The Mastermind

This week we enter a new era of Scorsese’s filmography with Gangs of New York, the first of many collaborations with Leonardo DiCaprio! This bombastic and stylish pastiche of 1860s New York is a rollicking good time, and we’re honestly a bit shocked that it’s not more commonly considered one of Scorsese’s true classics. We get into Leo’s bad hair, Leo’s bad accent, DDL’s bad hair, DDL’s good accent, the fantastic cinematography of Michael Ballhaus, and all the stories of how awful it was to work with Harvey Weinstein.

The last film Scorsese made in the 20th century is a bleak and morbid tale of a bleak and morbid man driving an ambulance. That man? Nicholas Cage. His mental state? Constantly haunted by the ghosts of all those he’s seen die. Samuel bounced off the medical tropes in this film hard, while Henry found enough Schrader-isms in the script to have a good time. Topics discussed include backpack collecting, believing in ghosts, D.C. to J.C., medical salaries, cab driver racism, and shocking revelations about the hospital symbol.

Who could’ve predicted that Martin Scorsese would make a film about His Holiness the Dalai Lama? In one of his more underseen films (the reasons for that we get into), Scorsese is able to tell a tragic story of persecution and faith while also highlighting a unique culture and spirituality. We get into all that plus Disney’s cowardly burying of this movie, and how most of what we know about Buddhist monks come from The Last Airbender.

Today we’re hitting the slots and talking about Casino, a three-hour epic that’s more or less “what if Goodfellas but in Las Vegas.” The result? A pretty good movie! We discuss the unique narration choices, Sharon Stone’s terrific performance, the seven (!) Rolling Stones needle drops, and get into several tangents about revisiting Bram Stoker’s Dracula, craving blueberry muffins, and Mitch McConnell’s continued existence.

This week we discuss The Age of Innocence, Scorsese’s attempt at adapting the Edith Wharton novel of the same name. If you ask Samuel, who read and thoroughly enjoyed Wharton’s novel, this adaptation gets most of the way to conveying the same social critique and parched emotions, though it still leaves a lot out. We get into all the comparisons, along with the benefits of narration, Michael Ballhaus’ remarkable camerawork, and much more.

(CW: Mild discussion of sexual assault throughout the episode.) We’re returning to Scorsese! This week we’re kicking off the second half of his filmography with his early 90s thriller Cape Fear. Did Scorsese make this as a favor to Universal? Yes. Rather than phone it in, did he do everything he could to make this a campy over-the-top rollercoaster ride? Also yes! In addition to breaking down De Niro’s off-kilter performance, we also compare this movie to the 1962 original, lament how movies like this don’t get made anymore, come up with some genuinely diabolical peak viewing recommendations, and rant about Amazon Prime’s awful ad insertion choices.

We’re closing the book on Kelly Reichardt with her latest film The Mastermind. This subversive heist film has everything: great 70s vibes, a jazzy score, Vietnam parallels, and a man who is anything but a mastermind. We also create a custom month-by-month watching experience for Reichardt’s filmography, give our rankings on her movies, and announce the next miniseries!

This week we’re on time and talking about Showing Up, a movie about creativity, responsibility, and the intersection of those two things. It’s slow and ponderous, cozy and contemplative, poignant and profound. It also features Andre 3000 and is Kelly Reichardt’s funniest movie (well, maybe until next week). We discuss our thoughts, along with our problems with the Incredibles sequel, Henry’s frustrating week with doors, and the enigma of a man named Craig.

First Cow is a heartwarming tale of friendship, opportunity, and oily cakes, set in the lush and untamed land of Oregon nearly 200 years ago. It’s a movie with unabashedly wholesome vibes, while still inserting a pretty scathing critique of capitalism in its infancy. We get into all that, plus our thoughts on baked goods, rebates, and natural flavors that we supposedly used to get from beavers.

Anthology films can be a mixed bag, so it’s safe to say that Certain Women has us more mixed than any Kelly Reichardt movie so far. Laura Dern’s story is good but occasionally too on-the-nose, Lily Gladstone’s chapter is the highlight of the movie, and Michelle Williams made Samuel so mad that he couldn’t see straight. Still, the landscape is gorgeous, the performances are excellent, and there’s enough parallels between the narratives to make for an interesting discussion.