Overlapping Dialogue

Pull over and keep your hands where we can see 'em: this episode, we take a look at two films' explorations of the dehumanizing nature law enforcement has on both its practitioners and recipients with RoboCop and Highway Patrolman. But before we throw the book at ya, we take a little joy ride through a Blue Plate Special discussion on pair of new releases- both of which act as extended homages to past eras of genre cinema- with Love Lies Bleeding and Late Night with the Devil. We eventually get around to our spotlighted double feature: listen as we dissect the extent to which director Paul Verhoeven either glorifies or satirizes the real life and cinematic violence of 1980s America (likely both!) and situate Alex Cox's earnest Mexican cop drama into his wild, volatile filmography. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

Don't touch that dial, dedicated listener! On this edition of Overlapping Dialogue, we take a look at a pair of zany explorations of the state of filmmaking and television circa 1987 with Hollywood Shuffle and Amazon Women on the Moon. Prior to that, we dine out on a Blue Plate Special discussion of Dune: Part Two, the follow-up to 2021's adaptation of Frank Herbert's expansive science fiction epic. Upon arriving to this week's double feature, we delight in both films' contemptuous obsessions with the daily programming which dominates our lives: join us as we find a lot to like about director and star Robert Townsend's satiric takedown of the industry's use of African American talents before we adjust the volume to a high pitched endeavor (from a whole host of 1980s genre filmmakers) to recreate the pleasurable, and in some cases downright bizarre, joys of late night channel surfing. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

In honor of Black History month, we decided to examine two disparate, albeit excellent, depictions of the African American experience with Mo' Better Blues and If Beale Street Could Talk. Ahead of our subjects, we sort through a premium selection of Blue Plate Special items, including our thoughts on the recently announced Sam Mendes' series of films on The Beatles, a pair of new releases in Bob Marley: One Love and Lisa Frankenstein, and the complicated legacy of departed country music superstar Toby Keith. We eventually turn the radio on over to the highest quality jazz station imaginable with our double feature: listen as we dive into the careers of auteurs Spike Lee and Barry Jenkins, discuss how their visions of blackness are translated into their respective films, situate the extent to which the former's 1990 work fit into his larger narrative and aesthetic interests, and question what the latter's future looks like in an age where personally expressive commercial cinema is harder and harder to come by. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

As the world prepares to enter an ultra charged Super Bowl weekend, we kick off the festivities with the most special of appetizers, a pair of French New Wave classics from the late Jean-Luc Godard with Contempt and Pierrot le Fou! But before we explore the auteur's signature brand of cinematic nihilism, we preview the upcoming big game, try and make sense of the WWE's #WeWantCody phenomenon, get excited about the prospects of a contemporary-set Paul Thomas Anderson movie, and cautiously sort through our thought on the latest Jonathan Glazer film, The Zone of Interest. Have no fear though, we give Jean-Luc plenty of time and attention: listen as we celebrate his at once beautiful yet apocalyptic cinema, one that remains every but as vibrant as it did six decades ago. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

Toss up the glitter and dust off that harmonica: that's right, we're celebrating two of Todd Haynes's most iconic films, a pair of musical dramas with Velvet Goldmine and I'm Not There. We do wade into the relatively shallow yet agreeable enough waters of the new horror flick Night Swim but primarily dedicate this episode to Haynes's explorations of fame, musicianship, fandom, the divergent yet similarly heavy legacies of glam rock and folk music, find joy in Velvet Goldmine's opaque approximation of David Bowie before puzzling over I'm Not There's narratively muddled yet aesthetically exceptional approach to adapting the Troubadour of Conscience. Come for some hot takes on the wildcard round of the NFL playoffs and predictions about the forthcoming Royal Rumble, stay for above average Bob Dylan impressions. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

