91 episodes

“Fun City Cinema” hosts Jason Bailey and Mike Hull proudly present “A Very Good Year,” a podcast with a simple premise: each week we invite a guest (filmmakers and actors, critics and historians, comedians and musicians) who loves movies, and ask them to select their favorite year of movies. Some pick a year from their movie-going past; some go deep into film history. Whichever the case, we spend (about) an hour talking about that year: we ask them to share their top five films of the year, and tell us why they love them; we look at the year’s news headlines, award winners, and box office champions; and we finish with a lightning round, where we talk about as many films as possible in as few minutes as possible.
For show notes - including where to stream this week's movies, links to referenced media, and more - subscribe on Buttondown at https://buttondown.email/AVeryGoodYear. https://plus.acast.com/s/a-very-good-year.



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A Very Good Year A Very Good Bonus Episode

    • TV & Film
    • 4.6 • 54 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

“Fun City Cinema” hosts Jason Bailey and Mike Hull proudly present “A Very Good Year,” a podcast with a simple premise: each week we invite a guest (filmmakers and actors, critics and historians, comedians and musicians) who loves movies, and ask them to select their favorite year of movies. Some pick a year from their movie-going past; some go deep into film history. Whichever the case, we spend (about) an hour talking about that year: we ask them to share their top five films of the year, and tell us why they love them; we look at the year’s news headlines, award winners, and box office champions; and we finish with a lightning round, where we talk about as many films as possible in as few minutes as possible.
For show notes - including where to stream this week's movies, links to referenced media, and more - subscribe on Buttondown at https://buttondown.email/AVeryGoodYear. https://plus.acast.com/s/a-very-good-year.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    1954 with Glenn Kenny

    1954 with Glenn Kenny

    Glenn Kenny is the author of the new book “The World Is Yours: The Story of ‘Scarface,’ and is one of our favorite film critics and scholars in general. He’s here to talk about the mighty 1954, a less-discussed year that gave us everything from “The Seven Samurai” to “Rear Window” to “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.”  For show notes - including where to stream this week's movies, links to referenced media, and more - subscribe on Buttondown at https://buttondown.email/AVeryGoodYear. https://plus.acast.com/s/a-very-good-year.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 9 min
    1990 with Kate Erbland

    1990 with Kate Erbland

    Indiewire’s Kate Erbland was a literal child in the year 1990, but she luckily had parent who put very few viewing boundaries on her, which was how she ended up seeing “Die Hard 2,” “Ghost,” and one of her all-time favorite movies, “Pretty Woman.” She joins us to talk about those and MANY more. For show notes - including where to stream this week's movies, links to referenced media, and more - subscribe on Buttondown at https://buttondown.email/AVeryGoodYear. https://plus.acast.com/s/a-very-good-year.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 4 min
    1997 with Tomris Laffly

    1997 with Tomris Laffly

    Film critic and journalist Tomris Laffly was just starting to figure out who she was as a filmgoer in 1997, so she joins us to share some of her favorite memories of that year: the heartache of “Good Will Hunting,” the dark humor of “The Ice Storm,” and the majesty of “Titanic.” For show notes - including where to stream this week's movies, links to referenced media, and more - subscribe on Buttondown at https://buttondown.email/AVeryGoodYear. https://plus.acast.com/s/a-very-good-year.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 6 min
    2002 with John Early

    2002 with John Early

    In advance of Friday’s theatrical debut of his Sundance hit “Stress Positions,” comedian, actor, writer, and cinephile John Early joins us to discuss all things 2002, from the earnestness of “Crossroads” to the sexiness of “Unfaithful” to the status of his Toni Collette website.  For show notes - including where to stream this week's movies, links to referenced media, and more - subscribe on Buttondown at https://buttondown.email/AVeryGoodYear. https://plus.acast.com/s/a-very-good-year.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 12 min
    2013 with Siddhant Adlakha

    2013 with Siddhant Adlakha

    Filmmaker, actor, TV writer, and film critic Siddhant Adlakha was in a moment of transition in 2013, and vowed to see as many new movies as possible for the sake of career clarity. He walks us through some of those discoveries, from the spectacle of “Ram-Leela” to the melancholy of “Inside Llewyn Davis” to the intimacy of “Short Term 12.” For show notes - including where to stream this week's movies, links to referenced media, and more - subscribe on Buttondown at https://buttondown.email/AVeryGoodYear. https://plus.acast.com/s/a-very-good-year.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 13 min
    1979 with Scott Drebit

    1979 with Scott Drebit

    Daily Dead columnist Scott Drebit’s new book is “A Cut Below: A Celebration of B Horror Movies, 1950s-1980s,” so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he picked 1979, a banner year for horror. He joins us to discuss the working-class scares of “Alien,” the insanity of “Zombie,” the inexplicable PG rating of “Tourist Trap,” and more.  For show notes - including where to stream this week's movies, links to referenced media, and more - subscribe on Buttondown at https://buttondown.email/AVeryGoodYear. https://plus.acast.com/s/a-very-good-year.



    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    • 1 hr 9 min

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
54 Ratings

54 Ratings

PandoraNY ,

A podcast that has changed the way I think about films

While I’ve been a film fan for my entire life, including studying film with Jeanine Basinger in the 1970s, I’d never thought of them in the context of the year in which they were released, the other films released in the same year, what was going on in the world in that year, and the films that were blockbusters/award winners. Jason Bailey and Michael Hull are remarkable hosts; they invite us in to share their love of movies. A wide variety of different guests (one per episode) give additional texture and breadth. Over and over, I’ll choose a film to see with my husband, or with my little local film club, and someone will ask “how did you find this film?” Invariably, the answer is “from the podcast A Very Good Year.”

Abbe@CaraMar ,

Great concept, always compelling

After Jason Bailey’s fantastic Fun City Cinema podcast wrapped, I wondered how he and Mike would pivot. What I love about this pod is the exposure to a variety of cinephiles who lead me to the missed gems in my film education.

YouKnowHowWeDo ,

Intro to and reminder of great movies

As a huge cinephile but someone without the time or bandwidth to see every movie I love to learn about some movies I haven’t seen and hear discussion about great movies I have seen. Also…..”In the year 2000…..in the year 2000!!”

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