Scrawls On Cinema Cody Workman

Today Cody and Scrawls editor Jonathan Yim go long on Wim Wenders' 1984 masterpiece of American isolation, Paris, Texas.

After the pod's unfortunate hiatus, Cody is back and better than ever with his cohost Elijah Johnston; the boys tackle Charlie Kaufman's new Netflix original I'm Thinking of Ending Things, along with Michael Almereyda's wonderfully unorthodox take on the biopic, Tesla. They round out the episode with a breakdown of Elijah's all-time favorite picture, John Hughes' classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Cody and his special guest Parker Myers have one word for you: Tenet. They also have some other words for you; namely, ones regarding the seminal 90s anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion and its accompanying feature film The End of Evangelion. Join the boys for a lengthy, fascinating descent into the wild world of Hideaki Anno and his deeply psychological take on mecha anime.

Cody never got around to wrangling a new special guest for this week's podcast, so in lieu of that, he recruited Scrawls stalwarts Ben Noble, Joseph Shin, and podcast editor Reagan Jones for a discussion of their favorite films of 2020 so far. The boys touch on everything from Spike Lee's widely acclaimed Da Five Bloods to Lana Wilson's divisive Taylor Swift documentary Miss Americana, even making a little time for some discourse regarding Eurovision Song Contest and The King of Staten Island. Things then take a sharp left turn into an extensive analysis and debate over Melvin Van Peebles' iconic blaxploitation (or is it??!) classic Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. 

Torn on deciding on a film to discuss, Cody and his guest Chris Borg take a gamble on a joint viewing and subsequent reappraisal of Clint Eastwood's 1978 orangutang-starring, country music-filled comedy Every Which Way But Loose. Of course, given that this is the Scrawls on Cinema podcast, the two meander down some other conversational pathways as well; topics include The Godfather, Do the Right Thing, and the overwhelming oeuvre of Howard Hawks.

On this week's episode, Paul Thomas Anderson super-fan Cash Robinson joins Cody for a broad overview of PTA's career and a particularly in-depth discussion of his 2012 masterpiece The Master.