The Great Movies Pod: A Retrospective Film Review Show (Dylan Cuellar, Jana Gardner, and Nick Fulton)

In for an interesting episode this week, Nick, Jana, and Dylan break down the Altman classic Nasvhille. There's Oscar talk, character drafts, 9/11 tangents and more supplementing the truly insightful discussion.

I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA PODCAST ANYMORE! Just kidding we got a new episode here discussing the 70's classic Network. 

We're finally at one of our favorite times of the year. A season finale episode! Bad movie review! Well according to Ebert at least as we discuss a now Carpenter Classic and Apocalypse Trilogy member Prince of Darkness. Then we give out "silly" and "serious" awards for the movies we discussed in this last season of the show including The Maltese Falcon, Manhattan, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Metropolis, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday, My Darling Clementine, Vivre Sa Vie, Nashville, and Network.

We got a couple days till the Sight and Sound 2022 ballot is released! Nick and Dylan sit down and try to make some general, and bold, predictions about what you might see from the new ballot.

We're back! For an episode recorded a few months ago! Apologies it's taken a while to get back and running but we hope you enjoy our thrilling discussion on The Night of the Hunter

Dylan, Nick, and Jana have gathered to partake in their most important yearly episode...dolling out awards from the films in the past year. This will include the classic Oscar categories as well as lots of silly awards like Achievement in Hotness and Best Bronco Henry!

Apologies for the delay on epsidoes! We have been stuck in a rut with lost recordings as well as Dylan moving states. We have a few episodes backed up that we hope to bring you soon. For now, enjoy our full discussion on Nosferatu and Pandora's Box, two great silent films worthy of rememberance with some of the most memorable filmic devices in history.

In this episode we discuss the first movie in Roger Ebert's essay collection "The Great Movies", 2001: A Space Odyssey. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 Sci-Fi classic from director extraordinaire Stanley Kubrick starring Keir Duella, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, and Douglas Rain. We hope you enjoy the insight and reviews we provide on the film!

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Thank you to Scott Brady for his cover artwork for the pod, you can check his website out here.
Thank you to Cinema Tyler for the awesome making of 2001 videos he did that helped a lot with the discussion.

The first annual "Ebert" Awards are happening now! We'll be nominating, and deciding on, our winners for the categories of best screenplay, scene, supporting actor and actress, lead actor and actress, director, and picture. Hope you enjoy and that your favorites show up here too!

It's becoming tradition! Jana and Dylan, with Nick gone, decide they're gonna run down some of the big movies that came out over the beginning of the year and summer. We couldn't get to them all but we hope you like the slate. In order of what was discussed we did:

- Kimi
- Turning Red
- The Batman
- Everything Everywhere All At Once
- AmbuLAnce
- RRR (kinda....)
- Top Gun: Maverick
- Crimes of the Future
- Nope!

In this episode Dylan, Jana, and Nick discuss Francois Truffaut's French classic The 400 Blows. Nick finds new enjoyment in the film with fresh eyes, Jana is worried for the children's safety in the movie, and Dylan raises hell with what could be the hottest take the pod will ever have! All that and more in this review discussion.

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Thanks to Scott Brady for his cover art he made for the pod!

In this podcast episode Jana, Nick, and Dylan discuss the Fedrico Fellini masterpiece 8 1/2, an ambigioius satire on the life of a filmmaker. 

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Big thanks to Scott Brady for doing the artwork for the pod!

DYLAN GOT A BIRTHDAY WISH! With his birthday this past week he picked a completely unique movie with Nick gone and needing to fill in and he picked....THE ARCHERS' A CANTERBURY TALE!

Jana, Nick, and Dylan take an exploration through the manic and funny Beatles concert documentary somewhat narrative film A Hard Day's Night. 

Giggles all around, weirdly enough, in this epic adventure tale of how absolutely insane horrendous coloniolism is of the Spaniards as told by an absolutely insane German man. Hopefully you enjoy the episode!

In this episode Dylan, Jana, and Nick discuss the German New Wave feature Ali: Fear Eats the Soul from 1974.

Fasten your seatbelts...it's gonna be a bumpy pod! Jana, Nick, and Dylan discuss the hollywood classic All About Eve!

Jana, Nick, and Dylan dive into the Vietnam War classic discussing what they brought to the movie, the impact of the film in movie history, and how much the classic still holds up today.

The self proclaimed expert of Babe: Pig in the City, Stephen Gillespie, has returned to the podcast to discuss (at length) the 1995 and 1998 masterpieces, anachro communism, the suffocation of society in a capitalist landscape, and how hot James Cromwell is. 

Happy Opening Day/week of baseball to all those who celebrate! Today it's just Jana and Dylan, so instead of doing an Ebert Great Movies without Nick we decided to do a fun special offhand episode discussing some of our favorite baseball movies. In this episode we discussed A League of Their Own and Everybody Wants Some!! Both of us have a long history with League of Their Own but Everybody Wants Some is one of Jana's all time favorite movies, and Dylan have never seen it...and is not the biggest Linklater fan...so discussion will be abound between both movies! Hope you enjoy! Go Padres, Dodgers, and the Cleveland Spiders!

Revolution is afoot when comrades Jana, Nick, and Dylan delve back 100 years ago to the Bolshevik Revolution in Sergei Eisenstein's prolific feature Battleship Potemkin and discuss the filmmaking and art that the film contains.

All non-Condon Beauty and the Beasts come forth and be judged, ye he enters the the castle of the pod! We will be discussing (mainly) the 1946 La Belle et La Bete but also a side of Disney's Beauty and the Beast as we discuss our next Ebert Great Movie.

Well....this is gonna get awkward haha. Jana, Nick, and Dylan talk the talk with Bunel's sexual masochist fantasy romp Belle de Jour.

Buonasera e benvenuto all grande serata! With Nick off again, Jana and Dylan take a romp into Paradise and discuss a movie who's recent 25th Anniversary just came around, Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott's Big Night. 

Blowup? Blow-Up? Blow Up? Who knows how the title is supposed to be spelled, we're still talking mod fashion and ennui today on the podcast about Michelangelo Antonioni's film!

Conversations get...heated as we discuss, and argue, the merits and story of Body Heat!

We ain't no loverboys on this podcast as we talk about Warren Beatty's gritty teeth, Faye Dunaway's fashion style, Gene Hackman being happy(?!), the 1968 Oscars, and more on the Bonnie and Clyde discussion!

In this Frankenstein-athon, we of course focus on the movie picked from Ebert's book, Bride of Frankenstein, but also dig deep into the original Frankenstein, the Young Frankenstein, the first silent Franknestein (produced by none other than Thomas Edison), fill in gaps from the book, and later adaptions as well.

Nick, Jana, and Dylan discuss the great, and problematic, work and life of DW Griffith and just how stunningly incredible Lillian Gish is. Like, seriously, can anyone act like Lillian Gish can? All this wraped up into a discussion on this week's Ebert Great Movie Broken Blossoms.

It's finally here...the Casablanca pod. What a classic. I hope you enjoy our in depth discussion on the film.

Forget it listeners...it's the Chinatown podcast. 

It's finally here....you provide the picutre, we provide the review. You will think what we tell you to think. I can't think of a way to make rosebud into a podcast description like I just did with some of the other famous lines just now...but hope you enjoy our discussion on the one, the only, Citizen Kane!

Dylan, Jana, and Nick take a blast to the past to watch the Tramp and his journey with a blind girl, a suicidal millionaire, and his own perseverence in poverty....but enjoy that slapstick humor!!

Dylan, Jana, and Nick take a blast to the past to watch the Tramp and his journey with a blind girl, a suicidal millionaire, and his own perseverence in poverty....but enjoy that slapstick humor!!

With Nick gone, and Memorial Day coming up, Jana and Dylan decide to discuss a film dealing with the American millitary, and what's a better movie dealing with that than Tony Scott's Crimson Tide. We break down the Oscars from the year it came out where it was snubbed, the film as a whole, and Tony Scott's career arc, and more in this episode.

Apologies for the lack of recent podcasts! There were some scheduling, and then a lot of, technical problems. But we got a lot of pods coming your way starting with a new kind of pod! Discussing the new movie release of Da 5 Bloods, Dylan, Nick, and Jana discuss Spike Lee, Delroy Lindo, and the movie as it relates to Vietnam War movies of the past. Spoilers in the second half!

We gather today to hand out our awards for the achievement in film in 2021! We give out picture, director, acting, screenwriting awards...as well as hootin and hollerin awards, best scenes, fashion corner, achievement in hotness, and more!

Wow sorry it's been so long since a podcast! But today we discuss Days of Heaven by Terrence Malick and do our best to pay respects to the one and only Linda Manz in an incredible performance.

Again Nickless, Jana and Dylan decide for Mardi Gras to go all in and watch maybe the only Mardi Gras movie set we could find...AND COINCIDES WELL AS A SEQUEL TO A PAST EPISODE TALKING CRIMSON TIDE! But we're here discussing Tony Scott's Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington. The two best to do it.

In this MAMMOUTH pod episode we discuss Krystof Kiewslowski's ten episode minisieres/film The Dekalog and discuss each episode one by one is as brief of a time as we can while still doing justice to this great work of art.

Happy new years! Today we are discussing the grimy dark sad pitiful horribly wonderful film noir Detour...and how some of the actions in the movie have an uncomfortable parallel with the lives of one of its stars. We also have a weird tangent about the USA Interstate highway system of the merits of a very old Richard Corliss list which turn out to be much more interesting discussions than you'd expect!

YO! YOU NEED TO COOL DOWN! AND LISTEN TO OUR POD ABOUT SPIKE LEE'S DO THE RIGHT THING! And that's the double truth...Ruth.

We're Wilder-ing again! Back for another Billy Wilder episode this time we discuss the film noir classic Double Inemnity.

We'll...meet again....don't know where...don't know when...but I'll assume it will be on the Great Movies podcast where we discuss Dr. Strangelove's incredible satirical take on the Cold War, the human condition, and...well...the physical act of love. 

Flash sale! Flash sale! We got a Dracula episode that not only contains Ebert's "Great" movie version from 1931 but we're here to also talk the 58 and 92 versions as well! So get your bed of home country's soil, a tasty blood transfusion going, and relax while we soliloquize about there horror classics.

Take two podcasters, one movie, four disagreements, but no idea what the heck is going on in the film, and mix them together. After one taste, you'll duck soup for the rest of your life.

Because we saw how much people CLAMMORED for our last Ozu episode, Floating Weeds is one of our most listened to pods, we decided for father's day to return to a father of Japanese cinema for a movie about a dad learning what it really means to be a father in a modern age. 

Today we pod home our thoughts on Steven Spielberg's sci fi family classic which is simultaneously way too scary for a family movie, so cute it's ugly, get way too in the weeds about Drew Barrymore's career, and discuss if 1982 was the best year ever in movies?

Ah jeez. Today we're discussing a super film called Fargo directed by Joel (and Ethan) Coen starring William H Macy, Steve Buscemi, and the incredible now four time Oscar winner Francis McDormand. We also have special guess Jenny M. Jones on the podcast who's written multiple books (cited below) and is a huge Coen Brothers fan and from Minnesota herself to discuss their work and the film as well.

The Big Lebowski: An Illustrated, Annotated History of the Greatest Cult Film of All Time (Voyageur Press, 2012)

The Annotated Godfather: the Complete Screenplay (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2007 50th-anniversary edition, 2021)

Dylan finally gets his Ozu episode where he, Jana, and Nick explore the town, the drama, and the life of Ozu's Floating Weeds. They discuss the impact this film had on the career of the director and the actors, the style of Ozu, and where this film fits in his canon.

Errol Morris' documentary about the pet cemetery business is not always a pleasant or uplifting one, but one that we found emotional resonance and a little bit of unusual hilarity in. 

And then we watched Vernon Florida and Herzog Eats His Shoe and laughed our butts off.

Time for some uncontroversial fun as we take our last bow of gallantry in this incredible and long winded film of adventure and white supremacy glorification. Should be....fun...

What is Greed...who is Greed...why is Greed...why the heck did McTeguea bite Trina's fingers when he was mad...today we will dive deep into these eternal questions plaguing humanity since Eve bit the apple when we discuss Eric von Stronheim's....Greed.

According to Ebert, the best movie of the 90's wasn't Fargo or Pulp Fiction or Shawshank Redemption...it was Hoop Dreams. The three hour documentary that feels so intimate but feels like it contains the entire story of America, from race to class to entertainment, in one. 

According to Ebert, the best movie of the 90's wasn't Fargo or Pulp Fiction or Shawshank Redemption...it was Hoop Dreams. The three hour documentary that feels so intimate but feels like it contains the entire story of America, from race to class to entertainment, in one. 

While just missing the spooky season (apologies life is busy) we'd like to share a special episode of our Horror Movie Draft where Jana, Dylan, and returning guest Stephen Gillespie pick their favorite horror movies in a variety of subgenre categories.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming about movies with happy people in happy times living happy lives and there's nothing to worry about....just kidding prepare to get your heart out in Kurosawa's Ikiru.

In this episode we discuss the movie Wolfman starring Benicio Del To.. - wait just getting word from the producer... - oh looks like we're discussing a movie with a character NAMED wolfman...but it also stars Benicio Del Toro...wait I'm feeling really high right now? Why does nothing make sense? How is this supposed to work as an episode description for a movie? What movie is it again?

In this episode we play "The Directors Game", which we heard on the Ringer Big Pic Podcast with Amanda Dobbins and Sean Fennessey with gues Sam Esmail, who brought the game to the table. We hope this gives you an idea of our movie interests and personal history with film. 

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Thank you to Scott Brady for the cover artwork, you can follow him at his webpage here.

Jana, Nick, and Dylan (a little early for the holidays) delve into this family classic which is MUCH darker thatn we remember, the performances, and what's kept this film alive for so long.

Jana, Nick, and Dylan deep dive into the Oliver Stone epic JFK, discussing the history of the movie, of Oliver Stone, the Oscars that year, and the plot structure of the film itself.

With Chinese Cinema expert guest Sean Gilman, Nick and Dylan break down the career of Jia Zhangke mainly focusing on three of his most acclaimed movies; Platform, Still Life, and A Touch of Sin.

For a 50th episode special edition, Dylan discusses the recently released Godzilla vs Kong, the movie it remakes/reboots 1962's King Kong vs Godzilla, and the Big G's series in general with quite possibly the only two people that he's ever talked directly to that has ever made him question "do I not know enough about the Godzilla verse as I should?", friends of the pod Justin Decloux and Stephen Gillespie.

You can find Justin Decloux on twitter and letterboxd at DeclouxJ and you can find Stephen Gillespie with his name on letterboxd or his blog at assortedopinions.home.blog

A BUSY PODCAST TO SAY THE LEAST! First we start off reviewing the Ebert movie of the week, L'Atalante, but further we do some previewing of the movies we're most excited for in 2022 and discuss some Sundance releases we got to see and Drive My Car!!

It's been over a month since our last Great Movies discussion! For this one we have to say that it has been banked for so long that the lead actress, Monica Vitti, has passed away since we recorded. So while that's not discussed in this episode, we still sing her praises and of the director who somehow dumped her.

Nick, Jana, and Dylan today take a trip into Rome and fall in love, love, LOVE with Fellini's La Dolce Vita (to an amount that almost surprises all three of them). They discuss the influence, artistry, emotions, and awards season behind the film and more. 

When we take our Great Movies on our Great Movie Arc during the Movie Flood of 2037...we will take this movie for sure. And something else I guess...enjoy our discussion on Jean Renoir's seminal and indescribably important masterpiece The Grand Illusion.

You've been invited to a listening platform...you've been to this podcast before...we agreed to return...but what is going on?

We still don't know but enjoy our discussion on Last Year at Marienbad discussing it!

Nuck fills a massive cinematic blindspot here with an episode about one of the true epics in film history.

Get your angst on, keep your caged bird fed, we're talking Melville's Le Samourai (with a HUGE hilarious mistake in the middle you'll want to hear)

Well the SEO won't look good with a title like that, but today we discuss Fritz Lang's great picture M. 

Well...Dylan screwed up his audio so the original recording of The Maltese Falcon will now be lost to time. So, in lieu of that problem, we have a combined recording for the makeup of Maltese Falcon and an...interesting discussion on Woody Allen's Manhattan.

First of two Altman's pretty close together! A Nick blindspot fulfilled! It's an episode packed with great discussion on a movie that is, in the definition of this podcast, great.

On this episode, Nick, Dylan, and Jana discuss one of the most pioneering science-fiction films ever made, Daft Punk, Nazis, Barron Trump, and more insane diversions as well.

With Nick sadly absent again...Jana and Dylan turn their attentions to the present and review nine (9!!) movies that have recently been released. One by one they go quickly through them spoiler free, and then will have a spoiler and awards discussion afterwards. Movies include:

- Annette

- The Green Knight

- Luca

- No Sudden Move

- Old

- Pig

- THE Suicide Squad

- Summer of Soul

- Zola

To do this movie we should've just done a mostly silent, non-sequitur strewn podcast but instead we just couldn't talk enough about how much we loved this film. Tati incoming.

Round up your cattle, gather your brothers, we're heading to Tombstone! Joined today by movie and Ford expert Peter Labuza, the gang breakdown Ford and Fonda's careers, the history of the west in film, adaptations of the Earp legend, the blowout taking place between the Guardians and Twins, and My Darling Clementine.

Surprise extra episode! We mainly discuss Nomadland from the recent digital New York Film Festival lineup (as it's the only one Dylan was able to see) but we discuss more that Jana and Nick have gotten a chance to check out too. Also a lot of Oscar snub tangent discussions.

IT'S FINALLY HERE! Jana and Dylan break down the Oscar nominations category by category discussing predictions, trends, reactions, fun facts, and more.

We're going a bit off script, and actually film topical, as Jana and Dylan discuss and react to this mornings Oscar Nominations 2021 edition. We discuss some of the big snubs, surprises, and where we generally see each category heading. Enjoy!

In this pod we discuss the topical news of Toshiro Mifune's 100th year of birth, the tragic passing of Adam Schlesinger, and preview our first 9 movies from the Ebert Great Movies book.

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Big thanks to Scott Brady's work for the cover art, follow him at his website here.

Jana takes Dylan in deep with a 5 movie podcast where they discuss one of the most famous, and still ongoing, film franchises ever...SCREAM!

Discussion abound as we wrap up our first season of the Ebert Great Movies. We discuss one of his "hated" movies (The Usual Suspects), we give out paper plate awards from the first 9 films, discussion our favorite fashion items, Nick comes up with fun Letterboxd lists, and discuss best script, performances, director, and picture awards from the first group.

We made it through season 2! In this episode we look back on our favorite (and some least favorite) things from the last 9 movies, give out awards, talk some fashion, but only after reviewing one of Ebert's most HATED movies....Armageddon!

In our season 3 finale we're going to be handing out awards, discussing different wrap up corners, and more to review the last 9 movies we reviewed as well as a preview for next season and a special section discussing one of Roger Ebert's most HATED movies, Death Race 2000.

Do the Right Thing MP3: https://the-great-movies-pod.castos.com/episodes/do-the-right-thing-1

It's finally here! After this very long we are here to give out awards of the past nine movies we've (officially) discussed as well as reivew one of Ebert's most hated films which, in this case, to honor the late great Charles Grodin, is the 1979 comedy masterpiece Real Life.

We made it to the end of our Fifth Season! We give out paper plate awards, actual awards, do fun games, all based around the last group of movies we discussed. We also review Dune by David Lynch as Ebert's Hated movie discussion of the episode...while talking probably just as much about Villanueve's new Dune release.

We've made it to our halfway point season! Enjoy our recaps on the movies we've discussed the past few months, give out awards, and discuss one of Ebert's least favorite movies, The Devils.

Nick has finally done it, he's gotten Dylan to try The Simpsons. Combined is one's all time favorite show with another's all time biggest blind spot to get reactions, discussions, and laughs from Homer at the Bat, A Star is Burns, and of course Marge vs. the Monorail.

Going off book before the third season of the show starts, Jana, Dylan, and friend of the pod and podcast artist Scott Brady join up to discuss Avatar the Last Airbender, the show that just came on Netflix, the movie that attempted adaptation, and explore where and how it went wrong.

Podcasts are the only thing we know how to do...and we gotta do something because TOO MANY PEOPLE DON'T LIKE THIS MASTERPIECE! So Dylan sits down with podcast artist Scott Brady and film twitter and letterboxd reviewer Kailey to break down what makes this film truly one of the greats.

Hot takes come back this episode as Dylan, Jana, and Nick discuss Billy Wilder's The Apartment!

Dylan, Jana, and Nick get emotional going thorugh the life of a man in the coming of age tale The Apu Trilogy. From director Satyajit Ray, this Bengali film was one of the most influential and highly praised films of all time to come out of south asia.

Back to positives all around! Nick, Jana, and Dylan discuss the wonerfully happy movie of a man and his Bicycle :D.....also get distracted with Inarritu's bad Oscar Wins and John Goodman's Oscar Nominee-less career for some reason...

Uhhh...what? What happened? Nick, Jana, and Dlan try to decipher what the heck happens in the Big Sleep and review a classic noir mystery thriller.

Jana and Dylan, with Nick still off, dive into a soccer movie to commemorate the start of the european soccer season (similar to baseball). In this one they tackle The Damned United, discuss Tom Hooper's career, the history of sports movies, and then dive into the new season of Ted Lasso (with spoilers!!).

A double Disney podcast brings Jana and Dylan into the post-rennaisance period, where they seem to concur Disney was actually at one of its better points with a lot more creative control churning out two very fun, exciting, excellent films that are shocking to be in the Disney canon at some level.

Jana, Dylan, and Nick get stuck inside a podcast discussing the movie The Exterminating Angel where people get stuck inside and can't get out and can't get out.

SHHHH!!!! We're back in the silents with Buster Keaton's The General! While not super fun to root for a Confederate soldier, Buster Keaton is never not fun and takes us on a great romp through action and comedy.

Also discussed in this episode...Shia LeBouf and David Duchovny. Why?? Listen to find out!