Classic Movies Live!

Happy Easter, everyone! This week on Classic Movies Live!, we talk about Sidney Sweeney's latest film about a virgin birth: Immaculate! Immaculate stars Sweeney as Sister Cecilia, an American nun transplanted to an Italian convent, who becomes pregnant through an apparent miracle. As Cecilia's pregnancy progresses, it quickly becomes clear that all is not as it seems at this isolated nunnery in the Italian countryside... Our hosts break down Sweeney's latest film, her career thus far, and the nature of the religious symbolism in Andrew Lobel's screenplay!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, our hosts talk about the movie Jeff famously called "the best movie nominated for anything at the Oscars"! Pablo Berger's Robot Dreams, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Sara Varon, is about a lonely Dog and his Robot friend. After spending a wonderful summer together, the two are separated and must find their ways back to each other, or move on with their respective lives. It's both a slice of life and a poignant tale of a relationship breaking down in a realistic way, but not a complete one. A throwback to animation of years gone by, and a love letter to the New York of the past, Robot Dreams is straightforward, but packed with exciting visual flair. Should you watch Robot Dreams when it releases in US theatres on May 31, 2024? Yes! Should you also listen to our hosts talk about why it's similar to Past Lives? Also yes!

After a mad dash to complete the rest of the Oscars nominees before the ceremony, it's time for our hosts to slow down a bit and talk about some of the great films they missed in 2023. First on the list: Saltburn! Emerald Fennell's second feature has been described as The Talented Mr. Ripley meets Brideshead Revisited. Barry Keoghan stars as Oliver Quick, an Oxford scholarship student who becomes dangerously obsessed with the exuberantly wealthy Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). After being invited to Catton's estate for the summer, Quick ingratiates himself with the Cattons, becoming a regular part of the family... but does he belong? Saltburn is many things: raunchy, dark, a commentary on class and obsession... but is it good? Tune in as our hosts get to the bottom of this and many other questions!

The culmination of our Best Picture episodes! Having now talked about everything nominated for Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards, our hosts discuss the event itself. Did Jimmy Kimmel nail it yet again? How about that John Cena moment? What did we think about the winners? Also in this episode, our hosts talk about the awards show they hosted: The 4th Annual Deathies! You can watch the replay here! Also, Jeff declares 2024 the year of Kevin Costner!

It's the week before the biggest night in Hollywood, and our hosts are talking about the final Best Picture nominee: Anatomy of a Fall. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Editing, and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, Anatomy just won all five of those awards and more at this year's Cesar Awards! Justine Triet's Palme d'Or winning legal drama dissecting a couple's very literally declining marriage is not only one of the year's most awarded films, but also one of the most fascinating, featuring a small cast of excellent characters, and a script that manages to turn an hour of time in-universe into something puzzling, scandalous, and maddening. In this episode, Pierre and Jeff lay out their thoughts on Anatomy, the French legal system, what it means to review a movie, and talk a bit about other courtroom dramas (specifically Twelve Angry Men and Red Rooms). Also in this episode, our hosts list their picks for each of the Oscar categories! For more talk about the Oscars, check out the previous episodes in this season of Classic Movies Live!, or listen to our hosts' guest appearances on ContraZoom Pod, where they talked about Poor Things, Past Lives, American Fiction, and The Holdovers, and The Oscars Death Race Podcast, where they talk about Barbie, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Poor Things. Before the Oscars air this weekend, check out the Deathies, a community-run Awards show by the Academy of Death Racers hosted by Pierre and Jeff! The 2024 Deathies air live on YouTube on Saturday, March 10, at 6 PM EST/3 PM PST! Also be sure to check out Classic Movies Live! on Twitter, where our hosts will be talking all about the Oscars in the lead-up to and during the show!

In this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff discuss Cord Jefferson's universally-acclaimed directorial debut American Fiction. Frustrated by his lack of authorial success and the expectations imposed on black writers, and dealing with expensive family tragedies, Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Academy Award nominee Jeffrey Wright) writes a cliche-ridden parody of the kind of black story he thinks white people want to read... only for it to become an overnight sensation. Reminiscent of The Producers, Monk pushes the joke further and further, only to fail upwards every time. American Fiction is one part poignant satire of the publishing and entertainment industries, and one touching family drama, elegantly balanced by spectacular performances from Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Issa Rae, and a phenomenal supporting cast. But how does it stack up against the other Best Picture nominees in 2024? Tune in to this episode as our hosts break it down category by category! If you'd like to hear our hosts talk a little more about American Fiction, check out this recent episode of Contra Zoom Pod, featuring Pierre and Jeff discussing the movie as well as Poor Things, The Holdovers, and Past Lives!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, our hosts talk about this year's Oscars' Canadian connection! From Korean-Candian director Celine Song, Past Lives is an unconventional almost-romance about missed connections, messy relationships, and uncertain futures. Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro star in this widely-lauded debut which nabbed Song Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. Past Lives is a film that demands context, and evokes questions of the nature of relationships. It's not enough to ask what our hosts thought of the movie, but instead what the movie brought up in our hosts. Tune in this week as Pierre and Jeff discuss relationships, In-yun, Canada, and Ryan Gosling! If you'd like to hear our hosts talk a little more about Past Lives, check out this recent episode of Contra Zoom Pod, featuring Pierre and Jeff discussing the movie as well as Poor Things, The Holdovers, and American Fiction!

