Episodes

The fifth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features our pick for the year’s most notable documentary, Michael Moore’s Roger & Me. Written and directed by Moore, who also narrates and appears onscreen, Roger & Me premiered at the 1989 Telluride Film Festival and went on to become one of the most influential documentaries ever made.

The fourth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features the year’s biggest flop, Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Directed and co-written by Gilliam and starring John Neville, Sarah Polley and Eric Idle, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen had a troubled production and a truncated release, but went on to critical acclaim and cult success.

The third episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features the Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival, Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies and Videotape. Written and directed by Soderbergh and starring James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Laura San Giacomo and Peter Gallagher, Sex, Lies and Videotape debuted at the 1989 Sundance Film Festival and went on to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

The second episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features our pick for a notable filmmaking debut, Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything. Written and directed by Cameron Crowe and starring John Cusack, Ione Skye and John Mahoney, Say Anything was Crowe’s first feature film as a director, after having previously written the screenplays for Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Wild Life.

The first episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1989 features the top-grossing film in North America, Tim Burton’s Batman. Directed by Burton from a script by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren and starring Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Michael Gough, Batman was 1989’s number one movie at the North American box office and number two worldwide.

In the second of two special holiday episodes, we’re looking ahead to 1989, the year we’re covering in our next season, to talk about Christmas classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik from a screenplay by John Hughes and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Johnny Galecki and Juliette Lewis, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was the third movie in the popular Vacation series.

In the first of two special holiday episodes, we’re looking back to 1994, the year we covered in our debut season, to talk about Christmas cult classic The Ref. Directed by Ted Demme from a screenplay by Richard LaGravenese and Marie Weiss and starring Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey, Judy Davis and Robert J. Steinmiller Jr., The Ref was a box-office failure but has since become a holiday favorite.

In this epilogue to our season on the awesome movie year of 2007, we talk about alternate movies we considered including in all of our different categories this season, and read suggestions from some listeners about which movies they hoped we would cover.

In the finale of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007, we’re talking about this season’s audience choice pick, teen comedy Superbad. Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, directed by Greg Mottola and starring Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader, Emma Stone and Martha MacIsaac, Superbad beat out Knocked Up and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story in our audience choice poll of 2007 movies produced by Judd Apatow.

The twelfth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features Edgar Wright’s future cult classic Hot Fuzz. Written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent and Timothy Dalton, Hot Fuzz was the second feature film from the cult-favorite team of Wright, Pegg and Frost, who previously made Shaun of the Dead.

The eleventh episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features a new category for this season with our producer David Rosen’s personal pick, David Wain’s The Ten. Written by David Wain and Ken Marino, directed by Wain and starring a large ensemble cast including Paul Rudd, Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen, Justin Theroux, Ken Marino, Liev Schreiber and many more, The Ten premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

The tenth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features the Best Picture Oscar winner, the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men. Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy) and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Kelly Macdonald and Woody Harrelson, No Country for Old Men premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and went on to win four Oscars, including Best Picture.

The ninth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features the World Cinema Audience Award winner from the Sundance Film Festival, John Carney’s Once. Written and directed by John Carney and starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, Once premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and won the Oscar for Best Original Song.

The eighth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features Jason’s personal pick, indie comedy Juno. Written by Diablo Cody, directed by Jason Reitman and starring Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner, Olivia Thirlby, J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney, Juno premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for four Oscars.

The seventh episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 2007 features one of the year’s most notable foreign films, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Persepolis. Written and directed by Satrapi and Paronnaud (based on Satrapi’s graphic novels) and starring the voices of Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian and Gabriele Lopes, Persepolis premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars.