As a podcast commences, you find yourself bringing some of the same people back time and again. It’s not because the podcast is stalling, but because you enjoy their company, and the discussions you have with them. As a guest, I’m always looking for new opportunities to approach film criticism from a different angle, but it’s the same thing, where I’ll explore any options to reconnect with podcasts I enjoyed being on. I’ve been fortunate to be on some pretty great ones, so hopefully, I’ll be back on all of them in the future. You can find those appearances here and here. Time to share some more.
Let’s start this post with a new one. Because of my association with Ripe Banana and the Banana Meter, I’ve gotten to know some more film critics beyond those I already had gotten to know. One of them is Matthew Simpson, who co-hosts the Awesome Friday Podcast, which reviews movies and other forms of pop culture. In July 2022 they put out the call for critics to rank their 10 Best MCU projects, as well as share brief audio clips of them discussing their favorite MCU film. I contributed to the latter with a little bit about why Scott Derrickson’s “Doctor Strange” is my favorite film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Next up, it’s time to make my third appearance on David Rosen’s Piecing It Together within a year. Is that even allowed? I guess so, and this time, we discussed Dan Trachtenberg’s terrific entry in the “Predator” franchise, “Prey”. We came up with some interesting puzzle pieces on this one.
For the 10th anniversary of “Cloud Atlas”, Robert Yaniz and I decided to do something special. First up, Robert had me on his Close Watch podcast to discuss the film, while he joined me over here to discuss the soundtrack. I hope you take in both sides.
Over the past year, I have become a regular contributor over at In Their Own League, a website devoted to highlighting female filmmakers, as well as filmmakers of color. They also have a podcast, and to close 2022 I took to the mic to discuss two subjects. First I was one of the contributors to an episode about our favorite scary movie scores, because I joined Joan and Valerie in discussing “The Fabelmans” from a perspective of its female characters.
To begin 2023, I joined a long-time Twitter acquaintance, Max Covill, and his co-host Jonathan on their podcast, It’s the Pictures, where we started by discussing some recent news before highlight our 10 favorite films of 2022. There’s a wealth of films to explore between our three lists.
Back in November, I made a return to NostalgiaCast with Darin and Johnny. Admittedly, the 1990s film we covered for their ongoing ’90s Palooza season doesn’t mean quite as much to me as “RAD” did in my first appearance, but as you listen to our discussion of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Rainmaker”, you’ll find that the film actually hit a lot of bases regarding how I approached films in 1997.
Finally, in August, I rejoined Jason from Binge Movies, but not for one of his regular ranking episodes. This time, he wanted me to join him to discuss a film for “The Anti-Vault,” a series for his Patreon where we discuss the merits of a film whose critics and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes are certified Rotten, after which his subscribers vote on whether it should join the Anti-Vault or not. For this episode, we chose Alex Proyas’s “Knowing”. As a Proyas fan, you know where I land, and while I’m not sure if I pursuaded Jason with my arguments, we certainly had fun discussing the ideas- however goofy or profound- this Nicolas Cage thriller has up its sleeve. But you have to subscribe to his Patreon at the $8/month tier to hear that one; listening back to the episode, it’s worth the price.
I’m already in talks with other podcasts to do more guest appearances. As always, I have nothing but love for those whom I discuss movies with.
Thanks for listening,
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
