12 afleveringen
Alternate Sides James Lavino & Sam Neave
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- Tv en film
James and Sam have been friends and collaborators for over 20 years. They’ve worked on films and TV shows and commercials together and have written numerous scripts that lie unproduced in their shared Dropbox folder.But James has a secret: he hasn’t actually seen that many movies. And Sam, who’s a bit of a film snob, has been giving him a hard time about it for years. As James enters undeniable middle age, he has finally promised to catch up on some of the films he’s missed.Every week or so, while Sam has to move his Subaru from one side of a Brooklyn street to the other (to appease the street-cleaning gods), they chat about a classic movie that James has somehow managed to avoid until now.One film from each year of James’s life so far: 1973 to 2023…
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Holiday Special: Elf
It’s a special holiday episode! We’re deviating from our usual chronology to talk about Jon Favreau’s 2003 Christmas classic, Elf, starring Will Ferrell, Zooey Deschanel, and James Caan. And it turns out that neither of us had ever seen this movie before this week.
Plus: Ferris Bueller, overripe fruit, and “cross-hatched” dreams.
LINKS:
Trailer for Elf
Will Ferrell takes a dart to the neck in Old School
Will Ferrell imitates a cat in his SNL audition
M. Ward sings Bowie's "Let's Dance" -
1982: Fanny and Alexander
This week we close out Season One of the podcast with a conversation about Ingmar Bergman’s family epic Fanny and Alexander, starring Bertil Guve, Ewa Fröling, and Jan Malmsjö.
Plus: wind chimes, bookstore etiquette, and Gloomhaven.
LINKS:
Trailer for Fanny and Alexander
Art Garfunkel in the studio
Chevy Chase can't get left, from European Vacation -
1981: Thief
This week we discuss Michael Mann’s gritty debut feature, Thief, starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld.
Plus: spa treatments, house cats, and Pink Floyd knockoffs.
LINKS:
Trailer for Thief
The VEMI treatment
Steve Martin makes coffee in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
The end of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” (starting at 4:20)
“Confrontation”, the final music cue in Thief (starting at 0:40) -
1980: The Elephant Man
This week we explore David Lynch’s black-and-white period drama The Elephant Man, starring Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, and Anne Bancroft.
Plus: Just how bad was James’s first screenplay?
LINKS:
Trailer for The Elephant Man
Michael Jackson bids for Merrick's bones
Three pages from The Mourning Cloak (1999) -
1979: Being There and Life of Brian
This week we tackle two movies. Hal Ashby’s American satire Being There, starring Peter Sellers; and Terry Jones’s biblical spoof Monty Python’s Life of Brian, starring the Pythons.
Plus: blooper reels, the death of Black Panther, and the apparently ambiguous ending of Planet of the Apes.
LINKS:
Trailer for Being There
Trailer for Monty Python's Life of Brian
James's mother's eyes in Twelve Monkeys
Trailer for Not the Messiah (with glimpse of James, in back row, at 0:48) -
1978: Days of Heaven
This week we discuss Terence Malick’s luminous period drama Days of Heaven, starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, and Sam Shepard.
Plus: Virgil’s Eclogues, group dynamics, and the Identified Patient.
LINKS:
Trailer for Days of Heaven
Steve Coogan's impression of Richard Gere (from The Trip)
The "identified patient"