Shows
Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastTopol-ing Traditions: Fiddler on the Roof (1971)It is our deepest pleasure to bring you this episode on Norman Jewison’s masterpiece of non-auteurism: Fiddler on the Roof. Both of the hosts have a long and complex relationship to both this film and its source material and could wax for hours on its rich humanism and craft. The tale of Tevye the Dairyman and his daughters remains as fascinating and exciting today as ever! We promise! This movie is not boring at all (except for maybe a couple scenes with Perchik). Topics include: changes from the original stories, Jerome Robbins’ opening numbers, and a major change in A...2025-03-271h 48Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastA Christmas BONUS from KYI!Merry Christmas! Here’s your gift! Sorry it’s a bit late but we never officially said we would be exchanging gifts in the first place so... anyway here it is! This episode is a break from our usual format. Absolutely zero New Hollywood or 70s film content to be found under this tree. Instead, Alana wanted to take some time out to do a treatise on Hallmark and streaming-era Christmas rom-com films. Luckily we had the perfect guest available: Ameerah Holliday, whose breadth of knowledge and level of thought given to the subject of Christmas movies far exceeds the...2025-01-191h 22Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastOur top 5 movies of 1974 and 2024Yet again we gather at the beginning of a new year. The reason? To pit the films of the previous calendar year against the films released 50 years ago. That's right, it's 74 v 24 baby! Will New Hollywood reign supreme? Or will Alana and Sam pretend like they prefer a bunch of Netflix movies instead? Listen and find out!2025-01-071h 48Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastWhen Dreary Met Shabby: Love Story (1970)The time has come to wish a hearty Happy Birthday to Alana! We said she could choose any movie she wanted to talk about and out of all the wonderful New Hollywood classics, she chose this one. Love Story itself might be astoundingly mid, but this discussion we had about it was a rollicking good time! More than half of the episode gets spent just gabbing about the our favorite classic film romances, as well as what it even means to be “romantic”. Topics include: Instagram, Erich Segal’s alleged populism, and literacy rates then vs. now. One topic that d...2024-11-171h 51Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastAh, Theatre! - The Iceman Cometh (1973)Join us in celebrating Sam’s birthday with this special episode on the John Frankenheimer film version of Eugene O’Neill’s play The Iceman Cometh. The hosts dig in to the unusual experiment in cinematic stage plays that birthed this project. You might think a four-hour-long play about alcoholism and despair sounds like a weird birthday present to give oneself but this discussion actually turned out to be rather charming and fun. Happy Birthday Sam! Topics include: Jason Robards vs. Lee Marvin, 1950s television, and Alana’s thoughts on Jack Lemmon.2024-11-052h 26Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastThrills. Chills. Catskills: Young Frankenstein (1974)Horror comedy comes to life this episode with the Mel Brooks classic Young Frankenstein. This might be the first movie we’ve covered that almost everyone we’ve ever met has undoubtedly seen! The gags remain evergreen, but this watch through the hosts were primarily impressed by the beautiful filmmaking and imaginative storytelling on display. The writing, cinematography, performances, music, and direction are all the stuffs of geniuses working at the top of their game. The effect is almost symphonic. It was good luck indeed that the movie came along at just the right time when the creatives, as well...2024-10-051h 10Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood Podcast8 1/2 x 4: Fellini & Mazursky & Fosse & AllenThis is a big one, folks. Alana and Sam take a deep dive into cinematic meta-fiction as they explore the relationship between the seminal film 8 1/2 (1963) and its three most prominent New Hollywood descendants: Alex in Wonderland (1970), All That Jazz (1979), and Stardust Memories (1980). We approached this project with the seriousness and rigor we feel it deserves which apparently to us means making you listen to us talk for nearly four hours! Topics include: the 1976 Tonys, acting teachers in 70s movies, and the ontological argument.Start timecodes for each segment: Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 - 0:00:00Paul Mazursky’s Alex...2024-09-153h 46Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastXenophilia: Alien (1979)Alana and Sam search for the familiar within the unknown as they immerse themselves in the world of Ridley Scott’s genre-defining classic Alien. They ruminate on the disturbing picture it