The Letterboxd Show Letterboxd

We are Boonsong and Flynn Slicker is our Monkey Ghost. Letterboxd’s elusive social media manager joins hosts Gemma and Slim from the seaside for a deep chat about her four favorite films: Wong Kar-wai’s Fallen Angels, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, John Carney’s Sing Street and René Liu’s Us And Them. We celebrate siblings and hot people, commiserate about how hard it is to be alive, calculate how long Raphina and Cosmo would have taken to get to Wales in that tiny boat, normalize hanging out with ghosts and marvel at the genius of running other people’s businesses at night. Plus! Read Flynn’s Q&A with John Carney on Journal.

Sponsor: mubi.com/letterboxd

Credits: Recorded in Nantucket MA, Philadelphia PA and Auckland NZ. Edited by Slim. Theme music: “Vampiros Danceoteque” by Moniker. Editorial producer: Brian Formo. Production manager: Sophie Shin. The Letterboxd Show is a TAPEDECK production.

Chapters:


Sponsored by MUBI (00:00:00)
Opening credits (00:01:10)
Fallen Angels (00:10:12)
Uncle Boonmee (00:23:29)
Sing Street (00:40:15)
Us and Them (00:54:45)
Closing credits (01:12:19)

Links:

List of movies mentioned

Flynn’s Letterboxd profile

Letterboxd Visits the Criterion Closet

Gemma’s interview with Kamila Andini on Journal

Apichatpong Weerasethakul profile in The New Yorker

Lists mentioned:

When You’re Young, Vibrant, and Lost in This World by hungcat

Letterboxd 100: Chinese Cinema by Rahat Ahmad

Reviews mentioned:

Flynn & Josh Lewis’s Fallen Angels reviews

Carol Grant’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives review

Jae’s Us and Them review

Little White Lies editor David Jenkins joins Mia and Ella to celebrate the 100th edition of London-based cinema magazine, and chat about the films behind his four favorite illustrated LWL covers: Volver, Attack the Block, Eden and Licorice Pizza. We dig into the magical realism of Pedro Almodóvar, why we’re all so drawn to the thoughtful dramas of Mia Hansen-Løve, a perfectly logical reason as to why Daft Punk and Greta Gerwig should collab, the magnetism of Alana Haim and more. Cheers to 100 issues of Little White Lies!

Sponsor: Bottoms

Chapters:


Opening credits (00:00:00)
Issue 100 (00:10:01)
Volver (00:12:31)
Attack the Block (00:21:28)
Eden (00:32:23)
Licorice Pizza (00:42:14)
Closing credits (00:52:25)

Credits: Recorded in Los Angeles and London. Edited by Slim. Theme music: “Vampiros Danceoteque” by Moniker. Editorial producer: Brian Formo. Production manager: Sophie Shin. The Letterboxd Show is a TAPEDECK production.

Lists & Links:

Volver cover

Attack the Block cover

Eden cover

Licorice Pizza cover

patmacri13’s Attack the Block review

Evan’s Eden review

Will Menaker’s Licorice Pizza review

Josh Lewis’ Licorice Pizza review

Hey Joe, what do ya know? Film critic Robert Daniels (New York Times, LA Times, RogerEbert.com, etc.) is here to chat with Slim and Mitchell about his four favorites: Killer of Sheep, If Beale Street Could Talk, A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Bamboozled. If you think that sounds like a Mount Rushmore of titles, you’d be exactly right! Strap in as Robert takes us on an incredibly insightful tour through the complicated themes and explosive emotions of these gems. Topics include: what it means to be human, blackface through Hollywood’s history, the adaptability that comes with being Black in America, the glimmer of hope that must be held for the next generation, a call for The Underground Railroad to get more attention and why “masterpiece” doesn’t always mean “perfect”.

Chapters:


Opening credits (00:00:00)
Killer of Sheep (00:07:44)
If Beale Street Could talk (00:19:41)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (00:35:46)
Bamboozled (00:52:52)
Stats talk (01:10:08)
Closing credits (01:13:29)

Credits: Recorded in Newark DE, Philadelphia PA and Chicago IL. Edited by Slim. Theme music: “Vampiros Danceoteque” by Moniker. Editorial producer: Brian Formo. Production manager: Sophie Shin. The Letterboxd Show is a TAPEDECK production.

