Martini Giant
Media & Entertainment Podcasts
Martini Giant loves movies like you love movies. Three industry professionals, Chris Nichols, Daniel Thron, and Erick Schiele gather biweekly to talk obsessively about their favorite films, share insider stories on moviemaking, and drink some mighty fine cocktails. In this podcast, there's no kind of film we don't love, and everything is on the table from Infinity War and A Star is Born to Alphaville and Eraserhead. So if you like your opinions served up as strong as your drinks, then sidle up to the bar, my friend, and enjoy the expertly mixed, lovingly crafted hot takes of Martini Giant.
Location:
United States
Description:
Martini Giant loves movies like you love movies. Three industry professionals, Chris Nichols, Daniel Thron, and Erick Schiele gather biweekly to talk obsessively about their favorite films, share insider stories on moviemaking, and drink some mighty fine cocktails. In this podcast, there's no kind of film we don't love, and everything is on the table from Infinity War and A Star is Born to Alphaville and Eraserhead. So if you like your opinions served up as strong as your drinks, then sidle up to the bar, my friend, and enjoy the expertly mixed, lovingly crafted hot takes of Martini Giant.
Twitter:
@MartiniGiant
Language:
English
Website:
https://www.martinigiant.com/
Episodes
Episode 139 - Swiss Army Man (2016) & Poor Things (2023)
4/25/2024
Prior to Everything Everywhere All at Once, the Oscars tended toward stately, serious picks. But now we see stranger and more daring fare creeping in - so tonight MG looks at how the Daniels' started clearing this path with their beautifully low-budget epic Swiss Army Man; and look at where it's led us - Emma Stone's Oscar win for her role as the wild Bella Baxter in Poor Things!
Duration:03:02:23
Episode 138 - Raising Arizona (1987)
4/4/2024
By now, we're used to the Coen Brothers' penchant for goofy comedy, from the musical massacre in Buster Scruggs to the suggestive Navy dance number in Hail Caesar. But Blood Simple, their debut film, had been a grim, Sundance-friendly noir - so in 1987, no one suspected their sophomore effort would turn out to be a slapstick classic! Join MG as we take on Raising Arizona!
Duration:02:38:14
Episode 137 - Westworld (1973) & Ex Machina (2014)
3/21/2024
AI's surprising growth has many people feeling nervous about the future - so tonight MG takes a look at two of the best in a long line of cautionary tales about renegade robots! First up, Alex Garland's Ex Machina, about a very strange and dangerous Turing test - followed by the groundbreaking original version of Westworld from Michael Chricton, the master of theme-parks-gone-wrong!
Duration:02:50:09
Episode 136 - Saltburn (2023)
2/22/2024
From Pasolini to Mel Brooks, there's little that we at MG love more than films that offend the tender sensibilities of mainstream culture. And rarely has mainstream culture been more in need of offense than today - so tonight MG takes on a movie that has Twitter clutching its pearls: Emerald Fennell's Saltburn!
Duration:02:38:03
Episode 135 - Godzilla Minus One (2023)
2/8/2024
Beginning with 1954's Gojira, Toho Studios' Godzilla series went on to become one of the most beloved franchises in movie history - and over the decades, it's been many things: sometimes political, sometimes silly, sometimes scary. But with Godzilla Minus One we can now add...profoundly emotional? Join us as MG crowns the new King of the King of Monsters!
Duration:02:50:31
Episode 134 - The Killer (2023) & Le Samouraï (1967)
1/18/2024
David Fincher has long been on the cutting edge of the killer/thriller genre, reinventing it many times over his career with classics like Se7en, Zodiac, Mindhunter, and Gone Girl. But with his latest Netflix-backed effort, he both cuts new ground - and, in a weird way, gets back to basics: join us as we look at The Killer, and its classic inspiration, Le Samouraï!
Duration:02:42:28
Episode 133 - Her (2013) & Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)
1/6/2024
AI rising up and conquering humanity has been the subject of hundreds of films from Westworld to The Terminator - but tonight we feature a couple of films that suggest reality will be more insidious than that! Join us for the little-known 70s time-capsule Colossus: The Forbin Project, followed by Spike Jonze’s chatbot-gone-rogue love story, Her!
Duration:02:34:36
Episode 132 - Klute (1971) & The Parallax View (1974)
12/13/2023
With the betrayal of Watergate and the release of the Pentagon Papers, America in the 1970's was a haunted, disillusioned society, and much of that stress can be seen in the films of the period. But MG argues that, even in a decade that brought us Apocalypse Now and Three Days of the Condor, no director was more plugged into this paranoid zeitgeist than Alan Pakula! Join us for his twin masterpieces, Klute and The Parallax View!
Duration:02:06:30
Episode 131 - True Grit (2010) & The Searchers (1956)
11/29/2023
For decades, John Wayne's westerns created a vast mythology of America's early days that papered over historical truth in favor of heroic white male ego-fantasies. But towards the end of his career, two films stand out wherein he questions these narratives and his role in them - join us as we take a look at his masterpiece The Searchers, as well the Coen Brother's reinterpretation of his classic True Grit!
Duration:02:53:45
Episode 130 - Monsters (2010) & Another Earth (2011)
11/9/2023
Disney spent 350 million making the pretty-fun Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and 288 million making the downright awful Black Widow. But even though the combined budget of tonight's double feature wouldn't have covered craft service for those movies, each packed to the brim with incredible concepts and beautiful images. Join us as we talk about Gareth Edwards' Monsters and Brit Marling's Another Earth!
