On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Jason Reitman talks with fellow director Karyn Kusama, whose fine new film, The Invitation, is out now. Over the course of their fascinating and intimate conversation, Kusama and Reitman discuss misleading trailers, the impact of TV's golden age on cinema, the pros and cons of test screening, how parenthood affects their approach to filmmaking, the end of the world, and much more. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse Film a...
May 06, 2016•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the new episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, as she winds up the Kickstarter campaign for Axis, her debut feature as director, the multi-talented Aisha Tyler talks with fellow actress-turned-director Amber Tamblyn, whose Paint It Black premieres in June at the LA Film Festival. In their very entertaining and funny conversation, the two discuss their respective paths to the director's chair, great L.A. movies (and Keeping Up with the Kardashians), why Amber is Aisha's "Oreo tit," how Aisha i...
May 03, 2016•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast On a very special new episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, to coincide with the release of Pee-wee's Big Holiday, hip-hop star, actor and longtime Pee-wee Herman fan Kid Cudi is in conversation with Pee-wee himself, Paul Reubens. The topics they talk about include how they first met, Reubens' journey to bring Pee-wee Herman back to the big screen, Cudi's strong dislike of skunks (and recent encounter with a mountain lion), plus a discussion by both of planned creative projects that they've nev...
Apr 21, 2016•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Brandi Carlile was an up-and-coming songwriter, she waited outside the Indigo Girls’ tour bus to meet her heroes. Fast forward a few years, and the Indigo Girls appeared on her 2007 album, The Story. By 2010, young musicians were waiting outside Carlile’s tour bus to meet her — including Mackenzie Scott, a.k.a. Torres. These two women are songwriters with a deep country influence who write lyrics that explore dark feelings — and deliver them like Armageddon is at their heels. They’re also h...
Apr 18, 2016•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast The latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast is a conversation between Ari Shaffir, stand-up comedian and host of Comedy Central's This Is Not Happening, and one of the most recent guests on that show, Artie Lange, best known for The Howard Stern Show and MADtv. In a funny, provocative talk, the two share war stories about their lives as comics, such as Shaffir eating "tarnished" baked goods and receiving death threats for his videos, and Artie doing time in L.A. County Jail, working as a Sa...
Apr 11, 2016•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode of the Talkhouse Music Podcast — our first in a series of live recordings at New York’s Samsung 837 space — is a Broadway takeover. It features Hedwig and the Angry Inch co-creator and star John Cameron Mitchell in conversation with Javier Muñoz, who starred in In the Heights and is currently Lin-Manuel Miranda’s alternate in the runaway smash hit hip-hop musical, Hamilton. These two truly believe musical theater can change lives and push society forward; their lives, and this talk,...
Mar 30, 2016•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, stand-up comedy hero and Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani talks with Michael Showalter about his new movie, Hello, My Name is Doris (in which Nanjiani has a small role). As well as that film, the two longtime friends discuss their first collaboration, the differing paths their careers have taken, Showalter's tremendous love of money, the practical joke that former colleague Jessi Klein is still mad about, their upcoming movie together, and ...
Mar 28, 2016•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, filmmaker, prolific screenwriter Max Landis — whose first film as director, Me Him Her, is out now — talks with one of his favorite filmmakers, Joe Dante. In a wide-ranging, rapid-fire conversation, Landis and the Gremlins director discuss Max's corny '80s movie-style altruism, the ultimate screenwriter tattoo, fake film announcements, the death of big movies with personality, and much more, including Landis' awesome pitch for a reboot of Grem...
Mar 24, 2016•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, filmmaker, actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead marks the release of her new movie, 10 Cloverfield Lane, by sitting down with Togetherness star Melanie Lynskey. Over the course of a frank and entertaining conversation, the two discuss everything from the inevitable insecurities that come from watching yourself on screen, to improvisation, their beginnings in the film business, the perils of making audition tapes, and their differing approaches to t...
Mar 10, 2016•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast The latest episode is the first in a series of podcasts brought to you by Talkhouse Film and Soho House, with whom we are teaming up to curate a regular series of special advance screenings followed by a conversation between the director and another filmmaker. Here, Re-Animator director (and regular Talkhouse Film contributor) Stuart Gordon talks with Robert Eggers, director of the horror phenomenon The Witch, with the two touching on such topics as the influence of Kubrick and silent cinema, th...
