Deep Cut: A Film Podcast

We have a very special guest this week: Lee Isaac Chung (Minari, Twisters) brings one of his favorite movies of all time, Steven Spielberg’s Artificial Intelligence, to the podcast as his Deep Cut Pick! Isaac chats about his awe and love for the film, what he’s learnt as a filmmaker from working with Spielberg on Twisters, and his own transition into blockbuster filmmaking. We also discuss Hayley Joel Osment’s all-timer of a child performance, the film’s divisive ending, Spielberg’s masterful blocking, and the film’s worldbuilding and depictions of the future. Find the blue fairy at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com Timestamps:00:00:00 Introducing Lee Isaac Chung00:01:50 Introduction to Steven Spielberg and our connection with his work00:09:02 Why Isaac chose AI as his Deep Cut00:13:46 First reactions to AI00:18:04 Plot summary and production context00:20:19 Kubrick00:24:48 Minor Barry Lyndon spoiler00:26:24 Spoiler ends00:28:12 Love/hate and Spielberg’s touch00:35:38 Hayley Joel Osment’s performance 00:41:53 Strategies for directing children00:46:29 Act 2: Jude Law and Flesh Fair00:52:03 Worldbuilding and depiction of AI00:55:46 Ending01:01:13 Spielberg’s blocking01:09:24 Isaac’s experience moving into blockbuster filmmaking01:13:46 Outro

“Kurosawa, you dog.” – Eli.’“It’s like edging, in cinema.” – Wilson“What is this, looney tunes?” – BenKurosawa can only make the kind of movie that leaves us both perplexed, impressed and dropping memorable reactions. Listen on as we unpack the film’s critique of the next generation of hustlers and entrepreneurs, figure out what it’s trying to say through its allegory, and finally answer if anything can beat a jet2 holiday.Links:The Kinetoscope: Cinemagoing in JapanBuy our stuff at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com Timestamps:00:00 Intro04:36 Ben and Wilson's general reactions12:14 Eli's experience watching at  Lincoln16:31 Cloud plot summary20:34 Compared to other Kurosawa films25:00 Sano and the younger generation32:41 Nihilism and cynicism36:42 Locations and spaces40:50 What is this movie trying to say42:37 Takimoto46:31 Akiko49:04 Dorsality51:49 Sound52:56 Productively frustrating critique of late-stage Capitalism56:22 Kurosawa's reversals58:26 Odds and ends and questions

Eli joins the other boys hot off of his Lincoln Center press screenings to tell us the must-watches and the maybe-skip-overs of this year’s New York Film Festival. But before that, Wilson and Ben briefly get their words in for the latest Paul Thomas Anderson joint, One Battle After Another. Catch Eli talk about other NYFF titles like Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, Olivier Laxe’s Sirāt, and possible film of the year: Bi Gan’s Resurrection. Links:Secret Goldfish - Bi Gan short filmI’m walking here at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com Timestamps:00:00 Intro04:46 One Battle After Another (2025, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)13:32 No Other Choice (2025, dir. Park Chan-wook)16:58 Sirāt (2025, dir. Oliver Laxe)20:18 Queen Kelly (1932, dir. Erich von Stroheim)25:29 Angel’s Egg (1982, dir. Mamoru Oshii)31:27 Japanese Film Festival (in Singapore)34:34 The Arch (1968, dir. T’ang Shushuen)35:09 The Mastermind (2025, dir. Kelly Reichardt)38:03 Mare’s Nest (2025, dir. Ben Rivers)41:13 Jay Kelly (2025, dir. Noah Baumbach)42:22 Back Home (2025, dir. Tsai Ming-liang)44:49 Ecce Mole (2025, dir. Heinz Emigholz)48:15 Peter Hujar’s Day (2025, dir. Ira Sachs)50:34 What Does That Nature Say To You? (2025, dir. Hong Sang-soo)53:10 A House of Dynamite (2025, dir. Kathryn Bigelow)57:40 Resurrection (2025, dir. Bi Gan)

We are very excited to welcome Prof. Lisa Dombrowski to our podcast! She is a Professor of Film Studies and East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University. She’s the author of the books: The Films of Samuel Fuller: If You Die, I’ll Kill You! (2008), the editor of Kazan Revisited (2011), and co-editor of ReFocus: The Later Works and Legacy of Robert Altman (2022). (Ben worked on that last one!) We took Lisa’s fantastic film classes and she’s a big reason this podcast exists, and why we talk about movies the way we do. (You can read more about the podcast’s origin story on Patreon!) Together, we preview a newly restored film showing at the upcoming New York Film Festival and M+ Restored programmes, T’ang Shushuen’s The Arch, which Lisa teaches in her classes. Lisa shares with us the film’s unconventional transnational production context, and we have an in-depth discussion about the film’s groundbreaking use of film form to portray female subjectivity. Eli highlights the film’s use of deep staging, Wilson compares the film with Ann Hui’s A Simple Life (2011), and Ben explains what he means by an “oyako-don” pantheon.Links:Read more about and get tickets for the M+ Restored programmeScreening in NYC for NYFF at Film at Lincoln CenterObey your ancestors at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com Timestamps:00:01:36 Introducing Prof. Lisa Dombrowski00:06:48 M+ Restored00:09:39 Context on director Tang Shu-shuen and The Arch00:11:16 Lisa's relationship with The Arch00:17:16 General reactions00:23:30 Adaptation and subjectivity00:26:06 Subtitles00:28:06 Female gaze and melodramatic situation00:30:28 The opening setup00:33:28 Cinematography context00:40:28 Love triangle and deep staging00:43:34 Plum scene00:52:37 Source material00:55:28 Cultural context and societal norms01:00:04 River scene and Mid-Autumn Festival01:03:39 A Simple Life (2011) sidebar, subjective realism01:07:25 Confucianism and social conditioning01:10:29 Loom scene01:13:04 Editing for meaning01:16:32 The arch, the ending, the takeaway01:24:57 Fractured images and liminal spaces01:30:15 Lisa Lu and casting01:31:32 The film's reception01:33:56 Tang's approach01:39:03 Cultural identity, transnational cinema, aesthetic expectations01:43:32 Tang's career post The Arch01:46:05 Outro

We are joined by special guest Alex Heeney, the founder and editor in chief of Seventh Row, to dive into Luca Guadagnino's 2017 coming-of-age masterpiece, Call Me By Your Name. They talk about their deep personal connections to the film, with Alex recounting her experience at the world premiere at Sundance and Wilson sharing his obsessive journey preparing for the New York Film Festival premiere of the film. Eli discusses the film's sensual direction, and Ben explains why he thinks this is Guadagnino’s most mature work. Links:Find more of Alex on Seventh Row. They are hosting a summit celebrating queer and trans stories called Living Out Loud. Check it out here.Mina Le: why does hollywood love an age gap romance?Ben’s CMBYN meme videoWomen around the fountain videoCall us by your name at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com Timestamps:00:00:00 Intro00:01:14 Introducing Alex Heeney00:04:00 Our histories with CMBYN00:21:50 Masculinity and Romance00:26:03 Narrative structure00:32:05 Performances00:37:39 Scenes and blocking00:41:00 The statue scene00:47:44 The parents00:51:20 The peach scene01:00:30 Age gap discourse01:10:42 Homophobia and queerness01:13:05 Cinematography and Marzia01:31:00 Editing01:35:36 The Sufjan element01:39:15 Outro

We continue our series on Akerman with a double-bill of personal documentaries about her mother, and of home. News from Home immediately follows her seminal Jeanne Dielman, and No Home Movie is the final film of Akerman’s filmography. In this episode, we thread the throughline across Akerman’s career in comparing both films, see the influence of structural and slow cinema, and marvel at her capacity for personal artmaking.Links:Celine Sciamma on Chantal AkermanI Don’t Belong Anywhere: The Cinema of Chantal Akerman (No Home Movie BTS footage)Go home to our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com Timestamps:00:00 Intro05:32 Plot summaries and Reactions17:15 2015 critical reactions to No Home Movie21:00 Structural films and emotional responses27:07 Power of the cut33:41 Akerman and her mother40:33 Comparing Akerman with Varda44:36 Private artmaking48:33 Akerman's career arc52:13 Preview for next eps

It’s about time. We tackle Chantal Akerman’s Sight and Sound topping Jeanne Dielman, and begin our series on her singular career. Ben introduces Akerman’s career, spotlighting her fierce conviction and crystalline vision, Eli loops in a melodramatic reading, and Wilson zeroes in on an ending that explosively caps off a 3.5h opus. And if you’re struggling with how to approach this film, as entertainment or as art, just remember: it’s about time.Links:Behinds the scenes of Jeanne DielmanSlant magazine interview Article on Akerman Wilson’s Letterboxd reviewStephen Gillespie’s Letterboxd reviewAngelica Jade Bastien on LonglegsMake coffee at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.comTimestamps:00:00:00 Intro00:03:03 General reactions00:13:26 The S&S list00:16:24 Akerman's career00:23:45 Plot summary and structure00:29:20 Cinematography and spatial representation00:32:14 Depictions of women and melodrama00:34:35 How Akerman directs Seyrig00:37:53 Everything is "real"00:39:10 Time00:42:14 Patterning00:46:40 What triggers the breakdown00:50:16 Relationship between mother/son00:57:18 Rituals00:59:24 The movie exists as many things01:00:25 It's place as #1 film01:04:10 Akerman's conviction and vision01:07:43 Scene dissections01:13:04 Exterior scenes01:16:47 Existential crisis01:19:12 In conversation with cinema and larger culture01:21:56 Ending01:30:36 Outro

After a rocky relationship between Deep Cut and Mr. Pablo Larrain, we come back to the final film in Larrain’s “important 20th century white women” trilogy (as Ben describes it). Will Larrain redeem himself with a portrait of the final days of Maria Callas’ life? Or will he and Stephen Knight sh*t the bed again? Wilson praises Angelina Jolie’s comeback performance, Ben praises how pretty the film is, and Eli praises the prop glasses, but is all that enough to get the film over the line? Listen to find out. Links:Thomas Flight: Do Musical Biopics Have a Fatal Flaw?Sing our praises at our free patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.comTimestamps:00:00 Intro03:33 General reactions10:05 Saving graces of the film14:10 Narrative22:33 The Mandrax of it all24:53 Supporting characters27:36 Flashbacks and musical biopics30:50 We pitch Maria Callas biopics33:01 Pablo Larrain power ranking38:18 Outro

We are joined by Asian Film Archive programmer Alexander Lee for our second installment in our Hong Sang-soo series! Alex talks to the guys about pairing Hong Sang-soo deep cuts with Eric Rohmer classics, and specifically the pairing of Night and Day with Love in the Afternoon. Eli chats about the narrative motifs that are on display in this film, Wilson tries to unlock the secret of Hong’s use of zooms, and Ben contends with the slimy protagonist of this film. Singaporean listeners to Deep Cut you can catch Night and Day on July 13th at the Oldham Theatre. Buy tickets here!Links:Hong Sang-soo Notarized: Night and DayGet drunk on soju at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.comTimestamps:00:00:00 Intro00:01:17 Alex introduces Twin Tales00:06:45 Film Context00:10:21 General Reactions00:20:58 Hong’s big stylistic choices00:23:22 Narrative Motifs00:28:30 Yoo-Jung00:31:55 Sung-nam00:33:14 Odd patterns00:37:22 Night and Day vs. Love in the Afternoon00:40:41 Tech and sex of the 00s00:42:42 The male mess of Hong00:45:52 Dream sequences00:50:54 The look of the film00:56:18 Being married?00:59:16 Hong notarized01:00:40 Opening of the film and Hill of Freedom01:02:43 Music01:04:30 More on zooms01:05:35 Paris01:07:52 Other small odd things01:09:24 Preview of Twin Tales01:13:11 Outro

Deep Cut partners with Asian Film Archive which is presenting Twin Tales: Éric Rohmer and Hong Sang-soo, a special programme featuring six pairings of films by French New Wave director Éric Rohmer and prolific Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo. Buy tickets here!We’ve teased this for YEARS! And it’s finally here. The DC Trio break the ice by introducing notorious Korean director Hong Sang-soo to the canon by talking about a 2006 deep cut, Woman on the Beach. We talk about the pairing with Rohmer’s The Green Ray (our ep. 24), discuss why this feels odd in Hong’s filmography, and debate on what shape this movie looks like. Join us for a lively first foray into the work of Hong Sang-soo.Links:Film at Lincoln Center: Hong Sangsoo on Woman on the BeachThe New Yorker: Hong Interview with Dennis Lim Hong Sang-soo Notarized: Woman on the Beach by Ryan SwenGet drunk on soju at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.comTimestamps:00:00:00 Intro00:02:13 Twin Tales: Hong x Rohmer00:05:00 Our journeys with Hong00:15:34 Hong Sang-soo Overview00:24:02 Woman on the Beach Summary and Reactions00:31:40 Notarized Hong00:34:03 Whose story is this?00:41:31 Men vs Women00:43:09 Some scenes00:45:06 Characterizations00:47:28 Comparison with The Green Ray, and others00:54:38 Cinematography00:57:21 Diagrams01:00:54 Restaurant scene01:02:32 Triangulation01:05:58 The Ending01:10:36 Outro