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The Film Stage Presents
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The B-Side Ep. 184 – Goldie Hawn with Jen Johans
5d ago01:45:35Tap to summarizeWelcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we discuss perhaps the most likeable movie star alive: Goldie Hawn! Our B-Sides include: Butterflies Are Free, The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox, Seems Like Old Times, and Deceived. Our guest today is dear friend Jen Johans, host of the superb Watch With Jen Podcast! We chat about Goldie’s hot start on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and the early Oscar she won for her dynamic, engaging performance in Cactus Flower. It was her first film role and she was still on Laugh-In! Hawn quickly became a commercially-friendly representation of the counterculture movement, as evidenced in Butterflies Are Free. There’s debate about Goldie on the production of Jonathan Demme’s ultimately troubled Swing Shift (though she did officially meet Kurt Russell on set, so a huge silver lining!) and how much it hurt her reputation. We celebrate the TV Specials, how Goldie Hawn is her given name, and her autobiography. We enjoy the absurdities of Deceived, posit that maybe Protocol was a proto-Ishtar, and admire the shagginess of the stars in 1970s movies. There’s mention of Goldie’s 1972 album! Her charity comes up! How huge of a star Neil Simon was in the ‘70s and ‘80s comes up! There’s a lot to chew on in this episode. Enjoy!
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The B-Side Ep. 183 – Laurence Fishburne (with Mitchell Beaupre)
3w ago02:17:10Tap to summarizeWelcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we talk about a truly underrated star: Laurence Fishburne! Our B-Sides include: Bad Company, Fled, Hoodlum, and Biker Boyz. Conor and guest host Mitchell Beaupre discuss Fishburne’s early work, his movie star run (the mid-90s, of which three of our B-Sides are a part of!), and the roles he passed on over the years. They debate whether or not Kevin Hooks’ Fled (a ‘90s take on The Defiant Ones) is worth the watch, if Oliver Parker’s Othello works as a movie, and that other time Fishburne played a character based on famous gangster Bumpy Johnson (that would be Francis Ford Coppola’s underrated The Cotton Club). There’s a celebration of Bill Duke’s directorial career (the legendary actor made Hoodlum and also Deep Cover, both starring Fishburne) and a conversation about Biker Boyz internal conflict in being a Fast & Furious movie.
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The B-Side Ep. 182 – Eddie Murphy (with Nicholas Gray and Alvin Keith)
May 701:56:23Tap to summarizeWelcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we talk about one of the most successful performers of all time: Eddie Murphy! Our B-Sides include: Metro, Holy Man, Life, and I Spy. Our guests today are filmmaker and returning guest Nicholas Gray and incredible actor Alvin Keith. We discuss Eddie’s stratospheric rise, the perceived failure of the underrated Harlem Nights, and his underwhelming ‘90s output. In 1987-1988, Eddie’s stand-up special Raw was one of the most financially successful theatrical releases of the calendar year. There’s the tonal strangeness of Metro, the fact that Eddie is not the lead of Holy Man, the subtle brilliance of Life, and the tired, cynical result that is I Spy. We talk about how Eddie only ever auditioned for Saturday Night Live as an actor, as well as his famous moment at the Academy Awards in 1988 in which he called out the lack of Black representation. There’s this great quote from Carmen Ejogo about working with Eddie on Metro: “He was utterly charming but... did he tell me this? He gets told, "There's this script, it's a bit shitty, are you interested?" "No, not really." "Well, you know, we're going to give you $30 million to do it." "Yeah, all right then." And that's where he's at. He's not doing it to be the next Poitier. It is what it is for him, and that's what he's like on set. He's just showing up and getting paid, whereas I was like, ‘What's the motivation here?’” We debate Eddie’s inherent softness (and also his edge) and how it works to his advantage, him turning down Rush Hour in favor of Holy Man, and his music career!
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The B-Side Ep. 181 – Chow Yun-Fat
Apr 2401:42:21Tap to summarizeWelcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we celebrate an actor with an incredible range: Chow Yun-fat. Our B-Sides include 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife, City War, Peace Hotel, and The Corruptor. We discuss Chow Yun-fat’s emergence in Hong Kong, his early work with John Woo, the breakout that was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. Conor and I debate which Western star Chow Yun-fat reminds us of, before resolving that he’s quite a bit more dynamic than any one of them. There’s debate over the success of his move to Hollywood and his brief stint as a Western leading man (lest we never forget about Bulletproof Monk!), the City on Fire influence on Reservoir Dogs, the John Woo Hollywood run (and why Chow wasn’t in any of them!?), and the impossible influence of Asian action cinema on Hollywood action blockbusters to this day.We also discuss the difficult and narrow needle to thread when making a slapstick marital comedy, and why 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife fails where a few succeed.
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Emulsion Ep. 23 - Josh Heaps on the DIY Horror of City Wide Fever
Apr 1400:35:13Tap to summarizeWhatever the last great horror movie was, I doubt it was so strange or compelling as City Wide Fever. Shot on video, seemingly whenever the talent had free time from whatever else they were doing, this is a film rejects the eye-deadening digital that defines so many genre movies that go for prestige only to end up at TUBI. It’s also funny, with a sense of humor that is pranksterish, even juvenile without dipping into an edgelord attitude to which it could’ve so easily resorted. City Wide Fever is now on Blu-ray. But if you’re in New York, then you have a special occasion to see it on Wednesday, April 15 at the Lower Manhattan Alamo Drafthouse, where filmmaker Josh Heaps is doing a Q&A. Josh, I feel compelled to note, started as a film publicist, and through his years there built enough connections to support this film, which he shot during his free hours with very little money. He’s a friend, but also someone whose film I genuinely like very much, and hope this conversation reflects those distinctions and commonalities alike.
