Watch With Jen‪™‬ Jen Johans

Returning to the podcast this week for the first time since I chatted with him and other wonderful writer-editors of the online film journal BW/DR (Bright Wall/Dark Room) about their favorite comfort movies a few seasons back, we have Ethan Warren.A member of the Boston Society of Film Critics who holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina - Wilmington, plus the writer-director of the film WEST OF HER, Ethan stopped by to give us the inside scoop on his rich, fascinating new cinema studies book for Columbia University Press. Part of the publisher's Directors Cuts series which focuses on the work of the most significant contemporary international filmmakers, Ethan Warren's outstanding work entitled "The Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson: American Apocrypha" is now available and I highly recommend you check it out.Having just recorded my own contributions on Paul Thomas Anderson's SYDNEY aka HARD EIGHT for the tie-in Pod Thomas Anderson podcast that Ethan collaborated on with One Heat Minute Productions and Blake Howard, I opted to have Ethan join me to chat about Anderson's two collaborations with the great actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Opening the episode with an appreciation of Anderson's work, including stories of seeing his films in the theater and our evolving relationship with them, plus more information about the author's book and writing process, the second half of this roughly hour-long conversation zeroes in on THERE WILL BE BLOOD and PHANTOM THREAD.Note: This will be the last new installment of the podcast for roughly a month, as I'm giving myself a little time to recharge ahead of our upcoming 200th episode. Rest assured, I'll be sharing recommendations and other surprises on our Patreon next month and will also continue working on shows behind the scenes but am giving myself a little break to heal from an injury and creating a cushion of episodes in case I travel, anything unforeseen arrives, or life gets busier. Thank you for your listenership and support!Originally Posted on Patreon (5/27/23) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/83634986 Logo: KateGabrielle.comTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

This week, it was so great to welcome Peter Avellino back to the podcast. A talented and thoughtful writer (& Film Twitter royalty), Peter Avellino's long-form essays on the movies that fascinate & frustrate him in equal measure have long made his blog Mr. Peel's Sardine Liqueur a must-read for cinephiles. Just in time for the Memorial Day kickoff of Summer Movie Season in 2023, Peter & I go back in time thirty years in order to highlight three intelligent thrillers for grown-ups released in the summer of '93: GUILTY AS SIN, THE FIRM, & THE FUGITIVE. Celebratory & nostalgic, yet clear-eyed, while all Watch With Jen listeners are bound to enjoy this conversation, those with a special place in their heart for moviegoing in the early '90s are sure to find this episode particularly entertaining. Originally Posted on Patreon (5/22/23) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/83393401 Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive Logo: KateGabrielle.com

Welcome to Dennis Hopper in the 1990s aka Watch With Jen's third & final installment in our first spotlight series devoted to the careers of iconic character actors that we love to see onscreen. Timed to be running the same week as his birthday, we kick off our Hopper finale with an extended appreciation of his return to the director's chair for the 1990 film THE HOT SPOT c/o its biggest fan, my Pandemic Movie Club buddy & fellow erotic thriller devotee Travis Woods. Then we take you on a tour of Hopper's prolific & diverse '90s period of memorable performances in films such as THE INDIAN RUNNER, BOILING POINT, RED ROCK WEST, TRUE ROMANCE, SPEED, & WATERWORLD, & wrap everything up with some bonus recommendations by my brilliant guests. Included in this episode, you will hear from Jed Ayres, Duncan Birmingham, William Boyle, Elizabeth Cantwell, S.A. Cosby, Jordan Harper, & Travis Woods. The feedback on this series has been extraordinarily gratifying & I want to thank you so much for your listenership & support. While I will be taking a very short hiatus at the start of summer after we release S4: E20 to rest & recharge due to a recent injury, Watch With Jen has much more in store for you very soon, including two tie-in episodes that are focused on highly anticipated July Criterion releases with VIP guests, as well as our 200th episode. One of these conversations was recorded yesterday & it was staggeringly great so I can't wait to share it with you.Note: Due to language & subject matter, once again, this episode is for mature audiences only.Originally Posted on Patreon (5/18/23) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/83198058Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music ArchiveLogo: KateGabrielle.com

