Off Screen Death
100 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 months ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsA podcast about all the things we must do before the inevitable. Mostly watching movies. However one host intends to use that time wisely by looking at respected lists of curation from the likes of Sight And Sound or the AFI's Top 100. Meanwhile the other watches a lot of STARZ.
Really. An unreasonable amount of STARZ. And yet he heroically finds the time to podcast. Before he dies. This is OFF SCREEN DEATH.
Hosted by Michael Denniston and David Giannini.
Artwork by Nathan Thomas Milliner.
Music by Joplin Rice.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Belfast/Odd Man Out (1001 Movies #210)
February 08, 2022 10:00 - 44 minutes - 20.2 MB"It will warm the hearts of a lot of people, including a lot of Academy voters. Is it the best picture of the year? A) Too early to tell, and B) No, but, really, it's fine." Ty Burr of Ty Burr's Watch List damning with faint praise... which is more than one host can muster for the latest throwback to Miramar Oscar schlock of the 90s. Instead he'd rather talk about how to use a random sequence of singing that involves Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph. Not Kenneth Branagh. This movie is crap. L...
Scream/Blade Runner 2049 (1001 Films #1210)
February 02, 2022 10:38 - 39 minutes - 18 MB"It's at a certain point toward the finale that this SCREAM becomes almost as drearily repetitious as the reboot culture it skewers." Pat Smith of Slant Magazine lines up SCREAM for a stab wound, and sadly, we mostly agree. One of our hosts is kind to the movie, and the other is Dave. We talk about waiting too long, the lack of difference between Scream 4 and 5, and how these kids never quite live up to noted thespians like Matthew Lillard and Jamie Kennedy. But then we move on to a great ...
Eternals/The Hunger (RT 55%)
January 11, 2022 10:00 - 46 minutes - 21.4 MB"All superhero movies are ridiculous. That's where the super part comes in. With good superhero movies, you don't notice the ridiculousness- or it doesn't matter. With ETERNALS, you notice." While we are just now catching up to Mark Feeney of the Boston Globe (conveniently timed for its ultimate destiny as a square on Disney+) we find ourselves looking for more comforting ridiculousness in... ... sexy vampires. Not just any sexy vampires. Sexy vampires as played by Catherine Deneuve, David...
King Richard/Life as a House (RT 47%)
January 04, 2022 10:00 - 46 minutes - 21.5 MB"Venus and Serena Williams are the names we rightly remember, but KING RICHARD remains fixated on the male bravado that pushed for them to get their names out there in the first place." Allegra Frank of Slate has no time for male bravado... whereas anyone who has listened to OFF SCREEN DEATH knows that is all this podcast is. Toxic and potent masculinity. So much so that for the failed but mostly well reviewed (ignore our chosen splat above) new Will Smith film we turned our podcasting ey...
The Godfather Part II (AFI #32; Sight and Sound #31)
December 31, 2021 14:00 - 33 minutes - 15.5 MB"Godfather sires weak son." “Coppola’s ambitions THE GODFATHER PART TWO is a slow, aimless and annoyingly restless movie which purports to be about gangsterism but is, in fact, about the boredom of waiting.” These two reviews from The Philadelphia Enquirer (Desmond Ryan) and Philadelphia Daily News (Joe Baltalke), respectively, are placed here for your mockery (seriously, what is going on in Philly??) Obviously, THE GODFATHER PART II is a piece of great American art. That being said, your...
Lucky You (RT 29%)
December 28, 2021 10:00 - 32 minutes - 14.9 MB"Feels like SHOWGIRLS without the tits or dancing." Joshua Rothkopf of TIME OUT is a fan of two things... but not Curtis Hanson's LUCKY YOU. Is Eric Bana to blame for this Diet Coke version of ROUNDERS? Can't be. For he was nominated for Australian Film Institute International Award for Best Actor. What about America's Sweetheart for decades in Drew Barrymore? Maybe. But it most certainly can't be Debra Messing's fault. Even though she is the only reason this film was programmed on this po...
