Random Acts of Cinema

259 episodes - English - Latest episode: 20 days ago - ★★★★ - 13 ratings

Each week friends Mike and Charlie have Randy (the random number generator) select a film for them to watch from the Criterion Collection. Then they discuss and review it for your listening pleasure. It’s a podcast about the love of film, expanding horizons, painstakingly cataloging the duration of every long take, and friendship.

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Episodes

767 - My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

August 12, 2019 11:00 - 46 minutes - 31 MB

This random number generator selection process that we’re using seems to be doing the trick. For what better way to follow up a 1960s Czech medieval drama than a 1980s British coming-of-age comic drama? Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette is just what we needed. Th-Th-Th-Th-Thatcher. If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be reviewing and discussing Victor Shertzinger’s The Mikado (1939).

661 - Marketa Lazarova (1967)

August 05, 2019 11:00 - 59 minutes - 27.7 MB

Now we’re getting into it. This is the real deep-level Criterion Collection stuff here. Legendary - but largely unknown in the U.S. - all-time Czech historic cinema: František Vláčil's 1967 medieval epic Marketa Lazarova. Feuding clans must contend with themselves, the Holy Roman Empire, and the occasional mad Christian preacher. Have we found our first hidden gem, or is this the first sign that we’ve doomed ourselves to 899 or so perplexing art films of questionably-earned reputations? ...

446 - An Autumn Afternoon (1962)

July 29, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 45.5 MB

This is the second of two iconic Japanese filmmakers in a row. Last week we went big with Kurosawa so that can only mean Yasujiro Ozu is next. His Autumn Afternoon of 1962 brings us into the gentlest of domestic dramas. But can it possibly be... too gentle? If you'd like to watch ahead fro next week's film, we'll be reviewing and discussing František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarova (1967).

138 - Rashomon (1950)

July 22, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 35.9 MB

This is a big one. If we were to compile our top 10 most “classic” Criterion titles, this film would be somewhere on that list. Probably. At least that’s what we are going to find out for sure in this weeks review of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon of 1950. Our first foray into Japanese cinema! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s films, we’ll be reviewing and discussing Yasujiro Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon (1962).

350 - Seduced And Abandoned (1964)

July 15, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 42 MB

What’s the perfect follow-up to a gritty tale of crime in 1981 Chicago? Why, it could only be a 1964 Italian social satire of love, family, Sicilian customs, and the law! Pietro Germi’s Seduced and Abandoned introduces us to our first Criterion comedy. Linen suits and dolly zooms! If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we’ll be reviewing and discussing Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950).

691 - Thief (1981)

July 08, 2019 15:40 - 52 minutes - 24.4 MB

We jump forward 26 years to go on a caper with Michael Mann's Thief of 1981. It's got everything: perpetually wet city streets, magic hour danish, and an entirely non-comedic performance by Jim Belushi (some things never change...zing!)

213 - Richard III (1955)

July 01, 2019 16:48 - 53 minutes - 35.1 MB

We're off to a truly grand start of our self-determined but entirely aimless journey through the Criterion Collection with Sir Laurence Olivier's 1955 filmed adaptation of William Shakespeare's Richard III. Come for the acting, but stay for the hats! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we'll be reviewing and discussing Michael Mann's Thief (1981).

000 - Introduction & The Premise

June 27, 2019 07:03 - 29 minutes - 13.8 MB

Quiet on the set! Before we start watching movies, come an meet your hosts: Mike and Charlie. We lay out the structure and rules of the podcast, discuss why we wanted to do this in the first place, and select our first film. Tune in next week for our inaugural review of Lawrence Olivier’s Richard III (1955).