Yeah, like we weren't going to go over two and a half hours on FULL FRONTAL. Following the generational run of OUT OF SIGHT, THE LIMEY, ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC, and OCEAN'S ELEVEN, Steven Soderbergh did what anyone would do: he shot a semi-improvised ensemble Hollywood satire on a consumer grade digital camera. The result, FULL FRONTAL, is a fascinating film about connection, mediation, performance, and the film industry, so who better to talk about it with than our Hollywood bigwig buddy, filmmaker and producer Chadd Harbold? This is a really good one, folks - don't sleep on it!

Further Reading:

"Digital Release: Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal" by Lawrence Garcia

"Just Like A Movie: Full Frontal As Postmodern Love Story" by Daniel McKleinfeld

"Soderbergh Lets It All Hang Out: Full Frontal at 20" by Craig J. Clark

Further Viewing:

BAMBOOZLED (Lee, 2000)

STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002)

Follow Chadd Harbold:

https://x.com/chaddwithtwoDs

https://vimeo.com/chaddharbold

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

https://www.podcastyforme.com/

https://twitter.com/podcastyforme

https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/

https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

Our dear friend Comrade Yui joins us to discuss Lee Sang-il's 2013 remake of UNFORGIVEN, which stars Ken Watanabe and transposes the action to Meiji Japan. We talk Japanese history, Westerns vs. jidaigeki, Pokémon metaphysics, and pantsing. Great ep, please enjoy.

Follow Comrade Yui:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb3MlmPw9MfDK4chNVQ4gdA

https://x.com/Comrade_Yui

https://www.patreon.com/c/comrade_yui/

Yui's review of UNFORGIVEN (2013):

https://letterboxd.com/comrade_yui/film/unforgiven-2013

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Ante up, listener! It's the OCEAN'S ELEVEN episode. After the unbelievable one-two punch of BROCKOVICH and TRAFFIC, Steven Soderbergh took a victory lap by remaking a dull Rat Pack movie into one of the most entertaining films ever made - and it made a bunch of money and everyone loves it. Including our guest, filmmaker and YouTuber Patrick Willems! We talk heists, movie stars, Vegas, pleasure - this is a real fun one, folks. Enjoy.

Further Reading:

Rebels on the Backlot by Sharon Waxman

The BFI Companion to Crime, ed. Phil Hardy

Further Viewing:

GIDGET (Wendkos, 1959)

OCEAN'S 11 (Milestone, 1960)

THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN (Dearden, 1960)

THE GREAT ESCAPE (Sturges, 1963)

THE DIRTY DOZEN (Aldrich, 1967)

THE HOT ROCK (Yates, 1972)

ROUNDERS (Dahl, 1998)

TERRIERS (Griffin, 2010)

NOW YOU SEE ME (Leterrier, 2013)

Follow Patrick Willems:

https://www.youtube.com/@patrickhwillems

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

https://www.podcastyforme.com/

https://twitter.com/podcastyforme

https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/

https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

Jake's 23-year-old coworker Zoomer Josh is back, and this time we made him watch UNFORGIVEN. We talk Westerns, Hackman, the anti-ICE demonstrations in LA, and Josh's journey as a young cinephile. Plus: a dumb game!

Follow Zoomer Josh: https://x.com/josh_axa

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

https://www.podcastyforme.com/

https://twitter.com/podcastyforme

https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/

https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

The second half of Soderbergh's unbelievable year 2000 was TRAFFIC, his sprawling adaptation of the 1989 Channel 4 miniseries about the many sides of the drug trade. At the time, it was hailed as a highly nuanced and humane look at narcotics. But how does it look from 2025? Joining us to discuss is professor and author of our much-cited Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge, Benjamin Y. Fong! We talk macroeconomics, "Mexico filter," drug movies, Benicio Del Toro's accent, and a whole lot more. Really fascinating episode, we hope you enjoy!

Further Reading:

Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge by Benjamin Y. Fong

Rebels on the Backlot by Sharon Waxman

In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio by Philippe Bourgois

Steven Soderbergh: Interviews, ed. Anthony Kaufman

Further Viewing:

"No, Mexico isn't actually that orange. Hollywood is just racist." from Mashable

MIKEY AND NICKY (May, 1976)

TRAFFIK (Reid, 1989)

HIGHWAY PATROLMAN (Cox, 1991)

LEAVING LAS VEGAS (Figgis, 1995)

ENTER THE VOID (Noe, 2009)

THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (Jarecki, 2012)

THE SPECTACULAR NOW (Ponsoldt, 2013)

EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (Guerra, 2015)

MONOS (Landes, 2019)

BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS (Ross brothers, 2020)

Follow Benjamin Y. Fong:

https://benfong.com/

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

https://www.podcastyforme.com/

https://twitter.com/podcastyforme

https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/

https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

In the aftermath of DIRTY HARRY, there were plenty of films looking to get in on the semi-legal vigilante craze. One of the most successful of these was Phil Karlson's WALKING TALL, starring the great, recently departed Joe Don Baker as real-life Tennessee lawman Buford Pusser, who was all too willing to tell the world how he beat the corruption out of McNairy County with a fencepost. Except that he was kind of full of hot air, and the whole thing is - at least for Ian - one of the most nakedly fascist films we've ever watched for the show! This episode was a long time coming, so we hope you enjoy.

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

Community Justice Exchange's Directory of Immigration System Bail Funds

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

https://www.podcastyforme.com/

https://twitter.com/podcastyforme

https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/

https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

Soderbergh finally hit a box-office home run in 2000 with ERIN BROCKOVICH, a Julia Roberts-starring biopic about a paralegal with a big personality and a nose for corporate environmental malfeasance, and the one-two punch of BROCKOVICH and TRAFFIC in a single year cemented him as a truly major filmmaker. This is one of the big ones, so we brought in our friend Carlee from Hit Factory to talk about basically everything: capitalism, the climate, gender, fashion, interpassivity, Todd Haynes, and Sheryl Crow. Great ep! Don't use ChatGPT even as a joke!

Further Reading:

Superman's Not Coming by Erin Brockovich

"Digging For The Truth" by Robert B. Welkos

"Ordinary Heroes vs. Failed Lawyers: Public Interest Litigation in 'Erin Brockovich' and Other Contemporary Films" by Michael McCann and William Haltom

"Erin Brockovich, 20 Years Later: 'I See So Many of Us Finding That Courage to Stand Up'" by Susan King

Further Viewing:

A CIVIL ACTION (Zaillian, 1998)

LEGALLY BLONDE (Luketic, 2001)

FIRST REFORMED (Schrader, 2017)

DARK WATERS (Haynes, 2019)

EVIL DOES NOT EXIST (Hamaguchi, 2023)

Follow Carlee:

https://x.com/deepimpactcrier

https://x.com/HitFactoryPod

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

https://www.podcastyforme.com/

https://twitter.com/podcastyforme

https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/

https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.

We return to our very slow trip through the films of Sergio Leone with 1971's DUCK, YOU SUCKER!, also known as A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE, also known as GIÙ LA TESTA, a story of the Mexican Revolution starring Rod Steiger and James Coburn. It's a real humdinger of an episode, as Jake's allergies flare up while he tells a long story about some unpleasant men at the barbershop, Ian explains the Mexican Revolution, and we both read passages from Frantz Fanon. Enjoy!

Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

https://www.podcastyforme.com/

Follow Pod Casty For Me:

https://twitter.com/podcastyforme

https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/

https://www.youtube.com/@podcastyforme

Support us on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe

Artwork by Jeremy Allison:

https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart