Random Acts of Cinema

652 - Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At the beginning of the 20th century, a deranged serial killer was convicted of seducing, marrying, robbing, and murdering over a dozen women.  It is...

36 - Wages of Fear (1952)

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Director Henri-Georges Clouzot maps out one of the all-time great thrillers.  "Explosive" is the right word in all possible ways to describe this fil...

7 - A Night to Remember (1958)

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Is it about corporate greed run amok?  Class warfare?  Human indulgence?  Human suffering?  Uh… the hubris of man? Well, it's definitely not abo...

965 - Wanda (1970)

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Special guest Michael Patrick Jann brings us an almost-lost character study of a young woman lost in a world that doesn't value her existence. Directo...

716 - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

29 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jacques Demy's dazzlingly colorful palette that is perhaps more symphonic than it's grand romantic score, sets the stage for a musical about young lov...

76 - Brief Encounter (1945)

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sweeping vistas! Dangerous men driven by greed, glory, honor, and obsession! Is this what acclaimed epic director David Lean has in store for us today...

173 - The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

15 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I can't help it if I'm scarred from too many bad 1980s and 90s comic book movie adaptations that weren't faithful to the source material.  I know it ...

163 Hopscotch (1980)

07 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can we chalk this up as another Walter Matthau all-time slam-dunk that most people have never heard of? Or is this old man spy caper exactly what it l...

1215 - Shakes the Clown (1991)

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Singular-voiced American comedic auteur Bobcat Goldthwait writes, directs, and stars in his absurdist satire of the 1980s stand-up comedy scene reimag...

820 - Fantastic Planet (1973)

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

René Lalou's timeless (well, maybe not exactly) hand drawn science fiction epic turns a skeptical eye on human systems of power in an unimaginable wo...

879 - Taipei Story (1985)

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The good days are long past for Chan and Leung, a couple slowly drifting apart, and losing themselves in the oncoming wave of modernity consisting of ...

042 - Fishing With John (1991)

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There was a time, believe it or not, when the channel Bravo was willing to pay for some "celebrities" and a camera crew to get out of their comfort zo...

1192 - Moonage Daydream (2022)

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Brett Morgen's expressionistic documentary seeks to sidestep the question of "which is the real David Bowie?" and instead sees the creation of his per...

270 - Casque d'Or (1952)

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Director Jacques Becker's belle epoque period drama about gangsters sets their lives on such a delicate balance between honor death that the eponymous...

1094 - Watermelon Man (1970)

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Indie director Melvin van Peebles' one film for Columbia Pictures pointedly slams against the dictates and standards of studio filmmaking with his God...

LD183 - Dracula (1992)

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Just in time for February: it's... Random Acts of Cinema's Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula.  Take me away from all of these possessives...

113 - Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An all-star who's-who of mid-century Italian comedy (we assume) unite for a picture of staggering proportions!  Our boys stumble and bumble their way...

391 - If.... (1968)

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Content and Spoiler Warning:  This film dramatizes bullying, violence, against children, and a school shooting.  Those who may not want to listen to...

LD244 - David Holzman's Diary (1967)

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

He lost his job.  He got his draft notice.  The only path forward for this cinefile is clear: alienate everyone in his life and fracture his sanity ...

1033 - The Cameraman (1928)

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the darkest of night, standing solitary vigil against the forces of evil: there stands the city's only hope for justice, for vengeance, for truth. ...

736 - It Happened One Night (1934)

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Director Frank Capra returns to the podcast with his Oscar-hording smash hit romantic comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.  A glamorous...

611 - Being John Malkovich

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Director Spike Jonze upends Hollywood conventions in this mind-bending Malkovich.  Can Malkovich Malkovich before Malkovich Malkovich?  Join our  ...

489 - Monsoon Wedding (2001)

25 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This time, Mira Nair unleashes her penchant for a romance-set-among-a-sprawling-family-drama on the nation of India as a wedding is organized, threat...

885 - The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hitch is back!  Or rather, here he is just as he's starting to become THE Alfred Hitchcock.  His first thriller blurs the boundaries between guilt, ...

272 - La Commare Secca (1962)

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In his first film, renowned director Bernardo Bertolucci prowls through the not-so-innocent lives of strangers who just happened to be in a park on th...

38 - Branded to Kill (1967)

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It is neither a question of where Seijun Suzuki got his ideas from nor who got their ideas from him.  Rather it is simply the plain fact that there w...

