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 that they made in between.

Today we talk about Bruce Willis, one of our great American movie stars. A man with perfect angles and a perfectly imperfect hairline. The man who spoke up for Seagram’s Golden when nobody else would. It’s wet and it’s dry. Play that harmonica, Bruno!

Our guest today is the great Jen Johans, host of the Watch With Jen podcast. Our B-Sides include In Country, Mortal Thoughts, Disney’s The Kid, and Richard Donner's final film, 16 Blocks.

We discuss Willis’ early career, his propensity to try new things, and the sad and unfair dismissal of Hudson Hawk. We examine how his acting chops evolved throughout a very turbulent ‘90s decade, culminating in an incredible run of success birthed from a controversial, canceled movie called Broadway Brawler.

There’s a lot of love for the underrated crime comedy Bandits, that song he did with June Pointer (seek out the album The Return of Bruno and the companion “documentary” if you get a few free minutes today), and the lovely Robert Benton picture Nobody’s Fool. And then there’s that opening car chase in Striking Distance. Incredible work there. Oh, and that cameo in The Player.

And finally, in honor of our subject, please go to https://aphasia.org/ and donate if you are so inclined. Here’s to you Bruce, you’re one of one.

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 talk about one of the great ones: Martin Scorsese. Who’s better than Marty? Dan, Conor, and guest Jake Kring-Schreifels. Our B-Sides today include Italianamerican, Kundun, Bringing Out the Dead, and Silence.

We talk about a lot in this one. How to pronounce Scorsese! How to pronounce Coppola! Catholicism! Buddhism! Making films about religions in your life! This is an episode with lofty ambitions, not unlike most Scorsese pictures!

In examining Italianamerican we muse on Marty as documentarian, including the mention of an incredibly-underrated Scorsese documentary that’s hard to find: Public Speaking starring Fran Lebowitz. We reflect on the guardedness of memory by older generations (and how that may reveal itself in this new, Covid-stung generation). We also recount the Muddy Waters - László Kovács story from the set of The Last Waltz, We parse Marty’s constant wrestle with faith in Bringing Out the Dead, and how its gentler, compassionate qualities weave into Kundun and Silence, all of which feature some of the best collaborations in his career.

Additional writing from Jake includes his superb oral history of The Wolf of Wall Street (also linking to Fran Hoepfner’s great piece on the same movie on Bright Wall Dark Room), a recent great piece on stunts tied to the release of The Fall Guy, and a lovely interview with the director of Saved! In celebration of its twenty-year anniversary.

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. And sometimes if we’re lucky we talk to movie stars about their B-Sides!

Today we talk to the great Eric Bana about Eric Bana B-Sides on the occasion of the release of his new film, Force of Nature: The Dry 2, now available in theaters and on VOD.

Our B-Sides today include: Lucky You, Romulus, My Father, and The Secret Scripture. Bana discusses why Lucky You maybe didn’t connect with audiences in 2007, how Romulus, My Father is actually quite the A-Side in Australia, and the need to be malleable when working with somebody like director Jim Sheridan.

We also talk about Bana’s detective influences for the Aaron Falk character in The Dry films, why Munich was strangely received upon release, and why his performance in Roland Joffé’s The Forgiven (co-starring Forest Whitaker as Desmond Tutu) is one of his favorites in his career.

Special shout-out to good friend Mitchell Beaupre’s great interview with Bana earlier this year, which is referenced quite a bit here.

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 speak to Nancy Savoca, the great filmmaker whose sophomore feature Dogfight is now available via Criterion. The digitally-restored, director-approved Blu-Ray includes new commentary from Savoca and producer Richard Guay, a new interview with Savoca and actor Lili Taylor conducted by filmmaker Mary Harron, and a great essay by film critic Christina Newland, among other features.

We speak with Savoca about Missing Movies, her mentors John Sayles and Maggie Renzi, her first film True Love, directing singular performers like River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, and the HBO creativity boom of the mid-to-late ‘90s (including Carl Franklin’s Laurel Avenue and Cher and Savoca’s If These Walls Could Talk), and lesser-seen gems of Savoca’s that she hopes viewers will be able to see soon (including Dirt from the early 2000s an the recently restored and released Household Saints from 1993).

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 talk about the movie star. The person who if you looked up “movie star” in the dictionary there would be a picture of him. Robert Redford! 

Today we talk the esteemed career of the quintessential movie star. Our B-Sides include: The Hot Rock, The Great Waldo Pepper, Havana, and The Last Castle. Our guest today is Blake Howard, podcast producer, host, and really good guy. Check out One Heat Minute Productions for everything new and relevant in Blake’s world. 

We discuss a million things, from why The Hot Rock is so hard to find, to the airplane stunts in The Great Waldo Pepper, to why Havana doesn’t work. There’s an investigation into the politics of The Last Castle, a brief celebration of Lena Olin, and a quick rave for Jordan Harper’s searing short story “My Savage Year.”

Additional topics include that upcoming City of Hope release, why Peter Yates is “slow vibes central,” why great screenwriter William Goldman knew why The Great Waldo Pepper underwhelmed at the box office (from his book Adventures in the Screen Trade), and how exactly the A-Side The Natural literally looks like nostalgia.

Finally, we mention why Raul Julia didn’t take a credit on Havana, we reference that superb Scott Frank New Yorker profile, proclaim ourselves defenders of Hollywood Homicide, and discuss the end of Redford’s career.

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 talk to an independent film legend. Some have called him the “East Coast Roger Corman,” though that’s short-changing Larry Fessenden a bit. Though his production company Glass Eye Pix has been around since the mid-80s, Fessenden made a name for himself with the mid-90s indie horror classic Habit, in which he wrote, directed, and starred as an alcoholic New Yorker who starts dating a vampire. Or so he thinks.

Fessenden’s new movie Blackout - available digitally April 12th - connects to both Habit and his 2019 film Depraved. We talk about this with Fessenden, as well as his love for the classic Universal Monster Films, the evolving challenges of funding and producing independent cinema, and his work with Kelly Reichardt and Martin Scorsese over the years. Additional B-Sides include The Last Winter, Wendigo, and Beneath.

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.