Last Night in Soho/Repulsion (1001 Movies #462)
November 01, 2021 20:58 - 30 minutes - 13.9 MB"Were we supposed to have found it entertaining? There's more horror latent in this notion of the movie audience than in the film itself." And if Pauline Kael's unkind words about Roman Polanski's REPULSION don't do it for you... how about Father Time Rex Reed for LAST NIGHT IN SOHO? “Depraved, delirious, and downright stupid, Last Night in Soho is two hours of amateurish drivel by B-movie director Edgar Wright that pretends to be half-retro Swingin’ Sixties comedy and half-horror thriller...
Rashomon (Sight and Sound #26)
October 18, 2021 16:11 - 32 minutes - 14.7 MB"A film that demonstrates that how you tell your story is just as important as what the story entails." Matt Neal of ABC Radio Australia taps into exactly what makes Rashomon truly great. Sure, many films have cribbed from this style, but none have reached the heights of Akira Kurosawa. But listen in to our discussion, because we talk not only about Rashomon and the Rashomon Effect; but also about the performances, and the outright cynicism of a beloved classic. Subscribe on Apple Podcast...
Enduring Love (RT 59%)
October 11, 2021 16:02 - 35 minutes - 16.1 MB"The whole film... is not thrilling or moving; it is interesting, which is fine by me but will not make it a huge success." Mark Steyn of The Spectator is washing his hands of this stalker film ENDURING LOVE starring Daniel Craig and Rhys Ifans but we are just getting into it as we learn many deep secrets about one host. Such as: Dave is afraid of balloons. Dave likes to see James Bond kissing another man. But be efficient about it; no lollygagging. And Mike likes the movie but would ho...
The Tree of Life (1001 Movies #1147)
September 21, 2021 00:31 - 31 minutes - 14.3 MB"The lack of story or purpose is annoying and at times, the film is too experimental. Topping things off is an abrupt and unsatisfying ending which doesn't leave us with good feeling towards the film." Amy Curtis of We Got This Covered agrees with one of our hosts, especially regarding Malick’s lack of a story. We will call that host... the hero. “If you truly give in to the beauty of this amazing film, you might even find yourself changed by it. How often can you say that at the cinema?” ...
The Mothman Prophecies (RT 52%)
September 09, 2021 09:00 - 41 minutes - 19 MB"A gaudy yet grim science-fiction horror movie of such surpassing silliness, humorless intensity and stylistic overkill that watching it may actually put you in a state of paranoia. Why are these moviemakers persecuting us?" Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune does not seem okay. However we are ESPECIALLY if it involves Richard Gere, America's greatest of the silver foxes. Pair him up for another entry in the Gere and Laura Linney two handers as they take on a giant bug that likes to ...
Black Widow (#1 on Disney Plus Premier Access)
September 06, 2021 06:39 - 29 minutes - 13.6 MB"Black Widow represents the MCU looking back when it should be moving forward. Everything about the movie seems small, even the big action set pieces." James Berardinelli gives words to our comments but not our feelings. Mike and Dave talk about the small scale, road trip camaraderie between ScarJo and Florence Pugh, and touch on why it’s suddenly ok to make fun of superhero nonsense. We also briefly discuss why we are Team ScarJo in the lawsuit connected to this small scale, small profit m...
The Conversation (1001 Films #604)
August 20, 2021 01:40 - 35 minutes - 16.5 MB"Squeezed in right after The Godfather and before Part 2, just two of the most treasured pieces of cinema, Coppola made another film that actually may be his best." Sean Price of The Spool gets it just right according to both of our hosts. As is our habit on accepted classics, we veer off course a little bit to talk about THE CONVERSATION as science-fiction, Mike’s Mormon upbringing (?), and Judy Greer?? It will (mostly) make sense when you listen. But not to worry, we spend most of the ti...