Three episodes into our 2024 Best Picture marathon, and we're at the first non-English feature! Directed by Jonathan Glazer and based very loosely on both the book of the same name by Martin Amis and the real life of Rudolf and Hedwig Höss, The Zone of Interest is a terrifying and poignant holocaust film unlike anything else this year. Taking place directly next door to Auschwitz, Zone is just as much about what the audience never sees as it is about what they do. To quote Glazer himself: "[Zone] is not a film about the past. It's trying to be about now". Accordingly, this episode quickly delves into modern political topics including discussions of ongoing international conflicts. Today's episode features Jeff and special guest rach, who was last heard in a very different episode, Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 21: Romantic Comedies and Mr. Right. For more of rach, check out her Substack, where she regularly posts meditations on gender in popular culture.

Continuing our Best Picture marathon, our hosts are back to talk about Bradley Cooper's sophomore directing effort: Maestro! Based on the life of legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and his wife Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), Maestro gives audiences a front-row seat for the triumphs and tribulations of the Great American Composer. Chronicling over 50 years of Bernstein's life, Maestro sees Cooper attempt a comprehensive profile of an artist who only wished he had more to give. Joining our hosts today is Ben! Last seen on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 8: The Last Five Years, Ben once again brings his extensive knowledge of music and musical history, as well as a wealth of knowledge about Bernstein himself. Tune in to hear Ben, Pierre, and Jeff break down what works about Maestro, what doesn't work, and talk about every aspect of this week's seven-time nominated Oscar movie, to determine once and for all if it's a Classic Movie, Live! Also, go check out Pierre's music over on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/artist/3wGIUo6AF2qgQVDaEyjFiM?si=5LYZht_FQ6qZVOEFswWHhg

Classic Movies Live! returns for a glorious fifth season, and just like every season, Pierre and Jeff have some excellent surprises in store for 2024! But first! A few years ago, our hosts made it their mission to talk about all the films nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars before the ceremony, and with 4 of the nominees having had dedicated episodes last season, we're starting today on the final 6! First up, Alexander Payne's TIFF favourite starring Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers! In this film set at Christmas 1970, a curmudgeonly boarding school history teacher spends the holidays at school looking after the students who aren't going home for the holidays. What at first seems a bit like an extra-long detention with everyone's least favourite teacher soon becomes a bonding experience between a surprising found family. The Holdovers was a big surprise for both of our hosts, but is that a good thing? Tune in this week to find out our opinions on this new Christmas Classic, Live!

As another year comes to an end, so too does another season of Classic Movies Live! This year, we've talked about some of the biggest box office events ever, and some of the worst in recent memory. We've discussed veteran directors' latest epics and exciting new features from indie up-and-comers. We've talked about awards, festivals, streamers, and verified classics! But even with all the movies we covered, there were still plenty that we just couldn't find the time for! In this episode, Pierre, Jeff, and friends of the show devote some time to 15 great movies that haven't been talked about at length on Classic Movies Live, yet! In this extra-long, graciously time-stamped episode, our hosts will expand your holiday watchlist with some of the best that 2023 had to offer! 0:00:00 - 0:20:19: Intro and thoughts on 2023 in movies 0:20:19 - 0:25:18: Bottoms 0:25:18 - 0:31:43: The Killer 0:31:43 - 0:34:36: Asian and Asian diaspora cinema in 2023 (Call in from The Oscars Death Race Podcast's Paulo Bautista) 0:34:36 - 0:44:07: The Teachers' Lounge 0:44:07 - 0:56:21: The Marvels 0:56:21 - 0:59:26: Robot Dreams (Call in from Kylie from The Academy of Death Racers) 0:59:26 - 1:08:41: The First Slam Dunk 1:08:41 - 1:20:20: Fast X 1:20:20 - 1:21:57: Knock at the Cabin (Call in from Scaretroducing's Calum Macnab) 1:21:57 - 1:33:04: Sometimes I Think About Dying 1:33:04 - 1:40:58: No Hard Feelings 1:40:58 - 1:48:56: Gran Turismo 1:48:56 - 1:52:23: Saltburn (Call in from rach) 1:52:23 - 2:01:50: Late Night With the Devil 2:01:50 - 2:13:58: The Holdovers 2:13:58 - 2:21:30: What's coming in 2024 Keep an eye on our Twitter in the coming days for Pierre and Jeff's Top 10 lists for 2023, and stay tuned for exciting new episodes coming in 2024! Some of our guests today: Paulo Bautista runs The Oscars Death Race Podcast, as well as Box Office Watch, where he reviews awards season hopefuls and breaks down box office news, respectively. Pierre and Jeff recently had the opportunity to guest on a recent episode of ODR's upcoming season, which should be live in just a few weeks (and will be linked here when it is!). Paulo was last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 14: The Box Office & The Accountant. Kylie is one of the co-directors for the Academy of Death Racers Festival, which this year features over 50 shorts, including several shortlisted for the Academy Awards! You can get tickets over at aodr.net. The festival runs from January 5 and January 21. Kylie was last heard on our show on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 3: The Twilight Saga. Calum Macnab is one half of the excellent horror film review podcast Scaretroducing. Most recently, they did a retrospective on Rob Zombie's Halloween films. Calum guested on our show a while ago to talk about Chris Morris on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 25: The Day Shall Come. He was also heard as a special guest on Season 4, Episode 12: The 95th Academy Awards. rach runs a blog with several pieces of gender analysis in film over on Substack. She also came onto our show to discuss romantic comedies in Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 21: Romantic Comedies and Mr. Right. She was last heard as a special guest on Season 4, Episode 11: Women Tárking. For more on some of the films mentioned here, check out our TIFF episode, or read Jeff's reviews of Gran Turismo and Late Night With the Devil over at Contra Zoom Pod!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff discuss the first Yorgos Lanthimos movie on this show! Poor Things stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a sheltered young woman who runs away from home to learn everything she can about the world. That description is technically correct, but the latest outing from the director of The Favourite is not only so much more than that, but such a strange, unique story it's impossible to summarize into a single sentence. Based on a novel by Alisdair Gray, Poor Things is one of the most visually arresting and thematically bold wide-release films of the year, and it's certain to make a big splash when it hits theatres all over the continent this Friday! And once you've seen it, our hosts will be right here to provide their thoughts on Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and friend of the show Christopher Abbott!

On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff talk about Godzilla! Set in the aftermath of World War II, Godzilla Minus One stars Ryunosuke Kamiki as Kōichi Shikishima, a former pilot turned minesweeper. Still haunted by his experiences in the war, Shikishima soon finds himself at the centre of a much different, much bigger horror: the colossal amphibious force of nature Godzilla! Drawing as much inspiration from Jaws as from 1953's Godzilla, Minus One is an epic story of guilt and survival in the aftermath of tragedy. Is it also one of the best movies of the year? One of our hosts thinks so, but you'll have to tune in to find out who!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, our hosts discuss the man of their dreams: Nicolas Cage! In the latest film from director Kristoffer Borgli, Cage plays Paul Matthews, an unremarkable university professor who begins appearing in people's dreams. Through no fault of his own, Matthews is suddenly world famous for just sort of standing around. Fame has its perks, of course, but it would have a lot more perks if Matthews were famous for the research he's spent his entire career trying to get noticed for. Dream Scenario is a brilliant film about sudden fame, memes, cancel culture, and midlife crises that fully capitalizes on Cage's larger-than-life persona. It's a film Pierre and Jeff had plenty to say about, and one you'll want to check out if you can! But in the meantime, tune in as our hosts explore the mind of Paul Matthews. Jeff previously talked about Dream Scenario on Contra Zoom Pod episode 252: 2023 TIFF Wrap Up

Few directors working today are both as prestigious and prolific as Ridley Scott. And few historical figures are as infamous as Napoleon Bonaparte. Finally, the two figures meet in Scott's latest film, a biopic about the ruthless French emperor starring Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role! Covering Napoleon's entire life in a mere two and a half hours, Napoleon is nothing short of a true historical epic. But does it live up to that responsibility, or is it just very, very long? This week on Classic Movies Live! our hosts discuss Scott's filmography, Phoenix's tendency to be a weird little dude, and how big Vanessa Kirby's role is in this movie! For more on Napoleon, his life, and his legacy, check out the series over on OverSimplified!

On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, our hosts talk about one of the most infamous behind-the-scenes misfires of all time: The Island of Dr. Moreau. Originally a passion project for British director Richard Stanley, Moreau would drop Stanley partway through filming in favour of veteran director John Frankenheimer, who then proceeded to clash with the enormous personalities of stars Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. Ultimately the film would release a critical failure and box office disappointment but would go on to have an oversized legacy thanks to absurd behind-the-scenes shenanigans. Drawing from Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau, Kilmer's 2022 documentary Val, and the film itself, Pierre and Jeff discuss the Dr. Moreau's wild ride on the 27th (plus 2 months, almost) anniversary of the film's debut!

