Earlier this year, I had a blast revisiting five of my favorite Joan Cusack performances for RogerEbert.com's Women Writers Week celebration. My friend, the prolific MovieMom.com critic Nell Minow, who also writes and edits for Ebert's site, was my editor for the article, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring her back to Watch With Jen to explore a handful of our favorite Cusack roles that I wasn't able to cover in the piece. Touching on almost her entire filmography in this briskly energetic conversation, we pay close attention to WORKING GIRL, TOY STORY 2 (& 5), SCHOOL OF ROCK, MY BLUE HEAVEN, ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES, and several others.

Originally Posted on Patreon (7/8/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/FilmIntuition/posts/163253169

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

This week, film scholar and author Mike Miley returns to the podcast to discuss one of his favorite directors, Jonathan Demme. Intriguingly, Mike opted to focus on Demme's earliest movies before his most successful era of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and PHILADELPHIA. Although we touch on the unsung filmmaker's entire career, in this fast-paced, well-researched conversation, Mike and I cover Demme's background, recurring themes, collaborators (especially David Byrne), contemporaries, and those he influenced (most notably Paul Thomas Anderson), plus the films STOP MAKING SENSE, SOMETHING WILD, and MARRIED TO THE MOB. One of my favorite episodes of the season so far and perfect for the Fourth of July weekend given what Demme chooses to celebrate onscreen in America; it's also a must for cinephiles with access to the Criterion Channel, given that this month there's a spotlight on the filmmaker's work.

Mike's Bio: Mike Miley is the author of David Lynch's American Dreamscape: Music, Literature, Cinema and Truth and Consequences: Game Shows in Fiction and Film. His writing on film has appeared in The Atlantic, Bright Lights Film Journal, Reactor, The Smart Set, and elsewhere. His next book, A Guide to Reading (and Finishing) David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, will be published next year. He's currently working on an oral history about an 80s cult classic.

Originally Posted on Patreon (7/1/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/FilmIntuition/posts/162635425

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

My good friend, Black List Senior Vice President Kate Hagen, returns to Watch With Jen for this throwback summer celebration of 1996 films written, directed, and starring women. A diverse cross-section of independent and commercial offerings that we highlight throughout the hour, Kate and I discuss WALKING & TALKING, A VERY BRADY SEQUEL, HARRIET THE SPY, THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS & DOGS, plus one of the summer's biggest headline getters, STRIPTEASE with Demi Moore, who made history that year as the highest paid studio actress of all-time. While the film itself isn't great, Moore's success paved the way for women such as Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon to earn paychecks closer to those of their male counterparts. Shouting out other films that year that you need to see (like I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, which releases in two months from Criterion), Kate also walks us through the summers of '76, '86, '06, and '26 to let us know the way opportunities have changed.

Note: I never know whether or not to include my pod series MIDNIGHT RUN THROUGH in my official show count, but if you take a look at the total number of pods I've uploaded since the show's beginning in 2020, this marks the 300th offering from Watch With Jen! Thanks for listening.

Originally Posted on Patreon (6/25/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/FilmIntuition/posts/162054436

It was a joy to bring on a fellow Arizona critic & film scholar, the brilliant & funny Barbara VanDenburgh, to discuss the masterful Arizona-raised filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Barbara's favorite director and her greatest area of film knowledge; it's wild to realize that we haven't done an official Spielberg episode of the pod before this one. I know you'll love it! Covering the filmmaker's life, career, major themes, techniques, collaborators, and more, we touch on most of his pictures in this fast-paced conversation, and pay special attention to three of his summer releases, JAWS, JURASSIC PARK, and A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Guest Bio: Barbara VanDenburgh is a longtime arts and entertainment journalist, a film critic, and a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle. She is also the founder and host of the First Draft Book Club, a popular, long-running book club that discusses recently published works of literary fiction at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix. She is the former books editor of USA Today and currently manages programming and communications for The Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University.

Originally Posted on Patreon (6/16/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/FilmIntuition/posts/161259047

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

The brilliant and soulful Roxana Hadadi returns with this episode devoted to one of her current favorite actors, the great Riz Ahmed. Similar to past conversations focused on terrific character actors like Tom Wilkinson and Edward Norton, this week, we explore Ahmed's filmography at large, discuss his evolution as an actor, and what sets him apart in the films THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST, NIGHTCRAWLER, and SOUND OF METAL.

Guest Bio: A TV critic with Vulture, who also writes about film & pop culture, Roxana was previously the film editor & a critic with Pajiba, & her reviews, essays, recaps, and other writing have also been published by The AV Club, Polygon, RogerEbert.com, The L.A. Times, Crooked Marquee, The Playlist, Fox Digital, The Criterion Collection, GQ, & Inverse.

Originally Posted on Patreon (6/7/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/160446279

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Every time Leslie Byron Pitt is on the podcast, we go deep, & this episode is no exception. A film blogger and hobbyist photographer, Leslie is also a fellow podcaster, co-hosting the shows Fatal Attractions and Hustlers of Culture. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss the way that photography and the role of the photographer are used in a variety of films, and zero in on REAR WINDOW, ONE HOUR PHOTO, and CITY OF GOD in particular.

Originally posted on Patreon (5/31/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/159733813

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

CITY OF MARGINS, SHOOT THE MOONLIGHT OUT, & SAINT OF THE NARROWS STREET author William Boyle returns to the show to discuss Old Hollywood icon Joan Crawford's incredible career from silent movies through the 1970s. Digging deep to share biographical insights and shout out films that are often overlooked, in this fast-paced chat, we cover HUMORESQUE (1946), SUDDEN FEAR (1952), and JOHNNY GUITAR (1954).

Originally Posted on Patreon (5/23/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/159040535

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Hot off the news that he's just sold one million copies of his books, my wonderfully talented friend, KING OF ASHES and ALL THE SINNERS BLEED novelist S.A. Cosby returns to the pod this week for a delightful episode Gen Xers in particular will love. Listen in as we wax nostalgic, nerdy, & philosophical about the American independent film scene, video stores, actors with faces, Sundance, the New Queer Cinema movement, & iconoclastic filmmakers of the 1990s. We started with groundbreaking director Gregg Araki's TEEN APOCALYPSE TRILOGY, then went everywhere, & obviously, fittingly, NOWHERE. The three main films in the trilogy that we discuss are TOTALLY F***ED UP, THE DOOM GENERATION, and NOWHERE, but we bring in myriad other films, directors, and actors from this terrific era that valued original voices and stories that no one else could tell.

Orginally Posted on Patreon (5/14/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/158267662

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

The charming and inventive B-Side pod boys return to the show to discuss a trio of films that seem like they could be unofficial sequels to other movies telling the same story or starring the same lead. Films discussed include MY BLUE HEAVEN (after GOODFELLAS), AIR FORCE ONE (which plays like a continuation of Jack Ryan's adventures), and ENEMY OF THE STATE (which acknowledges its debt to THE CONVERSATION).

Originally Posted on Patreon (5/3/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/157259020

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Straight from the pages of today's New York Times, Watch With Jen's first podcast guest, author Jordan Harper, returns ahead of the release of his fittingly titled new thriller, A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE. A devotee of Japanese cinema, food, and culture, Jordan gives me a crash course in the cinema of director Juzo Itami.

An all-time "wife guy," who began making movies in his early fifties and made 11, which starred his incredibly expressive wife, Nobuko Miyamoto, Juzo Itami's life and career are discussed, along with the movies SUPERMARKET WOMAN, TAMPOPO, and MINBO: THE GENTLE ART OF JAPANESE EXTORTION.

Be sure to pick up A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE in your favorite indie bookstore, and if you're interested in learning more, you can tune in to watch me interview Jordan on Wednesday, April 29, at 5:00 PM PST on behalf of Poisoned Pen Bookstore.

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Originally Posted on Patreon (4/26/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/156607489

Current and aspiring writers of all backgrounds will love this episode, devoted to storytelling, humanism, empathy, and creativity. Horror author Laurel Hightower makes her Watch With Jen pod debut, exploring some of Disney's magic-minded movies of the past few decades, particularly ENCHANTED, ENCANTO, and WISH. A sprawling, soulful chat with a woman who instantly felt like an old friend, I can't recommend this conversation enough.

Bio: Laurel Hightower is a bourbon-loving, pitbull-snuggling native of Lexington, Kentucky. She is the Bram Stoker-nominated author of WHISPERS IN THE DARK, CROSSROADS, BELOW, EVERY WOMAN KNOWS THIS, SILENT KEY, SPIRIT COVEN, THE DAY OF THE DOOR, and THE LONG LOW WHISTLE, and has more than a dozen short fiction stories in print.

Originally Posted on Patreon (4/18/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/155953536

Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal

Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless Shop

Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive