EPISODE 034: LESSONS IN FILM HISTORY (FILM MOVEMENTS)

Featuring: Funny Ha Ha (2002), The Puffy Chair (2005), Mutual Appreciation (2005), Nights and Weekends (2007)

Ryan and Kevin explore the Mount Rushmore of Mumblecore by focusing on films by Greta Gerwig, Andrew Bujalski, the Duplass Brothers, and Joe Swanberg. Though the label is often loathed by the filmmakers who made these movies, mumblecore remains one of the formative film movements within digital filmmaking. Born in the forethought of the 2008 housing crisis alongside the advent of consumer-grade digital cameras, this minimalist New Wave-esque approach to low-to-no budget filmmaking represents an important stepping stone between reality television and online exhibitors such as YouTube and Netflix.

EPISODE 033: BAY AREA FLICKS

As a personal recommendation, Kevin introduces 2005’s “Just Like Heaven” as a San Francisco-based Bay Area movie. Featuring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo and directed by supernatural rom-com expert Mark Waters, this mid-2000s relic leaves whispers of screwball and mumblecore character types within what Ryan describes as “elevated Hallmark”. The discussion soon deviates into a formulation of rewatching movies and finding appreciation in films you used to watch during childhood.

EPISODE 032: WEIRD @ WR&P

Ryan and Kevin refresh their childhood memory by revisiting a Dick Van Dyke B-side in 1968’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. WR&P cohosts discuss why this rewatch settled into disappointment while stressing the negative impacts of industry and market pressures on the creative process.