Feb 18, 2016•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, filmmaker, photographer and author Alix Lambert talks with her friend of almost 30 years, Fred Armisen. In a lively, wide-ranging conversation, the two touch upon such subjects as their mutual love of Bitmoji and airport texting, why Fred insisted The Wizard of Oz was a documentary to Alix's CalArts class, the incredible story surrounding Fred's half-brother's mother and the Stasi, and, of course, Portlandia, Documentary Now and his upcoming S...
Feb 03, 2016•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, in a special conversation recorded after a screening of Laurie Anderson's documentary Heart of a Dog, the acclaimed musician, artist and filmmaker talks onstage with fellow New York director Darren Aronofsky, best known for his films Pi, Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan. The pair discuss Anderson's new film, which ponders questions of love, death and language, and touch on such other diverse subjects as Herman Melville's discussions with his...
Jan 26, 2016•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2000, Tunde Adebimpe and Dave Sitek formed TV on the Radio, one of the most creative, inspired and influential bands of their era. Fifteen years, five albums and a whole lot of ups and downs later, they've still managed to preserve that energy and vision. Which is pretty remarkable. Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Ruban Nielson has also sustained a very long creative streak. He'd played guitar in a hard-edged New Zealand post-hardcore band called the Mint Chicks, and when that ended, he found hims...
Dec 02, 2015•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you come out of the indie community and you make synth-based music, you owe a huge debt to an iconic duo called Suicide. In fact, if you come out of the indie community at all, you owe a huge debt to Suicide. Starting in New York’s East Village in the early ’70s, Suicide were confrontational, tough, and absolutely visionary, and they were one of the first punk rock bands. But they had no guitars: it was just Martin Rev on cheap electric keyboards and drum machines, and notorious singer Alan V...
Nov 25, 2015•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, Academy Award nominee J.C. Chandor, the director of Margin Call and All is Lost, is in conversation with Borderline Films' Josh Mond, a producer turned writer-director whose debut feature, James White, is out now. The two friends discuss Mond's personal and professional path to this semi-autobiographical film inspired by his own experiences with his late mother as she battled cancer, while their chat also touches on: Mond's aborted first featu...
Nov 16, 2015•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lil BUB is a tiny, very special cat from outer space who has been an internet star since 2011, when her "dude" — recording studio owner Mike Bridavsky — posted some photos of her on Tumblr. She's been the subject of an award-winning documentary, she's the author of Lil BUB’s Lil Book: The Extraordinary Life of the Most Amazing Cat on the Planet and she hosts Lil BUB's Big Show, a web-based talk show. And on December 4th, 2015, BUB will release her debut album Science and Magic. The music was com...
Nov 11, 2015•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lil BUB is a tiny, very special cat from outer space who has been an internet star since 2011, when her "dude" — recording studio owner Mike Bridavsky — posted some photos of her on Tumblr. She's been the subject of an award-winning documentary, she's the author of Lil BUB’s Lil Book: The Extraordinary Life of the Most Amazing Cat on the Planet and she hosts Lil BUB's Big Show, a web-based talk show. And on December 4th, 2015, BUB will release her debut album Science and Magic. The music was com...
Nov 11, 2015•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sleater-Kinney singer-guitarist and Portlandia co-star Carrie Brownstein has published a critically acclaimed memoir, the candid, moving and eloquent Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. And to kick off her book tour, she sat down and had a great conversation with another acclaimed musician-author, the Roots' Questlove, on October 27th, 2015 at St. Vitus, the beloved metal bar in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. The event was produced by the very cool WORD bookstore mini-chain, with stores in Green...
Nov 04, 2015•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, two of contemporary cinema’s most controversial, boundary-pushing directors are in conversation. From New York City, Gaspar Noé – whose new film, the pornographic 3D romance Love, is now out in theaters – chats with Abel Ferrara, a fellow scourge of the censors, who is currently living in Rome. Over the course of their highly entertaining talk, the pair discusses such topics as censorship, having their movies banned, what’s sexy in Saudi Arabi...
Nov 03, 2015•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast JG Thirlwell came out of the early ’80s New York underground scene and, under multiple pseudonyms that all had the word “foetus” in them, made lots of intense albums that evoke what AllMusicGuide has called “a harrowing netherworld of death, lust, disease and decay.” You can hear the Foetus influence in bands like Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. Over the years, Thirlwell broadened his musical scope to the point where he is now an acclaimed new music composer, as well writing scores for film and te...
Oct 28, 2015•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, in conversation are two former actors who are now two of the funniest and liveliest writer-directors in the U.S. indie sphere. Lynn Shelton, best known for her movies Humpday, Your Sister's Sister and Laggies, chats with the impishly provocative Bobcat Goldthwait, whose new film, the excellent documentary Call Me Lucky, reveals yet another facet of his creative personality. In their talk, they discuss their work in detail and also touch on su...
Oct 27, 2015•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Back when they were in college in the late '80s, Laura Cantrell and Mac McCaughan were in a band called Bricks. That band didn't get very far, but Laura went on to become an acclaimed country singer-songwriter hailed by the likes of Elvis Costello and legendary BBC DJ John Peel. Mac soon founded Superchunk, who went on to 26 years (and counting) of indie-rock glory, as well as co-founding the phenomenally successful Merge Records. Even though Laura and Mac have taken different musical paths, the...
Oct 21, 2015•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast El-P, legendary hip-hop producer and half of the celebrated rap duo Run the Jewels, and acclaimed new singer, rapper, songwriter, producer, musician and filmmaker Boots (Beyoncé, FKA twigs, Run the Jewels), sat down and recorded a Talkhouse Music Podcast while they were on tour, backstage at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They talked about lots of things: their jazz-musician dads, the creative value of sampling, drugs and music, the internet’s fascination with cats, their doomsday scenarios...
Oct 14, 2015•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this new episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, two highly original and idiosyncratic British writer-directors are in conversation: Ben Wheatley and Alex Cox. In addition to their new projects (the current festival hit High-Rise and the multi-perspective Western Tombstone Rashomon, respectively), the two email friends discuss numerous movie-related topics, from their favorite portmanteau films and the difference between Charlie Kaufman and Charlton Heston, to the forgotten genius of Peter Wat...
Oct 06, 2015•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast The iconic multimedia artist Laurie Anderson always has two or three projects going at any one time, and aside from her acclaimed new feature film Heart of a Dog, she’s unveiling an installation and performance called Habeas Corpus, which takes place at the cavernous Park Avenue Armory in New York, October 2nd through 4th, 2015. Among Anderson’s collaborators on the show are the great Syrian singer Omar Souleyman, ace multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily and Anderson’s partner in this Talkhouse...
Sep 29, 2015•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast If there's a running theme in London neo-post-punk band Art Brut's rock music, it's rock music. The band's leader Eddie Argos isn't just a musician, he's a big-time music fan. And one of the musicians he's a big fan of is indie-pop sensation Ezra Furman, whose new album Perpetual Motion People takes inspiration from brilliant, nasal auteurs such as Bob Dylan, the Violent Femmes and Jonathan Richman to make smart, heartfelt music. But his songs are all over the map: sure, it's indie-pop, but he w...
Sep 22, 2015•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hiss Golden Messenger’s most recent album Lateness of Dancers came out in the autumn of 2014, and found frontman M.C. Taylor’s songwriting process still evolving. He obviously thinks a lot about the craft and inspiration involved, so it’s no surprise that the songwriting process was the main thing he talked about with My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James in this edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast My Morning Jacket brings in some disparate outside influences — prog-rock and disco, for instanc...
Sep 16, 2015•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast This edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast features Fred Thomas, longtime mainstay of the beloved, idiosyncratic lo-fi indie-pop band Saturday Looks Good to Me, with musician, motivational speaker, producer, nightclub impresario, advice columnist, and TV and radio host Andrew WK. It's a little-known fact that Mr. Thomas and Mr. WK go back a long way — 20 years, to when they were teenagers in the very weird and wild Ann Arbor, Michigan underground music scene. They're still good friends, and WK ...
Sep 15, 2015•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this latest episode of the Talkhouse Film podcast, writer-director Allison Anders talks with her mentor, iconic German filmmaker Wim Wenders, on the occasion of Wenders' new touring film series. In their fascinating and wide-ranging conversation, the two old friends talk about a possible sequel to Paris, Texas, why Wenders didn't direct True Detective, how Until the End of the World presciently anticipated everything from GPS to search engines to selfie culture – and also a lot of stuff about...
Sep 09, 2015•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast This edition of the Talkhouse Music Podcast features two of the more acclaimed new singer-songwriters of 2015: Jessica Pratt and Tobias Jesso, Jr. Both musicians have deep roots in the sounds of the '70s, but two very different sides of the '70s. Jesso's piano-driven debut album Goon evokes superstar '70s singer-songwriters like John Lennon, Carole King, Harry Nilsson and Elton John. But Pratt's latest album On Your Own Love Again channels a very different, much more obscure side of the Me Decad...
Sep 01, 2015•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
