Feeling Seen

Comedian Glen Tickle says he owes much of his creative live to seeing Kevin Smith's CLERKS when he was in high school. A New Jersey native like Smith (and like the film's characters), Glen didn't just see himself on screen -- he also saw a style of creative expression that felt achievably close-to-home. Now a comedian and father of two, he also felt compelled to shout-out the goofy dad king of modern children's programming, Bandit.

 Then, Jordan has one quick think about Totally Killer.

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Glen Tickle

Actor and director Natasha Halevi was identified as a Wednesday type by others before she saw it in herself. Decades later, she's still channeling Wednesday's wisdom and willingness to speak truth to power, most recently as the driving force behind the abortion rights horror anthology Give Me an A.

Then, Jordan has one quick thing about an Exorcist sequel she actually enjoyed.

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Natasha Halevi

Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins (aka ABFJ) grew up relating to Breanna Barnes, the main character of UPN's sitcom One on One. But she wanted to be living the life of its star, Kyla Pratt. When reality (and Ashley's parents) pushed her acting dreams to post-college, Ashley went to Howard University...but not before bingeing A Different World in hopes of seeing what an HBCU might be like. Now an actor in a college show of her own (and the host of an OWN Podcast), Ashley shares her own trials-to-triumphs tale -- a story full of connections, coincidences...and a lot of hard work. 

Trials to Triumphs is in its second season!

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins

This episode originally aired on Nov 24, 2022  (Thanksgiving Day).  

Sometimes our co-hosts really struggle to come up with a character to discuss for our show. But actor Raúl Castillo (The Inspection, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Looking, and now Cassandro) went with his gut, and what came to mind immediately was The Outsiders, and especially Matt Dillon's character of lead "greaser" Dallas "Dally" Winston. Jordan, Raúl, and you the listener will all learn at the same time just why this character stuck with him all these years. 

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Raúl Castillo

At 24, Megan Suri couldn't have been more than 10 years old when she first laid eyes on Parminder Nagra as Jess in BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM. Here was a girl and a family that resembled her; and Jess was the talented, desired center of her own story. Now, Megan stars in IT LIVES INSIDE, which hits theaters this weekend (9/22/23).

Then, Jordan will have one quick thing about how the Criterion Channel is keeping sleepover horror rolling into October.

Note: IT LIVES INSIDE was granted an interim agreement from SAG, allowing Megan to appear on today's show.  

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Megan Suri

In 2013's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter is a quiet outsider with an active fantasy life but not much of a real life beyond his job. But through the movie (and in service of his work) he embraces a great adventure and grows in the process. Comedian Myq Kaplan relates to both versions of Walter -- the awkward, quiet creative mind and the self-assured, evolved adventurer. And in today's episode, he tells Jordan why.

Then, Jordan has one quick thing about

www.myqkaplan.com

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Myq Kaplan

Actor and comedian Cameron Esposito was in her 20s when BOUND first came to her attention, and to this day it remains not only stuck in her memory, but also extremely formative. Gina Gershon as Corky was undeniably gorgeous while also being unquestionably masc.  It's a pairing that's still relatively rare on screen, almost 30 years after the Wachowskis made BOUND.

Jordan's one quick thing is about the new Taylor concert film, of course!

Listen to QUEERY!

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Cameron Esposito

Sammi Cohen has gotten their directing career off to a rousing start with CRUSH and now YOU ARE SO NOT INVITED TO MY BAT MITZVAH. Both movies focus on middle or high schoolers learning more about themselves, so perhaps its no surprise that Sammi has brought us a trio of characters who, at various ages, are "coming of age" through life-changing experiences of gender, friendship, loss, success, and failure.

Then, Jordan has one quick thing about GIVE ME AN A!

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Sammi Cohen

When Emma Seligman's debut film SHIVA BABY premiered in on a Brooklyn rooftop in 2021, Jordan was there to see the event first-hand. That was arguably the start of a whirlwind of movie deals and news that led straight to BOTTOMS, Seligman's new film, co-written by Rachel Sennott (who stars in both films). On this week's episode, Emma and Jordan talk through that trajectory as they compare notes on Needy Lesnicki, the heroine of one of FEELING SEEN's most beloved texts.

Then, Jordan has one quick thing about 

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Emma Seligman

Stewart Thorndike made a splash with LYLE in 2014, establishing her as an exciting new voice in horror. Her latest film. BAD THINGS, further solidifies this, with its focus squarely on (queer) female characters who aren't afraid to be messy. In Mike Leigh's play ABIGAIL'S PARTY, filmed for television in 1977, Beverly Moss is the life of the party...whether the party wants her to be or not!

Then, Jordan has one quick thing about THEATER CAMP.

BAD THINGS is out on Shudder and MGM+ on August  18, 2023.

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Stewart Thorndike

Director William J. Stribling saw THE BIRDCAGE as a 7 or 8 year old, and it instantly became his favorite, watched on repeat. At its center is director and drag club owner Armand Goldman (or is it Coleman?), played by the incomparable Robin Williams. Decades later, Will is a comedy director himself, whose latest film (full disclosure: it was written by this show's producer, Marissa) is THE MIRROR GAME.

After this conversation, Jordan has one quick thing about another director: past guest Christopher Landon!

Watch THE MIRROR GAME on Tubi, Amazon, or YouTube.

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With Jordan Crucchiola and William J. Stribling

Carter Smith is a queer horror icon, even if all his films aren't highlighting explicitly queer relationships. A master of depicting complex male...friendships?, he continues that trend in his new film, THE PASSENGER. And perhaps that instinct got its start watching Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. Much has been said -- and not all of it in alignment -- about the gay subtext of Freddy's Revenge, and central to that is the performance of Mark Patton as Jesse Walsh, a young man fighting a demon he doesn't understand and can't shake (decades later, Smith would cast Patton in his film  SWALLOWED). Then there's his hunky compatriot, Grady.  All this and more on today's FEELING SEEN.

** THE PASSENGER is out tomorrow On Demand.

Also mentioned in this ep: Scream Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Carter Smith

On her podcast, TV, I SAY WITH ASHLEY RAY, Ashley has no pretentions about good entertainment. But once upon a time, she was a young Bergman scholar (and even, briefly, a beat poet). This entire trajectory of self-examination and unapologetic devotion to her own interests might just have its roots in Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman's 2004 opus, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, and its female lead, Clementine (Kate Winslet).

After that conversation, Jordan has one quick thing about the phenomenon of Barbenheimer.

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Ashley Ray

Manuel Betancourt's new book is called THE MALE GAZED: ON HUNKS, HEARTTHROBS, AND WHAT POP CULTURE TAUGHT ME ABOUT (DESIRING) MEN, but he's feeling seen by two of the brightest stars of '90s and '00s Hollywood. He tells Jordan about what spoke to him in Natalie Portman's Alice from CLOSER (2006, d. Mike Nichols) and Julia Roberts's Jules in MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING  (1997, d. P.J. Hogan). 

Then, Jordan has one quick thing about the ladies of DEAD RECKONING.

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Manuel Betancourt

Jessica St. Clair is a writer and actor who you've definitely seen or heard, be it on her own shows with Lennon Parham (Best Friends Forever, Playing House), countless TV and movie appearances, or on her podcast with June Diane Raphael, The Deep Dive. She and Jordan bond over the messy, weird details of deep best friendship across lots of movies and TV shows, but especially past Feeling Seen favorites Anne of Green Gables (1985), When Harry Met Sally (1989), and Lady Bird (2017).

Then, Jordan has one quick thing about Mission Impossible 7.1

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Jessica St. Clair

This episode originally aired in January 2022.

We were delighted to have actor Isabelle Fuhrman as one of our earliest guests. She may be best known for playing the titular role in the Orphan franchise (and since this interview she's gone on to stun us with Orphan: First Kill); Sheroes  is in theaters now; and she played Clove in the Hunger Games movies.  In this episode, she talks with Jordan about her movie, The Novice (just released at the time of this interview), and how her role in it changed the way she thought about acting, her body, and the very nature of work. 

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Isabelle Fuhrman

In 2001's Two Can Play That Game, Vivica A. Fox plays Shanté Smith, a confident, self-possessed woman who narrates the film by barreling the camera and telling the audience just how it is. A middle-schooler at the time, Shar Jossell (now a journalist and the co-host of We See Each Other: The Podcast), heard Shanté speaking to her in more ways than one. And what she heard changed her life.

That, plus one quick thing about the new movie SHEROES.

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Shar Jossell

Before she was directing movies about iconic figures (becoming something of an icon herself in the process) Mary Harron was a journalist. And before that, she was inspired by characters like Rosalind Russell's Hildy Johnson in HIS GIRL FRIDAY -- a woman who is valued for her incomparable skill and undeniable smarts, who can't quite seem to leave her complicated profession behind for what society deems a more "respectable" life.  Mary's new movie is DALíLAND, in theaters and on demand now.

Then Jordan's got one quick thing about the trailer for the new Luca Guadagnino movie, CHALLENGERS.

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Mary Harron

At just 18, actor Laya DeLeon Hayes already has a decade in film, television, and video games under her belt. She voiced Doc McStuffins, won a BAFTA for God of War Ragnarök, and co-starred with Queen Latifah on The Equalizer. Now she's helming a film of her own in Bomani J. Story's The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, a reimagining of Frankenstein that premiered at SXSW and is now in theaters. She comes to us today with the kind of character she hopes to see more of -- and play more of -- on screen: the fun, awkward, and freely herself Issa Dee on Insecure, as played by the show's creator, Issa Rae.

Then, Jordan has one very quick thing about the new Expendables 4 trailer.

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Laya DeLeon Hayes

Long before becoming a celebrated author of A STAR IS BORED and the newly-released BIG GAY WEDDING, Byron Lane was a small-town Louisiana kid who dreamed of life in the big city. More than dreaming of it, he felt like it was where he was meant to be. Which is why he felt so seen by Bette Midler's switched-at-birth country twin, Sadie Ratliff, in the 1988 Midler & Tomlin comedy BIG BUSINESS.

Then, Jordan has one quick thing about the newly released trailer for GIVE ME AN A!

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With Jordan Crucchiola and Byron Lane