Ryland is joined by three fine gentlemen who also happen to be critics (and also happen to be friends) to talk about, well, criteria. Naturally, the group got sidetracked into other threads of thought such as lists and ranking the decade and the art of language.

Ryland is joined by three fine gentlemen who also happen to be critics (and also happen to be friends) to talk about, well, criteria. Naturally, the group got sidetracked into other threads of thought such as characterizations of criticism as an art and the art of language.

Ryland went and watched some a-g films with his buddy Brian Darr and then after dinner they talked about their shared enthusiasms and how beautiful (how bright!) these kinds of lights can shine.

Ryland talks with his Good Personal Friend (and former professor), Daniel Coffeen, about a whole mess of stuff, including cubist films, the speed of affect, seeing (and not seeing), pedagogy (and its failure), the importance of duration, architecture and separation, among other jokes. There's a lot of jokes. And a lot of personal baggage unpacked (by way of spilling, or simply thru barfing, and definitely in laughing), too, which gets a little gross, but we trust our ramble is, if anything, a lil bit a fun smarts.

Ryland and Jen and Mark went and saw _Milk_ at the Castro in San Francisco, which seems to be the only way to see it, and then found that they found the film kinda simple, but still worthy of discussion. We hope you may help us out in the comments section. There's plenty more to talk about, even if the movie is, indeed, inconsistent.

Today we saw Waltz With Bashir at the Landmark Embarcadero as the final film in the 3rd Annual SF International Animation Festival. It took us even longer to get home this time but, after some food, we talked on digital tape again. Last week's podcast saw us working through a very common reaction to Kaufman's film. This week we were more hesitant and disparate, largely because of Waltz With Bashir's traumatic ending. Juxtaposed with stunning animation, we struggled to account for the shock of its ultimate loss. Or at least, some of us did....

Ryland and Mark and fellow VINYL contributor Jennifer Stewart talk about Charlie Kaufman's hyphenate debut, following a rainy afternoon screening in Berkeley, picking up a thread from our third podcast, say to continue the conversation. It's a long episode, yes, but we hope you listen all the way to the end because it is quite a good talk, with plenty of laughs, we trust.

Ryland and Mark come home from a tasty screening of the latest Coen Brothers flick and laugh about it a bit. Our goofiest 'cast yet.

Mark saw the new Charlie Kaufman, Ryland's been seeing a lot of Jia Zhang-Ke, they both have been enjoying the Jean Eustache. Things develop and spin out from there. Plus, talk of sex, shit, piss -- gettin your wolfy rocks off -- and, once again, Nick Ray's _On Dangerous Ground_. Reprise, baby!

Ryland and Mark welcome Brian Darr, of Hell on Frisco Bay (hellonfriscobay.blogspot.com), to talk about highlights of the upcoming rep calendar in the greater Bay Area. Topics include Jia Zhangke, Jean Eustache, Gus Van Sant and Cut Copy among others. While a good deal of the talk revolves around Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive, there's room for Frisco's Castro Theatre and even The Mill Valley Film Festival.

Ryland and Mark talk about Mark's new column, Melodrama Mondays, and the first film in his spotlight, Pedro Almodovar's _All About My Mother_, as well as Nicholas Ray's _On Dangerous Ground_, which Ryland saw at the 35th Telluride Film Festival.