Substackers Against Nazis
Hi readers—Below is a letter to the Substack founders that I helped draft as part of a group of publishers seeking answers to questions about the platforming...
First Thoughts on 'Lagaan'
John and Janet Pierson are our guests on this week’s show and they’re genuinely inspiring stalwarts of smart, weird, and (above all) independent cinema....
Bonus Episode: "John and Janet Pierson's Fiji Year"
For the first of our hiatus bonus episodes, we’re proud to welcome back one of the season’s most popular guests: indie guru John Pierson, who joined us back...
Episode 52: A Very Good Year of "A Very Good Year"
We wrap up our first season — a full year of shows — in true season finale fashion: with a super-sized clip show, featuring some of our favorite segments...
Extra Credit Reading for 1935
If you want to read more of Mr. Maltin, boy oh boy do you have options. Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide stop publishing in 2015, but here’s the final edition;...
Bonus Episode: 1935 After Show
In this week’s bonus episode, we continue to geek out about getting Leonard Maltin on the show, go long on the Marx Brothers, and do a bit of season wrap-up.
Headlines for 1935
On January 12th, Amelia Earhart flew from Hawaii to California, the first person to make the flight solo. Maybe even more important - also in January the...
Episode 51: 1935 with Leonard Martin
When Jessie Maltin — Leonard’s daughter and the co-host of his “Maltin on Movies” podcast — mentioned to me in a DM that “you should have my dad on your...
Extra Credit Reading for 1984
This week’s primary piece of recommended reading is, of course, our guest Matt Singer’s new book Opposable Thumbs: How Sickle & Ebert Changed Movies Forever,...
Bonus Episode: 1984 After Show
This week, we follow up our Siskel & Ebert-centered episode with Jason’s memories of his introduction to Gene and Roger (and, through them, to film criticism...
Headlines for 1984
January 10 - the United States and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations for the first time. Apparently the Catholics had been too anti-war for our...
Episode 50: 1984 with Matt Singer
Matt Singer is a film critic, entertainment journalist, and author — and his latest book is a real treat for all you nerds who listen to this nerdy show....
Extra Credit Reading for 1990
I promise I didn't mean to make shit dark when I mentioned the Mandela Effect, but I realized it might come off like that if you don’t know about it. So...
Bonus Episode: 1990 After Show
We had to lose so much great stuff from this week's episode with guest Joe Lynch that we decided to lead off this week's bonus episode with a bunch of...
Headlines for 1990
January 31 - Buchwald v. Paramount Pictures Corp. (the Coming to America lawsuit) is decided - a key case in the public awareness of “Hollywood accounting.”...
Episode 49: 1990 with Joe Lynch
Joe Lynch is a genre director extraordinaire - his credits include Wrong Turn 2, Everly, Mayhem, Point Blank, and his latest, the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation...
Extra Credit Reading for 1973
If you’d like to know more about Secretariat - and really, why wouldn’t you? - here’s a nice overview on ESPN, though we shouldn’t be surprised to find that...
Bonus Episode: 1973 After Show
On this week’s bonus episode - our longest to date! - we begin with a show outtake of guest Jason Diamond going long on his history with Long Goodbye star...
Headlines for 1973
1973 got going straight away - January 20 Richard Nixon became the only person to ever be sworn in as both Vice President and President twice. Booooooo....
Episode 48: 1973 with Jason Diamond
Jason Diamond is one of our favorite writers, and not just because of his quality prose — it’s because he’s an expert and an enthusiast, about everything...
Extra Credit Reading for 1922
First things first: here’s all three parts of the Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow documentary that we discuss in both the main show and the bonus...
Bonus Episode: 1922 After Show
Seriously, we’ll take any excuse to talk about Buster Keaton, and how we found him, and why we love him. Plus more on this year’s top five, and some thoughts...
Headlines for 1922
Jan 11 is the first successful treatment of diabetes with insulin, which my pops has needed three times a day for more than 50 years, so that is literally...
Episode 47: 1922 with Monica Castillo
Writer, film critic, programmer, and curator Monica Castillo gave herself a challenge for this week’s show: she picked, by a good stretch, the earliest year...
Extra Credit Reading for 1992
If you liked hearing Kristy talk about her Top Five on this week’s show, good news: you can read her epic piece on Death Becomes Her for Vanity Fair here and...
Documentary Corner: 1992's 'Lessons of Darkness'
I was born in 1976, so I grew up in the age of spanking. It was not applied liberally. In fact my sisters were never spanked, not because of a gender...
