Afleveringen
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'Raising Arizona' was the 2nd film written and directed by The Coen Brothers, and it's one of my most foundational movies; a movie that spoke to who I was at 18, when I first saw it in 1987 and continues to be one of my favorites today.
In this episode I revisit the film, tell some anecdotes about the making-of, and revel in the wonderful, nuanced performances, Carter Burwell's brilliantly distinctive and pitch-perfect score, and more! I must not tarry.
Some of My Foundational Movies:
My Blade Runner 2049 Episode
My Once Upon a Time In Hollywood Episode
My Blade Runner Episode
Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii
All The President's Men
Close Encounters
Being There
Brazil
Chameleon Street
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Our episodic roll of the Scorceseverse dice comes up a winner here with a look at 'Casino', Marty's unofficial "sequel" to 'Goodfellas' and a treatise on the inevitable end of mob controlled Vegas casinos.
If you're interested in how we got here, check out my episodes about Goodfellas and 'Mean Streets':
Goodfellas Part 1
Goodfellas Part 2
Goodfellas Part 3
Goodfellas Part 4
Mean Streets
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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The Full Cast and Crew MartyVerse run continues with the first of Scorcese's unofficial trilogy of gangster films, 'Mean Streets'.
In this episode: Marty's Little Italy, Family, High School, NYU, Los Angeles, and early directorial experiences and how they influence and inspired 'Mean Streets'.
How 'Mean Streets' was very nearly a blaxploitation film funded by Roger Corman.
John Cassavetes seeing 'Boxcar Bertha', an exploitation film Scorcese directed for Corman, and telling Marty "You just spent a year of your life making a piece of shit. Don't you have something more personal to do?"
Films mentioned by Scorcese as inspirational/informational to 'Mean Streets'
‘Gilda’
‘The Shanghai Gesture'
'Shadows'
'Who's That Knocking At My Door'
'Boxcar Bertha'
'Open City'
'Paisa'
'Shoeshine'
'Bicycle Thieves'
'Cool Breeze'
'Buck Privates'
'Scorpio Rising'
'Saturday Night, Sunday Morning'
'The Road to Singapore'
'Marty'
'Fatso'
'Accatone'
'How Green Was My Valley'
'The Informer'
'The Searchers'
'On The Waterfront'
'East of Eden'
'His Girl Friday'
'The Big Sky'
'The Thing'
'Two Rode Together'
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OK, so I wasn't quite done with Goodfellas, try as I did...one more bridge episode here before we get into 'Mean Streets' and 'Raging Bull'...
In this episode, we consider Marty's Oscar frenemyship, DeNiro's screen qualities, his most famous and best onscreen performances, and, finally...FINALLY...all of his scenes from "Goodfellas" considered from a DeNiro/Jimmy Conway perspective.
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In part 3 of my three-episode take on Martin Scorcese and Nicholas Pileggi's masterpiece 'Goodfellas', we pick the film up just after the halfway point, which is Tommy's killing of Spider. Test audiences and studio executives were completely discombobulated by the loss they felt of the breezy, funny, enjoyable glamorization of the gangster life that the first half of the film represents. And the descent into depraved, violent madness was a truthfulness that not every audience...or cast member... could embrace immediately.
GQ Oral History of Goodfellas.
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In Part 2 of my 3-part exploration of the brilliance, humor, and bravura filmmaking of Marty Scorcese's 'Goodfellas', I talk about iconic scenes from the film's first half, including:
The Bamboo Lounge Crew Introduction scene with Pete The Killer, Freddie No-Nose, and Jimmy Two Times.
The Jimmy/Henry "I'm a clown" scene.
The Copa Entrance scene.
The Bruce beat-down scene.
Morrie's Wigs
The Billy Batts Shinebox scene.
Tommy's Mom's House.
The Spider sequences.
This brings us to the halfway point of the film, and the Spider killing represents the turning point, away from the idolization of gangster gods and deathly into the dark heart of the reality of low-level mob-guy life.
In Part 3, we'll cover the rest of the film's scenes, including the stupendous extended cocaine sequences.
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This is the first of at least 2 episodes about Martin Scorcese's 1990 masterpiece 'Goodfellas'. Let's be honest: it'll probably take three episodes to cover all the genius onscreen in this epitome of the perfect film.
In this episode, I explore the film's roots in Nick Pileggi's classic non-fiction book 'Wiseguy', and the early involvement of vital creative participants in the film like producer Irwin Winkler, actors Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Paul Sorvino, and Lorraine Bracco, and production team members like Micheal Ballhaus and Thelma Schoonmaker.
In Episode 2, we'll get into the film itself, covering the iconic scenes, the score, the film's reception and legacy, and more.
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RIP Teri Garr.
Star Trek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfAP6fJZ1is After Hours https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPMDA9N1itk Tootsie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp3nln2xans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0pUtIIwGHo Michael https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y6NM7Ax9hk Mr. Mom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvQctA3xsoE Young Frankenstein https://youtu.be/H4seOhR5ChI?feature=shared&t=8 -
I'm traveling for work this week so in lieu of a typical episode I'm taking a wild flyer on something new; maybe it'll work maybe it won't! It's a watch-along episode. It's like sitting next to me at a screening of 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' and me talking all the through the movie with salient interjections like "Oh I love this part" and "How cool is Brad??". THIS IS HOW I FIND THE REAL FCAC HEADS!
Should you actually want to watch along with me...there's a countdown a couple minutes into the episode where you can press play on the media of your choice. We should be in sync then. But no watching is required, you can enjoy this like you would listen to a DVD Commentary as a podcast. What, you don't listen to DVD Commentaries as Podcasts???
