Secret Movie Club Podcast

SMC Pod #85: Celebrating Rainer Werner Fassbinder, our director of 2021

In a special format, special guest, film editor Andrew Groves joins SMC founder.programmer Craig Hammill to discuss their love of German auteur iconoclast moviemaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fassbinder was Secret Movie Club's Director of 2021. Andrew brings deep dive knowledge to Fassbinder's bio and body of work. Andrew and Craig wrestle with the paradox of Fassbinder's chaotic personal life compared to his near supernatural discipline/control/virtuosity with filmmaking. Politics, spirituality, sexuality, all get discussed in one of those winding movie conversations we hope you'll have with your friends and peers about your favorite movies and moviemakers.  

SMC Pod #84: Cinema on Television

The Secret Movie Club Team discusses some of the great cinema-tv hybrids like David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS, Damon Lindlelof's THE WATCHMEN, and Mike Flanagan's Netflix work.  Connor and Daniel also argue for the importance of TV as its own medium without feeling the need to make it more "cinematic". Craig talks about just how much Lynch influenced Lars Von Trier. Everyone agrees AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE is awesome and bite size 10-15 minute TV comedy is also an art form unto itself. 

SMC Pod #83: Pieces of Cinema-Directing

The team (Connor Lloyd Crews, a late arriving Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) join to discuss the role of the director in making movies. They try to wrestle with the reality of the job versus the mythology of the job. Everyone name checks three of their favorite directors. Connor and Craig debate three act versus five act structure. Edwin yet again gets nostalgic about INDIANA JONES & THE CRYSTAL SKULL while Craig remains silent. 

Secret Movie Club DECEMBER 2021 Calendar Podcast!

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) drive recklessly at fast and furious speed through our December 2021 line-up! Bergman, Burton, classic French Cinema, 15 hour Rainer Fassbinder brilliance, Capra, horror, anime. . . 

SMC Pod #82: INVASION USA, Edwin‘s Birthday, & Personal Movie Taste

For the very first time (since the podcast was started remotely during the COVID pandemic), the Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) with a huge mixing and contribution assist from talented sound guru Secret Movie Clubber Bri Robert (@brirob9) are all in the same room to celebrate Edwin's birthday and discuss Cannon Film's & Chuck Norris's mind-blowingly fun & ridiculous (as Craig would say) or awesome (as Edwin would say) action movie INVASION USA. The team cracks a bunch of jokes then gets down to business discussing the concept and importance of respecting individual and personal movie taste. 

SMC Pod #81: Night of the Hunter & All That Jazz-two distinctly American classics

The SMC team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) discuss Secret Movie Club's recent 35mm double feature of Charles Laughton's 1955 dark folk tale classic NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and Bob Fosse's 1979 semi-autobiographical rumination on Broadway and death ALL THAT JAZZ. Connor actually points out the movies are much more connected then might appear on the surface. Daniel surprises everyone by letting an f bomb fly. Edwin yet again berates Craig for not programming GODZILLA FINAL WARS. 

SMC Pod #80: Pieces of Cinema-Acting

Special Guest actor Lisee Metcalf @localmistake (TikTok) and The Secret Movie Club team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) gather to discuss the contribution of actors and acting to the creation of great movies. Lisee and Daniel declare undying love for Kristen Stewart and Adam Driver. Connor points out how brilliant Jeremy Irons' dual performance as twins is in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers. Craig goes on the record as feeling that method acting yields many of cinema's great performances. 

SMC Pod #79: Halloween Hangover-the Horror Subgenre edition!

The Secret Movie Club team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) take stock of the exhausting yet exhilarating October slate of horror movies of all kinds. This leads to a discussion on how rich horror is as a genre since so many sub-genres: horror-comedy, horror-drama, horror-musical, horror-satire, horror-parody, horror-western have grown from the fertile soil of horror. Many movies get name-checked including The Hunger, Don't Look Now, Toby Dammit. . .

SMC November 2021 Calendar Podcast!

The SMC team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, and Craig Hammill) roll out and announce our November 2021 schedule of movie screenings! Everything from two John Cassavettes' 70's gems on 35mm, the GuadaLAajara Film Festival, CASINO, and much much more!

SMC Pod #78: BEETLEJUICE & Tim Burton

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Daniel Ott, eventually Edwin Gomez when he finally wakes up and calls in, and Craig Hammill) discuss Tim Burton's seminal 1988 Halloween-horror comedy-coming of age-totally its own thing BEETLEJUICE, the importance of the performances of Michael Keaton and Catherine O Hara in making the movie work, what makes the best Tim Burton movies so "Tim Burton", as well as a discussion about why his post 2003 output has seemed so different from his first 15 years.