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PODCAST

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm Podcast

Corbin Smith and Matt Ellis

A Podcast about movies from the fine folks at the Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation, with Corbin Smith (The Famous Writer) and Dr. Movies, Matt Ellis (A Professor of Movies)

tv & film film reviews

All Episodes

01:36:49

DIGITAL FRONTIERS: "Rachel Getting Married" (2008,...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/06/18

Eyy! Rachel Getting Married! It's a heavy movie! We talk about Ann Hathaway playing into public type, the incredibly strange casting, Demme as a phyical filmmaker working in a kinetic-digital world, rehab, European family vs American Family, 'Realism,' and other stuff. Hey: there's a weird little background sound in this episode. Sorry we hope it doesn't drive you insane. We were recording at Workers' Tap and the music was a little loud. We swear the episode is good enough that you will be able to

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02:16:13

DIGITAL FRONTIERS: Post-Continuity (With a Special...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/06/06

Some big news: Corbin and Matt lost their minds and recorded about film academy stuff for two hours. Our topic is Hollywood Continuty and its accelerants and defectors, which we process thought the frame of Tony Scott's 2006 Sort-of-sci-fi movie Deja Vu. Topics are wide and varied and include: comic book storytelling, film scanning, the digital console, Jim Cavizel, Ozu (again), and Michael Bay, the angel and the demon in one manifestation and the role of superhero movies in rebelling AGAINST

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01:47:33

DIGITAL FRONTIERS: "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/05/30

We still got a will and a burning rage to win, folks, because Ellis and Corbs are talking about WALK HARD! Topics: Non-linerar editing and audience testing, Judd Apatow, John C. Riley, paralell world Phil Hoffman, the evolving form of the comedy star during this time, the superior but rarely seen director's cut of this movire, and the weird line between parody and pastiche the movie straddles. Weirdly long? Corbin's Recco Here. Matt reccommends The Ankler, a newsletter about Da Movie Buziness. Next

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01:26:33

DIGITAL FRONTIERS: "Before the Devil Knows You're...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/05/23

Corbin and Matt ride their horses across the Digital Frontiers and arrive at BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, a world historic bummer that legendary director Sidney Lumet stages in a series of disgusting interiors. Also PSH drops a bunch of rocks on a glass table. It's excruciating. Corbin recommends a donut shop. Matt recommends "The Studio," on Apple TV. Next week's episode is about "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," which you might have to rent? Sorry.

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01:43:40

DIGITAL FRONTIERS: 'Zodiac' (2007, Dir: David Fincher)

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/05/16

We got a live one here, folks! Matt and Corbin talk about 'Zodiac,' David Fincher's digital cinema landmark that also happens to be one of the best movies of the aughts. Topics include: slip sliding into the place where no knowledge can validate you and the terror that remains, Fincher's San Fran past, ILM, a smoking fetus, digital's capacity to enable control freaks in directors chairs and executive's offices alike, and Matt's buckwild thesis on how the Zodiac killer is digital cinema. Corbin

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01:58:54

"The Fan" (1996, Dir: Tony Scott) w/ Nate Fisher

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/05/09

After months in the digital mines, Matt and Corbin come up for air with NATE FISHER, co-writer of the fabulous new American Baseball Picture EEPHUS. We discuss Tony Scott's 1996 Travis-Bickle-As-Sports-Fan classic THE FAN. Topics include: Frederick Weisman, Deniro in a very strange mode, Barry Bonds, and modernist stability slipping into the chaotic morass of the next thing. Our recs this week don't have any relevant links, so I will spare you the description of them here. But, Eephus is currently

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01:58:02

Digital Frontiers: "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/05/04

It goes without saying that a fake holiday to celebrate a film franchise owned by the Disney Corporation is an atrocity of taste and nonsense of the highest degree. Why does life under the social mediaized form of capitalism subject you to all this simpery, this nonsense, this neverending wave of novelty? Truly we are in hell. But hey we had a Star Wars episode in the tank so screw it, Happy Star Wars Day, May the Fourth Be With You! We are joined by friend of the program Ryder Canepa to talk about

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01:36:55

Digital Frontiers: "INLAND EMPIRE" (2006, Dir: David...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/05/02

Corbin and Matt have spent week dreading the moment when they would have to watch INLAND EMPIRE, David Lynch's extreme digital cinema expirment that he shot with a skateboard camera. But what if... it's actually kind of sick with it? Corbin recommends The Long Good Friday. Matt recommends Protean Magazine. Our next episode will be about STAR WARS EPISODE THREE: REVENGE OF THE SITH. It was in theaters again! It's not in theaters anymore, boo!

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01:32:59

DIGITAL FRONTIERS: "Apocalypto" (2005, Dir: Mel Gibson)

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/04/28

Hey sorry the episode is late, we recorded like three episodes this week and Matt didn't have time to edit. Anyway while we were scrambing to figure out something to watch for weird scheduling reasons, we discovered that Apocalypto was shot on digital and boy oh boy were we lucky for that fact because this is a weird one/wild digital artifact. Topics include: Gibson's unrelenting thrist for a certain kind on screen violence, the weird push and pull between woke method and conservative values in the

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01:39:24

DIGITAL FRONTIERS: 'The Long Take'

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/04/18

Corbin and Ellis talk about the new proliferation of tracking takes at the dawn of digital cinema, focusing in particular on "Children of Men,' Alfonso Cauron's movie about the whole world losing their minds when fertility ends. Also metioned: Timecode, Russian Ark, video games, Gravity, and 1917. Matt reccomends an album. Corbin reccomends a movie. Next week's episode is about APOCOLYPTO, which you can watch on Hulu.

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01:30:22

Digital Frontiers, Episode Seven: "Crank" (2006, Dir:...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/04/11

Statham. Handheld cameras. Offensive stuff. Insane continuity. Statham. Violence. Statham. Statham. Statham. Statham. It's Crank, baby. Matt reccomends this article. Corbin reccomends this article. Next week's episode is about tracking shots, you could watch Children of Men and/or Russian Ark, but you don't have to, I don't think.

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01:40:34

Digital Frontiers, Episode Seven: "Miami Vice" (2006,...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/04/04

ERIC MARSH joins Matt and Corbin to talk about MIAMI VICE, Michael Mann's digital fantasia/globalization fable/index of excruciatingly hot one liners. Topics include: globalization as topic and as aesthetic driver, the insane looking sky, and the unstability of digital filmmaking in an unstable time. Matt Recommends "Tokyo Vice" on MAX. Corbin recommends "Hell Hath No Fury," an album available on your local music streaming service. Eric recommends the song "Alone," by The Cry. Check out Eric's

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01:43:56

Digital Frontiers Seven: "STILL LIFE" (2006, Dir: Jia...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/03/28

Corbin and Matt are joined by TYLER THEUS, a famous academic, to discuss "Still Life," a movie by a friend of the program who I have never said anything bad about, Jia Zhangke. Topics include: slow cinema, fiction/doc hybridization, the movie's relationship to neorealism, critical forms and aesthetic forms, hyper-mediated Mise-en-scène and the Three Gorges Dam. Watch Still Life here. Seriously, watch it, it's great. Corbin reccomends an album, avaibale on album streaming services or at your local

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01:37:27

DIGITAL FRONTIERS, EPISODE SIX: "Cars" (2003, Dir:...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/03/24

PIXAR TIME BABY! Ellis and Corbin talk about 'Cars,' a movie about a civilization of Cars. Why are the Cars alive? What build the world they live in? How do they reproduce? Then, after they talk about the important stuff, they talk about Pixar, their history and centrality to digital cinema as a practice, the Pixar-to-SFX pipeline, their storytelling technique, and the nostalgia for modernity that lives in this particular movie. Good Episode! Corbin reccomends a new video game, available in your

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01:25:30

DIGITAL FRONTIERS EPISODE FIVE: What is Digital Cinema?

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/03/17

Corbin and Matt talk about 'WHAT IS DIGITAL CINEMA,' a 1995 essay by Lev Manovich concerned the difference between filmic cinema of the 20th Century, and the emerging technological and artistic form that we have been talking about the last few weeks. It's a little hard to explain this episode to be honest, but it's good. Read Manovich's essay here. Corbin reccomends a movie currently in theaters. Matt reccomends "Blackberry," a movie. Next week's episode is about 'Cars,' from 2006. We will have a

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01:36:38

DIGITAL FRONTIERS EPISODE FOUR: "Spy Kids 2: The...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/03/06

Huh? Why? Good question: it's because of Rodriguez's approach to economical filmmaking, which would come to whoopsiedoodle dominate everything uh oh! We get into it, as well as one or two other topics. Banderas is actually Spanish, not Mexican (I looked) but I don't think this invalidates my broader point. Corbin Reccomends the Mars Trilogy. Matt reccomends 'Hail Satan?" a documentary about jerks. Next week's episode is about a few movies trying new things in digital around the early/mid-aughts,

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01:36:48

DIGITAL FRONTIERS, EPISODE 3: '28 Days Later" (2002,...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/02/28

28 Days Later is a "Zombie" movie made with a TV Camera that you watch on a big screen. It's really great! We talk about the practical and impractical applications of digital technology, materiality and zombie movies, the movie's depiction of fascism and soildering, then and now, and also what a spectacular bummer this thing is. Read a great essay about filmic materiality and the zombie movie here. Research also pulled up this extemely weird but kind of nifty essay about how 28 Days Later is kind

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02:03:09

DIGITAL FRONTIERS, EPISODE TWO: 'Star Wars, Episode...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/02/20

Bro we're so back. We've never been more back. Because two white guys got in a room and talked about STAR WARS EPISODE TWO: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, which is, in addition to being one of the most reviled movies (By total weight, not percentage of hatred per person) of all time, the first major motion picture ever shot on digital cameras. We sorta think it's neat? Topics include anything but the plot, which, you know, it not important. The cameras they made, the difficult dransition to HDR Sensors,

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01:40:54

DIGITAL FRONTIERS, EPISODE ONE: "The Celebration"...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/02/12

HEY EVERYONE! Corbin and Matt are starting a new series! It's called Digital Frontiers: Digital Cinema From 1998-2011, and it's about the movies' transition to digital as a primary medium, as seen in the movies that took the first steps forward. We are excited for you to join us on this journey, seeking answers to the eternal present question: "hey, why do movies look like that now?" Our first episode is about "Festen," ('The Celebration,' in English), The first certified Dogme 95 movie and an

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01:26:52

THE BRUTALIST (2024, Dir: Brady Corbett) (w/ Ryder...

The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm... ·

2025/02/01

Matt and Ryder love The Brutalist! Corbin thinks it's fine. We talk about it! Topics: codings in the text, the question of a broad anti-oppression reading vs. a zionist one, and the life of an artist, which sucks ass. Corbin reccomends TWO MOVIES currently in theaters. Ryder reccomends "Different Trains" by Steve Reich. Matt reccomends "Blueprinting" by the Aizuri Quartet. Next week's episode will be the beginning of a new series, DIGITAL FRONTIERS, a history of the early days of Digital Cinema

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104 results

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