A sympathetic tale of a rich blonde alpha girl, Cher, discovering that she is not the center of the universe. This film offers gentle rude awakenings to Cher as she learns even though she’s rich she needs to work finding love and become a good driver. Oh yeah, also doing charity makes you a better person. Get ready for peak 1995 nostalgia with hack…

There is a man for every time and place. And in 1998 that was Jeff Bridges playing his most iconic role as the Dude. This is a slacker neo-noir set in a quirky Los Angeles inhabited by characters only the Coen Brothers could bring to life. Lebowski was a dorm room staple, highly quotable, and the inspiration for a religion, Dudism. This week we inv…

This week, we sit down with Bay Ridge bred Greek-American comedy dynamo Gus Constantellis to discuss the 2008 ABBA music vehicle Mamma Mia! It’s a feel good musical with cringe singing performances by an all-star cast set on a idyllic Greek isle.Av Sami Hamarneh

Judgement Night: so many things going in this perfectly mid-90’s urban thriller. JN is a star vehicle for Dennis Leary at the height of his Gen X “edgy” comedy bad boy powers. It has a stellar ensemble cast including Cuba Gooding Jr, Jeremy Piven, Peter Green, Stephen Dorff, and Everlast, all propping up Emilio Estevez’ wooden performance. It got a…

Can money buy love? How much money do you need to ruin a happy couple’s relationship. Let’s dive into this 1990’s adult-contemporary romantic melodrama about a bored billionaire Robert Redford who plays love games with a fresh faced couple played by Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore. Joining us on the Pod is Andrew Harriss.…

Cannabis teen group therapy with the Breakfast Club. 1985 /with guest Khalid Rahmaan and Amber Rollo. John Hughes takes us on a nostalgic trip back to high school where the kids from different cliques learn that they all have a common enemy, their parents, while listening to Simple Minds. In studio today are NYC stand up comedians Khalid Rahmaan an…

Another hot one. We had Pranav Behari from Mango Bae drop by to convince us that Caddyshack is actually a pretty woke film about class struggle, neoliberal capitalism, and gopher that can be a cypher for any oppressed community looking to resist. Episode drops on Wednesday.Av Sami Hamarneh

1989 was a huge year for family friendly comedy classics with Parenthood, Ghostbusters 2, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids. George Bush, former CIA Spook, and son of a War Profiteer who made money working with the Nazis, became President. And Dana Carvey crushed it playing him on SNL. Today we cover a classic from this era, the John Hughes directed John…

It’s 1999, the world is introduced to SpongeBob Squarepants, Vladimir Putin takes over Russia, and everyone is sharing music on Napster. Matt Damon, hot off his breakout performance in Good Will Hunting, is cast as The Talented Mr. Ripley. Join us as we examine this psychological crime thriller set on the sunny beaches of 1950’s Italy.…

Do you know the muffin man? What if that was the score for when Jaws is coming? Spooky. Today we go fishing with Steven Spielberg and watch some seriously anti-shark propaganda and one of the best films of all time about starring 3 men in a boat. With guest Actor/Author Jordan Rider.Av Sami Hamarneh

Harlem Nights written by Eddie Murphy, directed By Eddie Murphy, starring Eddie Murphy. The cast is full of peak 1980's black comedians and entertainers. RIP Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Robin Harris, Della Reese, Tommy Mikal Ford (and side note Danny Aiello). At least we still have Arsenio Hall. My question is where were Sinbad, Cosby, and Kadeem Har…

From the files of Police Squad, we’re covering a cornerstone of the spoof genre and one of the greatest comedies of the 1980’s. This movie a joke every 30 seconds, and it’s chock full of visual gags, parodies, pratfalls, and pop-culture references and also has stellar performances from Leslie Nielsen, Richards Montalban, Priscilla Presley and OJ Si…

