EPISODE 033: BAY AREA FLICKS

As a personal recommendation, Kevin introduces 2005’s “Just Like Heaven” as a San Francisco-based Bay Area movie. Featuring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo and directed by supernatural rom-com expert Mark Waters, this mid-2000s relic leaves whispers of screwball and mumblecore character types within what Ryan describes as “elevated Hallmark”. The discussion soon deviates into a formulation of rewatching movies and finding appreciation in films you used to watch during childhood.

EPISODE 032: WEIRD @ WR&P

Ryan and Kevin refresh their childhood memory by revisiting a Dick Van Dyke B-side in 1968’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. WR&P cohosts discuss why this rewatch settled into disappointment while stressing the negative impacts of industry and market pressures on the creative process.

EPISODE 031: GUEST STARRING SAM ISOLA

Featuring: McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Nashville (1975), Secret Honor (1984), Short Cuts (1993)

How do you pinhole a director who dabbled in a little bit of everything? Wind Reel & Print recruits cinema-lover Sam Isola to help dissect the ever-evolving filmmaking style of Robert Altman. Specifically choosing four films outside of his mainstream hits, Sam paints a panoramic portrait of Altman’s personal obsessions, from highlighting America’s fraught history and mythology to fragmenting narratives with ensemble storylines and imperfect technique.

EPISODE 030: LETTERBOXD TOP 250 SHUFFLE

Featuring: Do The Right Thing (1989), Z (1969), Rocco and His Brothers (1960), A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

In one of the more devastating episodes of the Letterboxd Top 250 Shuffle, Ryan and Kevin explore a deeply traumatizing cinematic quartet ranging from blazing political thrillers to tense family dramas.

EPISODE 029: DOUBLE FEATURES & TRILOGIES

Featuring: All About Eve (1950), Showgirls (1995)

On recommendation from MOViES4MANiACS’ Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, WR&P hosts Ryan and Kevin examine the narrative similarities of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s classic Hollywood picture “All About Eve” and Paul Verhoeven’s raucous dark comedy “Showgirls.” They note how both these films leverage performance and cyclical narrative structure to comment on gender roles and the controlling nature of patriarchal systems.

EPISODE 028: BAY AREA FLICKS

Featuring: The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

In this special Bay Area double feature, Ryan and Kevin explore the differences between a locally-made San Francisco film and a Hollywood movie set in the same city. While Joe Talbot’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” boasts a heightened indie appeal with the support of Sundance and A24, the Will Smith-led “The Pursuit of Happyness” finds its roots in the studio system. How do these two perspectives affect and reflect in the story and visual design? Does production mode influence the authenticity of a film’s story or the credibility of its characters?

EPISODE 027: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY (DIRECTORS & ACTORS)

Featuring: Le Petit Soldat (1963), Une Femme est une Femme (1961), Bande à part (1964), Alphaville (1965)

After introducing the Godard-Karina timeline with Vivre sa vie, Kevin takes Ryan deeper into the pairings’ cinematic universe. Ryan highlights how each film stands as unique cinematic experiences, both upholding promises of New Wave Cinema and trailblazing under Godard’s poetic visions and Karina’s powerhouse performances. The relationship between Godard and Karina becomes invariably forefronted in the construction of, the viewing of, and the discussion of these movies, emphasizing the ways reality and cinema blend into each other.

EPISODE 026: DOUBLE FEATURES & TRILOGIES

Featuring: Pink Flamingos (1972), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

While centering the word “disgust”, Ryan and Kevin explore drag queen characters and the traditions of rage bait in a special double feature highlighting John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos” and Stephan Elliott’s “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”. Ryan detests Waters’ deplorable Trash Cinema (probably as Waters intended), while Kevin vocalizes distaste for the inherent racism and transphobia laden in “Priscilla”. In search for cinematic context, Ryan and Kevin ultimately settle into a conversation about the similarities of Blaxploitation and Queer Exploitation cinema, and how “Pink Flamingos” relates to contemporary provocateurs such as Harmony Korine.