Random Acts of Cinema
Episodes
592 - Underworld (1927)
17 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
"Once a lawyer, always a drunkard, and now looking like 2010s David Bowie." So says newly-minted gangster "Rolls Royce" Wensel describing himself to...
1306 - A Weekend In The Country (1996)
12 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A classic Bergman film. Well, a classic Martin Bergman film. About Temecula. Where your favorite podcast hosts first met. Anyway… two neurotic N...
1230 - Not A Pretty Picture (1975)
31 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Content warning: This episode addresses a film that explicitly addresses issues related to and depicts the actions of violent sexual assault. Director...
1282 - The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021)
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Who's ready for an anthology movie about mostly Americans in France writing about mostly not Americans in France for an imagined audience of mostly Am...
23 - Robocop (1987)
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dead or alive, you're listening to me. Paul Verhoeven somehow achieves both badass copaganda action movie and cutting satire of American violence, c...
268 - Youth of the Beast (1963)
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Seijun Suzuki dreams up yet another ever-so-slightly-surreal Yakuza picture. Thank god. *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you lo...
1186 - The Tall T (1957)
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
That Pat Brennan… what a man! Come listen to us face an ethical quandary when we stumble upon a real treasure of a western, that is still undeniab...
1264 - The Wiz (1978)
23 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The more you learn about this movie, the more clear it becomes that what you'd think to be the good parts are the bad parts, and that the bad parts ar...
741 - My Winnipeg (2007)
18 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We know y'all are some nasty freaks out there who have been waiting a long time for this one to drop. Guy Madden comes back with an irreverently cin...
19 - Sock Corridor (1963)
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Samuel Fuller turns a critical eye on the state of mental health treatment in the United States to, uh… well, not really. Mostly he just uses a st...
752 - Vernon, Florida (1981)
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Documentarian of the ages Errol Morris turns his gentle eye toward the old fellers of a small town in Florida and just sort of lets them do their thin...
LD99 - Burn! (1969)
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Gillo Pontecorvo directs a cast of unknowns in his big swing on the historical action/drama about a British agent sent to use all of his cynical wile ...
498 - Paisan - War Trilogy (1946)
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Roberto Rossellini travels length of the Italian peninsula in the immediate aftermath of WWII to share 6 stories about the lives of Italian civilians ...
469 - The Hit (1984)
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to die? What does it mean to truly live… on a road trip across Spain with Terence Stamp, John Hurt, and Tim Roth in a giant whit...
1048 - Dos Monjes (1934)
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
One, two monks kneel before you That's what I said now Monks, monks who adore you Just go ahead now One has diamonds in his pockets And that's some br...
326 - Metropolitan (1990)
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Finally, a movie comes along with the guts to ask the question: can you be a Fourierist AND a Vebleninian at the same time? Explore this question an...
575 - The Killing (1956)
22 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kubrick is on the podcast! Or at least one of his films was finally randomly selected for the first time. And he gives us a self-produced, time-za...
1000 - Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
15 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We return once more to the Godzilla Showa-era films with Jun Fukuda's 1974 introduction of some kind of a… Robo-Godzilla! I think that's what they...
92 - Fiend Without A Face (1958)
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Director Arthur Crabtree delves into the late 1950's world of atomic, Cold War, body-snatching paranoia except that he kind of… doesn't? Honestly ...
340 - Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978)
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Researchers at Stanford University conducted a decades-long experiment wherein Koko, a female gorilla, was taught American Sign Language. The findin...
904 - Election (1999)
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
American masculinity is fully skewered. Finally. Actually, I guess everyone is skewered is Alexander Payne's black-hearted comedy about a Midwest ...
147 - In The Mood For Love (2002)
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wong Kar Wai brings us - way back - to lovelorn Hong Kong. Upon discovering that their spouses are having an affair with with one another, two neigh...
LD59 - The Wizard of Oz (1939)
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I don't think we're in the standard spine numbers anymore, Toto… Because we're returning to the Laser Disc collection with this all-timer. Are we do...
79 - W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films (1915-1933)
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The most accurate description of this episode is that we review 6 Short Films starring W.C. Fields. The idea is that he's arrogant jerk. That's pretty...
982 - Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. 3 months before this, in an act of desperate love, a sex-reassignment surgery was planned and subsequently botched. ...
