Secret Movie Club Podcast

SMC Pod #102: Spiritual, Agnostic, & Atheist Cinema

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) discusses how cinema comes at God, spirituality, doubt, religion, skepticism in different ways. Breaking the Waves, Robocop, Ida, the Coen Brothers' movies, Luis Bunuel's powerful atheist cinema, all get name checked. But the team-specifically Connor, Daniel, and Craig-end up really digging into their backgrounds and current states of belief or non-belief. Craig tears up. Connor and Edwin note the similarity between going to church and going to the movies. 

SMC Pod #101: LIQUID SKY & Transgressive Cinema

The Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) discusses the mind-blowing 1983 cult hit transgressive masterpiece LIQUID SKY told from a bracingly female perspective, co-written by its female star Anna Carlisle who plays male and female roles, Nina V. Kerova, and directed by Russian immigrant Slava Tsukerman. The Team also looks at what "transgressive" really means (using dark humor and shocking situations to convey messages mainstream audiences often ignore) and how the genre is alive and kicking with 2021's Palm D'Or winning shocker TITANE directed by Julia Ducournau. #transgressivecinema 

SMC Pod #100: Our 100th episode! Nominating 21st century movies for masterpiece status.

The SMC Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) celebrates and clashes (as usual) their 100th podcast episode milestone. After some initial marital bickering, each member of the team nominates a 21st century movie he feels is a new masterpiece for new canon. Titles that get name-checked include Lord of the Rings, Spirited Away, and Un Prophete. And of course Edwin bucks the premise and nominates 1999's The Mummy but balances it out by coupling it with 2001's The Mummy Returns. 

SMC Pod #99: Best Picture winner CODA & the state of the Academy Awards

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) discuss 2021's Best Picture winner CODA (about a hearing-abled teen in a working class family of fishermen who are deaf) and their thoughts on the current state of the Oscars and the Academy Awards.  We briefly touch on the moment that seemed to cause more conversation than any of the movies-the Will Smith and Chris Rock slap-but mostly pass over that to discuss everyone's different feelings about the movies nominated, some people's sense that the Academy has lost its way, and what the future might look like. 

SMC Pod #98: Controversial German Filmmakers Gunther & Hans Dieter Storhammer

Controversial German filmmakers, director Gunther and actor Hans Dieter Stormhammer shocked the 2022 Berlinale this year with their 296 minute film der toefl die kindergarten und die sexy dame (2022, wri/dir Gunther, Germany) which has the dubious distinction of being the only movie EVERY SINGLE AUDIENCE MEMBER walked out on. The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Caesar Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) get the exclusive post-shock debut interview with these filmmakers who agreed to the Q&A from an undisclosed location. Some of the most controversial scenes get discussed including how Stormhammer played 18 parts, the treatment of children on the set, and a surprise revelation about Edwin and Craig. 

SMC Pod #97:Our 2nd Anniversary! Topic: Movies we love, others hate

The Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) reflect on how quickly time passes we realize we've spent 2 years doing the podcast. As a special topic, we each put forward a movie we love that others often dismiss or hate. Spielberg's 1941, Magic Mike XXL, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and John Ford's The Fugitive all get discussed. Long time listeners might be able to guess who picked what even before listening. 

SMC Pod #96: Reconsidering SPEED RACER & The Wachowskis

Special guest TV & movie writer Anne Mortensen-Agnew (@annesplains) joins the SMC team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) to discuss the Wachowski's 2008 live action adaptation of anime classic SPEED RACER which everyone (but Edwin) thinks is a 21st century masterpiece due for reconsideration. The Wachowskis' other work gets discussed as well as the price filmmakers pay when they try to innovate or push the form in a summer blockbuster medium. Everyone is yet again blown away when Edwin insists ASSASSINS and MATRIX REVOLUTIONS are the best things the Wachowskis have done. 

SMC Pod #95 Dancer in the Dark and Lars Von Trier

The Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) discuss Lars Von Trier's and Bjork's controversial 2001 Palm D'Or winning anti-musical DANCER IN THE DARK. The team discusses Von Trier's mental health issues and how to deal with the allegations Bjork brought against Von Trier of wildly inappropriate behavior. Strangely they all agree THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT is a great movie while Craig seems to be the most into Von Trier's work and Edwin avoids it because he finds it too depressing. Craig also encourages everyone to check out Von Trier's TV show THE KINGDOMS I & 2 as the most accessible enjoyable Von Trier. 

SMC Pod #94: AMERICAN MOVIE & a deeper dive into the documentary

The SMC team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) discuss Chris Smith's 1999 classic doc AMERICAN MOVIE about Wisconsin filmmaker Mark Borchardt's near quixotic quest to complete his horror short movie COVEN to finance his feature NORTHWEST with the help of his family andd best friend Mike Schenk. The team talks about other documentaries that have blown them away from Robert Flaherty's 1940's LOUISIANA STORY all the way to the current run of Netflix amazing true-crime docs like THE STAIRCASE. Edwin finds Fellini's LA DOLCE VITA boring. Craig ends the podcast with a song he wrote for Edwin on guitar and harmonica while waiting for the team to log in to Skype. 

SMC Pod #93: BAND OF OUTSIDERS & Jean Luc Godard

The Secret Movie Club Team (Connor Lloyd Crews, Edwin Gomez, Daniel Ott, Craig Hammill) talk French New Wave master Jean Luc Godard's 1964 BAND OF OUTSIDERS, how so many moviemakers post 60's were influenced by Godard's revolutionary film experimentation, why Tarantino named his company after this movie, and much more. Also Mr. Godard suddenly calls in to yell at Edwin.  Plus Craig tells a story about being invited to smoke hash by two women in Prague and how his nerdiness blew everything.