Fed Up and An Honest Liar

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We start of this week talking about the DC Comics and Star Wars footage that came out of Comic Con.  Our love affair with Margot Robbie continues and we get a first glimpse of Jared Leto's Joker and Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne.  We then talk about two documentaries that are available on Netflix.  Fed Up is about the alarming rise in obesity and what may be causing it.  An Honest Liar is about a magician (The Amazing Randi) who has focused the latter part of his career on debunking so-called psychics, mystics and faith healers, but he is not without his own secrets.  We also spend some time talking about what we might see coming out of Comic-Con 2015.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Lost River and Focus

This week we talk about two movies that are available to rent.  Lost River is the directorial debut of Ryan Gosling who also wrote the film.  We talk about the possible inspirations for a movie like this and how it is bolstered by Christina Hendricks' performance especially.  We also talk about the Will Smith movie Focus and how much we both love Margot Robbie.  We also spend some time talking about what we might see coming out of Comic-Con 2015.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Inside Out

We talk about the new Pixar movie and about how it once again has found a way to affect adults and children in a different way.  We also compare it to other Pixar movies and try to figure out where it would fit in each of our favorites (even though we were both still in the honeymoon phase of watching the movie since we both had just seen it).  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Actors Who Work

This week we talk about what some people might call "Character Actors" and how excited we get when we see them on screen.  These are actors who may not have many starring roles, but they add their special sauce to whatever role they inhabit.  Richard Jenkins, Stephen Root and Regina King are just a few of the many actors that we talk about.  Check it out!  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Old, New, Boring and Blue 4

For our one year anniversary episode, we tackle four movies from different eras with more similarities than we initially thought.  Our "Old" movie is the Italian film from 1948, The Bicycle Thief.  Our "New" movie is the blockbuster Jurassic World.  Our "Boring" movie is the Todd Solondz film Happiness and our "Blue" movie is the documentary Dear Zachary.  This is definitely a challenging slate of films buoyed only by Chris Pratt's quippy one-liners.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

James Dean - An Actor Profile

When we both realized that neither one of us had seen any of James Dean's three film performances, we decided we needed to fix that.  In this episode we discuss James Dean's performances and what we liked and disliked about Rebel Without and Cause, East of Eden and Giant along with the state of movies during the mid-50's.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

The 1950s

For our 50th episode, we talk about films from the 1950s.  This decade saw the development of auteurs like writer/directors Billy Wilder and Akira Kurosawa, the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock and a young director named Stanley Kubrick.  The 50s also saw a shift in the art of performance with actors like Marlon Brando and James Dean.  We also go on a short tangent about Rodney Ascher's left-of-center documentary "Room 237" involving some extreme theories on the meaning of Kubrick's "The Shining".  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

The Babadook

We talk about a creepy Australian horror film that has been getting great reviews.  The movie has a couple great performances that we discuss, along with an off-the-wall theory about a particular character in the movie.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

We talk about the next film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how it is in the unenviable position of trying to set up what will come next in their series of films while itself being entertaining.  We spend time talking about Joss Whedon's crazy abilities as an auteur and superfan of this franchise.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Ex Machina

We talk about the directorial debut of 28 Days Later scribe Alex Garland.  He gives us an original screenplay that brings up a lot of questions and doesn't offer many answers.  With such a small cast, we can talk in-depth about the actors' performances and make some predictions about what may be in store for them.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Television Spotlight

We talk about three recent television shows that we consider to be like long-form movies.  We have made passing mention of House of Cards, True Detective and The Fall, but we delve deep into what we think makes each of these shows unique and exceptional.  Spoilers abound!  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Music Biopics

We talk about our favorite biographical movies about famous musicians.  From Buddy Holly to James Brown, from Mozart to Johnny Cash, we go over what works and what doesn't work when telling a story in this specific subgenre of film.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Chris Rock's Top Five

We talk about Chris Rock's most recent, and possible most personal movie.  We also get into the state of  film criticism and stand up comedy today.  We begin the show talking about new trailers that have come out and our most anticipated upcoming movies.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

The Coen Brothers and How We Experience Their Films

We talk about the phenomenon that we both experience when watching Coen Brothers movies where we don't fully enjoy/understand a Coen Brothers movie the first time around.  We are also in good company (Guillermo Del Toro).  The podcast turns into a lovefest of Coen Brothers movies and we try to figure out why they are so great on repeat viewings.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.

Tim's Vermeer and Side by Side

Paul and Josh talk about two documentaries that analyze the relationship between technology and art.  Side By Side talks about the film industry being at a technological crossroads between old and new (film and digital) and Tim's Vermeer is about a graphic designer that gets obsessed with the methodology of a 17th century painter.  Subscribe on iTunes:  https://itun.es/i6gB67Y  Check out our Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/actorandengineer and follow us on twitter @actorengineer.