Today we wrap up our "mad science, tortured animals, and awkward heroes" pairing of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and one of its major influences, 1932's THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS. These two films from wildly different filmmaking eras have a ton in common. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

New ep! We're looking at two Nicole Holofcener films about fragile, prickly, insecure egotists… so basically, we're looking at two Nicole Holofcener films. First: LOVELY & AMAZING, with Catherine Keener and baby Jake Gyllenhaal. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237… youtube.com/watch?v=bIcPNZ…

Wes Anderson's puzzlebox play-inside-a-show-inside-a-film structure in ASTEROID CITY reminded us of Charlie Kaufman's endlessly symbolic house of mirrors SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK. We spent an hour unpacking his plays within plays and lives within lives: cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

This week: We look at Wes Anderson's ASTEROID CITY in context with his other work, and in contrast with Charlie Kaufman's SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, another play-within-a-play movie about meta mirror-mazes and the fight to make and understand art. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

New ep! PAST LIVES' low-key love triangle and focus on immigration, longing, and making art all reminded us of John Carney's ONCE, where two musicians won't acknowledge their mutual attraction. @DaveChensky joins us to discuss ONCE — and explain TikTok. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

With the Sundance hit THEATER CAMP hitting theaters last weekend, our latest episode looks at Christopher Guest's WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, another mockumentary tribute to lovable off-off-off-off Broadway stage performers: megaphone.link/FILM2635529094

This week, Greta Gerwig's BARBIE sent us back to 2007 to another movie about a fluffy, idealized female stereotype who pulls up stakes and moves to the real world: ENCHANTED. Jen Chaney helps us parse through the film's take on gentle Disney self-parody: cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

This week, Jen Chaney is back to help us discuss the "shitload of sugar that makes the medicine go down" in Greta Gerwig's BARBIE. We're comparing its satirical vision of a fantasy woman entering reality with ENCHANTED, which did similar things in 2007. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

This week, Ira Sachs' yearning bisexual love-triangle drama PASSAGES sent us back in time to 1971's SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, a groundbreaking movie with a similar triangle and a shocking-at-the-time gay smooch. Noel Murray serves as our third in a three-way pod. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

This week, we're back to bi love triangles with Ira Sachs' PASSAGES, about a director who leaves his husband for a woman — and vice versa. Noel Murray joins us to compare it to 1971's groundbreaking SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, and consider its frank sexuality. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

New ep! We're contrasting the new high-school killer comedy BOTTOMS with the original, HEATHERS, which was shocking and subversive in 1988, and feels even more so now. Christian Slater's Jack Nicholson impression has aged in interesting ways, too. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

Is BOTTOMS about anything? This week, part 2 of our subversive, violent high-school matchup compares BOTTOMS and HEATHERS, in terms of what they're expressing, how stylized and out-there their comedy gets, and how much sexuality in film has changed. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

This week: two radically different but perfectly in sync Pablo Larraín movies about dictator Augusto Pinochet. 2012's NO is a wry, lively historical feature and 2023's EL CONDE is a rich, slow vampire fantasy, but they're an enlightening double feature. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

Newest ep: This week we're talking alien invasion in NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU, and how it compares to the strikingly emotionally similar, yet textually opposite story in UNDER THE SKIN. Who's more alienated, the alien woman or the human woman fighting aliens? cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

New ep! Our latest pairing follows outsiders in the outback, where alcohol, violence, and power dynamics make for queasy bedfellows. First up: 1971's WAKE IN FRIGHT sends an arrogant teacher on an unexpectedly harrowing vacation full of blood and loss. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

New ep: We conclude our Outback Outsiders pairing with THE ROYAL HOTEL, Kitty Green's followup to THE ASSISTANT. It deals with similar issues around gender, power, silence, and one woman trying to protect another. It's a powerful match for WAKE IN FRIGHT. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

BROKEN ARROW, a Western where Jimmy Stewart makes peace with an Apache tribe, has a lot of dubious aspects, but it's a fascinating pairing with KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. This week, we unpack what it meant to be progressive about Natives on film in 1950. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

For your ears: The Next Picture Show had me on this week and next to talk about the GOAT: Hayao Miyazaki!! In the first ep, we discuss Spirited Away. In the next ep (dropping soon), The Boy and the Heron. To me, both are masterpieces. cms.megaphone.fm/channel/FLM237…

I'm back on the The Next Picture Show this week with Scott Tobias, @kphipps3000, and Genevieve Koski talking Molly Manning Walker's HOW TO HAVE SEX through the lens of WHERE THEY BOYS ARE (1960). Listen here: megaphone.link/FILM3679751363