The Frances Farmer Show

With Roy Andersson's latest set to open in Seattle in a few days, Sean and Mike decided to spend a cinematic summer in Sweden with Ingmar Bergman's 1951 film Summer Interlude and Andersson's own 2000 film Songs from the Second Floor. They also pick their Essential Swedish Movies, celebrate the greatest Swede of all, Ingrid Bergman, and lament the losses this week of Omar Sharif and The Dissolve.

On the occasion of its single showing in Seattle this week, Mike and Sean talk about John Woo's A Better Tomorrow, with Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung. They also discuss Michael Mann's Blackhat, with Chris Hemsworth and Tang Wei, out now on video and one of the best films of the year so far. And they argue about Pixar's latest, Inside Out, celebrate Mel Brooks's birthday and make their picks for the Essential American Movie.

Mike and Sean take a look back at their month with the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival. Their discoveries, surprises, disappointments, the best, the worst and the most SIFF moments of this year in the world's longest film festival.

About midway through the marathon that is the Seattle International Film Festival, Sean and Mike take a moment to sit down and talk a bit about what's happened so far and what else there is to see. But mostly, this is the interview Mike did with Love & Mercy composer Atticus Ross.

In conjunction with the release this weekend of the movie event of the year, Pitch Perfect 2, Mike and Sean talk about a couple of other films about young people making music. Bae Doona stars in Linda Linda Linda, Nobuhiro Yamashita's 2005 film about a high school punk band and Don Weis's 1953 college musical comedy The Affairs of Dobie Gillis stars Debbie Reynolds, Bobby Van and Bob Fosse himself. They also discuss the career of Anna Kendrick, the greatest actress of her generation, the new Avengers movie and pick their essential College Movies.

This week Mike and Sean take a look at the latest blockbuster from Olivier Assayas, Clouds of Sils Maria, starring Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart. As well they look back at another film about acting, 1991's Centre Stage, directed by Stanley Kwan and starring Maggie Cheung. They'll also talk about the careers of Juliette Binoche and Maggie Cheung in general, the upcoming Seattle International Film Festival and the Rolling Stones.

This week Mike and Sean head down South American Way for Jauja, an unusual new Western starring Viggo Mortensen directed by Argentine auteur Lisandro Alonso, and Three Crowns of the Sailor, Chilean surrealist Raoul Ruiz's 1983 film about ghosts, storytelling and storytelling ghosts. They'll also talk about Harrison Ford, for some reason, and pick their essential Weird Westerns.

This week Mike and Sean gear up for a discussion of NASCAR classics Days of Thunder and Red Line 7000. The former is Tony Scott's 1990 blockbuster starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, the latter one of the last films directed by Howard Hawks. They'll also discuss the Fast and the Furious franchise, the career of Tom Cruise and pick their Essential Car Movies. And they'll also talk a lot about Beck, for some reason.

As Mike is embroiled in a month-long marathon of films noir, he drags Sean along this week to discuss a pair of Robert Mitchum's lesser-known efforts, 1950's Where Danger Lives, with Faith Domergue and Claude Rains and direction by John Farrow, and 1975's Raymond Chandler-adaptation Farewell, My Lovely, with Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland and Harry Dean Stanton. They also pick their Essential Noirs and talk about the long, great acting career of Robert Mitchum and appreciate his all-too-brief singing career.

This Oscar weekend, Mike and Sean count down their favorite films of 2014 and make their picks for the various Acting, Writing and Directing Awards. They also take a look back at two of the Best Picture nominees of 1965, both of which star Julie Christie: David Lean's epic romance Doctor Zhivago, with Omar Sharif, Alec Guiness and the always-menacing Rod Steiger and John Schlesinger's Swingin' 60s Darling, with Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Harvey.