Sound On Sight / Sordid Cinema

It's been a long time coming, and this week, Sound on Sight ventures into TV talk for the first time ever. Over the course of the summer, and perhaps beyond, we'll be recording a bonus show every week on one of our favorite shows. This week's subject is Dan Harmon's beloved NBC sitcom Community, whose second season wrapped a couple of weeks ago. Rick, Justine and Simon discuss the experimental sitcom's perils and triumphs.

The Cannes film festival wrapped up not too long ago, and Rick, Justine and Simon got to see this year's Palme D'Or winner - Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life - bright and early. Predictably, they have plenty to say about it, so be prepared for an epic-length review. Also up for discussion: another Palme winner, celebrating its 35th anniversary this year: MArtin Scorsese's iconic Taxi Driver, on which we have at least one mildly dissenting voice. (Guess who.) Finally, Simon chats with occasional SoS contributor and eternal globetrotter Eduardo Lucatero, who was at Cannes again this year and reports on this year's festivities.

Once considered the angriest, most unconventional, and relentlessly intriguing voices in independent queer cinema, Director Gregg Araki is back with Kaboom, a science-fiction cyber-thriller and self-aware teen sex comedy. On episode 22 of Sordid Cinema (Sound On Sight's monthly spin-off show) Ricky D, Justine Smith and guest Beverly Brown sit down to discuss Mysterious Skin, Nowhere, Doom Generation, Totally F***ed Up and Kaboom!

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

A couple of weeks ago, we lost one of the longest-revered American directors around, Sidney Lumet, whose directorial career opened with a bang with 1957's beloved 12 Angry Men, and ended fifty years later with the acclaimed crime drama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. With the help of regular SoS columnist and all-around authority Bill Mesce, we take on three of Lumet's better-known films, having already discussed Network and Dog Day Afternoon on previous episodes: 1964's The Pawnbroker, with Rod Steiger as a distraught Holocaust survivor; 1973's Serpico, starring Al Pacino as the real-life NYC cop; and 1982's The Verdict, with Paul Newman in an unusually grimy capacity as an alcoholic lawyer with a belated shot at redemption.

Elizabeth Taylor is one of film's most successful actresses, having starred in over fifty films from her early years as a child star to her Oscar winning performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? As one of the world's most famous film stars, Taylor was recognized for her acting ability and for her glamorous lifestyle, beauty and distinctive violet eyes. On Episode 270 of Sound On Sight, special guest Greg Ashman joins us for a look back at the career of the original manic pixie dream girl.

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

After an 11-year gap, Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson's megabuck meta-slasher Scream franchise is back with a fourth installment. To mark the occasion, Rick, Justine and Simon go back and dissect the original trilogy - in complete and spoiler-filled detail, by the way - before tackling the new one, which will be reviewed in both non-spoiler and very, very spoiler-y format.

One of the better-received films so far this year, Joe Wright's Bourne-y thriller Hanna, gets the SoS treatment this week courtesy of Rick, Simon and special guest from Chicago, Josh Youngerman, who also joins Justine and Simon to discuss Abbas Kiarostami's Copie Conforme (Certified Copy), which recently hit Montreal rep cinemas. Finally, we have a somewhat unusual interview with Albert Sam Nunez, an LA film student working on a prospective documentary.

Over the coming weeks, as a lead up the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto, Sound On Sight will be publishing a series of exclusive interviews with an eclectic group of documentary film makers. Mike Waldman sits down (over the phone) with the directors behind some of the most unusual, outrageous and personal narrative documentaries made over the last few years. These are some of the true story-tellers in documentary film and all of them have amazing tales to tell about their subjects, their process and themselves. We begin our interview series with Lee Demarbre, director of Vampiro: Angel, Devil, Hero. His film about an fallen super-star of Mexican wrestling, born in Thunder Bay Ontario, is a true achievement in first-person narrative documentaries. The story of how his film got made is almost as amazing as the one on camera.

In our second Classic Directors podcast, Derek, Justine and Simon take a look at the life and work of the prolific Otto Preminger, whose work often defied genre while touching on hot-button issues in a generally unforced manner. He first became known for 1944′s classic noir Laura, but his career spanned decades and was littered with highlights. We’ll be taking a look at a sliver of time in his career, specifically the mid-50s, and talking about Carmen Jones, The Man With the Golden Arm, and 1958′s masterful Bonjour Tristesse.

Saw originator James Wan's long-hyped paranormal horror flick Insidious crept into theaters this week, so we thought it wise to look at one of its most obvious forbears, plus a cult oddity on the same tip. First up is 1977's Hausu (House), a bizarre, chaotic Japanese horror-comedy like no other. Of course, no discussion of the apparition-fraught American family would be complete without the Tobe Hooper/Steven Spielberg 1982 "collaboration" Poltergeist. Stick around for the episode's, uh, riveting conclusion.

In our second Classic Directors podcast, Dererk, Justine and Simon take a look at the life and work of the prolific Otto Preminger, whose work often defied genre while touching on hot-button issues in a generally unforced manner. He first became known for

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.

The “Sound On Sight” radio show has also been consistently shortlisted one of the best film podcasts 2007-2010. It is marketed principally towards students and genre enthusiasts, and typically features in-depth discussion and debate on contemporary film.