Welcome to Director Showdown! In this new series, we pit 64 of the biggest directors to debut since 1998 against each other in an elimination bracket to determine who will be crowned the greatest director of the last 25 years! In each episode, we'll examine thematically similar movies from two different directors, comparing how each tackles that week's themes, as well as the achievements each filmmaker brings to their respective film. To start things off, Pierre and Jeff examine the nature of systemic corruption, as depicted in Antoine Fuqua's Training Day and Pete Docter's Monsters, Inc. Both movies were nominated for Academy Awards at the 74th ceremony, with Training Day earning Denzel Washington the Oscar for Best Actor. But only one movie can come out on top, and one director will end their journey with the show in the first round! Join us as we debate Fuqua vs. Docter in the first ever Director Showdown! This episode was inspired by Rotten Tomatoes' Best Director Showdown, which was conducted among RT users over the summer of 2023. The results of that competition are summarized in this article.

On Classic Movies Live!, it's customary for our hosts to, occasionally, talk about a true, certified classic. On today's episode, Pierre and Jeff are joined by Bhavna Sharma, one half of the Bloody Broads to talk about just such a film: Mad Max: Fury Road! Released in 2015, Fury Road took the world by storm. The first Mad Max film in 30 years, Fury Road featured a complete cast reset, with Tom Hardy taking over as Max Rockatansky, joined by Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa and Nicholas Hoult as Nux the Warboy. Fury Road is a pure adrenaline rush from start to finish, with each of the leads turning in career-best performances, while also cementing composer Junkie XL as an essential voice in cinematic scoring. The film would go on to be nominated for 10 Oscars -- beaten only by The Revenant in number of nominations -- winning 6, the most of any movie at that year's ceremony. Did Fury Road deserve the acclaim? Does it hold up 8 years later? The short answer is "absolutely. Without a doubt." For the long answer, you'll have to tune in as Pierre, Jeff, and Bhavna dissect this classic movie... live*! You can find Bhavna on every social media site as @theluckysharms, including Twitter, bluesky, and Instagram (where she's got an underscore after her name). You can also hear Bhavna with her co-host Jamie on their podcast, Bloody Broads, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you like to listen to podcasts. You can find all their links, including socials, right here. They also just launched merch, which you should check out! This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

After almost a decade, the YouTube sensation from the one and only Scott Cawthon finally comes to the big screen! Five Nights at Freddy's is in theatres now, just in time for Halloween! Of course, our hosts were first in line to see the new film from Emma Tammi and Blumhouse, starring Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard alongside a host of Jim Henson animatronics! Is Five Nights, like The Super Mario Movie before it, the greatest video game movie ever made? Or are its scares as rancid as a child's corpse? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff give their thoughts on Freddy, Chica, Foxy, and Bonnie! For more behind the scenes of Five Nights, check out this video from The Film Theorists detailing what it was like on set! This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

Losing It Over Leo is back with another Scorsese picture, and the first movie to feature both Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro since This Boy's Life! Killers of the Flower Moon tells the story of the Osage Indian Murders, a series of murders perpetrated against the Osage tribe in Oklahoma during the early 20th century. While Killers features many indigenous people both in front of and behind the camera, the film is nevertheless told by Martin Scorsese, focusing on the non-native perspective. An ideal version of this story would be told by an Osage filmmaker, and we encourage you to seek out indigenous voices in film. You can support indigenous film through organizations like ImagineNative. Be sure to check out Osage reviews of film as well, like this one from Robert Warrior. This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

In this extra spooky episode of Classic Movies Live! our hosts dissect a true horror classic from one of the most influential voices in modern horror: James Wan's The Conjuring! The "true story" of demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren's most haunting case, The Conjuring stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as expert ghost hunters who must perform an exorcism for the Perrons, a family of seven in Rhode Island. As they learn more about the ghosts, the Warrens and the Perrons must battle their personal demons, but mostly the quite literal ones that have taken up residence on their lawn! The Conjuring would go on to spawn two direct sequels and two spin-off series, and became career-defining work for Wan and Wilson. It was also the first entry in a sprawling cinematic universe the likes of which horror hasn't seen since the Universal Monsters. So why The Conjuring? What makes this film a true classic? The answers to this and other questions on this week's episode of Classic Movies Live! Referenced in this episode: check out Alisha Mughal's review of The Exorcist: Believer! This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

It's the spookiest time of year, and nothing is spookier than..... Rogue One director Gareth Edwards! On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff talk about The Creator, an original sci-fi film from Edwards starring John David Washington, Gemma Chan, and Ken Watanabe. Releasing at the most topical of times, The Creator takes on human-AI relations while heavily integrating East Asian themes and aesthetics... for better and worse. Referenced in this episode is this video by Patrick H Willems about the state of the modern film industry. For more thematic analysis on The Creator, check out this review by Siddhant Adlakha on Joysauce. This episode was produced during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strike, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/

It's that time of year again, and this October, our hosts have a whole host of horrific haunts on the horizon! In the first episode of the spookiest season, Pierre and Jeff talk about Scream! All of them! 😱 From the series' origins with Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson to the requel series directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, we break down the themes and screams of all 6 movies. Major spoilers for the whole series abound in this episode! This episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

This week on Classic Movies Live!, our hosts talk about the one, the only, the legend Kenny B! For his third Inspector Poirot film, Kenneth Branagh adapts the lesser-known Agatha Christie mystery Hallowe'en Party. Moving the action to Venice instead of rural England, A Haunting In Venice finds a retired Poirot reluctantly brought back to investigate a several-years-old murder alongside mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) and medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh). But when another murder happens, Poirot must reckon with the ghosts not only of the deceased, but of his own past, as he slowly realizes that there's more to the people in the house with him than he originally thought... This episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

The 48th Toronto International Film Festival just ended, and we sent one of our hosts to go watch every movie he could! On today's episode of Classic Movies Live! Pierre interviews Jeff about his experience at #TIFF23. What were the best, worst, and most interesting movies to screen at the festival? We cover as many as we can in this hour-long wrap-up of Canada's biggest film festival! Tune in for in-depth (spoiler-free) reviews of Next Goal Wins, Origin, Dicks: The Musical, Hit Man, AGGRO DR1FT, The Teachers' Lounge, Green Border, Sleep, Hate to Love: Nickelback, The Holdovers, The Monk and the Gun, and others! And when you're done listening to this episode, check out some of Jeff's reviews over on Letterboxd, as well as Jeff's guest appearance on the TIFF episode of Contra Zoom Pod. Jeff also wrote reviews for two TIFF movies not discussed in this episode, I Don't Know Who You Are and Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. Finally, check out this review from David Ehrlich of AGGRO DR1FT, mentioned in this episode. In the time since this episode was recorded, Hit Man has found distribution with Netflix. Make sure to watch it in theatres when it releases! This episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

It's another week of Spielberg here on Classic Movies Live! This week, we talk about one of the movies from the year Spielberg finally got his Best Directing Oscar! If you thought that means we're talking about Schindler's List, think again, we're actually talking about Jurassic Park! A classic tale of hubris and the man who weaponized his to make an island full of dinosaurs, Jurassic Park would go on to spawn one of the biggest franchises of all time. Groundbreaking in the fields of visual effects and Jeff Goldblum usage, Jurassic Park is held up by many today as one of the best movies ever made. But will our hosts agree? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff discuss Jurassic Park on this week's episode of Classic Movies Live! This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

Despite their vast, ineffable knowledge of cinematic history, Pierre and Jeff do indeed have a few blindspots, so for the next couple episodes, our hosts are revisiting some old classics. First up, it's the movie that put Steven Spielberg on the map! Jaws was Spielberg's big break! His third film for Universal, second collaboration with John Williams, and first film in his long career of major successes that would come to define the modern blockbuster, Jaws is a film with a legacy a big as the titular shark! It's also a film that at least one of our hosts hadn't actually seen before this episode! Viewing Jaws as an unfamiliar movie, how does it hold up? Even more interestingly: what can the rest of Spielberg's filmography tell us about Jaws... and vice-versa for that matter! All these answers and more on today's bonus-sized episode of Classic Movies Live! Spoilers in this episode for Jaws and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

This week on Classic Movies Live!, our hosts discuss the biggest shark in cinema! The Meg series of films stars Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor, a marine biologist/diver/eco-terrorist who repeatedly encounters Megalodons, a species of prehistoric giant shark. Based on a series of novels by Steve Alten, there's certainly more to it than that, but you really can't go wrong with "Statham vs. Shark"! Also in this episode, our hosts give their thoughts on the state of Statham's other big franchise: The Fast and the Furious! Spoilers in this episode for The Meg, Meg 2: The Trench, and Fast X. This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, we're letting our (g)hosts get spooky! Adapted from the Disney theme park ride of the same name, The Haunted Mansion features a family of colour moving into a secluded mansion only to discover that it's inhabited by 999 ghosts... but there's always room for one more. To avoid becoming the 1000th ghost, the family teams up with a wacky band of characters including a short man and Madame Leota - a long-dead fortune teller who is trapped inside a crystal ball - to thwart the sinister plot of the owner of the haunted house. The same thing happens in Haunted Mansion 20 years earlier, but different! This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

This week on Classic Movies Live!, we're talking about a Netflix Original! From first-time director Juel Taylor, They Cloned Tyrone stars John Boyega, Teyonah Paris, and Jamie Foxx as three friends who uncover a vast cloning conspiracy below their town. But if that sounds strange, buckle up because that's hardly the half of it! Reminiscent of blaxploitation films of the 70s and 80s, as well as weird modern sci-fi hits like Sorry To Bother You, Taylor's debut is certainly one of the most original movies ever to premiere as a Netflix Original. Is it also one of the best? This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

In this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, our hosts are once again talking about Turtles! Longtime listeners will remember that both Pierre and Jeff are lifelong fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, so it only makes sense that our hosts cover the latest reboot from Seth Rogen and Jeff Rowe! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem features the titular turtles as you've never seen them before: portrayed as teenagers! Featuring a huge cast including Ice Cube, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Maya Rudolph, and four relative newcomers as the turtles, Mutant Mayhem puts a unique spin on the turtles' origins and characters. Do the creative risks pay off? Tune in to hear our hosts break down Rowe's directorial debut! This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

It's part two of our Barbenheimer coverage, this time talking about Barbie! The third solo-directed film from Greta Gerwig, Barbie features Gerwig's biggest budget, biggest cast, and first foray into an existing IP. In a world where a three-hour-long scientist biopic can sell out IMAX theatres for weeks, Barbie is doing ever better, on track to become the biggest movie of 2023, and the biggest female-helmed movie of all time! In this episode, Pierre and Jeff break down the Margot Robbie vehicle. What do its themes say about capitalism and feminism? How does the portrayal of toxic masculinity and patriarchy land? Is this the film that will win Ryan Gosling his Oscar? And to close everything out, we discuss the state of the Hollywood today! Despite the biggest opening weekend in history, the ongoing writers' and actors' strikes leave the film industry in a pretty curious position. What could this mean for Saw Patrol? This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

If you've been paying attention to movies in 2023, you already know there's not a single event more important this year than Barbenheimer Weekend! The simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer produced one of the biggest box-office weekends of all time, with both movies already garnering commercial and critical acclaim! It's official: Audiences love Bobby Oppenheimer! In the first of two Barbenheimer episodes, Pierre and Jeff address the implications of such a massive cinematic event. Is this just the shot in the arm the movie industry needs? Will it ever be replicated again? What about Saw Patrol? Then, our hosts break down Nolan's three-hour epic biopic. Nolan-regular Cillian Murphy stars in the title role alongside Robert Downey, Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Alden Ehrenreich and Josh Hartnett, as well as dozens of massive names! Deeply personal and politically poignant, Oppenheimer is a movie that sticks with you long after the credits roll. So what did our hosts think of it? Tune in to find out! For more Oppenheimer content, you can check out Jeff's review over on Letterboxd. This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed in this show wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

This week on Classic Movies Live!, Tom Cruise is back to save cinema yet again! Dead Reckoning, Part One is the seventh movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise that's regularly seen Cruise perform death-defying stunts over the course of almost thirty years! As one of Hollywood's oldest currently active franchises, and one of Cruise's proudest achievements, how is the franchise doing seven installments in? Our hosts discuss their thoughts on Mission: Impossible, Tom Cruise, newcomer Pom Klementieff, and the dearly missed Henry Cavill! This Episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films being discussed here wouldn't exist. To learn more about the ongoing strikes, go to https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ and https://www.wgacontract2023.org/strike-hub

After a brief hiatus, we're back with another episode of Classic Movies Live! And with the entirety of June behind them, it's time to recap some of the biggest (and dud-iest) movies of the summer! In this episode, Pierre and Jeff run through the movies they each saw during June, including The Flash, Asteroid City, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Were any of this year's most hotly-anticipated June blockbusters worth the wait? Well, the answer isn't entirely no! Also in this episode, Jeff references a review of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts by friend of the show and Awesome Friday co-host Simon Best, which you really should read.

This week on Classic Movies Live!, our hosts talk about one of the biggest animated blockbusters of 2023! Debuting to incredible critical and commercial success, Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse continues the stories of Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy as they fall in with a legion of multiversal Spider-People. Joining our heroes this time are Indian Spiderman Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), Spider-Punk Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), and Spider-Man from the year 2099, Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac). As a sequel to one of the most influential movies of the last decade, expectations were high for Across the Spiderverse. But while the movie ups the ante from Into the Spiderverse in many ways, is it able to clear the high bar of quality Lord and Miller set with its predecessor? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff break down part one of the epic conclusion to the Spider-Verse saga!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, our hosts are joined by Mark Morgan of the Academy of Death Racers to discuss a film so monumental it redefined the concept of sci-fi horror! Set aboard the mining ship Nostromo, Alien follows a crew of seven blue-collar workers attempting to survive after an SOS call goes horribly wrong. What starts out as a routine investigation quickly becomes a paranoid nightmare as crewmates are killed off one by one by a never-before-seen extraterrestrial lifeform that's made its way onto the ship. Released in 1979, Alien would become the breakout role for Sigourney Weaver, while giving a boost to the career of a young John Hurt as well. It would turn new director Ridley Scott into a household name, and later become not just a pivotal film in his career, but a pivotal era, as Scott would go on to expand Alien into a franchise that today consists of seven main-series films with more on the way! And of course, Alien would spawn iconic scenes, and leave a legacy and impact on pop-culture larger than anyone at the time could have possibly imagine. So what is the combination of these elements that truly turns Alien from just a well-known film into an undisputed classic? Join us as we break down the film and its legacy! Mark was last heard in Season 4, Episode 11: Women Tárking, where he shared his review of the film Tár. Before that, he joined our hosts on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 26: Featuring Mark Morgan (Dummy)! Mark is one of the co-directors of the Academy of Death Racers Film Festival, which you can learn more about at aodr.net. You can also find him over on Discord, where he'll be happy to explain to you several reasons why Minding the Gap ought to have won Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.