Another year gone, another year awaits...The team here at Overlapping Dialogue decided to ring in 2024 with an affectionate look back at the highs, lows, and above all else memorable moments of 2023 with our inaugural Harry Dean Awards! Listen as we discuss the many noteworthy performances of Oppenheimer, highlight our favorite aspects of Barbie, decide on the year's best use of Tilda Swinton, christen our Comeback Player of the Year, and dive into a great many more categories and distinctions, culminating in our recognizing of the Filmmaker and Film of the Year. The Academy "Awards" only grow all the more irrelevant with the arrival of the only film awards you'll ever have to pay attention to from here on out! As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

This holiday season, cozy up to the fire, feast on some figgy pudding, and join Overlapping Dialogue as we deliver a special bonus audio commentary for one of our very favorite Christmas movies, Home Alone! Listen as we dissect the endless entertainment value inherent to Chris Columbus and John Hughes's family comedy without the family, complete with discussions of the McCallister's stately suburban Chicago estate, appreciations of the downright genius of pairing Joe Pesci with Daniel Stern, and a general agnosticism on the question of polka as a worthwhile art form. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/20/movies/home-alone-mccallisters-wealth.html

As you sort through your Thanksgiving leftovers and start your Christmas shopping, let Overlapping Dialogue serve the role of comforting holiday companion. We ring in the series of occasions with a pair of football movies that tug on the heartstrings- albeit in wildly different ways- with Heaven Can Wait and Friday Night Lights. But before they settle their respective differences on the gridiron, we as humble color commentators devour a full fledged meal with a Blue Plate Special lineup: listen as we discuss the latest edition of the Call of Duty franchise (Modern Warfare 3...again) and ponder what the yet-to-be-released Coyote vs. Acme and its stalled fate means for the future of the motion picture industry, as well as find theatrical solace with an unlikely trio of satisfying new releases in Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, and Thanksgiving. Upon finally arriving to our pigskin-themed main event, we delight in the multi-hyphenate nature of the 1978 romantic comedy fantasy sports yarn and try and catch our breathes from the insistent, stifling DRAMA in all caps (no cap, fr fr) of the 2004 high school sports saga. Appropriately, we even enshrine one of this episode's subjects into our very own Hall of Fame, the Immune. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests. https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2023/11/19/update-makarov-goes-nuclear-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-iii-why-are-you/

Light your cigs and scout the blotter: it's Noirvember, sugar bumps! This episode's pair of films, dedicated to one of classic Hollywood's richest legacies, celebrates the waning years of the legendary Orson Welles's time in the States with The Stranger and The Lady from Shanghai. But before we get lost in the shadows of postwar American ennui, our Blue Plate Special segment finds us diving ever so briefly back into the domain of bloody baboons with a discussion of the teaser trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. We eventually trade in our computer generated fur for some proper money suits with a double feature of Welles noirs, one which subtly makes a case that fascism wasn't totally extinguished at the conclusion of the Second World War and another that stylishly crashes and burns with the intensity of a cinematic volcano. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

As All Hallows' Eve approaches with a creeping intensity, Spooktober Spooktacular continues with two iconic cinematic ghost stories that have left an indelible impact with audiences of every subsequent generation: Poltergeist and The Sixth Sense. But before we exercise these spirits, we unpack and sort through our thoughts on the latest Martin Scorsese's historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon, look for answers in the satisfying labyrinth of The Blair Witch Project, and muse over the highs and lows of Hulu's small screen comedy-mystery Only Murders in the Building. Join us as we enter a pair of old dark houses that is our double feature: listen as we try to suss out the Spielbergian elements within Tobe Hooper's 1982 supernatural horror before taking stock of the innumerable hallmarks that at once put Shyamalan on the map in 1999 and established a formula he's yet to ever succeed outside of. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests. https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2023/10/21/our-blood-is-turning-white-killers-of-the-flower-moon-needed-more-and-less/

Bedazzle the cobwebs and yassify the cemetery: it's that time again, the third annual Overlapping Dialogue Spooktober Spooktacular! We dive into the Halloween spirit in with two black and white chillers from the 30s and 40s with Vampyr and Isle of the Dead. In addition to tangling with the undead, we get fat and happy with a Blue Plate Special bag of goodies, ranging from thoughts on the new Wes Anderson shorts adapting Roald Dahl on Netflix, predictions on what effects Swifties will have on theaters with the release of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, and puzzle our way through Rolling Stones Magazine's ranking of the "50 Worst Decisions in Movie History." It's a *scary* good episode that may or may not conclude with us chowing down on some General Mills monster cereal. But which one? You'll have to listen to the very end to find out. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

In this edition of Overlapping Dialogue, we make off with a load of fat greenbacks that turn out to be counterfeit junk with 1987's The Untouchables and 2009's Public Enemies. Though both films have generated healthy followings over the years, we take issue with their approaches to and executions of the crime genre, a medium we have particular passions for. Also, there's no Blue Plate Special this time but have no fear, we made a whole meal out of the cinematic dumpsters we're highlighting. Feel free to lock us up after this one and throw away the key: it's our story and we're sticking to it. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

Marcel Proust once said, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." Thankfully, legendary journalist and maestro of the mustache Geraldo Rivera took such advice to heart in the conception of his iconic, some might say infamous, television special The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults. Join us as we provide our own commentary to Rivera's attempt to uncover secrets, loot, and- most importantly- anecdotes involving one of American gangland's most notorious figures. The ending may not exactly be what the Internal Revenue Service or sponsors of the special Budweiser and the Quaker Oats Company were hoping for. But hey, isn't it all about the friends and/or meaningless debris we found along the way? As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

Y2K looms large as Overlapping Dialogue concludes our series on the cinema of the 1990s with two satires situated deep in the Clinton years: Election and American Beauty. But before we celebrate the end of an era, we dive into a Blue Plate Special discussion involving our thoughts on some recent theatrical re-releases (American Graffiti and They Live) in the midst of the ongoing Hollywood strikes, puzzle over the impact of the "critical metric" site Rotten Tomatoes, and generally wrestle with the larger legacies left by the films of 1999 while also debating how it stacks up to other heralded movie years. Upon dispensing with the pleasantries, we dive into the muck generated by both of our spotlighted films: listen as we appreciate Alexander Payne and Tom Perrotta's vision of Middle American angst while objecting to the smug aperture through which Sam Mendes and Alan Ball forcefully demand we "look closer." As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

We don't know whether to dance or weep on this edition of Overlapping Dialogue, which once again continues our journey through the 90s with a pairing that would leave even the hardiest party animal crying in the club: The Last Days of Disco and American History X. But before we put on our dancing shoes, we dig into a Blue Plate Special slate celebrating the lives of Terry Funk, Bray Wyatt, and Bob Barker; mull over the status of the ongoing Hollywood strikes; and offer up some thoughts on the latest chiller from Universal Studios, The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Upon surviving the Count's subpar attempts to subdue us, we tackle two striking portraits of American whiteness while considering their traditions within the yuppie coming-of-age story and the trial-by-fire political drama respectively. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests. https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2023/08/13/bright-wall-bright-room-movie-theaters-are-in-disrepair-but-isnt-it-great/?fbclid=IwAR1NQvmm3qeXAMi6ti5vI4fgePamuQiN0S4OgHEj0lRtVQYq32P-WySREZo_aem_AZh6XfSOJTuUbATiXoRJSS6Lh8vLbnwT-9R5sfOO4lLZ0CSQ7tLPl9OXflqZG1znr2o