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Director Mary Herron and her co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner did what 'American Psycho' author Bret Easton Ellis thought was impossible: made a film of his controversial, considered-unfilmable 1991. novel.
And the lens through which they espied Patrick Bateman proved exactly the right way to gain something meaningful out of what, frankly, is a pretty unreadable and repetitive novel.
The astonishing lead performance from Christian Bale catapulted him to the stardom and rarified air he continues to occupy as an actor today. And the performance is a wonder to dissect, if you'll pardon the pun.
Featuring a wonderful assortment of supporting actors like Willem Dafoe, Chloe Sevigny, Justin Theroux, Reese Witherspoon, Reg E. Cathey, Josh Lucas, Matt Ross, Jared Leto, Cara Seymour and Samantha Mathis, the film is one of the most essential films about NYC in the 80's.
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Brains addled after 'Megalopolis', I attempted and then discarded the idea to do 'Blazing Saddles' but was left wanting. So then, in a way I don't fully understand, but probably having to do with the idea of films that are said to be 'so bad they're good', I somehow arrived at the idea of doing Iain Softley's 1995 film 'Hackers' starring Angelina Jolie in her first onscreen role, Johnny Miller, and pre-fame Wendell Pierce and Felicity Huffman.
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I went and saw Francis Ford Coppola's 'Megalopolis' so you don't have to. You're welcome.
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Actor Kathy Baker joins the podcast this week for a very special episode about her 1988 film 'Clean and Sober'.
Director Glenn Gordon Caron probably needed a stiff drink or 20 after coming off the tumultuous four-season run of 'Moonlighting' with its famously fractious co-stars. Instead he chose to direct one of the most underappreciated film gems of the 80's in 'Clean and Sober', co-produced by Ron Howard and starring Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, and M Emmet Walsh in the story of a commercial real estate broker spiralling into...and reluctantly out of...cocaine and alcohol addiction.
Incisively ritten by Tod Carroll, a National Lampoon writer with only two other film credits to date, 'Clean and Sober' was Keaton's first foray into a non-comedic film role, a fact that caused the studio some consternation at the time. Freeman and Baker were coming off of award-winning roles in 'Street Smart', a Golan-Globus production about a NYC journalist intertwined with a pimp and prostitute, and everyone in the cast of 'Clean and Sober' turned in absolutely phenomenal performances...even Oscar-worthy performances...yet the studio didn't really know how to market or release a film they considered hard-to-define and after only 3 weeks of a summetime release, the film was largely abandoned in the marketplace.
In this special episode of the Full Cast and Crew podcast, I talk with Kathy Baker about her indelible role as Charlie, her experiences making the film, and her approaches to acting and the collaborative nature of filmmaking.
Join us as we spend some well-deserved time giving 'Clean and Sober' its due as still the best film ever made about the tricky early days of sobriety and digging into Kathy's experiences making the film.
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After two episodes about 'The Shining' and a couple weeks wondering what to do for Episode 200 of the podcast....events at the Presidential Debate pointed me in the direction of 'Peanuts' and the relatively terror-free childhood presented specifically in the 1972 Election special 'You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown'.
In this Special, Charlie Brown neither runs for office nor is or isn't elected. But the satirical pleasures abound otherwise in this still-incisive takedown of political and campaign mores and realities.
As ever, the incredible music of Vince Guaraldi and his Trio provide accompaniment. Musings range far and wide in this episode.
Thank you for listening for 200 episodes!
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In Episode 197, I covered much of the backstory and making-of history behind 'The Shining'.
In this episode, I cover many of the scenes in the film that I didn't get to in Part 1, along with other commentary and observations about the film, Kubrick, 'Doctor Sleep', and 'Room 237'. Come and play with us, for ever...and ever...and ever.
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I went from not really ever wanting to watch 'The Shining' again...to now doing my first-ever two-part episode!
Funny how often the answer to 'why did that film affect me so much as a child?' turns out to be 'DUH!'.
Part 1 covers the origin story of the film, some of the King/Kubrick interplay over the years, the casting, the sound design, the music, and some cinema speculation on what it's all about.
Will post all episode materials and links when I post Part 2, which will cover the design and build of the sets, specific scenes, and MORE.
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Paul Brickman's 'Risky Business' is one of the greatest films of the 80's and is so much more than the "teen sex comedy" many people thought they were getting at the time. Frame by frame, it's really a masterpiece with so many aspects and elements of brilliance. The score by Tangerine Dream, Tom Cruise at NINETEEN, Rebecca De Mornay, the genius editing of Richard Chew...on and on...what an incredible film. And Paul Brickman would direct only ONE more feature film in his career to date. Astounding. Worthy of a rare Saturday pod!
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Little-seen but worthy, the 1985 John Candy comedy 'Summer Rental' is due for a little revisit and respect!
On the news of a forthcoming and hopefully definitive John Candy documentary directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds, I stumbled across this film (which I'd never even heard of) and found myself gleefully experiencing an expertly-cast superior comedy of its era with a typically warm, truthful, harder-than-it-looks John Candy performance at its center. It's a pleasant surprise of a great family movie and I hope you'll see it out!
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I gave up drinking. I gave up drugs. I don't smoke. BUT I CAN'T QUIT DEAD & COMPANY! And I hope I never do!
With the wife and daughter overseas on a girl's trip, I went back to Vegas for Week Seven of the Dead and Company shows over the 4th of July Weekend at the Sphere Las Vegas.
This short (18 minutes) episode is not an inside-Dead show rundown, but a paen to the joys of live music played at this incredible level of proficiency and a call-to-arms to all musicians especially to make the trek before it's too late!
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Well, it's not really a summer movie but nonetheless I ended up appreciatiating the weird-in-a-good-way 'Vision Quest'. Join me, won't you?
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