1197 - My Lucky Stars - Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar (1985)

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

1985.  Sammo Hung.  Jackie Chan.  It sounds like we have all of the ingredients for the perfect action/comedy.  And we do.  We definitely have th...

1003 - All About Eve (1950)

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We got ourselves a Mank!  More importantly, we got ourselves a study in contrast between the brash but insecure broadway diva Margo (Bette Davis) and...

166 - Down By Law (1986)

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A classic odd couple picture, except… it's a trio?! Hilarity and hijinks ensue when a couple of guys find themselves in the unlikeliest of situation...

1060 - Amores Perros (2000)

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Three heartbreaking stories interweave through Alejandro González Iñárritu's frantic and abrasive entry onto the cinematic world stage.  A lovelor...

BONUS PATREON PREVIEW - Are you Friedkin Kidding Me? (The Exorcist, 1973)

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Come listen to a free preview of our upcoming Patreon podcast Are You Friedkin Kidding Me?, where Mike, Charlie, and Alexandra (celebrated returning g...

909 - Night of the Living Dead (1968)

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ok, we don't say it in the episode, but I've just decided that this movie is nothing more than a shameless War of the Worlds rip-off.  And now that I...

LD309 - Diva (1981)

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Chic style and a confoundingly lithe ability to shift between classic-cool genres, director Jean-Jacques Beineix plots a Parisian escapade of crime,...

653 - Gate of Hell (1953)

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Stubborn, single-minded obsession forms the icy heart of Teinosuke Kinugasa's sweeping Shakespearean action-drama set in the aftermath of the bloody H...

803 - The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ol Blue Eyes is back!  Back from the Korean War and brainwashed by sinister communist agents, that is.  Director John Frankenheimer bends minds and ...

287 - Burden of Dreams (1982)

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Director Les Blank turns his unsparing eye on obsessive visionary director Werner Herzog as he trudges through a years-long journey to film Fitzcarral...

86 - Pygmalion (1938)

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A uproarious takedown of English class and gender constructions… or a staunch defender of them?  At least one of us thinks that this very ambiguity...

420 - Le Bonheur (1965)

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Agnès Varda returns to the podcast with her charming little love story about a happy guy, his happy wife, and his happy mistress.  It's all very nic...

220 - Naked Lunch (1991)

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David Cronenberg just might be the only director capable of adapting William S. Burroughs' drug-fueled descent into paranoia, isolation, murder, consp...

810 - In A Lonely Place (1950)

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Things get dark this week, noir and otherwise in Nicholas Rey's brooding and prescient look into a doomed and toxic relationship. Humphrey Bogart make...

641 - Powaqqatsi (1988)

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our first Cannon Group movie!!  And it's the sequel to Godfrey Reggio's 1983 art house documentary that cuts artfully shot footage to the pace of a r...

445 - The Earrings of Madame de… (1953)

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The romantic misadventures of the continental European upper class of the nineteenth century?  Making use of expertly-machined narrative devices that...

385 - Army of Shadows (1969)

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we are re-joined by filmmaker Scott Sawitz (Save State) to discuss Jean-Pierre Melville's beautifully bleak WWII French resistance film.  A...

898 - Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is it bad because it's a theatrical follow-up to a television phenomenon that famously went of the rails, or does David Lynch's prequel somehow manage...

118 - Sullivan's Travels (1942)

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's time to hit the rails and Meridith and Michael from the Going Over Our Freds Podcast (@goofpodcast) are hear to take us on a ride to discover the...

1157 - Daisies (1966)

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Two girls rampage their way through an allegory-laden modern city steeped in its own hypocrisy and decadence, indulging in everything "bad" in a featu...

846 - Heart of a Dog (2015)

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin Allison of the podcast Risk!, The State, and so much more returns to the podcast with his selection of Laurie Anderson's atmospheric exploration...

28 - Blood for Dracula (1974)

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dracula needs… you guessed it. But specifically he needs the blood of a virgin. But where to find a virgin in the modern world? If you found this jo...

937 - Dragon Inn (1967)

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Acclaimed martial arts director King Hu's tale of court intrigue, assassination, loyalty and betrayal is long-lauded as the seminal wuxia film.  As t...

5th Annual Rando Awards

26 Jun 2023

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...

167 - The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (1968)

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

D. A. Pennebaker and his documentary crew capture the scene of the century, as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who, the Mamas and the Papas and a host...

382 - La Haine (1995)

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A young Vincent Cassel burns with a raw intensity in Mathieu Kassovitz's day-in-the-life account of three young men bristling against the cycle of pov...

40 - Armageddon (1998)

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

But is it a Criterion film?  We drill deep into Michael Bay's blockbuster to end all blockbusters. And you won't want to miss a thing. Join the Rand...

586 - Island of Lost Souls (1932)

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sci-fi/horror.  Bikini lady.  Pre-code.  A story that has been remade for every generation since the dawn of cinema.  Starring Quasimodo and Dracu...

LD75 - Ghostbusters (1984)

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we celebrate Mike's birthday with the rebirth of Gozer (you know: the Gozerian?) Yep, we're watching Ivan Reitman's all-time action-comedy class...

778 - A Special Day (1977)

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sophia Loren and Marcelo Mastroinanni heat up the screen again in Ettore Scola's period piece set on the day in 1938 when Hitler visited Mussolini in ...

636 - Heaven's Gate (1980)

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Cimino's sprawling anti-western is, quite famously, one of those films that questions the very legitimacy of auteur filmmaking.  We're joined...

1124 - Chan is Missing (1982)

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Joe and Steve hit the pavement of San Francisco's Chinatown and beyond, searching through a tapestry of Asian-American identities for a business partn...

814 - Lone Wolf and Cub (1972)

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Content Warning: The films covered in this episode depict various scenes of sexual assault. Listeners who would not like to engage with this kind of m...

094 - I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Powell and Pressberger are at it again with another war-time charmer, this time set in rural Scotland!  Local characters, local legends, local color,...

812 - The Player (1992)

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the hosts is almost positive that Robert Altman's cutting satire of the Hollywood studio system has already been covered on the podcast. But th...

1175 - Dune (1984)

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dune. Arrakis. Podcast episode. We're not the first to reassess David Lynch's legendarily-disowned adaptation of Frank Herbert's science fiction class...

735 - Ride in the Whirlwind (1966)

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This 1966 Jack Nicholson-penned and Jack Nicholson-starring micro-western has all of the earmarks of a shaggy Head-era wannabe freak-out.  But wait…...

447 Le Doulos (1962)

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The podcast FINALLY gets to discuss the master of French noir, Jean-Pierre Melville himself.  Fedoras and trench coats?  A jazzy score?  Twists tha...

LD19 - Blade Runner (1982)

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We've podcasted things you people wouldn't believe. Like the international theatrical release version of Ridley Scott's tech noir stunner starring Har...

791 - Lady Snowblood Love Song of Vengeance (1974)

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is the solution to having not enough Lady Snowblood, just making more Lady Snowblood?  The very concept of "the sequel" is methodically hunted down a...

790 - Lady Snowblood (1973)

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mike likes the sword hidden in a parasol. Charlie likes that it takes place during the Meiji era. But who are we kidding? The best part is that Toshiy...

783 - Pather Panchali (1955)

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Satyajit Ray's first installment of the Apu Trilogy, reigns as one of the greatest depictions of humanity ever recorded on film.  But does it live up...

362 - Border Radio (1987)

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Punk rock died when the last kid said, 'Punk's not dead… punk's not dead.'"  Or maybe it died when Los Angeles punk frontman Jeff Bailey had to du...

83 - The Harder They Come (1973)

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You know those movies that are about a young person full of promise, who comes to the big city in search of fortune and fame, but inescapable poverty ...

562 - Blow Out (1981)

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Brian De Palma's Philadelphia-based thriller, steeped in paranoia-based conspiracy, pits a low-rent audio specialist (John Travolta) as an "ear witnes...

978 - One Sings The Other Doesn't (1977)

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Director Agnès Varda leads the viewer through over a decade in the lives of two friends, Apple and Suzanne, as they seek fulfillment and freedom, str...

1023 - The Cremator (1969)

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Czech director Juraj Herz takes us on a dreamlike journey into madness of an employee at a Prague crematorium both before and during the German invasi...

314 - Pickpocket (1959)

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You know those drab, mid-century French films where pale, thin guys in suits stare at each other with blank, unreadable expressions on there faces whi...

1024 - Destry Rides Again (1939)

02 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Now wait just a minute here.  Let me try to get this straight.  You mean to tell me that Jimmy Stewart is a new deputy sheriff in town that doesn't ...

