The Top 100 Project

We are 1/3rd of the way through The Top 100 Project with this 41st podcast, An American In Paris! There's no point in denying that we didn’t find this one worthy of the AFI list. At least Gene Kelly’s remarkable talents are put to better use when we get to Singin’ In The Rain in a few weeks. Anyway, you...got...rhythm, so give us a listen!

No AFI Top 100 films here! This time we peruse and analyse 2 controversial Oscar nominees. The Wolf Of Wall Street, of course, stars Leo DiCaprio and was directed by the living legend Marty Scorsese, while the star-laden American Hustle was helmed by David O. Russell. Bring on the sex, drugs and swearing!

The 40th Top 100 Project podcast has so much to offer, highlighted by all the Method acting and Marlon Brando’s screams of “Stella!” The flick is sexy, it’s violent, it’s controversial and it’s very complicated. It’s also one of AFI’s more memorable pictures. Stranger, activate your kindness!

Melodrama alert! A Place In The Sun is our 39th Top 100 Project podcast. This might be our kissiest movie yet. At least it’s Monty Clift and Liz Taylor doing the kissing. They are pretty. Our thoughts about the movie? Maybe not so pretty. Listen!

The 38th Top 100 Project podcast explores the backstabbing world of Broadway with All About Eve! This is our only Bette Davis movie, but we have a lot more to talk about than just her great performance. We managed to weave homosexuality, thin-skinned supporting actresses and Jay Leno into this conversation. We’re each battling colds, so fasten your seatbelts...it’s going to be a croaky podcast.

The Top 100 Project enters the ‘50s with one of the most-celebrated films of the decade, Sunset Boulevard! Join us as we discuss Norma’s insanity, Joe’s selfishness, and Billy Wilder’s oh-so-cynical take on a Hollywood has-been and a never-was. Tune in!

For the 3rd time we take a break from AFI’s Top 100 and review a movie they snubbed. When Harry Met Sally is one of the best rom-coms of the modern era, right? Since they ranked it highly on 5 of their other lists (Laughs, Passions, Quotes, etc), the AFI seems to agree. Join the Ellises and our special guest star (long-time listener, first-time podcaster, Bev’s sister, Pam) and gush about Harry, Sally, and their delightful hijinks!

The AFI's Top 100 takes a back seat as we talk about zeitgeisty flicks you can find at the box office right now! We won't reveal anything important until the end of the 'cast when we tell you spoilers are coming. This 5th Now Playing Project takes on the Coen Brothers music dramedy Inside Llewyn Davis (with Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan) and Spike Jonze's newest offbeat creation, Her (with Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams). Start 'er up for our extensive thoughts on both!

The 36th Top 100 Project podcast is the mystery noir, The Third Man! Citizen Kane pals Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles re-team in Austria to discuss black-market business opportunities and to ride Ferris wheels. What did we think of Welles as the snaky Harry Lime, of Cotten as the weaselly Holly Martins and of the legitimately ravaged streets of postwar Vienna? You know the only way to find out the answers to those questions? Hit that play button!

The 35th instalment of The Top 100 Project takes us on a hunt for Mexican gold as we tackle The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre! Here’s yet another dark AFI movie, filled with greed and madness. The ’40s was a rough and violent decade, so it’s fitting that we near the end of it with such a violent picture. It even got our dog Fox worked up about it two-thirds of the way through the podcast. Bogart and Huston have that effect on dogs. Go to it!

Our 4th Now Playing Project is here! The AFI Top 100 is not the honey this time because we're reviewing two films you can see on the big screen right now. Unlike The Top 100 Project, we'll spoil nothing until the very end of the podcast. This time it’s the quirky Nebraska (with Bruce Dern and Will Forte) and Dallas Buyers Club (with Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto). The performances in these pictures are getting raves. Find out what we thought!

It’s A Wonderful Life is the subject of our 34th Top 100 Project podcast! It’s a tearjerking classic, complete with plenty of Capra-corn. It’s also got suicidal depression, theft and other Christmas cheer! Yeah, the movie goes to dark places, but we manage to make lots of jokes about it. Pour a glass of flaming rum punch and settle in for a lengthy analysis of Jimmy Stewart’s never-ending battle against the town bully!

We’ve got our 3rd Now Playing Project, where we forgo the AFI Top 100 and check out some movies you can see on the big screen right now! This time it’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (with Jennifer Lawrence as Panem’s own Neo) and a belated look at the Carrie remake (with Chloe Moretz and Julianne Moore). We’ve got a lively chat about 2 powerful young women with spoilers saved for the end. Ignite!

Podcast #33 finds us exploring post-war melodrama, The Best Years Of Our Lives. We kept the wisecracks to a minimum this time, what with all the PTSD and alcoholism and handlessness. We not only discuss those cheerful topics, but also get into themes of post-war readjustment shared by many war movies that came later, not to mention the TV show Homeland. Check it out! It’s “swell’.

Our 32nd Top 100 podcast is the brilliant noir about lust and insurance scams, Double Indemnity! Did it live up to Ryan's hype? Did we like Fred MacMurray in the lead and Edward G. Robinson (nyah!) in a supporting role? Plus, is Barbara Stanwyck the devil? All that and a bunch more is yours for the listenin’!

Just a week shy of its 71st anniversary, Casablanca is the 31st Top 100 Project podcast! We add our voices to the cacophony who’ve reviewed this movie in one way or another. In this, Bev finds a way to compare Rick Blaine to John MacClane, we rip on the absurd letters of transit, and we discuss how this is the most-honoured AFI movie ever. Oh, and you might recognize some of the lines we quote. Here’s listening to us, kid!

Let your redwhiteandblue flags fly for the 30th movie in The Top 100 Project, Yankee Doodle Dandy! Our first biographical AFIer stars James Cagney (in his only AFI film) as Broadway legend George M. Cohan. Fittingly, we spend a little time discussing modern musical biopics too. Most of the podcast was us trying to break each other up with wisecracks, but there’s something useful in here too. We swear!

The 29th edition of The Top 100 Project takes us on the road with Sullivan’s Travels! This is the only time we’ll review a Preston Sturges picture and it’s also our only peek at actors Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake. We name-drop a half-dozen great directors and many of their films in this podcast...everything from Hugo to Argo! We also debate the merits of the message of Sullivan’s Travels (and its comedy or lack thereof). We do it all...“with a little sex.” Bring it!

The 2nd edition of The Not 100 Project is a monumental entry for Scary Movie Week...it’s Night Of The Living Dead! The AFI didn't find this horror classic worthy of the Top 123, but its lingering effect on audiences and its influence on film history is massive. Also, we really felt the need to give the horror genre its due in a way the AFI did not. Get your zombie on!

For the 2nd time, we branch out to movies currently in theatres with The Now Playing Project! No AFI classics to be found in this podcast. This time we tackle the intense 12 Years A Slave (with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender) and Captain Phillips (with the beloved Tom Hanks). Apart from some very mild spoilers (which seem self-evident when you realize the movies are based on books written by the people who lived these tortures), you’re safe to hear everything without us ruining the surprises. Fire ‘em up!