1992 after show
On this week’s after show, Jason and Mike talk about Jason’s first video store year, Glengarry and Reservoir Dogs, Malcolm X, Midori, Baraka, a memory of...
Headlines for 1992
In January Yugoslavia started breaking up, with Slovenia and Croatia gaining independence as the former Soviet Bloc continued to fall apart. Serbia and...
Episode 46: 1992 with Kristy Puchko
Kristy Puchko — film critic, entertainment reporter, and the film editor at Mashable — was nine years old in 1992, and was probably entirely too young to see...
Extra Credit Reading for 2005
If you liked hearing Alissa’s Top Five this week, good news: she’s written about both Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and The Death of Mr....
Bonus Episode: 2005 After Show
On this week’s bonus show, we go deeper into the movies of 2005, Mike tells his War of the Worlds story, we complain more about the 2005 Oscars and dirty...
Headlines for 2005
2005 started annoyingly when George W Bush was sworn in for his second term and promised to send a bunch more people to Iraq to kill and die! He was awful,...
Episode 45: 2005 with Alissa Wilkinson
Alissa Wilkinson - senior correspondent and critic at Vox - was just out of college in 2005 and, when the year began, she had not yet decided to devote her...
First Thoughts on 'In the Mouth of Madness'
In the Mouth of Madness came at a weird moment for John Carpenter. His most recent feature, 1992’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man, had been an unsuccessful...
1994 After Show
In this week’s bonus episode, Jason and Mike talk about where they were at in 1994 (in college, kinda-sorta making a movie), the considerable impact of Pulp...
Headlines for 1994
January 1st - the NAFTA agreement comes online and the Zapatista movement starts in Mexico in protest - let’s fkn go. Also in January Bill Clinton and Boris...
Episode 44: 1994 with Scott Wampler
Scott Wampler had his 13-year-old brain entirely re-arranged by a movie he saw in 1994, so he joins us to talk about how that happened, and what else he saw...
Documentary Corner: 1986's 'Big Fun in the Big Town'
One thing has been clear for almost 40 years - LL Cool J is a star. “I don’t rap about problems, you know. I don’t rap about the ghetto or nothing like...
Bonus Episode: 1986 After Show
On this week’s bonus episode, Jason and Mike go long on some of their favorite HBO (and VHS) standbys of 1986—including Color of Money, Nothing in Common,...
Headlines for 1986
January marked a defining moment for kids raised on Space Camp pamphlets - the Challenger shuttle exploded after takeoff killing all seven people on board....
Episode 43: 1986 with Ty Burr
Ty Burr was the film critic for the Boston Globe for two decades, before departing that post to start up the must-read Substack newsletter Ty Burr’s...
First Thoughts on "The Old Dark House"
There’s a reason James Whale is the most revered of the Universal Horror directors, and those reasons are on full display in The Old Dark House, one of Sarah...
Bonus Episode: 1932 After Show
This week’s bonus episode includes a nice, long discussion - cut from the main show purely for time - in which our guest Sarah Bea Milner breaks down the...
Headlines for 1932
On January 4 the Brits arrested Vallabhbhai Patel and Mahatma Gandhi for being uppity essentially, so they never had to deal with that guy again On January...
Episode 42: 1932 with Sarah Bea Milner
This week, we’re joined by Sarah Bea Milner, our first writer/editor/folk musician! She is currently the editor at Kidscreen, and she has bylines at Polygon,...
First Thoughts on "Clueless"
I didn’t see Clueless when it came out because I didn’t care about Amy Heckerling or reimagining Jane Austen or getting a jump on the career of Paul Rudd....
First Thoughts on "Billy Madison"
Okay, first of all, yes, gasp, I’d never watched Billy Madison. There’s a very simple explanation for this: I’m a fucking snob. Well, in fairness to myself,...
Bonus Episode: 1995 After Show
On this week’s bonus episode, Jason and Mike delve into a decades-long conflict: Casino or Goodfellas? Plus, some thoughts on our evolving feelings on one...
Headlines for 1995
In January Valeri Polyakov completed 366 days aboard the Mir space station, the longest anyone had lived off the earth to that point. He would go home in...
Episode 41: 1995 with Sammi Cohen
This week, we’re pleased to welcome director, writer, and comedian Sammi Cohen, whose queer high school love triangle rom-com Crush (which is WONDERFUL)...