The B-Side: A Film Stage Podcast The Film Stage

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between.

Today we go back to celebrate Pittsburgh’s first son - Michael Keaton. Our B-Sides today are: Clean and Sober, The Dream Team, One Good Cop, and My Life. Our guest is official five-timer Cory Everett, creator of Cinephile: A Card Game. 

We dive deep into analyzing how the actor took boring lead roles and made them sing. We marvel at the surprisingly small filmography of model-turned-movie star Rene Russo. We lament the early-90s politics of One Good Cop and we celebrate the fact that The Dream Team has basically aged okay! Which is a near-miracle. Finally, Cory and I describe the difficulty of even finishing watching My Life as fathers with young kids. Perhaps more importantly, does My Life has a premise that is far more famous than the movie itself? Yes! What are other movies like that?

Additionally, we mention how 1990 mega-hit is great actually despite its cultural ridicule, and Tony Goldwyn (Ghost co-star) is underrated, and Keaton has a new directorial effort that just premiered at TIFF. There’s also his early history as a funny stand-up comedian, his amazing voice work in Porco Rosso, and every moment in the comedy The Other Guys.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also now on Spotify and Stitcher. Enjoy!

Having long admired the work of Dustin Guy Defa, I was glad to speak with him on the occasion of two major moments: a Criterion Channel retrospective boasting nearly all his shorts- and feature-directing work, and the release of his excellent new film The Adults. Although we had a conversation with him and star Michael Cera at Berlinale earlier this year, the opportunity to go in-depth on a still-young, commendable career––while I experimented with an audio format, i.e. the horrors of letting people hear me ask questions––was simply too intriguing.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Surprise! Here’s a bonus episode in which we speak to the talented, prolific, and dynamic director Wayne Wang. Our main B-Side is Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, whose Director-Approved Special Edition Blu-ray is now available from Criterion.

Additional B-Sides include Eat a Bowl of Tea, Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (also on Criterion Channel), Smoke (and its own B-Side Blue in the Face), Chinese Box, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.

We talk to Wang about making films efficiently, his career-long ambition to make a different kind of film every time, how to construct the perfect “pillow shot” (an homage to filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu), combating boredom on set with ambition, and some smaller films he hopes more people discover.

There’s also talk on his faltered first step into Hollywood (Slam Dance), what he could’ve bought with the production budget on Maid in Manhattan (a pink elephant!), and the fear that drove him while making Dim Sum.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we’re honored to chat with director Carl Franklin, whose seminal noir One False Move is now available from The Criterion Collection as a Director-Approved Special Edition Blu-ray. 

Our B-Sides today are One True Thing, Out of Time, and Bless Me, Ultima. 

We talk to Franklin about his early days as an actor, how he got the directing bug (he made his short Punk while at AFI, working with Don Cheadle for the first time), what he learned making movies with legendary producer Roger Corman (and the other producer on one of the films who allegedly stole 80k of a 200k budget!), and the extremely underrated HBO mini-series Laurel Avenue from 1993. 

There’s also some discussion about Devil in a Blue Dress of course, working with Denzel Washington (and how the above-the-line numbers on Out of Time distort what the working budget actually was), and why a sequel to Laurel Avenue sadly did not get made just a few years back. There’s also a little bit on the pleasant making (and not-so-pleasant post process) of Bless Me, Ultima, adapted from the seminal novel by Rudolfo Anaya.

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. 

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.
Today we discuss a character actress, multiple Oscar nominee (and winner) and living legend who is still somehow underrated: Kathy “Bobo” Bates!
Our B-Sides today are: A Home of Our Own, Dolores Claiborne, Love Liza, and Richard Jewell.
The actress made her bones in the theater, originating roles in iconic stuff such as ‘Night Mother and Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.
Our guest is Billy Ray Brewton, host of the superb The Incinerator Podcast, the Movie Mixtapes podcast, and the Center Clueless podcast. Brewton is also the Festival Director/Lead Programmer of Make Believe Seattle.

We talk to Brewton about why Bates is his favorite working actress, her innate Southern charm, her late break into movies, her essential performance in Dolores Claiborne, and why Fried Green Tomatoes is so important to the state of Alabama.

Additional fun tidbits include: the strange career of A Home of Our Own director Tony Bill, the underrated Bates-led TV show Harry’s Law, the exciting acting Oscar wins that happened in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and some of Bates’ other B-Sides (Angus, Primary Colors, Bonneville).

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we talk about one of the prettiest actors in the world: Orlando Bloom!

Our guest is Roxana Hadadi, TV Critic for Vulture and fellow lover of Kingdom of Heaven: The Director’s Cut.

Our B-Sides today are: Ned Kelly, Haven, and Kingdom of Heaven.
We talk with Hadadi about Bloom’s growth as an actor, as evidenced in the 2-season Amazon Prime show Carnival Row. We discuss all the ways the Director’s Cut of Kingdom of Heaven is superior to the Theatrical Cut, Eva Green included.

Additional fun tidbits include: Bloom was one of the victims of the infamous “Bling Ring;” he got solid notices for his Romeo on Broadway in 2013; he’s the best part of the subpar Ned Kelly; he replaced Ashton Kutcher in Elizabethtown (about 22 minutes into the clip); and the mosaic-styled social drama was very popular in the early 2000s (Haven, Babel, 21 Grams, Syriana, Traffic, among many many more).

Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Enjoy!