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PODCAST

The Film That Blew My Mind

Film That Blew My Mind

Filmmakers, actors, and creators of all kinds answer one simple question: What is a film that blew your mind?!No film is off limits as each episode centers around one guest and one film that has had a profound impact on their life, work, and art. Co-hosts John Cooper and Tabitha Jackson, former directors of the Sundance Film Festival, call upon decades at the forefront of independent film to bring their insider knowledge, lived experiences, and signature chemistry to conversations that dive straight

tv & film film interviews

All Episodes

54:42

Andrew Ahn on In the Mood for Love

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2025/10/03

Last spring, filmmaker Andrew Ahn (Wedding Banquet,Spa Night,Fire Island) joined Cooper, Tabitha, and a live audience at PAM-CUT Tomorrow Theater in Portland, Oregon for a deep dive into Wong Kar-wai’s masterpieceIn the Mood for Love(2000). We explore the film’s meticulous visual language—from Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-bin’s luminous cinematography to the precision of William Chang’s production and costume design—and how its framing, repetition, and color palette shape the emotional

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38:27

Christine Vachon on The Boy with the Green Hair

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2025/09/18

Christine Vachon - the legendary producer behind films like The Brutalist, Past Lives Carol, Far From Heaven, Boys Don’t Cry, and many more - joined Cooper and Tabitha for a live conversation at the Sonoma International Film Festival to uncover the film that blew her young mind...Joseph Losey’s 1948 The Boy with the Green Hair. In this episode, Christine shares why this story of a kid who literally wakes up different has stuck with her, what it says about standing out in a conformist world, and how

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41:19

Catherine Hardwicke on Harold and Maude

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2025/09/10

Recorded live on the shores of the Salish Sea at the Port Townsend Film Festival, this episode features Cooper in conversation with filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke. From Thirteen, to Lords of Dogtown to Twilight, Catherine is known for films that offer an unflinching, naturalistic lens on youth culture. The film that blew her mind? Hal Ashby’s 1971 Harold and Maude, a cult classic that challenges traditional notions of propriety, death, youth, and love.Here Catherine reflects on how the unconventional

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46:36

Steve Zahn on The Deer Hunter

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2025/09/03

From The White Lotus, Reality Bites, and Happy, Texas to War for the Planet of the Apes and Diary of Wimpy Kid, Steve Zahn is celebrated for his ability to bring nuance, empathy, and authenticity to a wide range of characters - qualities that also mark the performances in Michael Cimino’s 1978 The Deer Hunter. Starring Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, with John Cazale and Meryl Streep in supporting roles, the film offers a naturalistic depiction of working class life in 1970s

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2:19:02

TFTBMM Presents: Filmspotting - Top 5 Movies That...

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/04/15

On the heels of our conversation with Chaz Ebert discussing Life Itself, we are sharing this episode from our friends at Filmspotting. As we learned from Chaz, even Roger himself once admitted to getting one review wrong!In this episode, critic and author Matt Singer joins Filmspotting co-hosts Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen to consider the enduring impact of Ebert and his longtime partner Gene Siskel, and to dissect five other reviews they may have gotten wrong. Originally dropped in October, 2023,

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1:01:40

John Cameron Mitchell on Nashville

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/04/08

The Film That Blew My Mind is nominated for Best Indie Podcast Webby Awards. Please show your support and cast your vote for the People’s Voice Award at the link below. Thank you! https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2024/podcasts/features/best-indie-podcast____For our final episode of season one, we took our show on the road to record an episode before a live audience at the Sonoma International Film Festival. John Cameron Mitchell, the ultimate multi-hyphenate and creator of Hedwig and the

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40:45

Chaz Ebert on Life Itself

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/04/01

It is hard to pinpoint when Chaz Ebert first experienced Life Itself, Steve James’s documentary about her late husband and legendary film critic, Roger Ebert. Initially conceived as a multi-year project to capture Roger’s vibrant life and career, the film also documented what would become the final weeks of Roger’s life. Film icons like Werner Herzog, Ava Duvernay, and Martin Scorsese illustrate the ways in which Roger’s work inspired them individually and impacted culture on a broad scale. Tracing

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40:56

Steve Buscemi on Fat City

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/03/25

As an NYFD firefighter working the overnight shift at Engine Company 55, Steve Buscemi popped a VHS tape into the station’s player and experienced John Huston’s Fat City for the first time. Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name and adapted for the screen by its author Leonard Gardner, the film centers around boxing and life in the hard-scrabble central California town of Stockton. Former champ Tully (Stacy Keach) sets his sights on returning to the ring when he meets Ernie (Jeff Bridges), an

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43:48

Chai Vasarhelyi on In This World

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/02/19

From El Capitan in Yosemite to Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Thailand and Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas,Chai VasarhelyiandJimmy Chin(her partner in filmmaking and in life) have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide with intimate, non-fiction portrayals of outdoor athletes pushing themselves to extremes.Free Solo, their 2018 film, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Their first scripted project,Nyad, boasts Oscar-nominated performances fromAnnette BenningandJodie

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51:22

Ethan Hawke on Reds

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/02/12

As an 18-year-old on the verge of breakout success, Ethan Hawke encountered Reds for the first time. The epic love story andhistorical drama brings us writer/activist Jack Reed and journalist Louise Bryant in the midst of World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the birth of the socialist party in theU.S. Directed by, co-written by, and starring Warren Beatty, Reds is famous for extraordinary performances from Beatty, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Maureen Stapleton, and Edward Hermann. The film

