Watch With Jen™

A Los Angeles based film critic, journalist, podcast host, and event moderator, the witty and wonderful Katie Walsh reviews weekly film releases for the Tribune News Service and The Los Angeles Times.Additionally, a frequent guest host of the Maximum Fun podcast Switchblade Sisters and one half of Miami Nice (which is the video podcast she hosts alongside our friend Blake Howard), Katie's work has been published by Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Playboy, The Playlist, Slate, Indiewire, Women & Hollywood, Town & Country, and more.In this lively exchange, she serves up some of the pearls of wisdom she shares with her students at Chapman University, where she works as a part-time lecturer teaching the Film Studies course Practices of Writing About Film. And whether she's championing some of her favorite female filmmakers (shout-out to Allison Anders, Kathryn Bigelow, & Karyn Kusama, among others) or talking about RuPaul's Drag Race, Katie is a woman who always entertains.Originally Posted on Patreon (9/8/20) with links to items & people mentioned here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41387832Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

A gifted film writer, critic, and historian with an engaging, inquisitive voice and bylines at such prestigious outlets as The New York Times, Vulture, The Playlist, and others, Jason Bailey is the editor-in-chief of the site Crooked Marquee. Additionally, the author of four books on film on such wide-ranging topics as Pulp Fiction and Richard Pryor, Jason's fifth book, on one hundred years of New York in the movies - entitled Fun City Cinema - is slated to be released in the Fall of 2021 from Abrams.Having recently kicked off his entertainingly informative companion podcast (also called Fun City Cinema), I was so excited to talk to my longtime Twitter friend about all of this and more. From our mutual childhoods spending time raiding the film section of B. Dalton's and Walden Books in the '80s and '90s to his move to New York City and evolution as an eventual film writer, this all-encompassing chat is sure to delight.Note: While you'd normally have a new episode of my solo film podcast Watch With Jen today, between deadlines and recording several episodes of Watch With Jen & Friends this week ahead of the long weekend, I've pushed the solo pod out one week so you get another awesome conversation instead!Originally Posted on Patreon (on 9/4/20) with links to items mentioned here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41243131Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

An eye-opening and thoughtful writer with a special focus on film criticism and history, Christina Lane has written the books Magnolia, Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break, and the critically acclaimed new title Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock.The Chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts at the University of Miami, Christina's writing and commentary has also been featured in numerous outlets including "The Daily Mail" and "NPR."In this episode of Watch With Jen & Friends, Jen was honored to talk to Christina about motion picture history, her books, and the film program where she teaches courses in media history, gender representation, film studies, and more.Originally Posted on Patreon (8/31/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41070924Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Delightful, irreverent, and incredibly funny, Maria Lewis is an author, screenwriter, and journalist based in Australia. After first getting her start as a police reporter, Maria's writing on pop culture has appeared in publications such as the New York Post, The Guardian, Penthouse, The Daily Mail, Empire Magazine, Gizmodo, Huffington Post, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, i09, Junkee and many more. Previously seen as a presenter on SBS Viceland’s nightly news program The Feed and as the host of Cleverfan on ABC, she has been a journalist for over 16 years.Maria's best-selling debut novel Who's Afraid? was published in 2016, followed by its sequel Who’s Afraid Too? in 2017, which was nominated for Best Horror Novel at the Aurealis Awards in 2018. Who’s Afraid? is being developed for television by the Emmy and BAFTA award-winning Hoodlum Entertainment. Her Young Adult debut, It Came From The Deep, was released globally on October 31, Halloween, 2017 and is a twist on The Little Mermaid meets Creature From The Black Lagoon.Maria's fourth book, The Witch Who Courted Death, was released on Halloween, 2018, and won Best Fantasy Novel at the Aurealis Awards in 2019. And her fifth novel set within the shared supernatural universe - The Wailing Woman - was nominated for Best Fantasy Novel at the Aurealis Awards in 2020.Maria, who Jen first met on Twitter through her best friend Blake Howard, was the host of the limited One Heat Minute Productions podcast series, Josie and the Podcats, about the 2001 cult film. In this chatty, free-spirited episode, the incredibly charming Maria regales us with lively tales about her career, podcasting, Blake Howard, Josie and The Pussycats, and, oh yeah, that time she almost ran down Gerard Butler with her car.Originally Posted on Patreon (10/5/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/42405274Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

