The Magic Lantern

Watership Down (Rosen, 1978) is, without a doubt, one of the pivotal cinematic experiences in my life. It captivated me at a very young age with its danger and darkness. It also taught me a number of valuable lessons, things I have thought about ever since. Fortune favoring the bold… The post Episode 172 – Watership Down appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954) is truly a foundational film, not just of Japanese cinema, but of world cinema. Because it is has become a touchstone for so many tropes and devices that we recognize today, you might think that it is a stuffy film, or a hard slog because of… The post Episode 171 – Seven Samurai appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

It’s that most wonderful time of the year again! In this episode, The Magic Jack O’Lantern 2021, we once again bring you our list of viewing tricks and treats to celebrate the season. We watched one Halloween inspired title every day in October and now pass the list and our… The post Episode 170 – The Magic Jack O’Lantern 2021 appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

The Cole-o-ween festivities roll on here at Lantern HQ! This time around we are discussing one of our favorite underappreciated zombie classics, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (Grau, 1974). This one has it all – beautiful locations, social commentary, hideous reanimated dead, and genuine scares. It acts as a bit of… The post Episode 169 – Let Sleeping Corpses Lie appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Is there anything you find impossible to watch? Or how about just very difficult? For me, The Invisible Man (Whannell, 2020) is that film. I do have some personal history that makes what Cecelia is going through exceptionally poignant, but even without that sort of connection, I suspect a lot… The post Episode 168 – The Invisible Man appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Gray’s Anatomy (Soderbergh, 1996) is the last proper cinematic monologue we have from Spalding Gray. That’s a little ironic. Here, he navigates neuroses, a serious eye injury, and what he terms the Bermuda Triangle of health to come out the other side a little wiser, more experienced, and with his… The post Episode 167 – Gray’s Anatomy appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Harlan County, USA (Kopple, 1976) is still a gut punch some fifty years later. Watching the violent and bloody events unfold as miners strike to be recognized for their union organization, for better wages and more safety measures, and simply to live by the end of their shift, their voices… The post Episode 166 – Harlan County, USA appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock, 1943) was a turning point in the career of the master of suspense. It was reportedly Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite film he ever made. It is also what I consider to be his first truly American film. Once he looked into small town America’s heart of… The post Episode 165 – Shadow of a Doubt appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Hill, 1969) is a delight to watch time and again, a true piece of entertainment that seems to hit all the right notes. Surprisingly, the film was not an immediate hit with some critics or with directors like John Boorman who were confounded by… The post Episode 164 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich, 1971) will break your heart in a million different ways, all of them Texan. As an expatriate from a town very much like this, it hits me where I live. I’ve seen those fights on Main Street between guys who were best friends and will… The post Episode 163 – The Last Picture Show appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

When we first see Mona, she is already dead. In Vagabond (1985), Agnès Varda then sets about to reconstruct the last days and weeks of this young woman’s life, as witnessed and retold through the eyes of others. We learn that none of these people really seemed to know Mona,… The post Episode 162 – Vagabond appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career (1979) belongs to a special category of films in my personal canon. Sometimes a movie hits you like a bolt out of the blue and you know it is going to be a permanent fixture on your list of favorite films of all time. The… The post Episode 161 – My Brilliant Career appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Is Rushmore (1998) your favorite Wes Anderson film? It is certainly mine. When I first saw it in the theater when I was about 22, it hit me where I lived. This rich vein of the blackest comedy combined with pathos of a young man’s singular saga delighted and moved… The post Episode 160 – Rushmore appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Tremors (Underwood, 1990). Its arrival kicked off another boom cycle for one of our favorite subgenres – the creature feature! About every twenty years we get a new permutation of this subgenre and now it was the nineties’ turn. It was time for… The post Episode 159 – Tremors appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Is Diabolique (Clouzot, 1955) a film noir or a thriller? We firmly assert that it is one of the most delectable, and yes, diabolical noir masterpieces to come out of the 1950s. That it manages to be thrilling as well is a testament to the deft hand of Henri-Georges Clouzot,… The post Episode 158 – Diabolique appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

It’s May again! And you know what that means around these parts – film noir. We are in our second year of the Noir City festival postponement in Austin due to COVID, but we are soldiering on with some of our favorite titles that fall under the broad heading of… The post Episode 157 – The Square appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

By special invitation from Mira Nair, we are guests at the raucous, glorious, marigold-covered Monsoon Wedding (2001). Delhi, its sights and sounds, its people, its rains, and its power outages are the setting for the traditional wedding ceremony set to consecrate the arranged marriage of Aditi Verma to Hemant Rai.… The post Episode 156 – Monsoon Wedding appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Much like the electric light, telegraph, and motion pictures it chronicles, My Twentieth Century (Enyedi, 1989) is a marvel of its age. Luminous to the point of transcendence, it is quite simply one of the most beautiful things ever committed to film. The divergent paths of our twin protagonists Dóra… The post Episode 155 – My Twentieth Century appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

Rapturous. This word perfectly describes my feelings about A Room with a View (Ivory, 1985). You could also use this word to describe my feelings about the scenery, the performances, the score, the costuming, and Italy itself. I have been saving this gem since we started the podcast, and it… The post Episode 154 – A Room with a View appeared first on The Magic Lantern.

I carry a particular impression with me about Robert Bresson’s L’Argent (1983). It strikes me as a stately and austere museum whose only exhibit is devoted to the artifacts of a tragic and deadly crime. As I wander its minimalist halls, I am met with object lessons and vivid displays… The post Episode 153 – L’Argent appeared first on The Magic Lantern.