The Criterinot Podcast

Criterinot is the podcast where I, Graydon Sheppard, am joined by a guest to talk about a movie that we love that is NOT in The Criterion Collection. Season 2 will premiere on Thursday, September 30th 2021. 

Aleysa "Best Quality Crab" Young, director of Baroness von Sketch Show, Workin' Moms, Cavendish, and the upcoming New Eden joins me to talk about the tearjerker that is The Joy Luck Club. 1993's Chinese-American answer to Steel Magnolias is heartbreaking in the best way. There are poisoned sticky dumplings, family secrets, concubines, curses, Lubriderm, moles, thousand-yard-stares, and even Ross's girlfriend Julie from Friends! 

In a Criterinot first I let my guest, the wonderful Martha Kelly, choose a movie I'd never seen before. This week we talked about 2007’s Alvin and the Chipmunks. The original, NOT the squeakquel. We get into David Cross’s feelings about being in the movie, hamsters with huge balls, eating poo, divorce, loss, Martha’s role in Marriage Story, and much more in this very special episode of the pod.

Gird your loins. Quintuple-threat Brian Jordan Alvarez (Will & Grace, Special, Get Shorty, The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo) sits down with me to talk about my favorite "sick day" movie, The Devil Wears Prada.

Kirsten "Kiwi" Smith, the co-writer of The House Bunny, Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, and much more LOVES Postcards from the Edge, and you should too. 

After She-Devil and Death Becomes Her, Meryl Streep makes her third appearance in a Criterinot film. She plays a fictionalized version of Carrie Fisher in the adaptation of Fisher's eponymous novel about a fictionalized version of Fisher's relationship with her mother, Debbie Reynolds, played by Shirley MacLaine. It's an onion of a movie and we peel back the layers as well as we can. 

It's the 10th episode spectacular! For the very first time we have one of the stars of the movie we're discussing as a guest on the pod. 

Anna Faris plays Shelley Darlingson, the Playboy Bunny who becomes a sorority house mother to Emma Stone, Kat Dennings, and Rumer Willis.

Lara Schoenhals joins us to talk about 2008's comedic underdog. We get the inside scoop from Anna about what it was like to work with the sorority sisters, how she toned her butt by walking in 10-inch heels, her mom's thoughts on Hugh Hefner, and the sticky layer of grease that covers The Playboy Mansion.

Watch his balls! Witch witch you're a bitch! Jacki Calleiro becomes the first return guest on The Criterinot Podcast for the genre-busting film Practical Magic starring Nicole Kidman and Sally Field. 

This Halloween we're asking all the right questions. Is Aidan Quinn hot? What are the rules of the magic in this movie, and do we even need rules? Why is life on this witchy island in Massachusetts so idyllic? We also dive in on the touching theme of allowing yourself to be vulnerable to love after loss. Don't miss what's bound to be a Halloween classic episode of TCP (The Criterinot Podcast).

This week's guest brings welcome dissent to one of the best, least controversial, yet most controversial films of the 2010s. Kathryn Borel and Graydon talk about La La Land.

Our guest this week is the King of Hollywood, Chris Chang. He brings a deep understanding to the latest addition to The Criterinot Collection: Addams Family Values. 

Director, writer, and coolest person I know, Eva Michon, joins me on the podcast this week. We get into the Scream 3, Wes Craven's answer to 8 1/2. Originally slated as the final film in the franchise, this meditation on filmmaking stars Courteney Cox-Arquette's bangs, Carrie Fischer, and Parker Posey giving life back to all the dead bodies. "My lawyer liked that."

Comedian Martha Kelly and her pets Barry, Gary, and Rosie talk with Graydon about 1992's Death Becomes Her. Is it mean to women? Or is that the point? Does Bruce Willis come out on top? Or is he a horrible murderer? How are Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn so stunning? We explore all these questions as well as topics like Alvin and the Chipmunks, One Direction, Keith Richards, visiting mental hospitals, nervous breakdowns, and more.

Prolific actor Sam Pancake joins Graydon to talk about Stepmom, starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon. The Chris Columbus film from 1998 is the perfect tearjerker for a balmy fall afternoon. Come with us as we talk about Julia Roberts' acting tricks, Graydon's connection to one of the stars, and, for some reason, Alexis Neiers.

Graydon is joined by wunderkind producer Jacki Calleiro to talk about Roseanne's first film role in the movie She-Devil.

It's New York Fashion Week, the perfect time to talk about the iconic New York fashion film: Zoolander. Graydon is joined by comedian, artist, and fellow podcaster Casey Jane Ellison. They dive deep on the film's weird connections to 9/11, director Ben Stiller's separation from Christine Taylor, the ubiquity of McDonald's, and what it means to be true to yourself.

Graydon is joined by New York Times bestselling author and media mogul Lara Marie Schoenhals to talk about the movie that was the inspiration for The Criterinot Podcast. We get into it about Amy Heckerling, which actors we'd do it with, and why Criterion itself is a henchman of the patriarchy.