Lists & Links:

List of movies mentioned

Robert’s Letterboxd profile

Robert’s Sight & Sound 2022 ballot; Robert’s Criterion essay on Beasts of No Nation; Robert’s IndieWire interview with Charles Burnett on My Brother’s Wedding; Robert’s interview with Barry Jenkins for Medicine for Melancholy; Robert’s interview with Barry Jenkins for The Underground Railroad; Robert’s Polygon essay on Brian Tyree Henry’s big scene in If Beale Street Could Talk; Robert’s ranking of Spike Lee movies for Okayplayer; Robert’s essay on Bamboozled for The Playlist

Lists mentioned:

Films that took an already amazing and well-known song and made it better by adding a cinematic moment to it that you are always reminded of when you hear the song by Starboy

Reviews mentioned:

Graham Williamson’s Killer of Sheep review

Kambole Campbell’s Bamboozled review

On a special musical episode of Best in Show, our crew—Mia Lee Vicino, Gemma Gracewood and Brian Formo unpacks what the fall film festival season has in store for movie lovers and awards voters. It all goes down once Venice kicks off on August 30, so we’re here to hand-pick some highlights from acclaimed directors like Michael Mann, Sofia Coppola, Wes Anderson, Yorgos Lanthimos, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and David Fincher. Plus, with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes on our minds, we’ve programmed our own labor-themed film festival—including Silkwood (1983), The Killing Floor (1984) and Pride (2014) and more!—so you can add some solidarity to your forever watchlist.

Best in Show is a limited podcast series brought to you by The Letterboxd Show.

Chapters:


Opening credits (00:00:00)
Fall film fest season (00:01:08)
Labor-themed film festival (00:18:27)
Lightning round (00:54:26)
Closing credits (01:04:10)

Credits: Recorded in Los Angeles and Melbourne. Edited by Slim, editorial producer Brian Formo. Theme: ‘Hyperlight’ by Letterboxd member Trent Walton (AKA Echo Wolf). Best in Show is a TAPEDECK production. Title courtesy of Christopher Guest.

Lists & Links: Donate to SAG-AFTRA; WGA’s Take Action info; List of movies mentioned; Best in Show’s list of 45 labor movement movies

Karaoke, time travel, screen chemistry and art as activism: As his new, satirical time-travel web series Command Z drops (starring an A.I. Michael Cera and a time-travelling tumble-dryer), Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh tells Gemma Gracewood about activist art, why he loves the reality show Below Deck, how he dealt with being bullied as a child, why governments should give tax credits for doing karaoke and watching comedy, why bad ideas travel faster than good, Steven’s “no assholes” policy, how to create better film sets, and the 25th anniversary of Out of Sight.

Plus: Gemma shares how Contagion got her through the pandemic, Steven reveals his favorite time-travel devices in movies, the enduring influence of film critic Pauline Kael and the American New Wave, using your juice to help other people, and a debate about which song should be Soderbergh’s karaoke go-to.

Watch Command Z online for a small fee — proceeds go to several good causes.

Note: This episode contains explicit language (f-bombs and assholes). The interview was recorded during the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strike in accordance with the DGA agreement with AMPTP.

Sponsor: LG OLED

Credits: Hosted by Gemma Gracewood, edited by Slim, production manager Sophie Shin, editorial producer Brian Formo. The Letterboxd Show is a TAPEDECK production.

Links:

The Letterboxd list of films mentioned; Soderbergh’s Extension 765 merch store; Steven Soderbergh is thanked in the end credits” list; a list of Steven Soderbergh’s Command Z film recommendations. Reviews of Command Z by Josh Lagle, Stephen Gillespie, and Dan Scannan. Books mentioned: The Heat Will Kill You First; Assholes: A Theory; Evil Geniuses.

As we march past Day 100 of the WGA strike, the Best in Show team—Mia Lee Vicino, Gemma Gracewood and Brian Formo—are here to help film fans support both the art of cinema and the rights of the workers who make it.

For this episode, we’ve called upon two guests who are deep in the movie biz: filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and actress/SAG-AFTRA strike captain Kate Comer. Come for Sodey’s thoughts on the insidiousness of studios’ hoarding of dark data, stay for Kate’s insider knowledge of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, including how she’s been staying resilient on the Hollywood picket lines during the dog days of summer, and why “interim agreements” are the new “waivers”. Plus, if you enjoyed hearing Magic Mike’s Soderbergh on our own magic mic, stay tuned for Gemma’s full-length, in-depth interview with him, dropping at the end of the week.

Chapters:


Opening credits (00:00:00)
News (00:01:23)
Steven Soderbergh (00:06:51)
Kate Comer answers mailbag questions (00:15:21)
Closing credits (00:46:35)

Best in Show is a limited podcast series brought to you by The Letterboxd Show.

Credits: Recorded in Los Angeles and Auckland. Edited by Slim, production manager Sophie Shin, editorial producer Brian Formo. Theme: ‘Hyperlight’ by Letterboxd member Trent Walton (AKA Echo Wolf). Best in Show is a TAPEDECK production. Title courtesy of Christopher Guest.

Lists & Links: Donate to SAG-AFTRA; WGA’s Take Action info; Best in Show’s list of 45 labor movement movies; Kate Comer’s Instagram