A Very Good Year

Mac Welch is an actor, cartoonist, filmmaker, and podcaster, but more importantly, he’s been friends with Jason and Mike nearly as long as they’ve been friends with each other. Join us as we talk about the movies we all saw together in 2000, AND ALSO where we’ll be taking the show as we reformat for our next season.

Author, historian, and professor Kevin M. Kruse joins us to walk through the very eventful year — historically and cinematically — of 1974, including the take-no-prisoners energy of “Foxy Brown,” the grimy perfection of “The Taking of Pelham 123,” and a double-barreled shotgun blast of Mel Brooks.

Film and television critic, author, and essayist Kristen Lopez joins us to discuss her book “But Have You Read the Book,” the TWO books she’s working on next, and the movies of 1996, from the teen-girl dream of ‘Romeo + Juliet” to the drive-in pleasures of “From Dusk Till Dawn” to the hilarity of “The Birdcage.”

Catherine Stebbins is intimately acquainted with the year of 1930 - because it was the subject of the most recent of her year-by-year movie ‘zines, which makes her an ideal (and overdue) guest. Join us as she discusses the nutty “King of Jazz,” the heartbreaking “City Girl,” the sublime “People on Sunday,” and more.

Abby Olcese’s new book “Films for All Seasons” walks the reader through “the church year at the movies,” finding unexpected movies to tie in to the liturgical calendar; she joins us to explore the calendar year of 2018, including “Bad Times at the El Royale,” “First Reformed,” and “Eighth Grade.”

Film critic, editor, and intrepid festival traveler Beatrice Loayza joins us for another probing look into the oft-dismissed 1950s—this time 1958, as we look at a Hitchcock classic (“Vertigo”), a pre-New Wave banger (“Elevator to the Gallows”), a hard-hitting social drama (“The Defiant Ones”), and more. 

Charles Taylor is the author of one of our fave film books, “Opening Wednesday at a Theater or Drive-In Near You,” so he joins us to discuss the “hinge year” of 1966, which included late films from old masters (“El Dorado”), manifestos from provocateurs (“Masculine-Feminine”), and electric shocks from cinematic wild men (“Tokyo Drifter”).

Screenwriter (and former film critic and podcaster) April Wolfe joins us to talk up the postwar pleasures of 1947, so bring your nun’s habits (“Black Narcissus”), femme fatales (“Out of the Past”) and questionable Irish accents (“The Lady from Shanghai”).