The Film Talk
After a 10-year hiatus, film critics Jett Loe and Gareth Higgins revive their ongoing conversation about movies and their meaning. They explore what films reveal about our lives and the world, what we can learn from different perspectives, and how cinema can help us navigate difficult times and celebrate the good ones.
Episodes
Boorman and the Devil and the Beautiful Disaster of Exorcist II: The Heretic
Is Exorcist II: The Heretic really one of the worst sequels ever made, or have we been watching it all wrong Dear Listener? Thanks to the documentary Boorman and the Devil, Jett and Gareth reconsider a movie that has been mocked for nearly 50 years. They explore Boorman's career, from Point Blank and Deliverance to Excalibur and The Emerald Forest, and examine how The Heretic fits into his lifelo
Digger: A Requiem for the World We Find Ourselves In
Jett and Gareth are overwhelmed by DIGGER, a film they see as exhilarating, horrifying and the most important movie of the moment. How do you make art in a world that too absurd to satirize? Is DIGGER a climate horror movie, a satire, (or farce), a work about our complicity in the systems we condemn or a piece of art about the difficult job of making art itself? All of the above? This is a spoiler
Should We Stop Anthropomorphizing AI? What 2001, Colossus and The Outer Limits Can Teach Us
Why are we working so hard to make artificial intelligence seem human? In this solo episode, Jett turns to three works of classic, and semi-classic, science fiction: Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Colossus: The Forbin Project, and Harlan Ellison's Demon with a Glass Hand, asking what movies can teach us about our increasingly personal relationship with AI. HAL raises one possibility: Wha
Coyote vs. Acme: Absurdity, Empathy, and Why We Keep Going
A cartoon coyote, Albert Camus, Mira Nair, and Albuquerque walk into a podcast. Jett and Gareth dig into the wonderfully humane Coyote vs. Acme: a film about persistence, absurdity, and the radical possibility of seeing the world through somebody else's eyes—even when that somebody has spent decades being flattened by anvils. The Show on the Web Subscribe on Patreon On Apple On Spotify On Faceboo
Steven Spielberg Ranked: Our Number Ones, and What Greatness Means
Six episodes later, the ranking project finally reaches the summit. Jett and Gareth reveal their respective No. 1 Steven Spielberg films, argue about greatness, wander briefly into Vincente Minnelli's Lust for Life, and confront the terrifying possibility that ranking art may have told us more about themselves than Spielberg. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Face
Steven Spielberg Ranked: Late Epiphanies and the Road to No. 1
The Spielberg ranking has now escaped all reasonable containment. As Jett and Gareth approach the top of the filmography, old assumptions collapse, unlikely favorites rise, and Gymkata, Zodiac, and Quantum of Solace somehow enter a conversation ostensibly about Steven Spielberg. Cinema is a mysterious business. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFil
Blue Heron: Grief, Family, and the Miracle of Being Seen
Sophy Romvari's Blue Heron opens a conversation about memory, damaged families, grief, and the profound human need to be seen accurately. Jett and Gareth also consider why New Yorker critic Richard Brody remains such a vital voice—and why criticism is at its best when it risks having a point of view. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk
The Odyssey: War, Homecoming, and Our Responsibility to Act
THE ODYSSEY: It's important that a film at this scale is speaking to this moment that we're in Dear Listener. In this wide ranging discussion our hosts Higgins and Loe get into why THE ODYSSEY is so thought provoking and important a piece of mainstream entertainment, while along the way enjoining discussions about matters of life and death, one's responsibilities to act, and also completely forget
Steven Spielberg Ranked: Sam Neill, Near Misses, and the Top Tier
Jett and Gareth would like to apologize for believing Steven Spielberg's entire theatrical career could be ranked in one episode. Part Four gets them almost, but emphatically not quite, to the end, while making room to remember the wonderful Sam Neill and the films and performances that stay with us after the rankings become meaningless. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Fi
The Mandalorian and Grogu: Does Star Wars Still Have Moral Weight?
What is Star Wars actually for? Jett and Gareth welcome educator and Star Wars expert Dan Zehr to talk The Mandalorian and Grogu, the future of the franchise, and whether this enormous mythology still carries moral weight—or has become merely a very expensive machine for moving familiar shapes around the screen. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFi
Steven Spielberg Ranked: War Horse, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the Movies That Divide Us
The great Spielberg ranking rolls onward, pausing for Au Hasard Balthazar, Tom Stoppard's work on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Gareth's entirely defensible—or indefensible—love of War Horse. The rankings matter less than the arguments they provoke, which is probably the point. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk
Disclosure Day: Spielberg, Wonder, and the Courage to Listen
Take out the earplugs of your mind, Dear Listener. Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day prompts Jett and Gareth to talk about wonder, attention, and what happens when popular cinema asks us to remain open to something larger than our own certainty. Sometimes the recommendation really is simple: see the movie, then talk about what it did to you. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - Th
Steven Spielberg Ranked: Raiders, Duel, and the Madness of Ranking Art
Gareth has placed Raiders of the Lost Ark somewhere Jett regards as evidence of a collapsing civilization. Part Two continues the impossible Spielberg ranking, with Duel helping clarify a useful principle: in the absence of reason, there is madness. Naturally, this does nothing to stop them. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk
Steven Spielberg Ranked: The Absurdity of Applying Metrics to Art
Can art be reduced to a numbered list? Almost certainly not. Jett and Gareth proceed anyway. Part One begins the dangerous work of ranking every theatrically released Steven Spielberg film from least great to greatest—or perhaps from slightly brilliant to most brilliant. Metrics meet movies. Reason does not necessarily prevail. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Fa
Backrooms: AI Anxiety and the Death of the Analog World
Backrooms arrives disguised as analog nostalgia and turns out to be something more unsettling: a film about what it feels like to live amid synthetic images, AI-generated culture, and the nagging suspicion that reality itself is becoming less tangible. Recommended—with caveats, unease, and a healthy distrust of infinite content. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk F
Natchez: Southern Charm, American Myth, and the Need to See Clearly
Natchez dismantles comforting myths about the American South while asking a larger question: what happens when culture lets us float free of place, history, and consequence? Gareth calls it an early film-of-the-year contender; Jett recommends it without reservation. Before we act, the episode argues, we first have to see. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook
Field of Dreams: Fathers, Sons, Regret, and the Possibility of Repair
Gareth has spent roughly 20 years trying to make Jett watch Field of Dreams. The long national nightmare is over. What follows is a conversation about fathers and sons, baseball ghosts, Burt Lancaster, lost monoculture, regret, forgiveness, and whether it is ever truly too late to make amends. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To contact J
Project Hail Mary: When Big-Hearted Sci-Fi Leaves Us Cold
What? Two film critics who may not actually recommend PROJECT HAIL MARY? It's true folks, in this massive episode we go in-depth into the pitfalls PROJECT HAIL MARY falls into and recommend some alternatives, namely: E.T., TITANIC, SILENT RUNNING, THE DAY AFTER (TOMORROW), THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE, LIFEFORCE, MELANCHOLIA, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, SOLARIS, CONTACT, I, ROBO
Oscars 2026: The Movies, the Crafts, and the Stories We Choose
The 98th Academy Awards become an excuse to talk about what awards occasionally get right, what they miss, and the hundreds of people whose work makes movies possible. Jett and Gareth discuss the directors, actors, cinematographers, editors, craftspeople, and Best Picture nominees—with the usual understanding that art stubbornly refuses to behave like a horse race. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The
Song Sung Blue: The Crowd-Pleaser That Missed Its Crowd
Gareth loves Song Sung Blue. Jett attempts to survive the experience physiologically. Together they ask why this warm, unabashed crowd-pleaser failed to find the audience it deserved—and whether sincerity has become strangely difficult for modern movie culture to process. Come for the film talk; stay because "Sweet Caroline" has become unavoidable. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spoti
Marty Supreme and Eephus: Exhilarating, Empty—or Both?
Two very different movies raise a suspiciously similar question: can a film be exhilarating and leave you strangely empty? Jett and Gareth put Marty Supreme and Eephus into conversation, looking for the difference between cinematic energy and actual nourishment. Baseball may or may not provide the answer. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk
The Best Films of 2025: The Movies That Mattered
It's the end of the year folks, so time for lists! Here's Jett and Gareth's Top 10 films of 2025. Gareth: BLUE MOON, A LITTLE PRAYER, KÖLN 75, THE HISTORY OF SOUND, SENTIMENTAL VALUE, SINNERS, SORRY BABY, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN and TRAIN DREAMS. Jett: AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, PLURIBUS, THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, RIEFENSTAHL, 28 YEARS LATER, SORRY BABY, BUGONIA, TRAIN DREAMS, SIN
Avatar: Fire and Ash: Does Avatar Need the Big Screen to Work?
