It's On The List

#56: 2025 Year in Review - Fin de Podcast

After many months on hiatus, Sammy and Gerry have returned for one last ride. They're talking everything in film from the year 2025. They'll go through their favorite and least favorites from the year, as well as other notable titles they watched. Join the boys one last time in the concluding episode to the It's On the List odyssey - they may be back one day, so treat this more as a "see ya later" than a "goodbye." The podcast is dead. Long live the podcast. Sincerely, thank you to all our listeners. It's been a privilege to share our film conversations with you. (00:00:00) Intro (00:05:17) Worst films of 2025 (00:34:12) Best films of 2025 (01:33:33) Worst new-to-us viewings of 2025 (02:00:15) Best new-to-us viewings of 2025 (02:34:19) Outro

#55: Dissociating at the Zoo

Sammy and Gerry tackle one of the great pop melodramatists of his time - you know him, you love him, it's the one and only Cameron Crowe. The boys discuss his despairing Y2K head-trip, Vanilla Sky (2001), and his beautifully bittersweet family drama We Bought a Zoo (2011). They discuss the effectiveness of his cornball leanings, his excellent direction of actors, and the amount of times that they cried listening to Matt Damon talk about that damn zoo. Contains spoilers for both films. (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:14) Cameron Crowe background (00:09:07) Vanilla Sky (00:36:50) We Bought a Zoo (01:04:24) Outro

#54: Milwaukee Film Festival 2025

On this VERY belated podcast covering April's Milwaukee Film Festival, Gerry takes on hosting duties by himself to discuss the films he saw. Titles include: The Shrouds, Cloud, Black Dog, Magic Farm, WTO/99, and more! (00:00) Intro (02:39) The Shrouds (11:10) Dead Lover (12:30) Midnight Shorts (19:34) AJ Goes to the Dog Park (20:44) Black Dog (23:14) Cloud (26:59) Magic Farm (30:04) WTO/99 (32:43) Outro

#53: Bava Told Me To

Genre schlock or high art? The answer is yes. Sammy and Gerry are talking about Giallo maestro Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood (1971) and New York crime/horror filmmaker Larry Cohen's God Told Me to (1976), two films that explore violence and the cinematic apparatus from a variety of angles. Deranged content is discussed, and this episode contains spoilers for both films. (00:00:00) Intro (00:02:00) Bava background (00:08:35) A Bay of Blood (00:27:32) Cohen background (00:31:42) God Told Me To (00:49:17) Outro

#52: Here (2024) and There

In the last episode, Gerry and Sammy discussed films about trains - one of cinema's oldest subjects, and a topic which innately ties into cinema's essence of moving images. This episode, we're leaning in the other direction, toward isolated locations and still images. The films discussed are Here (2024), Robert Zemeckis' experimental melodrama from last year, and Contactos (1970), Paulino Viota's elusive, under-seen film which was made in secret during Franco's dictatorship in Spain. The two films provide much to discuss, both formally and thematically, with regard to spacial and temporal machinations. Contains spoilers for both films. (00:00:00) Intro (00:01:23) Zemeckis background (00:09:51) Here (00:42:06) Viota background (00:43:23) Contactos (01:02:55) Outro