Pod Casty For Me

Jake Serwin & Ian Rhine

Pod Casty For Me: a left politics and culture podcast about the films of Steven Soderbergh (formerly Clint Eastwood and Paul Schrader), one movie per episode. Hosted by Jake Serwin & Ian Rhine. New episodes every other Friday.

  1. Aug 7

    PATREON PREVIEW: Rambo: Last Blood (2019) with Roman Pessarov

    This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Like a bizarro Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone parlayed two iconic roles into a decades-long career as a movie star and filmmaker, restauranteur, and conservative hero - only he's short and a lousy director. In 2019, Stallone put his crusading 'Nam vet character out to pasture with RAMBO: LAST BLOOD, a half-assed UNFORGIVEN riff that finds Rambo going up against some rightwing fever-dream "Mexican" human traffickers. Beyond featuring almost zero Mexicans, the film also features zero Mexico: it was largely shot in Bulgaria. Bulgaria's rise as a filmmaking hotspot is thanks in large part to the success of Stallone's Expendables franchise, which allowed production company Millennium Films to turn Sofia's Nu Boyana Film Studios into a one-stop offshoring shop for Hollywood. Joining us to discuss his experience working on this film (!) and the state of the Bulgarian film industry is filmmaker and co-host of the Cinema Strolls podcast Roman Pessarov! We also take a look at the Rambo series as a whole, being a cinephile outside of the US, and learn that even former Soviet dads are ultimately a lot like other dads. GREAT ep, check it out! Follow Roman Pessarov: https://www.instagram.com/roman.pessarov/ https://www.hopp.bio/cinema-strolls https://kinematograf.bg/mirror-touch-film https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3355231/ Further Viewing: ROLLING THUNDER (Flynn, 1977) FIRST BLOOD (Kotcheff, 1982) RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (Cosmatos, 1985) RAMBO III (MacDonald, 1988) RAMBO (Stallone, 2008) EASTERN PLAYS (Kalev, 2009) GLORY (Grozeva & Valchanov, 2016) PICTURES OF GHOSTS (Mendonça Filho, 2023) THE SECRET AGENT (Mendonça Filho, 2025) Further Reading: "The King of the Geezer Teasers" by Joshua Hunt: https://www.vulture.com/article/randall-emmett-movies.html

    PATREON PREVIEW: Rambo: Last Blood (2019) with Roman Pessarov
  2. Jul 17

    Let Them All Talk (2020) with Veronica Phillips

    All aboard the LET THEM ALL TALK episode! Hot off of all the fun they had making THE LAUNDROMAT, Soderbergh and Meryl Streep teamed up again for a largely improvised movie about three old friends taking a boat ride with one of their nephews. And it's...great?! Joining us on the main feed is our good pal, writer and High Femme editor Veronica Phillips! We chat about letting women over 70 talk about their experiences, the inherent narcissism of creativity, going Wiest Mode, and a whole lot about BOOK CLUB (2018). We've been making jokes about covering this movie but that's because we didn't realize it's actually kind of a banger. We're stupid! Good thing Veronica is smart, though, that's why we asked her to be the guest. Fun ep! Further Reading: The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg by Deborah Eisenberg Which as You Know Means Violence: On Self-Injury as Art and Entertainment by Philippa Snow Nightwood by Djuna Barnes George Smiley books by John le Carré read by Simon Vance "Meryl Streep, Candice Bergen, and Dianne Wiest are ready to Talk" by Tyler Aquilina:  https://ew.com/movies/meryl-streep-candice-bergen-dianne-wiest-let-them-all-talk/ Further Viewing: CARNAL KNOWLEDGE (Nichols, 1971) MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (Malle, 1981) ADAPTATION. (Jonze, 2002) BOOK CLUB (Holderman, 2018) Follow Veronica Phillips: https://x.com/vnickyy/ https://hifemmes.substack.com/ Follow Pod Casty For Me: https://www.podcastyforme.com/ https://twitter.com/podcastyforme https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/ https://bsky.app/profile/podcastyforme.bsky.social https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe Artwork by Jeremy Allison: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart Produced by Ian Rhine and Jake Serwin. Additional production by Ryan Torgeson.

  3. Jul 3

    The Laundromat (2019) with Luke Savage

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: our episode on Soderbergh's 2019 Panama Papers infotainment film THE LAUNDROMAT. Joining us to parse this deeply odd "comedic" "look" into the mysterious world of offshore finance is co-host of the Michael & Us podcast and author of The Dead Center: Reflections on Liberalism and Democracy After the End of History, Luke Savage! Together we get to the bottom of Soderbergh and Scott Z. Burns' decision to give the BIG SHORT treatment to Jake Bernstein's entirely unfunny nonfiction book Secrecy World, and find in the film a very familiar liberal disinterest in the transformative potential of moments like the Panama Papers leak. Great conversation, check it out (whether or not you've seen the pretty lousy movie)! Note: We had a small technical problem in the last 20 minutes or so, and our guest's audio quality is notably lower but still perfectly listenable for the end of the episode. We blame transnational gangs of malefactors. Further Reading: Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite by Jake Bernstein The Dead Center: Reflections on Liberalism and Democracy After the End of History by Luke Savage The Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money by Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens by Gabriel Zucman  "The Dirty Problems with Operation Car Wash" by Vincent Bevins: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/08/anti-corruption-crusades-paved-way-bolsonaro/596449/ "'Keep It Confidential': The Secret History of U.S. Involvement in Brazil's Scandal-Wracked Operation Car Wash" by Andrew Fishman, Natalia Viana, & Maryam Saleh: https://theintercept.com/2020/03/12/united-states-justice-department-brazil-car-wash-lava-jato-international-treaty/ "Steven Soderbergh: On His New Film 'The Laundromat' And What The Panama Papers Teach Us" by Risa Sarachan: https://www.forbes.com/sites/risasarachan/2019/10/17/steven-soderbergh-on-his-new-film-the-laundromat-and-what-the-panama-papers-teach-us/ "Meryl Streep Says Financial Corruption in 'Laundromat' Is a 'Black-Hearted Joke'" by Ariston Anderson: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/venice-2019-meryl-streep-steven-soderbergh-laundromat-1235958/  Further Viewing: THE INSIDER (Mann, 1999) WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS (Gibney, 2013) WILD TALES (Szifron, 2014) THE BIG SHORT (McKay, 2015) SPOTLIGHT (McCarthy, 2015) THE REPORT (Burns, 2019) CAUGHT BY THE TIDES (Jia, 2024) Follow Luke Savage: https://x.com/LukewSavage https://www.lukewsavage.com/ https://www.patreon.com/cw/michaelandus   Follow Pod Casty For Me: https://www.podcastyforme.com/ https://twitter.com/podcastyforme https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/ https://bsky.app/profile/podcastyforme.bsky.social https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe Artwork by Jeremy Allison: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart Produced by Ian Rhine and Jake Serwin. Additional production by Ryan Torgeson.

4.8
out of 5
47 Ratings

About

Pod Casty For Me: a left politics and culture podcast about the films of Steven Soderbergh (formerly Clint Eastwood and Paul Schrader), one movie per episode. Hosted by Jake Serwin & Ian Rhine. New episodes every other Friday.

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