The Important Cinema Club - Podcast Rankings and reviews

there are many movie podcasts. there are only two good ones. this is one of the two. brisk, wide-ranging, iconoclastic, and always insightful. thankfully eschews the stultifyingly boring movie podcast template of the “watch-along” scene-by-scene breakdown, and instead discusses films, from the start, in their broader cinematic context. this podcast is, in other words, intelligent.

Easily the best movie-podcast available. From Poverty Row to the backyards of Massachusetts, with household names like Andrzej Zulawski and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, no genre or country is out of reach to discuss. And if one episode dedicated to the works of Jess Franco is not enough for you, then get ready to be happy.

I have found so many movies thanks to this podcast. Movies I had never heard of. Movies I had heard of but would have never given a chance to. I even found the Mahoning Drive-in because of them. Two guys from Toronto had to tell me I had a 35mm exclusive Drive-in an hour and fifteen minutes from me. They completely changed my love and appreciation for movies.

Justin and Will provide a wide variety of topics with great context to get into the more obscure works. A really inspiring podcast, encouraged me to challenge my tastes more and explore the vast cinematic canon. It’s also just nice to hear these guys talk, they’re not only very knowledgeable but are clearly passionate about cinema.

I do believe I just listened to two critics who despise the art of criticism. The Kael episode in particular was confounding. I, like so many others, often disagree with Kael but nonetheless value her mind, her spine, and the broader view she urged filmgoers to consider. These two expect Kael, a sharp-minded woman pioneer in a deeply male field, not to voice her astuteness with her full throat…while they show little to no intellectual humility in their own pontifications. No thanks.