On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, our hosts take on one of the best movies ever made about the greatest American hero. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse exploded into theatres in winter of 2018 and made waves throughout the animation industry. Opening to critical acclaim and commercial success, Spider-Verse would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, sweep the Annies, and usher in a new golden age of mixed 2D/3D hybrid animation. Not even 5 years later the influence of Spider-Verse is felt in animated films from nearly every active studio. With the sequel Across the Spider-Verse around the corner, Pierre and Jeff revisit the movie that started it all and share some of their thoughts on Sony Animation, Lord and Miller, and what Spider-Man means to them.

This week on Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff talk about the biggest Canadian movie since 2021's PAW Patrol: The Movie! From director Matt Johnson, BlackBerry chronicles the rise and fall of Research in Motion, the Waterloo, ON company headed by Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie that created the Blackberry phone, and with it, the modern smartphone industry. As you're about to hear, BlackBerry is already one of the best movies of 2023, so if you're looking for a movie to check out this weekend, let our hosts convince you that it should be the one about Waterloo, where the vampires hang out!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff talk about James Gunn's final movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3! After the events of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Drax (Dave Bautista) are back along with newcomers Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) and Cosmo (Maria Bakalova) in a galaxy-spanning adventure to save their friend, Rocket (Bradley Cooper) -- who is not a raccoon. Vol. 3 is not only the third Guardians movie, but also the thirty-second MCU movie. But which is it more? Does Gunn leave his band of space-misfits with a satisfying ending, or is Vol. 3 just another movie in the world's longest-running silver-screen TV show? Tune in as our hosts break down the latest from Marvel Pictures!

This week on Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff are joined by Rachel Ho from Contra Zoom Pod to talk about one of the quintessential 90s action movies: Speed! Starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, and releasing just a week before the most famous real-life car chase of all time, Jan de Bont's film about a bus that can't slow down endures almost 20 years after its debut! But what is the legacy of Speed? Is its influence on action still felt today? Tune in as Rachel makes the case that Speed truly is a Classic Movie, Live! For more of Rachel's content, you can check out her website rachelkh.com, or follow her over on Twitter. Rachel can also be regularly heard over on Contra Zoom Pod, including their latest episode discussing the Best Films of 2014, the 20th anniversary year of Speed! Rachel has also guested on Classic Movies Live! before, including in Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 15: The Voices and Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 11: Christmas With Contra Zoom!

Do you like basketball? What about basketball shoes? What about Nike internal politics related to basketball shoes? On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live!, Pierre and Jeff talk about sports - or rather, sports-adjacent capitalism - as they take on Air, the newest movie about the 80s from 90s dream team Ben Affleck and Matt Damon! Also starring Chris Tucker, Viola Davis, and Jason Bateman, Air is a movie about Michael Jordan and his influence on the world of sports and celebrity endorsements... but without any appearances by Mr. Jordan himself! Also on this episode: our hosts reveal their thoughts on Argo, the DC Universe, and which sports teams they root for! On an unrelated note, the Oilers lost to the Kings 4-3 on the date of recording this episode. That's relevant to the episode, kind of.

This week on Classic Movies Live!, our hosts discuss the biggest movie of 2023! Based on the consistently acclaimed Nintendo games, The Super Mario Bros Movie sees Illumination Studios -- perhaps best known for the Minions franchise -- bringing the most famous gaming mascot this side of Sonic the Hedgehog to the silver screen! Jam-packed with names like Jack Black, Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, and Anya Taylor-Joy, The Super Mario Bros Movie has name recognition at just about every level. But does it also have quality at every level? Tune in as Pierre and Jeff break down Shigeru Miyamoto's productorial debut!

Here on Classic Movies Live! we regularly talk about classic franchises based on tabletop games! And instead of fact-checking that, you can check out this week's episode, in which our hosts dive into the new Dungeons and Dragons movie: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves! Starring Chris Pratt, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant, Honor Among Thieves brings the rich world of Faerun to life in a story ripped from a long Saturday session around a tabletop! Blending thrills, humour, and heartfelt character moments, Honor Among Thieves is an excellent fantasy flick filled with references and a love of D&D that roleplaying fans will find immediately endearing. But did our hosts find it immediately endearing? Tune in for this week's hottest takes only on Classic Movies Live! Also on this episode: we present Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with a special award only 2 other people have received!

