Mike, Tom, Kyle, and Amanda commemorate hitting 100 movies covered on the show, reflect on the fourth class of 25 films inducted into the registry, give out superlatives to the standout performances and craftspeople, reflect on their registry submissions, and look ahead to new adventures in Season 5.

Follow the Show:

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Music by Mike Natale

"It Will Make You a Better Southerner"- tagline from the Birmingham Age-Herald in 1916

We've now hit 100 National Film Registry titles covered on this podcast, and for this milestone episode, we decided to tackle the National Film Registry inductee that has most ominously loomed above this show since we began: D.W. Griffith's vile, hateful, and unfortunately influential 1915 blockbuster The Birth of a Nation.

Longtime friend of the show, and our resident "war movie" correspondent, Action for Everyone's VyceVictus, sat down with us for a wide-ranging discussion on this controversial title that's still being debated more than a century after its release. We'll take a look at the film's source material, talk about exactly why the National Film Registry chose to preserve this film, and the surprising Oscar-nominated director who led the charge for its induction.

Follow the Show:

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Music by Mike Natale

"A story of the race with an ALL-COLORED CAST"

For our penultimate episode of the season, we provide a feature-length commentary for Oscar Micheaux's landmark proto-race film Within Our Gates (1920). To watch the film along with us, head to our YouTube page.

Follow the Show:

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Music by Mike Natale

"WHO WEARS THE PANTS?"

Tired of episodes where Mike and Tom bicker like a couple? Great news, for Adam's Rib, Mike's real-life significant other, editor Bella Zaydenberg, returns to the show to discuss Adam's Rib. Which of course means, she'll try and inject some well-researched facts into the mix, while Mike and Tom continue to bicker like a couple. This time, they'll talk Tracy, Hepburn, who was right in the courtroom, and whether Kip is queer-coded or really trying to get into Katherine's signature slacks...

Follow the Show:

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Music by Mike Natale

"Bruce Baillie makes avant-garde films with the gifts of a painter and the objectives of a sign painter."

This week, we sat down as just Tom and Mike to talk about Bruce Baillie's Castro Street. But more than that, we sat down to, in a sense, "How To Watch Experimental Films (If You Don't Like Experimental Films)". After Tom notably had no patience for Dog Star Man earlier this season, Mike was surprised to find Tom really resonated with this 10-minute avant-garde portrait of industrial California.

So, if you've ever found yourself thinking experimental film is daunting, incomprehensible, or yes, even pretentious, Tom (who has thought all three at times) takes the lead on this episode to help make sense of Castro Street, and offer a pathway into the rich and diverse world of experimental cinema.

Plus, we take a look at Baillie's other major work, All My Life (1966), to compare and contrast the two shorts.

Follow the Show:

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Music by Mike Natale

"Let the old buzzard flap his wings right over me. Till he comes down and gets me, I got a lotta livin' to do."

Our newest team member Amanda Rush joins us to talk about Otto Preminger's barrier-breaking Cinemascope musical Carmen Jones. We talk opera, Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte, and a form of short film called "Soundies."

Follow the Show:

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Music by Mike Natale

"The only film to ever be blacklisted!"

Kyle Lampar steps out of the producer role to join us for a conversation about HUAC, the Hollywood Ten, and the only film to ever be blacklisted, Salt of the Earth (1954). Since this unique film was made by creatives caught up in the Red Scare, we begin our episode with a quick history of the Hollywood Blacklist, before getting into the merits, and the flaws, of this landmark work of cinema.

Follow the Show:

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Music by Mike Natale

"Never has the screen thrust so deeply into the guts of war!"

Screenwriter Michael H. Weber (500 Days of Summer, The Disaster Artist) returns to the show to talk about one of Stanley Kubrick's under-discussed masterworks, the stirring Kirk Douglas-led war film Paths of Glory (1957)! We'll talk pacifism, systemic failure, and how this anti-war film compares to Kubrick's own later film, Full Metal Jacket.

Hosts:

Michael Natale

Twitter

Letterboxd

Tom Lorenzo

Twitter

Letterboxd

Producer:

Kyle Lampar

Twitter

Guest:

Michael H. Weber

Follow the Show:

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Music by Mike Natale