paints of space and the cycles of nature and remark upon the hilarious improv skills of Yaphet Kotto. They also find time to touch on the recently released Alien: Romulus so that they can, you know, hitch onto the crass bandwagon of nostalgia along with everyone else. Topics include: I, Claudius, exploitative nudity, and the relatively high percentage of knights involved in the making of this film.2024-08-191h 46Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastWar Giggles: MASH (1970)Tonight’s episode of Kael Your Idols will be MASH! That’s right, Robert Altman’s MASH. Join Alana and Sam, that lovable pair of married movie fans as they dish the dirt on this beloved classic of early seventies cinema. A few laughs and a few tears, some contextual analysis of misogyny, and more on this evening’s Very Special Episode of Kael Your Idols! Topics include: the recent death of Donald Sutherland, the meaning of “Altman-esque”, and why this episode is so laaaaate (we’re sorry)!2024-07-071h 50Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastTrailer Trash Triumphant: Pink Flamingos (1972)Get ready for the most disgusting, amoral, nastiest podcast-iest episode ever! We are delighted to bring you a discussion of John Waters masterpiece of filth Pink Flamingos. Underground cinema edges closer to the mainstream with this early 70s midnight movie and Sam and Alana both have appropriately strong reactions to its subject matter. Topics include: what it means to be ‘over the top’, Netflix’s early years, and chickens v. eggs.2024-06-011h 58Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastToons of the City: Heavy Traffic (1973)It’s Problematic Art Week on KYI! This episode Alana and Sam are joined by animator Frank Gidlewski for a round-table on Ralph Bakshi’s 1973 Künstlerroman "Heavy Traffic". There is much talk of the film's depictions of various taboos both sexual and racial, so, be warned. Also much rumination on the woes of the modern film/animation landscape so…TW for that as well, if you’re an animator. Other topics include: making out during edgy movies, parallels with the Godfather, and feuds with R. Crumb.2024-04-141h 58Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastThe Greatest Depression: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969)Destiny’s dance continues! This week the hosts go around and around in their conversation on Sydney Pollack’s 1969 ode to the hopelessness of human existence (under capitalism)! This 1930s era Jane Fonda vehicle proves to be delightful fodder for Alana and Sam to morbidly contemplate its grim vision of fate. And speaking of grim fates: the film also co-stars Gig Young…Yeesh! Topics include: the birth of existentialism, tracking shots in Gilmore Girls, and Red Buttons.2024-03-231h 30Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastAnti-Protagonist: Wanda (1970)This week on the ol’ podcast: Barbara Loden’s massively under-seen film Wanda (1970). We held this conversation a few months ago in the wake of the film placing 49th on the most recent Sight and Sound poll. Is this reputation warranted? Has the movie gone too quickly from being something no one ever heard of to supposedly being considered one of the greatest films of all time? Join Alana and Sam for a rough, run and gun discussion of this recently rediscovered 70s masterpiece. Topics include: Company: A Cast Album, female anti-heroes, and the S.T.I.G.M.A. M...2024-02-102h 36Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastTranscendent Neo Wave: Taxi Driver (1976)Welcome to 2024 fellow Kael Your Idolators! For this first episode of the New Year we’re gassed up, got the meter running, and we’re offering you a midnight ride into the twisted minds of De Niro, Scorsese, and Schrader. These three New Hollywood geniuses unite for the first time to create one of cinema’s greatest achievements: Taxi Driver. Join Alana and Sam in this wide-ranging discussion that also takes place VERY late at night. Topics include: talking to yourself, the question of whether or not you are talking to me, and the fact that I’m the only one...2024-01-132h 33Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastA Final Fan Dance: The Right Stuff (1983)The pod is taking a slight temporal detour this week and covering The Right Stuff - a film that began its development during New Hollywood and was finished and released in the wake of the Heaven’s Gate debacle. Sam and Alana pontificate about whether or not this ambitious space epic retains the artistic spirit of the 70s or if it can’t quite achieve liftoff beyond merely ‘fun movie about the early days of the Space Race’. Topics include: the film's digressive structure, Philip Kaufman’s Pavlovian response to popcorn, and the charms of Dennis Quaid.2023-12-161h 38Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastDirector Spotlight: 4 Films by Sidney LumetThis week we have a change of pace for the show. Instead of an episode on a single movie, Alana and Sam turn their focus onto the career of a filmmaker - namely the legendary Sidney Lumet. This is the first of many special episodes we have planned focusing on the figures (writers, actors, directors, even studio execs) who made New Hollywood what it was. There will no doubt be individual episodes on Lumet’s most famous films of the 70s in the future, but this week your hosts highlight four entries in his oeuvre that they probably wouldn’t ha...2023-11-041h 48Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastThe Times They Are a-Zombie-ing: Night of the Living Dead (1968)In this episode Sam and Alana sink their teeth into one of the most influential films of all time: George Romero’s independently produced Night of the Living Dead (1968). A gripping flick about flesh eating Ghouls and the people trying to fight them off - it also happens to be one of our favorite films ever made. The movie is so rich in social commentary that it could only be a product of the 60s and its success could only have come during the New Hollywood era. Topics include: the value of cemeteries, Pittsburgh enthusiasm, and the complexity of th...2023-10-211h 18Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastSuburban Sexual Revolution: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)This week Alana and Sam bring a somewhat *ahem* personal touch to the podcast in discussing Paul Mazursky’s tale of two upper-class couples in the late 60s doing what swingin’ 60s couples were wont to doooo. The New Hollywood touches are myriad with this film from the styles of acting on display, the particular performers chosen for the project (first appearance of New Hollywood Icon Elliott Gould for example), as well as the visible influence of the flower child sensibilities on even the most straitlaced of couples. Topics include: Natalie Wood as avatar for changing American Womanhood, EST, and...2023-09-231h 17Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastJapanese New Wave Influences: Crazed Fruit (1956) and Tokyo Drifter (1966)In this episode Sam and Alana continue to explore the foreign film movements that served as precursors to New Hollywood. The focus is on Japan and its studio-mandated ‘New Wave’ which allowed for salacious sex, violence, and a more anti-nationalistic worldview. In the spotlight are two very different films: Crazed Fruit directed by Kō Nakahira and Tokyo Drifter by Seijun Suzuki. Topics include: the Sun Tribe phenomenon and Japanese youth culture, pop art stylism, the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and whether two brothers can romance the same lady and still remain “chill".Click Here for show notes2023-08-261h 30Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastFrench New Wave Influences Part 1: Pierrot le Fou (1965)New Hollywood didn’t just come out of nowhere, ya know! European and Asian art movements from the 50s and 60s had a profound impact on American filmmakers and inspired many of the revolutionary impulses they brought to mainstream USA. The next few episodes of the pod focus on a couple different groups of these foreign precursors. This episode the show is zeroing in on the French New Wave filmmakers most associated with the film journal Cahiers du Cinéma. Alana and Sam discuss Jean-Luc Godard’s highly experimental masterpiece Pierrot le Fou. Topics include: the sexiness(?) of Jean-Paul Belmond...2023-07-221h 09Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastZenith of Old Hollywood: Mary Poppins (1964)Ready for more New Hollywood? Hold your horses! Let’s first see what the films of the late 60s and 70s were reacting to by going *back* to the eras and movements that directly preceded New Hollywood. This week finds Alana and Sam traveling back to the zenith of Old Hollywood to discuss Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. Topics include the film’s depiction of the women’s suffrage movement, the world of children vs the world of adults, and of course the tempestuous relationship between Disney and Mary Poppins’ author P.L. Travers.2023-06-101h 12Kael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastQuintessential New Hollywood: Apocalypse Now (1979)In this episode Alana and Sam begin their journey through New Hollywood by jumping nearly to the end of the era as they discuss Francis Ford Coppola's controversial masterpiece Apocalypse Now. Topics include: the nature of celebrity, the drug culture, Marlon Brando's brilliant/stupid improvisations and the portrayal of coolness in war movies.2023-05-2155 minKael Your Idols: A New Hollywood PodcastWhat is this podcast?This is a preview episode. Alana reveals her lack of film knowledge surrounding New Hollywood. Sam quizzes her about the film movement's historical context. They discuss the conceit of the podcast. What fun.2023-05-2114 min