Do/Do-Over examines the similarities and differences between a film and its remake, or a film it heavily inspired. This time, we're looking at the 1958 Akira Kurosawa film The Hidden Fortress, and the film it most famously influenced, 1977's Star Wars by George Lucas. In the past, we've done similar episodes looking at Citizen Kane and Mank, and Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars. Be sure to check those out, or peruse this handy Letterboxd list for links to all of our episodes! Joining us today is Dakota Arsenault of Contra Zoom Pod! Dakota was most recently heard on Season 4, Episode 12: The 95th Academy Awards!, and was last a featured guest in Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 15: The Voices.

What's your favourite franchise? Well, for our hosts, John Wick would have to be a strong contender! On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live! we discuss the epic conclusion to Chad Staheleski's breakout directorial series! Starring all of Jeff's favourite guys! Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgard, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Scott Adkins join Keanu Reeves for nearly 3 hours of non-stop action! Cinematography! An incredible soundtrack! Amazing fight choreography! John Wick: Chapter 4 has it all, and our hosts are here to go through all of it in this spoiler-light episode! This episode contains fragments of the songs "Genesis" by Justice, "Plastic Heart" by Nostalghia, and "LED Spirals" by Le Castle Vania, and "Got Yourself A Gun" by Nas.

In this week's spoiler-filled episode of Classic Movies Live!, our hosts tackle the new DC Universe... or maybe the remnants of the old one! The sequel to 2019's Shazam!, Fury of the Gods sees Billy Batson and his superpowered siblings once again take on an ancient evil in the form of Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu! Described by director David F. Sandberg as a "mini-Avengers movie", Fury of the Gods features a huge cast of characters -- a tough balancing act in any film! So does DC's latest turn a teenage team-up into a successful sequel, or is this last gasp of the DC Universe more of a yawn?

With all the Best Picture nominees behind us, it's time to talk about the big event: the Oscars! In today's episode, Pierre and Jeff discuss the Oscars - both before the ceremony, and after! Also, learn about the results of the Academy of Death Racers Awards (The Deathies), hosted the night before the Oscars by your favourite hosts! Director/Producer of the Deathies and friend of the show Astro joins us to discuss the 3rd annual ceremony, which you can still watch on YouTube! This episode features call-ins from a number of guests! Including.... Adele, last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 3: The Twilight Saga! Dakota Arsenault, co-host of Contra Zoom Pod, last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 15: The Voices! Calum Macnab, co-host of SCARETRODUCING, last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 25: The Day Shall Come! Matthew Simpson, co-host of Awesome Friday, last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick Episode 22: Rapture-Palooza! And of course SlightAstro, or Ian, co-founder of the Academy of Death Racers, last heard on Season 4, Episode 3: Paddington 2!

This week on Classic Movies Live! It's the last episode going through each of the Best Picture nominees, and boy did our hosts leave the best for last! First, Pierre and Jeff break down Women Talking. From Canadian director Sarah Polley, Women Talking features an ensemble cast including Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormance, Clare Foy and Rooney Mara. After years of suffering at the hands of the men of their isolated Mennonite colony, a group of women discuss whether to leave the colony, forgive the men, or stay and fight. Taking place entirely within one location, and featuring primarily discussions, Women Talking is certainly unique amongst this year's nominees. But how does it stack up against the others? Following that, our hosts discuss Todd Field's first film in 13 years: TÁR! Featuring Cate Blanchett in, frankly, the role of a lifetime, TÁR is a layered character study tailor-made for the post-MeToo landscape. While there's likely not a soul alive unfamiliar with EGOT-winner Lydia Tár, Field's profile tears down her character, and tells the story of her fall from grace in a way unlike any we've seen yet! This segment features a soon-to-be classic conversation from our hosts, so make sure you don't miss it! Also in this episode, we have call-ins from Rach and Mark! Rach was last heard on Kickin' It WIth Kendrick, Episode 21: Romantic Comedies and Mr. Right, and can be found over on TikTok, YouTube or Substack. Mark was last heard on Kickin' It With Kendrick, Episode 26: Featuring Mark Morgan (Dummy)!, and he's one of the key members of the Academy of Death Racers, which you can learn more about over on AoDR.net! Finally, we talk a lot about friend of the show Paulo Bautista talking about Top Gun: Maverick on this episode. If you want context for that, check out his appearance over on this recent episode of Contra Zoom Pod!

On this week's episode of Classic Movies Live! our hosts take a quick break from Oscar movies to talk about the start of MCU's Phase Five: Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania! Introducing Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, alongside a host of new and returning characters, Quantumania aims to fully explore a completely new side of the Marvel Universe... So does it succeed? Tune into this extra-long episode to hear Pierre and Jeff break down Paul Rudd's latest starring vehicle!