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 those ingredients.  Hung directs a rag tag group of orphanage buddies, now older, as they are recruited to travel to Japan and infiltrate (via slapstick) a notorious Yakuza gang. Join our  Patreon and support the podcast!  Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random...

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 the ambitiously talented wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing Eve (Anne Baxter). Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy podcast. Join our  Patreon and support the podcast!  Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers,...

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 situations: roommates! … Well, kind of.  Writer/director Jim Jarmusch jams John Lurie (as a pimp), Tom Waits (as a radio DJ), and Roberto Benigni (as a Roberto Benigni) into a Louisiana jail cell where tensions and unlikely loyalties form in this dryly funny, minimal masterpiece by one of America’s greatest directors. Join our Patreon and support the...

Three heartbreaking stories interweave through Alejandro González Iñárritu's frantic and abrasive entry onto the cinematic world stage.  A lovelorn brother who turns to the brutal but lucrative opportunities of back alley dog fighting, a model confined to a crumbling apartment following a life-altering accident, and a hitman with a past who walks the streets unseen. Join our Patreon and support the podcast!  Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and...

Come listen to a free preview of our upcoming Patreon podcast Are You Friedkin Kidding Me?, where Mike, Charlie, and Alexandra (celebrated returning guest host) watch a different film (or tv show or documentary) from the oeuvre of acclaimed director William Friedkin.  And we’re starting with his all-time genre-defining horror  masterpiece The Exorcist (1973). The first taste is free. Keep an eye out for more information on our upcoming Patreon and your chance to listen to more episodes of...

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've achieved my attention-grabbing hot take, I'll just come clean and say that we loved George A. Romero's all-time classic movie about zom... I mean ghouls that started it all. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies,...

Chic style and a confoundingly lithe ability to shift between classic-cool genres, director Jean-Jacques Beineix plots a Parisian escapade of crime, obsession, genius, whimsy, opera, sex, speed, and violence.  Get ready to be the only person in the theater with a single tear running down your face.  Because YOU get it. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies,...

Stubborn, single-minded obsession forms the icy heart of Teinosuke Kinugasa's sweeping Shakespearean action-drama set in the aftermath of the bloody Heiji Rebellion. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more!   If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jean-Jacques Beineix’ Diva (1981).

Ol Blue Eyes is back!  Back from the Korean War and brainwashed by sinister communist agents, that is.  Director John Frankenheimer bends minds and our expectations in his stylishly paranoid thriller set in an era of Cold War paranoia, McCarthyism, and presidential assassination. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more!   If you’d like...

Director Les Blank turns his unsparing eye on obsessive visionary director Werner Herzog as he trudges through a years-long journey to film Fitzcarraldo in the South American rainforest.  Everything that can go wrong does, and Herzog, the film, and the viewers are left to ponder: is all this worth it?  Maybe it is, but since this is the only Herzog-related film in the Collection, we’re thrilled for the chance to discuss one of the defining auteurs of the late 20th century. Join the Random...

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 is the whole fun of Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard’s adaptation of Bernard Shaw’s classic stage comedy. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s...

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 nice and sweet.  No problems at all.  Nope.  It’s all good. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Anthony...

David Cronenberg just might be the only director capable of adapting William S. Burroughs’ drug-fueled descent into paranoia, isolation, murder, conspiracy, hallucination, depravity, and… self-actualization?  The director’s visionary deadpan perfectly places a stoney-faced Peter Weller into a world of beetle-like typewriters and narcotic-secreting, tough-talking mugwumps without it coming off as, you know: stupid. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast...

Things get dark this week, noir and otherwise in Nicholas Rey’s brooding and prescient look into a doomed and toxic relationship. Humphrey Bogart makes his first appearance on the podcast with one of his best. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing...

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 rhythmic Philip Glass score.  But Chuck Norris or Charles Bronson are still going to show up at some point, right?  Right?!? Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch...

The romantic misadventures of the continental European upper class of the nineteenth century?  Making use of expertly-machined narrative devices that play with pattern, coincidence, and repetition? Sounds to me like director Max Ophüls has gone and made another movie.  A pair of diamond earrings are sold to discreetly pay off a debt… and that should have been enough.  But sometimes, the earrings come back. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get...

This week we are re-joined by filmmaker Scott Sawitz (Save State) to discuss Jean-Pierre Melville’s beautifully bleak WWII French resistance film.  Are we going to get a film drenched in that Melville cool or and old-man-war-movie?  Maybe both?  Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we...

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 to get everything back on track.  Opinions are divided.  We’re joined this week by Vincent and Craig of the Twin Peaks: Evangelion podcast to solve this debate once and for all. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts,...

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 real America.  We’re watching Preston Sturges’ high-minded and thoughtful ode to dumb slapstick.  With a little bit of sex. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch...

Two girls rampage their way through an allegory-laden modern city steeped in its own hypocrisy and decadence, indulging in everything “bad” in a feature-length gesture of seeming nihilistic hedonism. But director Věra Chytilová has more than cheap laughs in mind as she tweaks the manners of polite society. Looks like Luis Buñuel has some competition. And it looks like we’re joined by return-guest Patrick O’Reilly of the Vintage Video Podcast who brings along this psychedelic Czech freak-out...

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 of death, mourning, acceptance, dogs, mothers, the banal anxieties of a post-9/11 world.  Set to her own animation, music, home movies, and news footage, Anderson narrates the viewer through a hypnotic and meditative reflection on how we can let go of loss as an act of love. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support...

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 joke/premise both funny and erotic, have we got a film for you. Director Paul Morrissey and star Udo Kier either push the limits of or nearly approach the genre of horror/comedy in this vaguely Andy Warhol-affiliated romp.  Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random...

Acclaimed martial arts director King Hu’s tale of court intrigue, assassination, loyalty and betrayal is long-lauded as the seminal wuxia film.  As the English-speaking internet is oddly silent about this film other than by offering just such unsubstantiated platitudes, we decide to evaluate it on (gasp!) its internal merits alone.  Our unasked-for conclusion: it’s pretty damn good. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you...

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 bests and the worsts of a solid year of Criterion films. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store.  T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing King...

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 of other rockers take the spotlight during and serve as backdrop to the summer of love. Oh, and we also take a look at the full sets of Hendrix and Otis Redding just to earn the “complete” on the spine. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch...