Watch With Jen™

It's always such a joy when I can bring on a friend I know IRL who lives in my home state, so it is with great pleasure that I scheduled a Zoom hang with the critically acclaimed, wondrously creative, and darkly comedic journalist-turned-author Amina Akhtar. More of a breezy, nostalgic chat about life, Gen X, print journalism, and the '90s, than a traditional episode devoted to the movies, with the release of Devil Wears Prada 2 right around the corner, it was the perfect time to talk to Amina about the twenty years she spent working in the fashion magazine industry. Accidentally stumbling into a full time position at Vogue after a month working as a fact checker, Amina was the assistant to Anna Wintour's second in command, and worked along with Lauren Weisberger, who no one in her office realized was secretly writing and getting ready to publish the thinly veiled satire of her work life with Wintour at Vogue in The Devil Wears Prada. Light-hearted, funny, and eye-opening, Amina shares her insights and memories, and we discuss how the film, starring Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, and Meryl Streep, reflected and differed from the real thing.Bio: Amina Akhtar is a novelist and former fashion editor. Her satirical first novel, #FashionVictim, drew critical acclaim. Kismet, her second book, was set in the stunning and creepy world of wellness. Almost Surely Dead, Akhtar’s third novel, was published by Mindy Kaling’s imprint. Akhtar is currently working on her fourth novel.Akhtar has worked at Vogue, Elle, the New York Times, and New York Magazine, where she was the founding editor of the women’s blog The Cut. She lives not too far from Sedona, Arizona.Originally Posted (3/29/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/154266082Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Two of my favorite buddies, New York Times bestselling, award-winning KING OF ASHES author S.A. Cosby and WBUR and Spliced Personality film critic Sean Burns, return to the podcast to celebrate the career of the great character actor Delroy Lindo. Originally conceived at the end of last season before life and scheduling got in the way, with Lindo's recent Oscar nomination for SINNERS, this winter/spring was the perfect time to discuss one of our favorite scene-stealers of the last 35+ years on Watch With Jen. Referencing everything, including our favorites like HEIST and GET SHORTY, in this episode, we took a closer look at MALCOLM X, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES, THE CORE, and A LIFE LESS ORDINARY to illustrate that he's always one of the most compelling parts of any movie, no matter how it turns out in the end. The result is a fun, thoughtful, and rollicking conversation.Originally Posted on Patreon (3/22/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/153670188Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

We're back with the first episode of our seventh season! CALIFORNIA BEAR author Duane Swierczynski returns to the podcast to discuss his brand new graphic novel DEAD FLOWERS for John and Sandy Carpenter's Storm King Comics, digs into the way that filmmaker and composer John Carpenter's work has inspired him, and introduces Jen to THE FOG, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, & IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS.Originally Posted on Patreon (3/15/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/153124788Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Sharply intelligent, dazzlingly analytical, & a genuinely kind soul, my gifted friend, freelance writer and Letterboxd editor Mitchell Beaupre is one of my favorite guests for a reason. Returning to the pod for the first time in a year, this episode kicks off the start of a new Watch With Jen miniseries covering some of our favorite westerns of the twenty-first century. Beginning with 2020-2025, Mitchell and I take a deeper look at Kelly Reichardt's FIRST COW, Jane Campion's THE POWER OF THE DOG, & Kevin Costner's HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA - CHAPTER 1. Note: Unless a wild burst of inspiration suddenly strikes, this will most likely be the pod's season finale for '25. Fear not, Watch With Jen: Season 7 will launch in the new year. Sending best wishes to you and yours for a safe, happy, healthy, and peaceful holiday season.Originally Posted on Patreon (12/22/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/146466616Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Lina Chern, the Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of Play the Fool, is here this week to discuss psychics solving crime, predestination and tarot onscreen, and the beauty of free will on film in Minority Report, The Dead Zone, The Gift, and Three Colors: Red. Her delightful sequel to Fool, Tricks of Fortune, was released over the summer, and we did a full-length video interview about the book, her writing, and our taste in pop culture, which you can see on the Poisoned Pen Bookstore YouTube Channel.Originally Posted on Patreon (12/20/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/145545464Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Happy Thanksgiving! There's nothing like curling up under quilts and blankets by the fire with your loved ones and watching lush period movies in the winter. The delightfully knowledgeable Jane Austen expert, bestselling Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls author Natalie Jenner, returns to the podcast to discuss the life, work, and history of Jane Austen, and the film adaptations of Sense and Sensibility (1995), Pride & Prejudice (2005), and Emma (2020).Originally Posted on Patreon (11/24/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/144314852Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

When we wrapped last year's wonderful fan favorite Watch With Jen episode on Jean-Claude Van Damme, my guests Jordan Harper, Priscilla Page, Jed Ayres, & I knew that we needed to have another martial arts movie chat in Season 6. Although Jed bowed out of this conversation (but did recently appear on a cool installment devoted to Andy Garcia you need to check out), Jordan and Priscilla returned to discuss the filmography, history, skills, range, & persona of the once-in-a-generation talent Jackie Chan. Covering several of the superstar's films in our overview & referencing his smash American crossover success with RUMBLE IN THE BRONX as well, Jordan & I shared stories of trading bootleg videotapes in school of Chan's foreign work in the '90s midwest, & the brilliantly encyclopedic Priscilla Page offered key insights & analysis on so many movies that you'll want to listen with a pad & pen to add them to your watch list. A funny, free-spirited, affable breakdown of the man that is Chan, in this episode, we walk you through DRAGONS FOREVER, LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER II, SUPERCOP, & more.Originally Posted on Patreon (11/12/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/143421332Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Los Angeles based Variety & Fresh Fiction film critic Courtney Howard returns to the podcast for a breezy, nostalgic, spirited, & informal chat about everyone's favorite Peruvian bear. You'll hear us celebrate the imaginative & talented cast & crew of PADDINGTON, PADDINGTON 2, & the most recent installment, PADDINGTON IN PERU, as well as the way its overall themes resonate especially well today. A shorter installment of Watch With Jen that's just an easy chat among friends, it's the perfect thing to take with you on your next marmalade run to the grocery store.Originally Posted on Jen's Patreon (11/4/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142847261Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Happy Halloween! We don't dedicate too many episodes of Watch With Jen to television shows, mostly because of the time & effort involved in rewatching several seasons over a long period of time. But if a TV series touches us enough, if it's beloved, created & executed with a true original vision, raises & sets the bar, has been unfairly overlooked, or if it's something that has impacted an entire generation of fans, then we want to be sure to celebrate its greatness. After all, in every generation, a slayer is born, & in our second of two Halloween episodes, past guests Elizabeth Cantwell, Jessica Ellis, & Roxana Hadadi join me to discuss all seven seasons of the landmark Gen X/Millennial favorite "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Honoring its legacy, evolution, the creative minds & talents involved, we take you on a journey of the highs & lows of Joss Whedon's Scooby Gang in Sunnydale, California & all seven seasons of episodes of this WB & UPN series. Comprised mostly of a long conversation between myself, Elizabeth, (+ a cameo by her son Cooper) & Jessica, the final segment of this installment includes a great bonus chat/afterward with Vulture TV Critic Roxana Hadadi as well. (Note: We will return in Season 7 with another conversation focused on the spin-off series "Angel.")Originally Posted on Patreon (10/28/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142276745Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Watch With Jen is releasing two Halloween episodes this year for your listening pleasure & we're starting with an appreciation of a man who is synonymous with spooky season! New York Times bestselling author S.A. Cosby (All the Sinners Bleed, King of Ashes) & award-winning novelist William Boyle (City of Margins, Saint of the Narrows Street) return to the podcast to discuss their decades long affection for the written & filmed work of prolific horror master Stephen King.A fast-paced conversation filled with nostalgia, confessions, & stories of a few screenings gone wrong, while we touch on a wide variety of titles including THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE DARK HALF, & THE MIST & offer enough insights for you to need to listen with a notebook & pen, the main films we wanted to cover were SILVER BULLET, MISERY, PET SEMATARY, & SECRET WINDOW. Be sure to share this with any King fans in your life!Originally Posted (10/20/25) on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/141675016Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

It's such a joy to introduce everyone to my delightfully knowledgeable work buddy Pat King (aka PK), who's a veteran bookseller at Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ. One of our most beloved employees with decades of experience, PK is a Book Ninja, in that you can walk in, tell him what you're interested in or the kind of stuff you like & he'll find you your new favorite read. This week, I brought him on to discuss another one of his passions beyond Science Fiction & Horror. As a video game enthusiast & collector, PK is the perfect person to inject the pod (& this heavy year) with a little bit of nostalgia. Sharing our early memories of our first video game systems & favorite games, we move on to discuss the film adaptations of LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER (2001), the first RESIDENT EVIL film (2002), SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (2020), & the recent animated SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE (2023).Originally Posted on Patreon (10/14/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/141220694Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

We're back from our mid-season hiatus! My great pal, author Jed Ayres returns to the podcast once again to explore one of his favorite topics: the hair of Andy Garcia! Lol, no, seriously, while he is admittedly "fascinated" & somewhat obsessed with the man's gorgeous head of hair, over the years, the two of us bonded over our love of Garcia calling Michael Douglas "babe" in Ridley Scott's wild homoerotic action movie BLACK RAIN, having a snowcone fight in 8 MILLION WAYS TO DIE, & so much more. In this rollicking episode, we tackle a trio of the actor's lesser known &/or lesser discussed works, including INTERNAL AFFAIRS (1990), THE GODFATHER: PART III (1990), & DESPERATE MEASURES (1998), & break down the mane & mystique of Andy Garcia, who's one of our favorite cinematic presences, "hair actors"*, & purposeful shouters!*copyright Jed Ayres!Originally Posted on Patreon (10/8/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/140767594Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down over Zoom & chatting with one of my favorite couples, Chris & Elizabeth Cantwell. An L.A.-based television & comic book writer, listeners first heard Chris discuss his work on the brilliant series he co-created HALT & CATCH FIRE in one of Watch With Jen's most popular episodes. His wife is the ever-insightful, poet, teacher, scholar, & Bright Wall/Dark Room essayist & editor Elizabeth Cantwell, who has taught me so much about horror movies over the years.Originally recorded just to cut together into a larger episode alongside other chats about recent Criterion 4K releases, since the podcast is still on a break while I'm dealing with an autoimmune issue, I thought it'd be fun just to release it as an enjoyable, short, thoughtful, story-filled summer coda to the pod. It's also a vital reminder that, while you're planning your vacations in August, to try to avoid any undertaking which requires driving a big rig filled with unstable nitroglycerin across rickety bridges when you're on the run with fake papers in Latin America. That's right, Chris & Elizabeth are here to discuss William Friedkin's masterful 1977 picture SORCERER, which has gained new appreciation over the last decade especially, yet remains one of his most unsung, fascinating, mind-bogglingly ambitious works.Originally Posted on Patreon (7/29/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/watch-with-jen-5-135241438Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Welcome to the fourth installment in our Summer '25 suite of episodes devoted to recent Physical Media releases from The Criterion Collection. This will be the last new episode of Watch With Jen before I go on a brief summer hiatus but I'm hoping to return with more wonderful shows & conversations you'll love in mid to late August. SAINT OF THE NARROWS STREET novelist William Boyle returns this week to discuss Claude Berri's lush, tragic masterpieces JEAN DE FLORETTE & MANON OF THE SPRING, my hilarious & brilliant Boston buddy Sean Burns joins me for Bruce Robinson's cult classic WITHNAIL AND I, & Blake Howard & I venture to Hong Kong for some "California Dreaming" & Tony Leung c/o Wong Kar-wai's CHUNGKING EXPRESS. During our pod break, you'll find more updates & film content on our Patreon (patreon.com/FilmIntuition) where you can sign up as a free member or one who donates monthly (for as little or as much as you wish) to help keep this show running, & check out everything from videos on overlooked film recs to essays on some of the movies most obsessing me at the moment, including a recent piece on WITHNAIL AND I. I'm wishing everyone a happy, healthy, & safe summer break.Originally Posted on Patreon (7/7/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/133594248Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

I've been pre-scheduling podcast episodes this summer &, forgetting that we are now living in a time of anything goes chaos in the U.S., last week's conversation wound up publishing in the hours after the news involving Iran. Hopefully anyone who knows me knows that I wouldn't normally pivot from major world news to self-promotion but I still wanted to take this opportunity to apologize for any confusion or insensitivity that the accidentally ill-timed new episode caused. To make up for that gaffe, I thought I'd deliver this third conversation in our summer suite of episodes devoted to Physical Media early, just in case you're heading to the airport or about to unplug for the next week or so since it's a big time for summer travel here in the states. (So far, nothing Earth-shattering has happened that I'm aware of as I type this but as a friend joked, it's getting harder & harder to find a day without a catastrophe.) In any case, may this be a distraction for you. In last week's new Watch With Jen, we led you down the dark streets of neo-noir. This installment is centered on American independent filmmakers (or in the case of Billy Wilder, very independently minded ones) & is devoted to matters of the heart. Kicking things off, VULTURE's brilliant TV critic & Peabody Awards juror Roxana Hadadi joins me to discuss Sean Baker's Oscar winning ANORA, SAINT OF THE NARROWS STREET novelist William Boyle returns to tackle CHOOSE ME by one of his favorite filmmakers Alan Rudolph, & I reunite with the knowledgeable film essayist Peter Avellino to talk about the magic of Billy Wilder's SOME LIKE IT HOT. Emotional, sparkling, & warm, I know this conversation will delight. Thanks so much for listening! Originally Posted on Patreon (6/27/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132487075Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive