Empathy Machines
Each episode focuses on a particular director, with co-hosts Scott Anderson and Eric Abraham each selecting four films for discussion. The conversation explores the themes, directorial choices, and narrative structure of the chosen works. While listeners are welcome to tune in even if they haven't seen the movies, each episode contains spoilers from the start.
Episodes
Hold the Dark
After the deaths of three children suspected to be killed by wolves, writer Russell Core is hired by the mother of a missing six-year-old boy to track down and locate her son in the Alaskan wilderness.
Green Room
A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing something they shouldn't have at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar. Jeremy Saulnier. 2015.
Blue Ruin
A mysterious outsider's quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he winds up in a brutal fight to protect his estranged family. Jeremy Saulnier. 2013.
The Killer
Solitary, cold, methodical and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, a killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. Yet, the longer he waits, the more he thinks he's losing his mind, if not his cool. David Fincher. 2023.
Gone Girl
The husband of a missing woman becomes the main suspect in her disappearance. David Fincher. 2014.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided by eccentric hacker Lisbeth Salander in his search for a woman who has been missing for 40 years. David Fincher. 2011.
The Social Network
As Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business. David Fincher. 2010.
The Zone of Interest
The commandant of Auschwitz and his wife strive to build a dream life for their family in a house next to the camp. Johnathan Glazer. 2023.
Under the Skin
A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery. Johnathan Glazer. 2013.
Birth
A young boy attempts to convince a woman that he is her dead husband reborn. Johnathan Glazer. 2004.
Sexy Beast
Brutal gangster Don Logan recruits "retired" safecracker Gal for one last job, but it goes badly for both of them. Johnathan Glazer. 2000.
Titanic
A young aristocrat falls in love with a poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated RMS Titanic. James Cameron. 1997.
The Abyss
A civilian diving team is enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and faces danger while encountering an alien aquatic species. James Cameron. 1989.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
A cyborg from the future, identical to the one who failed to kill Sarah Connor, must now protect her ten-year-old son John from an even more advanced and powerful cyborg. James Cameron. 1991.
The Terminator
A cyborg assassin from the future attempts to find and kill a young woman who is destined to give birth to a warrior that will lead a resistance to save humankind from extinction. James Cameron. 1984.
The Best of 2025
For our 50th episode we cover our personal favourite movies of 2025.
Flora and Son
A single mom at war with her son is trying to find a hobby for him. One day, she rescues a guitar from a dumpster. John Carney. 2023.
Begin Again
A chance encounter between a down-and-out music business executive, and a young singer songwriter new to Manhattan, turns into a promising collaboration between the two talents. John Carney. 2013.
Sing Street
A young lad notices a beautiful girl who begins to occupy his thoughts. While struggling with poverty, personal relationships and life's woes, he starts a band, hoping to catch her attention. John Carney. 2016.
Once
A modern-day musical about a busker and an immigrant and their eventful week in Dublin, as they write, rehearse and record songs that tell their love story. 2006. John Carney.
Halloween Special Part Two - Doctor Sleep
Years following the events of The Shining (1980), a now-adult Dan Torrance must protect a young girl with similar powers from a cult known as The True Knot, who prey on children with powers to remain immortal.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/pecan-pie/pumpkin-hollowLicense code: BIAKSFKPDNIIUMX4
Halloween Special Part One - The Shining (1980)
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter, where a sinister presence influences the father into violence. At the same time, his psychic son sees horrifying forebodings from both the past and the future.Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/pecan-pie/pumpkin-hollowLicense code: BIAKSFKPDNIIUMX4
Bonus Episode - One Battle After Another
When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own. Paul Thomas Anderson. 2025.
Wild Goose Lake (Nanfang Chezhan De Juhui)
A gangster on the run sacrifices everything for his family and a woman he meets while on the lam. Diao Yinan. 2019.
Black Coal, Thin Ice (Bai Ri Yan Huo)
An ex cop and his ex partner decide to follow up on investigation of a series of murders that ended their careers and shamed them, when identical murders begin again. Diao Yinan. 2014.
Night Train (Ye Che)
Wu Hongyan is a young woman working as a prison guard during executions of female convicts. She feels lonely after her husband died, and she takes a night train to another city to visit a dating service. After a series of unsuccessful dates, she meets Li Jun. It quickly becomes obvious that he is hiding a secret: he is the widower of one of the female convicts of which Wu Hongyan assisted in the e
Uniform (Zhifu)
Economic unrest roils central China's Shaanxi Province: local factories are merging, thugs threaten managers, personnel records get lost, and workers are without protections such as health insurance. The police and much of society are surly. Xiao Jian, a mild young man whose father is ill, works in the family street stall doing pressing and tailoring. A laundered police-officer's shirt goes uncoll
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
After being snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers, while the tyrants Dementus and Immortan Joe fight for power and control, the young Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home. George Miller. 2024.
Mad Max: Fury Road
In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshipper and a drifter named Max. 2015. George Miller.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
After being exiled from the most advanced town in post-apocalyptic Australia, a drifter travels with a group of abandoned children to rebel against the town's queen. 1985. George Miller, George Ogilvie.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
In the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline-rich community get rid of a horde of bandits. George Miller. 1981.
Mad Max
In a self-destructing world, a vengeful Australian policeman sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang. George Miller. 1979.
Unsane
A young woman is involuntarily committed to a mental institution, where she is confronted by her greatest fear - but is it real or a product of her delusion? Steven Soderbergh. 2018.
Behind the Candelabra
A chronicle of the tempestuous six-year romance between megastar singer Liberace and his young lover Scott Thorson. Steven Soderbergh. 2013.
Ocean's Twelve
Daniel Ocean recruits one more team member so he can pull off three major European heists in this sequel to Ocean's Eleven. 2004. Steven Soderbergh.
Erin Brockovich
A flamboyant law firm secretary works tirelessly to gain justice for a small town wrecked by a utility company's pollution. Steven Soderbergh. 2000.
Bird
Bailey lives with her brother Hunter and her father Bug, who raises them alone in a squat in northern Kent. Bug doesn't have much time to devote to them. Bailey looks for attention and adventure elsewhere. Andrea Arnold. 2024.
American Honey
A teenage girl with nothing to lose joins a traveling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young love as she criss-crosses the Midwest with a band of misfits. Andrea Arnold. 2016.
Wuthering Heights
A poor boy of unknown origins is rescued from poverty and taken in by the Earnshaw family where he develops an intense relationship with his young foster sister, Cathy.
Rust and Bone
Put in charge of his young son, Alain leaves Belgium for Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Alain's bond with Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, grows deeper after Stephanie suffers a horrible accident. Jacques Audiard. 2012.
A Prophet
A delinquent Muslim man struggles to get by in prison until he is taken under the wing of a powerful mob boss. But his gradual rise through the mob's ranks brings him in conflict with his mentor. Jacques Audiard. 2009.
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Will Thomas still lead a life of crime and cruelty, just like his thuggish father, or will he pursue his dream of becoming a pianist? Jacques Audiard. 2005.
Read My Lips
She is almost deaf and he lip-reads. He is an ex-convict. She wants to help him. He thinks no one can help except himself. Jacques Audiard. 2001.
Halloween Special - The Thing (1982)
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims. John Carpenter. 1982. Music Credit 'Halloween Long Edit' by Alex-Productions.
Lovers Rock
A single evening at a house party in 1980s West London sets the scene, developing intertwined relationships against a background of violence, romance and music. Steve McQueen. 2020.
Widows
Four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands' criminal activities take fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms. Steve McQueen. 2018.
Shame
A sex addict's carefully cultivated private life falls apart after his sister arrives for an indefinite stay. Steve McQueen. 2011.
The Outside
Longing to fit in at work, awkward Stacey begins to use a popular lotion that causes an alarming reaction, while an unnerving transformation takes shape. Ana Lily Amirpour. 2022.
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon
A girl with unusual powers escapes from a mental asylum and tries to make it on her own in New Orleans. Ana Lily Amirpour. 2021.
The Bad Batch
In a desert dystopia, a young woman is kidnapped by cannibals. Ana Lily Amirpour. 2016.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire. Ana Lily Amirpour. 2014.
Blonde
The story of American actress Marilyn Monroe, covering her love and professional lives. Andrew Dominik. 2022.
Killing Them Softly
Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Robert Ford, who has idolized Jesse James since childhood, tries hard to join the resurgent gang of the Missouri outlaw, but gradually becomes resentful of the bandit leader.
Chopper
Chopper tells the intense story of Mark "Chopper" Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a jail sentence in prison. His book, "From the Inside", upon which the film is based, was a best-seller. Andrew Dominik. 2000.
Joy Ride
Three young people on a road trip from Colorado to New Jersey talk to a trucker on their CB radio, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychopathic killer. John Dahl. 2001.
Rounders
A young, reformed gambler must return to playing high stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks, while balancing his relationship with his girlfriend and his commitments to law school. John Dahl. 1998.
Unforgettable
A Seattle medical examiner uses an experimental memory transference drug to unravel the mystery surrounding his Wife's brutal murder. John Dahl. 1996.
The Last Seduction
A devious sexpot steals her husband's drug money and hides out in a small town where she meets the perfect dupe for her next scheme. John Dahl. 1994.
There Will Be Blood
A story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business. Paul Thomas Anderson. 2007.
Magnolia
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley. Paul Thomas Anderson. 1999.
Boogie Nights
Back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, an idealistic porn producer aspires to elevate his craft to an art when he discovers a hot young talent. Paul Thomas Anderson. 1997.
Hard Eight
Professional gambler Sydney teaches John the tricks of the trade. John does well until he falls for cocktail waitress Clementine. Paul Thomas Anderson. 1996.
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