Pod Casty For Me
Pod Casty For Me is a left politics and culture podcast that analyzes the films of Steven Soderbergh, one movie per episode. Hosted by Jake Serwin and Ian Rhine, the show previously covered Clint Eastwood and Paul Schrader. New episodes are released every other Friday.
Episodes
Soderbergh Ep. 41: Full Circle/Command Z (2023)
They say Soderbergh's prolific, listener, but did you realize he released TWO television shows in the same WEEK in 2023? OK, sure, one of them is more like a series of webisodes that add up to about 90 minutes. But a couple of them have Liev Schreiber! He's a real guy! We did our due diligence and watched both FULL CIRCLE, Sodey and Ed Solomon's hyperlink TRAFFIC-meets-HIGH AND LOW miniseries, and
PATREON PREVIEW: Apocalypto (2006)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Live (to tape) from México! The "chicos" sit down fresh from their travels in the Yucatán to talk Mel Gibson's Mayan language survival epic APOCALYPTO, widely held up as proof that he isn't just an insane racist weirdo. You're never going to bel
Soderbergh Ep. 40: Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023) with Aaron & Carlee from Hit Factory
What if you made a movie that was really successful and then your friend directed a sequel people liked even better and THEN the star turned it into a live show with his name on it? You'd want to...let's see here...make a movie sort of imagining what if the character was actually the one who made the live show? Sure, why not! One thing's for sure, though - it better have Salma Hayek in it playing
PATREON PREVIEW: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) with Comrade Yui
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Wait a minute...that's not ZARDOZ! Our friend and comrade Yui returns to discuss a different movie from the one we talked about last time they were on: Guy Ritchie's 2015 film adaptation of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., which emerged from the wreckag
Soderbergh Ep. 39: Kimi (2022) with Bob Martin (and Kimi)
// hello podcast listeners // it's me kimi from kimi // this is the episode on the movie they made about me // ian and jake had their friend bob martin on because he lived in seattle during the movie // weird choice to have a guest because it's my movie // even though i'm not really like the kimi in this // she doesn't even try to experience pain // anyway check out the episode, which is as close
PATREON PREVIEW: The Swimmer (1968)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. You voted, we watched! For our fourth Listener Choice episode, we dove in to Frank Perry's (and Sydney Pollack's) dreamy/nightmarish John Cheever adaptation, THE SWIMMER. We talk Burt Lancaster, country club types, the surreality of swimming poo
Soderbergh Ep. 38: No Sudden Move (2021)
Get your spooky old-time mask on, everybody: it's the NO SUDDEN MOVE episode. We're talking Soderbergh's 2021 HBO Max crime thriller and all things 1954 Detroit, Black Bottom, carburetors, becoming aware of your position as a historical actor, Bill Duke, Bill & Ted (different Bill), anamorphic lenses, apologizing while hitting your boss in the face, money flowing uphill, and lots more. Really enjo
PATREON PREVIEW: Suburbicon-Con 2026 with To The White Sea
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. How do you begin to talk about SUBURBICON, the 2017 film George Clooney made by hacking together an unmade Coen brothers crime script with one of his own about a true story of racial violence in the suburbs? By hacking together two incredible po
UNLOCKED: Moneyball (2011)
This is an unlocked episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Most movies weren't directed by Steven Soderbergh, but few were as notably not directed by Steven Soderbergh as this one: MONEYBALL, the true story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics' revolutionary sabermetrics-based hiring strategy, was 5 days from shooting wh
PATREON PREVIEW: Rambo: Last Blood (2019) with Roman Pessarov
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Like a bizarro Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone parlayed two iconic roles into a decades-long career as a movie star and filmmaker, restauranteur, and conservative hero - only he's short and a lousy director. In 2019, Stallone put his crusadi
Soderbergh Ep. 37: The 93rd Academy Awards (2021)
Remember when Soderbergh produced the first Oscars ceremony of the covid-19 pandemic? Because he's the CONTAGION guy so he knows about viruses? I mean that's literally why he did it. He's friends with the CDC. Plus I guess he had some other ideas about how to change up the Oscars just to see what happens. Have you ever read Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine? It's basically like that. Anyway, we sat