The Nines (RT 65%)
August 17, 2021 01:32 - 33 minutes - 15.3 MB"August is on solid ground when he's riffing on Stephen King and celebrities, but he's stretching when he tries to be David Lynch, which would require a distinctly different kind of brain damage." Robert Davis of Paste Magazine manages to be both kind and extremely unkind in one sentence. But he's got nothing on our first featured Letterboxd user Emaann! It takes about a half hour to do not much more than that as we discus John August's THE NINES. Some of the topics of concern: Ryan Reyno...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ FALSE POSITIVE
August 12, 2021 02:46 - 24 minutes - 11.3 MB"The apparent desire by the core creative team to break from their wilder, messier material by giving FALSE POSITIVE A24 gloss--is understandable. But for a movie with this much blood, it doesn't leave much of a stain." We disagree, Katie Rife of the AV Club. For if we can't count on Pierce Brosnan as an evil gynecologist in a movie... what new releases can we count on? So get in your stirrups and prepare for the warm touch of our LAST Opening Weekend Wasted. Until something really good co...
Claudine (RT 57%)
August 11, 2021 02:46 - 31 minutes - 14.5 MB"A rather simple love story about two experienced and jaded adults." In a splat review, Janet Branagh’s of the Apollo Guide accidentally hits on what exactly there is to love about this movie! Mike and Dave talk about how refreshing it is to see two adults (each with their own problems) fall in love and build something together. Join us as we do our best to “save” CLAUDINE from the unnecessarily mean film critics. Join us (and the Criterion collection) as we celebrate a truly underseen cla...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ FATHERHOOD
August 10, 2021 02:39 - 28 minutes - 13.3 MB"The film, directed and co-written by Paul Weitz, too often goes for the easy resolution, the syrupy payoff and the sense that every character in Matt's orbit is just, like, really really nice." What's wrong with nice, Kevin Maher of The Times? Well... some things are wrong with what one host dubs ABOUT A BOY 2 (such is his fandom of The Auteur Paul Weitz) but the NICER host just wishes people would leave Kevin Hart alone. Kevin Hart in this new release on Netflix, that is. Kevin Hart the ...
The Godfather (AFI #2)
July 28, 2021 01:59 - 49 minutes - 22.8 MB"The Godfather shows that there is still life in the massive production engineering which made Hollywood studios the wonder of the entertainment world in their great days." Alexander Walker of the London Evening Standard unwittingly guides us in our conversation not only of THE GODFATHER, but of where studios should go from here. Mike and Dave both struggle to pinpoint The Godfather of streaming, but weirdly we land on SET IT UP (Mike) and MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (Dave). Of course, yes, we t...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ IN THE HEIGHTS
July 27, 2021 01:52 - 40 minutes - 18.4 MB"They don't make 'em like this any more, truly. For just a second, even those among you who won't be seeing this anyway might wish they did." Danny Leigh of the Financial Times with a strangely threatening positive review for Jon M. Chu's film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical IN THE HEIGHTS. We try not to threaten anybody but possibly each other and one host is bringing the film version of RENT as his weapon of choice. The other? He tries to understand the upset of Twitter and los...
Million Dollar Arm (RT 65%)
July 22, 2021 22:45 - 47 minutes - 21.9 MB"You can see the stuff 'Million Dollar Arm' throws at you from miles away, but that doesn't stop this baseball movie from being genially enjoyable." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times goes for the obvious BALLS analogy... which we would never do. In particular when talking about Jon Hamm or Lake Bell. No... we would never do that. Wouldn't even cross our deviant minds. THANKFULLY we have a guest to get us back on the subject of balls of the sporting kind with Web Bist of TRILOGY IN TH...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ DREAM HORSE
July 21, 2021 22:37 - 31 minutes - 14.6 MB"I didn't find any great pleasure in seeing a story play out (the way) I knew exactly how it was going to play out." Peter Rainer of FilmWeek seems like a bit of a grump and if you've listened to this podcast then YOU KNOW that WE KNOW of what we speak. Look... we're not going to pick on DREAM HORSE. We are just happy that Toni Collette is not in HEREDITARY. Or something like it. Although she does come a bit unglued about this horse. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Spotify Twitter @offscreen...
The Last Picture Show (AFI #95)
June 27, 2021 00:02 - 59 minutes - 27.2 MB"The scene where Sam imparts his wisdom to young buck Bottoms may be the saddest, loveliest moment in 1970s American cinema. And that's saying something." Tom Huddleston of Time Out speaks much more elegantly about Sam than we do, but we have more fun. We invite guest Derek Stewart of The Grand Gesture and Your List, My Command to talk about a formative film for him, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW! We talk about a little bit of everything; including the difference between big city and small town li...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ CRUELLA
June 24, 2021 00:08 - 29 minutes - 13.5 MB"These clothes are the boldest element of a movie that otherwise wears its supposed punk-rock influences like a kid discovering Hot Topic for the first time." Angie Han of Mashable isn't wrong... but that's kind of mean. Although that may be keeping in the spirit of this cat fight (for the girls, calm down) between Emma Stone and Emma Thompson in the latest attempt from Disney to keep remaking the same story over and over. Okay, so even our show notes are becoming a bit mean for a family f...
Wild Mountain Thyme (RT 26%)
June 18, 2021 01:00 - 32 minutes - 15 MB"One remains staggered that sentient human beings who walk upright and use cutlery believed this was a respectable use of their valuable time." Donald Clarke of the Irish Times is harsh but fair in his assessment of yet another star vehicle that misuses the talents of one of your host's favorite leading ladies. You know... we are beginning to see a trend here of women in Hollywood not getting the best material befitting of their talents. Perhaps that's a trend someone should look into. Not...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ FOUR GOOD DAYS
June 17, 2021 00:47 - 38 minutes - 17.5 MB"These are important stories that should be seen, but audiences need more than scripts that are primarily acting exercises." Nell Minow of RogertEbert.com is a true professional in her distaste for awards chasing films like FOUR GOOD DAYS... but as amateurs talking into a tin can over a Zoom call we are free to get down into the mucky muck and not care much for Mila Kunis without teeth. Even if one of us did pay discount Tuesday prices for the privilege. Our guest on the other hand, Derek...
Touch of Evil (Sight and Sound #57)
June 03, 2021 14:00 - 41 minutes - 19.1 MB"The film has always been a favorite of those who enjoy visual and dramatic flamboyance." From probably our best known critic, Roget Ebert, and we agree! TOUCH OF EVIL is proof that even movies on all of these pretentious lists can actually be fun. We take a look at what amounts to a B movie, but with a great director at the helm. We also touch on the objectionable brownface of Charlton Heston (of all people) as a Mexican officer of the law, as well as the glorious acting ability and beauty...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW
June 02, 2021 14:00 - 35 minutes - 16.1 MB"Watching it, you have to wonder exactly what kind of movie anyone though they were making." Alissa Wilkinson of Vox plainly states what we agree with, that this movie is a complete mess and a mishmash of poor choices. Join Mike, Dave, and returning guest Web of TRILOGY IN THEORY (finally here for a movie with pasty white people) as we try to work through the convoluted story. We fear that we won’t be much help. Web can barely recall the name of the movie after about 25 minutes of frustr...
Remember My Name (RT 67%)
June 01, 2021 14:00 - 38 minutes - 17.5 MB"Throughout REMEMBER MY NAME the actors work hard to fulfill the surface requirements of scenes that have no dramatic foundation, and the results are often skittish and baffling." Unlike Janet Maslin of the New York Times one host can't get enough Anthony Perkins so we return to him as a leading man in this episode. This produces troubling results as the other host thinks he's a "nice guy" in this somewhat hard-to-find film (unless you aren't an animal and have Turner Classic Movies) and th...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ HERE TODAY
May 31, 2021 14:26 - 39 minutes - 18.2 MB"This is maybe one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's just terrible, awkward, stiff, and never funny." Filmweek’s Christy Lemire says in one sentence what we do in about 40 minutes. If you think details are important, listen to our show. It’s better than reading, anyway. Those details? Well... Billy Crystal is not funny. HERE TODAY is bad at manipulation. A discussion of whether or not a stick of butter is kinky. Billy Crystal is not hot enough to be in this movie. We provide t...
Psycho 1960 (AFI #14) and Psycho 1998 (RT 39%)
May 13, 2021 01:00 - 58 minutes - 27.2 MB"The first American movie since TOUCH OF EVIL to stand in the same creative rank as the great European films" “As Norman Bates, Vince Vaughn makes us better appreciate how much Anthony Perkins brought to the original project.” Same title, same shots (mostly), slightly different results from the critic’s circle. In our Mother’s Day episode (get it? Sorry.), Mike and Dave take a close look at the classic, PSYCHO. To get a slightly different angle, Dave finally watches the remake from 1998, w...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ TOM CLANCY'S WITHOUT REMORSE
May 11, 2021 00:20 - 26 minutes - 12.2 MB"There are forehead-smacking lapses of common sense and the conspiracy at the movie's core is just plain dumb." This is one of many “splats” from the dumbass critics who didn’t like WITHOUT REMORSE as much as you very smart hosts of Off Screen Death. Let’s go over this, shall we? Michael B. Jordan rules... again. Muscles are good, actually. It's a little predictable but who cares? Shut up. We like fun and no one else does. Both hosts hope you listen to us and not the word of mouth and...
Opening Weekend Wasted with TOM CLANCY'S WITHOUT REMORSE
May 11, 2021 00:20 - 26 minutes - 12.2 MB"There are forehead-smacking lapses of common sense and the conspiracy at the movie's core is just plain dumb." This is one of many “splats” from the dumbass critics who didn’t like WITHOUT REMORSE as much as you very smart hosts of Off Screen Death. Let’s go over this, shall we? Michael B. Jordan rules... again. Muscles are good, actually. It's a little predictable but who cares? Shut up. We like fun and no one else does. Both hosts hope you listen to us and not the word of mouth and...
Vanilla Sky (RT 42%)
May 06, 2021 00:59 - 43 minutes - 21.1 MB"I now find Cruise tolerable only when he's in a movie that undercuts or ridicules his narcissism-- as EYES WIDE SHUT did and as this movie does even more noticeably." Jonathan Rosenbaum is not nice to Tom Cruise... but he's not wrong here. FOR THAT... you must listen to one host (Dave) as he clearly makes poor dating decision one after the other and did not learn a SINGLE THING from Cameron Crowe's masterpiece VANILLA SKY. The lessons, such as they are: Cameron Diaz brings sustenance (and...
Opening Weekend Wasted w/ STOWAWAY
April 27, 2021 02:10 - 32 minutes - 16.1 MB"For all the empathy it expects of its viewers... the film is troublingly removed from human reality." When in doubt... go to The New York Times when you need a solid Rotten Tomatoes splat to back up your argument. And what points does this episode contain? Netflix is the modern straight to video and we wish they would stop. But... Anna Kendrick. Is a Diet Coke version of APOLLO 13 and THE MARTIAN really a problem that needs solved? On the other hand... Anna Kendrick. And finally... is...
All About Eve (AFI #28) and All About Steve (RT 6%)
April 25, 2021 21:54 - 57 minutes - 27.3 MBThe two biggest award winners for All About movies! Yes, we have a special treat for your Oscar season listening. We present a double episode, this time covering ALL ABOUT EVE and ALL ABOUT STEVE. Despite the similar names, they are not in the least bit similar themselves. Following are two quotes from reviews, see if you can work out which is the classic. “It has substance in virtually every dramatic and romantic mood, which have been given proper shading and projection by producer Darry...
