For the first episode of our Acteurist Spotlight on Jennifer Jason Leigh, we watched Amy Heckerling's Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and Paul Verhoeven's Flesh + Blood (1985). We explore the possibility of Heckerling's portrait of a young woman's existential journey through the good, the bad, and the ugly of sexual discovery influencing an early draft of the Verhoeven heroine, and the young JJL's unique combination of vulnerability and poise. Then we turn to an extra-long Fear and Moviegoing dealing with a 10-movie retrospective of radical leftist independent filmmaker John Sayles' career at the TIFF Lightbox Cinematheque, attended by Sayles and his producer/ life partner, Maggie Renzi.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 20s: Very brief intro to Jennifer Jason Leigh

0h 03m 46s: FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (1982) [dir. Amy Heckerling]

0h 30m 11s: FLESH + BLOOD (1986) [dir. Paul Verhoeven]

1h 02m 05s: Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Declarations of Independence: The Cinema of John Sayles at TIFF Lightbox. Programmed and hosted by Adam Nayman. John Sayles' Return of the Secaucus Seven (1979), Baby It's You (1983), The Brother From Another Planet (1984), Matewan (1987), City of Hope (1991), Lone Star (1996), Men With Guns (1997), Silver City (2004). Also: The Howling (1981), directed by Joe Dante and scripted by Sayles and Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), directed by Jimmy T. Murakami and scripted by Sayles.

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: "Sunday" by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise's piece on Gangs of New York – "Making America Strange Again"

* Check out Dave's Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!

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Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

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Our Special Subject for June is Wong Kar-wai's so-called "Love Trilogy": Days of Being Wild (1990), In the Mood for Love (2000), and 2046 (2004). Our discussion walks a tightrope of abstraction as we consider the philosophical implications of Wong's treatment of the theme of love: whether it can be consummated and how time, secrets, androids, and epistemology are involved. Proust, Tarkovsky, and of course FOTP Henry James get their due mentions.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 25s: DAYS OF BEING WILD (1990) [dir. Wong Kar Wai]

0h 29m 47s: IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (2000) [dir. Wong Kar Wai]

0h 46m 55s: 2046 (2004) [dir. Wong Kar Wai]

1h 05m 06s: So This Is Sarris (The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris) – Garson Kanin

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: "Sunday" by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise's piece on Gangs of New York – "Making America Strange Again"

* Check out Dave's Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!

In this Universal 1934 Studios Year by Year episode, we discuss the original There's Always Tomorrow, starring Frank Morgan and Binnie Barnes (remade by Douglas Sirk in the 50s with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck) and the bizarre Claude Rains vehicle The Man Who Reclaimed His Head. The middle-class American nuclear families of the 30s and 50s curiously converge, and future Hollywood Ten screenwriter Samuel Ornitz tries to reclaim his mind from the studio heads (or so we irresponsibly conjecture). And in Fear and Moviegoing, we briefly discuss Bitter Rice, a feminist/Marxist/crime/erotic/neorealist melodrama directed by Giuseppe De Santis.

Time Codes:

0h 00m 25s: 1934 & Universal

0h 03m 19s: THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW [dir. Edward A. Sloman]

0h 27m 01s: THE MAN WHO RECLAIMED HIS HEAD [dir. Edward Ludwig]

0h 41 m 35s: FEAR AND MOVIEGOING IN TORONTO – Bitter Rice (1949) by Giuseppe DeSantis at TIFF Lightbox

0h 47m 03s: So This Is Sarris (The American Cinema by Andrew Sarris) – Mitchell Leisen

Studio Film Capsules provided by The Universal Story by Clive Hirschhorn

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler

1934 Information from Forgotten Films to Remember by John Springer

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* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: "Sunday" by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise's latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.

* Check out Dave's new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist's 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project!

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server - just drop us a line if you'd like to join!