Between the fact that I'm a bit overscheduled next week & I've loved hearing from listeners who enjoyed the first installment in this series, I decided to take advantage of a free morning to edit & upload this episode early! Releasing just in time for Dennis Hopper's birthday on the 17th (& mine a couple of days later), welcome to the second installment of our three-part series devoted to the actor. Filled with analysis & appreciation of some of his most popular films & performances from a panel of seven outstanding guests, plus excerpts from a lifetime of interviews with Hopper voiced by yours truly, this episode covers the decade that made him an icon all over again with the film BLUE VELVET. I guess technically you could call this Dennis Hopper's Blue Period! Centered on the 1980s, we open with the controversial OUT OF THE BLUE & then talk about his great comeback year of 1986, & the films BLUE VELVET, RIVER'S EDGE, & HOOSIERS. Featuring great stories about seeing these films with audiences &/or way too young, plus insights from Hopper on directing actors & learning about women, along with Lynch's chronicle of casting him to play Frank Booth, this has been our most hotly anticipated release since I mentioned this project, so I hope you dig it. Originally Posted on Patreon (5/14/23) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/82997515Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive Logo: KateGabrielle.com

Around the time that the very first episode of Season 4 was uploaded, I embarked on a months-long journey to prepare & record the podcast's first entry in a new spotlight series devoted to some of the greatest character actors in screen history. Reaching out to good friends & past guests who I knew had a special interest in the life, films, characters, & performances of our first subject, Dennis Hopper, over the course of two months, I interviewed every participant one by one. Kicking off each conversation by inquiring what it was about Hopper that they found most compelling as a viewer (as well as their earliest memories of the actor), I challenged them even further, asking each guest to choose one or more of their favorite roles to dissect with me in a limited amount of time. While most people immediately gravitated to BLUE VELVET, I was thrilled by their willingness to touch on a number of his lesser-known or celebrated works, including some of the films that Dennis Hopper made as a director, & soon wound up with over 3.5 hours of stellar audio, primarily focused on the 1970s-1990s. Knowing that my overly ambitious idea for one episode was best reconfigured as a 3-part miniseries, I cut highlights from these conversations together & incorporated excerpts from interviews with Dennis Hopper I'd discovered in my research & then read them aloud as Hopper to add some variety to our stellar yet mostly masculine* lineup. Today, we're kicking things off a week ahead of Dennis Hopper's birthday with a look at the first part of his career. Although it's primarily set in the 1970s, we take a few forays into his earlier years as an actor & his iconic feature filmmaking debut EASY RIDER, plus flirt briefly with the '80s in order to cover his reunion with APOCALYPSE NOW director Francis Ford Coppola in RUMBLE FISH as well. Along with those titles, you'll also hear us discuss THE LAST MOVIE, THE AMERICAN FRIEND, KID BLUE, & others in Dennis Hopper - Part 1. Boasting a wonderfully insightful roster of contributors, this episode features the following guests in alphabetical order: Mitchell Beaupre, Duncan Birmingham, William Boyle, Elizabeth Cantwell, S.A. Cosby, Jordan Harper, Blake Howard, Mike Miley, & Travis Woods. Following this installment, next week's Part 2 is a must for fans of Dennis Hopper's '80s Renaissance era, including his iconic turn as Frank Booth in BLUE VELVET, & Part 3 will take us to the '90s. I hope you enjoy this long-in-the-works series & if you'd like to encourage the show's efforts to try new things like this in the future, please consider joining our Patreon (HTTPs://www.patreon.com/FilmIntuition) to support our research for as little as $1 per month, if you haven't joined us already, & be sure to recommend Watch With Jen to others to help spread the word. Thank you so much! *Note: our next subject is the remarkable Julianne Moore so I'm hoping that will help balance things out a little! Originally Posted on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/82813775 Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive Logo: KateGabrielle.com

You've heard Chris and Elizabeth Cantwell on past episodes solo but recently, I was thrilled to be joined by this dynamic duo together for a hilarious & thoughtful conversation about one of their favorite movie stars. The co-creator and showrunner of one of my favorite television series Halt and Catch Fire (which he joined me to discuss in season 2), Chris Cantwell is an incredibly talented & prolific writer working on the TV projects Devil in Silver & Max Headroom, & also writing such comics as Star Trek: Defiant, Hellcat, Briar, Namor, Obi-Wan, Iron Man, Dr. Doom, & Regarding the Matter of Oswald's Body. His brilliant wife Elizabeth Cantwell is a poet, teacher, & writer-editor at Bright Wall/Dark Room whose essays on movies & men are always must-reads. Everyone says that their spouse is their best friend but for these two, it's legit! In this wildly funny, rapid-fire banter & tangent-filled celebration of Kurt Russell, we investigate the many eras & sides of the actor in the films SILKWOOD, OVERBOARD, THE COMPUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES, & TOMBSTONE. The perfect listen for a relaxing summer afternoon & our most hilarious installment since our Adrian McKinty conversation on EXCALIBUR & LORD OF THE RINGS released earlier this season, this episode is sure to make you laugh. Originally Posted on Patreon (5/6/23) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/82606292 Logo: KateGabrielle.com Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive