Shows
Random Acts of Cinema1242 - The Shape of Water (2017)One of us is prepared to insist that this Academy Award winning film is more than just “that fish-sex movie.” A little behind the scenes: in our recording schedule notes Mike keeps writing the title of this movie as “Shapes of Water”. For those of you who know him to be a fully-committed listman and self-professed admirer of Guillermo del Toro, this is shocking. This may is your first hint of his true feelings about this film. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone...2025-02-241h 24
Random Acts of Cinema433 - Patriotism or The Right of Love and Death (1966)Content warning: this film contains depictions of suicide. Come check out Mike and Charlie realizing exactly what they’ve gotten themself into AFTER watching this movie and getting about halfway through our discussion about it. Yukio Mishima and Domoto Masaki’s rich confrontation of Noh-style staging with richly visualized sensuality propels a short film about a married couple’s suicided following a failed coup-d’etat in 1936 Japan. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T...2024-10-141h 13
Random Acts of CinemaBonus Episode! - Cyberzone (1995)In celebration of Fred Olen Ray’s 70th birthday, we’re sharing an bonus episode of Going Over Our Freds (a podcast hosted by our past-guests Kennedy and Meridith) that Mike joined in on a while back. Enjoy their discussion of Cyberzone (also known as Droid Gunner), starring… Marc Singer!2024-09-111h 25
Random Acts of Cinema36 - Wages of Fear (1952)Director Henri-Georges Clouzot maps out one of the all-time great thrillers. “Explosive” is the right word in all possible ways to describe this film. Join our Patreon and support the podcast! Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Charles Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux (1947).2024-05-201h 25
Random Acts of CinemaBONUS PATREON PREVIEW - Are you Friedkin Kidding Me? (The Exorcist, 1973)Come listen to a free preview of our upcoming Patreon podcast Are You Friedkin Kidding Me?, where Mike, Charlie, and Alexandra (celebrated returning guest host) watch a different film (or tv show or documentary) from the oeuvre of acclaimed director William Friedkin. And we’re starting with his all-time genre-defining horror masterpiece The Exorcist (1973). The first taste is free. Keep an eye out for more information on our upcoming Patreon and your chance to listen to more episodes of Are You Friedkin Kidding Me?2023-10-311h 19Random Acts of Cinema641 - Powaqqatsi (1988)Our first Cannon Group movie!! And it’s the sequel to Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 art house documentary that cuts artfully shot footage to the pace of a rhythmic Philip Glass score. But Chuck Norris or Charles Bronson are still going to show up at some point, right? Right?!? Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be di...2023-08-281h 06Random Acts of CinemaLD75 - Ghostbusters (1984)Today we celebrate Mike’s birthday with the rebirth of Gozer (you know: the Gozerian?) Yep, we’re watching Ivan Reitman’s all-time action-comedy classic: Ghostbusters. But can we disassociated the powerful weight of nostalgia and truly consider the legitimacy of this film as a valid entry in the Criterion Collection? Uh… no. But that’s ok, because it’s Ghostbusters. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like...2023-05-221h 26Random Acts of CinemaLD19 - Blade Runner (1982)We’ve podcasted things you people wouldn’t believe. Like the international theatrical release version of Ridley Scott’s tech noir stunner starring Harrison Ford doing his uh… best?… voice-over narration. Mike picks this for Charlie’s annual incept-date show! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Doulos (1962).2023-03-131h 26Random Acts of Cinema790 - Lady Snowblood (1973)Mike likes the sword hidden in a parasol. Charlie likes that it takes place during the Meiji era. But who are we kidding? The best part is that Toshiya Fujita’s visually dynamic action/revenge film really lives up to the title. Lady. Snow. Blood. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Toshiya Fujita’s Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (2023-02-271h 14Random Acts of Cinema230 - 3 Women (1977)To steal (and completely spoil) Mike’s joke from the very end of this episode: we hope that you’re ready to listen to three men discuss 3 Women. Because we’re joined this week by Patrick O’Riley from the Vintage Video Podcast, who brings us Shelly Duvall and Sissy Spacek in Robert Altman’s mind-bending, identity-shattering, dream of a film. Or film of a dream? This is, apparently, up for debate. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d li...2022-12-261h 19Random Acts of Cinema29 - Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)It turns out that while Mike knows EXACTLY what happed to the girls who disappeared on a school trip in Victoria on Valentine’s Day 1900, Charlie really doesn’t. Director Peter Weir’s period-set mystery explores the unknowable horror of gloves and corsets within the restrictive confines of the Australian landscape. Or maybe its the other way around? If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997).2022-09-191h 35Random Acts of CinemaLD136 - Arsenic & Old Lace (1944)Things aren’t quite what they seem in the old childhood home of recently married ace reporter Mortimer Brewster’s (Cary Grant) old house over in Brooklyn. It turns out that his sweet spinster aunts have been poisoning lonely old men and burying them in the basement. Frank Capra’s cherished adaptation of the hit stage comedy set the tenor for the ghoulish/cute aesthetic that rings so true with secret goths, like our birthday boy Mike. Happy birthday Mike! And enjoy this piece of cake that I made especially for you… If you’d like to watch ahead fo...2022-05-161h 10Random Acts of Cinema077 - And God Created Woman (1956)How many times do you think that Mike will bring up Serge Gainsbourg in an episode about a movie that has nothing to do with him? The answer is one more than the amount of times that Charlie all-too-casually mentions second-wave feminism. This must mean that we are watching Brigitte Bardot's breakthrough starring vehicle about love, lust, freedom, and the sandy beaches of St. Tropez. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Marlon Brando's One-Eyed Jacks (1961).2022-05-021h 22Random Acts of CinemaLD118 - Silverado (1985)This year, Mike has selected Lawerence Kasdan’s star-studded, rollicking western update as his “gift” for the birthday boy Charlie. Why? That’s still a little unclear, but your hosts are still delighted by this crowd-pleasing action/western. So gear up with your pearl-handled colt, fancy 2-gun rig, derringer, boot knife, or a Henry rifle for each hand and ride out with us to save Linda Hunt at all costs. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954).2022-03-141h 29Random Acts of Cinema615 - The Gold Rush (1925 & 1942)Come to think of it, we actually did watch an unofficial “snowy mining trilogy” with last week’s McCabe & Mrs. Millerand Gold Rush. Because we ended up watching both the original 1925 version of Charles Chaplin’s groundbreaking silent adventure AND the 1942 talkie re-release. Thank goodness. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).2021-12-131h 14Random Acts of Cinema827 - McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)… [mumble]… [murmur]… robert… [murmur]… altman… [mumble]… [glasses clinking]… [distant laughter]… brothel… [fiddle tuning] western… beatty… [mumble]… christie… [door creaking]… snowy mining town… If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Charles Chaplin’s Gold Rush (1925 and 1942).2021-12-061h 28Random Acts of CinemaLD141- Carrie (1976)Look: will we talk about the use of split screen? Of course we will. Will we talk about this early breakout supporting role for John Travolta? Yep. Will we talk about how these and more contribute to the manner of director Brian de Palma? You bet. But mostly Mike and I have been desperate to talk about Stephen King on the podcast. So get ready for lots of that. And lots of pig’s blood. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001).2021-09-271h 25Random Acts of Cinema811 - The Naked Island (1960)Sorry this episode is posting a little late this week, but we wanted to add a little extra no-dialogue silence to our discussion of Kaneto Shindo’s similarly dialogue-free year-in-the-life of a family struggling to farm on a small isolated island. It’s a quiet film, to be sure, but full of nuance, rich humanity, and humble beauty. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995).2021-09-141h 30Random Acts of Cinema906 - The Lure (2015)This is a movie that sells itself. Director Agnieszka Smoczyńska‘s musical is about flesh-eating mermaids working in a sleazy cabaret/strip club in 1980s Poland. That deranged mash-up of a premise provokes just as varied of a series of responses: thrilling, unsettling, sexy, repulsive, funny, and despairing. With a kind of magical realism/urban fantasy/rock opera aesthetic, the director plays with feminine fears and desires in the face of a timidly repressive patriarchal society. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Kaneto Shindō’s The Naked...2021-09-061h 16Random Acts of Cinema204 - The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978)It’s first episode for one of our theme song directors! And one of your hosts went a little overboard getting up to speed with the works of Rainer Werner Fassbender. Honestly, a lot of the typical second-half of the twentieth century European auteur themes come up in this film except now we have a decade spanning domestic drama exploring of postwar…femininity. Hanna Schygulla plays the eponymous heroine, navigating the obstacles of survival in post World War II Germany as she fiercely waits and prepares for the return of her husband and then his release from prison. If yo...2021-08-301h 12Random Acts of CinemaLD08 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)Boy oh boy, we really crack the nut of red scare allegories this time! Or we don’t. Hard to say which. But we have a great time talking about rural Southern California, divorce, imposters, whatever happens to the eponymous bodies, losing family and friends to right wing hysteria, Morticia Addams, and the Twilight Zone. Fun stuff! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Rainer Werner Fassbender’s Marriage of Maria Braun (1978).2021-08-231h 17Random Acts of Cinema46 - The Most Dangerous Game (1932)The word “game” has two meanings. So that means that the title of director Ernest B. Schoedsack’s The Most Dangerous Game can also mean…wait…oh no…oh god…run! RUN!! Anyway, it seems like we spend about as much time talking about Hard Target (1993) and Surviving the Game (1994) as we do the film in question. So get ready for a wild ride. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be reviewing and discussing Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).2021-08-161h 06Random Acts of Cinema692 - It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)“All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces.” You know what rhymes with “faces”? “Places”. Know what rhymes with “places”? “Faces”. If you like this kind of clever word play, except with more mother-in-law jokes, then have we got a mad cap flick for you! Director Stanley Kramer brings us an all-star (of sorts) comedic ensemble cast with his oft-parodied cross country race to unearth THOUSANDS of dollars. If only my gosh darn mother-in-law would get off of my back and let us review it! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film...2021-08-091h 09Random Acts of Cinema777 - The Brood (1979)Why not just jumpstart the sub-genre of body horror by inventing a whole new pseudoscience called psychoplasmic therapy that allows for the fears of divorce, children, and past mental traumas to literally manifest themselves in growths, tumors, little blonde goblin killers, and a mounting body count? And if on top of all that, you happen to be legendary director David Cronenberg, why not make all of those things simultaneously beautiful, familiar, and disturbingly disgusting? If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be watching Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).2021-08-021h 13Random Acts of Cinema155 - Tokyo Olympiad (1965)It’s that time of the…decade again. And we’ve got international amateur athletic competition fever! In honor of the return of the Olympic Games to Japan, we’re watching one of the great documentaries on the subject: director Kon Ichikawa’s lyrical vision of the 1964 Tokyo games. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing David Cronenberg’s The Brood(1979).2021-07-261h 28Random Acts of Cinema974 - The Heiress (1949)We’re dipping back into the Henry James-adaptation pool with William Wyler’s Olivia de Havilland vehicle The Heiress, based on Washington Square. Making this a period piece featuring a kind of funhouse love triangle where neither the dashing if penniless Morris (Montgomery Cliff) nor her father Dr. Sloper (Ralph Richardson) seem to love Catherine (de Havilland’s titular heiress) who must suffer as stubborn men and fate conspire to leave her lonely and heartbroken. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be ACTUALLY be watching Kon Ichikawa’sTokyo Olympiad(1965), no matter what Randy...2021-07-191h 15Random Acts of Cinema44 - The Red Shoes (1948)We’re back with directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (AKA “The Archers”) for one of their all-time biggest pictures. This time they rework and update a Hans Christian Andersen folk tale into a romance chronicling the ascending fame of a celebrated ballerina and the men competing for her love and success. And, as promised, the shoes are REALLY red. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing William Wyler’s The Heiress (1949).2021-07-121h 20Random Acts of Cinema13 - The Silence of the Lambs (1991)We’re back for a little welcome murder and mayhem with Jonathan Demme’s genre-defining take on, well, not just serial killer procedurals, but Hannibal Lector-based serial killer procedurals. We cover it all this today’s episode, but we somehow always end circling back to how perfect this movie is. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948).2021-07-051h 26Random Acts of Cinema3rd Annual Rando AwardsAfter months of campaigning and hype, constant drama and re-selection of the hosts, and hours of red carpet interviews, it’s finally happening. Looking back of the year of randomly chosen (and a few guest-selected) films we select and discuss the best of the arbitrary best. Who goes home with their hearts and career-hopes crushed? And who walks away with the most coveted award for excellence for their work in a film? The Randy Award. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the La...2021-06-281h 40Random Acts of Cinema108 - The Rock (1996)Make no mistake gentlemen, we are in for the podcast of our lives. About one of the most notorious and successful action films of the 20th century, I shit you not. Because we finally made it to…The Rock. Truly: we’ve been anxiously and excitedly waiting the opportunity to discuss this Michael Bay “masterpiece” since the very start of this podcast. And all it took was our guests AJ and Richard of the Cult Popture Podcast to insist that we finally do so.2021-06-211h 12Random Acts of Cinema339 - Yi Yi (2000)Weddings! Funerals! Business meetings! But like, in a sweet and poignant way. We are joined by Kevin Allison (of RISK! and The State) to discuss Edward Yang's subtle and deliberate drama chronicling the lives of a Taiwanese family over a year of heartache, tragedy, professional setbacks, and almost imperceptible victories. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Michael Bay's The Rock (1996).2021-06-141h 13Random Acts of Cinema836 - Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)You’d think we’d spend this episode reflecting thoughtfully about the degree of influence Carrie Nation had on the America female suffrage and temperance movements, but we mostly end up focusing on mundane stuff like drugs, trans representation, murder, Shakespeare, midnight movies, and shocking behind-the-scenes dalliances. This is probably due to the influence of our delightful guest: Peaches Christ. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Edward Yang’s Yi Yi (2000).2021-06-071h 09Random Acts of Cinema994 - Local Hero (1983)We are joined by comedian and director Michael Patrick Jann (of The State and Michael Patrick Jann Can’t Direct Traffic) to discuss director Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero. A film where oil tycoon Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster) tells Mac Macintyre (Peter Riegert) to go convince Urquhart (Dennis Lawson) and the other inhabitants of a small Scottish coastal town to sell out. But there’s one problem: the town is too charming!! Etc. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls2021-05-311h 36Random Acts of Cinema100 - Beastie Boys Video Anthology (2000)It’s a big one. It’s our 100th episode so we’re watching Criterion spine number 100. And we brought in our first 3-peat all-star guest and super fan Shelley to talk with us all about the legacy of Beastie Boys music videos. You know, all the classics like… uh… “Intergalatic Spaceman”, “Rampage”, and my favorite “3 DJs and 1 MC.” If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero (1983).2021-05-241h 34Random Acts of CinemaLD144 and 1017 - The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989) and The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962)As it turns out, the coexistence of two movies dedicated to the exploits of the fictionalized eighteenth-century German adventurer Baron Munchausen far from exclude one another from narrative authority. So for Mike’s birthday episode, why not just just do a double episode treating them like parts of an anthology that took a couple of centuries to make? We do just that with Karel Zeman’s 1962 The Fabulous Baron Munchausen and Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen of 1989. It’s Zeman’s brilliantly stylized suturing of live action and handmade animation vs. Gilliam’s inventive production design set against...2021-05-171h 15Random Acts of CinemaLD133 - Bad Day at Black RockIs it a western/film noir mash-up, a subtly coded red scare-era warning, or a a heart-on-its-sleeve anti-racism morality tale? It definitely has a little of each, but is there enough of any to give Spencer Tracy’s oddly elderly WWII veteran a big enough stage to convince a desert town with a shameful secret to inspire a nation to live up to its principles? Not if Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, and Lee Marvin have anything to do with it. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and review...2021-05-101h 39Random Acts of Cinema724 - All That Jazz (1979)Can Roy Scheider (playing Joe Gideon - a gossamer thin veiled version of director Bob Fosse) keep his addictions and self-destructive inclinations in check long enough to finish edits on a motion picture he’s directed while also choreographing a broadway musical extravaganza? Of course he can. But can he achieve true excellence in these tasks without succumbing to his most base impulses? Now that’s the question of the film. To answer this, Fosse sends up everyone including himself in this wry, dazzling, mean, funny, and devastating take down of a business like no other. If you’d li...2021-05-031h 26Random Acts of Cinema835 - Valley of the Dolls (1967)“Dolls” mean pills. There, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way... Mark Robson’s epic movie about three women finding their ways through the obstacle-ridden world of entertainment, offers a soapy and campy take on ambition and those living in the orbit of successful women. Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, and Sharon Tate protagonize against a series of professional rivals, embattled romances, addictions, medical calamities, and oh-so-many personal demons to reach both dizzying highs and devastating lows in this 1960s classic(?). If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing...2021-04-261h 19Random Acts of CinemaLD271 - Pulp Fiction (1994)Criterion 25:17. The path of the righteous podcast is beset on all sides by the inequities of the tasteless and the incompetence of bad movies. Blessed is he who, in the name of quality and good filmmaking, shepherds the listeners through the valley of movie reviews. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Mark Robson’s Valley of the Dolls (1967).2021-04-191h 28Random Acts of Cinema926 - Manila in The Claws of Light (1975)It’s been a while since Randy picked something from a nation’s film output with which we have little-to-no familiarity. And a little 1970s Filipino cinema is just what we needed to break us out of the endless Criterion pattern of American/French/English/Japanese. With this - celebrated director Lino Brocka’s adaptation of a novel following a young man named Julio (played by Rafael Roco Jr.) who searches for his missing girlfriend through the poverty and exploitative working conditions of the big city - we’re given a compelling human drama as our introduction. If you’d l...2021-04-121h 35Random Acts of Cinema254 - The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)What’s better than a 1970s, grimy, sun-baked, L.A.-based neo-noir about a well-intentioned stripclub owner (played with all of the nervous swagger of a Ben Gazzara in his prime) with a gambling problem who gets in too deep with the mob? Two for the price of one, that’s what. This week we’re talking about both the theatrical release and unexpectedly shorter director’s cut of John Cassavetes’ under-appreciated classic. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Lino Brocka’s Manila in the Claws of Light (192021-04-051h 27Random Acts of Cinema620 - Kindergarten Cop (1990)Ivan Reitman, the master of the 1980s family-friendly action comedy, steps boldly into the 90s with a playful reinvention of one of the most singular R-rated action movie marquee names of the 20th-century: Arnold Schwarzenegger. He plays detective John Kimble, an intimidating and violent cop who must transition to the gentler persona and methods of a small-town kindergarten teacher in order to uncover the identities of a mother (Penelope Ann Miller) and child (Christian and Joseph Cousins) hiding from the real target: the sinister criminal Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson). If you’d like to watch ahead for next...2021-03-291h 29Random Acts of CinemaLD124 - Dr. No (1962)For Charlie's annual birthday episode, his very good friend Mike has chosen Terence Young's filmed adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel Dr. No. That's right, there's technically a James Bond movie in the Criterion Collection. And since the birthday boy is a super-fan, eager for a soapbox upon which to blurt out decades of pent-up interpretations, criticisms, and hot takes, get ready for a wild ride. Songs about fruit! Solitaire in the dark! Women's sunglasses! It's all here. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing John Cassavetes' The Killing of a C...2021-03-221h 39Random Acts of Cinema976 - Let the Sunshine In (2017)In a kind of alternate universe version of Trois Colours: Bleu, Juliette Binoche finds herself once more playing a Parisian woman, with an artistic bent, having lost her husband and daughter, navigating a second life in a search for new love and purpose. Except that this time no one is dead; she's just divorced. And rather than mourning her way from one brilliant visual to another to satisfy a decidedly male cinephile's gaze, Claire Denis directs Binoche (playing Isabelle) and a sequence of her self-absorbed lovers, with realism and nuanced perspective. Binoche, now in middle age, is no less bea...2021-03-151h 24Random Acts of Cinema973 - My Brilliant Career (1979)This week we are joined by podcaster Alexei Toliopolous (@ThisisAlexei) of Total Reboot, Finding Desperado, and Finding Drago to discuss his pick: Australian director Gillian Armstrong's first feature film My Brilliant Career. This groundbreaking film blends elements from the eponymous novel and biography of Miles Franklin, exploring her struggles for independence and creative success at the end of the nineteenth century. We discuss pillow fights, English country dance decorum, Sam Neill's iconic khaki fashion palette, Australian cinema, Gillian Armstrong's cool glasses, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and...2021-03-081h 12Random Acts of Cinema465 - Dodes’ka-den (1970)Three-peat! Director Akira Kurosawa's first color feature finds the tragedies and human strength in a small shantytown, inhabited by an ensemble cast each facing their own poverty-driven struggles. What follows is a categorization of the ways in which people contend with suffering: ranging from the inspiring and humorous, to the accepting and despairing. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be joined by a special guest (!!) to discuss and review Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career (1979).2021-03-011h 17Random Acts of CinemaLD072 - West Side Story (1961)It's been a long time since we've had a musical on this podcast. And this is a big one. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' adapt the stage musical (which is - sort of - and adaptation of Romeo and Juliet) wherein two rival gangs sing and dance through fights and fight-dances and dance-fights. Maria (Natalie Wood) and Tony (Richard Beymer) are our star-crossed lovers trying to secure their love in the face of teen violence, police harassment, gang loyalties, and the crushing pressures of racism and the immigrant experience. If you'd like to watch ahead for next we...2021-02-221h 18Random Acts of Cinema738 - Tootsie (1982)Acclaimed American director Sydney Pollack examines the lives of struggling New York City actors working on a competitive and fraught soap opera. Dustin Hoffman plays Michael Dorsey, a talented, but difficult, and under appreciated actor who financial needs and uncompromising nature lead him to take a role as a woman, played by a woman. Becoming an unexpected feminist icon, Michael further challenges societal demands on the accepted gender identities in 1980s America. Hard-hitting stuff. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' West Side Sto...2021-02-151h 20Random Acts of Cinema640 - Koyaanisqatsi (1982)Shots of headlights in traffic, people going down escalators, whirring machinery in a factory, the Hoover dam, a lady smoking a cigarette, and a controlled demolition of a tenement high rise. All this is made at once familiar and deeply profound with sublime photography and a pulsing Philip Glass score. Godfrey Reggio’s first entry in the “qatsi” trilogy revels in the splendor of isolation and anonymity subjected onto humanity with our embrace of technology. Except everything looks delightfully(?) early 80s, so there might be some unintended nostalgia buttons being pressed for our hosts.2021-02-081h 26Random Acts of Cinema725 - Eraserhead (1977)Get ready, Randy has picked another big one for us. And he actually picked the first film by a celebrated director for once. David Lynch's Eraserhead is such a desperately ambitious, risk-everything film that one is tempted to call it "groundbreaking" except for the fact that it's so unique in its vision and execution that you'd be hard pressed to name what it broke ground for. Jack Nance plays Henry, newly saddled with his helpless, mutated, infant offspring and coming face to face with surreal visions and manifestations of his darkest fears and fantasies. And there's a lady in the...2021-02-011h 15Random Acts of Cinema25 - Alphaville (1965)This is a big one that we’ve been waiting for: Jean-Luc Godard’s highly influential, widely lauded, experimental, sci-fi/noir mashup. Hard bitten detective Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine)has traveled through space in his Ford Galaxy to Alphaville, to uncover the mystery of a missing scientist. He finds a a strange, sterile, funhouse mirror of 1965 Paris, ruled by a cold omnipresent computer. Will the emotional awaking of Natacha von Braun (Anna Karina), the scientists daughter be enough to save the day and get Caution out alive? If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we...2021-01-251h 24Random Acts of Cinema843 - Punch Drunk Love (2002)What happens when two seemingly incompatible masters of their craft with nothing to prove get together to make an discomforting powder keg character study that dramatically ratchets its way into a desperately... sweet romance? You get director Paul Thomas Anderson's collaboration with Adam Sandler who plays Barry, a brow-beaten introvert who must contend with the demands of his bullying sisters, a phone-sex blackmail ring, and an unlikely love affair with the all-too understanding and equally smitten Lena, played by Emily Watson. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing J...2021-01-181h 21Random Acts of Cinema200 - The Honeymoon Killers (1970)A couple of lonely hearts (played by Shirley Stoler and Tony Lo Bianco) find true love in this affecting documentary-style romanctic drama directed by Leonard Kastle. Oh, and they con then kill a bunch of women across the United States, because these is actually a shockingly brutal ripped-from-the-headlines true crime film. But I guess it's also that first thing too. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch Drunk Love (2002).2021-01-111h 14Random Acts of Cinema441 - The Small Back Room (1949)The back room boys are at it again! That’s right, we’re jumping back into the endlessly charming (so far) films of Powell and Pressburger. Sammy Rice (played by David Farrah) is a scientist working for an ill-defined problem-solving crew that the British government relies on for technical advice during the Second World War. Will his ever-suffering girl Susan (Kathleen Byron) give him the support he needs to battle his addictions, his injuries, Byzantine office politics, and a series of nefarious unexplored bombs dropped by German planes across the English countryside? If you’d like to watch ahea...2021-01-041h 24Random Acts of Cinema587 - Three Colours: BlueJulliette Binoche deadpans. Sudden fade to black! Dum dum da dummmmm..! Repeat that about four more times and you have one of the most iconic pieces of 1990s European cinema. Does this formula hold up for two jaded cinephiles at the end of 2020? The first installment of Krzysztof Kieslowski's ambitious Three Colours Trilogy doesn't pull any punches with his breathless character study of a woman rediscovering human connection after an unthinkable tragedy. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Small Back Room (1949).2020-12-281h 23Random Acts of Cinema635 - Weekend (1967)If you are celebrated auteur Jean-Luc Godard, it’s the 1960s, and your cranking out about 7 movies a year, the odds are strong that there’s going to be some winners and losers in the mix. And the question today is whether or not this picaresque travel film about a married couple (played by Jean Yanne and Mireille Darc) braving the traffic jam, car crash, and cannibal-strewn French countryside to murder a family member in get their inheritance early is a good one or a bad one. It’s even more to the point of the film that the central p...2020-12-211h 23Random Acts of Cinema739 - The American Friend (1977)When you imagine the lead character in the Talented Mr. Ripley, do you picture a wild-eyed Dennis Hopper in coveralls and a cowboy hat wandering around 1977 Hamburg? No? Well apparently Wim Wenders was the only director bold enough to take Patricia Highsmith’s legendary anti-hero in that...uh...specific direction. But if that has scared you off, don’t worry: the movie is mostly about Bruno Ganz rocking a real sexy 1970s dad look while he clumsily tries his hand as a mob hitman. And it’s beautiful. If you’d like to join us for next week’s film...2020-12-141h 09Random Acts of Cinema890 - Meantime (1984)Who is up for a largely improvised drama set in poverty-stricken Thatcher-era London? Anyone? Ok, we get it, but what if we told you it was directed by Mike Leigh and it features early virtuoso performances by Tim Roth and Gary Oldman? And that they aren’t even the best part? Hint: it’s a acerbic but tender characterization by Phil Daniels as a wise-ass brother navigating the dole, neighborhood skinheads, nagging parents, patronizing relatives, unemployment, and a society and government that has all but given up him. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film...2020-12-071h 14Random Acts of Cinema405 - The Threepenny Opera (1931)Come join us as we discuss director G. W. Pabst's adaptation of Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill's legendary musical set in the London underwold. Gang boss Mackie Messer (aka Mack the Knife played by Rudolf Forster) plots to marry Polly Peachum (Carola Neher) daughter of the beggar king, while his scorned lover Jenny (Lotte Lenya) seeks to have him arrested by police chief Tiger Brown (Reinhold Schunzel). With a few jaunty tunes and innumerable betrayals and getaways, this German language exploration of class , power, and poverty paints a compelling portrait of pre-War politics. And we totally don't spend too muc...2020-11-301h 14Random Acts of Cinema929 - Female Trouble (1974)[Insert eye-rolling pun about dipping our toes back into familiar Waters here]... That's right, we're once more spending the day with the Dreamland Players, reveling in the trash and the wigs of Jon Waters' decades-long seedy send-up of American culture. Divine smirks, whines, and stomps his way into our hearts as Dawn Davenport, following her sordid decline from dissatisfied youth to art experiment/serial killer. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing G. W. Pabst's The Threepenny Opera (1931).2020-11-231h 27Random Acts of Cinema281 - Jules And Jim (1962)Francois Truffaut (clearly famous mostly because he's mentioned in our theme song) crafts an oddly gentle love-triangle period piece, full of joy, friendship, understanding, frustration, and tragedy. A kind of bohemian fusion of Edith Wharton and Henry James. Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Sarre) play two fast friends living in France on the precipice of World War I. A chance encounter with anarchist Catherine (preposterously absent from the title, and brilliantly played by Jeanne Moreau) brings joy and turmoil as the three navigate the early 20th century in this masterpiece of the French New Wave. 2020-11-161h 10Random Acts of CinemaLD54 - Zulu (1964)It looks like Randy finally decided to pick for us a good, old-fashioned, big-budget, mid-century, historical war epic. Michael Caine plays Peter O’Toole playing David Bowie as Michael Caine in the Role of Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead alongside Stanley Baker as Lieutenant John Chard: both men of hesitant bravery competing with one another for the command of a small regiment of British soldiers defending against a massive Zulu army in 1870s Natal. As you might imagine, there’s quite a lot to unpack here. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be di...2020-11-091h 30Random Acts of Cinema119 - Withnail & I (1987)Hey maaaan... remember the 60s? Doesn’t matter, because this isn’t really that movie. Unless your idea of the decade is an hilariously acerbic Richard E. Grant (as the eponymous Withnail) drunkenly rampaging through the English countryside screaming at river fish and ladies in tea shops. Paul McGann (...and I) is there to suffer along for the ride, giving and taking timeless quotes and stumbling into one soul-crushing circumstance after another. Maybe these two booze-addled out-of-work actors really didn’t need a weekend in the country to get away from their rat-infested city day-to-day, but thank god they went anyw...2020-11-021h 22Random Acts of Cinema124 - Haxan or Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)As the spookiest of holidays approaches, Randy (the random number generator) has selected an appropriately themed film for us to watch. That is, if we can handle all of these darn thrills and chills. But with Benjamin Christensen's seminal half-documentary/half-historical fiction approach to his study on the history of medieval witchcraft, a rapid-fire mix of visual delights and horrors leads the audience into a terrifying world of witches, potions, curses, torture, mad monks, and Satan himself. And get this: Christensen dares to use his topic to address contemporary social and mental health concerns. Horror movies can't do...2020-10-261h 27Random Acts of Cinema546 - Five Easy Pieces (1970)Will we be doing the entire episode doing our best Jack Nicholson impressions, or will we give this very serious movie the very serious attention it deserves? The only way to find out is to join us as we discuss director Bob Rafelson's character study of modern alienation starring the man himself. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Benjamin Christensen's Haxan (1922) just in time for Halloween!2020-10-181h 20Random Acts of CinemaLD335 - Shine (1996)Oh boy. Here's a blast from the not-so-nostalgic past. Geoffrey Rush plays piano virtuoso David Helfgott, in Scott Hick's most 90s biopic of all 90s biopics. Talent and determination are hindered by a domineering father and an unbridled ambition to be the best. But the resulting mental breakdown isn't enough to stop the spirit of a genius. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces (1970). 2020-10-121h 17Random Acts of Cinema440 - Brand Upon The Brain! (2006)Oh! The past! The past! Now we've done it. We've made mother cross. Imagine that sort of text and occasional narration over a feature length, black and white, largely-silent film comprised of quick cuts, sporadic sound effects, and haunting imagery. Guy Maddin's experimental film is about an adult Guy (Erik Steffen Maas) recalling his childhood (as young Guy, played by Sullivan Brown) on an island, where his domineering mother (Gretchen Krich) ran an orphanage where they extracted a youth-bringing nectar from the skulls of their charges. He and his rebellious sister Sis (Maya Lawson) are visited by alluring and int...2020-10-051h 21Random Acts of Cinema233 - Stray Dog (1949)With Akira Kurosawa’s (ever heard of him?) seminal detective procedural, rookie detective Murakami (Toshiro Mifune - ever heard of him?) and worldly but hardly hard-bitten senior detective Sato (Takashi Shimura - ever heard of him?!) hunt through the post-war Tokyo underworld looking for a stolen handgun, hoping to stop an escalating murder-spree in the sweltering summer heat. Among the topics discussed: linen suits, cameras pointed at the sun, and it should be called Stray Dogs (with an “s”) right? If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing G...2020-09-281h 09Random Acts of CinemaLD024 - Young And Innocent (1937)We're running from the law again with our boy Hitch(cock). This time with an earlier film in his esteemed oeuvre as we join two equally young and equally innocent fugitives - Erica (Nova Pilbeam) and Robert (Derrick De Marney) - in a race to prove their...uh...youth and innocence. Anyway, it's a romantic and comedic romp through the English countryside. Witty, adorable, thrilling, tender, and, well, pretty racist it turns out (spoiler alert.) If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog (1949).2020-09-211h 18Random Acts of Cinema210 - Winter Light (1963)We've been dancing around this subject long enough. And how could we not when the Criterion Collection is our subject of inquiry? But we've finally hit the nail on the head. We've got ourselves a 100% genuine mid-century Scandinavian crisis-of-faith movie. And by director Ingmar Bergman no less. A pastor named Tomas (played by perfect-pastor-haircut Gunnar Björnstrand) quietly and with tremendous reserve, runs amok through a small Swedish town, strewing existential crises in his wake. The local schoolmistress Märta (played by bespectacled and cardiganed Ingrid Thulin) dotes with pointless abandon on Tomas' black hole of despair and nihilism. Hurray!2020-09-141h 29Random Acts of Cinema172 - Pépé Le Moko (1937)Our first Jean Gabin film! He plays the eponymous thief, clever and charming, hiding out in the maze-like Casbah of Algiers - a hive of scum and villainy if there ever was one under the direction of Julien Duvivier. Local and French police are helpless to smoke out Pépé and his merciless but loyal cohort until Gaby, a beautiful tourist tourist played by Mirielle Balin, catches his eye. Obsession and desperation slowly turn his sanctuary into a prison, and the lackadaisically acute Inspector Slimane (played by the be-fezzed Lucas Gridoux) knows just how to lay his trap. Noir, tourism...2020-09-071h 37Random Acts of Cinema698 - King of the Hill (1993)Steven Soderbergh really surprised us with this 1993 coming-of-age story set on the mean streets of 1930s St. Louis. Because we had never heard of it. Hard to believe that this nostalgia-bomb was missed by the two 90s kid hosts of this podcast. Based on the memoirs A. E. Hotchner, the film stars Jesse Bradford as Aaron, left to fend for himself against an onslaught of petty cops, bullies, bellboys, repo men, and so on as poverty and illness scattered his family during the Great Depression. A surprising cast of all-stars and future stars round out this period drama. If...2020-08-311h 12Random Acts of Cinema663 - Shoah (1985)Note: This episode’s discussion and the film we are discussing, explicitly recounts the brutal methods, unimaginable suffering, and lingering trauma of the Holocaust. Sensitive listeners may want to skip this one and join us next week. The hosts of Random Acts of Cinema shy away neither from films of exceptional length nor films with difficult subject matter. But the double impact of both in Claude Lanzmann’s Holocaust documentary Shoah would seem to really put our constitutions to the test. But what we found was a confident and meticulously paced film, whose use of interview-based testimonies of surv...2020-08-241h 41Random Acts of Cinema333 - Fists in the Pocket (1965)Dissatisfied youth, repressed sexuality, and nihilism running rampant in the dysfunctional Italian family unit is the theme of the week on Random Acts of Cinema. Director Marco Bellocchio’s cruel, bitter little film about Alessandro (played by Lou Castel) thinning out the ranks of his crumbling family through self-obsessed cruelty and murder is punctuated by brilliant photography, powerful acting, and a frantic score by Ennio Morricone. If you would like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah (1985).2020-08-171h 16Random Acts of Cinema066 - The Orphic Trilogy (1930, 1950, and 1959)With his nearly 30-years-in-the-making thematic trilogy, director/poet Jean Cocteau uses innovative film techniques and diverse strategies steeped in personal and classical mythology to consider the needs, methods, obstacles, and curse of the creative mind and the creative life. First with his groundbreaking The Blood of a Poet (1930), non-narrative sequencing and "not surrealist" (but totally surrealist) imagery presents a groundbreaking experimental film. Orpheus (1950) is a dreamy retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth set in a kind of poet-crazed pre-teenybopper contemporary France. Many of the characters and themes return in The Testament of Orpheus (1959), the final installment but with Coc...2020-08-101h 23Random Acts of Cinema453 - Chungking Express (1994)We are joined by Michael Patrick Jann, film and television writer/director and member of The State to discuss his personal pick: Wong Kar-wai’s frenetic romantic masterpiece Chungking Express. Two stories, each with a lovesick cop (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Tony Leung) and a self-possessed woman (Brigitte Lin and Faye Wong) navigating Hong Kong and exploring themes of love, heartbreak, street food, and obsession. Funny, adorable, charming, tender, and sexy - our protagonists pursue meaningful if momentary connections in the alienating modern world. But, like, in a gorgeous and experimentally shot kind of way. Check out Michael’s aweso...2020-08-031h 29Random Acts of Cinema1014 - Roma (2018)Alfonso Cuarón's drama-behind-the-drama has all of the trappings of a semi-autobiographical period piece. Meticulously recreated clothing, cars, furniture, street settings, and contemporaneous political turmoil are set largely in the eponymous neighborhood as a failing marriage takes its toll on a family. But of course the real protagonist is one of the maids, Cleo (played by Yalitza Aparicio) who faces her own obstacles of poverty, abandonment, unwanted pregnancy, and murderous rioters. Her unassuming strength allows her to persevere while simultaneously serving as caretaker, savior, and backbone of her household. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week...2020-07-271h 28Random Acts of Cinema1036 - The Big Boss (1971)In the promotional material for Lo Wei’s The Big Boss (also known by a few other film titles) break-out star Bruce Lee is seen flying through the air, shirt half-torn from his body, contorted into a now-iconic running jump kick, certain to be delivered to the face of some punk to glorious effect. But does the movie pay-off with this acrobatic feat of violence, as promised on the poster? Yeah: it does. Because Bruce Lee is a movie star. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing A...2020-07-201h 14Random Acts of Cinema1007 - Until The End of the World (1991)It's a miracle I even made it out of Longwood alive. This town full of men with big mouths and no guts. I mean if you can just picture it: Wim Wenders made a nearly 5 hour long, globetrotting movie in 1991 predicting the technology, geopolitical concerns, and digital addictions of the 21st century with remarkable foresight. Solveig Dommartin heads up a luminous cast, redressed in 90s future noir, that makes use of gorgeous settings and beautiful photography to explore a magnetic woman's nihilistic race to find meaning and purpose in a forever-changing world. If you'd like to watch ahe...2020-07-131h 27Random Acts of Cinema569 - The Makioka Sisters (1983)Director Kon Ichikawa's The Makioka Sisters, based on the book by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, catalogs the domestic dramas of the eponymous four women and their family circle in 1930s Japan. Matchmaking, marriage, and the juggling of suitors for the youngest two siblings become complicated by stubborn personalities, dwindling status in society, and the shame of past scandals. The demanding pressure of modernity and a changing Japan beleaguer the family into choices to either compromise or even abandoning the mores of traditional culture. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Wim...2020-07-061h 19Random Acts of Cinema165 - Man Bites Dog (1992) with Scott SawitzContent Disclaimer: This episode examines a film with extremely challenging subject matter. Exceptionally graphic depictions of violence, murder, racism, and brutal sexual assault are both celebrated and trivialized in Remy Belvaux's Man Bites Dog. Listeners who are sensitive to such content and the frank discussion of it are strongly encouraged not to listen to this episode. The hosts disliked the film and disliked talking about the film. Nevertheless, Man Bites Dog is a documentary-style film wherein the director and crew follow - and are slowly drawn into the world of - serial killer Ben (played by Benoit Poelvoo...2020-06-291h 23Random Acts of Cinema2nd Annual Rando AwardsAfter months of campaigning and hype, constant drama and re-selection of the hosts, and hours of red carpet interviews, it’s finally happening. Looking back of the year of randomly chosen (and a few guest-selected) films we select and discuss the best of the arbitrary best. Who goes home with their hearts and career-hopes crushed? And who walks away with the most coveted award for excellence for their work in a film? The Randy Award. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Rémy Belvaux’s Man Bites Dog...2020-06-221h 09Random Acts of Cinema1034 - Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) with Briana & Maddy of Chapter One: Take TwoWe are joined this week by the hosts of the podcast Chapter One: Take Two - Briana McZant and Maddy McZant - to look deep into the eyes of Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire. This one has it all: portraits of ladies, ladies on fire, portraits of ladies on fire, portraits of ladies that are literally on fire, and even a painting titled Portrait of a Lady on Fire that really isn’t a portrait of a lady on fire. And I’m not just being flip; this movie dives headfirst, with puzzle box precision...2020-06-151h 29Random Acts of Cinema565 - The Great Dictator (1940) with Kevin Allison of Risk! and The StateThis week we are joined by special-guest Kevin Allison (of Risk! The Podcast and The State) to talk about a powerful and hilarious film: Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator. So, you know when fed-up people call fascists on their practices and they respond by saying they aren’t “technically” fascists? So then they are pressured to walk back their language a little bit and the criticism gets all muddied on a point of semantics based on strict political definitions? Like when a leader who clearly would have been pretty cool with Nazi tactics and ideology gets all butt-hu...2020-06-081h 17Random Acts of Cinema1000 - Son of Godzilla (1967) with AngieFollowing the random selection and then explicit demand of AJ from the Cult Popture podcast, we’re dipping back into the Showa-era Godzilla films, with Jun Fukuda’s Son of Godzilla. We’re joined by longtime friend and Godzilla-expert Angie to help us make sense of this eighth(!) entry into the franchise. This time, there’s a baby Godzilla, a remote weather experiment station on a pacific island, a lady who has been hiding in a cave for some reason, and zero stakes. So it’s a pretty distant echo of the original 1954 masterpiece. Still, there’s something in it’s...2020-06-011h 21Random Acts of Cinema301 - An Angel At My Table (1990) with AJ and Richard of Cult PoptureJane Campion’s filmed adaptation of the memoirs of celebrated New Zealand poet and author Janet Frame offers a desperately poignant and often devastating account of childhood and womanhood in the twentieth century. Played by three different actors at three different periods of her life, Frame’s tender spirit and social anxieties make for a life of modestly monumental triumphs and gut-wrenching personal tragedies. We are joined by AJ and Richard of Cult Popture to help us understand the New-Zealand-of-it-all. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing...2020-05-251h 15Random Acts of Cinema175 - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)Terry Gilliam's adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's acclaimed memoir is a diatribe against Nixonian America, account of a motorcycle race, drug travelogue, and only now the kind of advertisement that the Las Vegas chamber of commerce could get behind. But it's really the story of Thompson's proxy Raoul Duke's (played by Johnny Depp channeling a sort of mumbly Jim Carrey) desperately trying to channel the destructive energy of his drug buddy/lawyer Dr. Gonzo (played by Benicio del Toro channeling some kind of potbellied, vomit soaked, sweat demon.) So it's funny. If you'd like to watch ahead fo...2020-05-181h 30Random Acts of Cinema806 - Only Angels Have Wings (1939)Sometimes all you need is a little classic Hollywood glamour. Jean Arthur and Cary Grant put on some saucy hats and deliver just that it is this action/adventure story about the daring lives of... uh... postal service pilots and the women who love them. Don't worry: Howard Hawks figures out how to make this work with the combination of thrilling special effects, edge-of-your seat danger, and themes of courage, friendship, love, and self-sacrifice. And did I mention Jean Arthur and Cary Grant? And their hats? If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will...2020-05-111h 17Random Acts of Cinema671 - La Cage Aux Folles (1978)You know what would just be wonderful right about now? A delightful and beloved French farce. Edouard Molinaro’s classic tale of two gay nightclub owners’ attempt to put on a show of conservative domesticity in order to trick a right-wing politician into allowing their son to marry his daughter isn’t exactly timeless - in that it is SO set in 1978 - but it’s charm and hilarious send-up of straight gender performance make it one for the ages. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Howa...2020-05-041h 08Random Acts of Cinema616 - Shallow Grave (1994)Danny Boyle is on the board! And in uncharacteristic fashion, we’re actually taking a look at the earlier film of a celebrated director rather than some weird, later period film. The randomness of our system was bound to get it right eventually. And the result is a gripping 90s thriller about three Scottish flat mates descending into madness, paranoia, and betrayal after the discovery of a bag full of a cash and their decision to dispose of the corpse of its former owner. And Ewan MacGregor’s floppy hair makes its debut just before it is shaved completely off for...2020-04-271h 15Random Acts of Cinema012 - This Is Spinal Tap (1984)On this week’s episode we turn the podcast up to eleve... Oh god. What am I doing? What have I become? With all of these quotable lines, super-clever improv, bad accents, hilarious songs, and tight, tight pants, will we be able to manage even a half-coherent conversation about Rob Reiner’s groundbreaking “rockumentary” parody This Is Spinal Tap? If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave (1994).2020-04-201h 14Random Acts of Cinema555 - The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)The seedy, hand-to-mouth, day-to-day scramble in the life of a press agent in New York City seems an unlikely setup for a cruel and bitter piece of star-studded film noir. But Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster are up to the challenge in director Alexander Mackendrick’s take on the hustle and corruption here at the very heart of conservative America’s most nostalgic tent pole. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be reviewing and discussing Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap (1984).2020-04-131h 14Random Acts of Cinema090 - Kwaidan (1965)Randy has been selecting a lot of spooky films for use recently, and the trend continues with Masaki Kobayashi’s 1965 horror anthology Kwaidan. We’re treated to four eerie tales adapted from the collection of Japanese folklore of the same name. Each more gorgeously photographed than the next. Ghostly imperial courts, ice vampires, dead lovers, and mischievous teacup spirits round out the cast of nightmarish characters. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Alexander Mackendrick’s The Sweet Smell of Success (1957).2020-04-061h 22Random Acts of Cinema537 - C.H.U.D. (1984)This movie is famous because of it’s hilariously clunky acronym. And you only THINK you know what it stands for. That’s just the first surprise that this old school VHS never-rent has in store for you. The second surprise is that, for all of its reputation, C.H.U.D. kind of has its charms. Well, there goes whatever good will this podcast managed to earn. If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Shigeru Wakatsuki's Kwaidan (1965).2020-03-3059 minRandom Acts of Cinema231 - The Last Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)Ein Fritz Lang Film! And its a nightmarish psychological crime thriller that was banned by the Nazis no less! It’s also, strangely, a kind of sequel to two different and previously unrelated Lang films: Mabuse the Gambler (1922) and M (1931). In other words, this is a perfect place for us to start with this director. A world-weary police inspector begins to investigate a series of murders traced back to an enigmatic criminal mastermind pulling the strings of a vast organization of professional criminals. The only problem is that the kingpin in question is the near catatonic Dr. Mabuse who has be...2020-03-231h 06Random Acts of Cinema521 - Mystery Train (1989)We have our first sample of Jim Jarmusch with this little gift that Mike chose for Charlie’s extra-special birthday episode. Is this classic three-part anthology set in crumbling Memphis environs a perfect present or a devastating disappointment? With tales of tourists on a rock n’ roll pilgrimage, a widow beset by colorful locals during an unexpected layover, and three working stiffs caught up in an unintended crime spree, the viewer is left to find either a maudlin kind of transcendental revelation or a bitter laugh at the absurdity of a town still echoing with the ghostly sounds of Elvis...2020-03-1659 minRandom Acts of Cinema776 - Moonrise Kingdom (2012)Stylistic pastiche. Symmetrical framing. Murray. Schwartzman. 1960s-centric jukebox soundtrack. It looks like this must be our first Wes Anderson movie. A tale of young love set against scouting, parents in a failing marriage, a lovelorn “cop”, and an oncoming storm of the century combine to either charm or annoy Mike and Charlie. But which is it? If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawerence (1983).2019-09-231h 07Random Acts of Cinema558 - Topsy-Turvy (1999)In our first break from format we’re following up last week’s movie - The Mikado (1939) - with a film exploring the men behind that comic opera: Gilbert and Sullivan. At first, Mike Leigh’s historical drama does some work to explain the circumstances that led to setting The Mikado in imperial Japan, and the second seeks to humanize that choice my exploring the efforts and daily dramas of the entire production leading up to its premiere in 1885. Does Topsy-Turvy justify The Mikado for a post-modern audience or does it lay bare the problematic choices of a culture incapab...2019-08-261h 01Random Acts of Cinema559 - The Mikado (1939)Imagine it’s 1939. The world stands at the precipice of war. So why not make a film adaptation of a classic English comic opera set in Imperial Japan, but all of the character and place names are silly baby-talk? And this reliance of nonsense serves as a stand-in for “foreign” which is contrasted against a view of Japanese culture as arbitrarily cruel and hidebound to antiquated and contradictory social propriety? Except it’s not really about Japan, it’s actually just using tactless cultural appropriation as a means to disguise biting social commentary actually directed at England? Is the result straight...2019-08-1959 minRandom Acts of CinemaIntroduction & PremiseQuiet on the set! Before we start watching movies, come an meet your hosts: Mike and Charlie. We lay out the structure and rules of the podcast, discuss why we wanted to do this in the first place, and select our first film. Tune in next week for our inaugural review of Lawrence Olivier’s Richard III (1955).2019-06-2729 min