Thirteen is the craziest movie about 7th grade ever made in the US and banned in multiple countries. Shot in an cinema verite hand held style, this movie is a secular possession horror story about going through puberty portrayed with a gritty realism in LA. Join us as we delve into Tracy and Evie’s depraved middle school world of sex, drugs, and pe…

Jiro is a 85 year old man who has 3 star Michelin rated sushi restaurant in a subway station in Japan. He has been slicing fish up in this spot for over 40 years. And he is regarded as the greatest master sushi chef in the world. This is his story. Joining us for the motivational food documentary is the fabulous Usama Siddiquee…

Utah 1985: Matthew Lillard stars as Stevo, who alongside his pal, Bob, decide to spend their post college year pissing their lives away, only to realize that they and their friends must move forward with life and out of their unrealistic punk ideals. How long can you worship at the altars of anarchy and chaos? Joining us this week is musician, come…

2006 was a Fergalicious year. And Amy Winehouse as still alive and singing about Rehab. Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, and Emily Blunt graced the solver screen and introduced the world to the soul-crushing grind of the fashion industry in the Devil Wears Prada. This is a perfect coming-of-age movie focused on the transition into your first job out of…

Selena was crossover success who could hold her own on the mainstream pop-charts, and was already Latin, and more specifically Tejano, music royalty. She was a mega star in the Latino community before white people even knew her name. With over a decade of making music, at 23 she could have been the next Madonna. TToday we review Gregory Nava’s 1997…

Why is John Cusack always wet? What’s the high watermark film capturing the 90s Gen X hipster aesthetic? Today travel back to the time of smoking, landlines, vintage clothes, and analogue music. Joining us is multi-talented comedic dynamo Jim Tews.Av Sami Harmarneh

Are you ready for no-look passes, pump/fakes, and the awkward race relations of 1992? This week we take it to the hole with an in-depth look at the vibrant, witty, and unpredictable film about small time LA street-ball hustlers played by Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes and let’s not forget a stunning performance by Rosie Perez. Returning guest on…

Let’s take a trip to the Cabrini Green housing projects in Chicago to meet the first mainstream supernatural Black slasher, Candyman. Written by Clive Barker, co-starring Tony Todd, and Virginia Madden, and with a haunting score by Phillip Glass. This is a definite Halloween classic. Breaking it down this is today is the spooky queen Zilla Vodnas.…

Wipe that face off your head bitches and strap in for our review of Richard Linklater's 1993 cult classic “Dazed and Confused”. High school in the 70’s seems like it was a blast, if you could avoid getting paddled by the football team. Joining us this week is Alex Shannon from “The Ridiculous People Podcast”.…

Can money buy love? How much money do you need to ruin a happy couple’s relationship. Let’s dive into this 1990’s adult-contemporary romantic melodrama about a bored billionaire Robert Redford who plays love games with a fresh faced couple played by Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore. Joining us on the Pod is Andrew Harriss.…

Dirty Dancing is Jennifer Grey in her 1980’s prime. Enjoy another film about rock n’ roll saving the day, with steamy scenes of teens grinding to the Mash Potato, and a heavy abortion subplot, and Patrick Swayze peacocking all over the dance floor. Fun for the whole family. With Comedian Xazmin Garza.…

Point Break is a perfect cops and robbers action movie. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Everything about this Xtreme Sportz flick is sexy from Gary Busey’s surfwear shirts, to Lori Petty’s surf lessons, to a bank robber in a Ronald Reagan mask torching a car with a gas nozzle flame thrower. Joining us this week is Story Pirate, Improver, Comedian Cath…

Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth for people who like the Left Behind Series. Let’s go back to 2004 at the height of the Iraq War, Hummers, Tsunamis, and Martha Stewart doing jail time. Joining us this week is comedian Davidson Boswell.Av Sami Harmarneh

King of New York 1990 is a timeless tale of a sinner seeking redemption. It’s a hip hop gangster flick full of classical music and crack raps. It’s Christopher Walken at his best. It’s an Abel Ferrara love letter to NYC. It’s a hot mess. Back in the studio with a root beer is guest Gastor Almonte.Av Sami Harmarneh

Cher, The mega music star had already been famous for 20 years when she dropped this classic rom-com. But does she have the acting chops to carry a whole movie? We’ll give you our feedback, but ultimately you decide. Check her out, performing alongside a young, hungry, pre-Ghostrider Nicholas Cage. Enjoy the very Italian-American Moonstruck (1987).…

Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is a radical departure from all of the British Bake Off we’ve been watching to go to sleep at night on Netflix. This week we review the ultra hip crime comedy jam packed with so much fast-talking cockney slang we’ll be grateful for the subtitles features on your laptop.…

A suicidal cop is partnered with a family man and has to break up an international heroin trafficking ring comprised of Vietnam era black ops mercenaries on Christmas. This is an OG buddy cop film, and the template for countless knockoffs. Joining us this week is music artist Andrew Charles/Buck.Av Sami Harmarneh

Today we watch Sandra Bullock play an extremely photogenic introvert computer program in this in this PG-13 techno thriller. This movie is simultaneously out of date, goofy, and extremely prescient of our current digitally connected society. Joining us this week is NYC Comedian and Sci-Fi writer Jaqi Furback…

Tron 1982 is a beautifully animated cyber adventure, a landmark in CGI effects, and hypnotic art film. It’s also an anachronistic slog that gets the Internet wrong and it’s saving grace is Jeff Bridges. We could retitle Tron the dude in the Matrix. Guest star is Story Pirate Louie Pearlman.Av Sami Harmarneh

On this episode we cover the 1994 Western epic melodrama Legends of the Fall, starring Julia Osmond, Sir Anthony Hopkins, peak 90’s Brad Pitt, and narrated by a Native American for some reason. Get ready to get misty eyed in this idealized version of American History, which could have easily be titled “Everybody Loves Tristan”. Joining us is NYC Co…

It’s 1985, the year Berry Gordy of Motown fame executive produced a funky genre-bending cult classic, The Last Dragon. This script feels like someone smoked PCP while listening to Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting, and banged away at the keys of an old IBM Selectric to create a masterpiece. This week joining us is actor and Story Pirate Cedric Lilly. …

It’s time to review Top Gun. A sleek and stylish 1986 film that cranks the Cold War patriotism up to 10! This is an American Navy recruitment film dressed up as a Kenny Loggin’s music video, chalk full of daddy issues, daredevil dogfights, and cool code names. And the kids loved it. Joining us the week is actor Matt Maretz.…

It’s a bitter/sweet 2009 coming-of-age story dressed up like a rom-com and it turns the manic pixie dream girl trope on its head. Check out this Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Zooey Deschanel banger. Covered at the behest of our friend and guest Maddy Smith.Av Sami Harmarneh

On this episode we cover director Paul Verhoeven’s sleezy neo-noir starring Michael Douglas playing his best divorced dad with a cocaine habit and an 80's and middle-life-crisis, bright red Pontiac Fiero, and Sharon Stone breaking out as a psychopathic serial killer sex symbol. With good friend of the pod Andrew Harriss.…

In 1999, Paul Thomas Anderson dazzled audiences with Magnolia, a meditation on celebrity, dysfunctional families and frogs in the San Fernando Valley. How has its mosaic structure and melodrama ages 20 years on? Join Ben, Ellisha and guest Tasha Kappler (PTA Aficionado™) as we dissect the frogs, the performances and Magnolia’s place in the canon. T…

To celebrate Pride Month, we’ve gone back to 1996 to cover the Bird Cage. Enjoy Nathan Lane in drag, Robin Williams playing it “straight” and Hank Azaria’s natural heat... In an era before gay marriage, The Bird Cage broke barriers as the first blockbuster film with two gay lead characters. This week we are joined by special guest Jax Dell’Osso.…

Its boys boys boys as Judge Movie returns to Sheffield Doc/Fest to survey the documentary landscape, flanked by Angel of the North Rhys Handley (@RhysHandley2113), and the verbose insights of Jack King (@_jarking). But has Asif Kapadia's Diego Maradonna been blessed by the Hand of God? Is the investigative journalism on display in One Child Nation …

The year was 2008. In Baghdad, journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at then-president George W. Bush. And the film In Bruges hit the big screen. The plot follows two hitman visiting Bruges, laying low after a murder gone wrong in London. A simple story about gangster doing normal things, while spouting witty dialogue, quickly spira…

Sundance London is going off this weekend so Judge Movie grabbed some critics, camped out in a Pret, and delivered some of the hottest takes this side of Utah. But does The Farewell live up to the hype? Can Apollo 11 stick the landing? And why did so many people walk out of The Nightingale? Book tickets! https://www.picturehouses.com/cinema/Picture…

Jiro is a 85 year old man who has 3 star Michelin rated sushi restaurant in a subway station in Japan. He has been slicing fish up in this spot for over 40 years. And he is regarded as the greatest master sushi chef in the world. This is his story. Joining us for the motivational food documentary is the fabulous Usama Siddiquee…

We’re pulling this lost episode of EPJ out of solitary confinement. It’s time to review Lee Daniel’s 2012 The Paperboy. Take a trip to the bijou of 1969 Florida for this Southern Gothic Noir crime story. It's messy, sweaty and full of A-list actors playing it real dumb. Enjoy the water sports, rough trade sex, prison masturbation, alligator disembo…

With Claire Denis' outer space epic High Life hitting UK cinemas at last, what better time to evaluate the French auteur's work and her 1999 classic, Beau Travail? With the robust support of Joseph Owen ( @josephowen30 ) on board, we dissect Denis' depiction of the body, science fiction, the post-colonial gaze... and that's before we even get to th…

It's red and blue, it's masculine and feminine, it hot and cold, it's love and hate, it's sorrow and joy, it's the song of Ice and Fire, it’s the color purple. I mean Purple Rain! This week we cover the 1984 Prince star vehicle film. This movie is a glorious mess, and proves Prince has the world building skills of George Lucas, and the musical prod…

Judgement Night: so many things going in this perfectly mid-90’s urban thriller. JN is a star vehicle for Dennis Leary at the height of his Gen X “edgy” comedy bad boy powers. It has a stellar ensemble cast including Cuba Gooding Jr, Jeremy Piven, Peter Green, Stephen Dorff, and Everlast, all propping up Emilio Estevez’ wooden performance. It got a…

Does Vox Fux or Vox Sux? We enlisted the help of Thomas Atkinson (@Nosniktamot) of The Favourite Podcast to dissect Brady Corbet's latest, the Natalie Portman starring 21st Century portrait of pop stardom... But what exactly does it tell us about modern life? How does it match up to the recent spate of music themed filmic odysseys? And is Willem Da…

My Best Friend’s Wedding: The story of an intensely jealous, possessive, pathological liar with intimacy issues, hellbent on stealing the groom from his billionaire bride-to-be days before their wedding. Also it’s a cute rom-com. Join us as we tackle this 1997 classic with a little help from our friends over at The Ridiculous People Podcast, Alex S…

Risky Business could be described as The Anti-Pretty Woman or The Graduate for the 1980's. On the surface Tom Cruise’s break out film looks like another John Hughes Chicagoland affluent teenage melodram-com, but writer/director Paul Brickman delivered a much darker satire on the loss of innocence and the soul crushing effects of the ideology of cap…

In 1999 Mel Gibson rose from the dead in Payback, Brian Helgeland's violent spin on Point Blank. Join Ellisha and Ben as they compare the theatrical edition to the Director's Cut, and sus out whether Mel's career has itself risen again with his reactionary new film Dragged Across Concrete! Follow us on Twitter/IG @judgemoviepod @peche_lives @ellish…