The Director's Chair Network

In this candid Michael Mann season finale for a Michael Mann retrospective, Ryan and Hughezy dissect the director's 2023 biopic  Ferrari, starring Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, with brutal honesty, calling it dull, miscast, and a box-office disaster that lost over $50 million despite its $95 million budget, while slamming Adam Driver's performance, Shailene Woodley's bizarre accent, Penélope Cruz's over-the-top portrayal, and Mann's obsessive car nerdery that prioritized replica vehicles and technical gimmicks over compelling storytelling. They also reflect on Mann's declining legacy post Heat and Collateral, express skepticism about the upcoming Heat 2 sequel, and highlight absurd behind the scenes trivia like Mann charging fans $65 for exclusive archives access.

Join Ryan and Sicco for a passionate 40th-anniversary celebration of Paul Verhoeven’s brutal, chaotic medieval epic Flesh and Blood (1985). The two dive deep into the film’s unique place in Verhoeven’s career as the transitional work between his raw Dutch style and the hyper-stylized American films that followed, exploring its grimly realistic portrayal of medieval life, its total lack of heroes, the central role of religion and superstition, Jennifer Jason Lee’s fearless performance as the cunning noblewoman Agnes, Rutger Hauer’s frustrated attempt to play a heroic mercenary, and the chaotic, dangerous production that tested everyone involved. They also touch on the film’s influence on later works, its satirical take on the Church, and why it remains a fascinating, ahead-of-its-time cult classic despite its initial commercial disappointment.

Katie welcomes Evan and Andrew from the Nothing Worthwhile Podcast for a deep-dive rewind into the 1990 holiday juggernaut Home Alone. The trio kicks off with a lively 1990 pop-culture trivia wheel (nailing jelly bracelets, Magic Eye posters, Hammer pants, “Just Do It,” Chili’s baby-back-ribs jingle, and the Billboard Top 5), then unpacks everything that makes John Hughes’ script (directed by Chris Columbus) an enduring classic: Macaulay Culkin’s perfect child performance, Joe Pesci & Daniel Stern’s lovable-yet-menacing Wet Bandits, Catherine O’Hara’s heartfelt mom energy, John Williams’ iconic score, the Old Man Marley redemption arc, cartoonish slapstick violence, and how the film brilliantly balances heartfelt family themes with pure chaotic joy – all while marveling at its $477 million box-office domination and timeless rewatchability 35 years later.

Host Sicco and guest Craig Cohen unpack Paul Verhoeven’s fearless audacity as the Dutch provocateur who weaponized sex, violence, and razor-sharp satire to shatter Hollywood taboos, defending Showgirls as a hyperbolic big-budget exploitation masterpiece—an unapologetic art-house fever dream exposing Vegas as a brutal vice machine where unreliable dreamers like Nomi claw for reinvention amid pimps, push-downs, and NC-17 nudity, proving Verhoeven’s obsession with Jesus-like resurrection, female exploitation, and moral void turns trash into timeless provocation.

Katie rewinds to 1991 to unpack the forgotten John Hughes-scripted road-trip comedy Dutch – a working-class guy vs. spoiled prep-school brat odyssey starring Ed O’Neal and a young Ethan Embry (billed as Ethan Randall) that bombed hard at the box office ($4.6M against $17M) yet somehow earned a 6.5 on IMDb and a soft spot in holiday watchlists. From class warfare and fireworks fails to hitchhiking disasters, prostitute pick-ups, homeless-shelter revelations, and one very questionable BB-gun payback at the Thanksgiving table, Katie argues it’s basically an uncredited Over the Top rip-off, drops 1991 pop-culture trivia (Cindy Crawford Pepsi ad, “Everything I Do” overload, Vanilla Ice arrests), and wonders why this Planes, Trains & Automobiles lite sequel never became the annual tradition it probably deserves to be.