The Kulturecast

It's the stuff that dreams are made of. This week on Required Viewing, we go after John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941), the third screen version of Dashiell Hammett's novel and the one that stuck, turning Humphrey Bogart into a star and handing a first-time director the keys to what many call the first great film noir.We get into Bogart's Sam Spade, a detective whose code is hard to tell apart from self-interest; the gallery of grifters played by Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet; the Production Code pressures shaping what the film could say; and how a black bird that turns out to be worthless became one of cinema's great MacGuffins. Greed, loyalty and the birth of noir, from every angle.

Media scholar Dr. David D. Perlmutter and Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, are joined by The Projection Booth's Mike White to chase the bird.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.

———

The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.

New episodes weekly.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.
Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

Godzilla has been a nuclear metaphor, a wrestling heel, a children's hero and a Hollywood franchise player, but it took 70 years for him to win an Oscar. Takashi Yamazaki's Godzilla Minus One returns the monster to postwar Japan, where Ryunosuke Kamiki's Koichi Shikishima, a kamikaze pilot who didn't fly his final mission, comes home to a ruined Tokyo, an improvised family with Minami Hamabe's Noriko, and the creature he failed to stop once before. Made on a reported budget of under $15 million, it won Best Visual Effects and became the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film ever released in the US.

The Kulturecast's Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, and Movie Meltdown's Bryan Renfro meet in the middle for Kulture Meltdown, with The Projection Booth's Mike White joining in, to talk Takashi Yamazaki, Toho, survivor's guilt, and so much more.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.

———

The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.

New episodes weekly.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.
Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

Camp Crystal Lake is open for business again. We dig into episodes 3 and 4 of Crystal Lake, where a bear hunt goes wrong, Pam settles a score on Grace's behalf, a crew of hippies reopens the camp, and Jason's flashbacks make the franchise's monster a kid worth mourning. Is Argonaut a government experiment, a super soldier, or something older in the woods? And once the show asks you to cheer for Pam as an avenging angel, is it still Friday the 13th?

The Kulturecast's Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, and Movie Meltdown's Bryan Renfro meet in the middle for Kulture Meltdown to talk Grace's rise, the Jaws DNA, Stranger Things comparisons, why TV takes the risks film won't, and so much more.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.

———

The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.

New episodes weekly.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.
Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

Before Jason, there was Mom. We head back to camp for the first two episodes of Crystal Lake, A24 and Peacock's Friday the 13th prequel series, with Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees a year after her son goes under the water. Two fake state troopers at the door, a bear that takes the blame, and a secret called Argonaut. Is this the Pam of 1980 with a backstory bolted on, or a show free to build its own mythology the way Hannibal and Bates Motel did? Two episodes in, it plays more like Dexter than a slasher, and that might be the point.

The Kulturecast's Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, and Movie Meltdown's Bryan Renfro meet in the middle for Kulture Meltdown to talk grief as a motive, the gore, Cardellini's Pam, whether Jason even needs to show up, binge drops versus weekly TV, and so much more.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.

———

The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.

New episodes weekly.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.
Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast

At 75, Rajinikanth is still the biggest draw in Indian cinema, and Jailer 2 is a reminder of why. Nelson Dilipkumar's sequel to his 2023 hit picks up with "Tiger" Muthuvel Pandian laying low after the events of the first film, until a new family of villains, Vidya Balan among them, comes calling. It's loud, long and gleefully over the top, with tonal swings from dark comedy to slow-motion carnage and a parade of cameos including Hrithik Roshan and Jackie Shroff. Even so, it can't quite recapture the father-son story at the heart of the original.

The Kulturecast's Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, and The Projection Booth's Mike White meet for Changeover to talk Rajinikanth, Nelson Dilipkumar, seeing Indian cinema in American theaters, and so much more.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulturecast--2883470/support.

———

The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast from Weirding Way Media, hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Now home to sub-feeds including Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study with Dr. David D. Perlmutter.

New episodes weekly.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376
Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY.
Back the show: https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast