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The Good, The Pod and The UglySQUIB SZN: E6: FIRST BLOODSend us a textFIRST BLOOD SPECIAL NOTE: SEASON 15 OF THE GOOD, THE POD AND THE UGLY CELEBRATES THE USE OF THE PRACTICAL AND DIGITAL EFFECT KNOWN AS THE SQUIB. IRL GUN VIOLENCE IS INTOLERABLE AND RENOUNCED BUT... CINEMATIC VIOLENCE WILL BE CELEBRATED IN A WAY WILL DISTURB SOME LISTENERS. FIRST BLOOD (1982), a.k.a. Rambo I! Surely the best possible pick for TGTPTU’s Season 15 – Squib Season. An‘80s action flick, special forces, small town cops, a M60 machine rifle capable of firing 600 rounds a minute… Unless… Perhaps… Could it be th...2025-06-271h 06
The Good, The Pod and The UglySQUIB SZN: E5: DJANGO UNCHAINEDSend us a textSPECIAL NOTE: SEASON 15 OF THE GOOD, THE POD AND THE UGLY CELEBRATES THE USE OF THE PRACTICAL AND DIGITAL EFFECT KNOWN AS THE SQUIB. IRL GUN VIOLENCE IS INTOLERABLE AND RENOUNCED BUT... CINEMATIC VIOLENCE WILL BE CELEBRATED IN A WAY WILL DISTURB SOME LISTENERS. After five years, a ban has been lifted—momentarily. For this single episode, the pod’s ironclad rule against discussing a Quentin Tarantino film that has divided our hosts is broken. The director is set free. And Jack goes fugitive this week as TGTPTU discusses the a...2025-06-201h 06
The Good, The Pod and The UglySQUIB SZN: E1: REVENGE SEASON PREMIERE!Send us a textREVENGE Major Content Warning: Plot-related sexual assault is mentioned throughout this episode. Minor Content Warning: Filmic violence is and will often celebrated throughout Season 15. Salut! and welcome to TGTPTU’s long-awaited SQUIB SEASON (Season 15) and a return to the pod’s unpatented temporal pincer movement with the series’ first film covered being the most recent release: REVENGE (2017). Distributed en Francais in France and Quebec as Revenge, the identically English-titled Revenge is Parisian auteur Coralie Fargeat’s premier feature film; her second was last year’s thrice O...2025-05-231h 07
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly1X1: NUMBER FOUR: MYSTERY ROADSend us a textMYSTERY ROAD It’s the end of the road for Season 14 as TGTPTU’s four White fellas travel across the world to the land down under for host Ken’s 1x1 flick pick and this season’s final film: MYSTERY ROAD (2013), sponsored this week by the Criminal Island’s very own Hoppy Joe Beer (Get Your Hop On!). Directed by (and written by and lensed by and edited by and music with sound design by) Ivan Sen, this Aussie neo noir film that will launch a sequel and multiple...2025-05-031h 18
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly1x1; NUMBER THREE: RISKY BUSINESSSend us a textRISKYSometimes you gotta say, “What the Fuck” to research, make your move. This week Season 14’s penultimate 1x1 is co-host Ryan’s pick: RISKY BUSINESS (1983). His reason: TGTPTU normally pairs filmographies of a single director or actor, and the writer-director on this film was so triggered by the experience of having his written, shot, and edited original ending replaced in the final cut that he never directed another film again… or at least not until his second film in 1990 (WTF, Ryan?). This film that would go on to becom...2025-04-261h 15
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly1X1: NUMBER 2: THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLESend us a textFriends of EddieThe second 1x1 feature rounding out Season 14 and, chosen by Jack, the film is THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973). Directed by Peter Yates, whose career TGTPTU is unlikely to cover in a future 4x4 despite having Krull and Bullitt in his credits, TFOEC is an adaptation of George V. Higgins’ inaugural novel and notable as a unromanticized depiction of crime in artistic response to The Godfather, the Puzo book and Coppola film each preceding, respectively, the book and movie versions of TFOEC by one year. ...2025-04-191h 10
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly1X1: NUMBER 1: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCHSend us a textHEDWIGBefore we say auf wiedersehen to Season 14 with its eight revamps of the previously covered during the show’s first five years, the boys of TGTPTU reveal their unexpected special little packages: 1x1’s, wherein each host shall choose a single film by its merits of discussion and unlikelihood to be exposed on a future 4x4, creator, or thematic season. The first of these darlings is Thomas’s: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (2001). Adapted from the rock musical of the same name that started as the collabo...2025-04-121h 03
The Good, The Pod and The UglyREDUX FINALE: WHITE SNIPER. BLACK HEART PT. 2Send us a textAMERICAN SNIPERThe once distant end of Season 14’s curated rewatched flicks is now in our sights as the TGTPTU crew pulls the trigger on their final movie of the eight enlisted pairs mustering their Redux Season, taking aim at Clint Eastwood’s highest grossing film: AMERICAN SNIPER (2014). Originally covered early in the pod’s first season (S1, E5 in Year 2020) and chosen by host Thomas who’d never seen, this American Sniper revisit offers new insight into the film the original hosting duo of Ken and Jack rank...2025-04-051h 20
The Good, The Pod and The UglyREDUX: WHITE SNIPER, BLACK HEART PT.1Send us a textWHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART Episode 7, and you can feel the excitement of the hunt this episode, the first of TGTPTU’s final paired rewatches of the Redux Season (Season 14) and another double Eastwood starting with a bang with WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART (1990, originally covered by TGTPTU during Season 3, Episode 9). As flick curator extraordinaire Ken’s second rewatch pick, the o.g. host hopes to sway opinion his way, believing this adaptation by Peter Viertel of his autobiographical roman à clef dramatizing his work and consternation with John Huston during p...2025-03-291h 01
The Good, The Pod and The UglyREDUX: BAD TRIPS PT. 2: 15:17 TO PARISSend us a textThe 15:17 to ParisEpisode 6, all aboard! TGTPTU rides the Season 14 train to the end of the line of this third pairing of the season. Another rewatch of an Eastwood-directed film, this car was originally hitched to Season 1, Episode 3’s engine and nearly derailed the podcast as it left the station back in the Year 2020, and that movie running again on time and Ken’s first flick pick to redux is THE 15:17 TO PARIS (2018). For a fuller recap of the plot and production of this film that...2025-03-221h 10
The Good, The Pod and The UglyREDUX: BAD TRIPS PT. 1: HONKYTONK MANSend us a textHONKYTONK MAN TGTPTU continues to play its old hits with Episode 5 of Season 14, its redux series season celebrating five years and don’t you worry about us, hoss, we’ll get through this pairing of Eastwood flicks starting with HONKYTONK MAN (1982). Originally discussed toward the end of the epic run covering all of Clint Eastwood’s filmography (Season 3, Episode 12), founding cohosts Ken and Jack invite the show’s newer hosts Ryan and Thomas in to session with fresh ears and silver tongues on this adaptation of the Dust Bowl...2025-03-151h 02
The Good, The Pod and The UglyREDUX: ANIMAL FARM PT. 2: THE WHALESend us a textTHE WHALEIt’s the fourth episode of Season 14, and our hungry boys are still going for seconds with their rewatch of the recently covered THE WHALE (2022), original episode from TGTPTU’s initial pairing that started the epic scarf/Darren Aronofsky season (S11, E2, Airdate 2/17/24). Jack sits out this first of host Ryan’s two redux picks, leaving Ken and Thomas to rehash the original episode. That episode marked an early, and soon to be recurring, appearance by Ryan (this was before he was made a provisional host, w...2025-03-0853 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglyREDUX: ANIMAL FARM PT. 1 PIGSend us a textPIGSeason 14 continues serving up second helpings of movies previously covered on TGTPTU with PIG (2021). Jack’s flick picked this week pulls from his, Ken’s, and then recently added host Thomas’s post-Eastwood season CAGE UNCAGED (S4, air date 7/23/21). As established in the original episode, the Nicolas Cage movie is set and shot in Portland, Oregon prior to it burning to the ground just shortly after shooting wrapped; while the city remains in rubble, the movie is remembered by the original hosts (Ken, Jack, Thomas) fondly as a fi...2025-03-0150 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglyREDUX SZN: DEATH BECOMES HIM PT. 2: HOLY ZEMECKISSend us a textDEATH BECOMES HER (1992)For the second episode in TGTPTU’s Season 14 redux series, the film choice was Thomas’s. As he explains at the top of the ep, he wanted to do a Streep rewatch with recent co-host Ryan, specifically and especially a comedy. His first choice of Adaptation got nixed as it had previously been covered twice, first during the Cage and then again in the Streep season. So paired with the previous episode’s High Plains Driver, this week TGTPTU (re)presents SHE-DEVIL (1986), the laugh-out-loud revenge story featur...2025-02-2259 min
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly“REDUX” SEASON PREMIERE! DEATH BECOMES HIM WITH “HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER”Send us a textHigh Plains Drifter (1973)TRIGGER WARNING: HPD features sexual assault as a plot point. Season 14, a new season with a hefty helping of old, comes to town as the TGTPTU hosts return to movies they undervalued and/or missed over the thirteen seasons, beginning with Jack’s pick to rewatch HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973). In that original episode released as S2, E6 in 2020, then hosts Ken and Jack were joined by a special guest, and now ongoing host, Thomas. High Plains Drifter, Eastwood’s second directe...2025-02-1559 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglyLARS VON TRIER #4: THE GANG SELLS THE COMPANY, "THE BOSS OF IT ALL"Send us a textBOSS OF IT ALL (2006)Well, as the famous playwright Antonio Gambini once wrote: All good things (and Season 13 of TGTPTU) must come to a close. And what better stage for which our four hosts to give their final thoughts and review of the four directors covered this 4x4 season, as well as their general opinions of Lars von Trier, than with LvT’s office comedy THE BOSS OF IT ALL (2006)? (Sorry, we can’t hear you response. This isn’t a radio show, and you’re not live on the air...2025-02-0157 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglyLARS VON TRIER #3: NATURE SPURTS WITH "ANTICHRIST"Send us a text4X4: Lars von Trier #3Breaking our own arbitrary rules just like Lars von Trier, the enfant terrible final director of Season 13’s 4x4, the TGTPTU crew for our final pairing breaks with release date order to review the later paired film earlier, giving you this week ANTICHRIST (2009). From the throes of depression, LVT emerged to sink the world into his vision of grief, anxiety, and madness with the horror story of a couple (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg), their gendered power dynamics, and a t...2025-01-251h 04
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4: LARS VON TRIER #1: GET WETSend us a textELEMENTWelcome to a new year and a new director as TGTPTU’s latest 4x4 reaches its fourth of four directors: Lars Von Trier. We start with his first wide-release feature THE ELEMENT OF CRIME (1984). And so begins our wrap-up of Season 13 with water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink… Set in a post-catastrophe Europe (as will the Dane’s next two films forming his first thematic trilogy: Europa), The Element of Crime follows the memories under hypnotism of an investigator named Fi...2025-01-111h 07
The Good, The Pod and The UglyMERRY CLINTMAS! JUROR #2 AND 2024 WRAP-UPSend us a textJUROR #2 It’s late-December and, foregoing our usual Christmas-adjacent movie watch, this year TGTPTU has a very special treat for the holidays. That’s right, listener, we bring to you our hot takes on what may prove to be Clint Eastwood’s final film--and even more likely his final theatrically-released film--JUROR #2 (2024) in time for its MAX streaming release so that you might celebrate with us and have yourself a very Merry Clint-mas. Eastwood’s latest film with Warner Brothers continues what was a trend (excepting Cry Macho and The...2024-12-201h 37
The Good, The Pod and The UglyBIG WILLIE #4: THE COLLECTOR (OR HOW ELON AND GRIMES MET)Send us a text4X4X3: WILLIAM WYLER CONCLUSION: THE COLLECTORTGTPTU wraps its third director of Season 13’s 4x4 with a discussion of a fourth and final William Wyler film THE COLLECTOR (1965). Like The Big Country, its paired film from last week, The Collector began as a book, this one penned by John Fowles, author whose adapted novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman was covered by TGTPTU during our Meryl Streep season. The Collector was Fowles’ first published book, and Wyler took liberties with its epistolary structure to refocus the movie...2024-12-071h 04
The Good, The Pod and The UglyBIG WILLIE #3: THE BIG COUNTRYSend us a text4X4: WILLIAM WYLER. #3: THE BIG COUNTRY(Note: Don't skip the theme song this week)TGTPTU Host Ryan’s Willie gets a glow-up with THE BIG COUNTRY (1958), the third in our cultivated William Wyler collection.Shot in glorious Technicolor on large-format Technorama to set it apart from the glut of midcentury black-and-white television Westerns, the big-budget film was not a financial success despite winning one, after being nominated for two, Academy Awards and starring at the time four-time Oscar nominee Gregory Peck in the le...2024-11-301h 08
The Good, The Pod and The UglyTSAI MING-LIANG: MAMA SAID THERE'D BE DAYS LIKE THISSend us a text4X4 III: TSAI MING-LIANG 4: DAYSTGTPTU’s back to finish (cough) the job handily (cough) with a happy ending (oh boy) for our coverage of director Tsai Ming-liang, coming together (really, dude?) to get every ounce our four gents have to offer, pulling and tugging (grow up) on each’s points and hot takes for this fourth and final 4x4 film of Jack’s offering (was that a pun?) called, in its English release (are you serious?), DAYS (2020). If you like washing your vegetables in your ba...2024-11-021h 00
The Good, The Pod and The UglyHaLLoWeEn SPECIAL: JEREMY SAULNIER'S GREEN ROOMSend us a text2024 HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!NOTE: Approximately 35 punk rock band names are concealed in these show notes. Play along!It’s the end of October, which means the four misfits of TGTPTU are back with a special Birth-/ Halloween/Election Day episode, interrupting their regular Season 13 4x4 programming to bring you a tale fitting this celebratory trifecta: auteur director Jeremy Saulnier’s punk-horror-antifascist classic GREEN ROOM (2015). As a low budget, mostly practical, minimally computer effects (dare one say “NoFX”?) horror/suspense movie, Green Room follows a gang of four boun...2024-10-261h 27
The Good, The Pod and The UglyTSAI MING-LIANG III: GOODBYE MOVIESSend us a textThis week’s Season 13 4x4 entry is GOODBYE, DRAGON INN (2003), the third of four films curated by guest host Jack to represent the filmography of director Tsai Ming-liang. The original TPTGTU boys are reunited this ep with the return of host Thomas but divided in their appreciation for what is billed as Tsai Ming-liang’s comedy-drama. As promised in last episode, this third film by the Taiwanese slow cinema director takes on a lighter tone than his previously discussed movies, a tone that at times even borders on, or some...2024-10-191h 15
The Good, The Pod and The UglyTSAI MING-LIANG'S EMPATHY MACHINE: "STRAY DOGS"Send us a text4X4 2: TSAI MING-LIANG and "STRAY DOGS"Our four film investigation into slow cinema master Tsai Miang-liang tackles his 2013 masterpiece STRAY DOGS. If you can vibe to a five minute opening static shot of a woman brushing her hair while her children sleep beside her in a charred husk of as bedroom where even the sheets on the bed look like ruin before cutting to a nearly ten minute long shot of a depressed homeless man in the lashing rain of Tai Pei holding a sign...2024-10-1259 min
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4: Tsai Ming-liang Pt. 1: Smoking and ScootingSend us a text4X4 III: TSAI MING-LIANG: REBELS OF THE NEON GODIt's the beginning of our four film dive into Queer Asian New Wave master Tsai Ming-liang. Released in 1992 and made shortly after Taiwan's "quiet revolution" from a dictatorship to democracy, Rebels of the Neon God stars the director's muse, Lee Kang-sheng (who would go onto being in every one of his films and the two live together in... interesting circumstances) as a Cram Student who becomes obsessed with a small time hood after a brief act of violence in the...2024-10-051h 04
The Good, The Pod and The UglyROBERT ALDRICH IV: 4TH AND THE LONGEST YARDSend us a textTHE LONGEST YARDThis week, the TGTPTU boys return to prison for more fun and games, this time stopping this 4x4 season’s first round drafted director Robert Aldrich’s run with inches to go. For the final film of the first four and to cap the Aldrich coverage, Ken drafted THE LONGEST YARD (1974). Following Ryan’s fumbling the intro and benched as provisional cohost, this season’s four host run the tape back to explore Aldich’s plays in prototyping the sports underdog movie and somehow manage to a...2024-09-211h 20
Deans Counsel46: Thomas Steenburgh (Vanderbilt) on Pursuing the Big IdeasOn this episode of Deans Counsel, moderators Ken Kring and Dave Ikenberry speak with Tom Steenburgh, Ralph Owen Dean and Professor of Marketing (since July 2023) at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management. He's an expert in business-to-business marketing and sales, and believes in the power of collaboration between academics and business leaders to explore novel research ideas and solve real-world problems.Prior to coming to Owen, Dean Steenburgh served as the Richard S. Reynolds Professor and Senior Associate Dean of the Full-Time Program at the Darden School of Business. Before joining D...2024-09-1337 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglyROBERT ALDRICH II: WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH BABY JANE, ANYWAY?Send us a textWhat Ever Happened To Baby Jane?TGTPTU Season 13’s 4x4 continues with the second half of its first Robert Aldrich pairing, WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962). Like last week’s entry, WEH2BJ is another black-and-white film adaptation of a novel, this one truer to the source material, at least to cohost Thomas who read Henry Farrell’s 1960 novel of the same title (in other words no changing out a briefcase of drugs for a nuclear weapon or the star of your book series an unlikeable asshole...2024-09-071h 10
The Good, The Pod and The UglySEASON PREMIERE: ROBERT ALDRICH and THE CIRCLE OF ANNIHILATIONSend us a textKiss Me DeadlyWelcome back to TGTPTU, and welcome back in Season 13 to both former cohost Jack and to the 4x4, the latter making its third season appearance! For TGTPTU stans reading this, able to recite the following explanation by heart, go ahead and save yourself half-a-minute and skip the rest of this paragraph. But for you sad majority of population Earth, a 4x4 is where the crew of TGTPTU covers four films (two pairings) by four different creatives. Simple. And with the return of Jack and the recent...2024-08-311h 23
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID FINALE: A PINCH OF PAPRIKASend us a textPAPRIKAFor the final episode of Season 12 Nolan Void, the TGTPTU gents get timey-wimy as they repeat last season finale with another film from anime director Satoshi Kon also allegedly plagiarized by the season’s director, this time Kon’s final flick PAPRIKA (2006) and Nolan’s Inception rather than Black Swan stealing from Perfect Blue (Kon’s first film, almost as if TGTPTU were considering a temporal pincer movement on the Japanese director who tragically died far too young after only four films). This week, rookie host Ryan tries...2024-08-031h 48
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID 6.5: INCEPTEDSend us a textThe One With The Dream Stuff Inside Oppenheimer INCEPTIONThis week TGTPTU reaches the timey-wimey center of Season 12 as the Nolan Void temporal pincer pairing movement ends with INCEPTION (2010), Sir Chris’s studio-backed super-successful non-supes cinema experience and his first Oscar nom for Best Picture--and finally winning pod-fav Wally Pfister his Best Cinematography trophy after being nominated for his previous three Nolan flicks. Inception tells the story of blah-blah-blah, some (too many?) rules, not really all that dreamy, but hella cool. And to tell that stor...2024-07-201h 12
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID: WATCH THE WORLD BURNSend us a textTGTPTU reaches the beginning of the end of Season 12 as the team covers THE DARK KNIGHT (2008), the penultimate NOLAN VOID film in our temporal pincer pairing movement. Rebounding from the only moderate success of The Prestige, Sir Chris creates a mega-blockbuster with The Dark Knight, his follow-up to Batman Begins and a film that compresses at minimum two movie’s worth of story into one film in order to prevent promising Warner Brothers another sequel. (Spoiler for last week’s episode, Nolan makes a third Batman film that 75% of TGTPTU hosts think...2024-07-131h 21
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID 5.5: BANE BREAKIN’Send us a textThis week, the TGTPTU’s untrademarked “temporal pincer movement” catches up with the boys as THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012), Sir Christopher Nolan’s conclusion to his Batman trilogy, gets covered before his penultimate The Dark Knight. Sir Chris has been quoted as saying, “There are no good third sequels, basically—Rocky III maybe,” and this week Ken, Ryan, and returning former host and editor Jack gang up to defend the film against Thomas’s lackluster appreciation for the film that ends the Nolan franchise. Additional to Sir Nolan and Dame Emma Thomas e...2024-07-061h 34
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID 4.5: INTERSTELLA DA-VIDASend us a textINTERSTELLARIn this week’s episode of TGTPTU, director-writer-producer Sir Christopher Nolan adds space to his repertoire of time-bending narratives as we venture deeper into The Nolan Void with INTERSTELLAR (2014). The Nolan brothers return with cowriting credits, Nathan Crowley on production design, and Lee Smith as editor on this tale of global dust bowl devastation and human hope through American derring-do as the U.S.’s secret space program saves the planet (or at least itself, or perhaps only some of its elite, it’s not clearly defined...2024-06-221h 30
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNolan Void 4.0: Batman BagginsSend us a textBATMAN BEGINSCast aside your Batnipples! As a certain Patrick Bateman lookalike once said, “Well, a guy who dresses up like a bat clearly has issues,” and this week, TGTPTU tackles these issues in Sir Christopher Nolan’s entry into the franchise that would define his middle career with BATMAN BEGINS (2005). Former cohost Jack returns from France to talk Bat and comics with a Gen Z take. Meanwhile, Ken, Thomas, and Ryan grapple and claw and melee in difficult to parse action sequences to control the mic and effuse about...2024-06-151h 27
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID 3.5: DUNKIRK STARRING HARRY STYLESSend us a textNOLAN VOID 3.5: WET 'N WILD WWII Join TGTPTU for an hour, a day, a week—the approximate runtime of, how long it feels listening to us talk for, and the delay in releasing the episode due to internet issues, respectively—as we respectfully cover Sir Christopher Nolan’s DUNKIRK (2017) as part two of our third pairing in our NOLAN VOID season. Surprisingly his shortest major release film, Sir Chris employs his time bending chops to retell the heroic(question mark) story of Englan...2024-06-081h 04
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID 5: CAN’T SLEEP? MORK WON’T HELPSend us a textNOLANVOID FIVE!For the first in our third set of NOLAN VOID pairings this week, TGTPTU hosts Ken and Thomas take on the surprisingly linear INSOMNIA (2002) with newly appointed co-host Ryan to introduce a new drinking game guaranteed to kill any participant: take a dose of an alcohol every time Kenneth says something about not wanting to compare Nolan’s adaption to the 1997 Stellan Skarsgård-starring Norwegian original… and then does exactly that. Perhaps one reason for the linearity of Nolan film starring three previous Oscar...2024-06-011h 04
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID 2.0: MEMENTOS: THE FRESHMAKERSend us a textMEMENTOOur Nolan Void Season continues with the first of our second pairing MEMENTO (2000). Many of you might suspect we would try writing these show notes in reverse, but, as that’d be too meta for us, we’ll leave that to some other aspiring writer with memory problems we know. Speaking of self-referential memory problems, Memento was actually the film that couldn’t find distribution that Steven Soderberg claimed could be the bellwether of the death of the 90’s indie cinema wave (see our erroneous show notes for...2024-05-111h 09
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID 1.5: OPPENHEIMERSend us a textSeason 12, Episode 2 continues TGTPTU’s paired exploration of the films of Sir Christopher Nolan with his most recent film OPPENHEIMER (2023). Running the risk of being considered by critics a “bomb,” Sir Nolan boldly moves away from genre pictures for his first biopic of a man who’ll/’d (pardon the time-wimey-ness) get mention in Sir Nolan’s preceding film (and anteceding in our season of NOLAN VOID coverage), namely, TENT: Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy) who led the development of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos but also may have stol...2024-05-041h 25
The Good, The Pod and The UglyNOLAN VOID 1.0: FOLLOWING *SEASON PREMIERE*Send us a textCHRISTOPHER NOLAN SZN!FOLLOWING *SEASON PREMIERE*For Season 12 *Nolan Void*, TGTPTU continues its iconic practice of pairing bookended movies from a director’s filmography, first and last until we pair the middlemost. This season we cover the twelve movies of the granddaddy/infant son of the temporal pincer movement himself Christopher Nolan, starting with his inaugural feature: the independently-made, London-shot B&W film FOLLOWING (1998) Initiating a series of noir films leading to greater projects, the technically-minded Nolan leans into his budget limitations, writing a s...2024-04-2753 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglyARONOFSKY FINALE! SEASON FINALE!Send us a textOur Darren Ssarfinale!Season 11 of The Good, The Pod, and The Ugly concludes on an odd note, both mathematically and colloquially, as the boys wrap up their Darren Aronofsky season with Episode 9 covering PERFECT BLUE (1997), joined by frequent guest Ryan.The debut film of famed anime and short-lived director Satoshi Kon released one year prior to Aronofsky’s debut (PI), Perfect Blue is an adaptation of an edgy YA thriller novel popular in Japan. Taking liberties with plot, Kon deepens the twists of the source material, adding in...2024-04-051h 23
The Good, The Pod and The UglyARONOFSKY 8: BLACK SWANSend us a textDARREN ARONOFSKY CH. 4 E2: THERE'S A LITTLE BLACK SWAN ON THE SUN TODAYSeason 11’s temporal pincer movement by The Good, The Pod, and The Ugly draws to a close with tricky reflections on BLACK SWAN (2010). Listen to our opinions double, pirouette, and morph during Chapter 4, Episode 2, covering our final Darren Aronofsky movie but not our season’s finale, with No-Longer-Special Guest Ryan and his squeaky chair understudy. Long-time Aronofsky collaborator and pod-fav cinematographer Matthew Libatique returns to shoot this tale that’d be like if Dostoevsky’s “The Do...2024-03-2959 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglyARONOFSKY 6: I NOAH LOTSend us a textARONOFSKY SEASON! NOAHChapter 3, Episode 2: So the Voice of Kenneth spake unto The Good, The Pod, and the Ugly, and it sayeth: Let there be NOAH (2014); and all the peoples then of the world rejoiced for Darren Aronofsky for his blockbuster that bringeth forth He of the Scarf his firsteth and onlyeth picture to be No. 1 opening weekend at the box office.As the temporal pincer movement winds down, guest Ryan returns with an extra squeaky chair to discuss this bold and big-budget...2024-03-151h 07
The Good, The Pod and The UglyARONOFSKY: CH 3 PT 1:THE FOUNTAINSend us a textTHE FOUNTAINNo one expects the Spanish Inquisition, and no one expected Darren Aronofsky to follow up the success of Requiem for a Dream with a genre-breaking, scyfy-romantic-period-spiritual-medical drama (kinda? maybe?) entitled THE FOUNTAIN (2006). Join your hosts Ken and Thomas along with returning guest Ryan for Season 11, Chapter III, Part A as they drink from The Fountain, a movie garnering no award nominations and would, after wrapping, temporarily break up Aronofsky’s partnership with cinematographer Matthew Libatique. Aronofsky’s biggest (and only) flop to date, The Fountain conce...2024-03-0859 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglyARONOFSKY CH. 2 PT. 2: mother!Send us a textSCARF SEASON #4: GARDEN OF EDITS: mother!Rejoin Ken and Thomas along with guest Shannon in the rebirth of Season 11, Chapter II as they tackle (figuratively) Darren Aronofsky’s MOTHER! (the 2017 film, not the parent of Darren!).After the big budget success of NOAH, and having not made a movie with a female lead with whom he was romantically involved in well over seven years (if rumors about Black Swan are true), Aronofsky returns to lower budget filmmaking with a bottle story about JudeoChristian terror or th...2024-03-0246 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglyARONOFSKY CH 2 PT 1: REQUIEM FOR A DREAMSend us a textDARREN ARONOFSKY CHAPTER TWO, PART ONE:Deuce by you! Deuce by you! Whoa #2! REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000), Darren Aronofsky’s second film, follows these three simple rules for success:#1 Adapt a novel you love. – As a college student, Aronofsky fell in love with Hubert Selby, Jr.’s LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN (1964). He’d owned a copy of Requiem but hadn’t finished it until he lent it to his producer (Eric Watson) wanting something to read while on vacation who said they had to make it...2024-02-241h 08
The Good, The Pod and The UglyARONOFSKY CH. 1 PT. 2: THE WHALESend us a textSCARF SEASON CONTINUES WITH THE WHALE!Thar she blows, Part II of our initial Darren Aronofsky pairing for Season 11 of TGTPTU: THE WHALE (2023). Special guest Ryan returns to continue cohosts Ken and Thomas’ temporal pincer movement of working our way from first and last films sequentially inward and he provides a dissident and dissonant voice to the cohosts’ The Whale love song. Aronofsky’s showy editing techniques and techno score of his first film PI take a backburner in his latest film, a bottle story adapted by and from Idahoan...2024-02-171h 17
The Good, The Pod and The UglyARONOFSKY I: PI AND PIE *SEASON PREMIERE*Send us a textAronofsky Chapter One Pt. One: PiTGTPU SEASON 11 returns to form with our classic (or outdated) temporal pincer movement to cover the entirety of (yes, all eight) wide release films of director Darren Aronofsky. Hosts Ken and Thomas with guest Ryan - pause, pop pills, make a note - kick off the inaugural episode of the new season with Aronofsky’s first feature film, PI (1998), a black-and-white low-budget masterpiece clocking in at an economical 1hour 23minutes & 45seconds.Pi...2024-02-0253 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglySIDE HUSTLE FINALE: BEATTY-EYEDSend us a textSEASON FINALE! SIDE HUSTLE 15: WARREN BEATTY! SHAMPOO and DICK TRACY!Our epic tenth season comes to a close in a flurry of bug hair, blow dryers, primary colors and the horror of Madonna acting with Hollywood legend Warren Beatty. Most legendary actor/directors we might talk about from his era (Beatty was born in 1937) need a separate Wikipedia page for their filmography and biography but not Beatty! He has one of the most carefully selected filmographies of any star of his era. Why is that?First up...2024-01-182h 22
The Good, The Pod and The UglyMESSY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL! CHRISTMAS ADJACENT 4!Send us a textCHRISTMAS ADJACENT 4: QUADRUPLING DOWN ON OUR LEAST POPULAR SPECIALS!Happy Holidays from all of us at The Good, The Pod, and The Ugly! We bring you three films that reference Christmas a few times but are in no way "Christmas Movies" filled with the spirit of the season and all that shot. Nope. It's "Christmas Adjacent" and, given our downloads for these, no one likes them but us! #1 (LUMP OF COAL): INVASION USA. Conceived by, and starring, Chuck Norris as the only man who can...2023-12-222h 03
The Good, The Pod and The UglySIDE HUSTLE: SIR RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH: PINKIE MAGICSend us a textSIDE HUSTLE 12: RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH AIN'T NO DUMMYOnly four episodes left in our epic season ten, talking side hustles. While we mostly have discussed directors better known as actors, this week we talk Richard Attenborough, who, if not for Jurassic Park, would probably be better known as a director today. But he was a great actor! And not just when playing billionaire softy grandpas that accidentally upturn the biological order of an entire planet because he wanted his grandkids to have cuddly raptors. He was legitimately a great actor. 2023-11-282h 11
The Good, The Pod and The UglyTOM SAVINI: NIGHT AND DEAD W/ERIKSend us a textSIDE HUSTLE XI: Tom Savini, Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Night of the Living Dead (1990).Spooky season episode! We are joined once again by screenwriter and horror expert Erik to talk some Tom Savini, an icon to generations of horror fans for his legendary makeup work along with his larger-than-life persona that has made him and his mustache instantly recognizable. We chose two films that both need parentheticals because they were either remade or were remakes themselves. The movie business, amirite?DAWN OF THE...2023-10-312h 27
The Good, The Pod and The UglySIDE HUSTLE X: PRINCE BYRNE: THE DIRECTING CROONERSSend us a textSEASON X EPISODE X: SIDE HUSTLE: UNDER THE CHERRY MOON and TRUE STORIES.Kierkegaard said: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Such is the tale of Prince, hot off the heels of starring in Purple Rain (1984), taking directorial duties on UNDER THE CHERRY MOON (1986) a black and white historical musical romance that must be seen to be believed. We are joined by songwriter, podcast theme writer Ryan and Streep season veteran Andi to discuss one of the most deliciously disastrous directorial debuts of all time! Prince...2023-10-242h 28
The Good, The Pod and The UglySIDE HUSTLE: NIMOY/FRAKES: BOLDLY BORGING HOMESend us a textSIDE HUSTLE 9: FARMER HOGGETT’S VOYAGE HOME Travel across the cosmos and back in time this week with TGTPTU and the crews of two starships Enterprise. Special guest Martin Harries from the Film vs Film podcast joins Capt. Ken and his number one Thomas this week to boldly go where numerous podcasting Trekkies have gone before as they explore two Academy (Starfleet) Award-winning actor-directors:STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986) starring and directed by Leonard Nimoy in his second directorial contribution to the Star Trek movie franchise. Nimoy would su...2023-10-172h 10
The Good, The Pod and The UglySIDE HUSTLE 8: DESPER-KAHLO, SALMA HAYEKSend us a textSALMA HAYEK: ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO & THE MALDONADO MIRACLESalma Hayek is a justifiably iconic actress, personality, celebrity and turned it all into getting hitched to a soulless billionaire. Good for her! But there was a time where she was an up and coming hyphenate pursuing passion projects like Frieda and balancing those with commercial films. ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO (2003) is not exactly a passion project nor a commercial film. She is barely in it! This is the nominally third part of Robert Rodriguez' El...2023-10-101h 28
The Good, The Pod and The UglySIDE HUSTLE: JAMES FRANCO: STONER CREEPSend us a textSIDE HUSTLE 6: JAMES FRANCO: WE KNOW HE IS CANCELLED, STOP TEXTING US ABOUT IT We live in an era where men are being held accountable for being awful (not nearly enough of them but it's a start). This is a good thing. Most of these men are older, however, and in the creative sphere most are past their Best By date. So it is unusual to have someone like James Franco, literally at the apex of his skills both as actor and director, undone by his own destructive impulses. It offers a...2023-09-041h 42
The Good, The Pod and The UglySIDE HUSTLE: EMILIO ESTEVEZ: MAN AT WORKSend us a textSIDE HUSTLE V: Charlie's Brother, Martin's Sane Son - REPO MAN and MEN AT WORKNepo-babies are not new! Tell your crazy uncle, who thinks they are ruining Hollywood, that they have been around since he wore crop-tops and had a mullet.And so we put the spotlight on 1980s Short King, Emilio Estevez. First we talk about one of the all time great cult films of the 1980s, 1984's nearly indescribable (but we try) masterpiece, Repo Man. Estevez breaks out big as Otto Maddox in this surreal, anarchic satire t...2023-08-161h 43
The Good, The Pod and The UglySIDE HUSTLE: DANNY DEVITO: THROW ARNOLD FROM THE TRAINSend us a textSIDE HUSTLE IV: DeGOOD, DeBAD & DeVITO Danny Devito is a beloved actor and, in 2023, a justifiably beloved American institution. Mostly known as a comedic actor from Taxi onward, DeVito turned success as a pinch-hitting comedic character actor into a brief, but stellar, time as an A-list film director. Speaking of director's, Ivan Reitman certainly has numerous screen credits to his name as one! He made a few classics featuring Bill Murray and... he made other movies, some of which made a lot of money. One of which...2023-08-011h 50
The Good, The Pod and The UglySIDE HUSTLE: KEVIN COSTNER: THEY PUT ONE OF YOURS IN THE HOSPITAL, YOU DELIVER THEIR MAIL!Send us a textSIDE HUSTLE III: C IS FOR COSTNER, GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME: UNTOUCHABLES AND THE POSTMAN Kevin Costner had a special run of films in the 80s and 90s. If you weren't there, trust us! He did. He turned small roles into leading roles and used all of the cachet to make Dances With Wolves, which grew so out of hand that trades referred to it as Kevin's Gate. It made a gajillion dollars and won all the Oscars so he showed them! His peculiar mix of straight-forward A...2023-07-142h 21
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4 II: KATHRYN BIGELOW 2: STRANGE DAYS and ZERO DARK THIRTYSend us a textOSAMA BIN WAITIN' FOR NEW YEARS: STRANGE DAYS and ZERO DARK THIRTY W/ BIGELOW CURATOR RYAN!We conclude our four film sweep through the filmography of Kathryn Bigelow with one of her notorious failures and one of her triumphs. 1995's STRANGE DAYS was a big budget summer movie that took place in the far-flung future of (checks notes) 1999! It's mix of contemporary social outrage and little bald caps that can record anyone's feelings and what they are seeing is a tough mix. Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett are as pretty as they...2023-04-052h 26
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly*OSCAR SPECIAL* THE FABELMANS PLUS OSCAR PICKSSend us a textBACK TO SPIELBERG, BACK TO THE RED CARPET THE FABELMANS (2022) is Steven Spielbergs cinematic memoir but with different names and the person playing him does not wear glasses. A story of a marriage slowly falling apart while a young man slowly figures out who and what he is through the art of filmmaking. The-artist-as-myth with Steven Spielberg being the artist. Last year we did an entire season covering Steven Spielberg's filmography promising to never return. But, we did. They pulled us back in. Ken read th...2023-02-281h 33
The Good, The Pod and The UglyVHS SPECIAL: PRETTY WOMANSend us a textVHS SPECIAL: PRETTY WOMAN & THE SCREENPLAY "THREE THOUSAND" Ken and Jack dust off the VHS player for another trip back in time where you have to rewind. PRETTY WOMAN. 1990 was a perfect era for VHS. The film transfers were all pristine so we no longer have the grainy, crappy transfers that marked so many classics from the 1970s (three of which, BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, FAT CITY, & SCARECROW, were lovingly covered in our first three VHS episodes). The...2023-02-2041 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglySTREEPS OF FIRE FINALE: MAMMA MERYLSend us a textSEASON FINALE! MAMMA MIA & MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN! We have watched Meryl Streep movies for nearly six months. Did we learn anything? Great question! Listen and find out with our season finale featuring ALL of your favorite ABBA songs X2 along with songs you probably weren't familiar with in the second Mamma Mia film. MAMMA MIA (2008) is a jukebox musical adapted from the stage production of the same name. Phyllidia Lloyd directs, as she did on stage (and will direct Streep again to an Oscar a few ye...2023-02-031h 40
The Good, The Pod and The UglySTREEPS OF FIRE: THE STREEP LIEUTENANT'S AFRICASend us a textTHE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN and OUT OF AFRICA This week: Two films released four years apart do as much to delineate Streep's meteoric rise to being one of the all-time great film actors as anything. FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) is an adaptation of John Fowles' post-modern 1969 novel, which addresses directly the construction and themes of the "Victorian Novel". In Karel Resz' film of legendary playwright Harold Pinter's screenplay, instead of historical fact checking within the narrative and three different endings, they opt for a meta-narrative of a...2023-01-261h 24
The Good, The Pod and The UglySTREEPS OF FIRE: DEATH BECOMES HER W/SPECIAL GUESTSSend us a textFOREVER YOUNG! WITH GUESTS: MEG, LEIGH and JOHN! The fourth film in a row in Streep's remarkable late 80's, early 90's turn to comedy, DEATH BECOMES HER (1992) is the most successful of the bunch. DBH co-stars Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis, who were bigger box office draws at the time (crazy!). It is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who was one film away from completing one of the all-time great runs in contemporary mainstream films (in 10 years he released: Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future, Who Framed Ro...2023-01-201h 26
The Good, The Pod and The UglySTREEPS OF FIRE: MERYL INDECISIVESend us a textSTREEPS OF FIRE: SOPHIE'S CHOICE & DOUBT TRIGGER WARNING: Doubt's central plot is whether or not a priest had inappropriate relations with a child and that is discussed. Two of the best performances of Streep's career from two different decades. This is the episode where we truly extol Streep's brilliance in drama in two of her very best. SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982) was Streep's coming out party. Released months after the middling STILL OF THE NIGHT, covered a few episodes ago, Choice would begin six years of dominance for...2023-01-131h 32
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPECIAL XMAS EPISODE: CHRISTMAS ADJACENT #3Send us a textCHRISTMAS ADJACENT #3! ROCKY (1976)DIAL CODE OF SANTA/GAME OVER/PIERE NOEL/DEADLY GAMES/3615 DIAL CODE FATHER CHRISTMAS (1989)THE WORLD OF KANAKO (2014)TRIGGER WARNING: The World of Kanako features scenes of sexual assault that are discussed. Four our third year in a row we are doing a Christmas episode that, despite very few people being interested in, we are doing AGAIN. This time... it's with Thomas. Christmas Adjacent is described in countless dictionaries as a "Non-Shane Black film that is not Christmas-themed or...2022-12-231h 43
The Good, The Pod and The UglySTREEPS OF FIRE: DID SHE OR DIDN'T STREEP?Send us a textSTREEPS OF FIRE: STILL OF THE NIGHT and A CRY IN THE DARK/EVIL ANGELS Join Ken, Jack, Thomas and Andi for two very important pieces in the Streep mosaic.Streep in the 1980s was a marvel of A-list perfection, starring in drama after drama, garnering awards like crazy and generally gathering a reputation as a highbrow accent technician. This week we start with the last movie Streep made before ascending to the A-list as the finest actress of her generation, 1982's STILL OF THE NIGHT,2022-12-161h 40
The Good, The Pod and The UglySTREEPS OF FIRE: CANCELLED CO-STARS: MANHATTAN & SHE-DEVILSend us a textSTREEPS OF FIRE: THEY WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED in MANHATTAN and SHE-DEVIL! We here at The Good, The Pod and The Ugly, like all serious fans of the four arts, struggle with separating the Art from the Artist these days. It's not easy when great works come from noxious, odious people who are later cancelled because of that stuff becoming public. Meryl Streep has worked steadily in film for nearly 50 years (!!!!) so it stands to reason she has made a few movies with people who are, to...2022-12-091h 30
The Good, The Pod and The UglySTREEPS OF FIRE: MERYL WEARS PRADA *100TH EPISODE* W/SPECIAL GUESTSSend us a textStreeps of Fire SPECIAL EPISODE: MERYL WEARS PRADAYes, we understand that this is technically our 102nd episode. Have you ever heard of a "soft opening" prior to a Grand Opening? That's what we're going with. THIS is our mammoth 100th episode!!We decided to cook up something a little different for this landmark episode. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA was the Streep movie a ton of our friends wanted to talk about so we have a number of Prada segments this episode. 2022-12-022h 48
The Good, The Pod and The UglyMANN AGED SPECIAL: HEAT 2 BOOK REPORTSend us a textMANN AGGED: HEAT 2 BY MICHAEL MANN AND MEG GARDINER Criss-cross apple sauce everyone and gather round as Thomas and Ken discuss HEAT 2, Michael Mann's first novel, published a few months ago, which acts both as a prequel AND sequel to his 1995 film masterwork. We get Hanna and McCauley in Chicago years before the events in Heat. We get Chris in South America after the events of Heat with Hanna on his trail. We get Mann and Gardiner clearly writing Hanna as Al Pacino with all his weird...2022-11-171h 09
The Good, The Pod and The UglyVHS SPECIAL: "FIGHT PUB" (FAT CITY at 50)Send us a textVHS SPECIAL: FAT CITY *FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY* Listener, you can count on us. VHS, in its heyday, was the best way to watch movies. They opened up a generation to movies previously impossible to see if they weren't circulating in movie theaters years and decades after release. You could argue our current nerd culture, where everybody has seen everything, was kickstarted by GEN X getting their hands on previously obscure movies. A lot of transfers of older movies to VHS were crappy. Available film prints were Paleo...2022-09-291h 05
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPECIAL VHS EPISODE: BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIASend us a textVHS EPISODE: BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA **TRIGGER WARNING** THIS FILM HAS A SCENE OF ATTEMPTED SEXUAL ASSAULT WHICH IS ADDRESSED ON THE EPISODEVHS, in its heyday, was the best way to watch movies. They opened up a generation to movies previously impossible to see if they weren't circulating in movie theaters years and decades after release. You could argue our current nerd culture, where everybody has seen everything, was kickstarted by GEN X getting their hands on previously obscure movies (they definitely gave u...2022-09-2249 min
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4: STREEP/NICHOLS: ANGELS IN AMERICA *SEASON FINALE* W/ANNA KLINESend us a text4X4: MIKE NICHOLS PT. 4 of 4: ANGELS IN AMERICA w/Anna KlineWe have reached the end of both season 7 and our delightful 4x4 of directors and films (John Frankenheimer, Harmony Korine, Uwe Boll and Mike Nichols). We end with a late-career triumph by Nichols, his 2003 6-part adaptation of Tony Kushner’s masterpiece of mystery, heart and spiritualism at the end of the Reagan era. ANGELS IN AMERICA has been produced enough times that most people are familiar with it on some level . It is a play that has continually rem...2022-09-152h 26
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4: UWE BOLL PT. 2 OF 2: HOW TO TRADE YOUR DRAGONSend us a textUWE BOLL PART TWO: HOW TO TRADE YOUR DRAGON IN THE NAME OF THE KING 3: THE LAST MISSION and ATTACK ON WALL STREET This week join three of your favorite podcasting boys to duke it out in the proverbial ring as we discuss the famed Deutschland Destroyer himself- Uwe Boll for his second week as featured director extraordinaire! We’ve watched two of his most popular films- In the “Name of the King 3: The Last Mission,” paired up against the anti-capitalist, wholly American classic “Assault on Wall S...2022-08-181h 38
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4: UWE BOLL PT. 1 OF 2: TRAMP STAMPSend us a text4X4: UWE BOLL PT. 1 OF 2: TRAMP STAMP ALONE OF THE DARK and POSTAL Is Uwe Boll a transgressive genius who has consistently subverted conventional film language and genre expectations time and time again over the course of his career? Is he an angry hack who churns out straight to video mud pies twice (on average) a year? Is he both- or maybe all three? Join the boys (Ken, Jack, and Thomas) this episode as we overcome obstacles such as hip replacement surgery, broken AC, and being trapped in the Port...2022-08-111h 37
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4: HARMONY KORINE: PT. 2 OF 2: HARM FLORIDASend us a text4X4: HARMONY KORINE PT. 2 OF 2: HARM FLORIDA LOOK AT MY SHIT FLORIDA MAN, SHARK, WOMEN, ALIEN SPRING BREAKERS & THE BEACH BUM Spr-ee-ee-ee-ing Br-ea-ea-ea-ea-k. The three little chickies hatching this week’s mayhem are not your regular indica blend of calm when host Ken taps out and frequent guest to the show Ryan, the original Arizona Man, rejoins Jack and a well(whisky)-hung(over) Thomas to discuss Harmony Korine’s Florida duology (SPRINGBREAKERS and BEACH BUM). In an episode originally intended to litigate Ryan’s Letterboxd...2022-08-041h 59
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4: HARMONY KORINE PT. 1 OF 2: BEAUTIFUL LOSERSSend us a text4X4: HARMONY KORINE PT. 1 OF 2: BEAUTIFUL LOSERSPEANUT BUTTER SISTER F*CKERGUMMO & JULIEN DONKEY-BOYYou must out-plastic them this episode: Jack “The Jammin' Jabber” along with regional chair-wrestling champion Ken join Thomas (it’s just Thomas) for the second director in our 4x4 series Harmony Korine (1973 – 4ever) covering not just why angels ain’t got no hooves but Korine’s first two films GUMMO (1997) and JULIEN DONKEY-BOY (1999). Auteur of “mistakist art” and partially raised by circus folks before his buddy got his...2022-07-281h 47
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4: JOHN FRANKENHEIMER PT. 2 OF 2: DRINKER BANKER SOLIDER SPYSend us a textJOHN FRANKENHEIMER PT. 2 OF 2: DRINKER BANKER SOLDIER SPYSECONDS & RONINJohn Frankenheimer (1930-2002) was one of the hardest working A-list directors of his generation. Sometimes referred to as a "technical director", Frankenheimer's skill in drama is occasionally undervalued. From early work at the forefront of the golden age of live TV to a series of classic films in the 1960s, he continued working through the 1970s and 1980s with up-and-down box office success, box office disappointments, some head-scratchers and a much-diminished star in the auteur pantheon. Then a...2022-07-212h 03
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly4X4: FRANKENHEIMER: PT. 1 OF 2 TRAINWASHING *SEASON PREMIERE*Send us a textJOHN FRANKENHEIMER PT. 1 OF 2: TRAINWASHING (or TRAIN CONTROL; or LOCO-MOTIVE)SEASON PREMIERE!THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE & THE TRAINJohn Frankenheimer (1930-2002) was one of the hardest working A-list directors of his generation. From early work at the forefront of the golden age of live TV to a series of classic films in the 1960s, he continued working through the 1970s and 1980s with up-and-down box office success, box office disappointments, some head-scratchers and a much-diminished star in the auteur pantheon he once seemed poised to be...2022-07-141h 46
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPIELBERG: LINCOLN LOGS *SEASON FINALE* COUNTDOWN!Send us a textA BIGGER BOAT: LINCOLN *SPIELBERG FINALE*For the last two years co-host Jack has insisted that LINCOLN is the worst movie ever made and Spielberg is the worst director of all time. What began as a joke, "let's do a Spielberg season just so we can make Jack watch Lincoln again, hur hur," slowly became the impetus for our strangest season yet. Here we are, the finale, where Jack watches Lincoln again, with a ton of Spielberg as pre-gaming the last three months. Thomas read the Doris...2022-06-231h 37
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPIELBERG: GOING FOR GLUESend us a textA BIGGER BOAT: MUNICH, MUNICH & WAR HORSEMUNICH was to be Spielberg's winter Oscar film to 2005's WAR OF THE WORLD's Jurassic Park-level summer event film. It didn't really work out that way but the one for them/one for me summer/winter dynamic may have worked as well in '05 as any other time Beardo did it, other than Jurassic Park/Schindler's List in '93. He would later refer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as a sweet reward...2022-06-082h 18
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPIELBERG: THE WHOOPI GRAILSend us a textA BIGGER BOAT: THE COLOR PURPLE AND INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADETHE COLOR PURPLE (1985) was Spielberg's first big swing at the legitimacy he so desperately craved after a series of certified sensations (plus 1941). Adapted from Alice Walker's best seller, the legendary cast of future all-stars was a middling critical and commercial success. In 1985 you could have a movie based on a book by a black woman about specific black experiences, directed by a white guy from Arizona and adapted by a white guy from *checks n...2022-05-261h 39
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPIELBERG: BROKEN ROBOTSSend us a textA BIGGER BOAT: BROKEN ROBOTS Co-host Ken is joined this episode by saucy songstress Andi to talk her favorite and least favorite Spielberg.JAWS (1974) is about a broken robot shark hungry for love. You all know the story. Spielberg was in full-on genius mode as a twelve-year-old (sourcing needed) directing JAWS and is famous for a broken mechanical shark necessitating making it unseen for most of the movie. A.I. (2001) is about a broken robot boy hungry for love. Spielberg mopped u...2022-05-1850 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPIELBERG: HOOKIN' *75TH EPISODE!*Send us a textA BIGGER BOAT: HOOKQ: IF STAR TREK FANS ARE TREKKERS, WHAT ARE HOOK FANS?Hook! Spielberg's 1991 fantasy/antiworkaganda-fest is one, in Spielberg's own estimation, that does not work. Fam, this is the guy who once said "there is time to be human and have an opinion and a time to sell cars" about his movies. I don't think he even said anything bad about Minority Report and his only reservations about War of the Worlds was Tom Cruise jumping on a couch so the dude generally k...2022-04-271h 05
The Good, The Pod and The UglyMANN AGED SPECIAL: LOAN WOLVES & CUB (REPORTER)Send us a text*MANN AGED SPECIAL* TOKYO VICE PILOT We return to Michael Mann and our completist review of his directorial works with a discussion of his brand-new HBO Max program, TOKYO VICE, which premiered on on 4/7/22. Mann executive produces the series and directed the pilot, his first directorial credit since the criminally underrated Blackhat from 2015. Based on the 2009 memoir of the same name, it's about journalist Jake Adelstein and his 12 years as the first non-Japanese reporter at Yomiuri Shimbum, a larg...2022-04-1356 min
