Sound On Sight / Sordid Cinema

Quentin Tarantino Month continues with a look at two wildly different efforts. First off: 1997's Jackie Brown, in which Tarantino tackles someone else's fictional universe directly for the first (and, to date, only) time, adapting Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch. Next up in Tarantino's half of the Grindhouse double feature, Death Proof, which the director recently named as his least accomplished movie. Can Ricky, Simon and Edgar agree on that? (Don't count on it.)

With The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey looming, we faced a problem: how do we tackle Peter Jackson's epic, 11-hour (if we go by Extended Editions) Lord of the Rings saga without going insane? Ricky D and Simon Howell decided the best course of action was to double down. They're joined by Tolkien fiend Kate Fulzick of our own Televerse podcast and Steve Prokopy a.k.a. Capone of Ain't It Cool News to consider the entire trilogy as a unified entity, as well as weighing the films' lasting impact on movie and geek culture.

This week, hosts Ricky D, Simon Howell and Julian Carrington invite Josh Spiegel (host of the Mousterpiece Cinema podcast), to discuss Ang Lee's Life of Pi, as well as the best animated features of 2012. In our review of Life of Pi, Ricky D gives two very different opinions of the film – one negative and one positive. It is up to you, to choose which you prefer. And yes, our review will make you find God.

December is Tarantino Month here at SOS, and in the weeks leading up to the Christmas release of Django Unchained, we'll be tackling the man's entire filmography in podcst form. Tim Buell of First Showing and The Golden Briefcase joins Ricky and Simon to break down Tarantino's breakthrough features, Reservoir Dogs and formerly controversial SOS topic Pulp Fiction.

Josh Spiegel swaps in for Ricky D, joining Simon Howell and Julian Carrington to discuss two late-year fest darlings - which, of course, also makes them Oscar hopefuls. First up is David O. Russell's bipolar rom-com Silver Linings Playbook, with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert de Niro; next is the John Hawkes vehicle / bio-pic/ would-be tearjerker, The Sessions. Up for discussion: the MPAA and penises, the TIFF Audience Award track record, and whether it's better to over-direct or not to direct at all.

For the first time in Sound on Sight history, Ricky and Simon attempt a crossover episode, joining forces with Ty Landis and Tom Stoup from over at Almost Arthouse in order to assess the latest historical epic from director Steven Spielberg, Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field.

Dust off your tuxedos and get your martini shakers ready. The 007 film franchise is turning 50 this year and to celebrate, we have a very special review of Skyfall. It's been a busy half-century since the super-spy hit the big screen, played by six different actors in no less than 23 films, and here to help us review the latest instalment is special guest host Gabe Busco from the Mouserpiece cinema podcast.

In what turned out to be one of the most epic conversations in SOS history, Ricky, Simon and Edgar are joined by David Lynch superfan and friend of the show Kate Rennebohm for a two-part dissection of the man's last two films: 2001's Mulholland Dr. and 2006's Inland Empire. Discussed: rabbits, the Lincoln assassination, the significance of doorknobs, yelling at Laura Dern, and many, many more odd tangents.

In what turned out to be one of the most epic conversations in SOS history, Ricky, Simon and Edgar are joined by David Lynch superfan and friend of the show Kate Rennebohm for a two-part dissection of the man's last two films: 2001's Mulholland Dr. and 2006's Inland Empire. Discussed: rabbits, the Lincoln assassination, the significance of doorknobs, yelling at Laura Dern, and many, many more odd tangents.

On this episode of Sordid Cinema, guest James Merolla joins hosts Ricky, Edgar and Simon to discuss three pseudo-giallo films; Brian De Palma's hotly controversial Dressed To Kill, Lucio Fulci's Don't Torture A Duckling and Belgium export Amer.

Already being hailed as one of the most ambitious movies to come down the proverbial pike in ages, The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer co-directed Cloud Atlas has arrived to fiercely divided reaction. Ricky, Julian and Simon tackle the three-hour epic with an appropriately thorough take (beware spoilers!); before that, Ricky and Simon take a look back at the Wachowskis' relatively modest 1996 debut, the steamy lesbian neo-noir Bound.

One of these Cronenberg shows is not like the others. In our sixth Cronenberg-themed show, we expand our scope to include David Cronenberg's very own spawn, Brandon, whose debut feature Antiviral has just gone wide in Canada. Ricky, Edgar and Simon tackle the new flick, and see how it stacks up against one of daddy's earlier efforts, 1981'a sci-fi actioner Scanners.

With the help of new regular Sordid Cinema co-host Edgar Chaput, Ricky and Simon tackle Scott Derrickson's warmly received haunted-house horror flick Sinister, which also happens to feature a found-footage component, because this is 2012. The gang also takes a look at a fairly obscure haunted house film from 1976, Burnt Offerings, starring Oliver Reed, Karen Black, and...Bette Davis!

It's a double dose of dark comedies that happen to prominently feature...dognapping? Not the smoothest or most obvious connection we've made, probably, but both flicks bear some discussing. First up and new in theaters this past weekend is Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths, his long-awaited follow-up in In Bruges. Next up is a movie that won't be arriving stateside for a bit, Ben Wheatley's Sightseers, which is about as funny as graphic killing sprees are allowed to get.

Our latest episode of Sordid Cinema takes on cult item Don Coscarelli, not once, but twice: first via his adaptation of Jason Pargin's cult-sensation novel John Dies at the End, produced by and co-starring Paul Giamatti; then we rewind to take a look at C