Random Acts of Cinema

Mike Noyes and Charles Peterson
  • 3.9 (16)
  • VISUAL ARTS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Each week friends Mike and Charlie have Randy (the random number generator) select a film for them to watch from the Criterion Collection. Then they discuss and review it for your listening pleasure. It's a podcast about the love of film, expanding horizons, painstakingly cataloging the duration of every long take, and friendship.

  1. 17H AGO

    741 - My Winnipeg (2007)

    We know y'all are some nasty freaks out there who have been waiting a long time for this one to drop.  Guy Madden comes back with an irreverently cinematic fake/real/fake documentary about his home town of Winnipeg.  It's black and white, it's out of focus, the cuts are fast and many.  It's psycho-sexual.  It's arty AF.  Is he going to vignette any shots?  Uh, yeah. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Sidney Lumet's The Wiz (1978).

    59 min

  2. FEB 10

    19 - Shock Corridor (1963)

    Samuel Fuller turns a critical eye on the state of mental health treatment in the United States to, uh… well, not really.  Mostly he just uses a stage theater's idea of a mental hospital as a narrative device for exploring three major American anxieties in the 1960s.  Want to complain about nukes?  Have a patient do a one-man show for a while about how we went insane after building them.  And you know what, that's the tame one of the three.  For a B-movie about a reporter going undercover in a mental ward to solve a murder, things get wild. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Guy Maddon's My Winnipeg (12007).

    1h 52m

  3. FEB 2

    752 - Vernon, Florida (1981)

    Documentarian of the ages Errol Morris turns his gentle eye toward the old fellers of a small town in Florida and just sort of lets them do their thing.  Talking about gobblers, wigglers, growing sand, ambidexterity, fake (or maybe real) jewels, seeing the perfection of God in nature, and the magical definition of the word "therefore." *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor (1963).

    1h 14m

  4. JAN 28

    LD99 - Burn! (1969)

    Gillo Pontecorvo directs a cast of unknowns in his big swing on the historical action/drama about a British agent sent to use all of his cynical wile to foment a slave revolt on Portuguese colony island. Keep careful eye out for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo by Marlon Brando at his understated best. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Errol Morris' Vernon, Florida (1981).

    1h 23m

  5. JAN 21

    498 - Paisan - War Trilogy (1946)

    Roberto Rossellini travels length of the Italian peninsula in the immediate aftermath of WWII to share 6 stories about the lives of Italian civilians and partisans and their relationships with foreign Allied troops.  Love, tragedy, heroism, and sacrifice result from the difficulties of communicating purpose and need of individuals confronted with the inhumane machine of war. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Gillo Pontecorvo's Burn! (1969).

    1h 8m

  6. JAN 13

    469 - The Hit (1984)

    What does it mean to die?  What does it mean to truly live… on a road trip across Spain with Terence Stamp, John Hurt, and Tim Roth in a giant white Mercedes Benz?  Director Stephen Frears grabbles with these enduring questions in his sun-soaked take-down of the neo noir.  Ten Years after snitching on his compatriots, a criminal in hiding is rousted from his dreamy Spanish village life by two hit men sent to exact retribution.  But he seems oddly cool about it all.  What gives? *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Roberto Rossellini's Paisan - War Trilogy (1946).

    1h 21m

  7. JAN 5

    1048 - Dos Monjes (1934)

    One, two monks kneel before you That's what I said now Monks, monks who adore you Just go ahead now One has diamonds in his pockets And that's some bread now This one says he has tuberculosis It's in his lungs now… Juan Bustillo Oro takes us on a Rashomon-esque journey into nightmarish memory in this 1930s Mexican classic. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Stephen Frears' The Hit (1984).

    1h 6m

  8. 12/30/2025

    326 - Metropolitan (1990)

    Finally, a movie comes along with the guts to ask the question: can you be a Fourierist AND a Vebleninian at the same time?  Explore this question and more at the Manhattan debutante ball season after parties of Whit Stillman's career defining entrée about class, love, and pretentious discussion topics. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Juan Bustillo Oro's Dos Monjes (1934).

    1h 18m
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3.9
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

Each week friends Mike and Charlie have Randy (the random number generator) select a film for them to watch from the Criterion Collection. Then they discuss and review it for your listening pleasure. It's a podcast about the love of film, expanding horizons, painstakingly cataloging the duration of every long take, and friendship.

Information

  • Creator
    Mike Noyes and Charles Peterson
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    351
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Random Acts of Cinema