The Film That Blew My Mind

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, the episode followed publication of Matt’s book, “Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed Movies Forever”, a vivid telling of the definitive story of Siskel and Ebert and their iconic show, “At the Movies.” Listen and subscribe to Filmspotting on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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 Angry Inch, joined Cooper and Tabitha on stage for a conversation about Robert Altman’s legendary Nashville. With a cast composed of Karen Black, Keith Carradine, Ronee Blakely, Lily Tomlin, Shelly Duvall, Geraldine Chaplin, Jeff Goldblum, and more, the film knits together the stories of twenty four characters as they navigate their time and place in their own, idiosyncratic ways.John shares his own experience seeing the film, a halfway-fruitful exchange with Nashville screenwriter Joan Tewksbury, and personal encounters with Samuel Beckett and Robert Altman himself. Plus, how the scene with Keith Carradine singing the Oscar-winning song “I’m Easy” inspired parts of John’s own film Shortbus (2006), what he learned from the Sundance labs with Michelle Satter, and why bedwetters are his kind of people.____

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 Roger’s journey from cub reporter to cultural icon and devoted family man, the film is a testament to his ardently populist sensibility, larger-than-life personality, fierce love of movies, and the vigor with which he met every day even as he endured life with cancer and its effects.In conversation with Cooper and Tabitha, Chaz reveals the one movie review Roger acknowledged he got wrong, her reluctance to continue filming as Roger’s health deteriorated, what it meant to experience the film’s premiere with an audience at Sundance, and how their shared concern for humanity continues to inspire her work today. 

 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 eighteen-year-old who he takes under his wing. As their friendship and rivalry unfold, we meet the sherry-loving Ooma (Susan Tyrell), Ernie’s pregnant girlfriend Faye (Candy Clark), and boxing manager Ruben (Nicholas Colasanto), all of whom round out Huston’s tale of hope, desperation, and dignity. We learn about Steve’s real-life encounter with Susan Tyrell, what he learned from his time as a teenage usher at the Belair Theater in Valley Stream, NY, and how Fat City inspired his own directorial debut, Trees Lounge.

From El Capitan in Yosemite to Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Thailand and Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas, Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy 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 from Annette Benning and Jodie Foster. The film that blew Chai’s mind? Michael Winterbottom’s 2002 In This World, which blurs the lines of fiction and documentary to convey the story of an Afghani boy’s journey from a Pakistani refugee camp to London. She joins Cooper and Tabitha to explore the finer points of Winterbottom’s film and dives into questions of truth vs fiction, the nuances of working with real-life characters, and how the relationships she cultivates with her participants are essential to her filmmaking craft.

As an 18-year-old on the verge of breakout success, Ethan Hawke encountered Reds for the first time. The epic love story and historical 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 the U.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 earned Beatty Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. Ethan, Tabitha, and Cooper get into film craft, authenticity, feminism, collaboration, creativity, and Ethan's outgoing message on his answering machine circa 1990. Plus, what makes Reds one of Ethan's all time favorites.

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 separate lives - devoted school teacher by day and enthusiastic cruiser of Berlin’s gay scene by night. Explicit and bold, it was hailed by the Village Voice as “the first masterpiece about the mainstream of male gay life,” when it premiered in the early 1980’s. We learn how Ira discovered the film, despite the fact that it’s nearly impossible to find today, and how it inspires him to push the boundaries of his own work. Plus, Cooper shares his experience seeing Taxi Zum Klo when it played the New York Film Festival in 1981, and Tabitha dives into questions about the value of art as a provocation. 

Twenty years ago, one of the most indelible movie characters of recent decades was born when Napoleon Dynamite premiered 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 Dynamite has earned a top slot in the pop culture canon of the 21st century. This week, Cooper and Tabitha speak with Jared Hess who, together with his co-writer and wife Jerusha Hess, is the force behind Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre (co-written with Mike White), Masterminds, and more. Jared shares his deep love for Hal Needham’s Rad (1988), a classic ‘80’s teen flick about competitive BMX racing and a bike battle between local kids and the professional riders who come to town. We learn a bit about director Hal Needham, the highest paid stunt double of his time who directed action-packed classics like Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and The Cannonball Run (1981). Plus, how Rad’s soundtrack featuring The Sparks, opening sequence cinematography by Robert Schwartzman, and a curious activity dubbed “ass-sliding” make this a feel-good sports movie for kids of any generation.