Random Acts of Cinema
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251 episodes
Singular-voiced American comedic auteur Bobcat Goldthwait writes, directs, and stars in his absurdist satire of the 1980s stand-up comedy scene reimagined as a grimey city infested with infighting sub-castes of clowns whose insecurities, addictions, and lack of talent lock them in a perpetual rut of demeaning gigs, black-out benders, and petty jealousies. But one stands apart: Shakes. Perhaps the most talented and definitely the most alcoholic and self-sabotaging of them all. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Ronald Neames’ (1980).
René Lalou’s timeless (well, maybe not exactly) hand drawn science fiction epic turns a skeptical eye on human systems of power in an unimaginable world of inhuman blue giants (that are somehow even more human). You know: it’s your basic Jack and the Beanstalk meets Avatar situation. With better (by which I mean funkier) music. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Bobcat Goldthwait’s (1991).
The good days are long past for Chan and Leung, a couple slowly drifting apart, and losing themselves in the oncoming wave of modernity consisting of unemployment, debt, loneliness, and alienation. But since Edward Yang directed it, somehow it’s all beautiful. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing René Lalou’s (1973).
There was a time, believe it or not, when the channel Bravo was willing to pay for some “celebrities” and a camera crew to get out of their comfort zones, go on various excursions around the world, and watch the sparks fly as they bicker, backstab, and try to make “reality” look fun for the audiences back home. That time was 1991. Those celebrities were John Lurie, Jim Jarmusch, Tom Waits, Matt Dillon, Willem Dafoe, and Dennis Hopper. They made 6 episodes. Bravo never explored this format further. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Edward Yang’s (1985).
Brett Morgen's expressionistic documentary seeks to sidestep the question of "which is the real David Bowie?" and instead sees the creation of his personas as just one strategy used by the performer to craft a life of continuous artistic challenge and innovation. "Reinvention" isn't so much a gimmick used to promote album and ticket sales as it is the inevitable path of a creative life. Oh, and it's beautiful and the music is good. Freak out! Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing John Lurie's (1991).
Director Jacques Becker's belle epoque period drama about gangsters sets their lives on such a delicate balance between honor death that the eponymous pretty blonde is all it takes to bring it crashing down. Would you say a "love quadrangle" or a "love square"? Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Brett Morgen’s (2020).
Indie director Melvin van Peebles’ one film for Columbia Pictures pointedly slams against the dictates and standards of studio filmmaking with his Godfrey Cambridge-starring vehicle about a white bigot who wakes up black and finds himself in a world that no longer tolerates his existence. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jacques Becker’s (1952).
Just in time for February: it's... Random Acts of Cinema's Francis Ford Coppola's Take me away from all of these possessives. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Melvin van Peebles' (1970).
An all-star who’s-who of mid-century Italian comedy (we assume) unite for a picture of staggering proportions! Our boys stumble and bumble their way through a meticulously planned robbery and end up stealing… our hearts. Director Mario Monicelli gives the world one of the great prototypes of the comedic heist. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Francis Ford Corolla’s (1992).
Content and Spoiler Warning: This film dramatizes bullying, violence, against children, and a school shooting. Those who may not want to listen to this episode should skip this one and join us next week. Can an all-boys boarding school serve as a microcosm of an entire nation's fractured state of values? More importantly: should it? Director Lindsay Anderson subverts the slice-of-life routines and indignities of British school life with deft surrealist touches and a Malcom MacDowell-starring cast embracing nihilism and revenge. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Mario Monicelli's (1958).
He lost his job. He got his draft notice. The only path forward for this cinefile is clear: alienate everyone in his life and fracture his sanity by filming a progressively more erratic week of his life. Is he really searching for truth? Is film even the right way to capture truth? Does he really care about truth at all? Director Jim McBride fake documentary is about how everything filmed is a lie. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Lindsay Anderson's (1968)
In the darkest of night, standing solitary vigil against the forces of evil: there stands the city’s only hope for justice, for vengeance, for truth. There stands… The Cameraman! Director Buster Keaton mines the depths of obsession and action in this late silent-era masterpiece Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jim McBride’s (1967).
Director Frank Capra returns to the podcast with his Oscar-hording smash hit romantic comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. A glamorous heiress is on the run from her father as she embarks on a cross-country trek to get back to her playboy husband. But a hard on his luck newspaperman knows a good story when he sees one, and takes her under his wing. And wouldn't you know it? These two hate each other! Which is to say: they desperately love each other and just don't know it yet. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Buster Keaton's (1928).
Director Spike Jonze upends Hollywood conventions in this mind-bending Malkovich. Can Malkovich Malkovich before Malkovich Malkovich? Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Frank Capra's (1934).
This time, Mira Nair unleashes her penchant for a on the nation of India as a wedding is organized, threatened, and celebrated amidst the intensity of a rainy season that I guess is probably a metaphor for something. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Spike Jonze’s (1999).
Hitch is back! Or rather, here he is just as he’s starting to become THE Alfred Hitchcock. His first thriller blurs the boundaries between guilt, loss, obsession, and paranoia as a bloodthirsty killer of women stalks the London streets… on Tuesdays. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Mira Mair’s (2001).
In his first film, renowned director Bernardo Bertolucci prowls through the not-so-innocent lives of strangers who just happened to be in a park on the night of a murder. Each have good reason to embellish and omit details as they recount their day leading up to the murder to the police interrogator, but the director unsparingly shows all of the petty choices and disastrous missteps of them all. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Alfred Hitchcock’s (1927).
It is neither a question of where Seijun Suzuki got his ideas from nor who got their ideas from him. Rather it is simply the plain fact that there were the movies that came before his 1967 art/hitman freak-out masterpiece and then there were the movies that came after. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Bernardo Bertolucci's (1962).
1985. Sammo Hung. Jackie Chan. It sounds like we have all of the ingredients for the perfect action/comedy. And we do. We definitely have those ingredients. Hung directs a rag tag group of orphanage buddies, now older, as they are recruited to travel to Japan and infiltrate (via slapstick) a notorious Yakuza gang. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Seijun Suzuki’s (1967)
We got ourselves a Mank! More importantly, we got ourselves a study in contrast between the brash but insecure broadway diva Margo (Bette Davis) and the ambitiously talented wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing Eve (Anne Baxter). Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy podcast. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Sammy Hung’s (1985)
A classic odd couple picture, except… it’s a trio?! Hilarity and hijinks ensue when a couple of guys find themselves in the unlikeliest of situations: roommates! … Well, kind of. Writer/director Jim Jarmusch jams John Lurie (as a pimp), Tom Waits (as a radio DJ), and Roberto Benigni (as a Roberto Benigni) into a Louisiana jail cell where tensions and unlikely loyalties form in this dryly funny, minimal masterpiece by one of America’s greatest directors. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Joseph L. Mankiewicz‘s (1950).
Three heartbreaking stories interweave through Alejandro González Iñárritu's frantic and abrasive entry onto the cinematic world stage. A lovelorn brother who turns to the brutal but lucrative opportunities of back alley dog fighting, a model confined to a crumbling apartment following a life-altering accident, and a hitman with a past who walks the streets unseen. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jim Jarmusch's (1986).
Come listen to a free preview of our upcoming Patreon podcast where Mike, Charlie, and Alexandra (celebrated returning guest host) watch a different film (or tv show or documentary) from the oeuvre of acclaimed director William Friedkin. And we’re starting with his all-time genre-defining horror masterpiece (1973). The first taste is free. Keep an eye out for more information on our upcoming Patreon and your chance to listen to more episodes of
Ok, we don't say it in the episode, but I've just decided that this movie is nothing more than a shameless rip-off. And now that I've achieved my attention-grabbing hot take, I'll just come clean and say that we loved George A. Romero's all-time classic movie about zom... I mean ghouls that started it all. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Alejandro González Iñárritu's (2000).
Chic style and a confoundingly lithe ability to shift between classic-cool genres, director Jean-Jacques Beineix plots a Parisian escapade of crime, obsession, genius, whimsy, opera, sex, speed, and violence. Get ready to be the only person in the theater with a single tear running down your face. Because YOU get it. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing George A. Romero’ a (1968).
Stubborn, single-minded obsession forms the icy heart of Teinosuke Kinugasa's sweeping Shakespearean action-drama set in the aftermath of the bloody Heiji Rebellion. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jean-Jacques Beineix’ (1981).
Ol Blue Eyes is back! Back from the Korean War and brainwashed by sinister communist agents, that is. Director John Frankenheimer bends minds and our expectations in his stylishly paranoid thriller set in an era of Cold War paranoia, McCarthyism, and presidential assassination. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Teinosuke Kinugasa’s (1953).
Director Les Blank turns his unsparing eye on obsessive visionary director Werner Herzog as he trudges through a years-long journey to film in the South American rainforest. Everything that can go wrong does, and Herzog, the film, and the viewers are left to ponder: is all this worth it? Maybe it is, but since this is the only Herzog-related film in the Collection, we’re thrilled for the chance to discuss one of the defining auteurs of the late 20th century. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing John Frankenheimer’s (1962).
A uproarious takedown of English class and gender constructions… or a staunch defender of them? At least one of us thinks that this very ambiguity is the whole fun of Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard’s adaptation of Bernard Shaw’s classic stage comedy. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Les Blanks’ (1982).
Agnès Varda returns to the podcast with her charming little love story about a happy guy, his happy wife, and his happy mistress. It’s all very nice and sweet. No problems at all. Nope. It’s all good. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard’s (1938).
