A Fighter's Journey: The Rocky Saga & Legacy This week Mr. Chavez & I continue our look at Sylvester Stallone's 1976 Oscar-Winning creation, Rocky Balboa. For nearly five decades Stallone's Balboa has captured the hearts of the American public. An underdog character that has appeared seven times on the big screen, Balboa's story has run the gamut of emotions featuring deaths, births, disappointments and success. It's a paint by numbers story that the public continues to eagerly...

America's Underdog: John G. Avildsen's Rocky & Sylvester Stallone's Rocky II Jumping into the world of underdogs (last week's Popeye), Mr. Chavez & I look at one of the great American Cinematic creations - Rocky Balboa. The Balboa character's screenplay origin rivals that of the character's struggle in the film(s). From a real life adaptation of the 70s Muhammad Ali/Chuck Wepner bout, Stallone is legendary for having written Rocky and forcing studios to accept him as the lead in...

Comic Strip Underdog: Robert Altman's Popeye This week we look to the fans with a special episode dedicated to WatchThis supporter, Jorge Saucedo. Mr. Saucedo asked that we take a look at the much-maligned 1980 Robert Altman comic strip adaptation, Popeye. This was a great time re-visiting a classic of my youth and, although Popeye is not Mr. Chavez's type of film - good guy hero, comic strip adaptation, musical - there is a great deal that he admired in this 80s Classic. Featuring Robin...

We'll Always Have Aqaba - David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia Few films are able to live up to the label of "epic".  In 1962 David Lean created one of the great epic masterpieces of cinema, Lawrence of Arabia. Based on the life of British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and write, T.E. Lawrence, Lean's film chronicles Lawrence's involvement in the Arab Revolt (1916-1918), his life among his adopted tribal families and his struggles with loyalty to the Arab tribes, the dessert, and his...

Frank Herbert's Burden: Denis Villeneuve's Dune Part 2 This week Mr. Chavez & I return to Planet Arrakis for the conclusion (a lie) of Frank Herbert's Sci-Fi Classic, Dune. We partly imagined that this would be more of our previous look at this film (Episode #353), however we were able to find more to complain about. Take a listen as we fortify our stance in the minority opinion regarding this "WhiteSaviour" epic. It's an interesting talk with a lot to unpack. As always we can be reached...

Woman in Trouble; Audience Perplexed: David Lynch's Inland Empire  Few filmmakers can live up to the title "auteur" . . . David Lynch almost requires the use of it. From daring soundtracks through troubling narratives and controversial story elements, fascinatingly over the top performances and strange journeys into the subconscious, Lynch has left audiences reeling with confusion and excitement for over forty years. On this week's episode Mr. Chavez and I take a look at his last theatrical...

Broken Mirror: Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan Fun talk . . . This week Mr. Chavez and I continue to look at the films of Darren Aronofsky with this discussion of his 2010, Five Time Oscar Nominated (Including Best Picture and Director, and Winner for Best Actress - Natalie Portman) look at the world of Ballet. Aronofsky's film is a tense and often brutal look at the world of artistic perfection featuring a dynamic and fearless performance from Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, a young ballerina...

Souls Dead, Eyes Dilated: Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream On this week's episode Mr. Chavez & I sit down for a re-watch of Darren Aronofsky's second feature, Requiem for a Dream, based on the 1978 novel by Hubert Selby Jr. Aronofsky's adaptation is a tragic and often times painful viewing of heroin addiction and the victims (Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans, and Jennifer Connelly) it leaves in its wake. Aronofsky and Selby contrast heroin addiction with the more "acceptable" and less...

Mima's Room: Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue  This week we thank long time listener and Buy Me a Coffee supporter, Cornelius Burroughs with a viewing and discussion of Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue. Mr. Burroughs was kind enough to gift me a blu-ray copy of this Classic Japanese Anime many years ago . . . I have finally made the time to watch it and am eager for listeners to hear our admiring, problematic, and conflicted opinions of this film. This is a great discussion that has forced - at least...

From Cute & Cuddly to Killer: Joe Dante's Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch This week Mr. Chavez & I continue our stroll through the 1980s with a look at a stange kind of Comedy/Puppetry/Action/Horror hybrid, Joe Dante's Gremlins (1984). Dante - a graduate of the Roger Corman School of Low-Budget Filmmaking - is one of the most criminally underappreciated directors of the 1980s and 1990s. The Howling, Explorers, The 'Burbs, Matinee, Innerspace, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action ....

What's Out There: Ridley Scott's Alien and John Carpenter's The Thing This week we take a look at two of the greatest Science-Fiction/Horror films in the History of Cinema: Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) and John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) We've talked about both of these films throughout the history of the podcast, however on this go-around we take a slightly different approach, looking at the similarities between the films, the differences, the influences, and how each film has adhered to...

A Safe Alien for the Box Office: Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extra Terrestrial This week Mr. Chavez & I shift our focus from the dangers of extra terrestrial life to the cute and cuddly alien that captivated audiences in 1982 - Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. At the time, the biggest box office hit in the history of cinema (a title it would hold until Spielberg's own Jurassic Park eleven years later), E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, is a film that has stayed in the public...