PATREON PREVIEW: Magic Mike Live & Vegas Road Trip with FPG Amanda
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. It's the big Vegas road trip episode! Your two intrepid hosts and one of their intrepid partners hopped in the Subaru and drove to Las Vegas to see (Channing Tatum's) Magic Mike Live, shoot guns like Dirty Harry, tour the Liberace Mansion, and b
Soderbergh Ep. 36: Let Them All Talk (2020) with Veronica Phillips
All aboard the LET THEM ALL TALK episode! Hot off of all the fun they had making THE LAUNDROMAT, Soderbergh and Meryl Streep teamed up again for a largely improvised movie about three old friends taking a boat ride with one of their nephews. And it's...great?! Joining us on the main feed is our good pal, writer and High Femme editor Veronica Phillips! We chat about letting women over 70 talk about
PATREON PREVIEW: Leatherheads (2008)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. A comedy script about the early days of pro football followed Steven Soderbergh like a shadow for over a decade until George Clooney finally directed it himself, hot off the critical success of GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. It was also an important
Soderbergh Ep. 35: The Laundromat (2019) with Luke Savage
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: our episode on Soderbergh's 2019 Panama Papers infotainment film THE LAUNDROMAT. Joining us to parse this deeply odd "comedic" "look" into the mysterious world of offshore finance is co-host of the Michael & Us podcast and author of The Dead Center: Reflections on Liberalism and Democracy After the End of History, Luke Savage! Together we get to the bottom of Soderbergh and
PATREON PREVIEW: COMMENTARY: Tightrope (1984)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. It's commentary time once again, folks, and we thought we'd revisit the first time we talked about Louisiana and sex work on the show: the Clint Eastwood film TIGHTROPE! This sort-of-Richard Tuggle joint is almost as sweaty and nasty as the two
Soderbergh Ep. 34: High Flying Bird (2019)
Roundball...talk?!?!?! That's right, it's the HIGH FLYING BIRD episode where we cover Soderbergh's second shot-on-iPhone feature, a 2019 direct-to-Netflix basketball lockout drama starring his old THE KNICK pal André Holland (and a totally different guy named Dr. Edwards). Join us for a great in-person (!) discussion of the intersections of sports, labor, race, and technology, and what exactly Sod
PATREON PREVIEW: Mr. Majestyk (1974)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Originally written for Clint Eastwood by friend of the show Elmore Leonard, Richard Fleischer's 1974 Charles Bronson vehicle MR. MAJESTYK is that classic action film setup: a melon farmer accidentally ends up in the middle of a mob hitman's pris
Soderbergh Ep. 33: Unsane (2018) with Esmé Holden
It'll be a lot easier for everyone if you just listen to our episode on UNSANE, Soderbergh's 2018 shot-on-iPhone experiment that's otherwise a pretty solid thriller! Writer Esmé Holden returns to the show after far too long to talk smartphone aesthetics, involuntary holds, whether all doctors are cops or just most of them, the intersections of mental illness and misogyny and transphobia, and a ver
PATREON PREVIEW: Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. George Clooney's second feature - written with his producing partner Grant Heslov - was 2005's GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, a dramatization of newsman Edward R. Murrow's brave stance against Senator Joe McCarthy's anticommunist witch hunt. Well, j
Soderbergh Ep. 32: Mosaic (2017) with Comrade Yui
Look, either you know what this is or you won't believe us. In 2017, Steven Soderbergh and writer Ed Solomon made a murder mystery show that was an app on your phone. You used your phone to decide which scenes to watch next to find out who killed Sharon Stone. This is real. Then they re-edited it as a miniseries for HBO, and now you can't watch the app version literally anywhere. The whole thing i
PATREON PREVIEW: Open Range (2003)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. You voted, we watched! For our third Listener Choice episode, we jumped in the saddle to talk OPEN RANGE, Kevin Costner's 2003 Lauran Paine adaptation that he seemed to think would be his UNFORGIVEN. We disagree! To the many Costnerds among you,
Soderbergh Ep. 31: Logan Lucky (2017) with Glenn Heath Jr.
The Winds of Winter is still a distant dream for incarcerated fantasy fans, but our episode on Soderbergh's 2017 NASCAR caper LOGAN LUCKY is coming to you on schedule. We brought back our friend, and rebel among San Diego film critics, Glenn Heath Jr. to discuss how Ocean's 7-Eleven combines Soderbergh's impatience with conventional film production, his visions of an incongruous South, and his pre
PATREON PREVIEW: One Battle After Another (2025) with Ryan Torgeson
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. As promised, we decided to dig in on last year's Best Picture winner and one of the most-discussed Political Films to come out of Hollywood in a long time: Paul Thomas Anderson's ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. And of course we roped in our buddy Ryan
Soderbergh Ep. 30: The Knick Season 2 (2015)
Scrub in, folks - we're headed back to the operating theater for the second and final season of The Knick! Doctors Thack and Edwards and the gang are up to even more bleak shenanigans this time, and we're talking about it all. It's a bonafide Pod Casty cornucopia of context as we chat medical hypnotism, eugenics, Black Nationalism, sideshows, addiction treatment, urban revival churches, condoms, N
PATREON PREVIEW: COMMENTARY: Dead Ringers (1988)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. We're back with another commentary track, this time for a movie by a director we almost covered: David Cronenberg. His 1988 identical twin gynecologist horror-tragedy DEAD RINGERS deals with all kinds of themes we love: the nature of the self, o
Soderbergh Ep. 29: Magic Mike XXL (2015) with Marie Bardi-Salinas
Get ready for one (second-to-)last ride! We're hopping on the food truck with the Kings of Tampa to talk MAGIC MIKE XXL, Greg Jacobs's 2015 sequel to MAGIC MIKE, on which Soderbergh served as both cinematographer and editor. Returning to the show is our pal, movie person and social media producer Marie Bardi! We talk nontoxic masculinity, female pleasure, the film's response to race-based criticis
PATREON PREVIEW: The Boss Baby (2017) with Christopher Jason Bell
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Prepare to get real BOSS BABY vibes, folks. Making good on a tweeted threat, we had our friend, filmmaker Christopher Jason Bell join us to try to make sense of 2017's THE BOSS BABY, an animated film for children that baffled us all. We end up t
Soderbergh Ep. 28: The Hunger Games (2012)
May the pods be ever in your feed-ver. Or whatever! We're screwing with the chronology a little bit today because we decided Steven Soderbergh's second unit work on Gary Ross's 2012 YA adaptation THE HUNGER GAMES was worth doing on the main feed after all. And we were right! There's a ton to talk about, from the film's style and what it means to try to find Soderbergh in it to the whole series's d
PATREON PREVIEW: Michael Clayton (2007) with Andorks
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Attention all Thieves, Gray Mages, Unbidden Warriors, Dark Avians, Riverwynders and Sappers: it's MICHAEL CLAYTON time. Tony Gilroy's 2007 corporate thriller vehicle about fixers, cover-ups, mental breakdowns, and baguettes was produced by Steve
Soderbergh Ep. 27: The Knick Season 1 (2014) with Dave Maher
TV time! Almost immediately after "retiring" from feature films, Steven Soderbergh directed ten episodes of THE KNICK, a period medical drama for Cinemax about the early days of modern surgery. Joining us to talk about nearly ten hours of television is comedian and host of the podcast This Is Your Afterlife, Dave Maher! We have a wide-ranging discussion covering everything from prestige television
PATREON PREVIEW: Jigarthanda DoubleX (2023) with Gigi
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. How come nobody told us there was a 2023 Tamil film with a fully CGI Clint Eastwood?! Well, at least our guest did - so luckily we're joined today by Gigi aka Girl aka @SummerOfFilm to talk Karthik Subbaraj's 2023 "Pandyaa Western" JIGARTHANDA D
Soderbergh Ep. 26: Behind The Candelabra (2013) with Eva Anderson
Shine up those rhinestones, everybody: it's the BEHIND THE CANDELABRA episode. We're talking Soderbergh's sort-of-final film before his sort-of-retirement, a 2013 Liberace biopic starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon - and we're joined by writer and Liberace expert Eva Anderson! We talk Vegas, camp, Douglas's infamous throat cancer disclosure, plastic surgery, palimony, the closet, Eva's absolut
PATREON PREVIEW: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Handsome leading man jumps from television to film working with a handful of dynamic filmmakers before hopping in the director's chair himself - sound familiar?! Unfortunately, it turned out a lot better when Clint did it. But we're talking abou
Soderbergh Ep. 25: Side Effects (2013) with Jane Altoids
Listen to this episode twice and call us in the morning! That's just a joke and is not medical advice. But we ARE talking about Soderbergh's 2013 pharmaceutical thriller SIDE EFFECTS today, with our friend poet/podcaster/famous celebrity Jane Altoids! Topics may include: Hitchcock, the history of madness, women being called crazy, big pharma, our own experiences with mental illness, Blake Lively,
PATREON PREVIEW: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. You voted, we watched! For our second Listener Choice episode, we're sitting down with Michael Bay's 2016 action docudrama 13 HOURS: THE SECRET SOLDIERS OF BENGHAZI, a supposedly just-the-facts look at the 2012 attack on the American diplomatic
Soderbergh Ep. 24: Magic Mike (2012) with Zoë Ligon
It's here, lawbreakers: our episode on Steven Soderbergh's 2012 runaway hit MAGIC MIKE. Is this a sobering look at economic precarity after the Great Recession? Or is it a movie about gyrating hunks? Here to help us answer that question is writer, adult content creator, and proprietor of Spectrum Boutique, Zoë Ligon! We talk transactional desire, hot bods, side hustles, Zoë's experience seeing Mag
PATREON PREVIEW: Moneyball (2011)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Most movies weren't directed by Steven Soderbergh, but few were as notably not directed by Steven Soderbergh as this one: MONEYBALL, the true story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics' revolutionary sabermetrics-based hiring strategy, was 5 days from
Soderbergh Ep. 23: Haywire (2011) with Ryan Torgeson
Get your silly little trunks on, listener: we're headed to the octagon this week to talk HAYWIRE, Soderbergh's much-delayed 2011 (anti-?) spy thriller starring MMA fighter Gina Carano. And joining us is our friend, podcaster and musician Ryan Torgeson (@molecularlioneI)! We talk mid-2010s action cinema, mixed martial arts, Soderbergh's decision to alter Carano's voice in post, Carano's decision to
PATREON PREVIEW: Commentary - Play Misty For Me (1971)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. We're trying something new this week - we've recorded a feature commentary track! Watch Clint Eastwood's 1971 directorial debut PLAY MISTY FOR ME as we talk about it. Sure, we did an episode on this movie already, but that was three years ago. W
UNLOCKED: Songs About Clint with Jetski
This is an unlocked episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. This week we're taking a look at a bunch of songs about, featuring, or otherwise related to Clint Eastwood...which is a great reason to bring on Jetski, aka Ian Ostaszewski, the composer of the Paid Costly For Me theme music! We chat Gorillaz, Metallica,
PATREON PREVIEW: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) / The Boys Run A 10K
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Merry Christmas, everybody - here's the episode one day early just because we love ya. Not unlike a certain jolly old elf, Ian stopped by Jake's home for a quick visit a few weeks back, and the boys (plus FPG) ran a 10K race together that was, f
Soderbergh Ep. 22: Contagion (2011)
Wash your hands, folks: it's time to talk CONTAGION, Steven Soderbergh's absurdly prescient 2011 pandemic disaster film. We talk public health, hyperlink cinema, Soderbergh's evolving digital aesthetic, the nature of government, and the film's second life as a Covid lockdown classic. With a special Kate Winslet audio collage that Ian definitely asked for! Check it out. Further Reading: The Viral U
PATREON PREVIEW: Zodiac (2007)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. In our first-ever Patreon Listeners' Choice poll, something like 52% of you voted for David Fincher's ZODIAC, the movie we probably should have done within the first five premium eps if we're being honest. But now we've done it! It's all here: D
Soderbergh Ep. 21: Gray's Anatomy (1996)/And Everything Is Going Fine (2010) with Robert Rubsam
Open your notebooks and fill up your glasses of water, folks: today we're looking at Steven Soderbergh's two documentaries on Spalding Gray. And Ian's pissed off! We're joined once more by our friend, writer and critic Rob Rubsam, to talk 1996's GRAY'S ANATOMY, a sort of longform music video for Gray's "monolog" of the same name, and Soderbergh's 2010 posthumous "autobiography" of Gray, AND EVERYT
PATREON PREVIEW: The Killers (1946/1964) with Comrade Yui
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Our friend and yours Comrade Yui is back to talk two Ernest Hemingway adaptations in our wheelhouse - THE KILLERS (1946) by CRISS CROSS director Robert Siodmak and THE KILLERS (1964) by DIRTY HARRY director Don Siegel (plus the short Tarkovsky m
Soderbergh Ep. 20: The Informant! (2009) with Dan O'Sullivan
"Would I lysine to you?" - Mark Whitacre. Hey that's just a joke but maybe they could have used it on the posters for THE INFORMANT!, Steven Soderbergh's 2009 corporate espionage caper about the lysine price-fixing scandal and one of the weirdest guys there has ever been. And joining us to talk big business, the FBI, and organized crime in all its forms is writer and podcaster Dan O'Sullivan (The
PATREON PREVIEW: Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Finally, we've reached the end of Sergio Leone's filmography with the long-in-development gangster epic ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. This film has many admirers, to whom we say: sorry! We didn't care for it, and we'll tell you why - with a littl
Soderbergh Ep. 19: The Girlfriend Experience (2009) with Anonymous Mystery Guest
Soderbergh's second film for Mark Cuban's Magnolia Pictures was THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, a largely improvised look at life on the cusp of the Great Recession starring adult film megastar Sasha Grey. We're joined by an anonymous writer and sex worker to talk about one of Soderbergh's less-appreciated great films, sex work as work, Grey's legacy, depictions of intimacy, and Power Wash Simulator fo
PATREON PREVIEW: Singani 63 with Maxwell Pierson
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. While making CHE, Steven Soderbergh fell so in love with Bolivia's national liquor, singani, that he decided to export it to the US as Singani 63 - just like Che Guevara would have done. Nah just kidding but we tried it and it's actually quite g
Soderbergh Ep. 18: Che: Parts 1 & 2 (2008) with Andrés Pertierra
The leftist podcast about Steven Soderbergh movies has finally arrived at CHE, Soderbergh's two-part biopic of (Argentine) Cuban Revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Joining us to provide the kind of deep historical context you know we go crazy for is historian of Cuba and scholar of Latin American and Caribbean history Andrés Pertierra! We have never read more in preparation for an episode,
PATREON PREVIEW: The Hit (1984)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. We celebrate the late Terence Stamp by taking a look at Stephen Frears's 1984 proto-LIMEY existential gangster film, THE HIT. Plus: a little bit of Pasolini's TEOREMA talk for good measure. Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jer
Soderbergh Ep. 17: Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
We're going back to Vegas for one more job...it's the thrilling conclusion to the trilogy, OCEAN'S THIRTEEN! Well, maybe "thrilling" is arguable. But the episode sure is! We're talking Oprah, Steve Wynn, Mexican labor action, Five Diamond status - it's all here, folks. Further Reading: "Steve Wynn's Biggest Gamble" by Nina Munk Meet The AAA Diamond Rating Experts Further Viewing: DOWN BY LAW (Jar
PATREON PREVIEW: Clint Character Tier List with Aaron from Hit Factory
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Friend of the show Aaron from Hit Factory joins us to assemble the definitive Tier List of characters played by Clint Eastwood. Along the way, we answer important questions like: What is a Tier List for? What makes a good character? Has Ian deve
Soderbergh Ep. 16: The Good German (2006) with Peter Raleigh
After 2005's digital day-and-date experiment BUBBLE, Soderbergh swung hard in the other direction with a Golden Age Hollywood pastiche: his (loose) adaptation of Joseph Kanon's postwar Berlin mystery THE GOOD GERMAN. Joining us is film writer and literal historian Peter Raleigh! We talk adaptation, aesthetic imitation, Denazification, CASABLANCA, and much more. Check it out! Further Reading: The G
PATREON PREVIEW: Legally Blonde (2001) with Veronica Phillips
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. A year after ERIN BROCKOVICH, another unashamedly feminine legal professional challenged norms and won at the box office in LEGALLY BLONDE. Here to talk gender performance, turn-of-the-millennium feminism, and Reese Witherspoon's many crimes is
Soderbergh Ep. 15: Bubble (2005) with Evan from Left of the Projector