As friendly as he is thoughtful, host Jen Johans greatly enjoyed her chat with Rotten Tomatoes certified, Chicago based film critic Robert Daniels. Chronicling his interest in writing about film from his time in college when he launched a film site and also took a life-changing film course with a terrific professor and local filmmaker, Robert gives us the scoop on the Chicago critic scene and provides some great advice to aspiring critics. From daring to love Cats to the unsung movies he wishes we discussed more, Robert's love of film is infectious in this episode.Originally Posted on Patreon (8/5/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40140177Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Back in the '90s, one of Jen's favorite things to do on a Friday night was visit her local mom and pop video store and cruise the shelves, particularly the Staff Recommends section, which more often than not consisted of clever, buried treasure you might've missed on a casual walkthrough.A crime movie buff with a specific interest in the trashy, low-budget indies we both came of age watching in the '90s, Jen's friend, Edgar award-winning novelist and screenwriter Jordan Harper is someone who you just know would've put together a killer shelf of movie selections had he worked at your local store.One of Jen's favorite people to watch and talk movies with - which they do so often that he's undoubtedly pretty sick of her at this point - she was so excited to invite Jordan back to Watch With Jen & Friends to share some of his recommendations with you all.A fast-paced, hour-long overview of some of Jordan's favorite forgotten '90s movies - with a few brief forays into '80s & '90s fare - we know you'll enjoy this freewheeling chat. And hopefully, it's the first of many thematic episodes to come. So put on your headphones (this one isn't for the kiddos) and settle in for the first episode in a series that - taking a cue from the video stores of their youth - we're calling Jordan Harper Recommends.Originally Posted with Links on Patreon (8/28/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40957291Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

The always adorable entertainment writer Kristen Lopez returns to Watch With Jen & Friends for the first time since Episode 3 to talk gorgeous men, formative crushes, the embarrassment that comes with working in a field that puts you in direct contact with the objects of your affection, her fruitless search for hot English majors, and other things that together she and Jen probably shouldn't admit to on air. It's a fun, breezy episode that's guaranteed to make you laugh (and them blush) and the perfect way to turn your Monday around. Enjoy!Originally Posted on Patreon (8/24/20) with links here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40808191Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Insightful, hard-working, and incredibly prolific, Brian Tallerico is the editor-in-chief of the prestigious RogerEbert.com website and the president of the Chicago Film Critics Association. A friendly and thoughtful writer and engaging conversationalist, it was an honor to talk to Brian about growing up with a love of movies, his advice to up-and-coming writers, as well as his background passionately covering everything from film to books to music to television from a very young age.Originally Posted on Patreon (8/17/20) with links to people & items discussed here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40559183Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

One of the first film critics that Jen remembers reading religiously as a girl growing up in Minnesota in the 1990s, Chris Hewitt has the unique distinction of having been hired to review movies for both of the primary newspapers in her home state.Originally working at "The St. Paul Pioneer Press," thirty years later, Chris is now covering film for "The Minneapolis Star Tribune." Friendly, engaging, and articulate, in addition to movies, Chris is a noted lover of Agatha Christie and fun novelty floaty pens, and in this fast-paced chat, he discusses not only those hobbies and what it's been like reviewing film professionally over the last three decades but he also dabbles in gourmet popsicle making and serves up some great South Korean film recommendations as well.(Note: the conversation was recorded using Google Voice so while it isn't perhaps as crystal clear as some of the others, it's so entertaining, we know you'll easily forgive any technical issues.)Originally Posted on Patreon (8/13/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40422768Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

A knowledgeable classic movie blogger and devotee of all things film, it was such a delight to chat with the talented writer Raquel Stecher about growing up in the '90s with strong female screen role models, her annual summer reading challenge and love of books, and more.Listen in as she shares some of her favorite cinematic discoveries, introduces the world to the charming Ginger Rogers vehicle Bachelor Mother (a Watch With Jen recommendation as well), and comes up with some terrifically obscure recommendations of films and stars we should try to seek out if we can find them.Originally Posted on Patreon with links to items mentioned (8/10/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40314140Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive