Hungarian director Marta Meszaros adds unprecedented depth, humanity, and a whole other meaning to the question asked in countless groan-worthy bumper stickers: “Who adopted who?”

A lonely middle-aged widow is picked by a teenage girl from a nearby state-run home for children as a kindred spirit and unlikely ally. Identities like mother, daughter, friend, sister, confident, and advocate are intentionally and unintentionally tried on for size as both struggle against the constrictive demands of the well-meaning, but institutionally-bound men in their lives.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Kinjji Misumi’s The Tale of Zatoichi (1962).

Poverty. Betrayal. Heroin. Death. But, like in a really funny and clever sort of way that’s just a real pleasure to watch. Spend some time with some of your best Scottish friends! Director Danny Boyle fully inhabits, then redefines 90s cinema, in this groundbreaking international phenomenon.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Marta Meszaros‘ Adoption (1975).

Kon Ichikawa sumptuous remake of an Edo-period revenge tale is magnified by lush camerawork, stirring performances, a jazzy soundtrack, and a fascinatingly unexpected exploration of gender, sexuality, and identity. The Kabuki actor Yukinojo performs and lives as a woman, breaks the hearts of all around him (men and women alike), and deftly schemes to enact vengeance on the men who destroyed her family.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996).

How Kate got her groove back… could be an alternate title to David Lean’s Katherine Hepburn-starring romance set in the canals of mid-century Venice. An aging single American lady, looking for a little bit of culture and beauty, discovers far more than just a bit of Murano glass in this visual stunner… By which I mean that she finds no-strings-attached sex with hot Italian dudes.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Kon Ichikawa’s An Actor’s Revenge(1962).

Feast your ears on a special release of the Patreon-only hit podcast Are You Friedkin Kidding Me? where your intrepid hosts (plus Alexandra!) watch the films of William Friedkin. This episode…. The poster, wherein a lady is sitting upon the face of a gentleman, says it all. But you may as well also know that it features a thrillingly slow car chase through the city of San Francisco (which is kind of a character in this film, if you think about it.)

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing David Lean’s Summertime (1955).

Feast your ears on a special release of the Patreon-only hit podcast Are You Friedkin Kidding Me? where your intrepid hosts (plus Alexandra!) watch the films of William Friedkin. This episode…. Well it’s only his timeless 1990s erotic/thriller/horror masterpiece The Guardian! You’ll never look at Los Angeles architecture the same way ever again!

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing David Lean’s Summertime (1955).

Fresh off of his iconic career topping Dracula, director Tod Browning returns to his roots with a domestic drama/crime film cast almost entirely with side-show performers with little-to-no screen acting experience. The viewers are asked - and very much confronted with the question of - who are the REAL freaks?

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing David Lean’s Summertime (1955).

Director/Writer/Star Albert Brooks reawakens an early shared film trauma of your two loyal hosts. Can this Uber-Boomer satire of drop-out idealists living in Reagan's America be salvaged? Might it even be... good?

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932).