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPIELBERG MYSTERY HOURSend us a textA BIGGER BOAT #6: THE SPIELBERG MYSTERY HOURWith his contract at Universal yielding uneven results (Spielberg was not asked back to the series' he directed episodes for because he did not stick to the visual style they'd established), Spielberg was tasked with directing one of the first episodes of Columbo after it became a series. MURDER BY THE BOOK (1971) was filmed second in the full series order but aired first. Creators Richard Levinson and William Link encouraged Spielberg to be more cinematic and not less. The result...2022-04-071h 00
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPIELBERG: THE DEAD DO NOT IMPROVESend us a textA BIGGER BOAT: POLTERGEIST & ALWAYS Jack and Thomas are joined by Ryan to discuss Spielberg and two seemingly opposing views on the afterlife. In 1982s POLTERGEIST (credited director: Tobe Hooper) Spielberg was so hands-on with the story and film rumors have followed since that he, in fact, directed a fair portion. But so what? It's a classic with his fingerprints all over it as he was seemingly everywhere in the 1980s. Poltergeist is about the terror of the family unit being torn apart in suburbia...2022-04-012h 12
The Good, The Pod and The UglyI FEEL PETTY *SPECIAL OSCARS EPISODE WITH WEST SIDE STORY!!*Send us a textA BIGGER BOAT E4: WEST SIDE STORY AND OSCAR PICKSJack and Ken watched West Side Story, Spielberg's 2021 passion project and ode to the "conservative" musicals of his youth (not in the political sense). It flopped! Big time! Why? Because it is terrible? Or is it good and simply failed to connect in the current theatrical market of multiverses and reboots? Ken and Jack both went in dubious about WSS - how did it turn out? Surprises guaranteed! Then special guest Annabel, an actual honest t...2022-03-231h 32
The Good, The Pod and The UglySPIELBERG: THE LOST ART *SEASON PREMIERE*Send us a textS6 PREMIERE OF "A BIGGER BOAT" Season six will focus on the SSCU, the Steven Spielberg Cinematic Universe. Spielberg, a director who once reigned over Hollywood but has since directed himself into respectable obsolescence has had as many cinematic lives as Batman, a new version trotted out every so often with mixed results. Our guests will walk us through their experiences with Beardo's films and what Spielberg meant then and what he means now. Co-host Ken picked this inaugural episode consisting of RAIDERS OF THE LOST A...2022-03-031h 38
The Good, The Pod and The UglyMANN AGED: TAKEDOWN COUNTDOWN W/SPECIAL GUESTS *SEASON FINALE*Send us a textNEON & SHADOWS We have reached the endpoint in Season Five! We have watched every Michael Mann project he directed. We even watched his episodes of Police Woman and Crime Story so you know we went further than those *other podcasts*, who just covered the stuff they found on one random list on Letterboxed. Amateurs! We end with LA TAKEDOWN (1989), the retooled TV Pilot for HANNA, a proposed TV program about police detective Vincent Hanna, played here by the late Scott Plank, *not* Al P...2022-01-244h 40
The Good, The Pod and The UglyMANN AGED: KEEPIT & TUBBSSend us a textMANN AGED E4: DAS GO-FAST BOOT This week we discuss two divisive Michael Mann epics. 1983's THE KEEP saw Mann take a der leften turn from his focus on the gritty crime and law enforcement settings of his TV work and feature debut to supernatural Nazi horror. As we will see later, Mann pivoting hard will yield a masterpiece in Last of The Mohicans but does it work here? Well, they ran out of money, the author of the source novel hates it, and Mann doe...2021-11-152h 08
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly*SPECIAL OCTOBER EPISODE* CRAVEN WEALTHSend us a text*BONUS EPISODE* October, 2021 is special for the GPU hosts! Later this month standout joke-maker, divisive lightning rod Jack is turning 18! Also later in the month sad sack Ken is getting MARRIED! Not only that but Jack is his best man AND third cohost, smooth criminal Thomas, is officiating the ceremony. Furthermore Ken is marrying Andi, who sang the theme song for season's 1-3. It's all a bit... like the royal family, if you know what we mean. Basically Ken has zero friends other t...2021-10-081h 33
The Good, The Pod and The Ugly*SPECIAL EPISODE* THE TWILIGHT OF CINEMASend us a textFork Fangs Superstar guest Annabel has moved to the other side of this crumbling planet and, as a final binge before she left, she requested we all watch the Twilight movies and then do an episode talking about it. Actually she agreed on the first film in the series but somehow we ended up watching all of them. Ken, Jack, Annabel. Thomas and Ryan discuss all five Twilight films, the first of which was practically shot in our backyard here in Portland, OR...2021-09-032h 41
The Good, The Pod and The UglyCAGE UNCAGED: MOPPING UP **50TH EPISODE** *W/SPECIAL GUESTSSend us a textTHE END OF CAGE UNCAGED! In our landmark 50th episode we bid a fond farewell to the films of Nicolas Cage. It has been fun, frustrating, illuminating and occasionally educational, but it is time to move on. We end with a brief dive into 2021's Willy's Wonderland, which has been a bit of a cult favorite in certain circles. Why, Certain Circles, why?!?!? Then Jack, Ken and Thomas go over our top five films, performances, hair, car crashes and m...2021-08-062h 19
The Good, The Pod and The UglyCAGE UNCAGED: CAGE DOWN TO EARTHSend us a textCAGE UNCAGED: THAT DOG IS A ANGEL City of Angels (1998) is Brad Siberling's decidedly American take on Wim Wenders masterpiece Wings of Desire (1987). Where Wenders went philosophical and spiritual, Angels goes purely romantic. Cage plays Seth Plate, an Angel (though they never say "Angel" EVEN IF IT'S IN THE TITLE) who can hear people's thoughts and take dead people to heaven like the grim reaper. He falls in love with a heart surgeon played by Meg Ryan. Somehow he can also visit her and can...2021-04-291h 41
The Good, The Pod and The UglyEASTWOOD: SUDDEN HEARTBREAKSend us a textS3 E13 SUDDEN HEARTBREAK TRIGGER WARNING: One of the films covered in this episode, Sudden Impact, has a major plot point concerning sexual assault. 1983's Dirty Harry epic SUDDEN IMPACT, is Eastwood's only film in the series as director. Made after personal project Honkytonk Man (S3 E12) in 1982, Clint is in clear "one for them, one for me" mode here, casting Sondra Locke (her 6th and final Eastwood film) as a vengeful woman whose tactics are not dissimilar to Harry's. But th...2021-03-051h 29
The Good, The Pod and The UglyEASTWOOD: JOHN MALKOVICH VERSUS THE APESend us a textS3 E4 JOHN MALKOVICH VERSUS THE APE. In the Line of Fire (1993) was Clint's victory lap film following Unforgiven. Directed by Wolfgang Peterson, this is one of two films Clint has been in since 1990 he did not direct. If you know the other film you win a prize (the prize is watching Amy Adams!). Clint plays a confident - yet haunted - secret service agent who engages in a cat & mouse game with a would-be presidential killer played by John Malkovich, who is by turns sadistic, over...2020-12-161h 18
Grow Your Law FirmPILMMA Roundtable Discussion: Reopening Your Firm Safely, with Ken Hardison, Thomas Pivnicny, Tiana Hardison, and Alan CroneKen Hardison has fought for people’s rights as a trusted personal injury lawyer for over 35 years. His ethics, integrity, and passion for his clients helped to build one of North Carolina’s most successful firms, Hardison & Cochran, and a successful Social Security disability firm, Carolina Disability Lawyers, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Now, as owner and publisher of the law firm management website, Law Practice Advisor, and founder and president of PILMMA, Ken devotes his time to helping attorneys build their own preeminent law practices with proven marketing strategies and management resources. Ken has been recognized as one of t...2020-06-1946 min