This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

nehlle-pe-dehlla

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Nehlle Pe Dehlla

Another Bollywood recommendation! This is the Bollywood “Weekend at Bernie’s” AND “Weekend at Bernie’s 2” combined and thrown into an Bolly-blender of music and comedy and voodoo! I don’t what more I need to do to convince you – that really ought to be enough! It’s delightful and jaw-droppingly insane!

redrockwest

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Red Rock West

I will admit, I hadn’t seen Red Rock West until a couple weeks ago. I hadn’t even heard of it, believe it or not, but I ran across it because I am currently on a mission to watch every Nicolas Cage movie. The exact reason I do stuff like marathon Nicolas Cage movies because I occasionally run into stuff like Red Rock West.

Red Rock West is a wonderful, twisty-turny neo-noir flick from 1993, starring folks like Lara Flynn Boyle, Dennis Hopper, J. T. Walsh, and of course Nic Cage. Cage plays an unemployed man who is travelling the barren rural Southwest looking for a job. When he is mistaken for a professional hitman, he takes the job… and then warns the target. Too bad that the real hitman soon shows up. The plot is loaded with surprises, the direction is deft and compact, and whole movie is a satisfying treat.

Episode 35: Emotional Turgidity

, with special guest:

0035 SirkThis week, dear listeners, we get down and dirty with the Birdchick (aka world-renowned birdwatcher and author Sharon Stiteler) for an episode all about film director Douglas Sirk! Now, don’t worry if you don’t know anything about Mr. Sirk’s films, because we do our very best to drunk-describe the awesome, plump melodramas that make up Mr. Sirk’s American ouvre.

Helping us on our journey was a lovely bottle of Lagavulin 16 scotch, which definitely gave us the right frame of mind to discuss 1950s melodramas.

And once again, we have to apologize for some sound issues. During the recording of this episode, we could have filled out a Audio Interference Bingo Card: a neighbor’s barking dog, police sirens, a small child, a chatty husband, an oscillating fan, a rainstorm, and a tornado siren. We were able to remove some of it from the episode, and and then work around the rest. Thus, the audio starts fine, and then slowly gets a bit burbly at the end.

Anyway, show notes behind the cut!

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This Week’s Underappreciated Movies

Every Monday, each of us will suggest a film that we feel too few people have seen.

Sholay

Melissa’s Pick of the Week: Sholay

This Hindi film from 1975 is perhaps best described as what happens when Bollywood wants to make a Sergio Leone western. It’s also a musical, a comedy, a family film, and an allegory. While this film isn’t heard about much in the U.S. (and is even difficult to find on DVD), it is often cited as one of the greatest films of all time in India. It is also one of the highest grossing films ever in its home country (it was even shown in one theater continuously for five years). As such, it is the wellspring of many cinema traditions that you still see today in modern Indian films. The reason that Sholay is all these things is that it is an enormously entertaining movie. Definitely worth tracking down.

gotcha

Windy’s Pick of the Week: Gotcha!

Do we all remember Gotcha!? Anthony Edwards (after Revenge of the Nerds, and before Top Gun… or E.R.) is his everyman-adorkable self as a college student going on a European trip. A chance encounter with a lovely and exotic Linda Fiorentino soon entangles him in Cold War-era espionage. Good thing he was super good at that stalking paintball game on campus!

Housekeeping: Episode 1 Updated

Xanadu Sq LogoHello, dear listeners!

If something weird just happened in your podcast feed regarding Episode 1, do not fret! It happened because we just replaced Episode 1 with a new version of the file.

See, our poor, long-suffering Episode 1 was originally fraught with severe and constant static, which neither Audacity nor Garage Band had been unable to remove. Unfortunately, we liked the content so much that we decided to go ahead and post the episode anyway, even though it sounded like an 125 year old vinyl record that had been used as flooring in a cow barn. We figured that if folks didn’t care for it, they could always hop ahead to Episode 2.

Well, since then, Melissa got her hands on better sound editing software. And tonight, while procrastinating, she decided to see if Adobe Audition could rescue the Episode 1 audio. The result wasn’t perfect, but it was at least better. Our new Episode 1 now features only intermittent pops and a little warbling from the processing.

So, if you once ditched out on Episode 1, we apologize. It bugged us, too!

Episode 34: Flatitudes, Y’all

, with special guest:
Gordon Smuder

Gordon Smuder, in his element.

This week, dear listeners, we are joined by professional puppeteer Gordon Smuder for an episode all about PUPPET MOVIES! And, because we like a challenge, we have decided to discuss only non-Henson puppets, so no Muppets allowed! (Don’t worry, we still love Muppets — it’s just that everyone knows about Muppets already, right?) So bring your ventriloquist dummies and magic talking flutes and have a listen!

This week is an even-numbered episode, too, so Windy and Melissa are extra-sauced for this puppetry discussion. If you would like to drink along, we suggest Red Guitar Old Vine Temperanillo-Garnacha, which is what you hear being poured generously throughout the episode. Alternately, if you are a sober driver like Gordon, we suggest a mixture of fizzy mineral water and your juice of choice. It’s delicious, and you get to sound extra smart next to the silly drunk ladies.

Pictured: silly drunk ladies

Pictured: silly drunk ladies

Show notes behind the cut!

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