I wanted to do a little something special for the episode number, but I was ruled out. Instead, listen as we simp for Charlize Theron and discuss her awesomeness, even the stinkers. Then we talk about The Old Guard (2020), a Charlize Theron joint.
This week we watch the A24 release "Saint Maud" (2019), directed by Rose Glass. Saint Maud tells the story of Maud, a quiet yet pious hospice nurse taking care of famous American dancer Amanda, who has cancer. They develop a dangerous bond - is Maud speaking with God? Who knows. Listen and find out!
This time we'll be talking about the man, the myth, the legend, Sam Raimi, and his take on the Western with "The Quick and the Dead." We'll also be discussing the Western as a genre, and all the sub-genres that come along with it.
We're a day late and a dollar short on our Halloween episode, but who cares! It may be Nov 1, but we'll always watch a good horror movie. This week we check out genre master John Carpenter's The Prince of Darkness (1987), a science-meets-religion horror piece. We'll also be talking about John Carpenter's other works, so pull up a chair and check it out!
We continue with our month of horror with a discussion around prolific artist Clive Barker, including his writing and film work. Then we talk about the new Hellraiser (2022), directed by David Bruckner and starring Jamie Clayton as The Hell Priest, aka Pinhead.
We're back with our first horror film in the month of October with The Wolf of Snow Hollow, a bizarre little werewolf slasher where mostly women are killed. Isn't that just how it is? Anyway, some of use liked it, one of us HATED it. Find out who by listening! Listen, damn you!
After a long break, we're back! In this episode we discuss The House (2022), a stop-motion anthology arthouse film on Netflix. We also discuss stop-motion in general. Join us!
This week's film is The Platform (2019), a Netflix offering about a sort of social experiment prison, where the prison is over 200 stories into the ground with one cell per floor. Two people are kept in each cell, and everyday, a platform full of food is delivered in the center of each room for two minutes. A platform that runs out of food when it gets too low. Allegory abounds!
This week we revisit the Raid series with The Raid 2 (2014). Taking place almost immediately after the events of the first film, this time we see Rama being recruited to go undercover in a prison in order to bring the man who killed his brother to justice.
This episode it's back to the theater with Gypsy, the 1962 musical biopic based on the stage play about the most famous Burlesque dancer of all time, Gypsy Rose Lee, and her narcissistic stage mother who pushes her into stripping.
What better way to celebrate the Oscars, now a month past due, than by watching a movie that shares a title with the best picture winner? Jenner and Hsien take a look at CODA (2021), an acronym standing for Child of Deaf Adults, and also the concluding passage of a piece of music. It's about a young woman pursuing a music career while trying to help her parents with communication. Nate, on the other hand, watched the epic Coda (2019), a Patrick Stewart vehicle with Katie Holmes as his... er, love interest. Yeah. He's a pianist with stage fright, she's a journalist who worships him. It's amazing.
This week on What's On the Pile we ask the question "what was your eureka moment?" When did you realize the actual intentions of a movie? We also play some more of Hsien's games! Then, we discuss The Power of the Dog (2021), Jane Campion's film about toxic masculinity (amongst other things) starring Benedict Cumberbatch, currently on Netflix.
We're back from vacation with another Oscar contender (it didn't win) about a month after the Oscars finished: Drive My Car, the 2021 film based on Haruki Murakami's short story works, about a husband whose philandering wife dies suddenly. It's a deeply depressing and melancholy film.
It's Guillermo Del Toro night on What's on the Pile with another Oscar nominee, Nightmare Alley (2021), starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, freaking Ron Perlman and Mary Steenburgen, this cast is stacked! And although the Oscars are over and we know all about the outcomes and slaps that happened, we're going to continue with our Oscar viewings because we still really want to see the movies!
This week we take on another Oscar contender with Licorice Pizza (2021), Paul Thomas Anderson's coming of age film.
It's musical theater night on What's On the Pile as we take a look at another Academy Award nominee, this time for best actor in Andrew Garfield, playing Jonathan Larson, writer of the Off Broadway sensation Rent. We'll also be discussing other musicals, so join us for the conversation!
Join us this week as we start taking on some of the Academy Award nominees from this year, starting with "Don't Look Up" (2021), starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, and directed by Adam McKay. Don't Look Up tells the story of an extinction level event and the society that could give less of a shit. It's super cynical!
No movie this week folks as we, instead, answer some questions and have a general discussion around different movies that we might not otherwise get to talk about on the show. It's a fun episode, so join us! Movies discussed: "Stand By Me," "The Devil's Advocate," "Wonderboys," "Tremors," "E.T.," "Amadeus," "Ghostbusters: Afterlife," multiple Spider-mans, and a bunch more!
This week chivalry is only kind of dead with A Knight's Tale, the story of William (Heath Ledger) and his friends and their quest to find food through fraud, with fun anachronisms throughout. Following that is The Green Knight. This A24 release is a telling of the Arthurian legend "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" starring Dev Patel as Gawain.
This week we delve into Henri Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear (1953), a nihilistic film about four ex-pats taking a job driving trucks filled with nitroglycerin to an oil fire. Along the way they have philosophical adventures. After that is Sorcerer (1977), the William Friedkin remake starring Roy Scheider. It tells the same familiar story, only with the experimental nature of 70s filmmaking and a lot more backstory.