Another Pod Casty For Me Experience: we're talking Steven Soderbergh's 2005 experiment BUBBLE - day-and-date release experiment, digital cinematography experiment, first-time actor experiment, improvised script experiment - with our buddy Evan from Left of the Projector! And this one's set at a factory, so you know we go crazy on it. We get into film distribution economics, working people on film,
PATREON PREVIEW: Robocop (1987) & Jake's Trip to Amsterdam
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. This week we're looking at another one of Dirty Harry's spiritual children, Paul Verhoeven's 1987 ROBOCOP. Violence, corporate greed, police stuff - much to talk about here. But we're also talking about it because Verhoeven is a Dutch guy and Ja
Soderbergh Ep. 14: Nightwatch (1997)/Criminal (2004)
A little something different this week: we're looking at two Soderbergh-scripted adaptations of international genre films! First, Soderbergh adapted Ole Bornedal's 1994 NATTEVAGTEN as 1997's NIGHTWATCH, also directed by Bornedal, starring post-TRAINSPOTTING, pre-PHANTOM MENACE Ewan McGregor as a night watchman at a spooky morgue. Next, Soderbergh turned Fabián Bielinsky's 2000 Argentine heist smas
PATREON PREVIEW: Silence (2016) with Robert Rubsam
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Writer and PCFM official Catholicism Correspondent Rob Rubsam is back for another Martin Scorsese examination of faith: 2016's SILENCE. We talk Jesuits, Japan, nuance, and our own religious baggage. Great, thoughtful ep - hope you enjoy! Follow
Soderbergh Ep. 13: Ocean's Twelve (2004) with Rory Doherty
OCEAN'S ELEVEN was a monster hit, and so naturally Steven Soderbergh made a sequel. An extremely normal sequel that didn't confuse or piss off almost everyone who saw it. We're getting silly today talking about OCEAN'S TWELVE - a very silly movie - with writer and film critic Rory Doherty! We're both sick right now so that's all the episode description you get, sorry! Good movie, good ep - check i
PATREON PREVIEW: Pleasantville (1998)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. In 1998, Steven Soderbergh produced Gary Ross's PLEASANTVILLE, a visually inventive satire of nostalgia and small-town repression - and in 2025, we did a dang Patreon episode on it. We talk passion, desire, old TV, and the ongoing push for safe
Soderbergh Ep. 13: Solaris (2002) with Aaron Thorpe
Steven Soderbergh's second release of 2002, after FULL FRONTAL, was another very odd move: a remake of Andrei Tarkovsky's SOLARIS (well, more of a new adaptation of the Stanislaw Lem novel). Underappreciated at the time, Soderbergh's SOLARIS has grown in reputation as one of the great science fiction films of the 2000s - so we brought on a bonafide science fiction expert, Aaron Thorpe, to talk abo
PATREON PREVIEW: Songs About Clint with Jetski
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. This week we're taking a look at a bunch of songs about, featuring, or otherwise related to Clint Eastwood...which is a great reason to bring on Jetski, aka Ian Ostaszewski, the composer of the Paid Costly For Me theme music! We chat Gorillaz, M
Soderbergh Ep. 12: Full Frontal (2002) with Chadd Harbold
Yeah, like we weren't going to go over two and a half hours on FULL FRONTAL. Following the generational run of OUT OF SIGHT, THE LIMEY, ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC, and OCEAN'S ELEVEN, Steven Soderbergh did what anyone would do: he shot a semi-improvised ensemble Hollywood satire on a consumer grade digital camera. The result, FULL FRONTAL, is a fascinating film about connection, mediation, performan
PATREON PREVIEW: Unforgiven (2013) with Comrade Yui
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Our dear friend Comrade Yui joins us to discuss Lee Sang-il's 2013 remake of UNFORGIVEN, which stars Ken Watanabe and transposes the action to Meiji Japan. We talk Japanese history, Westerns vs. jidaigeki, Pokémon metaphysics, and pantsing. Grea
Soderbergh Ep. 11: Ocean's Eleven (2001) with Patrick Willems
Ante up, listener! It's the OCEAN'S ELEVEN episode. After the unbelievable one-two punch of BROCKOVICH and TRAFFIC, Steven Soderbergh took a victory lap by remaking a dull Rat Pack movie into one of the most entertaining films ever made - and it made a bunch of money and everyone loves it. Including our guest, filmmaker and YouTuber Patrick Willems! We talk heists, movie stars, Vegas, pleasure - t
PATREON PREVIEW: Baby's First Unforgiven with "Zoomer" Josh Aalcides
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Jake's 23-year-old coworker Zoomer Josh is back, and this time we made him watch UNFORGIVEN. We talk Westerns, Hackman, the anti-ICE demonstrations in LA, and Josh's journey as a young cinephile. Plus: a dumb game! Follow Zoomer Josh: https://x.
Soderbergh Ep. 10: Traffic (2000) with Benjamin Y. Fong
The second half of Soderbergh's unbelievable year 2000 was TRAFFIC, his sprawling adaptation of the 1989 Channel 4 miniseries about the many sides of the drug trade. At the time, it was hailed as a highly nuanced and humane look at narcotics. But how does it look from 2025? Joining us to discuss is professor and author of our much-cited Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Ce
PATREON PREVIEW: Walking Tall (1973)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. In the aftermath of DIRTY HARRY, there were plenty of films looking to get in on the semi-legal vigilante craze. One of the most successful of these was Phil Karlson's WALKING TALL, starring the great, recently departed Joe Don Baker as real-lif
Soderbergh Ep. 9: Erin Brockovich (2000) with Carlee from Hit Factory
Soderbergh finally hit a box-office home run in 2000 with ERIN BROCKOVICH, a Julia Roberts-starring biopic about a paralegal with a big personality and a nose for corporate environmental malfeasance, and the one-two punch of BROCKOVICH and TRAFFIC in a single year cemented him as a truly major filmmaker. This is one of the big ones, so we brought in our friend Carlee from Hit Factory to talk about
PATREON PREVIEW: Duck, You Sucker! (1971)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. We return to our very slow trip through the films of Sergio Leone with 1971's DUCK, YOU SUCKER!, also known as A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE, also known as GIÙ LA TESTA, a story of the Mexican Revolution starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn. It's a rea
Soderbergh Ep. 8: The Limey (1999) with Elena Lazic
In 1999, Steven Soderbergh pushed his formal experimentation even further, rendering a straightforward revenge tale into a modernist masterpiece. In the process, the Terence Stamp/Peter Fonda joint THE LIMEY examines memory, the legacy of the 60s, and inaugurates Sodie's obsession with Cockney rhyming slang. Film writer and podcaster and UK resident Elena Lazic joins us to get limey! Good ep! Furt
PATREON PREVIEW: Jackie Brown (1997) with Jane Altoids
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. GET SHORTY and OUT OF SIGHT weren't the only high-profile Elmore Leonard adaptations of the 1990s. Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited follow up to PULP FICTION was a race- and setting-swapped adaptation of Rum Punch retitled JACKIE BROWN, starring
Soderbergh Ep. 7: Out of Sight (1998) with Bilge Ebiri
It's the OUT OF SIGHT episode, and our guest is Bilge Ebiri. Do we need to sell you on this? OK, fine: in 1998 Steven Soderbergh took a job for hire directing an Elmore Leonard adaptation and ended up finding the style that would define much of his career, minting George Clooney as a movie star, capturing Jennifer Lopez's best-ever performance, working with Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman and a bunch
PATREON PREVIEW: Get Shorty (1995) with Forrest Tiffany
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. We're talking more Gene Hackman and getting into the 1990s Elmore Leonard boom with Barry Sonnenfeld's GET SHORTY, and our friend Forrest Tiffany is here to help! Join us as we plot the line from PULP FICTION to GET SHORTY to JACKIE BROWN to OUT
Soderbergh Ep. 6: Schizopolis (1996) with Jordan Fish and Ray Tintori
What the hell is going on with Steven Soderbergh's 1996 super-low-budget labor of love comedy SCHIZOPOLIS? Our returning guests, the filmmakers and all-around handsome devils Jordan Fish and Ray Tintori of the To The White Sea Podcast, help us get to the bottom of it. Is this quietly a devastating analysis of a failed marriage starring the director and his real-life ex-wife Betsy Brantley? Or is a
PATREON PREVIEW: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. One of "the world's favorite movies," starring two guys who won back-to-back Best Supporting Actor Oscars under Clint Eastwood's direction, and Jake's never seen it? You know we had to talk about Frank Darabont's THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, prison
Soderbergh Ep. 5: The Underneath (1995)
In 1989, Steven Soderbergh was on top of the world. By 1995, he was underneath...THE UNDERNEATH, that is! We're talking Sodie's very loose remake of the 1949 Robert Siodmak film noir CRISS-CROSS (and the 1934 novel on which it was based), noir in the 1990s, armored cars, and Soderbergh's evolving film language as he becomes the director we all know and love. Nobody's favorite Sodie movie, but mayb
PATREON PREVIEW: Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That (2005)
This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Today we're talking about the 2005 documentary BUDD BOETTICHER: A MAN CAN DO THAT, which features both Clint Eastwood and Paul Schrader (among others) talking about the elemental western films of Budd Boetticher and his influence on their work.
