Watch With Jen™
237 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 days ago - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings3-time national award-winning writer & full time walking movie encyclopedia Jen Johans of FilmIntuition.com delivers a steady stream of great movie recommendations, thoughtful career deep dives, & first rate conversations with critics, authors, actors, journalists, filmmakers, and more on Watch With Jen.™️
Originally launched on Patreon (https://patreon.com/FilmIntuition), where new installments premiere first, once each episode is unlocked to the public, you'll be able to find every episode here as well.
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Episodes
Watch With Jen - S5: E8 - Physical Media: Spring '24 with Alison Gaylin, Blake Howard, Chris McKay, & Rachel Wagner
April 10, 2024 21:01 - 1 hour - 87.3 MBWelcome to our first Physical Media episode of 2024. Joining me today, we have a terrific quartet of movie minds discussing a handful of titles newly released on disc, including novelist Alison Gaylin on TO DIE FOR, podcaster-critic Blake Howard on CONTAGION, filmmaker Chris McKay on THE SHOOTIST & THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, & podcaster-critic Rachel Wagner on FOOTLOOSE (1984). Additionally, you'll hear me cover the new Criterion box set of Eric Rohmer's TALES OF THE FOUR SEASONS & th...
Watch With Jen - S5: E7 - Luchino Visconti with Robert Bellissimo
March 26, 2024 17:40 - 1 hour - 68.1 MBIn this ambitious research-filled exploration of one of Italian cinema's most fascinating & influential figures, Canadian actor-writer-podcaster Robert Bellissimo returns to the podcast to discuss the singularly daring maestro Luchino Visconti. An aristocratic count turned Socialist who fought the Nazis as a member of the Italian Resistance & was sentenced to death before fate & history intervened & he was eventually able to testify & help sentence to death the man who tortured him during WW...
Watch With Jen - S5: E6 - Nancy Savoca & Richard Guay in conversation with Kate Hagen & Jen Johans
March 20, 2024 12:00 - 1 hour - 77.1 MBThis week, I'm delighted to be joined once again by my good friend Kate Hagen, who is the Senior Vice President of The Black List. Returning to the show for another conversation with some of our favorite independent filmmaking heroes, in the past, we've spoken to such greats as writer-director Allison Anders and actors turned producers Amy Robinson & Griffin Dunne. Today, we're honored to be chatting with the woman who received an award naming her a New York trailblazer, writer-director N...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 12 (The Finale) - George Gallo & James Urbaniak (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
March 14, 2024 19:00 - 59 minutes - 54.8 MBWelcome to the finale of our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, over the past 12 weeks, you've heard us explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond ...
Watch With Jen - S5: E5 - '80s Spy Movies with Ace Atkins
March 08, 2024 20:05 - 1 hour - 57.8 MBTwisty, engaging, & filled with colorful performances, the Soviet paranoia of the Cold War '80s fueled the plotlines of so many first-rate films that New York Times bestselling author Ace Atkins & I vividly remember from the Reagan/Bush era. And with the next two books that Atkins is set to release revolving around spies &/or the '80s, it's the perfect time to revisit a quartet of spy-centric releases, including THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN, TARGET, JUMPIN' JACK FLASH, & NO WAY OUT in this inq...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 11 - Rob Belushi & Sean Burns (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
March 07, 2024 19:00 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. Now ava...
Watch With Jen - S5: E4 - SoCal Amateur Detectives with Duane Swierczynski
March 02, 2024 17:34 - 57 minutes - 52.7 MBEarlier in the year, I was thrilled to meet longtime Twitter acquaintance Duane Swierczynski when he arrived in Scottsdale on his book tour for his terrific new crime novel CALIFORNIA BEAR. Co-hosting an event with Patrick Milliken at the beloved local bookstore Poisoned Pen, we spent an hour chatting with the Philadelphia native about his life, work, new novel, & love for his adopted state of California, especially in the world of books & film. A knowledgeable cinephile, we made plans for D...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 10 - Charles Hood & Adam Pally (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
February 28, 2024 19:00 - 56 minutes - 51.6 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. Now ava...
Watch With Jen - S5: E3 - Quintessential John Cusack with Duncan Birmingham
February 23, 2024 20:37 - 1 hour - 71.2 MBSurprise! Since next week marks the anniversary of when I started this podcast, I'm dropping this episode a few days early as a thank you for your support & listenership over the years. (Note: I haven't decided how to celebrate the date yet, but I think a good start would be not forgetting it like I usually do, haha.) Season 5 has kicked things off in a wonderfully nostalgic mode so far with several installments I've recorded about films of the '80s & '90s, which I'm hoping casts the same so...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 9 with Dan Mecca & Conor O'Donnell (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
February 21, 2024 19:00 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. Now ava...
Watch With Jen - S5: E2 - Francis Ford Coppola in the '80s with Mitchell Beaupre
February 18, 2024 21:42 - 1 hour - 88.9 MBAlthough we had an early kickoff to our 2024 season with our episode dedicated to the work of Tom Wilkinson early in January, Watch With Jen listeners can consider this the official start of Season 5. Reuniting with my good friend & the senior editor of Letterboxd, the intelligent & highly articulate Mitchell Beaupre, in this delightful, research-filled feature-length conversation, we take a look at director Francis Ford Coppola's ambitious, messy, underrated, & often misunderstood '80s peri...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 8 with Bryan Cogman & Clay Keller (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
February 14, 2024 19:00 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. Now ava...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 7 with Adrian McKinty (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
February 07, 2024 19:00 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. Now ava...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 6 with Megan Abbott & William Boyle (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
January 31, 2024 19:00 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. Now ava...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 5 with Cory Everett & Ethan Warren (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
January 24, 2024 19:00 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBA podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. Now available wherev...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 4 with Jedidiah Ayres & Nikki Dolson (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
January 17, 2024 19:00 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. Now ava...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 3 with Ben Mankiewicz & Alan Sepinwall MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 3 with Ben Mankiewicz & Alan Sepinwall (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
January 10, 2024 19:00 - 56 minutes - 51.4 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. Now ava...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 2 with Peter Avellino & Nell Minow (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
January 03, 2024 19:00 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. In the ...
Watch With Jen - S5: E1 - Remembering Tom Wilkinson with Roxana Hadadi
January 02, 2024 18:36 - 59 minutes - 54.2 MBAlthough Watch With Jen: Season 5 won't get into full swing until roughly February, we're returning early with a special episode devoted to honoring the life & career of the great British character actor Tom Wilkinson, whom we sadly lost over the weekend. Getting together for a Zoom on New Year's Eve with the always soulful & analytical Roxana Hadadi, we spent an hour celebrating the films & performances of Wilkinson, with particular emphasis on his Oscar-nominated turn in MICHAEL CLAYTON & ...
MIDNIGHT RUN-THROUGH - Episode 1 with BenDavid Grabinski & Drew McWeeny (From One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen)
December 27, 2023 19:00 - 1 hour - 56.6 MBWelcome to our podcast miniseries devoted to celebrating the 1988 contemporary classic, action buddy comedy MIDNIGHT RUN, written by George Gallo & directed by Martin Brest. Produced & hosted by Blake Howard & Jen Johans of One Heat Minute Productions & Watch With Jen, respectively, each week, we’ll explore the film we first bonded over when we became friends in 2019 by surfing through an incredible roster of guests from journalists to novelists & beyond who love it as much as we do. In our ...
Watch With Jen - S4: E44 - Under-discussed Altman Movies with Sean Burns
December 22, 2023 18:16 - 1 hour - 57.4 MBIt's always the greatest joy to spend the last few episodes of a phenomenally busy season just chatting about movies hangout-style with some of my closest friends & this year was no exception. I'm so lucky that in the middle of award-season deadlines, one of my funniest cinephile pals, the great Sean Burns joined me for two evenings after Thanksgiving, first to discuss CARLITO'S WAY alongside S.A. Cosby & William Boyle, & then logging back onto Zoom the next night for his latest solo episode...
Watch With Jen - S4: E43 - Car Movies: Part 2 - Frankenheimer with Priscilla Page (+ Donal Logue & Blake Howard)
December 18, 2023 16:39 - 1 hour - 78.3 MBMy holiday gift to you is the early upload of what is easily one of the five funniest episodes of Watch With Jen that I've released so far. Joining me for another chat-a-thon is one of my wisest & wittiest besties, Priscilla Page, who tackles the legendary, iconoclastic 20th-century filmmaker John Frankenheimer with me in her rollicking, rowdy, & incredibly articulate return. Needing to check that explicit language box almost immediately, as one does with Frankenheimer, we celebrate the man,...
Watch With Jen - S4: E42 - Car Movies: Part 1 - McQuarrie with Priscilla Page
December 15, 2023 16:07 - 1 hour - 104 MBThis week, I was honored to bring one of my dearest friends & fellow "Brunette Dad with Bangs" aboard Watch With Jen for her first-ever podcast appearance. A long-in-the-works collaboration that Priscilla Page & I began planning in the summer of '22, the very first time we hung out as we cruised around to chat & see the lights of L.A. on a summer night, it's only fitting that we made her debut a hangout episode about cars. More leisurely paced than your typical release, at the start of our ...
Watch With Jen - S4: E41 - Physical Media: Winter '23 with Walter Chaw, Bilge Ebiri, William Boyle, S.A. Cosby, Sean Burns, & Nikki Dolson
December 04, 2023 19:39 - 2 hours - 150 MBNote: We're doing something new this season on Watch With Jen. Usually, I release our end-of-the-year Physical Media conversations across multiple episodes. But in '22, some listeners said they found it slightly confusing to see similar titles a few times in a row & they'd rather have a marathon installment instead so we're trying it in '23 with a supersized, superstar-filled episode. Additionally, rather than ending the season on Physical Media as we've done in the past, this year, you'll s...
Watch With Jen - S4: E40 - The Coens on Creativity: BARTON FINK & INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS with Adrian McKinty
November 18, 2023 18:30 - 1 hour - 77.6 MBThis week, I was so pleased to welcome back to the pod one of my crime writer friends' favorite crime writers & a man whose taste in film, literature, & poetry is an endless source of delight on Twitter. Adrian McKinty was born & raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland, & then studied philosophy at Oxford University before he moved to Australia & New York. He is the author of more than a dozen crime novels, including his Dagger & Edgar nominated debut DEAD I WELL MAY BE, the critically acclaimed...
Watch With Jen - S4: E39 - Ron the Job: Ron Howard at Work with Conor O'Donnell & Dan Mecca
November 13, 2023 17:05 - 1 hour - 91 MBThis week, I was so pleased to welcome back two friends & the hosts of The Film Stage's excellent podcast The B-Side, which covers movie stars in a fascinating way by focusing not on the films that made or kept them famous but the ones that actors made in between. A producer & filmmaker living in Pittsburgh, Dan Mecca started The Film Stage with Jordan Raup in college at Buffalo & Conor O'Donnell is a post-production supervisor based in New York City & also serves as a critic for The Film St...
Watch With Jen - S4: E38 - French Crime Movies: Part 2 with William Boyle
November 07, 2023 19:22 - 1 hour - 63.1 MBReturning to Watch With Jen this week, we have my very talented friend and an official (and very popular) friend of the show. William Boyle is the acclaimed novelist behind such titles as Gravesend, The Lonely Witness, A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself, City of Margins, and Shoot the Moonlight Out. In addition to crafting these wonderfully humanistic Lumet-like character-driven ensemble crime epics, Bill is quite the pop culture buff and one hell of a good movie trivia game player. In th...
Watch With Jen - S4: E37 - Elmore Leonard's Westerns with Jed Ayres
October 30, 2023 16:40 - 1 hour - 108 MBPeckerwood novelist and Hardboiled Wonderland blogger Jed Ayres returns to the podcast this week for a two-hour extravaganza devoted to the man famously dubbed "the poet laureate of wild assholes with revolvers," Mr. Elmore Leonard. One of the godfathers of contemporary crime fiction and an influence on every single writer working in the genre today (whether they realize it or not), Jed and I investigate the western genre that launched the Navy vet lovingly nicknamed Dutch. Revisiting a fe...
Watch With Jen - S4: E36 - Screen Magic with Jessica Ellis
October 23, 2023 19:02 - 52 minutes - 48.5 MBReturning to the podcast this week, we have the witty and wonderful writer-director Jessica Ellis. A graduate of UCLA and the American Film Institute who made her feature filmmaking debut with the acclaimed coming-of-age movie What Lies West, Jessica is one of the brightest lights on Twitter and never fails to make me smile. In this thoughtful, charming, and nostalgia-filled conversation that's perfect for Halloween, we share amusing stories from our lives and explore the way that magic has ...
Watch With Jen - S4: E35 - Warren Oates in the Early '70s with Travis Woods
October 14, 2023 17:09 - 1 hour - 89.9 MB"Because there was once a god who walked the Earth named Warren Oates." - Richard Linklater Friendly, feisty, fresh, and so-very funny, Bright Wall/Dark Room staff writer & contributing editor Travis Woods is as passionate about film as he is endearingly supportive of all who love it. The host & creator of producer Blake Howard's podcast Increment Vice (which took a look at Paul Thomas Anderson's INHERENT VICE one scene at a time), Travis has also contributed physical media commentary tracks ...
Watch With Jen - S4: E34 - Underrated Elvis Movies with Sheila O'Malley
September 24, 2023 18:30 - 1 hour - 75.8 MBThis week, I was so pleased to welcome one of the best film writers currently working today - the wonderful Sheila O'Malley - back to the podcast. A regular film critic for RogerEbert.com and a member of the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle, Sheila's work has also appeared in Film Comment, The New York Times, The L.A. Times, Criterion Collection, Sight & Sound, and other outlets. Additionally, a scene from her full-length script JULY AND HALF OF AUGUST was turned into a short film, wh...
Watch With Jen - S4: E33 - Michael Ritchie with Larry Karaszewski & Daniel Waters
September 18, 2023 13:22 - 1 hour - 83.9 MBThis week, I'm honored to be joined by not one but two brilliant screenwriters, Larry Karaszewski & Daniel Waters. Larry Karaszewski & his writing/directing/producing partner Scott Alexander are best known for writing unusual true stories such as the films ED WOOD, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, MAN ON THE MOON, AUTO FOCUS, BIG EYES, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME, & the hit television miniseries THE PEOPLE VS. OJ SIMPSON: AMERICAN CRIME STORY. The team has won Emmys, Golden Globes, Producers, & Writers...
Watch With Jen - S4: E32 - Robert Mitchum with Raquel Stecher & Amy Robinson
September 13, 2023 20:15 - 2 hours - 110 MBFollowing up on our great Brian De Palma episode with Megan Abbott & Alison Gaylin that was released last week, we have our second of three installments this month featuring two tremendous guests. Centered on one of our greatest film stars in the form of Robert Mitchum, you'll hear two different conversations with two brilliant women, recorded over the course of the summer to clock in at a combined total of two hours. If anyone deserves that much time & attention, it's Robert Mitchum! First...
Watch With Jen - S4: E31 - Brian De Palma with Megan Abbott & Alison Gaylin (+ Peter Avellino as De Palma)
September 07, 2023 23:03 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBThis week, I am honored to welcome a dynamic duo of acclaimed bestselling crime writers to the podcast & two women who've both won the Edgar and numerous other awards. Additionally, good friends who've also collaborated on the graphic novel NORMANDY GOLD, it's the wonderful partnership of Megan Abbott & Alison Gaylin. Author of such must-reads as DARE ME, THE TURNOUT, & GIVE ME YOUR HAND, Megan Abbott's latest novel BEWARE THE WOMAN is a modern gothic nightmare that you won't be able to put ...
Watch With Jen - S4: E30 (Episode 200) - Burt Lancaster with Adam Nayman
August 27, 2023 16:23 - 1 hour - 61.1 MBWelcome to the 200th episode of the podcast Watch With Jen. It's a milestone I never anticipated reaching when I launched the show in early 2020. Back then, I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in listening to me talk about the movies I love. I am so grateful for your listenership & support & hope you'll stay tuned in the future as I continue to celebrate cinema with my knowledgeable, passionate guests. Returning to the podcast this week, we have the impressive critic, in-demand lectur...
Watch With Jen - S4: E29 - Alan J. Pakula with S.A. Cosby
August 22, 2023 17:58 - 1 hour - 75.1 MBIt's an honor to welcome a good friend & frequent guest back to the podcast. S.A. Cosby (or Shawn as he's known to his pals) is the multi-award-winning NEW YORK TIMES bestselling crime writer of such remarkable novels as BLACKTOP WASTELAND, RAZORBLADE TEARS, & ALL THE SINNERS BLEED. This week, he joins me to celebrate the films of Alan J. Pakula, a great truth teller & director of actors whose career should be discussed far more than it is. In this contemplative, wide-ranging conversation, we...
Watch With Jen - S4: E28 - Video Store Weekend '89 with Jordan Harper
August 13, 2023 17:27 - 1 hour - 78.7 MBI have a pretty busy week lined up so you're getting this new episode early! Returning to the podcast today, we have a fan favorite in the form of Mr. Jordan Harper. One of my dearest friends, this podcast's very first guest, and my Pandemic Movie Club, and Game Night crew buddy, Jordan is the Edgar award-winning author of She Rides Shotgun, Love & Other Wounds, The Last King of California, & Everybody Knows. Additionally, a screenwriter and producer of such shows as The Mentalist, Gotham...
Watch With Jen - S4: E27 - Heist Flicks - Part 2 with Sabina Stent
August 09, 2023 16:36 - 1 hour - 68.2 MBThis week, I'm thrilled to bring back my friend Dr. Sabina Stent. A freelance writer & speaker from Birmingham, UK, who specializes in women artists, surrealism, & visual culture, Sabina's interests include the feminist surrealist avant-garde, artists' lives & legacies, cinematic subversion, historical true crime, & surrealism in Los Angeles. She has lectured online & in person for the Philosophical Research Society, Morbid Anatomy Museum, The Last Tuesday Society, & The London Drawing Group....
Watch With Jen - S4: E26 - Meryl Streep Romances with Mitchell Beaupre
July 27, 2023 20:35 - 1 hour - 74.3 MBThis week, I'm so pleased to welcome back to the podcast a talented, supportive, and funny friend. Currently based in Newark, Delaware, Mitchell Beaupre is not only the Senior Editor at one of my favorite services (via Letterboxd), but they're also the co-host of the Weekend Watchlist and Four Favorites podcasts, which you can find in the stream for The Letterboxd Show. Additionally, a prolific freelance film journalist and stellar interviewer for prestigious outlets such as "The Film Stage,...
Watch With Jen - S4: E25 - Stanley Kubrick with Bilge Ebiri
July 22, 2023 15:56 - 1 hour - 107 MBA film critic for publications such as LA Weekly, New York Magazine, Vulture, The New York Times, and formerly, The Village Voice, the brilliant Bilge Ebiri is one of my favorite journalists working today. Although we've discussed some of his favorite directors like Terrence Malick & Neil Jordan tangentially in the past, I was thrilled to bring him back to the podcast this time to focus on the filmmaker who helmed his favorite movie of all time Barry Lyndon. An engaging and insightful jour...
Watch With Jen - S4: E24 - Budd Boetticher's Ranown Westerns with Chris McKay
July 17, 2023 22:41 - 1 hour - 64.1 MBThe director behind the hilarious LEGO BATMAN MOVIE, the popular series ROBOT CHICKEN, as well as the films THE TOMORROW WAR starring Chris Pratt for Prime, & the brand new RENFIELD with Nicholas Hoult & Nicolas Cage, this week, I was so pleased to welcome filmmaker Chris McKay to the podcast. A huge film buff who fell in love with the films of Alfred Hitchcock early, thanks to his cinephile mom, Chris McKay is such an enormous fan of B-movie director Budd Boetticher that his Twitter handle...
Watch With Jen - S4: E23 - Double Play Productions: A Conversation with Amy Robinson & Griffin Dunne (+ Kate Hagen)
July 14, 2023 19:21 - 1 hour - 84.9 MBIn Season 3 of the podcast, my good friend Kate Hagen - a talented writer & Senior Vice President at The Black List - joined me to kick off a fascinating new series of conversations with the people behind the movies we love. We launched it with what is still one of my all-time favorite episodes: a long, career-spanning discussion with the great filmmaker Allison Anders & then a few months later, we reunited to chat with Allison's daughter, the hard-working & acclaimed music supervisor Tiffan...
Watch With Jen - S4: E22 - French Crime Movies: Part 1 with William Boyle
July 05, 2023 16:03 - 1 hour - 79 MBReturning to Watch With Jen this week, we have my very talented friend and an official (and very popular) friend of the show. William Boyle is the acclaimed novelist behind such titles as Gravesend, The Lonely Witness, A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself, City of Margins, and Shoot the Moonlight Out. In addition to crafting these wonderfully humanistic Lumet-like character-driven ensemble crime epics, Bill is quite the pop culture buff and one hell of a good movie trivia game player too. ...
Watch With Jen - S4: E21 - "Succession" with Roxana Hadadi
June 29, 2023 15:54 - 1 hour - 93.6 MBWhether you're embarking on an exotic vacation or staying close to home, we're back from our month-long hiatus a few days early to give you something you can escape into your headphones & enjoy over the long holiday weekend. Delivering a month of hotly anticipated episodes featuring a killer lineup of guests & themes, we begin with the return of the brilliantly insightful Roxana Hadadi on HBO's remarkable "Succession," which is one of the most popular watercooler shows of the twenty-first ce...
Watch With Jen - S4: E20 - PTA & DDL with Ethan Warren
May 27, 2023 17:10 - 1 hour - 56.7 MBReturning to the podcast this week for the first time since I chatted with him and other wonderful writer-editors of the online film journal BW/DR (Bright Wall/Dark Room) about their favorite comfort movies a few seasons back, we have Ethan Warren.A member of the Boston Society of Film Critics who holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina - Wilmington, plus the writer-director of the film WEST OF HER, Ethan stopped by to give us the inside scoop on his rich, fasci...
Watch With Jen - S4: E19 - 3 Thrillers from '93 with Peter Avellino
May 22, 2023 22:03 - 1 hour - 63.4 MBThis week, it was so great to welcome Peter Avellino back to the podcast. A talented and thoughtful writer (& Film Twitter royalty), Peter Avellino's long-form essays on the movies that fascinate & frustrate him in equal measure have long made his blog Mr. Peel's Sardine Liqueur a must-read for cinephiles. Just in time for the Memorial Day kickoff of Summer Movie Season in 2023, Peter & I go back in time thirty years in order to highlight three intelligent thrillers for grown-ups released in ...
Watch With Jen - S4: E18 - Dennis Hopper - Part 3
May 18, 2023 17:42 - 1 hour - 77.5 MBWelcome to Dennis Hopper in the 1990s aka Watch With Jen's third & final installment in our first spotlight series devoted to the careers of iconic character actors that we love to see onscreen. Timed to be running the same week as his birthday, we kick off our Hopper finale with an extended appreciation of his return to the director's chair for the 1990 film THE HOT SPOT c/o its biggest fan, my Pandemic Movie Club buddy & fellow erotic thriller devotee Travis Woods. Then we take you on a tou...
Watch With Jen - S4: E17 - Dennis Hopper - Part 2
May 14, 2023 19:32 - 1 hour - 82.5 MBBetween the fact that I'm a bit overscheduled next week & I've loved hearing from listeners who enjoyed the first installment in this series, I decided to take advantage of a free morning to edit & upload this episode early! Releasing just in time for Dennis Hopper's birthday on the 17th (& mine a couple of days later), welcome to the second installment of our three-part series devoted to the actor. Filled with analysis & appreciation of some of his most popular films & performances from a pa...
Watch With Jen - S4: E16 - Dennis Hopper - Part 1
May 10, 2023 21:29 - 1 hour - 78.8 MBAround the time that the very first episode of Season 4 was uploaded, I embarked on a months-long journey to prepare & record the podcast's first entry in a new spotlight series devoted to some of the greatest character actors in screen history. Reaching out to good friends & past guests who I knew had a special interest in the life, films, characters, & performances of our first subject, Dennis Hopper, over the course of two months, I interviewed every participant one by one. Kicking off eac...
Watch With Jen - S4: E15 - Kurt Russell with Chris & Elizabeth Cantwell
May 06, 2023 16:10 - 1 hour - 76 MBYou've heard Chris and Elizabeth Cantwell on past episodes solo but recently, I was thrilled to be joined by this dynamic duo together for a hilarious & thoughtful conversation about one of their favorite movie stars. The co-creator and showrunner of one of my favorite television series Halt and Catch Fire (which he joined me to discuss in season 2), Chris Cantwell is an incredibly talented & prolific writer working on the TV projects Devil in Silver & Max Headroom, & also writing such comics...