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The B-Side Ep. 180 – Steve Martin (with Eric D. Snider)
Apr 1001:31:07Tap to summarizeWelcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we celebrate our greatest living comedian: Steve Martin! Our B-Sides include The Man with Two Brains, The Lonely Guy, The Spanish Prisoner, and Novocaine. Our guest is our dear friend Eric D. Snider, avowed Steve Martin fan and all-around smart-and-funny-and-good person who used to be a great film critic. We celebrate Martin’s early career - his stand-up success, his Saturday Night Live appearances, his myriad interests (he’s written great books, made great music!) - and the early comedies that made him a movie star. We discuss Martin’s willingness to play the straight man and let other comedians flourish (Charles Grodin in The Lonely Guy a prime example), his slow evolution into a dramatic actor (the supremely strange A Simple Twist of Fate is mentioned), and his incredible variance in quality of movies throughout his legendary career.
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Emulsion Ep. 22 - Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens on John Lilly
Apr 300:24:23Tap to summarizeHow often do you think about dolphins? That’s a serious question. Because it’s a topic worth turning over, which makes especially valuable… deep breath as I say the title… John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office, a documentary about the man whose work with dolphins blurred boundaries between science and counterculture. The filmmakers are Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens. While the former is better-known for his fiction features, including the recently restored Nadja, his portraits of artists—such as Sam Shepherd, William Eggleston, and Hampton Fancher—make him well-suited to the project. The latter, meantime, is shortly off Invention, which concerns sui generis experiments and the conspiracies they may or may not have engendered. With voiceover from Chloe Sevigny and a hypnotic soundtrack, John Lilly is a suitably dense exploration of a complicated mind. I spoke to Almereyda and Stephens as the film begins its theatrical run from Oscilloscope.
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The B-Side Ep. 179 – Spike Lee
Mar 2602:12:29Tap to summarizeWelcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we discuss Spike Lee! One of our absolute favorite filmmakers! Our B-Sides today are: Girl 6, Get on the Bus, Summer of Sam, Passing Strange, and Chi-Raq. We discuss what makes Lee a singular artist, his early films and early success, his celebrity as a commercial star, and his unbridled, unwavering optimism as a stylist. Spike Lee has mentioned that Crooklyn is the movie most fans mention to him, I’ve written about Lee’s incredible movie openings, and Conor and I celebrate his maximalist aesthetic. There’s also his ambitious alchemy of tone. Consider the minefield scene from Da 5 Bloods, which we talk about. It’s funny for a moment, then awfully tragic. There’s discussion about our dream Patreon mini-podcast series Macht Speed (a deep dive on the career of Gabriel Macht), the Spike Lee-Quentin Tarantino feud, and the audacity of ambition it takes to make a movie like She Hate Me. Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!
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Emulsion Ep. 21 - Gabe Klinger on Finishing Movies, Navigating Festivals, and Isabel
Mar 1601:41:05Tap to summarizeTake one step into the world of festivals and you'll understand that making a movie isn't just "making a movie." Even if one has the fortune to get some money for the script they've slaved over, get some actors in front of a camera, and survive the labyrinthine editing process, a veritable mountain of tasks faces those hoping to actually get the thing up and running. I might not know anybody who's better-learned in these spaces than my friend Gabe Klinger, who has worked in festivals, programming, criticism, and filmmaking, with his third feature, Isabel, debuting at this year's Berlinale. Music courtesy of Lex Walton: “Love Theme from an Unreleased Film” from the album Giving It Up.
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The B-Side Ep. 178 – 2026 Oscars Special (with Chris Feil)
Mar 1201:44:11Tap to summarizeWelcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we usually talk about movie stars and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between. Today, however, we talk about Oscar movies (!), or better yet, movies that remind us of Oscar movies! Conor and I welcome back the great Chris Feil, co-host of This Had Oscar Buzz! Today, we dive into defunct Academy Awards categories! The movies include In Old Chicago (which won the Oscar for Best Assistant Director, a category that was discontinued after this 1938 ceremony), The Americanization of Emily (which was nominated for Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) in its final year of competition), the much-maligned film adaptation of A Little Night Music (which won for, deep breath, Best Music, Original Song Score, and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score), and finally Sleepers (which was nominated for Best Original Dramatic Score, back during the time when there were two categories for music, Original Dramatic Score and Original Musical or Comedy Score). We talk about the upcoming (or just-aired, depending on when you listen) 2026 Academy Awards, the recent Oscar season and its surprises, changes that could be made to the format to make it more interesting, and personal favorites from the 2025 movie year. Additionally, we talk about Elizabeth Taylor singing in A Little Night Music, the endurance of the animated film Shrek (which won the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature back in 2002), and that time James Garner and Steve McQueen had a falling out because Garner starred in Grand Prix. Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!
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