Watch With Jen: Season 1 - Film Recommendation List (with 108 titles)
Yesterday, I recommended 10 great movies currently streaming across a wide variety of platforms & was contacted by a couple of longtime listeners after that a few of the films that were mentioned were ones that I actually recommended way back in the first season of the podcast when, at the start of the pandemic, this began as just a humble little 5 films a week movie recommendation show. I'm embarrassed thinking about how gushing & earnest those episodes must be so it's incredibly sweet that they're remembered but I did put together a list back then of every single film I highlighted, in case you'd like to check them out. It's available here on Letterboxd. I really should've kept up this practice for the other seasons & might need to start getting ambitious & adding to it in the future just to have an index of everything covered (unless any superfans feel like kicking it off & I'll send you some merch or a couple of Criterion discs).
Dennis Hopper Ep: The Roster (So Far)
Over the past week, I started asking friends & past guests if they'd like to contribute a few minutes of their thoughts on the career of actor Dennis Hopper for an epic compilation episode I'm working on over the next month & I'm honored to be able to announce the involvement of these amazingly insightful individuals so far: Mitchell Beaupre, Duncan Birmingham, William Boyle, Sean Burns, Elizabeth Cantwell, S.A. Cosby, Nikki Dolson, Jordan Harper, Blake Howard, & Mike Miley. The coolest part about inviting people from so many professional backgrounds - from poets to teachers to authors to filmmakers - is that they're all interested in different films & aspects of his career so we're going to be covering a few Hopper deep cuts (like RUMBLE FISH, pictured above, and THE AMERICAN FRIEND, etc.) right along with his most iconic roles. More guests will be added soon.
Season 4 is Now Recording
As I write this, I'm preparing to record a conversation this afternoon on Gambling Movies, with two of my dearest friends, Rob Belushi & Jordan Harper (both of whom I was lucky enough to hug & hang out with again in the past few weeks). But so far, I have fully recorded two episodes & I'm now jokingly calling season 4 Watch With Jen: After Dark, because I'll definitely need to check the explicit language box, due to the subject matter of Paul Schrader's filmography (with Megan Abbott) & the hilariously spicy language of guest Maria Lewis on our episode devoted to KNIGHT AND DAY & LONG SHOT. That's right, gang, things get rowdy with the ladies in season 4, haha. I've got two very ambitious conversations lined up next week with two excellent writer-directors - Ted Griffin (on Curtis Hanson's Thrillers) & Duncan Birmingham (on Noah Baumbach). I'm hoping to start uploading these eps for your listening pleasure beginning in March so stay tuned (just maybe not with your kids)!
And speaking of hanging out with Rob Belushi, here's a fun photo of us outside a Phoenix coffee shop early last week when he dropped into town for the Super Bowl. Crazily enough, when Jordan visited, he unknowingly stayed 12 minutes from where I live & Rob booked into a place 8 minutes away, so I must say I'm liking this trend (& a few pals are joking they're just going to crash in my front yard next).