The Actor and The Engineer Podcast Paul James and Josh Knapp

In this episode we volley our opinions on Luca Guadanino's new tennis film with Zendaya, a Prince and West Side Story's Riff. Scored by Reznor and Ross, this movie has more meat on its bones than a standard sports movie.

In this episode we talk about Alex Garland's film about war and the role journalists play in society. It includes a great score, cool song selection and strong performances by the Dunst/Plemons crew.

We finally got around to watching as many 2023 films as we could.  We are nailing down which ones were our favorites (or best, or highest regarded by us) and why!!

This week we go back to Arrakis with our special guest Justin Arner (multi-award winning creative producer).  We talk about Villeneuve using shot selection for optimal storytelling, Hans Zimmer's overwhelming score and question some of the casting choices.

It's time for the golden statues! We go through who we think will win and who we would want to win in the biggest Oscar categories, and Josh has a golden addition to his shelf.

We dive into Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest, an unconventional holocaust/family movie. The concept, the filmmaking techniques and the haunting sounds of the score and sound design come together with the grounded performances to form a film that is engaging and confrontational.