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PODCAST

Random Acts of Cinema

Mike Noyes and Charles Peterson

Each week friends Mike and Charlie have Randy (the random number generator) select a film for them to watch from the Criterion Collection. Then they discuss and review it for your listening pleasure. It"s a podcast about the love of film, expanding horizons, painstakingly cataloging the duration of every long take, and friendship.

arts visual arts

All Episodes

01:14:53

200 - The Honeymoon Killers (1970)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2021/01/11

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

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01:24:05

441 - The Small Back Room (1949)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2021/01/04

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

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01:23:02

587 - Three Colours: Blue

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/12/28

Julliette 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

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01:23:30

635 - Weekend (1967)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/12/21

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

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01:09:39

739 - The American Friend (1977)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/12/14

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

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01:14:53

890 - Meantime (1984)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/12/07

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

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01:14:16

405 - The Threepenny Opera (1931)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/11/30

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

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01:27:13

929 - Female Trouble (1974)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/11/23

[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

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01:10:21

281 - Jules And Jim (1962)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/11/16

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)

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01:30:05

LD54 - Zulu (1964)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/11/09

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

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01:22:02

119 - Withnail & I (1987)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/11/02

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

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01:27:00

124 - Haxan or Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/10/26

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.

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01:20:20

546 - Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/10/18

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!

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01:17:16

LD335 - Shine (1996)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/10/12

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).

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01:21:04

440 - Brand Upon The Brain! (2006)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/10/05

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

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01:09:31

233 - Stray Dog (1949)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/09/28

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”)

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01:18:20

LD024 - Young And Innocent (1937)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/09/21

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

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01:29:56

210 - Winter Light (1963)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/09/14

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

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01:37:22

172 - Pépé Le Moko (1937)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/09/07

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

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01:12:34

698 - King of the Hill (1993)

Random Acts of Cinema ·

2020/08/31

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

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342 results

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