Bright Wall/Dark Room: Recent Episodes
Bright Wall/Dark Room, LLC
A podcast companion to a different kind of film magazine. Artists & writers reflecting on movies & life.
We're looking at unloved & overlooked films this month and making a case for why you should care. Elizabeth, Andrew, and Kelsey are joined by a special guest, poet Arielle Greenberg, to discuss some of their favorite unloved movies:
| 1:54 Cult Films vs. Unloved Films 9:14 Afternoon Delight, Crooklyn, Human Nature (Arielle's picks) 19:29 J.J. Abrams' Lens Flares & Lucy (Andrew's picks) 31:50 Sabrina & The Truth About Cats and Dogs (Kelsey's picks) 37:53 Burn After Reading (Elizabeth's pick) 41:22 Overrated/Backlash Films (Life is Beautiful, The Artist, etc) 46:25 The BW/DR Movie Poster Game |
To read our current issue (The Unloved), visit us at Bright Wall/Dark Room.
Last week, Netflix released its first holiday special, A Very Murray Christmas, and reaction has been divided. We look at both sides of the coin, with Chad and Elizabeth slugging it out to determine, once and for all, whether or not this new special is worth your time. Plus: It's a Wonderful Life!
To read the brand new December issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room, visit us online or download our free magazine app.
This month, we're devoting an entire episode to Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, Vertigo. With special guests Karina Wolf and Chris Cantwell (co-creator and showrunner of AMC's Halt and Catch Fire).
To read our current Alfred Hitchcock issue, or subscribe to the magazine, click here. We'd love to have you join in the conversation!
With Halloween just a few short days away, we're looking at our personal scariest movie moments in this month's all new BW/DR podcast. Elizabeth, Chad, and Kelsey are joined by special guest Karina Wolf—who came prepared with her very own "Which Horror Movie Are You?" matrix—for a wide-ranging discussion on movies, fear, anxiety, dreams, theories, and a brand new gameshow-like ending segment from Elizabeth.
Topics include:
"Too Smart for Strangers, with Winnie the Pooh, "I Know My First Name is Steven" (tv miniseries), The Face on the Milk Carton (book), The Jinx, David Lynch/David Cronenberg, Crimson Peak, American Psycho, 9 to 5, In Dreams, The Sixth Sense, Desperately Seeking Susan & what to do with Madonna (read Karina's essay in the new issue!), the almost romance between Robert Redford and Brad Pitt in Spy Game, Jaws theories (read Elizabeth's piece from July 2014), a theory about Freddie Prinze Jr. and Michael Cera, The Voyager Golden Record, The Tree of Life, Margaret, Boyhood, Hamlet, and movie posters.
(To read the October issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room, visit us online or download our free app)
Do you remember what it feels like to grow up? Because in this month's episode, we’re here to remind you.
We’re diving headfirst back into adolescence, looking at how movies have tried—successfully and not so successfully—to capture teenagers on screen over the past few decades. Chad, Elizabeth, and Michelle discuss a handful of their favorites, look at what makes for a good "teen" movie in general, and reflect on how glad they are to never have to be teenagers ever again.
(To read our new issue—"Teenagers"—visit us at Bright Wall/Dark Room.)
This month we go to Paris! Or, more precisely, we reflect on memories of time spent falling in and out of love in The City of Lights. Chad, Andrew, Kelsey, and Michelle discuss their past Parisian adventures and take a look at some of their favorite Paris-based films (predictably, "Amelie" gets plenty of airtime).
Also: how can you accurately capture Paris on film? Is that even possible?
This month, BW/DR celebrates summer. We discuss our favorite summer films and try to dissect what, exactly, makes a summer movie a summer movie. Chad brings his theories, and Elizabeth and Michelle bring their embarrassing stories.
In this week’s episode, BW/DR’s managing editor Elizabeth Cantwell interviews her husband, Chris, the co-creator of AMC’s "Halt and Catch Fire", about basically everything: the creative process, behind-the-scenes HACF stuff, the critical narrative around Season One vs Season Two, the history of the internet, Gorillas in the Mist, shipping, your Twitter questions, and how being in a relationship with her helped him grow as a writer. Part backstage story, part inside scoop, part couples therapy, and always hilarious–it’s a new kind of BW/DR interview experience.
In this episode, Senior Editor Andrew Root interviews regular contributor Fran Hoepfner about her viewing of the 2015 period film Far From the Madding Crowd.
For more information about Bright Wall/Dark Room, visit www.brightwalldarkroom.com.
To complement our new (and entirely free) Mad Men issue, we catch up with staff writer—and official Mad Men recapper—Erika Schmidt to discuss the past season and the recent series finale. We discuss our thoughts on where the characters ended up, our favorite moments from the past season, and that final shot.
To learn more about BW/DR, please visit us at http://brightwalldarkroom.com.
This month, in honor of our new "Funny Bones" issue, we try valiantly to explain why we like funny things. It's harder than you'd think.
6:55: The Philadelphia Story (Chad)
21:30: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Michelle)
35:00: Tommy Boy (Andrew)
57:00: Twitter's Favorites/Goodbyes
To learn more about BW/DR visit us at Bright Wall/Dark Room!
In this BW/DR Short, Senior Editor Andrew Root presents an audio essay on Frank, starring Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Domhnall Gleeson.
Our music bonanza continues with our March issue, wherein we cover musicians as subjects, musicians as actors, and the fandom that surrounds it all. In this episode of the podcast, we focus on three movies: Amadeus, Stop Making Sense, and High Fidelity. By the end of the podcast, one member of the BW/DR crew is assigned Bjork's swan dress.
To learn more about BW/DR, visit us at Bright Wall/Dark Room.
In today's BW/DR Short, Elizabeth and Chris Cantwell go over the ballots submitted by the BW/DR staff in order to find out who is the One True Oscar Genius. To learn more about BW/DR, go to http://brightwalldarkroom.com/.
Our February issue is all about musicals & soundtracks, so we took that theme and ran with it for this episode of the podcast. Andrew, Elizabeth, Chad, and Michelle discuss three very different musicals from three very different eras: Singin' in the Rain, Pennies from Heaven (1981), and Moulin Rouge. Only one earned unanimous praise from all of us, and it might not be the one you're expecting.
If you had read our January issue, you probably read our piece on The Graduate, featuring husband & wife Elizabeth and Chris Cantwell sparring over the classic Mike Nichols' film. In our very first BW/DR Short, we're proud to present the full audio recording of that discussion, unedited and unabridged.
In this episode we look more closely at the subject of our January issue, Mike Nichols, through the lens of three different films made from three different eras: '60s Nichols (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), '80s Nichols (Working Girl), and 21st century Nichols (Closer). Plus, a roundtable discussion of the films we are most looking forward to seeing in 2015.