Movie Show Theater: The Podcast

It’s been ALMOST 25 years since this cult classic was released & we thought it was finally time to determine if Donnie Darko is deep or dumb or possibly BOTH?! How does it hold up in 2024? The answer might surprise you! I connect with my original podcast crew, Stu & Ben to help me figure out what EXACTLY this movie is about. We also uncovered a few things you might not know about the pretentious mystery that is Donnie Darko.

Oh look, my wife has hijacked the podcast again so get ready to change your tune on this widely misunderstood 2004 musical from one of the weirdest and most appropriate creative collaborations of all time: Joel Schumacher and Andrew Lloyd Weber! Did you like this movie? Did you NOT like this movie? If you answered yes, this episode is for YOU!

American Movie is a documentary released in 1999 and has changed my life in many ways, I wish I was kidding! This heartbreaking, harrowing, and hilarious journey into one man's quest to make a short film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1999 and is truly unlike anything I've ever seen!

It's our New Year's Eve show so OBVIOUSLY we're talking favorites here. Director/Producer Corey Gilbert & Composer/DP CJ Johnson join me with their #1 favorites for the year. It was such a great year for movies, so let's get crack in!

Let's ring in the summer season with this gross, dark, masterpiece of a film. Co-Owner of P3 Mediaworks production company Corey Gilbert joins me to pick apart this 90's classic from David Fincher! After watching it 8+ times, I still pick up tidbits of foreshadowing and so much layered storytelling that just begs to be picked apart, so let's go do just that! And hey.. thanks for the support!

I'm spotlighting FRESH today as a beacon of hope that original and unique storytelling IS coming out of Hollywood (AKA Toronto and Atlanta). This was the best kind of "that movie" I've seen in years. I absolutely loved this movie and I want to explain exactly what made this movie stand out to me. Got 20 minutes?

We put 3 writers and a professional film composer in the same room in an attempt to pick apart this somewhat polarizing reiteration of Batman. So what happens what you pull story elements from 5 different Batman stories? Well.. we're trying to figure that out. Also please check out the below link and vote for our friend / composer, CJ Johnson for the 2022 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards! https://www.fangoria.com/original/chainsaw-awards-2022/

Take a dive with us into the world of regency romance as we ask the age old question, Who is YOUR Mr. Darcy. My constant reader/constant writer wife (and resident regency expert) Ana takes point as our tour guide through the early 1800s. We try to discover just what pissed off all the Austenites about this adaptation. Was it the end scene, was it the extra spicy Elizabeth, was it the supposed banality of it all? We try to discover answers to these and more, and as always.. thanks for supporting us!

It's the 1st episode of our 7th season and we may (or may not) have found our 1st 'PERFECT MOVIE'! So what IS a perfect movie and what makes THIS one a perfect movie? Corey Gilbert is a producer/director/co-owner of P3 Mediaworks, a production company here in Chicago, IL, and he's here to help us understand what flawless storytelling looks like. HEAT was released 27 years ago (almost to the day) and it's never looked better or held more relevancy.

To capitalize on The Matrix Resurrections coming to theaters and HBO Max on December 22nd, we decided it was time to revisit The Matrix from all the way back to the year 1999. Ben and I were the PERFECT demographic for the release of this landmark film, but how does it hold up in 2021? We were both surprised for very different reasons. You can check out the original three movies on HBO Max!

Filmmaker Dakota Kuhlmann joins us to pick apart one of the titans of science fiction cult classics. Do you remember the 2012 Total Recall? Was it remake? Was it a reboot? Was it a reimagining? What's the difference and how can you even tell? Maybe it holds up better than the original. Maybe you forgot how super decent it actually is. Then again, maybe it IS as bad as you remember. Either way, join us as we compare it to one of the weirdest, wildest, and most fun movie of 1990.

For our 2021 Halloween Special, I decided to coerce my non-horror movie loving wife to watch what some would consider THE horror movie standard. How does HALLOWEEN look in 2021? Was it scarier than she thought it would be? Was it more fun than she thought it would be? What worked and what didn't? Although this movie is timeless in my mind's eye, I can't be oblivious to its faults and shortcomings even for 1978. Listen if you dare, but remember.. "It's halloween, I guess everyone's entitled to one good scare."

One of our original podcasters (Ben) decided we should watch Nighthawks from 1981.. so we did. Was it good? Is it worth a watch in 2020? Is it just a total cheeseball action flick? These are the hard hitting questions we're hitting today! If you haven't seen Nighthawks, you can find it on Netflix (US) right now! It was Rutger Hauer's US film debut, and buy does he shine!

I have a wife and she has taken over the podcast tonight! She likes movies (almost as much) as I do, and we share many similar tastes in movies. The biggest difference is that she is way smarter than I am, and makes observations I sometimes miss. She has listened to our podcast for years has noticed our consistent lack of female perspective in the studio and the deficiency of strong female leads in the movies we choose. The Devil Wears Prada is a COMEDY and arguably the best movie from 2006. This movie was initially very strongly received, but was also vastly different than many movies like it. Set in a popular fashion house, this isn’t really a movie about fashion. With a cast and of mostly women, they use story and character development to show us real life world problems without relying on the same tired ‘girl problems’ used in countless other Rom-Coms (which this isn’t). 2006 gave us titles like The Departed, Superman Returns, Borat, Mission Impossible 3, Apocalypto, 300, and way more. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these, in fact, many of great, great movies. The point is that we were in dire need of a cleverly fresh story with some genuine feminine perspective. This is Ana’s chosen vessel of voyage, so come aboard, because Ana’s taking me to school for our first ever 100% impromptu podcast episode! The other (and last) noteworthy comment is that this movie is fun to watch if you’re familiar with the fashion subtext of the movie, but it’s a BLAST to watch if you know NOTHING about fashion at all!

