Cinephilia

What is the most watched Christmas movie of all time? I don't know but I'm willing to bet Bob Clark and Jean Shepherd's coming of age tale that is celebrating 25 year of 24 marathons is pretty high on that list. Travel back to 1940 and to the childhood Christmas memories of Mike and Trevor as they review A Christmas Story and relate it to their own upbrings and favorite Christmas memories but don't worry, no one shot their eye out!

“General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.”

Kicking off our Christmas series of films, Trevor brings in one of his favorite Christmas and romantic comedies,  the insanely stacked, star studded 2003 English classic, Love Actually. 

What's your favorite Thanksgiving movie? If you didn't say Planes, Trains and Automobiles, then what movie are you thinking of because it's the only Thanksgiving movie that matters. Unless you count Rocky with that one scene Pauly throws the turkey out the front door. The late great John Candy and comedy legend Steve Martin give the greatest comedic performances of their careers in John Hughes' buddy road trip comedy based on events he experienced. It's time to buy your kids a chocolate turkey, take a scenic cab ride through Wichita, Kansas and put your hand between two pillows. Gobble Gobble, you're f***ed!

 “People wanna live like this in their cars and big fuckin' houses they can't even pay for, then you're necessary. The only reason that they all get to continue living like kings is cause we got our fingers on the scales in their favor. I take my hand off and then the whole world gets really fuckin' fair really fuckin' quickly and nobody actually wants that. They say they do but they don't. They want what we have to give them but they also wanna, you know, play innocent and pretend they have no idea where it came from. Well, thats more hypocrisy than I'm willing to swallow, so fuck em. Fuck normal people”

If you’re into hearing amazingly written (and spoken) dialog including some of the above monologue, then have we got a movie for you! It’s 2011’s factually accurate, thinly disguised housing/financial crisis drama, Margin call. 

What is the most controversial movie of all time? It might be some of the films we've already talked about but Walt Disney's post Civil War live action/animation hybrid Song of the South is definitely part of the conversation. It hasn't been released theatrically in the states since 1986, before some of us were born. Does it deserve to remain in the Disney Vault like images from Fantasia, The Rescuers and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Or should it be widely available for the public to decide?

Tune in as Mike and Trevor discuss the problematic nature of Joel Chandler Harris' tales of the south, Walt Disney's history with and surrounding the film and how it led to one of Disneyland's most beloved attractions.

Warning!! The following episode involves several serious and ugly topics including slavery and racism. If you're looking for a more whimsical Disney review, unfortunately you'll have to look somewhere else.

“You're afraid to dive into the plasma pool, aren't you? You're afraid to be destroyed and recreated, aren't you? I'll bet you think that you woke me up about the flesh, don't you? But you only know society's straight line about the flesh. You can't penetrate beyond society's sick, gray, fear of the flesh. Drink deep, or taste not, the plasma spring! Y'see what I'm saying? And I'm not just talking about sex and penetration. I'm talking about penetration beyond the veil of the flesh! A deep penetrating dive into the plasma pool!”

If you’re not afraid to dive, and dive deep into the pool, then listen in as we dissect David Cronenberg’s 1986 body horror classic, The Fly! 

“Well... you know Doc, when something happens it can leave a trace of itself behind. Say like... it's when someone burns toast. When some things happen, it can leave other traces behind. Not things anyone can notice, but things that only people with shine can see. Just like they can see things that haven't happened yet, sometimes they can see things that happened a long time ago. I think a lot of things happened in this particular hotel over the years... and not all of them was good.”

Join Mike and Trevor as they explore room 237 and many other things relating to one of the scariest movies ever made, Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, The Shining. 

"You want to put some kind of explanation down here before you leave? Here's one as good as any you're likely to find: We're being punished by the Creator. He visited a curse on us. So man could look at...what Hell was like. Maybe he didn't want to see us blow ourselves up, put a big hole in the sky. Maybe he just wanted to show us he's still boss man. Maybe he figure we getting too big for our britches, tryin to figure his shit out."

It's the Gone With The Wind of zombie movies, Okay?

It's 1985's Day of the Dead!

For this week's episode, we bring you the documentary that showed us that vampires are people too, with real thoughts, emotions and needs. If you've ever been curious about how a 900 year old vampire would navigate the internet, then this episode discussing "What We Do In The Shadows" is for you.

We asked Tyler to write an episode description...we're still waiting.

In our continuing "Movies That We Loved" series, Mike and Trevor will be discussing arguably one of the greatest film noirs of all time. Who are we arguing with? What are we arguing about? Why it's the 1997 Curtis Hanson crime drama masterpiece, LA Confidential, of course! Listen in for some backstory on the book, real life characters contained within the movie and some major differences between the book and the movie. Oh and we'll be giving our ratings if you care about that sort of thing.

The weirdest of Als has made only one movie and it failed miserably at the box office. But after 3 decades and thousands of Twinkie Weiner Sandwiches, UHF has become a cult classic amongst polka and non polka fans alike. So the real challenge is now. Will 1989's absurdist comedy UHF fail with Mike and Trevor like it did 33 years ago or will is soar like so many poodles?

When does the good guy become the bad guy? When is revenge enough? How much pain can one person inflict on another? All good questions but not as good as the question of why do Korean directors make better films than 78.23% of American directors?

Let's watch and discuss 2010's I Saw The Devil and find out!

TRIGGER WARNING!!!
Please be aware that during this episode we discuss disturbing and graphic incidents that occur in the movie. This movie and episode will not be for everyone. But I guess the same goes for every episode we do. :)

On this week's episode, we discuss a brilliant film with one of the most deceiving titles in movie history. Join us for an episode filled with drugs, music, dance, sex and a not so thinly veiled commentary on death. IT'S SHOWTIME, FOLKS!! It's ALL THAT JAZZ!

"In all the history of the boxing game, you'll find no human interest story to compare with the life narrative of James J Braddock"

For this week's episode, we discuss one of Trevor's top boxing movies of all time, Cinderella Man.

Have you ever wanted to know what living in Los Angeles is like to people who weren't born in LA? On today's episode, we'll discuss the Go-To Guide for solving back masking, underground, secret message hiding, the end of the world serial killing/disappearance mysteries. Also known as the 2018 surrealist neo noir, Under the Silver Lake.

This one's for you, Rick!

We’re baaaaaaaaack!
After a longer than anticipated absence, we’re back to our regularly schedule program with a discussion of the 1996 under-appreciated Tom hanks film, That Thing You Do! join us as we discuss one of the examples of why Tom Hanks is the best human ever. We may even discover the answer the age old question: “I wonder what happened to the Oneders?”

We decided to change things up and try something new...ish for this upcoming episode. For our semi-regularly newest “format”, we will be discussing films that we both know and both love deeply.

And what better film to start with than the 1976 Scorsese masterpiece, Taxi Driver?

Learn our true feelings, our introductions (the full one for Trevor’s scarring intro to the movie) and our overall ratings for what many consider to be one of the greatest films ever made.