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54:14

Ira Sachs on Taxi Zum Klo

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/02/05

Veteran independent filmmaker Ira Sachs is known for a body of work marked by beauty, nuance, and intimate portrayals of people and their emotional lives.He is driven, he says, by a deep curiosity about freedom and its limits - both in his characters and in filmmaking itself. This is part of the reason why Taxi Zum Klo (Taxi to the Toilet), a radical portrait of personal and sexual freedom, blew his mind. The semi-autobiographical story of writer/director/star Frank Ripploh takes us into his

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1:06:57

Jinkx Monsoon on All About Eve

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/01/29

Cabaret icon, RuPaul’s Drag Race Superstar, acclaimed actress and vocalist, the “internationally tolerated” Jinkx Monsoon joins Cooper and Tabitha to explore the many layers of Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1950 backstage theater dramaAll About Eve. Starring Bette Davis in the role that came to define her career, and Ann Baxter, the multiple Oscars-winning film is iconic for its witty dialogue and its scathing take on the ruthless nature of show business.Jinkx shares how Davis’s performance inspires her own

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42:49

Jared Hess on Rad

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/01/22

Twenty years ago, one of the most indelible movie characters of recent decades was born whenNapoleon Dynamitepremiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. From Vote for Pedro T-shirts to the pet llama Tina (aka: “Fat Lard”) and a seriously iconic dance number,Napoleon Dynamitehas earned a top slot in the pop culture canon of the 21st century. This week, Cooper and Tabitha speak withJared Hesswho, together with his co-writer and wifeJerusha Hess, is the force behindNapoleon Dynamite,Nacho

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42:19

Willem Dafoe on Onibaba

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/01/15

Willem Dafoe joins Tabitha and Cooper to share Onibaba, the 1964 film by the prolific and pioneering Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindô. Literally translated as “Demon Hag”, Onibaba is a tale of a mother and daughter-in-law’s murderous quest for survival in the midst of Japan’s medieval civil war. When a man returning from war enters the picture and latent primal urges emerge, all hell breaks loose. The striking black-and-white imagery and percussive soundtrack make for a wildly kinetic ride that is

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50:58

Kirsten Johnson on All That Jazz

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2024/01/08

Director and legendary cinematographerKirsten Johnsonis known for nonfiction work that is inventive, artful, expressive, and maximal. The same can be said of the film that blew her mind --Bob Fosse’sAll That Jazz. The semi-autobiographical film brings us Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), a peripatetic creative force working simultaneously to mount a major Broadway production and complete post-production on a feature film, all while maintaining a lifestyle fueled by cigarettes, pills, one-night stands, and

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50:29

Patricia Clarkson on A Woman Under the Influence

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2023/12/18

Celebrated for bringing depth and nuance to roles ranging from a drug-addicted art dealer (High Art, Lisa Cholodenko, 1998), to a dying mother meeting her daughter for the first time (Monica, Andrea Pallaoro, 2023), Patricia Clarkson is no stranger to complex emotional terrain. Perhaps that is why she feels somewhat comfortable in the volatile world of A Woman Under the Influence, John Cassavettes’ 1974 masterpiece. The film centers around Mabel Longhetti, brilliantly rendered by Gena Rowlands, as a

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1:06:47

Michael Showalter on Crossing Delancey

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2023/12/11

From his first viewing at the Angelika as a freshman at NYU, Joan Micklin Silver’s 1988 rom-com Crossing Delancey blew Michael Showalter’s mind. In this episode Michael shares how and why the movie made a lasting mark and how it continues to influence his work today. Adapted by Susan Sandler from her play of the same title, this is the story of Izzy Grossman (Amy Irving), a nice Jewish girl with roots in Manhattan’s Lower East Side but now living uptown with literary-adjacent aspirations. Sam Posner

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45:49

Eva Longoria on Casino

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2023/12/04

From her feature film directorial debut Flamin’ Hot, to her career-launching turn as Gabrielle Solis on Desperate Housewives, Eva Longoria has a thing for characters - and people - who get things done. Case in point, Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro), the central character in Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995) who brings hard-won street smarts and ruthless clarity to his job as casino boss. He is less clear-eyed when it comes to his hustler-addict wife (Sharon Stone) and unhinged mafioso best friend

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45:53

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Encanto

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2023/11/27

Time traveling hitman, love-struck greeting card writer, notorious whistleblower, and an alien passing as a human boy are just a few of the characters Joseph Gordon-Levitt has brought to life. His extraordinary range as an actor is matched by his taste in films, as evidenced by his choice of Disney’s Encanto as the film that blew his mind. From the way it subverts storytelling traditions to its layered and lyrical songs, Joe shares all the reasons why Encanto is a favorite with his young family and

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46:15

Sterlin Harjo on The Long Goodbye

The Film That Blew My Mind ·

2023/11/20

When trailblazing Native media makerSterlin Harjofirst experiencedRobert Altman’sThe Long Goodbyeone solitary day during the pandemic, he says it felt as if he was floating through the film. Floaty and dark, Altman’s 1973 film adaptation of the 1953 book byRaymond Chandlerdelivers a wry, wise-cracking Elliot Gould as detective Philip Marlowe and takes place in a Los Angeles reshaped by the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. Cueing offThe Long Goodbye, Sterlin makes a case for treating background as

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26 results

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