Best Film Ever

“That's not a knife. THAT'S a knife.”

Join Ian & Megs for our 350th episode as we leave the Australian outback behind, head for New York City and discover just how far charm, confidence and an extremely large knife can take you in Peter Faiman’s Crocodile Dundee (1986).

Liam isn’t with us this week — he tried telling Mick Dundee that he knew his way around the Australian wilderness. He has not been seen since.

Kev is also absent, having become distracted by the promise of a Walkabout Creek drinking session and apparently forgotten there was a podcast to record.

This week we discuss:

Mick Dundee as a character creation — Paul Hogan creates someone instantly recognisable, enormously charismatic and almost impossible not to like. But is Mick himself significantly better than the movie built around him?

Great character. Great movie? Crocodile Dundee gives us an iconic central character, memorable scenes and lines that have survived for forty years — but do those ingredients disguise a surprisingly thin story?

Memorable moments aren’t the same thing as narrative — the crocodile attack, the knife, the bar scenes, the subway ending. We remember an extraordinary amount of Crocodile Dundee, but does remembering the individual moments make us overestimate the strength of the film connecting them together?

The movie effectively changes genre halfway through — the Australian section plays almost like an adventure comedy, while New York turns Mick into a fish-out-of-water character. Which half works better, and does the film ever feel completely whole?

Paul Hogan’s performance — understated, relaxed and rarely chasing the punchline. How much of the movie’s success comes simply from Hogan understanding exactly how much — and how little — Mick Dundee needs to do?

Sue Charlton is much harder to understand than Mick — she is fascinated by Mick, romantically attached to Richard and seemingly capable of treating both men with remarkable cruelty depending upon what the scene requires.

Susan, Richard and Mick — this relationship increasingly frustrated us. Richard is certainly not presented as particularly sympathetic, but Sue repeatedly humiliates him, keeps him emotionally dangling and then seems surprised by his reactions. Meanwhile, she also plays with Mick’s feelings while refusing to be honest about what she actually wants.

Does the romance actually work? Mick and Sue have obvious chemistry, but does the screenplay earn their relationship — or are we simply carried along by Hogan and Linda Kozlowski until that enormously charming final scene tells us everything has worked out?

The changing comedy of Crocodile Dundee — some jokes remain beautifully simple and effective; others very clearly belong to 1986. How much can we separate the film’s enormous cultural impact from the parts that have aged awkwardly?

New York through Mick’s eyes — the movie’s best trick might be reversing our expectations. Mick initially appears to be the strange outsider, yet his straightforward view of the world often makes everyone around him seem considerably stranger.

And finally, whether Crocodile Dundee is the Best Film Ever — or simply one of cinema’s great reminders that creating an unforgettable character and giving him unforgettable lines is not necessarily the same thing as telling an unforgettable story.

Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at
https://www.patreon.com/BFE

We are very thankful to the following Patreon backers for their generous support:

Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM

Hermes Auslander

James DeGuzman

Synthia

Shai Bergerfroind

Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most

Paul Komoroski

Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)

Andy Dickson

Aashrey

Chris Pedersen

Randal Silva

Nate The Great

Rev Bruce

Richard

Ryan Kuketz

Dirk Diggler

Stew from the Stew World Order podcast

NorfolkDomus

John Humphrey's Right Foot

Timmy Tim Tim

Youth Hosteling with Chris Eubank

Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.

Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor

Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/

“What really matters is what you like, not what you are like.”

Join Ian & Liam for our 349th episode as we alphabetise the vinyl, rank our emotional catastrophes and head back to Championship Vinyl for Stephen Frears’ High Fidelity (2000).

Megs isn’t with us this week — Rob asked her to rank her five worst break-ups and she decided she’d rather never speak to any of us again. Kev has disappeared into a record shop and refuses to come out until everyone agrees his Top Five Albums list is objectively correct.

This week we discuss:

John Cusack as Rob Gordon — charismatic, funny, self-aware... and still somehow completely incapable of recognising that he might be the problem.

A coming-of-age story for a man in his 30s — has Rob reached adulthood without ever actually growing up, and is the film really about emotional adolescence arriving about fifteen years late?

The strange A Christmas Carol connection — like Scrooge, Rob is forced to revisit his past, confront the stories he has told himself about his own unhappiness and realise that memory becomes much less comforting when other people get to challenge your version of events.

Breaking the fourth wall and controlling the narrative — does Rob talking directly to us make him more honest, or simply allow him to curate his own story in the same way he curates his record collection?

The Top Five obsession, music and taste as identity — are Rob’s lists just a funny character trait, or a defence mechanism that allows him to substitute having good taste for actually having a personality?

The ex-girlfriend tour and the women in Rob’s life — funny, revealing and deeply unhealthy. Does revisiting these relationships actually help Rob understand himself, and how much are we still trapped inside his self-centred perspective?

Barry, Dick and Jack Black before JACK BLACK — the supporting cast repeatedly threaten to walk away with the movie, while Jack Black seems to arrive already fully formed.

The ending and Rob’s emotional growth — does he genuinely mature, simply become more self-aware, or finally learn the fairly basic lesson that loving someone requires occasionally making the story about somebody other than yourself?

And finally, whether High Fidelity is the Best Film Ever — or simply the perfect film for anyone who has ever mistaken having excellent taste for having an excellent personality.

Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at
https://www.patreon.com/BFE

We are very thankful to the following Patreon backers for their generous support:

Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM

Hermes Auslander

James DeGuzman

Synthia

Shai Bergerfroind

Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most

Paul Komoroski

Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)

Andy Dickson

Aashrey

Chris Pedersen

Randal Silva

Nate The Great

Rev Bruce

Richard

Ryan Kuketz

Dirk Diggler

Stew from the Stew World Order podcast

NorfolkDomus

John Humphrey's Right Foot

Timmy Tim Tim

Youth Hosteling with Chris Eubank

Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.

Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor

Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/

“Get off my lawn.”

Join Ian, Liam & Megs for our 348th episode as we pull the Gran Torino out of the garage and spend some time with the angriest man on the street for Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino (2008) — a film about racism, masculinity, community and the legacy we leave behind.  Kev isn’t with us this week — Walt caught him looking at the Gran Torino and has been sitting on the porch staring at him ever since. Kev assures us he'll be allowed to move eventually.  And we're delighted to welcome BFF of the BFE Hermes Auslander to help us unpack one of the most fascinating — and occasionally deeply uncomfortable — films of Eastwood's later career.

This week we discuss:

Clint Eastwood and legacy — how much does Gran Torino deliberately trade on everything Eastwood has represented on screen for the previous forty years?

Where does this rank among our Clint Eastwood films? We put Walt Kowalski up against the other Eastwood performances and movies we've covered on the BFE.

Masculinity according to Walt — tools, cars, beer, work and absolutely no discussion of feelings. Is the film celebrating this version of manhood or slowly dismantling it?

The creation of “the other” — Walt begins with an entire community reduced to stereotypes and slurs.

And the dismantling of “the other” — what happens once the people Walt has spent years categorising actually become people to him?

Walt and Thao — a mentorship that begins with an attempted car theft and becomes the emotional heart of the movie.

Sue — is she actually the person most responsible for breaking through Walt's defences?

The language of Gran Torino — can the film use racism to interrogate racism without occasionally becoming too comfortable with the joke?

The performances around Eastwood — does the decision to cast inexperienced Hmong actors add authenticity, or expose some pretty significant gaps in performance?

And is there one acting moment that nearly ruins the entire film? When Walt locks Thao away, does Bee Vang give us anything close to the desperation that this enormously important scene requires?

Walt's biological family versus the family next door — the people he's related to seem increasingly distant while the people he initially despises become his community.

Father Janovich is more important than he first appears — what begins as Walt mocking an inexperienced young priest develops into a relationship that becomes crucial to understanding the ending.

What does Walt actually leave behind? The Gran Torino matters, but his real legacy might have considerably less to do with the car.

Clint Eastwood playing Clint Eastwood — brilliantly weaponising his own screen persona, or occasionally drifting into self-parody?

That ending — after a career built around armed men solving problems with violence, Eastwood gives Walt one final confrontation and refuses to let him fire the gun.

But does everything finish a little too neatly? Walt gets his redemption, Thao gets the car and the gang problem gets wrapped up remarkably cleanly for a film that has spent so long dealing in messier realities.

Hermes joins us to tackle the redemption question — does learning to love a handful of people actually undo a lifetime of prejudice?

And finally, whether Gran Torino is the Best Film Ever — or Clint Eastwood putting his own cinematic legacy on trial.

Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at
https://www.patreon.com/BFE

We are very thankful to the following Patreon backers for their generous support:

Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM

Hermes Auslander

James DeGuzman

Synthia

Shai Bergerfroind

Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most

Paul Komoroski

Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)

Andy Dickson

Aashrey

Chris Pedersen

Randal Silva

Nate The Great

Rev Bruce

Richard

Ryan Kuketz

Dirk Diggler

Stew from the Stew World Order podcast

NorfolkDomus

John Humphrey's Right Foot

Timmy Tim Tim

Youth Hosteling with Chris Eubank

Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.

Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor

Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/

Are you ready for some (fantasy) football?  We're back with our Patrons once again and invited a returning special guest to join us to fill out the field  We've got your BFE favourites - Ian, Liam, and KevDog, drafting live.  We're also joined live by some of the BFE Patreon personalities, adding to the merriment and we've got a very special guest.

It's a peak behind the curtain as you catch the BFE group just kicking it as we pretend we know what we're doing with Fantasy Football.  In between bites of Pizza and Chicken Nuggets we provide commentary on the picks by our absent drafters - whether they're drafting remotely or letting the computer do the heavy lifting)

There's pizza, banter, and a behind-the-scenes perspective that might help you know your BFE peeps a little bit better.

“All you motherfuckers are gonna pay.”

Join Ian & Liam for our 347th episode as we climb into a beat-up car, head for Hollywood and return to the View Askewniverse for Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) — a film containing approximately seventeen thousand celebrity cameos, several decades’ worth of jokes that have aged with varying degrees of dignity, and considerably more discussion of internet commenters than anyone in 2001 could possibly have realised would become relevant.

Megs isn’t with us this week — Justice invited her to join the girl gang and she immediately decided their road trip sounded considerably better than ours. Kev has gone to Hollywood to hunt down everyone who’s ever said anything mean about him on the internet. We tried to explain the scale of the task in 2026. He went anyway.

This week we discuss:

Are Jay and Silent Bob actually big enough characters to carry an entire movie? They work brilliantly wandering through the background of Kevin Smith's other films, but what happens when the supporting act suddenly has to become the main event?

Is the road trip the worst part of this road trip movie? The strange thing about Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is that it seems to get more entertaining the closer it gets to abandoning its actual plot. We ask whether everything involving getting to Hollywood is simply standing between us and the movie we really want to watch.

The more meta it gets, the more fun we're having — once Ben Affleck starts explaining the View Askewniverse, actors start playing themselves, Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season appears and Kevin Smith begins openly taking the piss out of his own career, the film suddenly finds another gear.

Kevin Smith celebrates his own cinematic universe years before Marvel made everybody obsessed with cinematic universes — characters, actors, locations and jokes from across his previous films all collide here. Is Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back effectively the Avengers: Endgame of dick and fart jokes?

We've aged out of this movie. But is that actually the movie's fault? There are jokes here that probably would have destroyed us twenty years ago and now generate rather more complicated reactions. Does no longer being the target audience make Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back a bad film — or did we simply make a questionable choice reviewing it in our forties?

Jason Mewes finally gets the entire stage — Jay has always been loud, crude and ridiculous, but can Mewes turn that into a character we actually want to follow for 100 minutes?

And then there's Silent Bob — Kevin Smith gives himself considerably less dialogue but considerably more responsibility. Does the Jay/Bob dynamic still work when the film can't simply deploy them for five minutes and move on?

What exactly did they say to Carrie Fisher? Princess Leia turns up as a nun, picks up two hitchhikers and finds herself involved in exactly the kind of joke you imagine her agent having several questions about. We investigate how on Earth Kevin Smith got her into this movie.

The cameos become an entire storytelling language — Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Mark Hamill, Chris Rock, Will Ferrell, Jon Stewart and seemingly everybody Kevin Smith had ever met. Which ones still absolutely kill, and when does recognising somebody become the joke?

Mark Hamill versus Cock-Knocker — because if you've somehow convinced Luke Skywalker to appear in your film, obviously you give him an enormous fist and make him fight Silent Bob.

The internet stuff has aged strangely well — the specific websites may have changed, but people anonymously saying horrible things about strangers online certainly haven't. Was Kevin Smith accidentally making a movie about the next quarter-century of internet culture?

The women of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back — Justice and the diamond thieves give the film something resembling an emotional storyline, but how well does that entire section survive a 2026 viewing?

Kevin Smith making a movie for Kevin Smith fans — there's almost no attempt to make this accessible to somebody walking into the View Askewniverse for the first time. Is that self-indulgence, or exactly why the film works when it works?

And finally, whether Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is the Best Film Ever — or a film we might have absolutely adored at 22 and have made the potentially catastrophic decision to revisit at 47.

Become a Patron of this podcast and support the BFE at
https://www.patreon.com/BFE

We are very thankful to the following Patreon backers for their generous support:

Juleen from It Goes Down In The PM

Hermes Auslander

James DeGuzman

Synthia

Shai Bergerfroind

Ariannah Who Loves BFE The Most

Paul Komoroski

Duane Smith (Duane Smith!)

Andy Dickson

Aashrey

Chris Pedersen

Randal Silva

Nate The Great

Rev Bruce

Richard

Ryan Kuketz

Dirk Diggler

Stew from the Stew World Order podcast

NorfolkDomus

John Humphrey's Right Foot

Timmy Tim Tim

Youth Hosteling with Chris Eubank

Buy some BFE merch at https://my-store-b4e4d4.creator-spring.com/.

Massive thanks to Lex Van Den Berghe for the use of Mistake by Luckydog. Catch more from Lex's new band, The Maids of Honor, at https://soundcloud.com/themaidsofhonor

Also, massive thanks to Moonlight Social for our age game theme song. You can catch more from them at https://www.moonlightsocialmusic.com/