The Frances Farmer Show

In anticipation of its Seattle theatrical release, Sean and Mike take a look at Raya Martin and Mark Peranson's 2013 film La última película and have paired it with another meta-movie, WC Fields's Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, from 1941. They also run down the best animated films of all-time and the upcoming Cannes lineup, talk about Person of the Week Dennis Hopper (including a shocking, unbelievable reveal about Mike) and pick their essential movies about movies. 

The George Sanders Show takes a trip to nostalgia-land this week, with discussions of Orson Welles's second feature, The Magnificent Ambersons, from 1942 and Jia Zhangke's second feature, Platform, from 2000. They also pick the movies that most evoke their own youths, talk about Orson Welles in general and speculate on the karmic potential of pigeons caught in wood stoves.

Get your peanuts and Cracker Jack ready as The George Sanders Show celebrates Opening Day of baseball season with a look at two classic films about the National Pastime, Sam Wood's Lou Gehrig biopic Pride of the Yankees from 1942, and John Badham's 1976 tale of the Negro Leagues, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings. They'll also pick their Essential Baseball Movies, celebrate (once again) the work of Akira Kurosawa on the occasion of his 104th birthday, and share their thoughts on the latest from Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang, Charles Schulz in 3D and Nymphomaniac-watching babies. Play Ball!

Celebrating the release of the latest film from director Paul WS Anderson, Mike and Sean take a look at his 2011 version of The Three Musketeers and another swashbuckling classic, Don Chaffey's Jason & the Argonauts (featuring special effects by Ray Harryhausen). They'll also look back at the careers of Alain Resnais and Harold Ramis, discuss the controversy surrounding The Act of Killing, and dive a bit into Kent Jones's recent essay on the state of the Auteur Theory.

It's Oscar season and Sean and Mike celebrate by watching a pair of past Best Picture winners, 1936's musical biopic The Great Ziegfeld and Rob Marshall's 2002 musical Chicago. They also rundown their predictions for the major award categories as well as who they think should win and unveil their Top 5 Films of 2013.

Rather than trekking out to their local multiplex to check out the latest all-star caper from George Clooney and company, Mike and Sean this week talk about another movie about saving art from Nazis, John Frankenheimer's 1964 film The Train, starring Burt Lancaster. They keep on chugging along that line with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine in Robert Aldrich's hobo adventure Emperor of the North, from 1973. They also pick their Essential Train Movies, discuss the career of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and debate the relationship between aesthetics and morality, cinematic guilt and pleasure.

Continuing their look at some of the more acclaimed films of 2013, this week Mike and Sean talk about Spike Jonze's man-machine romance Her while also looking back almost a century to Ernst Lubitsch's 1919 silent comedy The Doll. They also find time to take shots at David O. Russell's ludicrous American Hustle, debate the merits of screenplay stealing, make their picks for Essential Voice-Acting Performance and celebrate the birthday of one of their favorite actors, Mr. Paul Newman.

On this, the Money Episode, Mike and Sean discuss the latest film from Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio along with Marcel L'Herbier's 1928 classic L'Argent. They also pick their Essential Money Movies, discuss the late career renaissance of Martin Scorsese and can't help but talk about the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis. Plus the good and bad of the ease of digital filmmaking and the death of a cinematic giant, Run Run Shaw.

For our last episode of 2013, we celebrate the year in film 1933, with a look at Mae West in I'm No Angel and Yasujiro Ozu's Dragnet Girl. We'll also make our picks for the best performances directors and screenplays of 1933, and name our top five films of the year. We'll also listen to some of the top songs of 1933 and struggle vainly to be coherent when talking about the greatness of Duck Soup.

Christmas time is here, and Mike and Sean deck the halls with Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien in Vincente Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis and then take a sleigh ride to France to celebrate family dysfunction with Mathieu Amalric, Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni and Anne Consigny in Arnauld Desplechin's A Christmas Tale. They'll also raise a wassail in salute to the career of Judy Garland and ring some silver bells for their Essential Christmas movies while Mike explains why all he wants for Christmas is Paul Rudd.