One host saw Avatar: Fire and Ash in IMAX 3D. One did not. What follows is TFT's most divided conversation of the year and a useful experiment in what spectacle actually does: is Avatar a movie, an experience, or something that fundamentally changes when the screen gets smaller? Reconciliation remains uncertain. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFi
Rob Reiner, Train Dreams, and Sorry, Baby: Kindness, Grief, and How Movies Can Hold Pain
Remembering Rob Reiner leads Jett and Gareth back to a quality that ran through his work almost regardless of genre: kindness. From there, Train Dreams and Sorry, Baby open two different windows onto grief, vulnerability, survival, and the strange ability movies have to hold pain without reducing human beings to it. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/T
Frankenstein: Why Tell This Story Again?
There have been hundreds of Frankensteins. So why another one? Jett and Gareth ask whether a filmmaker's obsessive need to tell a familiar story can itself justify the retelling—and what a new Frankenstein has to say about creation, responsibility, monsters, and the people who make them. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To contact Jett an
Bugonia: The Genre You Shouldn't Know Before You See It
Bugonia is one of those films best approached with as little protection as possible. Jett and Gareth discuss a movie they regard as a pinnacle of something they refuse to name because doing so would ruin one of its great pleasures. Watch first. Then return. Trust can occasionally be rewarded. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To contact Je
A House of Dynamite: Is Dread Enough?
A House of Dynamite is brutally effective at producing nuclear dread. But what responsibility does a film assume once it has frightened us? Jett and Gareth consider catastrophe cinema from Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove onward, asking whether depicting the train coming at us is enough—or whether art can also help us imagine another track Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The F
Tron: Ares, Diane Keaton, and the Radical Act of Being Yourself
Tron: Ares, The Cat from Outer Space, and Diane Keaton may not seem like natural companions. TFT accepts the challenge. Jett and Gareth consider the latest Tron while remembering Keaton and the rare quality she embodied so completely: the courage to be unmistakably, gloriously yourself. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To contact Jett and
One Battle After Another: A Great Film That's Painful and Funny at Exactly the Same Time
Jett sees an all-time great. Gareth finds the experience almost unbearable—and may still agree. One Battle After Another opens a conversation about visual grandeur, political violence, white supremacy, resistance, vulnerability, and the difficult distinction between admiring a film and enjoying the experience of watching it. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Faceb
Weapons: A Horror Film for Our Age / Remembering Terence Stamp
Gareth calls Weapons a lament that earns the right to call itself a true story. Jett and Gareth explore why this horror film feels disturbingly fitted to its moment, then remember the presence, mystery, and startling career of Terence Stamp. Horror looks backward, sideways, and directly at us. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To contact J
Superman: Kindness as Radical Power
Jett and Gareth disagree sharply about one performance in Superman. On the larger point they are united: this is a movie willing to treat empathy and kindness not as weakness, sentimentality, or branding, but as genuine forms of power in a world very good at rewarding cruelty. Sometimes decency really does need a cape. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.co
28 Years Later: Horror, Compassion, and Caring About Strangers
"It made me care about strangers." That may be the most important thing Gareth says about 28 Years Later. Jett and Gareth explore a startlingly beautiful horror film whose cinematic ancestry reaches toward Boorman, Powell and Pressburger, Mike Leigh, and Lynne Ramsay, and whose real subject may be the persistence of human care. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Fa
The Phoenician Scheme: Wes Anderson, Harris Yulin, and Learning to Love the Artificial
Has Jett finally become a Wes Anderson person? Civilization awaits the verdict. Jett and Gareth discuss why The Phoenician Scheme works for both of them and make room to remember Harris Yulin, one of those extraordinary actors capable of making a few minutes of screen time feel like an entire life. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To cont
Mountainhead and Friendship: Can Men Really Be Friends?