230 - 3 Women (1977)

26 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

To steal (and completely spoil) Mike's joke from the very end of this episode: we hope that you're ready to listen to three men discuss 3 Women.  Bec...

LD150 - Boyz N the Hood (1991)

19 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

John Singleton transforms the nostalgia-laden, American coming-of-age tale, establishing the iconic South Central setting at a crucial moment in Ameri...

33 - Nanook of the North (1922)

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Like the Documentary Now! spoof, we're really more interested in our protagonist Nanook (Allakariallak) than the admittedly-groundbreaking documentari...

945 - A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Uh oh. It's a movie based on a play. Can the screen presences of Hollywood legends Sydney Poitier and Ruby Dee possibly transcend this stage-to-screen...

410 - Under The Volcano (1984)

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Special guest Max Rieger joins us this week as we dive into the volatile and fascinating world of 1938 Mexico in order to follow the last day in the l...

LD66 - The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Look, of course we want to just talk about Kevin Kostner's 1991 masterpiece (the one they got right).  But it's just not in the collection.  So I gu...

1129 - Rouge (1987)

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Want to listen to a couple of dummies realize that there are such things as era-jumping supernatural romance films that are set in Hong Kong?  And th...

1116 - The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Arousing action/drama by legendary director Robert Aldrich? Starring Jimmy Stewart?! Yes, please! Add to this some tense survival stakes, and a real m...

745 - Don't Look Now (1973)

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Just in time for the spookiest day of the year, we take a look at Nicolas Roeg's classic meditation on death and loss set in perhaps the most melancho...

733 - La Dolce Vita

24 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's Fellini-time!  Somehow it took our random number generator 4 seasons to finally pick a film in the Criterion Collection by this legendary Italia...

114 - My Man Godfrey (1936)

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A "forgotten man" named Godfrey (played by the charming William Powell) finds a path to redemption when he's hired on as the butler to the rich, bored...

922 - The Other Side of Hope (2017)

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Perhaps the most Finnish way to make a love letter to Finland is to make a movie that emphasizes a kind of remote inhabitability of a place and its pe...

37 - Time Bandits (1981)

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Time to mark off another square on your Terry Gilliam bingo card, because this week we are journey through time and space into the exquisitely crafted...

975 - Funny Games (1997)

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Content Warning: If you know, you know.  Because this is Funny Games.  A movie celebrated and criticized for its brutal and emotionally devastating ...

29 - Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It turns out that while Mike knows EXACTLY what happed to the girls who disappeared on a school trip in Victoria on Valentine's Day 1900, Charlie real...

839 - Boyhood (2014)

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's weird to think of a film in the Criterion collection that took twelve years to make that doesn't involve production delays.  I mean, who does Ri...

1057 - Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)

05 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Who would have thought that 23 years later we'd be having a conversation about how a Jim Jarmusch film starring Forest Whitaker as a samurai hitman fo...

1172 - Mississippi Masala (1991)

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Director Mira Nair plots a winding trajectory from Idi Amin's forced removal of Asians from Uganda in 1973 to the struggles of a small-time owner-oper...

443 - La Ronde (1950)

22 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Max Ophüls' La Ronde presents a world governed by the routines, negotiations, and hypocrisies of desire. Behaviors argued as so central to human expe...

863 - Multiple Maniacs (1970)

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Thank God that Peaches Christ and Michael Varrati of the Midnight Mass podcast joined us for our third jump into the works of John Waters.  Otherwis...

951 - True Stories (1986)

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's guest Robert Saucedo, film-buyer of The Alamo Drafthouse, welcomes us to mid-80s, small-town Texas as commented upon by Talking Heads lyri...

666 - The Devil's Backbone (2001)

01 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Oops! We uploaded the wrong audio file this morning! To those of you who thought we recorded "an avant-garde art piece": we apologize. We've since fix...

999 - Matewan (1987)

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The devil walks among us!  And his name is… Chris Cooper?  That can't be right.  Find out the real name of Satan by listening to our thoughts on ...

967 - I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)

18 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Beatlemania is both plot device and backdrop in first-time director Robert Zemeckis' period comedy about a cluster of Jersey teens screaming and shena...

627 - The Game (1997)

11 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we are joined by Cameron Kunzelman of Just King Things, Game Studies Study Buddies, and a host of other podcast projects as part of Range...