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[ indistinct chatter ]

Meetinghouse Productions, Inc.

Proudly independent and ad-free since 2018, the [ indistinct chatter ] podcast (formerly Full Cast and Crew Podcast) stands out in a crowded field by focusing on emotional reactions to films as much as it shares the entertaining anecdotes behind their making and seeks to place movies in context with our shared experiences as filmgoers coming of age in the 70s, 80s, and beyond.

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  • 22 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 15 min
  • English

Episodes 22

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  • October 6 · 1 hr 13 min

    299. Bearer Bonds & Movie Plots 1967-1995

    "I dare you to do an episode about bearer bonds!" -Fraser Rice, Host, 'Wealth Actually' Podcast CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Many thanks to my guest, Kiah Lau Haslett for her insightful, funny, and (very important for a guy who counts on his fingers) easy-to-understand bearer bond background. You can read her excellent piece on the history of bearer bonds here. Also, I've changed the name of the podcast. More on that in a future episode.

  • S1 · E298
    September 29 · 1 hr 13 min

    298. Die Hard (1988)

    In this installment of Sacred Cows, I take a fresh and possibly first look at 'Die Hard', John McTiernan's action classic that I can't remember if I ever actually saw before. It turns out there is plenty of subversive stuff going on beneath all the action, and it's no wonder that the film did such boffo box office...and also all the more disappointing that it went on to spawn such apparently uninspired sequels; something all the more ironic given the original film's general distaste for Capitalism, greed, and middle-manager icompetence. It ALSO turns out that the love story at the center of 'Die Hard' might just be a little more surprising than the film would at first blush own up to. Join me, won't you?? You know all the famous lines, but let's kick the tires on 'Die Hard' and find out if it's GOATed status is deserved...or deserving of a 40-story free fall off the Nakatomi Tower.

  • S1 · E297
    September 16 · 1 hr 43 min

    297. Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

    SEQUELS... In this episode, I take a look at one of the most infamous film debacles of all time: John Boorman's ill-advised, poorly conceived, crowd-displeasing follow-up to one of the greatest and most popular horror films ever made. How could it go wrong? From the start, throughout, and even after release. Let me count the ways. Also, a bit on our current moment of performative reclamation of movies that are just demonstrably awful. Resist!

  • S1 · E296
    September 4 · 1 hr 29 min

    296. Michael Keaton, Glenn Close & Robert Duvall in 'The Paper' (1994)

    One of the great newspaper movies, a great NYC location movie, a great set-dressing movie, a great acting movie...on and on. The Paper deserves more recognition; it's aged particularly well as a love letter to and from a very particular time in the media business.

  • S1 · E295
    August 28 · 31 min

    295. Dolly Parton & UK Crime Show Recs

    Summer's rapidly ending and it's time to get back to the FCAC rhythm and routine. Some thoughts on the passing of Dolly Parton and some UK crime shows I've been watching of late, notably the Apple TV series 'Criminal Record'.

  • S1 · E294
    July 28 · 1 hr 28 min

    294. 'Crossing Delancey' (1988)

    Joan Micklin Silver's 1988 NYC love-letter/romantic comedy Crossing Delancey is one of the superlative NYC films of all time. And watching it today, it's hard not to mourn the loss of the sense of collective experience as New Yorkers she puts onscreen, given our current situation in the City of so much divisive rhetoric and violence. And this film righteously upends the conventions of its genre and allows a fantastic collage of actors to shine in roles as notable for their refusal to stereotype as they are for their humor and depth of feeling. Rachel Syme's great essay City Girl, about Crossing Delancey

  • S1 · E293
    July 21 · 28 min

    293. Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' (2026)

    Go and see 'The Odyssey' in the biggest and best theater you can. You won't regret it. A rollicking great epic cinematic event. Historian Tom Holland interviews Actor Tom Holland on The Rest is History. The Rest Is History does The Odyssey (the poem).

  • S1 · E192
    July 17 · 1 hr 38 min

    292. Robert Redford in 'The Candidate' (1972)

    Michael Ritchie and Redford's still-searingly satiric and spot-on takedown of political operatives and image crafting, peddling, and pandering in the modern campaign-industrial complex speaks louder than ever, given recent events in our body politic.

  • S1 · E290
    July 2 · 1 hr 10 min

    290. 'Dogfight' (1991)

    Nancy Savoca & Bob Comfort's wonderful jewel-box gem of an American independent film from 1991.

  • S1 · E289
    June 23 · 1 hr 22 min

    289. 'Running On Empty' (1988)

    Sidney Lumet and Naomi Foner (and Executive Producers Griffin Dunne and Lisa Robinson) took what in lesser hands would be a family melodrama and allowed it to become an incredibly mature, layered, complicated story resting entirely on the capable shoulders of its cast of wonderful actors...not least 17-year-olds Martha Plimpton and River Phoenix, a couple off-screen and on.

  • S1 · E288
    June 19 · 47 min

    288. [indistinct chatter] 6/19

    In this weeks [indistinct chatter] episode: Disclosure Day The Social Reckoning Clarkson's Farm Season 5 Next Week's Episode of Movies I I Haven't Seen. Musings, anecdotes, recriminations.

  • S1 · E287
    June 9 · 1 hr 32 min

    287. 'Billy Jack' (1971)

    GO AHEAD AND HATE YOUR NEIGHBOR/GO AHEAD AND CHEAT A FRIEND..... The dramatic and soaring vocals of Coven's Jinx Dawson are forever associated with Tom Laughlin's oddball, enduring, sometimes muddled statement on non-violence and the ways of the White Man and the Natives, 'Billy Jack'. How and why this film struck a nerve upon its director-assisted wide release in 1971 is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Upon rewatch, I found the more improvised scenes featuring non-actors surprisingly effective and the film as a whole curiously immune from cynicism.

  • S1 · E286
    June 3 · 1 hr 46 min

    286. 'The Times of Harvey Milk' (1984)

    Rob Epstein and Richard Schmiechen's 1984 documentary about the life and shocking 1978 killing of San Francisco gay activist and Board of Supervisors member Harvey Milk is one of the great American documentaries and a still-vital example of the power of straightforward documentary filmmaking. Jon Else's brilliant feature on the film.

  • S1 · E285
    May 26 · 1 hr 48 min

    285. 'Misery' Commentary Track

    Watch-along by pressing play when I say, or simply enjoy the auditory delights of listening to me comment along with 'Misery' and fill in the anecdotes, line readings, thoughts and questions that arise.

  • S1 · E284
    May 21 · 49 min

    284. Movies I've Never Seen: 'Misery' (1990)

    Yeah, so I never saw 'Misery'. Did I miss anything? Find out in this breezy, bubbly, downright Liberace-esque episode, where, in an admittedly hacky concept, I watch a movie I've never seen and then tell you all about what I thought.

  • S1 · E283
    May 12 · 1 hr 49 min

    283. 'Dog Day Afternoon' (1975) Part 2: The Real Story

    In the second of my two-parter on Dog Day Afternoon, we get out of the fictional universe of the film and explore the real people behind the characters shown onscreen. John Wojtowicz' life proved truly stranger and more depressingly pedestrian than fiction. So much so that he preferred the fictional version of himself and performed that role for the rest of his life after being released from prison in 1978 until his death in 2006. The LIFE Magazine article that caught the attention of Pacino's producer and manager. A very good jailhouse interview with John Wojtowicz from the Village Voice's Cliff Jahr. The excellent documentary Based on a True Story: Dog Day Afternoon by the Dutch filmmaker Walter Stokman. The documentary that covers more of the end of John's life, The Dog. Pierre Huyghe's installation video art piece Third Memory, an indispensable part of understanding memory, film, and the roles we perform. I didn't get to this in the podcast but here's an unpublished essay John wrote to the NY Times reviewing the film. 1978 Washington Post profile of John, freshly out of prison.

  • S1 · E282
    May 12 · 1 hr 45 min

    282. 'Dog Day Afternoon' (1975) Part 1: The Film

    Sidney Lumet's 1975 masterpiece of naturalistic filmmaking is many things: a bank robbery procedural, a time capsule of 1970's NYC political and economic movements, a groundbreaking cinematic portrayal of a leading gay character, and maybe the most Brooklyn film of all time. In Episode 1 of my two-parter, I do the usual deep dive into the hows and whys of the ways in which the film still lands emotionally and experientially for viewers today. In Part 2, I'll delve into fact vs fiction, digging into the real Sonny and Sal as well as exploring some of how the real-life protagonist of the robbery began to live the version of events shown onscreen...and even came to embellish the facts far beyond the realm of plausibility. It's an incredible true story that makes you wonder what's stranger: fact or the fiction spun from it?

  • S1 · E281
    May 8 · 40 min

    281. [Indistinct Chatter] 5/8

    [the week's collected thoughts] Climbing Docs I recommend: The Dark Wizard (HBO) Assault on El Capitan (Prime) Fine Lines (Prime) The Alpinist (Prime) Valley Uprising (Prime) The Summit (Prime) Meru (Prime) The White Mountain (Prime)

  • S1 · E280
    May 5 · 1 hr 16 min

    280. Sacred Cows: The Star Wars Films

    In the second of my infrequently recurring series, Sacred Cows, I'm taking a look anew at Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.

Showing 1–20 of 22 episodes