Can men actually be friends? Jett puts the question to Gareth, his co-host and possible friend, on TFT's 300th episode. Mountainhead and Tim Robinson's Friendship become entry points into masculinity, status, loneliness, Emerson, Joseph Beuys, RoboCop, Starship Troopers, and whatever friendship is when nobody is trying to win. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Fac
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: Why This Impossible Movie Works
Surprise: Jett and Gareth love it. The Final Reckoning somehow evokes Lawrence of Arabia, The Abyss, and Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe while remaining very much a Mission: Impossible movie. The conversation considers spectacle, sacrifice, the series as a whole, and why some gigantic movies still feel unexpectedly personal. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com
Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources: Crime, Hope, and Atonement
Spoiler alert: your neighbors are terrible. In a culture offering an infinite amount of "content," Gareth proposes something better: watch Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. Jett and Gareth explore two enduring films about cruelty, inheritance, consequence, hope, and atonement. Please watch them first. Some spoilers deserve to remain spoilers. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spoti
Sinners: What Ryan Coogler's Film Means for the Future of Movies
Friends, lovers, sinners all: see this movie. Jett and Gareth take on Ryan Coogler's sprawling, multifaceted Sinners and the reasons it feels bigger than a single successful film. What does it reveal about genre, popular cinema, authorship, and the kinds of ambitious movies audiences might still demand? Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To
Black Bag: Trust, Marriage, and Politics in a Dangerous Moment
Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag arrives as a sleek spy film and becomes something much more useful: a story about trust, loyalty, intimacy, and what people owe one another when institutions become unstable. Jett and Gareth consider why this deceptively elegant entertainment feels unusually alive to its political moment. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com
Gene Hackman, the Oscars, and the Responsibilities We Can't Duck
The episode goes off the rails. This is acknowledged early. Jett and Gareth remember their favorite Gene Hackman performances and what made him irreplaceable, examine what the 2025 Oscars did—and did not—say about the surrounding world, and ask the harder question underneath both subjects: when circumstances demand something of us, what are our responsibilities? Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Fi
Oscars 2025, Part Two: Nickel Boys, Wicked, The Substance and More
Emilia Pérez, I'm Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance and Wicked - these are the films we're discussing today Dear Listener. As always Gareth Higgins and Jett Loe agree to disagree, especially about Gareth's shocking pick for best film out of the nominees. Enjoy. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To contact Jett and Gareth go to: info@t
Oscars 2025, Part One: Anora, The Brutalist, Conclave, Dune and More
Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave and Dune: Part 2 - these are the films we're discussing today Dear Listener. Of one of these Gareth Higgins says, "It's about 80 percent as good as The Godfather". Listen in and find out what he's talking about, if you can stand our rendition of The Brutalist score. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/T
The Brutalist: Beauty, Ambition, and the Cost of Building Something Real
The Brutalist is bleak and beautiful at exactly the same time. Jett is ready to call it magnificent. Gareth is almost there. Their disagreement opens into a larger conversation about ambition, architecture, history, suffering, and what happens when monumental acts of creation are built on lives that refuse to fit neatly inside them. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Ta
David Lynch Remembered: The Dream Never Ends
David Lynch has passed away. What strange words to be typing. We, like many others one suspects, expected him to be around always, and maybe he is…he's before and after, or perhaps there's no actual now. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk To contact Jett and Gareth go to: info@thefilmtalk.com Or leave a voicemail message at: Speakpipe.com/T
The Best Films of 2024: The Movies That Mattered
The annual list arrives with categories, disagreements, honorable mentions, movies everybody missed, movies everybody saw, and one film that is emphatically not the best film of the year. From Dune: Part Two and Conclave to Nickel Boys, Challengers, All We Imagine as Light, and Joker: Folie à Deux, this is TFT's unruly map of 2024. Discussed on the show: Haven't Seen But Need to See: La Chimera Se
A Complete Unknown: Bob Dylan, Identity, and the Mystery of Other People
Can we ever really know another person? James Mangold's Bob Dylan film gives Jett and Gareth a reason to ask, while also raising the equally urgent question of why A Complete Unknown occasionally appears to inhabit the same cinematic universe as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Identity, performance, mythmaking, and hats ensue. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film T
Wicked: Transcendence, Ugliness, and the Tension of Opposites
Can Wicked contain genuine seeds of transcendence while simultaneously looking strangely awful? Yes, apparently. Jett and Gareth embrace the contradiction, traveling through Jung, Attack of the Clones, the glorious color of 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, and the possibility that learning to hold opposing truths may actually help us live better lives. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Tal
What to Watch After an Election: Movies for Purpose, Connection, and Joy
What might help us become part of somebody else's happiness? In the aftermath of the 2024 U.S. election, Jett and Gareth turn to movies not as an escape from reality but as companions for meeting it: After Life, Ed Wood, Starship Troopers, and other films about purpose, absurdity, courage, and remaining human when the weather turns rough. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The F
Conclave: Power, Compassion, and the Possibility of Change / Remembering Teri Garr
We recorded this episode on Monday, November 5th, right before the U.S. Presidential Election Dear Listeners, yet, rather than seeming dated, it feels more timely than ever as we navigate choppy waters ahead. In this episode Jett and Gareth both revel in Conclave, a high-end, well-produced slice of the best cheese one can enjoy, that, interestingly, shows a potential way forward towards a more jus
Joker: Folie à Deux: Brokenness, Meaning, and the Movie Everyone Was Busy Scoring
Why don't film critics address the meaning of the movies they watch Dear Listener? We say enough with the horse race and the box office numbers. To that end, on this episode, Jett and Gareth get into what the new Joker film actually seems to be saying about human nature and the brokenness within it. Along the way Terrance Malick's The Thin Red Line is referenced, Sidney Lumet's magnificent The Ver
Megalopolis One Point Five
Megalopolis wants to talk about creativity: the human urge to make rather than destroy. Jett and Gareth follow that idea into stranger territory by handing the conversation over to their silicon avatars and asking what machines make of Coppola's grand, unruly vision. Whether the machines "think" is left deliberately unresolved. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Fa
Kris Kristofferson and John Amos - Still With Us
Poet and actor Kris Kristofferson may be gone, but he's still with us in spirit Dear Listener. Gareth and Jett talk about his work in the sublime Sam Peckinpah oater Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, as well as touching on his performance in the American classic Heaven's Gate. They also give a nod to the always welcome, OTG actor, John Amos, who recently passed as well. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - T
Megalopolis - Part 1
Francis Ford Coppola's epic Megalopolis is finally here! Clearly a work of a visionary artist the film divided TFT hosts Higgins and Loe more than most any other picture in the show's multi-decade history. In this episode Le Corbusier and Calder are referenced, as are All the Pretty Horses, Gangs of New York, the need for narrative coherence and so much more. Enjoy. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - Th
Reagan: Can a Bad Movie Become Great Art?
Great Art?Sometimes a movie breaks ordinary critical language so completely that the wreckage becomes interesting in its own right. Jett and Gareth confront Reagan: conventional biography, bizarre artifact, possible outsider masterpiece, or some unstable combination of all three. Badness, sincerity, cinematic grammar, and the strange places art can emerge all enter the room. Subscribe on Patreon A
James Earl Jones - Still With Us
That giant of acting, James Earl Jones, passed away yesterday at the age of 93. In this brief remembrance Jett and Gareth reflect on his beautiful range as an actor, talking Matewan, Dr. Strangelove, the Star Wars films, Field of Dreams and the little known television program Eastside/Westside. He will be missed greatly. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Can Tim Burton Still Surprise Us?
One host finds unexpected richness in Tim Burton's return to the afterlife. The other finds something closer to despair. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice becomes a useful excuse to talk about late-career filmmaking, repetition, surprise, moviegoing itself, and whether returning to a beloved world can produce new life rather than merely resurrect the old merchandise. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Ta
Trap: Hitchcock, Shyamalan, and the Fractured Male Psyche
M. Night Shyamalan's new "Hitchcockian" and, frankly, "Shyamalan-esqe", thriller Trap is reviewed in depth. Sure the film is a lot of fun, but what does it actually mean? TFT film critics Jett Loe and Gareth Higgins break the movie down within the context of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and a society which doesn't seem to foster psychological integration in men. Enjoy. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - T
Deadpool & Wolverine
"You're paying to participate in the destruction of the thing you used to enjoy", so says Gareth Higgins in this surprising emotional installment of The Film Talk, that delves into, however slightly, the death of what we used to call "the movies". Along the way John Huston's The Dead is recommended, Blazing Saddles is lauded and Jett Loe sheds a tear talking about the astonishing performance of Gl
The Bikeriders and Inside Out 2 Reviewed and an Appreciation of Donald Sutherland
You won't see a better cavalcade of actors in the English language today than in the magnificent, quiet, (and loud), film The BIkeriders, and Inside Out 2 is wonderful companion piece to the groundbreaking, Michael Apted-originated, Up series. Additionally in this episode we mourn the loss of that wonderful, sublime giant of cinema Donald Sutherland and realize that actor Boyd Holbrook is the new
Hit Man: Desire, Identity, and the Lies We Tell Ourselves
Is Richard Linklater's Hit Man a buoyant comedy with a dark little void at its center, or are Jett and Gareth watching two entirely different movies? Their disagreement opens a conversation about desire, performance, identity, self-invention, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Bad Lieutenant, and the stories people tell themselves in order to keep going. Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebo
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Is the new George Miller action spectacular a masterpiece or a misfire Dear Listeners? Film reviewers Gareth Higgins and Jett Loe again agree to disagree about the merits of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, (or should it be called a Mad Max Myth?). Along the way they get into what the 'Beyond Vengeance' chapter of the film really means, invoke Monty Python and the Holy Grail, have thoughts about changing
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Does compassion and empathy win the day in this new Apes picture? Gareth and Jett discuss in detail and, just like the old days, vehemently agree to disagree, (or do they?), about the merits of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Along the way the get into all the previous Ape movies, touch on Karl Malden's performance in disaster flick Meteor, have questions about Danny Boyle's Sunshine and fondly
Roger Corman - Mourning a Giant
Martin Scorsese said of Roger Corman's films, "they weren't encumbered with having to deal with art." There's a freedom in that The Film Talk thinks. In this appreciation of the great, prolific director and producer Roger Corman Jett and Gareth touch on his astonishing legacy, the one shirt John Sayles appears to have, a very special Laurie Anderson lyric, the merits of James Cameron's True Lies a
Challengers
Can you win without defeating someone? Gareth and Jett get into it with Luca Guadagnino's new new action, (and love), packed tennis picture Challengers. Along the way they delve into James Cameron's The Abyss, sing the praises of Hovis Bread commercials, recommend Ridley Scott's The Duelists and Walter Hill's Charles Bronson-starring Hard Times and pull the curtain back a little into their concept
Civil War
Can we experience our experiences without taking photographs of them? This is one of the many questions asked in Jett and Gareth's look at the brilliant, picaresque horror film from Alex Garland: Civil War. Along the way they relate the movie to such work as Andor, Cold Mountain, Salvador and even After Earth, and decide we all need an avalanche of kindness in the world. French philosopher René Gi
Perfect Days, Louis Gossett Jr. and M. Emmet Walsh
This may be one of the most far-ranging and far-reaching shows yet. Gareth and Jett get into the beautiful and sublime Wim Wender's film Perfect Days, look, and listen to, M. Emmet Walsh in Straight Time and The Iron Giant, marvel at Louis Gossett Jr.'s performance in Enemy Mine and Jaws 3-D, (the third dimension is terror), explore the Wings of Desire Cinematic Universe, wonder about Alejandro Jo
Dune: Part Two: Power, Trauma, and the Myth of Redemptive Violence
Dune: Part Two may be one of the great horror films of its moment—not because of monsters, but because of what it understands about power, trauma, belief, and the seductive myth that violence will finally set things right. Jett and Gareth connect Villeneuve's epic to The Manchurian Candidate, L.A. Confidential, Lynch's Dune, and their own histories. To listen to the show on Apple Podcasts go to: A
[Teaser] Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - Bonus Episode
Oh my goodness folks we're doing our first Bonus Episode, a deep dive into the glorious Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny! The full episode will be released Friday, March 15th, 2024. To get access to the monthly bonus episode(s) of the podcast click go to: Patreon.com/TheFilmTalk To listen to the show on Spotify go to: Spotify - The Film Talk You can also converse with other TFT fans on Face
Every Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee of 2024 - Part 2
Time for Part Two of our big Oscar Show folks! Jett and Gareth agree, and sometimes agree to disagree about: Maestro Oppenheimer Past Lives Poor Things The Zone of Interest To get access to the monthly bonus episode(s) of the podcast go to: Patreon.com/TheFilmTalk To listen to the show on Apple Podcasts go to: Apple - The Film Talk To listen to the show on Spotify go to: Spotify - The Film
Every Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee of 2024 - Part 1
Dear Friends, they're back! After ten years, Jett & Gareth have restarted the podcast The Film Talk. They never thought they'd do it, but they missed talking to each other about the meaning of movies and the joy they bring. In this inaugural return episode we review every single Best Picture nominee of the 2024 Academy Awards. This obviously takes some time so they've broken the show into two pa
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