Loading...

PODCAST

The Movies of Happenstance

In season 1 we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the movies of 1999, reckoned by many to be the greatest year of movies of all time.In season 2 we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the movies of 1985, watching movies that we missed in our youth.Now, in season 3 onwards, we"re celebrating undiscovered gems, by mining the Letterboxd archives for forgotten classics!

tv & film film reviews

All Episodes

56:58

S03E09 - 2010

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2026/10/04

This month Jason Hutchens watches films from 2010 that he's never seen before, using Letterboxd ratings to uncover hidden gems. This month's selection is:I’m Still Here (Casey Affleck, USA) Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, France) The Way Back (Peter Weir, USA) Temple Grandin (Mick Jackson, USA) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, USA) Cold Fish (Sion Sono, Japan) Submarine (Richard Ayoade, UK) See Jason's review scores for these

en

43:33

S03E07 - 2000

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2026/08/01

This month Jason Hutchens watches films from 2000 that he's never seen before, using Letterboxd ratings to uncover hidden gems. This month's selection is:Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer, UK) Joint Security Area (Park Chan-wook, South Korea) Yi Yi (Edward Yang, Taiwan) State and Main (David Mamet, USA) Wonder Boys (Curtis Hanson, USA) The Captive (Chantal Akerman, Belgium) Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, Germany) Code Unknown (Michael Haneke, France) See Jason's review scores for these eight movies

en

63:30

S03E08 - 2005

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2026/08/01

This month Jason Hutchens watches films from 2005 that he's never seen before, using Letterboxd ratings to uncover hidden gems. This month's selection is: Domino (Tony Scott, USA) Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, South Korea) Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch, USA) Caché (Michael Haneke, France) Brick (Rian Johnson, USA) Linda Linda Linda (Nobuhiro Yamashita, Japan) The Proposition (John Hillcoat, Australia) The New World (Terrence Malick, USA) See Jason's review scores for these eight movies on

en

48:56

S03E06 - 1995

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2026/07/01

This month Jason Hutchens watches films from 1995 that he's never seen before, using Letterboxd ratings to uncover hidden gems. This month's selection is:Richard III (Richard Loncraine, UK) Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, USA) Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, USA) Living in Oblivion (Tom DiCillo) Maborosi (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan) Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong) La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, France) Ulysses’ Gaze (Theo Angelopoulos, Greece) See Jason's review scores for these eight movies on

en

52:27

S03E05 - 1990

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2026/06/01

This month Jason Hutchens watches films from 1990 that he's never seen before, using Letterboxd ratings to uncover hidden gems.This month's selection is: State of Grace (Phil Joanou, USA) Miller's Crossing (Joel and Ethan Coen, USA) Bullet in the Head (John Woo, Hong Kong) The Match Factory Girl (Aki Kaurismäki, Finland) Ju Dou (Zhang Yimou, China) Jacob's Ladder (Adrian Lyne, USA) King of New York (Abel Ferrara, USA) Twilight (György Fehér, Hungary) See Jason's review scores for these eight

en

65:48

S03E04 - 1985

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2026/05/01

This month Jason Hutchens watches films from 1985 that he's never seen before, using Letterboxd ratings to uncover hidden gems. This month's selection is:Come and See (Elem Klimov, USSR) The Time to Live and the Time to Die (Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan) The Official Story (Luis Puenzo, Argentina) A Zed & Two Noughts (Peter Greenaway, UK) O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization (Piotr Szulkin, Poland) The Black Cannon Incident (Huang Jianxin, China) Phenomena (Dario Argento, Italy) Enemy Mine (Wolfgang

en

85:52

S03E03 - 1980

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2026/04/01

This month Jason Hutchens watches films from 1980 that he's never seen before, using Letterboxd ratings to uncover hidden gems. This month's selection is:The Stunt Man (Richard Rush, USA) Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper, USA) Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, USA) City of Women (Federico Fellini, Italy) Night of the Juggler (Robert Butler, USA) Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind (Tsui Hark, Hong Kong) The Long Good Friday (John Mackenzie, UK) The Ninth Configuration (William Peter Blatty,

en

63:33

S03E02 - 1975

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2026/03/01

Jason Hutchens explores films from 1975 using Letterboxd ratings, jumping five years each month to trace movie trends and cultural shifts. He sets the scene with the era's music, politics and Hollywood changes before hunting for lesser-known favourites. The movies this week are:Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, USA) Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR) Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, Belgium) 3 Days of the Condor (Sydney Pollack, USA) The Travelling Players (Theo

en

117:31

S03E01 - 1970

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2026/02/01

In this episode Jason launches Season 3 by exploring the movies of 1970. After setting the scene with seven era-defining songs and a brief cultural roundup (Apollo 13, Kent State, music and technology), he explains a new monthly approach: by browsing a list of all 1970 movies on Letterboxd he discovers eight movies from 1970 that he has never seen, or even heard of, to watch and review. The movies are:Investigation of a Citizen Above Submission (Elio Petri, Italy) Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre

en

33:07

S02E52 - The Goonies

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/12/31

This week the bingo machine selected #50, which was The Goonies. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind! Seriously!

en

28:05

S02E51 - Hail Mary

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/12/24

This week the bingo machine selected #42, which was Hail Mary. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind! Seriously!

en

28:36

S02E50 - Lifeforce

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/12/17

This week the bingo machine selected #29, which was Lifeforce. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind! Seriously!

en

25:24

S02E49 - Runaway Train

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/12/09

This week the bingo machine selected #49, which was Runaway Train. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind! Seriously!

en

34:28

S02E48 - Bliss

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/12/03

This week the bingo machine selected #6, which was Bliss. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind!

en

33:01

S02E47 - Back to the Future

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/11/30

This week the bingo machine selected #39, which was Back to the Future. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind!

en

27:04

S02E46 - Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/11/23

This week the bingo machine selected #7, which was Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind!

en

27:26

S02E45 - Echo Park

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/11/18

This week the bingo machine selected #23, which was Echo Park. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind!

en

23:59

S02E44 - Real Genius

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/11/05

This week the bingo machine selected #2, which was Real Genius. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind!

en

22:13

S02E43 - Sweet Dreams

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/10/30

This week the bingo machine selected #25, which was Sweet Dreams. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind!

en

32:19

S02E42 - Better Off Dead

The Movies of Happenstance ·

2025/10/22

This week the bingo machine selected #31, which was Better Off Dead. Listen to hear what we thought about it, along with news from this week in 1985. You can see the list of movies we've watched so far, and join our Discord server to chat about them. You can also access all of our previous episodes (include those of season 1, where we watched the movies of 1999). And don't forget to rewind!

en

116 results

Similar Podcasts

We"ll Bring The Popcorn

Josh Fields & Brad Covey

Entertain This!

Hayden, Mitch, and Tom

Pop Culture Happy Hour

NPR

Classic Conversations: Pop culture Interviews with Jeff Dwoskin

Jeff Dwoskin

Deck The Hallmark

Bramble Jam Podcast Network