The B-Side: A Film Stage Podcast

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we talk about the movie star. The person who if you looked up “movie star” in the dictionary there would be a picture of him. Robert Redford!  Today we talk the esteemed career of the quintessential movie star. Our B-Sides include: The Hot Rock, The Great Waldo Pepper, Havana, and The Last Castle. Our guest today is Blake Howard, podcast producer, host, and really good guy. Check out One Heat Minute Productions for everything new and relevant in Blake’s world.  We discuss a million things, from why The Hot Rock is so hard to find, to the airplane stunts in The Great Waldo Pepper, to why Havana doesn’t work. There’s an investigation into the politics of The Last Castle, a brief celebration of Lena Olin, and a quick rave for Jordan Harper’s searing short story “My Savage Year.” Additional topics include that upcoming City of Hope release, why Peter Yates is “slow vibes central,” why great screenwriter William Goldman knew why The Great Waldo Pepper underwhelmed at the box office (from his book Adventures in the Screen Trade), and how exactly the A-Side The Natural literally looks like nostalgia. Finally, we mention why Raul Julia didn’t take a credit on Havana, we reference that superb Scott Frank New Yorker profile, proclaim ourselves defenders of Hollywood Homicide, and discuss the end of Redford’s career. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we talk to an independent film legend. Some have called him the “East Coast Roger Corman,” though that’s short-changing Larry Fessenden a bit. Though his production company Glass Eye Pix has been around since the mid-80s, Fessenden made a name for himself with the mid-90s indie horror classic Habit, in which he wrote, directed, and starred as an alcoholic New Yorker who starts dating a vampire. Or so he thinks. Fessenden’s new movie Blackout - available digitally April 12th - connects to both Habit and his 2019 film Depraved. We talk about this with Fessenden, as well as his love for the classic Universal Monster Films, the evolving challenges of funding and producing independent cinema, and his work with Kelly Reichardt and Martin Scorsese over the years. Additional B-Sides include The Last Winter, Wendigo, and Beneath. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we have a conversation about what it means to be underappreciated. Not underrated necessarily. But underappreciated. And boy is Don Cheadle underappreciated. The Oscar-nominated actor has been elevating films in supporting roles since the late ‘80s. Our guest today is Mitchell Beaupre, senior editor at Letterboxd. Our B-Sides today include: The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Traitor, The Guard, and No Sudden Move. There is also a brief-but-worthwhile tangent on the Scott Caan-directed (!) indie The Dog Problem. Also the Sundance darling Manic from the early 2000s. We discuss Cheadle’s incredible ability to listen as an actor. There may not be a better active listener working today. We offer some context into legend Steve Martin (who has a story credit on Traitor) and all of the different things he’s done over his illustrious career (and how BIG he was in the ‘70s). There’s also the under-usage of Cheadle in The Assassination of Richard Nixon, that half-baked Bourne Identity-inspired score in Traitor, the unfortunate lack of chemistry between Brendan Gleeson and Cheadle in The Guard, and how No Sudden Move is basically perfect and the culmination of so much of what makes Don Cheadle great. And finally, we definitely mention those hysterical Captain Planet bits and how exactly they shot No Sudden Move to get that extreme anamorphic look that makes out the main aesthetic of the film. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we usually talk about movie stars and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between. Today, however, we talk about Oscar movies (!), or better yet, movies that remind us of Oscar movies! Conor and I welcome back the lovely Joe Reid & Chris Feil of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. In today’s episode, we each choose a movie that reminds us of a current Best Picture Oscar nominee. The movies include Born to be Blue, The Ant Bully, The Ritz, and Frankenstein Created Woman. We also take a good few minutes to dish on legend Barbra Streisand’s incredible autobiography My Name Is Barbra. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also now on Spotify and Stitcher. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we chat about the action heroine: Sigourney Weaver! But what were the films she made in between Alien and Aliens? Other than A-sides The Year of Living Dangerously and Ghostbusters, there was Eyewitness, Deal of the Century, One Woman or Two (a French film!), and Half Moon Street. Our guest is the incomparable Joe Reid, co-host of the essential podcast This Had Oscar Buzz. Be sure to check them out as Oscar season races to an exciting conclusion over the next few weeks.  Topics in this episode include: When exactly did the horse stables in midtown Manhattan shut down? What exactly was an early ‘80s film set like with both WIlliam Hurt and James Woods on it? Where exactly is Half Moon Street and what is the movie trying to say? Did anybody involved in the making of Deal of the Century like it at any point? And how old do you suppose Dr. Ruth (co-star of One Woman or Two) is? Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we chat about one of our best artists: Jodie Foster! Our B-Sides are Bugsy Malone, Catchfire (Backtrack), Nim’s Island, and The Beaver. Our esteemed guest (returning!) today is Katie Clark Gray of Uncompromised Creative. Keep an eye out for the upcoming Once Again (for the very first time) this year. Topics here include: Jodie in the original Freaky Friday, John Turturro walking away with Catchfire, the turbulent making of Catchfire, Dennis Hopper’s recollection of the turbulent making of Catchfire in this Charlie Rose episode, Jodie on The Kelly Clarkson Show, and Jodie’s incredibly successful 1990s run. Other subjects touched on are the Black List fame of The Beaver screenplay and the controversy around getting it made, the hoopla of The Accused, and Disney movie comparisons to Nim’s Island. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we’re honored to chat with iconic director John Sayles, whose essential crime epic Lone Star is now available from The Criterion Collection in both 4K UHD + Blu-ray. Our B-Sides today include Limbo, Amigo, and Go For Sisters. We also discuss Sayles’ parallel careers as a screenwriter and a novelist. He talks about the work he did on the Toshirô Mifune/Scott Glenn actioner The Challenge (director John Frankenheimer asking him to write new draft over a weekend before an impending strike); he discusses what he learned working for Roger Corman early in his career; which genre he’s still itching to direct; his love of the recent Godzilla Minus One; and the slew of scripts that never got made. Other Sayles movies to seek out (really it’s all of them) include: The Secret of Roan Inish, Passion Fish, Eight Men Out, City of Hope, The Brother from Another Planet, Return of the Secaucus 7, and Men with Guns. Other mentions include the 1939 Philippine–American War film The Real Glory, La fine della notte from 1989 (the first Italian film with sync sound, which Sayles acted in!), and his recent novel Jamie MacGillivray. There’s also his wonderful 2020 fracking novel Yellow Earth. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here - today - we talk about movie EDITORS! Not the movies they edited that were legendary but the less legendary ones in between. Today we speak with the great editor Darrin Navarro (the recent, incredible The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial) about the lauded editor Sam O’Steen, who worked on such masterpieces as The Graduate, Rosemary’s Baby, and Chinatown. The O’Steen-edited films we cover today are: The Day of the Dolphin, Straight Time, Nadine, and A Dry White Season. Navarro talks about the editing process with William Friedkin (and how it changed a bit with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial), how knowing when not to cut is as important as knowing when to cut when editing a film (“when you can tell a story with a shot, you don’t need a cut”), O’Steen’s essential book Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America's Favourite Movies (written with his wife Bobbie O’Steen), and what a gem of a film Nadine is. Highlights include marveling at Dustin Hoffman’s incredible ‘70s output, that moment in the ‘80s in which movies were built around movie star Kim Basinger, the underwater photography in The Day of the Dolphin, and the crazy filmography of Robert Benton. Additional references include James Garner’s amazing autobiography The Garner Files, Peter Biskind’s juicy Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America, Dustin Hoffman replacing himself as director on the set of Straight Time, Brando in A Dry White Season, and Navarro’s appearance on the “Art of the Cut” podcast discussing The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. There’s also this incredibly interesting, in-depth video from Bobbie O’Steen: Sight, Sound & Story: Live - "Inside the Cutting Room of Sam O'Steen". Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between. We discuss everyone's favorite method man: Daniel Day-Lewis. Our B-Sides are 1988’s Stars and Bars, Eversmile, New Jersey (1989), Jim Sheridan's The Boxer, and Rebecca Miller's The Ballad of Jack and Rose. Returning guest Fiona Underhill joins us to discuss the myth-making around the actor, his process, as well as a few hot takes on whether some of his most lauded credits are properly rated. Naturally, we also discuss his peak ‘90s hotness (it’s a tie between, Mohicans and The Crucible, by the way), and his influence, for better or worse, on a younger generation of actors. The scope of our B-Sides unlock a few lesser-seen tools in Day-Lewis’ belt, from the farcical to the oddball. These are modes he doesn’t necessarily seem comfortable in as a younger star, but that serve as practice for when he deconstructs his own serious image with his career peak in Phantom Thread. We can all be glad he gave us Reynolds Woodcock before retiring. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Ep. 129 – In Conversation with: Andrew Davis by The Film Stage

Welcome to The B-Side from The Film Stage. Here we usually talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today, we talk to a great film writer about a great film sub-genre! Brian Raftery! Vietnam War Movie B-Sides! Brian (author of the wonderful Best. Movie. Year. Ever. How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen) released a wonderful podcast mini-series for The Ringer called Do We Get to Win This Time? this past summer. It examines the evolution of the American Vietnam War movie through the decades. Raftery speaks with everybody for this thing, from Oliver Stone to Dale Dye. Our B-Sides today are: Hearts and Minds, The Little Girl of Hanoi, and Hamburger Hill. We cover plenty more, dissecting movies made by both American and Vietnamese filmmakers. From when we first became aware of Vietnam as a war, to our favorite Vietnam war films, to highlighting additional underrated B-Sides in this sub-genre. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side from The Film Stage. Here we usually talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today, we talk to a music supervisor! And one of the great music supervisors! Randall Poster! We discuss his new film Priscilla, how working with Sofia Coppola compares to working with someone like Wes Anderson, and - most importantly - how they chose what music would be in the movie. There’s also talk of Poster’s early career. There’s the film he co-wrote (A Matter of Degrees) in 1990 and the early indies he made with Christine Vachon (including Office Killer). There’s also Maid in Manhattan, directed by past guest Wayne Wang. Finally, Poster worked on the criminally-underrated indie Diggers, which you should watch. This is a fun, special episode about the kind of crew member who rarely get the credit they deserve. Poster is at the top of his craft, with premier work in theaters now (Priscilla and also Killers of the Flower Moon). Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Happy Halloween! This year we discuss a legend: Roger Corman! As is tradition, our dear friend Gavin Mevius, talented editor and co-host of the incredible The Mixed Reviews Podcast. Be sure to listen to their podcast and support them on Patreon if you see fit! Today we tackle three B-Sides: Not of This Earth, The Intruder, and Frankenstein Unbound. We discuss Corman’s influence on New Hollywood and his enduring influence to this day, his indelible eye for talent both in front of (actors like Nicholson and De Niro got their starts in Corman films) and behind (Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, Peter Bogdanovich), and the directing career that could’ve been had The Intruder been a hit. There’s talk of the other Mary Shelley-adjacent film adaptations of the late '80s/early ‘90s (Gothic, Haunted Summer, Rowing with the Wind), how great Raul Julia was, that Kenneth Branagh Frankenstein movie, and Camel Spiders. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. But sometimes we talk to filmmakers! About filmmakers! Today we talk to up-and-coming writer/director Andrew Adams whose debut feature American Meltdown is making a robust festival run as we speak! He joins us to spearhead our first incarnation of “The First Frame:” a B-Side segment in which we examine the first films of legendary filmmakers. The three pictures we focus on today are My Best Friend’s Birthday by Quentin Tarantino, Sour Grapes by Larry David, and Barking Dogs Never Bite by Bong Joon-ho. We discuss our love for these three masters, the seeds of their genius in each of their debuts (as well as each piece’s shortcomings), and the strange connection between all three of them. We also dive into the burgeoning “No-Budget Era” of indie filmmaking and what it means for the future. There’s talk of Jerry Seinfeld’s upcoming Pop-Tarts movie Unfrosted, the making of Tarantino’s seminal Reservoir Dogs, and the immediate impressiveness of Bong Joon-ho’s films. Additional things that come up include the underrated indie noir Cold Weather by Aaron Katz, the great debut book from George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, and how Craig Bierko turned down the role of Chandler on Friends. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between. Today we go back to celebrate Pittsburgh’s first son - Michael Keaton. Our B-Sides today are: Clean and Sober, The Dream Team, One Good Cop, and My Life. Our guest is official five-timer Cory Everett, creator of Cinephile: A Card Game.  We dive deep into analyzing how the actor took boring lead roles and made them sing. We marvel at the surprisingly small filmography of model-turned-movie star Rene Russo. We lament the early-90s politics of One Good Cop and we celebrate the fact that The Dream Team has basically aged okay! Which is a near-miracle. Finally, Cory and I describe the difficulty of even finishing watching My Life as fathers with young kids. Perhaps more importantly, does My Life has a premise that is far more famous than the movie itself? Yes! What are other movies like that? Additionally, we mention how 1990 mega-hit is great actually despite its cultural ridicule, and Tony Goldwyn (Ghost co-star) is underrated, and Keaton has a new directorial effort that just premiered at TIFF. There’s also his early history as a funny stand-up comedian, his amazing voice work in Porco Rosso, and every moment in the comedy The Other Guys. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also now on Spotify and Stitcher. Enjoy!

Having long admired the work of Dustin Guy Defa, I was glad to speak with him on the occasion of two major moments: a Criterion Channel retrospective boasting nearly all his shorts- and feature-directing work, and the release of his excellent new film The Adults. Although we had a conversation with him and star Michael Cera at Berlinale earlier this year, the opportunity to go in-depth on a still-young, commendable career––while I experimented with an audio format, i.e. the horrors of letting people hear me ask questions––was simply too intriguing.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Surprise! Here’s a bonus episode in which we speak to the talented, prolific, and dynamic director Wayne Wang. Our main B-Side is Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, whose Director-Approved Special Edition Blu-ray is now available from Criterion. Additional B-Sides include Eat a Bowl of Tea, Life Is Cheap... But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (also on Criterion Channel), Smoke (and its own B-Side Blue in the Face), Chinese Box, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. We talk to Wang about making films efficiently, his career-long ambition to make a different kind of film every time, how to construct the perfect “pillow shot” (an homage to filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu), combating boredom on set with ambition, and some smaller films he hopes more people discover. There’s also talk on his faltered first step into Hollywood (Slam Dance), what he could’ve bought with the production budget on Maid in Manhattan (a pink elephant!), and the fear that drove him while making Dim Sum. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we’re honored to chat with director Carl Franklin, whose seminal noir One False Move is now available from The Criterion Collection as a Director-Approved Special Edition Blu-ray.  Our B-Sides today are One True Thing, Out of Time, and Bless Me, Ultima.  We talk to Franklin about his early days as an actor, how he got the directing bug (he made his short Punk while at AFI, working with Don Cheadle for the first time), what he learned making movies with legendary producer Roger Corman (and the other producer on one of the films who allegedly stole 80k of a 200k budget!), and the extremely underrated HBO mini-series Laurel Avenue from 1993.  There’s also some discussion about Devil in a Blue Dress of course, working with Denzel Washington (and how the above-the-line numbers on Out of Time distort what the working budget actually was), and why a sequel to Laurel Avenue sadly did not get made just a few years back. There’s also a little bit on the pleasant making (and not-so-pleasant post process) of Bless Me, Ultima, adapted from the seminal novel by Rudolfo Anaya. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we discuss a character actress, multiple Oscar nominee (and winner) and living legend who is still somehow underrated: Kathy “Bobo” Bates! Our B-Sides today are: A Home of Our Own, Dolores Claiborne, Love Liza, and Richard Jewell. The actress made her bones in the theater, originating roles in iconic stuff such as ‘Night Mother and Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Our guest is Billy Ray Brewton, host of the superb The Incinerator Podcast, the Movie Mixtapes podcast, and the Center Clueless podcast. Brewton is also the Festival Director/Lead Programmer of Make Believe Seattle. We talk to Brewton about why Bates is his favorite working actress, her innate Southern charm, her late break into movies, her essential performance in Dolores Claiborne, and why Fried Green Tomatoes is so important to the state of Alabama. Additional fun tidbits include: the strange career of A Home of Our Own director Tony Bill, the underrated Bates-led TV show Harry’s Law, the exciting acting Oscar wins that happened in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and some of Bates’ other B-Sides (Angus, Primary Colors, Bonneville). Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. Enjoy!

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we talk about one of the prettiest actors in the world: Orlando Bloom! Our guest is Roxana Hadadi, TV Critic for Vulture and fellow lover of Kingdom of Heaven: The Director’s Cut. Our B-Sides today are: Ned Kelly, Haven, and Kingdom of Heaven. We talk with Hadadi about Bloom’s growth as an actor, as evidenced in the 2-season Amazon Prime show Carnival Row. We discuss all the ways the Director’s Cut of Kingdom of Heaven is superior to the Theatrical Cut, Eva Green included. Additional fun tidbits include: Bloom was one of the victims of the infamous “Bling Ring;” he got solid notices for his Romeo on Broadway in 2013; he’s the best part of the subpar Ned Kelly; he replaced Ashton Kutcher in Elizabethtown (about 22 minutes into the clip); and the mosaic-styled social drama was very popular in the early 2000s (Haven, Babel, 21 Grams, Syriana, Traffic, among many many more). Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor. We are also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Enjoy!