CINEMA CENTRIC

The CINEMA CENTRIC meet up for an episode with actor, producer, and director Arielle Friedman, co-founder of Ser Nocturna, the production company behind award-winning festival hits at Sundance, Tribeca, Frameline, and SXSW. Arielle shares her journey from professional ballet dancer at BalletMet to Columbia University film student, and how movement, identity, and myth shape her storytelling. We discuss her latest projects, including her co-starring role in the critically acclaimed horror film Good Boy (2025), now in theaters, as well as the short film Breadwinner (available to watch October 27, 2025) and its upcoming feature adaptation starring Arielle. She also talks about her in-production documentary Curtain Call. Arielle shares two personal Criterion picks: Teeth (2007) and The Lure (2015). Both films she’s examined deeply, even writing an academic paper on Teeth. We talk about how these stories intertwine femininity, transformation, and dark humor with the constant undercurrent of women navigating an unsafe world. Arielle Friedman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arielle_friedman_ [https://www.instagram.com/arielle_friedman_] Website: https://www.sernocturna.com [https://www.sernocturna.com] Ser Nocturna Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sernocturna [https://www.instagram.com/sernocturna]

The CINEMA CENTRIC meet up for an episode with musician, author, and notorious punk rock icon Blag Dahlia, frontman of The Dwarves a band that’s spent decades gleefully torching the boundaries of taste, decorum, and decency in the name of rock and roll. But behind the chaos and provocation lies one of punk’s sharpest minds, a writer and storyteller whose work stretches from raucous stage anthems to novels like Armed to the Teeth with Lipstick, Nina, and Highland Falls, and even the bluegrass sway of his alter ego Earl Lee Grace or the smoothness of his Ralph Champagne. In this episode, we take a wild and thoughtful ride through Blag’s creative universe—talking about his books, his long history with the punk scene, and the many personas he’s inhabited along the way. Blag brings five Criterion titles that pulse with rebellion and rhythm: Monterey Pop, Gimme Shelter, The Harder They Come, Sid and Nancy, and The Beastie Boys Anthology. Each one opens a doorway into the history of music on film and how cinema captures the raw, ecstatic power of sound, self-destruction, and transcendence. This conversation roams from the gutter to the gallery, punk mythmaking, the art of provocation, and the strange, spiritual link between noise and narrative. Blag Dahlia doesn’t just perform punk; he’s spent his life dissecting it, reframing it, and rewriting what it means to live as both menace and artist in the same body. Blag Dahlia Website: https://TheDwarves.com [https://TheDwarves.com] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blag_dahlia [https://www.instagram.com/blag_dahlia]

The CINEMA CENTRIC meet up for an episode with director, writer, actor, and artist Shannon Plumb, where laughter and heartbreak meet in the middle of the living room and the everyday gets turned into something quietly extraordinary. Shannon’s feature Towheads (2013) is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel, and we begin by celebrating that rare and well-earned platform for a film that transforms motherhood into a sly, Keatonesque dance of chaos and tender truth. The film premiered at MoMA and is now held in the museum’s moving-image collection. This episode is above all a praise song for Shannon’s singular creative voice. She has made hundreds of short films and performance pieces for galleries, festivals, and the web, work that is equal parts slapstick and strange, witty and heartbreakingly tender. Shannon also discusses two Criterion titles, Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know and Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture, and we reflect on how those films speak to her own approach to art and storytelling. Shannon Plumb On the Criterion Channel: https://www.criterionchannel.com/towheads [https://www.criterionchannel.com/towheads] Website: https://www.shannonplumb.com/ [https://www.shannonplumb.com/] Instagram: https://instagram.com/shannonplumb [https://instagram.com/shannonplumb] YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@shannonplumb [https://www.youtube.com/@shannonplumb]

The CINEMA CENTRIC meet up for an episode where shadows flicker, reality splits, and David Lynch’s surreal visions echo across the screen. With Jeroen Bijl of Horrible Reviews we explore every David Lynch film Criterion has graced with their signature glow. From Eraserhead’s industrial dreamscape to Mulholland Drive’s fractured Hollywood mystery, tracing how Criterion has lovingly preserved Lynch’s uncanny artistry. We also pause to honor the filmmaker’s legacy. David Lynch, that master of the uncanny and dream logic, passed away on January 16, 2025, at the age of 78. The cause of death was cardiac arrest due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). As we reflect, the conversation deepens, touching on Lynch’s sound design, his use of atmosphere as character, and the way Criterion’s editions let us peer into the uncanny layers he so artfully built. Expect conversation that’s equal parts analysis and homage, as we honor the dreamer who made us question what was real, and what was just better felt. Horrible ReviewsYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@HorribleReviewsLetterboxd:https://letterboxd.com/horriblereviewsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/Horrible.Reviews

The CINEMA CENTRIC meet up for an episode with Michelle Kisner—also known as ROBOT COOKIE—a powerhouse film critic, fearless freelance writer, champion of physical media, essayist with encyclopedic knowledge, and lifelong GODZILLA fanatic, for a deep dive into Godzilla vs. Biollante, newly released by the Criterion Collection. They reflect on the curious brilliance of this late-‘80s kaiju entry and how it stands out from the rest of the franchise with its strange blend of bioengineering, psychic children, heavy geopolitical undertones, and sexual symbolism. They also revisit Criterion’s earlier Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films, 1954–1975 box set, unpacking the cultural legacy and cinematic evolution of everyone's favorite atomic lizard. Expect reflections on miniature sets, suit acting, Godzilla switching from villain to hero back to villian, and why Godzilla continues to stomp through our collective imagination. Michelle Kisner Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/robotcookie Instagram: https://instagram.com/robotcookie Facebook: https://facebook.com/michelle.kisner1 Rotten Tomatoes: https://rottentomatoes.com/critics/michelle-kisner/movies Spoiler Free Movie Sleuth: https://spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com Substack: https://substack.com/@michellekisner Michelle Kisner has also contributed to: Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome, Error_4444, Severin, Umbrella, Second Sight, BFI, Kino Lorber, 88 Films, Imprint, Terror Vision, and more.