Dead or alive, you're coming with me! With us, I mean, on another cinematic journey of pure satirical perfection. While some may remember this (inaccurately) as a crass, shallow, ultra violent look into a nasty future, we dive in to extract the technical achievement and true master class in storytelling we remember from Robocop. Jimmy tries out a new trivia game all about fictional movie bars, Joey recalls the drug-induced revelation of his youth, Sam shares some of the cast's favorite moments while filming Robocop, and Norm asks us hard hitting questions that give us all pause. If you're an advocate for Robocop or if you just think we're all crazy, this episode is 100% for YOU! Thanks for listening and thanks for supporting Movie Show Theater

It's a big day today! The original Blade Runner is my all time favorite movie! The original Blade Runner is Stu's all time favorite movie! Today we're coming together to explain why. Maybe you've seen it enough times that you totally understand our deep love for this classic, or maybe you just saw it once last year to prepare for the sequel. But we're not talking about the sequel today, rather putting our entire focus on this movie and examining just what makes it so special in a sea of science of fiction movies. From themes to performances to deeper meanings, we want to talk about some things you may not know about this true true cinema classic. If you like what you hear, head over to our Facebook and leave us a movie suggestion. If you live in the Chicago area, we want YOU to join us in the studio to talk about whatever movie you made us watch! Thanks for all the support!

Welcome back to the show! Today, we're going to the Davis Theater (4614 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago) for the Middle Coast Film Festival! We got a look behind the scenes and got to talk to John Schorg, the chairman of the festival. John discussed the importance of short films, and why they have so much to offer us. We also sat down with Melissa Fitzsimmons, the program director for the Middle Coast Film Festival, to get an idea of the amount of footwork involved in this massive undertaking, including screening HUNDREDS of film submissions. We also talked to a handful of filmmakers from all over the country (also Canada) here this weekend to showcase their films. 1. Karson Pilote- writer and director of The Heart of the Blackhawks. This documentary chronicles his grandfather's life and career playing for the Chicago Blackhawks. 2. Writer Ben Hammond, director Shawn McDaniel, and cinematographer Mark Stabeline sit down to talk about My Death Co, a darkly funny web series about confronting death, life, love, and everything in between. They are premiering their 2nd episode tonight, but their first is currently available to stream at www.mydeathco.com 3. Averland DeCourse, Brandon Coleman, and cinematographer Sayyid talked to me about their film, Identity: Absolutely Present. We discussed their many influences from Spike Lee and Ryan Coogler to camera techniques made famous by Alfred Hitchcock. 4. Jaffe Zin sat down with me to talk about his latest feature film, Children. He described Children as a sort of existential Christian horror film, so obviously, I wanted to know more. He talks about the big differences between Children and his last feature film, Happy Valley. You can check out middlecoastfest.com for the whole lineup, or just head down there NOW and check out some seriously incredible films. This was recorded live in a noisy room, so be warned. But please suffer through the inferior quality, because I had a great time with these folks, and they absolutely have something to say. And thanks for supporting Movie Show Theater!

This is the premiere episode of our 5th season, and we're shimmering with excitement! Spending four months away from all of you is just too long, so here we are! We're back with a movie that *ucked us up, and we sure hope it *ucked you up, too! Chicago actor & playwright Christopher M. Walsh stopped by to be our voice of authority. Be amazed as he tries to answer about 20 of the top 300 questions this movie left us with. Annihilation was just the first book in a three book series called the Southern Reach Trilogy written by Jeff VanderMeer, and Chris has read them all. The series belongs to a specific sub-genre called 'strange fiction', and guess what! The book was a whole lot stranger than the movie! So.. you know how The Shining (1980) is referred to as a great film and a terrible adaptation? SPOILER: Chris explains why Annihilation also fell victim to that same curse in the best possible way! We get our old friend and English professor Stuart Randolph on the phone, and our good friend and fellow Chicago filmmaker Joey Fandel stops by as well! So come for the shiny shimmer and stay for the disgusting body horror that's sure to follow. Our 5th season is gonna be killer, so thanks for your patience and welcome back to Movie Show Theater! https://www.instagram.com/movieshowtheater/ https://www.facebook.com/movieshowtheatre/ - intro and outro music courtesy of PUNCH DECK - Annihilation score excerpts courtesy of BEN SALISBURY & GEOFF BARROW

Oh dang, I am so in over my head with authority today! We're talking about film music and the powerful impact it has on visual storytelling. I brought Norm Burns (dear friend, guitar builder, musician), Ana Holguin-Malone (student of music, brilliant woman, wife), and C.J. Johnson (musician, sound designer, film composer). We each brought a piece of music from a film we thought was a beaming showcase of what music can do and its incredible emotional power! We break down some classic music from classic films, and try to extract the Power of Film! We got trivia and plenty of other weird things in store. Thanks for supporting us and thanks for supporting Movie Show Theater!

I'm joined by directors Jason Snydaker and Dakota Kuhlmann of Exit Reality Entertainment, as well as producer Matt Pleasant to talk about what it means to be a filmmaker and some of the problems that have that will always follow. Dakota talks about his experience making his first feature film, The Pale One. I also found a pretty strange trivia question, wanna know what it is? Ok, How many movies are there? I found out. We also use David Fincher as our standard for expert storytelling through using visual and audio channels. We have a lot more for you, but I'm too tired to type more in the description, so check it out for yourself! And thanks for supporting Movie Show Theater!