667 - Seconds (1966)
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Frankenhiemer returns to podcast with a… weird art film? Sort of. All of the paranoia, threatened masculinity, mid-century gloss, and decaying m...
1277 - Born In Flames (1983)
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Director Lizzie Borden dares to imagine a world in which promised egalitarian reform is achieved, just not for women. Women from all backgrounds, wa...
651 - Badlands (1973)
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our odd run of road movies continues with a classic from an American master. Terrence Mallick turns the couple-on-a-crime-spree sub genre into a dea...
41 - Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We return to Monte Hellman's examination of American masculinity with a James Taylor and Dennis Wilson-starring road movie. Two nearly silent racers...
24 - High and Low (1963)
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In honor of Spike Lee's… interesting… new adaptation, we return to the surprisingly satisfying sub genre of Akira-Kurosawa-crime-thriller with his...
106 - Coup de Torchon (1981)
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bertrand Tavernier builds a lushly realized foundation around which to topple the poisonous heart of European colonialism. Whether our hapless polic...
679 - The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Edo Japan. A town swarming with warring yakuza. And one detached, unstoppable blind swordsman caught in the middle. And Tate. Don't forget about Tate....
1115 - Adoption (1975)
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hungarian director Marta Meszaros adds unprecedented depth, humanity, and a whole other meaning to the question asked in countless groan-worthy bumper...
1204 - Trainspotting (1996)
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Poverty. Betrayal. Heroin. Death. But, like in a really funny and clever sort of way that's just a real pleasure to watch. Spend some time wit...
912 - An Actor's Revenge (1963)
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kon Ichikawa sumptuous remake of an Edo-period revenge tale is magnified by lush camerawork, stirring performances, a jazzy soundtrack, and a fascinat...
22 - Summertime (1955)
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How Kate got her groove back… could be an alternate title to David Lean's Katherine Hepburn-starring romance set in the canals of mid-century Venice...
Friedkin Fill-in! - Jade (1995)
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Feast your ears on a special release of the Patreon-only hit podcast Are You Friedkin Kidding Me? where your intrepid hosts (plus Alexandra!) watch t...
Friedkin Fill-In! - The Guardian (1990)
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Feast your ears on a special release of the Patreon-only hit podcast Are You Friedkin Kidding Me? where your intrepid hosts (plus Alexandra!) watch t...
1194 - Freaks (1932)
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fresh off of his iconic career topping Dracula, director Tod Browning returns to his roots with a domestic drama/crime film cast almost entirely with ...
887 - Lost In America (1985)
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Director/Writer/Star Albert Brooks reawakens an early shared film trauma of your two loyal hosts. Can this Uber-Boomer satire of drop-out idealists ...
7th Annual Rando Awards
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Now that another season of Random Acts of Cinema has passed, Hollywood can finally take a moment to catch its breath before it must prepare another ye...
1018 - Paris is Burning (1990)
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We are joined this week by Dan Connell for a lively discussion as the thriving, dynamic 1980s New York Ball Room scene is revealed to an unsuspecting ...
613 - Summer Interlude (1951)
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bergman takes us on a journey into the past, to revisit youthful summer love. But don't worry: this is all seen through the memory of an emotionally...
875 - Mysterious Object at Noon (2000)
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul weaves a mind-bending 'exquisite corpse'-style tale with sequences narrated by documentary subjects, theatrical tro...
996 - The Circus (1928)
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lions! Tightropes! Clowns! Charlie Chaplin's last true silent film brings the big top to the big screen. Hijinks ensue. Join the Random Acts of Ci...
626 - Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942)
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
But is it an allegory? Made under Nazi occupation, French filmmaker Marcel Carné created magical medieval fantasy about the devil and his minions who...
936 - Bull Durham (1988)
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ron "The C[l/r]own Prince of Sports Movies" Shelton brings us the ultimate sexy minor league baseball movie that strikes a surprising chord of divisio...
948 - The Princess Bride (1987)
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We are Random Acts of Cinema. You subscribed to our podcast. Prepare to listen. Fairy tales get that inimitable Reiner-treatment in this nostalg...
110 - Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953)
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
French comedic powerhouse Jacques Tati finally makes his first appearance on the podcast with an introduction to his gentle homage to silent-era chara...
583 - The Four Feathers (1939)
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Wait, so that Ozzie-Osborne-like-bad guy from G.I. Joe who could change the color of his skin made a prequel of that totally problematic Heath Ledger ...
1001 - The Daytrippers (1996)
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Greg Mottola's takes the viewer on a frantic ride through Manhattan… and into our hearts. Sort of. Really he just reaffirms our love for Parker ...
4 - Amarcord (1974)
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's number 4. It's Fellini. It's a beloved and highly influential 1970s nostalgia-infused takedown of everyday people living in and under fascist Ita...
243 - French Cancan (1955)
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There's a reading of this movie as Jean Renoir's exercise in delayed gratification. What's a cancan? Is that a cancan? Will they cancan? Oh no they ca...
490 - City of Angels (1998)
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Director Brad Silberling's modern spiritual masterpiece dares to propose a world filled with unseen angels, who look upon humanity with a detached sen...
334 - Harlan County USA (1976)
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Come gather 'round children, it's high time ye learned. About a hero named Harlan County and a devil named Duke Power. The fight never stops. And...
The Top 10 of Our 10 Out of 10s
30 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bonus episode drop! We recorded this a while ago, but we're finally releasing the rankings of our 10 highest rated criterion movies. Sure we each ...
300 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Please come celebrate our 300th episode with spine number 300! We grapple with our legacy, come to terms with our many failures, reaffirm old friend...
689 - Trances (1981)
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Your humble hosts stumble happily headlong into the world of avant-pop Moroccan folk music! This week we watch what seems to be a proto-version of T...
LD131 - From Russia With Love (1963)
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bond is back! …to this podcast. We swing back into the world of Ian Fleming with the second film adaptation of his books, and perhaps the most fai...
LD36 - The Producers (1968)
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For this week's episode your hosts intentionally try to make the WORST episode they've ever recorded. No wait, that's what this Mel Brooks movie is ...
1242 - The Shape of Water (2017)
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of us is prepared to insist that this Academy Award winning film is more than just "that fish-sex movie." A little behind the scenes: in our re...
715 - Bay of Angels (1963)
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Director Jacques Demy returns to the podcast with a notably non-musical romance this time. Gone are the songs and vibrant colors, instead we are giv...
368 - Corridors of Blood (1959)
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Spoiler alert. In this movie Christopher Lee stabs Boris Karloff and Boris Karloff throws acid in Christopher Lee's face. And there's some stuff about...
895 - David Lynch The Art Life (2016)
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Neither a documentary on the films of David Lynch nor a film about the man we knew as David Lynch. But an account of a young man who through circums...
408 - Breathless (1960)
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For one of us, this is where it all began. You leave me breathless… ahhhhh…. That's from a different movie though. Join the Random Acts of Cin...
473 - The Insect Woman (1963)
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week we return to the Shohei Imamura's "Pigs, Pimps, and Prostitutes" collection with his "entomological study" of one woman's lifelong struggle ...
1174 - Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979)
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Legendary 1980s/90s Hong Kong/Hollywood action auteur John Woo sets an early pace for his legendary career with a period-kung fu movie about two sword...
401 - Night On Earth (1991)
06 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From the clanky jangle of that first Tom Waits song to that jangly clank of the last Tom Waits song, you know you are in for a treat. Jim Jarmusch p...
539 - House (1977)
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cat, piano, well, watermelon, mirror, bananas. You know, you're basic horror movie formula. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi spins a eerily formulaic bu...
55 - The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What says "Merry Christmas" more than a sexy tale of infidelity and alienation set against the backdrop of soviet invasion and oppression? In the Cr...
870 - Othello (1951)
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's Orson Welles! It's Shakespeare! Everyone involved is at the top of their game! Filmed across continents on location! It was a labor of love 3 yea...
LD301 - Dead Presidents (1995)
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Albert & Allen Hughes take a stab at the classic tale of the American twentieth century with a star-studded cast and a sweeping narrative starting in...
1071 - The Elephant Man (1980)
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David Lynch's follow-up to one of the most disturbing and lovingly crafted pieces of auteur cinema ever made is… an Oscar-bait biopic? Sure: he braz...
1056 - Moonstruck (1987)
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week, it's Moonstruck. Thank God: it's Moonstruck. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourse...
1072 - History is Made at Night (1937)
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you throw everything at the wall (romance, screwball comedy, noir thriller, globe-trotting action) you will ALMOST predict one of the great disaste...
989 - The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Get ready for another action-packed…Yasuhiro Ozu movie? Well, at least compared to his other masterpieces. Buckle up for this bracingly gentle s...
814 - Alice in the Cities (1974)
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Two unlikely kindred souls find purpose and companionship as they wander through the cross-continental 1970s in search of a sense of… just a little ...
712 - Scanners (1981)
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is this the one where Keanu takes a bunch of future drugs? I mean that DOES sound kind of like a Cronenberg movie…. No wait! It's the head explo...
918 - The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Soviet cinema at its most… spiritual? Iconoclast director Sergei Parajanov's deeply personal exploration of the cultural echoes found in the life ...
433 - Patriotism or The Right of Love and Death (1966)
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Content warning: this film contains depictions of suicide. Come check out Mike and Charlie realizing exactly what they've gotten themself into AFTER w...
63 - Carnival of Souls (1962)
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kansas. The Great Salt Lake. Peaches Christ. Michael Varrati. Abandoned carnival. Am I listing the components of an unlikely-to-happen but l...
1121 - Eyimofe: This is My Desire (2020)
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Directing duo Arie and Chula Esiri tell two separate stories of would-be Nigerian emigrants navigating through a dehumanizing world that uses poverty ...
120 - How To Get Ahead in Advertising (1988)
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Look: if for some reason you DON'T want to watch Richard E. Grant rant about the entrenched conspiracy between the wretchedly corrupt spheres of big b...
1100 - The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Balancing on the razor-thin edge between the pedantic "what would REALLY happen if a guy kept slowly shrinking?" with "sure nerd, but let's still make...
Bonus Episode! - Cyberzone (1995)
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In celebration of Fred Olen Ray's 70th birthday, we're sharing an bonus episode of Going Over Our Freds (a podcast hosted by our past-guests Kennedy ...
1155 - Cure (1997)
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Allison (Risk! and The State) joins us to talk about Kyoshi Kurosawa's hypno-thriller - a term I've invented which cheapens the film - and he di...
107 - Mona Lisa (1986)
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week the question is asked: does having had read The Deadly Percheron enhance the viewing experience of this grimy, English, 80s neo-noir about ...
723 - Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Coming of age story? Sexual awakening? Road trip movie? These all characterize Alfonso Cuarón's tale of two young men and one women whose liv...
306 - Le Samouraï (1967)
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Certainly not the arty-ist neo-noir ever made, but it's certainly the most Jean-Pierre Melville-ian neo-noir ever made. And that's more than enou...
1103 - Once Upon A Time In China (1991)
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Can Master Wong navigate China into the 20th-century and past the obstacles of modernity, invasive western culture, and a whole host of outside threat...
459 - The Exterminating Angel (1962)
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When 20 or so upper class reveler's end up at a post-opera gathering hosted by one of their peers, everything seems perfectly… polite. But then di...
304 - The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976)
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"Bowie to Bowie… Come in Bowie…" So begins a completely unrelated piece of Bowie-related media that one of us wishes he watched instead. Come have...
744 - Every Man For Himself (1980)
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jean-Luc Godard returns to the podcast with a stylish and cunning exposé of modern French man. Or rather, a study of how women deal with the intran...
645 - The Ballad of Narayama (1958)
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kabuki and 1950's studio style combine in Keisuke Kinoshita's lavish and heart-wrenching account of a rural Japanese family planning for and coping wi...
840 - The Executioner (1963)
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Internationally-neglected Spanish auteur Luis García Berlanga enters the collection neither with a bang, a whimper, a chop, nor a zap… but with a s...
6th Annual Rando Awards
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
And with the coming of another Rando Awards, so too passes another season of Random Acts of Cinema. Join us as we look back and reflect on all the b...
1012 - All About My Mother (1999)
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast is dedicated to all podcasters who ever podcasted, all… Nevermind, Pedro Almodovar does it better in his tragic, heartwarming, found-fa...
760 - State of Siege (1972)
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Costa-Gavras puts the viewer in the middle of a two-sided conspiracy of wrestle power in an unnamed South American nation. At its heart: a rebel-led...
1185 - After Hours (1985)
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You know that Scorsese movie that everyone always forgets about but also everyone says that it's really their favorite? What seems at first glance t...
336 - Dazed and Confused (1993)
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The real strength of Richard Linklater's day-in-the-life ensemble film isn't the cast of all-time 1990s heavy hitters. It isn't the meticulous recreat...