Sibling Cinema

This week, we return to the films of Steven Spielberg, discussing one of his lesser-known epics, Empire of the Sun, starring a 13-year-old Christian Bale in one of his first movies.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety. If you haven't seen this masterpiece, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.An Amblin Entertainment production, released by Warner Bros. on December 25, 1987. Directed and produced by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Tom Stoppard (and an uncredited Menno Meyjes), based on the semi-autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard. Starring Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers, Joe Pantoliano, and Ben Stiller. Cinematography by Allen Daviau. Edited by Michael Kahn. Score by John Williams.

This week, we return to the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films. Coming in at #95, we discuss Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show, an elegiac portrait of a fading Texas town and its residents. SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety. If you haven't seen this classic, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A BBS Productions presentation, released by Columbia Pictures on October 22, 1971. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Screenplay by Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich, based on the novel The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry. Starring Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, and Eileen Brennan. Cinematography by Robert Surtees. Edited by Donn Cambern. Music compiled from archival recordings of Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Eddy Arnold, and Jo Stafford.

This week, we return to Billy Wilder, discussing his 18th feature, the little-seen Cold War farce, One, Two, Three.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety. If you haven't seen this underrated gem, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Mirisch Company production, released by United Artists on December 15, 1961. Directed and produced by Billy Wilder. Screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, based on the one-act play Egy, kettő, három by Ferenc Molnár. Starring James Cagney, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Arlene Francis, Liselotte Pulver, and Howard St. John. Cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp. Edited by Daniel Mandell. Score by André Previn.

This week, we discuss Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple. It's a change of pace for Spielberg and starts a new era of his career. It also prompted one of our lengthiest discussions.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety. If you haven't seen this classic, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Amblin Entertainment production, released by Warner Bros. on December 18, 1985. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Menno Meyjes, based on the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery, Akosua Busia, and Willard E. Pugh. Cinematography by Allen Daviau. Edited by Michael Kahn. Score by Quincy Jones.

This week, we return to Billy Wilder’s masterpiece, The Apartment. We reviewed it a few years back as part of our Best Picture winners series and come back to it now with our Wilder series.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety. If you haven't seen this classic, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Mirisch Company production, released by United Artists on June 15, 1960. Directed and produced by Billy Wilder. Screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond. Starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, and Jack Kruschen. Cinematography by Joseph LaShelle. Edited by Daniel Mandell. Score by Adolph Deutsch (featuring Charles Williams's theme "Theme from The Apartment").

This week, we continue our countdown of Walt Disney Animation Studio's animated feature films with the seldom-seen package film, Saludos Amigos. The ranking is based on an aggregate of each film's IMdB, Letterboxd, FlickChart, Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores, and this one comes in at #57 out of 65.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety, for what it's worth. If you haven't seen this classic, we suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Walt Disney Productions presentation, released by RKO Radio Pictures on February 6, 1943 (following a special premiere in Rio de Janeiro in August 1942). Directed by Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, and Bill Roberts. Written by Bill Cottrell, Ted Sears, Erdman Penner, Ralph Wright, Roy Williams, DeLess Cleveland, Harry Reeves, and Joe Grant. Starring the voices of José Oliveira (as Zé Carioca), Fred Shields, Frank Graham, and featuring appearances by Walt Disney and his artists. Music by Edward H. Plumb, Charles Wolcott, and Paul J. Smith.

This week, we return to our countdown of Walt Disney Animation Studio's animated features. The list is very unscientific, and is just a homemade ranking that aggregates each film's scores from iMDb, Letterboxd, FlickChart, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. We are up to #58, Dinosaur, a film that deployed cutting-edge CGI animation with live-action wilderness backgrounds, but is lacking in story and character.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety,. If you haven't seen this film, we suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Walt Disney Pictures production. Released on May 19, 2000. Directed by Ralph Zondag and Eric Leighton. Written by John Harrison and Robert G. Nelson. Starring the voices of D.B. Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Max Casella, Hayden Panettiere, and Julianna Margulies. Edited by H. Lee Peterson. Score by James Newton Howard.

This week, we return to the films of Steven Spielberg. We are skipping 1983's Twilight Zone: The Movie, which Spielberg only partially directed, although we do discuss it here. The main subject of this episode though, is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Spielberg's first sequel and a film that directly inspired the creation of the PG-13 rating.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety. If you haven't seen this classic, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Lucasfilm production, released by Paramount Pictures on May 23, 1984. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, based on a story by George Lucas. Starring Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan, Amrish Puri, and Roshan Seth. Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe. Edited by Michael Kahn. Music by John Williams.

This week, we return to the films of Billy Wilder with one of his most famous films, the 1959 farce Some Like It Hot, a lightning-fast, drag comedy that features an iconic performance by Marilyn Monroe and one of the most famous closing lines in cinema history.SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety,. If you haven't seen this classic, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A Mirisch Company production, released by United Artists on March 29, 1959. Directed and produced by Billy Wilder. Screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, based on a story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan. Starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, George Raft, Joe E. Brown, and Pat O'Brien. Cinematography by Charles Lang. Edited by Dan Mandell. Score by Adolph Deutsch.

Apologies for the poor audio quality. A microphone was not functioning properly and it was difficult to salvage.This week, we return to the American Film Institutes list of the 100 greatest American films with #95, Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, a film that depicts racial tensions of a single hot summer day in Brooklyn SPOILER ALERT We will be talking about this movie in its entirety. If you haven't seen this classic, we strongly suggest you watch it before listening to our takes.A 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks production, released by Universal Pictures on July 21, 1989. Directed, written, and produced by Spike Lee. Starring Danny Aiello, Spike Lee, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito, John Turturro, Samuel L. Jackson, and Rosie Perez. Cinematography by Ernest R. Dickerson. Edited by Barry Alexander Brown. Music by Bill Lee (with the iconic theme "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy).