The Descendants (2011) directed by Alexander Payne is an exploration of a family in crisis. George Clooney plays a grieving and befuddled father and husband dealing with heartbreaking revelations and two distant daughters. Jim and A.Ron dive into the family drama, join them in this commissioned podcast! Thank you Bryan for commissioning this podcast for Mina!
What’s a better combination than Nicolas Cage and a Lovecraftian setting? In Color Out of Space (2019) Nic Cage stars as an average man and “bourbon connoisseur” who moves his family to a rural farm where an inexplicable event unravels their reality. This is a slow burn psychological drama about danger you can and cannot see. Thank you Doug for commissioning this podcast!
From the master of horror, John Carpenter, comes a film heavily influenced by the likes of HP Lovecraft and Stephen King. Jim, resident horror expert, and A.Ron dive into this mind-bending film for the first time. Hold onto your sanity and descend into Carpenter’s “In the Mouth of Madness”! Thank you Stacye for commissioning this podcast!
Jim and A.Ron watch the Spike Lee joint, He Got Game (1998) starring Denzel Washington. Not only is it a great sports film, it’s a great father and son film. Opposite Washington stars a young Ray Allen and Milla Jovovich. At the end of the day, is Jake Shuttlesworth a good dad and guy?
Harry Potter is the boy who lived…and Jim is the guy who survived this movie with almost zero context. Talitha joins the pod and brings her thorough knowledge of Harry Potter. Can A.Ron and Talitha convince Jim that this movie deserves its place in pop culture? Or will Jim apparate away from the madness?
In 1970 came the birth of the disaster movie genre. The originator, Airplane (1970), was directed by George Seaton and Henry Hathaway and stars Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin. A bomber targets an airplane and an airport manager fights to the keep the airport open. Dive into this cinema-changing classic with Jim and A.Ron.
Turn that frown upside down. Jim and A.Ron are settling into Smile (2022), a horror film with a new take on trauma and possession. Can a simple smile really be that creepy? Yes. Yes it can.
Rev your engines! Jim and A.Ron are diving into the apocalyptic wasteland of Mad Max: Fury Road! Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy star in the installment of Mad Max that reinvigorated the franchise for this century. It’s an endlessly quotable adventure with jaw-dropping stunts. Climb aboard the war rig and join Jim and A.Ron as they rumble down George Miller’s Fury Road.
Jim and A.Ron go through the wardrobe and enter the magical realm of Narnia. In this fantasy land, the guys encounter a hot goat man, allegory (or “supposition”), and shell-shocked British children. Trudge deeper into the eternal winter with Jim and A.Ron as they discuss the cast, the world-building, and the healthiest way to be a centaur.
Dive into Harakiri (1962), a samurai film from director Masaki Kobayashi. As you get to know the character of samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo, his motivations are unveiled bit by bit making for a meticulous unveiling of his psyche and the societal pressures he endures. This film has surpassed other samurai films in A.Ron’s view. And Jim needs to learn his LOTR characters.
Thank you, Michael, for commissioning this film!