Paradise Lost - Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant This week brings us to the end of our look into the Alien franchise with a discussion of Ridley Scott's final journey into the world he introduced audiences to in 1979. 2017's Alien: Covenant did a great deal to explain the origin of the xenomorphs and the space jockey, however an equal number of questions arose. As we await the release of Alien: Romulus in the summer of 2024 it's our duty to look at Ridley Scott's conclusion and discuss this...

F*cked Around and Found Out: Ridley Scott's Prometheus  It's rare that a director can tell a story, go on to fabulous critical and commercial success, and return to his origins, answering questions that have hovered around a franchise for decades, while doing so in an exciting and innovative way. Ridley Scott's Alien introduced one of the great Science Fiction/Horror creatures. In 2012 Scott would return to the world he created in 1979 with his prequel Prometheus. A film that confused and...

Dead on Arrival: John-Pierre Jeunet's Alien Resurrection Closing in on the end of the month brings us to the end of the original Alien franchise. 1997s Alien Resurrection is a ridiculous mess of a film that is a final disappointing period to one of the greatest Horror/Sci-Fi franchises in the history of cinema. From a script by Joss Whedon and direction from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Alien Ressurrection badly fumbles the beauty, intensity, and  legacy of the first two films and the potential of...

  Dragon, Mother, Queen: Not David Fincher’s Alien 3  Continuing our descent into the world created in 1979's Alien and continued with 1986's Aliens, this week Mr. Chavez & I find ourselves crash landing on Fiorina "Fury" 161 - a foundry and maximum-security planet prison. David Fincher (in his feature directorial debut) takes the helm for 1992's Alien 3. Arguably the most beautifully photographed and intricately detailed entry (production design wise) in the Alien series, Fincher's...

Unfinished Business: James Cameron's Aliens  This week Ibrahim & I return to LV-426. 57 years later - but feeling more like seven - James Cameron takes over the reins for the masterpiece created by Sir Ridley Scott. 1979's Alien would change the Sci-Fi genre. An incredibly influential work of cinema, the film would influence any number of directors, with James Cameron springboarding off of the world created by Scott and moving the genre from Horror/Sci-Fi to Military/Sci-Fi. Analogous to...

Crew Expendable: Ridley Scott's Alien  Might as well not screw around and start 2024 with a bang . . . This month Mr. Chavez and I dive into the world of Ellen Ripley and the Xenomorphs. At this point it's been nearly 45 years since we were first introduced to the crew of the Nostromo: Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, and - in her film debut - Sigourney Weaver. Scott (in his second feature) created a science fiction world unlike...

L.A. After Midnight: Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler Finishing December and starting 2024. (Sorry, we're a bit late getting this one out.) A continuation and closing out of Ibrahim Chavez's Los Angeles. We've talked James Ellroy, Charles Bukowski, Thom Andersen, and Paul Schrader's Los Angeles. This week we filter the darkest, most cynical, and bleakest impressions of Los Angeles through the tabloid and exploitative lens of television news in Dan Gilroy's 2014 Nightcrawler. Featuring a powerful...

Bukowski's Drunken Streets: Marco Ferreri's Tales of Ordinary Madness Continuing our exploration of The City of Angels, Mr. Chavez & I dive into the great Los Angeles novelist, short story writer, poet, and "Dirty Old Man" Henry Charles Bukowski (1920 - 1994). Bukowski holds a special place in my heart and memories; Beginning with Notes of a Dirty Old Man and continuing through novels (Women, Ham on Rye), a screenplay (Barfly), and numerous poetry collections (War All the Time: Poems...

Down These Dark Streets: James Ellroy - Feast of Death Continuing our travels through Los Angeles, Mr. Chavez & I focus our discussion on the great LA Crime (Historical Crime) Novelist, James Ellroy. Famous for his LA Quartet - including The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, The Big Nowhere, and White Jazz, as well as the autobiographical My Dark Places, Ellroy has written some of the most celebrated and polariizing Los Angeles based novels of the last century. His examination of the L.A....

Another Lost Angel: Paul Schrader's Hardcore This week we continue our descent into Ibrahim Chavez's Los Angeles with a look at Taxi Driver screenwriter, Paul Schrader's blunt and brutal examination of the Los Angeles/San Diego/San Francisco sex trade of the late 1970s. Schrader's upbringing in a strict Calvinist environment would shape his social outlook and influence his abandonment of religion and drive towards sexual and cultural freedoms. Much like his screenplay for Taxi Driver,...

At Night and From a Distance: Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself We're starting the month of December (and ending 2023) with a dive into Los Angeles in a month of programming curated by our own Ibrahim Chavez. Our first episode of December is a look at film critic and teacher, Thom Andersen's "video essay" Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003). A legend in the world of documentary filmmaking, Andersen's film was seen sporadically in screenings set up by Andersen, showings at the American...

Beyond Laughter: Richard Pryor - Live in Concert & Live on the Sunset Strip  This week Mr. Chavez & I close out November with a look at - arguably - the greatest stand-up comic the craft has ever produced, Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor, Sr. I have been an admirer of Mr. Pryor for nearly five decades now and am unable to remember a time when I was not aware and was not in total awe of him. On this episode, Ibrahim & I look at the legacy of this great artist as well as the...