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Is Exorcist II: The Heretic really one of the worst sequels ever made, or have we been watching it all wrong Dear Listener? Thanks to the documentary Boorman and the Devil, Jett and Gareth reconsider a movie that has been mocked for nearly 50 years. They explore Boorman's career, from Point Blank and Deliverance to Excalibur and The Emerald Forest, and examine how The Heretic fits into his lifelong fascination with myth, nature, and spirituality. Along the way: Richard Burton's hypnotic screen presence, the spiritual differences between the two Exorcist films, and the mysterious synchronizer that just might explain 20 years of The Film Talk. Sometimes folks the most interesting movies aren't necessarily the best ones. Films discussed: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and Boorman and the Devil (2025). The Show on the Web Be Part of the Conversation: Leave a Voicemail Subscribe on Patreon On Apple On Spotify On Facebook On Youtube On Threads

Jett and Gareth are overwhelmed by DIGGER, a film they see as exhilarating, horrifying and the most important movie of the moment. How do you make art in a world that too absurd to satirize? Is DIGGER a climate horror movie, a satire, (or farce), a work about our complicity in the systems we condemn or a piece of art about the difficult job of making art itself? All of the above? This is a spoiler-heavy conversation. If you haven't seen DIGGER, go see it first, preferably on the biggest screen you can find and then come back. The Show on the Web Subscribe on Patreon On Apple On Spotify On Facebook On Youtube Leave a Voicemail

Why are we working so hard to make artificial intelligence seem human? In this solo episode, Jett turns to three works of classic, and semi-classic, science fiction: Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Colossus: The Forbin Project, and Harlan Ellison's Demon with a Glass Hand, asking what movies can teach us about our increasingly personal relationship with AI. HAL raises one possibility: What if a machine really does become something like a living being, with emotions and even a fear of death? Colossus offers a darker path, imagining what happens when we surrender authority to a machine and begin treating it less like a tool than an all-knowing god. But The Outer Limits episode Demon with a Glass Hand suggests another way forward. Its computer, manifested as a literal hand of glass, is intelligent, extraordinarily useful, and completely unsentimental. It doesn't flatter. It doesn't pretend to be your friend. It's a tool. Along the way in this episode: AI "personalities," the strange idea of giving software a soul, the pleasure of actually making things, Robert Culp's impeccable wardrobe, Harlan Ellison's legendary temperament, and why Jett has spent the past week wearing a glove and calling ChatGPT "the Glass Hand." Maybe the question isn't whether AI can become more like us. Maybe it's whether we should stop asking it to. The Show on the Web Subscribe on Patreon On Apple On Spotify On Facebook On Youtube Leave a Voicemail

We continue our time-traveling journey Dear Listeners, remember 2014? Ahh, a more innocent time perhaps, where Spidermen roamed free, neighbors fought with each other, Tom Hardy spend a lot of time alone and John Milius was, well, John Milius.

A cartoon coyote, Albert Camus, Mira Nair, and Albuquerque walk into a podcast. Jett and Gareth dig into the wonderfully humane Coyote vs. Acme: a film about persistence, absurdity, and the radical possibility of seeing the world through somebody else's eyes—even when that somebody has spent decades being flattened by anvils. The Show on the Web Subscribe on Patreon On Apple On Spotify On Facebook On Youtube

Six episodes later, the ranking project finally reaches the summit. Jett and Gareth reveal their respective No. 1 Steven Spielberg films, argue about greatness, wander briefly into Vincente Minnelli's Lust for Life, and confront the terrifying possibility that ranking art may have told us more about themselves than Spielberg. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk

Let us reflect on the past and see how it influenced the future Dear Listener. In this Bonus/Archive episode of TFT from all the way back in 2014, Jett and Gareth discuss the perhaps not vitally necessary The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the stunningly unsettling Under the Skin and the jewel-box-like Spike Jones’ picture Her. Note: Our second episode on The Amazing Spider-Man 2, (The Amazing Spider-man 2, Part 2, if you will), will be posted later this month. Enjoy.

The Spielberg ranking has now escaped all reasonable containment. As Jett and Gareth approach the top of the filmography, old assumptions collapse, unlikely favorites rise, and Gymkata, Zodiac, and Quantum of Solace somehow enter a conversation ostensibly about Steven Spielberg. Cinema is a mysterious business. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk

Sophy Romvari's Blue Heron opens a conversation about memory, damaged families, grief, and the profound human need to be seen accurately. Jett and Gareth also consider why New Yorker critic Richard Brody remains such a vital voice—and why criticism is at its best when it risks having a point of view. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk

The Odyssey is an embarrassment of riches, certainly when it comes to performances Dear Listener. Realizing this, Gareth and Jett continued recording after the last episode to muse in a slightly roundabout way for a few minutes about the performance of Zendaya, who Gareth calls “the actor of her generation”.

THE ODYSSEY: It's important that a film at this scale is speaking to this moment that we're in Dear Listener. In this wide ranging discussion our hosts Higgins and Loe get into why THE ODYSSEY is so thought provoking and important a piece of mainstream entertainment, while along the way enjoining discussions about matters of life and death, one's responsibilities to act, and also completely forget to mention Zendaya's role in the film. Enjoy. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk

Hi folks, Jett Loe here. Before we gear up for our blockbuster ODYSSEY episode later in the week just wanted to share a few thoughts about one of my favorite “film workers”, Chuck Russell, who passed away several days ago. His pulpy sensibility and dedication to old fashioned film craft will be missed. And, as long as we’re here together, thought I’d say a few small words about horror phenomenon OBSESSION as well, and why my wife made sure I watched it. Enjoy.

Jett and Gareth would like to apologize for believing Steven Spielberg's entire theatrical career could be ranked in one episode. Part Four gets them almost, but emphatically not quite, to the end, while making room to remember the wonderful Sam Neill and the films and performances that stay with us after the rankings become meaningless. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk

What is Star Wars actually for? Jett and Gareth welcome educator and Star Wars expert Dan Zehr to talk The Mandalorian and Grogu, the future of the franchise, and whether this enormous mythology still carries moral weight—or has become merely a very expensive machine for moving familiar shapes around the screen. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk

The great Spielberg ranking rolls onward, pausing for Au Hasard Balthazar, Tom Stoppard's work on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Gareth's entirely defensible—or indefensible—love of War Horse. The rankings matter less than the arguments they provoke, which is probably the point. Subscribe on Patreon Apple - The Film Talk Spotify - The Film Talk Facebook.com/TheFilmTalk