This week, we discuss the Coen Brothers' stylish satire of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Hail, Caesar!SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety, including the mystery of "The Future" and the ultimate resolution of Baird Whitlock's kidnapping. If you haven't seen this film, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Universal Pictures and Working Title Films production. Released on February 5, 2016. Directed, written, produced, and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Channing Tatum. Cinematography by Roger Deakins. Music by Carter Burwell.The story follows a single, chaotic day in the life of Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a "fixer" for Capitol Pictures in 1951. Mannix spends his days (and nights) suppressing scandals and managing the fragile egos of the studio’s stars. His world is thrown into disarray when the studio's biggest star, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), is kidnapped from the set of the prestige Roman epic Hail, Caesar! Tales of the Christ by a mysterious group calling themselves "The Future." As Mannix juggles a pregnant starlet's image, a singing cowboy’s transition into high-society drama, and a persistent pair of rival gossip columnists (both played by Tilda Swinton), he must also weigh a lucrative, low-stress job offer from Lockheed against his grueling but soul-stirring devotion to the magic of the movies.

This week we talk about Steven Spielberg’s choatic comedy flop 1941. When I Google "1941 movie" I get Citizen Kane. This movie is not Citizen Kane.SPOILER ALERT We do talk about this movie in its entirety. If you plan on watching it, for God knows what reason, we suggest you do so before listening to our takes.A Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures production. Released on December 14, 1979. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, based on a story by Zemeckis, Gale, and John Milius. Starring Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Lee, Toshiro Mifune, and Robert Stack. Cinematography by William A. Fraker. Edited by Michael Kahn. Score by John Williams.

This week, we discuss the atmospheric, dystopian sci-fi noir, Blade Runner, the film that ranks number 97 on the AFI list.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety. If you haven't seen this classic, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Warner Bros. and The Ladd Company production. Released on June 25, 1982. Directed by Ridley Scott. Screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos. Cinematography by Jordan Cronenweth. Edited by Terry Rawlings. Music by Vangelis.

This week, we discuss Steven Spielberg's follow-up to Jaws, the science fiction classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a film that traded the alien invasion tropes of the 1950s for a sense of spiritual wonder, mystery and awe. And five famous bars of John WIlliams music.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety, including the iconic five-tone sequence and the transformative finale at Devil's Tower. If you haven't seen this masterpiece, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Columbia Pictures and EMI Films production. Released on November 16, 1977. Directed and written by Steven Spielberg. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, and Bob Balaban. Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond. Edited by Michael Kahn. Music by John Williams.

This week, we discuss Billy Wilder's other definitive LA-based film noir, the gothic movie-about-movies classic, Sunset Boulevard, famous for its daring narrative and one of the most iconic "mad scenes" in cinema history.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety, including the famous opening image of the floating narrator and the tragic, delusional finale. If you haven't seen this classic, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Paramount Pictures production. Released on August 10, 1950. Directed by Billy Wilder. Screenplay by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and D.M. Marshman Jr. Starring Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Erich von Stroheim, and Nancy Olson. Cinematography by John F. Seitz. Edited by Arthur P. Schmidt and Doane Harrison. Score by Franz Waxman.

This week we have for you a hastily thrown-together podcast on the 98th Annual Academy Awards. Our plans to discuss this week's film fell through, so instead we go through every category in an unusually competitive Oscar race? Will it be Sinners or One Battle After Another? Listen to find out! Well, actually, I just hedge my bets a lot, but it's going to be OBAA. (Unless it's Sinners.)

This week, we discuss the primal thriller, Jaws, a masterclass in tension that turned a malfunctioning mechanical shark into cinema's most terrifying unseen predator.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety, including the iconic third act aboard the Orca and the ultimate fate of the shark. If you haven't seen this classic, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Universal Pictures production. Released on June 20, 1975. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, based on the novel by Peter Benchley. Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss. Cinematography by Bill Butler. Edited by Verna Fields. Score by John Williams.

This week we talk about Steven Spielberg’s theatrical feature debut, the crime / road movie, The Sugarland Express, that has more than a little in common with Dog Day Afternoon.SPOILER ALERT We do talk about this movie in its entirety, so if you plan on watching it, we suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Universal Picture. Released on April 5, 1974. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, based on a story by Spielberg, Barwood, and Robbins. Starring Goldie Hawn, William Atherton, Ben Johnson, and Michael Sacks. Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond. Edited by Edward M. Abroms and Verna Fields. Score by John Williams.

This week we talk about Disney's post-war musical anthology, Make Mine Music. Produced during a time when the studio was short-staffed and under-resourced due to WWII, this "package film" consists of ten distinct segments set to music rather than a single continuous narrative. SPOILER ALERT We do talk about this movie in its entirety, so if you plan on watching it, we suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.An RKO Radio Pictures release of a Walt Disney Production. Released on April 20, 1946. Directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Joshua Meador, and Robert Cormack. Story by James Bodrero, Homer Brightman, and others. Featuring the musical talents and voices of Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore, Benny Goodman, The Andrews Sisters, Jerry Colonna, Sterling Holloway, and Andy Russell. Edited by Donald Halliday and Anthony Gerard. Music direction by Charles Wolcott.

This week we talk about Billy Wilder's cynical post-war romantic comedy, A Foreign Affair, filmed amidst the actual ruins of bombed-out Berlin.SPOILER ALERT We do talk about this movie in its entirety, so if you plan on watching it, we suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Paramount Picture. Released on June 30, 1948. Produced by Charles Brackett. Directed by Billy Wilder. Written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and Richard L. Breen, based on a story by David Shaw. Starring Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, John Lund, and Millard Mitchell. Cinematography by Charles Lang. Edited by Doane Harrison. Score by Friedrich Hollaender.