Waterworld (RT 47%)
April 25, 2021 02:54 - 41 minutes - 20.3 MB"That Costner's antihero should be so fundamentally dislikable is entirely acceptable... but that he should also be deadly dull is far less tolerable." Sounds like Anton Bitel of Little White Lies should focus more on important matters, like Kevin Costner's hairline, and less on the man's ability to banter. On this episode we keep our eye on the ball (a movie star's dome) and celebrate Earth Day with a non-4k screening of WATERWORLD. In this episode we learn that while now this movie may ju...
His Girl Friday (1001 Films #141)
April 23, 2021 03:06 - 41 minutes - 19.4 MB"Except to add that we've seen THE FRONT PAGE under its own name and others so often before we've grown a little tired of it, we don't mind conceding HIS GIRL FRIDAY is a bold-faced reprint of what was once- and still remains- the maddest newspaper comedy of our times." Frank Nugent of the New York Times gives one of the most backhanded compliments imaginable to a certified classic in HIS GIRL FRIDAY. Basically, it’s just like this other really good movie, but that’s fine, I guess! Will ou...
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (RT 42%)
April 22, 2021 02:53 - 1 hour - 31.3 MB"Both lovers are duplicitous creeps -- in a perverse way they're made for each other." Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader sounds fun at parties... but he's not wrong about Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey in HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS. He's just wrong about how enjoyable it is to see Ms. Hudson take a wrecking ball to a man that one host calls "too pretty" and the other thinks is too picky about names for his penis. It's clearly an episode about CLASSIC CINEMA and as such we even...
It Happened One Night (AFI #46)
April 20, 2021 23:15 - 49 minutes - 22.6 MB"I just finished the worst picture in the world." Star Claudette Colbert upon finishing filming. Geez, Claudette, what were you looking at? Both hosts, and our guest Erica had a great time with this one. Sure Mike still hasn’t opened his Criterion copy, but at least he stimulated the IHON economy by purchasing it on digital as well! We cover a lot of ground here; including Matthew McConaughey movies, when it’s ok to tell a woman what to eat, and the best way to troll your rich boss. This o...
Road Trip (RT 57%)
April 19, 2021 23:07 - 34 minutes - 16.9 MB"ROAD TRIP is nothing more than a series of sight gags and put-down. It's often funny, but it never has anything smart to say." So says stick-in-the-mud Bob Longino of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. However, AS ALWAYS, the hosts of OFF SCREEN DEATH have the last word on cinema. And cinema is exactly what this Todd Phillips masterpiece is. A sex tape gone missing! A hero's journey to retrieve said sex tape! Unfortunately we don't get to see said sex tape... ...but fortunately we are m...
Withnail & I (BFI #29)
April 10, 2021 03:25 - 36 minutes - 41.6 MB"This is and always will be a perfect dark comedy." William Thomas of Empire would definitely love our choice of movie...but maybe not our opinion of it. We discuss the idea of cult films and how it has changed just in the last few years. But WITHNAIL AND I took place many years before that, and it is possible that it is a product of its time. A 1987 film, set in the late 70’s, and we attempted to watch it in 2021. If it is truly timeless, that shouldn’t matter, but we are putting that to ...
American Desi (38% RT)
April 08, 2021 03:25 - 1 hour - 31.5 MB"Clubfooted but earnest, Pandya's movie never forgets about its second-gen issues, but never quite plumbs them, either." "Clubfooted" is always a good way to start off describing a selection on OFF SCREEN DEATH. Which is why for most of the runtime of this episode we let our guest WEB BIST of TRILOGY IN THEORY explain this personal pick of his in AMERICAN DESI. So personal that it may prove very hard to find. We don't make it easy for you, but the whites on this podcast do connect with thi...
The Crying Game (BFI #26)
April 06, 2021 22:49 - 46 minutes - 21.3 MB"Jordan's wonderful film does what Hitchcock's PSYCHO, a very different film, also did: It involves us deeply in its story, and then reveals the the story is really about something else altogether. We may have been fooled, but so was the hero, and as the plot reveals itself we find ourselves identifying more and more with him.: Roger Ebert goes to bat for a classic that both of our host can actually agree on. But with one host watching this for the third time and another on a first time wat...
Spartan (65% RT)
April 03, 2021 19:30 - 40 minutes - 19.6 MB"Imagine David Mamet rewriting his political satire WAG THE DOG as a joke-free kidnap drama. Or don't imagine, just pony up for the glum spectacle of SPARTAN" Peter Travers of ROLLING STONE does not share our sense of humor or our large audience but that's okay because we've got something most people don't: SPARTAN on DVD. Or at least one host does. And that's good enough for him as we go back to working without a list and instead the consumer decisions that were made pre-VERONICA MARS.....
The Searchers (AFI #12)
March 15, 2021 20:42 - 52 minutes - 24.1 MB"The greatest Hollywood film that few people have seen." We’re not sure if this was true when written in 2013 by Glenn Frankel, but given its spot high on many lists, it’s probably not true now. We take a look at a beloved western, THE SEARCHERS and find out if it holds up. Also we learn to just stay home and spit on a log. Thankfully our guest did not stay put, Zita Short of The 300 Passions Podcast joins us so she can cross a classic movie off of her list. We are pretty sure there are no...
Brief Encounter (BFI #2)
February 14, 2021 23:59 - 38 minutes - 18.2 MB"It's refreshing to find a classic romance without meet-cutes and pathetic attempts to be clever, with two adults who know what is happening to them." Michael Mirasol of RogerEbert.com throws the hammer down at basically the entire modern romance genre in his review of our movie, BRIEF ENCOUNTER. It will be interesting to hear our thoughts, because unlike Mean Michael here, we happen to like meet-cutes and out of control romances. And there is definitely some pressure here. From a great fil...
Unfaithful (50% RT)
February 14, 2021 01:00 - 44 minutes - 20.6 MB"UNFAITHFUL, yet another soon-to-be-forgotten Richard Gere vehicle..." Well, not on OFF SCREAN DEATH you bastards at CNN.com in what some would describe as a film review of a 2002 new release but we would call a horrific attack on the world's greatest silver fox. For indeed regifting is worse than having an affair. Also we should note that this is a Diane Lane vehicle as she was nominated for her role in yet another (not complaining) Adrian Lyne erotic thriller. We debate the merits of tha...
Another Woman (64% RT)
February 13, 2021 02:56 - 40 minutes - 18.7 MB“Once again, Allen has mistaken unfunny for serious.” Rita Kempley of The Washington Post was not a fan of our film selection for this episode... and we have a feeling that we may lose what little listenership we have for this new movie podcast by praising Woody Allen's ability to write great roles for women, discussing the troubling aspects of Mia Farrow as a muse and ANOTHER WOMAN. But mostly it's about how great Gena Rowlands is and if honesty and hope makes for a happy ending. All of th...
The Apartment (AFI #93)
January 18, 2021 15:18 - 43 minutes - 39 MB"The best non-masterpiece of American cinema." The above quote on THE APARTMENT comes from critic Mark Cousins and NOT the fine gentlemen of OFF SCREEN DEATH. No, we were too busy making fun of Jack Lemmon for trying on that silly hat. But we did learn how to strain spaghetti. Initially divisive (The Saturday Review called it "a dirty fairy tale") it did go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1960 but has never climbed the lists like some of Billy Wilder's other films like SUNS...
Welcome to Your OFF SCREEN DEATH
January 04, 2021 04:00 - 17 minutes - 8.46 MBA Trailer for Death Off Screen As if 2020 wasn't bad enough here's a podcast from Michael Denniston and David Giannini contemplating how they are spending their time on earth and here's the worst part: It's recording yet another film podcast. But along the way they watch a bunch of movies although their starting points may be different. One man is a snob that nobody loves as he punishes himself for not having all of the Criterion Collection and hopes to one day see all of the 1001 movies ...