Duration:03:22:07
Episode 129 - The Exorcist (1973) & The Exorcist III (1990)
10/26/2023
Happy Halloween from MG! Tonight, pour yourself a nice pumpkin spice martini and cozy up to our Exorcist double bill! First up is William Friedkin's 1973 masterful original, featuring a decade-best performance from Ellen Burstyn as a possessed kid's beleaguered mom - then we follow it up with the film's second (and darkly comedic) sequel, Exorcist III - directed by the book's author, William Peter Blatty!
Duration:03:03:05
Episode 128 - Donnie Darko (2001) & Enemy (2013)
10/5/2023
Jake Gyllenhaal has had an incredible career, working with a wide range of directors from Ambulance's Michael Bay, to Okja's Bong Joon Ho, to Zodiac's David Fincher. But two filmmakers in particular saw him as more than a great actor - they saw him as a muse, and built movies around his unique voice. Join us tonight as MG takes on Richard Kelly's iconic Donnie Darko and Denis Villeneuve's underseen Enemy!
Duration:02:28:14
Episode 127 - The Graduate (1967) & Frances Ha (2012)
9/20/2023
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach have teamed up on a number of 'learning-to-be-real' stories - and their collaboration went global this year with the year's undisputed megahit, Barbie. But MG argues that while it might not be in the billion-dollar club, their actual best team-up sits comfortably beside a defining classic of the genre: join us tonight for our pod on Frances Ha and The Graduate!
Duration:03:24:29
Episode 126 - The Last Picture Show (1971) & Paper Moon (1973)
9/7/2023
Every now and then, a film critic puts their money where their mouth is and makes a movie for themselves - and sometimes they even prove to be true masters of the craft: Paul Schrader and Francois Truffaut, for example. But MG argues that one of the most impressive debuts of all time is someone who is now a bit forgotten - film historian and Orson Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich - whose incredible one-two punch of The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon made him the toast of the town in the early 70s!
Duration:02:52:34
Episode 125 - Barbenheimer (2023)
8/24/2023
Have Margot Robbie and a dead theoretical physicist saved theaters from Covid? Are we recovered from the filmic scurvy of watching nothing but Netflix dating competitions for two years? It’s been a long time since we at Martini Giant have seen a packed house for would be blockbusters like these, so it looks like this brilliant bit of counterprogramming may have done the job! Let’s talk Barbenheimer!
Duration:03:07:57
Episode 124 - Singin' in the Rain (1952) & Babylon (2022)
8/11/2023
Barbie's Margot Robbie leads Damien Chazelle's three-hour epic Babylon, with a screenplay inspired by Gene Kelly's bona fide masterpiece Singin' in the Rain - and before its release, the studio thought they had the Oscars all locked up! But theatergoers felt very differently - alternately offended and bored by the endless over-the-top antics of the drug-dizzy plot, audiences stayed away in droves, making It the one of the biggest bombs of the past few years! Were they right? MG compares it and its source material in a double-feature bonanza!
Duration:03:20:29
Episode 123 - Air (2023) & Blackberry (2023)
7/26/2023
Starting with David Fincher's The Social Network, corporate mythologizing has become a major genre, with more and more entries every year - from Danny Boyle's Jobs, to Apple's Tetris, to Hulu's Flamin' Hot movie - based on the creation of spicy Cheetos no less. Have we slipped a peg culturally, since the days of Ghandi and Ali? Or will tonight's double feature of Air - the Air Jordan story - or Blackberry, the fall of the world's most popular handheld device, change MG's mind?
Duration:03:03:28
Episode 122 - Amélie (2001) & The Brand New Testament (2015)
7/14/2023
MG is excited to welcome Lily Nichols back to the show with a double feature of surrealist strangeness! First up we look at a fascinating Belgian comedy called The Brand New Testament, in which God's daughter comes to Earth to fix everything he did wrong - then we take on Jean-Pierre Jeunet's landmark romantic masterpiece Amélie, who's brilliant visuals and bold new filmmaking reinvigorated French cinema in the early 2000s nearly as much as Jean Luc Godard's Breathless did in the 1960s!
Duration:03:06:13
Episode 121 - Bullitt (1968) & Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
6/27/2023
Burt Reynolds and Steve McQueen are two of the most successful leading men in movie history, yet they appealed to wildly different audiences: McQueen was the master of detached cool in road romances like The Getaway or the experimental Thomas Crown Affair, whereas Reynolds exuded easy, relatable charm in everything from Gator to Hooper. But their biggest hits came from a single genre: the car chase movie! So buckle up for tonight's double feature of Bullitt and Smokey and the Bandit
Duration:03:03:52
Episode 120: Clint Eastwood Celebration
6/15/2023
Clint Eastwood has directed over 40 feature films, and is now working on what he says will be his last movie, called Juror No. 2 with Nicholas Holt and Toni Collette. So to celebrate, Erick, Chris, and Daniel have chosen three films apiece to serve to celebrate his towering and incredibly varied career. There are, of course, a couple of classics - but also a few picks might be new to many listeners! Come join Martini Giant in wishing this master a happy 93nd birthday!
Duration:03:18:28