the mythmaking of its protagonist, and, of course, the music duh! What...
James Cameron's terrifying and overwhelming sequel ALIENS is a rollercoaster that Roger Ebert called "absolutely, painfully and unremittingly intense." We sit down with Brendan Hodges to explore the film's power over us, what all that goo and slime means, the film's anti-bureaucratic "strong individualist" conservatism and second wave feminist ideology, its use of space in allegorical and punishingly literal ways... and so much more. GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER!...
It's just us for our one hundredth episode talking Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides! We hit all the good stuff: suburban malaise, fear, control, parenting, childhood, Trip Fontaine's hair, memory, privacy, the joys of human connection, first loves, and Kathleen Turner!