Sometimes odd couples have the ability to go the long haul. In the spirit of labored cooperation, Overlapping Dialogue pairs two disparate 1997 darlings together for an episode you'll never forget: My Best Friend's Wedding and Face/Off! As always, we kick off the proceedings with a Blue Plate Special slate dedicated to celebrating the lives and legacies of William Friedkin and Robbie Robertson, burying once and for all the rote Airport franchise with The Concorde...Airport '79, praise the new release Past Lives, and attempt to assign coherence to a reluctant participant in Reflections of Evil. We eventually arrive to this episode's double feature, where we judge the extent to which John Travolta and Nicholas Cage's scorched earth tête-à-tête is as deranged and manic as Julia Roberts's sabotage of a lovely wedding of her dear friend and potential lover. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests. https://thebigwblog.wordpress.com/2023/07/29/take-your-sister-by-the-hand-the-unchecked-ambition-of-reflections-of-evil/

After stepping out for a bit with a month-long hiatus, Overlapping Dialogue is back with our continued journey through 90s cinema, one that has us sorting out a pair of 1996 films riddled with daddy issues: Hamlet and Lone Star. But before we account for the sins of the father(s), we devour a Blue Plate Special slate sure to offer something for everyone as we assess some of this summer's most talked about releases with Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part 1, Oppenheimer, and Barbie. And yes, we do spend time unpacking the larger Barbenheimer phenomenon. Once the smoke clears and the glitter fades away, we dive into this edition's double feature: listen as we admire Kenneth Branagh's reverent adaptation of one of the Bard's most iconic works and marvel at the economical mastery present in John Sayles's small town neo-noir western. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

As Overlapping Dialogue continues its quest through the cinema of the 1990s, we pair our most unlikely duo yet with the "edgy" coming-of-age drama Kids and the wildly popular entry in the James Bond franchise GoldenEye, both from 1995. But before we careen between the two widely disparate works, this edition's Blue Plate Special sees us tackling the reshuffling of Turner Classic Movies and pontificating on what it might mean for the future of the beloved institution; sorting through three recent releases in Asteroid City, No Hard Feelings, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny; and celebrating the life and legacy of screen legend Alan Arkin. We eventually get around to trying to classify what exactly Kids is all about and marvel at how GoldenEye successfully retooled 007 for a new generation. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

What better way to honor not only our continued cruise through the cinema of the 1990s but of our nation's 247th birthday than with a surprise, holiday-edition commentary of Roland Emmerich's 1996 disaster epic, Independence Day?! Listen as we situate the film's place in the larger cinematic landscape of the decade, admire the unconventional "love" triangle conflict grounding the otherwise weightless action, question the general presence of Randy Quaid, and genuinely delight in Judd Hirsch's casual granting of fast-pass national security clearance through Area 51. Above all else, Overlapping Dialogue wishes you a happy July 4th vacation! Feel free to skip to 45:29 for the beginning of our audio commentary. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.

Continuing our long, strange trip through the varied cinema of the 1990s, we do our best to enjoy the natural world and its inherent pitfalls, both real and imagined, with 1994's The River Wild and Wolf. Before we make like Chet Baker and get lost- in more ways than one- we dig into the much hyped Grimace Birthday Meal from the culinary geniuses at McDonald's, unpack the Walt Disney Company's recent censoring of New Hollywood classic The French Connection, and celebrate the lives and legacies of the Iron Sheik, Treat Williams, Cormac McCarthy, and Daniel Ellsberg. Upon saluting the departed, we depart ourselves from any semblance of civilization and good sense with this episode's double feature: listen as we enjoy the thoughtful escapism of Curtis Hanson, the wackadoodle divergence of Mike Nichols, and pine for the days when this sort of genre entertainment once dominated multiplexes and videostores. Even better, Overlapping Dialogue inducts a new member into its Hall of Fame, the Immune. Finally, stick around till the very end to hear us announce an exciting bonus commentary episode just in time for our nation's birthday. In short, it's a jam-packed episode that we're quite proud of! We hope you enjoy. As always, please like, subscribe, rate, and review us on all of our channels, which include Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube! Contact us at huffmanbrothersproductions@gmail.com with your questions, comments, and requests.