Episodes
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Felicia Maroni (Seeing Faces in Movies) joins the show to discuss the first half of John Cassavetes' filmography: Shadows (1958); Too Late Blues (1961); A Child is Waiting (1963); Faces (1968); Husbands (1970); and Minnie & Moskowicz (1971). When we talk about John Cassavetes, we're talking about the history of American independent movies, from what preceded and influenced the movement, to how the format adapted and was deeply influenced by the style of indie auteurs like Cassavetes. By studying this filmmaking tradition, we can give shape to a whole world of cinema crafted outside the system and trace every step of contemporary productions back to their root source. By working outside the system and against the market, Cassavetes created a new system and a new market. We explore the eccentricities of this improvisational and naturalistic filmmaker who changed movies forever, one Opening Night, one Face, one Husband, one Chinese Bookie, and one Woman Under the Influence at a time. Stay tuned as Felicia will return for the second half of our series, and some of the most influential indie films of all time, next month.
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Paul Thomas Anderson's exquisite Phantom Thread (2017) is our New Year's movie of choice, as our friend Renee (follow on LB: Pixie_Bomber) sits in for a discussion that weaves discussions of terrific costume design with subjects who are driven to become experts in their field. Phantom Thread is one of the reasons this site came to exist and we'll always have time for PTA's tightly-wound precision. Meanwhile, George Clooney has directed The Boys in the Boat, the story of the UW rowing team who beat Hitler's team, and Renee has brought her expertise as a former coxswain to weigh in on the new locally-focused movie. All this and more as we enter another year of delightful cinema ahead.
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Your Christmas friends Calvin & Perla (follow on LB: pxcaballero) discuss cinema's weightiest Christmas film, Todd Haynes' exceptional Carol (2015). How do we perceive each other, Carol asks, at a perfect remove, characters stand back and observe one another. They take each other in. There is a boldness to let the movie happen, to always place the camera in the right place, having all the costumes right, having the right script, the right actors, the right everything, that goes right all the time. This is an intoxicating holiday concoction where characters hold their spaces on-screen, spaces that are of themselves and for each other. Always watching, standing in the back, perceiving, as we perceive them. Then it all comes together and is simply one of the greatest statements in romantic filmmaking. Carol is the best gift movies have given us for holidays and now we play it back for you. We wish all of our friends a safe and happy holiday season full of good movies and good cheer. Come for the holiday cheer and stay for the in-depth Carol discussion, starting at 41:43.
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It's a Thanksgiving special with... The Vvitch, perhaps our best American pilgrim cinema, as we're joined by our friend Warren Cantrell (Scene Stealers & The Playlist). This week, the whole feast is on the table, from comforting to deeply discomforting holiday movies, centering on Robert Eggers' modern classic. All this and reviews of some new films, like Rustin & The Holdovers, with a discussion about Alexander Payne's career and cancelation. There's nothing like Thanksgiving to bring folks together so join us round the table as we discuss one of the most invigorating horror movies in recent memory. Bon appétit.
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Our friend Caless (BlackNerdMagic) joins us for a momentous entry in online cinema discourse: Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972). We explore the rich themes of the flagship mob text, everything from the use of light and darkness to the film's systemic exploration of what draws its characters into lives of crime, and never lets go. One of the most storied movies ever made, we explore the dense text of the film, the context of its release, and how Coppola has shaped the future of crime cinema.
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The Twin Geeks Editor Vaughn, our resident Enthusiast of All Things, joins the show in promotion of his terrific new action cinema podcast, co-hosted with resident Musician for All of Our Theme Songs Jack. Their new show is called Throw Down, so-named after the excellent action film of the same name, which gives an idea of what kind of high-octane movies they will get up to on the show. You can already listen to the first two episodes!
In this program, we take on an action-thriller classic in celebration: John Carpenter's excellent Assault on Precinct 13, which takes the best notes out of Rio Bravo and Night of the Living Dead and melds them together in a riveting, matter-of-factly directed celebration of cinematic traditions. Carpenter achieves all of this on a relatively low budget, our first signal of the delightfully indelible masterpieces ahead of us in his career.
Beyond this classic, we discuss our horror month as it was, why we're discontinuing our awards show podcast, and try to consider how horror is being perceived as a modern genre, and what it means to direct in that space right now.
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The night the Kentucky Gentleman came home! Our friend Jesse returns for our yearly tradition of exploiting the Halloween franchise for content. At this point, the series has received a genre-defining first film, a normal slasher sequel, a strange outlier sequel, a comeback movie, and now, a normal sequel to a comeback movie. That's how it goes with horror franchises, as we discuss exactly what has changed and what each change in the journey of the Halloween franchise means, as well as the many types of Halloween fans all these different entries have created, and the unique story of an unlicensed novelization that cause a stir on social media (you can find a free PDF here). We tie up the messy loose ends, find the fun and funny moments that nearly save the unquestionably middling movie, and as per our usual routine, find some time to review some Radiohead-adjacent material. Our first ever show was about a Halloween movie and this is one of our favorite series to put out into the world. Thank you so much for listening and please have yourself a safe and spooky Halloween.
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Nicole Kidman makes movies better: which ones? Your friends at thetwingeeks.com rank all of them with a metric inspired by her best work, her We Make Movies Better ad for AMC. From Eyes Wide Shut to BMX Bandits, we cover all the significant works of a singular performer who has captured the widespread attention of the internet, and nearly everyone who has set foot in an American multiplex over the last several years. Nicole Kidman's career is as rich as it is varied and we're here to discuss every single piece of her oeuvre. This is the podcast where movies are Perfect and Powerful... because here, they are.
Watch us build the tiers on YouTube
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Familycast resumes as Ezra joins the show to talk about her favorite things: Bluey, Nintendo Live, her cat, and everything else a six-year-old cares about. Thing about Bluey is that it's endlessly sweet, full of life lessons, beautiful character moments, and like Fast and Furious, it's about family. Likewise, Nintendo is for families, and we discuss our venture into the inaugural US edition of Nintendo Live at PAX West 2023. We also talk about other videogames, as Ezra endures a couple of minutes of Starfield talk, explains her love for the brilliantly creative Chicory, our discovery of a new local arcade,and more! This one is for the whole family.
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Dear friend Perla sits in with us to discuss Todd Haynes' Safe. In this striking psychological horror film, Julianne Moore's character develops environmental sickness and an allergy to the conditions of the 20th Century. We frame the film in the context of movies about the lives of women in society and how hard it is to live in it. As we discuss their working relationship, Julianne Moore becomes something like a muse for Todd Haynes. We explore their work together and the importance of signature films like Carol (2015). All that and so much Baseball, as we do a Sportcast again, to check in on the standing of the Seattle Mariners.
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Welcome Jack Davenport to the show as he sits in for our long overdue retrospective of Guy Maddin's poem of home, My Winnipeg. Famed The Twin Geeks composer, co-founder, and the ACK of The Stacks, excellent musician 10secondbeats on Spotify, and popular Letterboxd member, Jack wears many hats, and puts on another one, analyzing a great work of docufiction, for our latest program. My Winnipeg does not have many / any other films that are exactly like it. It is most like a silent film, despite the constant narrative that drives the story. It moves in poetic arcs through understanding spaces and places and what it means to the people who have lived there, finding that rare bottled-up filmmaking energy that seems to sprout out of Winnipeg very naturally. It's a fun and full show, as we offer our personal reflections on Guy Maddin's own personal reflections of where he's from. Won't you join us?
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Friend of the show, professional podcast guest, and den mother to podcasts everywhere, Perla sits in with us for a wide-ranging discussion of David Lynch's full filmography, especially focused on the new restoration of The Elephant Man & SIFF's Dreams & Nightmares: The Films of David Lynch festival. We collect our shared passions for Lynch to give an incisive look at how the entire filmography informs one of his earliest works and how such a stylist can still find a clean fit with a surrealist biopic. Follow Perla on Insta at pxcaballero & look forward to more of her terrific insights on future programs!
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Matt Farley (of Motern Media notoriety — see: Local Legends (2013) & Magic Spot (2022)) joins the show to discuss Richard Linklater's seminal 2016 hangout movie Everybody Wants Some!! We discuss the great and varied career of Linklater and his unmatched ability to find the in-between moments of life while also allowing the audience to live with his characters for a while. You can catch up with all of Matt Farley's movies on our podcast dedicated to his filmography, Don't Let the Moterncast Get You.
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It's a double header with friend of the show Seth Vargas (Movie Friends Podcast). Seth sits in while we explore two rule-breaking essentials. First up is the rarely-seen Canadian film Crime Wave (1985) which is a totally different movie from Sam Raimi's Crimewave (1985). This one is a surrealist comedy written, directed, produced, and acted by Winnipeger John Paizs. There's something in the water, or snow, over there. It's like nothing you've ever seen before. On the other end of the spectrum, we chat about Stanley Kubrick's anarchic touchstone picture, A Clockwork Orange (1972), how we experience film in different phases of our life, and how the movie compares with the Anthony Burgess novel. This week on The Twin Geeks, it's a double bill and an awful lot of fun.
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Watching classic films on nitrate is one of the rarest opportunities in filmgoing and our friend Matt has attended an entire festival that works in this old tradition. Every time a nitrate picture is shown, the film degrades, and so herein presents a unique opportunity, to see these physical copies as they are now, how they will only be this once. A range of classic films is explored, centering on festival headliner Black Narcissus. We also explore the context and performance of the nitrate prints for The Third Man (1949), The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair (1939), Duel in the Sun (1947), and several other special selections.
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A very special guest joins the show! My daughter helps us rank all of the Pixar movies released ahead of Elemental and the takes are extreme. Please enjoy our father-daughter content and for the visual tier list, you can watch us rank 'em all on YouTube.
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Good for Health. Bad for Education. The Twin Geeks Editor Vaughn Swearingen joins the show to discuss Akira (1988) and why it has earned and maintained its title as The Definitive Anime. We use Akira as a launching point to discuss our month of Ani-May watches, our history with the medium, and the plethora of other great content that also deserves broad and international audiences.
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All good things come to an end. Succession, as it stands, might be the best television program of a generation. As it draws to a close, it marks a distinct end of an era for HBO shows and the future of television. What does Succession tell us about the state of television, the future of prestige appointment television, and the shaky future ahead for Warner Bros. Discovery and their latest rebranding exercise? Friend of the show and The Twin Geeks television correspondent Tyler Harford joins the program to discuss all this and so much more about the current state of premium television.
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If it's a podcast ya want, yer in one. Aaron White of Feelin' Film joins the show to discuss the spirited Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. From top-to-bottom, we trace the lineage of the Disneyland ride that inspired the franchise, the great Gore Verbinski action vehicles that defined the movies, those other two entries, and even a rarely-covered short film. Within our discourse, we discover a great love for the nautical adventuring series and lament the end of a certain kind of blockbuster that seemingly ended right after Verbinski's run and how the newer films also reflect a new reality.
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Dad & daughter join forces as a podcasting duo for the first time ever to record their thoughts after seeing Illumination's Mario film in theaters. Ezra shares her favorite videogames, movies, thoughts about the Mario Universe, Dreamlight Valley, and our shared favorite movie experiences. It's a special show about how families connect over movies and videogames. Let's-a go.
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