EPISODE 029: DOUBLE FEATURES & TRILOGIES

Featuring: All About Eve (1950), Showgirls (1995)

On recommendation from MOViES4MANiACS’ Jesse Hawthorne Ficks, WR&P hosts Ryan and Kevin examine the narrative similarities of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s classic Hollywood picture “All About Eve” and Paul Verhoeven’s raucous dark comedy “Showgirls.” They note how both these films leverage performance and cyclical narrative structure to comment on gender roles and the controlling nature of patriarchal systems.

EPISODE 028: BAY AREA FLICKS

Featuring: The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

In this special Bay Area double feature, Ryan and Kevin explore the differences between a locally-made San Francisco film and a Hollywood movie set in the same city. While Joe Talbot’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” boasts a heightened indie appeal with the support of Sundance and A24, the Will Smith-led “The Pursuit of Happyness” finds its roots in the studio system. How do these two perspectives affect and reflect in the story and visual design? Does production mode influence the authenticity of a film’s story or the credibility of its characters?

EPISODE 027: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY (DIRECTORS & ACTORS)

Featuring: Le Petit Soldat (1963), Une Femme est une Femme (1961), Bande à part (1964), Alphaville (1965)

After introducing the Godard-Karina timeline with Vivre sa vie, Kevin takes Ryan deeper into the pairings’ cinematic universe. Ryan highlights how each film stands as unique cinematic experiences, both upholding promises of New Wave Cinema and trailblazing under Godard’s poetic visions and Karina’s powerhouse performances. The relationship between Godard and Karina becomes invariably forefronted in the construction of, the viewing of, and the discussion of these movies, emphasizing the ways reality and cinema blend into each other.