Filmically Perfect

GUANINE--ADENINE--THYMINE--CYTOSINE. The four amino acids that make up deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, the stuff that we are made of, to paraphrase Sam Spade. They are also the letters that make up the title of Andrew Niccol’s frighteningly prophetic film. Ten years after its release, the events of Gattaca ring truer than ever before. Except for the cool electric Studebaker Avantis--daggone it.

Roger Donaldson’s unfairly overlooked gem is, in our minds, one of the finest stories of the power of the human spirit EVER. Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Kiwi cyclist Burt Munro is funny and touching and very, very real. Add to that a certain cinematic verisimilitude not often found these days and you have one hell of a perfect movie!

Alfred Hitchcock, Ernest Lehman, Bernard Hermann, and Cary Grant--what a glorious quartet! Hitchcock winds up the 1950’s with one of his best films of all, the lively, effervescent, wonderful, perfect North by Northwest. A film often held up not only for its entertainment value, but one of the best examples of classical film-making!

Orson & the soon-to-be-ex Mrs. Orson Welles on a cruise of total weirdness. A crazy amalgam of style and mystery and the strangely blonde tresses of the lovely Miss Hayworth. Even in the studio ordered recutting, this film is totally fascinating.

Once again, The Film Guys take to the phones to answer questions about love, life, and movies. The day this show was recorded, the “Blizzard of 2008” struck Ohio, dumping about fifteen inches of snow in less than a day on the startled citizenry

It was as inevitable as night--in the wake of the Coen Bros. Academy Award triumph with No Country For Old Men, J. Todd Anderson gets his chance to speak about his life as “storyboard artist to the stars!” Join The Film Guys and Niki as they talk about the history of storyboarding, as well as memories of their early days in the film school at Wright State University. You might just learn something!!

One of New York’s finest cities gets its big moment with the above line of dialogue, snarled at a perp by the out-of-control “Popeye” Doyle, played by Gene Hackman, in his break through role. We dedicate this episode to his co-star, Roy Scheider, who passed away on February 10th, 2008. A stalwart and capable actor who appeared in another of our Perfect Movies, JAWS. Ironically, Robin Moore, author of the novel The French Connection, passed away on the day this show was broadcast, at the age of 82. Not our fault!!

It's been way too long since we rummaged around the back of our several cinematic closets to bring to you some films we love, but will never be on the Filmically Perfect List of Perfect Movies. And what a triple feature: A Psychedelic Sci-Fi epic, a British romantic Comedy, and a Classic 70's road movie! And as an added treat, the Film Guys let our own Niki Dakota ramble on about one of her favorites. Don't worry, it won't happen often. Just Kidding, Niki!

With the Academy Awards only a couple weeks away, what better film to chronicle than the one that made the first "Grand Slam", garnering all five top awards: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Actress. Even so, it is one of the most delightful motion pictures, a mixture of art and accessibility, visual and aural.

Director Fred Zinnemann made only one western during his career, but what a western! An excruciatingly simple and straight-forward tale, High Noon has become so iconic as to have become part of the English lexicon: high noon noun 1 midday. 2 an event or confrontation that is likely to decide the final outcome of a situation : the high noon of his quest for the presidential nomination. [ORIGIN: popularized by the film High Noon (1952).] Much like The Misfits, this film features a great movie star in the autumn of his career, giving one of the best performances of his life!

Robert Rossen's scalding tale of drunken love and billiards is as powerful today as it was forty some years ago. Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, and The Great One (Jackie Gleason) all bring their roles to gritty life. Even Martin Scorsese's color follow-up, The Color of Money, with all its cinematic bravado, cannot hold a candle to the stark black and white-ness of this amazing cinematic treasure.

James Whale's 1935 follow-up to his film Frankenstein is a tour-de-force of gothic story-telling and all around ghoulish fun. Karloff adds another layer to his portrayal of The Monster while the highly nostrilled Ernest Thesiger weirds everyone out as the alchemist Dr. Praetorius.

Mix together equal parts Gable, Monroe, Wallach, and Clift, garnish with Miller and stir with John Huston and you've got one of the most bizarre cinematic cocktails. One has to wonder whether Huston gathered the three "doomed" stars for their talent or for all the emotional baggage they carried. For whatever reason, it worked. Gable in particular is amazing as the worn-out leader and hunter of the misfits.

What better way to start of 2008 than with the Three Stooges?? And here they are in their sole Oscar-nominated short from 1934, Men In Black! Listen to the Film Guys completely befuddle Niki Dakota with their brilliant philosobabble!

John Lasseter's ground breaking feature set the stage for the digital animation explosion and, for good or ill, this type of animation is here to stay, effectively eradicating traditional animation in its wake. Fortunately Toy Story has what it takes to be a "keeper" and a Perfect Movie. Good story, great characters, wonderful music, sublime animation. Oh that more films, real or animated, could be as good as this.

The Film Guys attempt to get a jump on the Christmas Season and give our listeners a few new, cool ideas for DVD giving this year!

Once again, Niki Dakota and the Film Guys open up the lines and allow the public into their twisted little world of Cinema!

Regardless of what our dear host Niki D. thinks, this is one of the great harbingers of the sci-fi explosion of the 1950's! A story line that has been used over and over again--a small group trapped in a secluded area with a vicious monster on the prowl--seldom done better than in this film, directed by Christian Nyby and over-lorded by the redoubtable Howard Hawks!

In "the last great B&W action movie," bruised anti-hero Paul Labiche, portrayed by the ever-great Burt Lancaster, rescues a train-load of impressionist paintings from a mean old Nazi bad guy, played with depth and aplomb by the amazing Paul Scofield, one year away from his Academy Award for A Man for All Seasons. John Frankenheimer beautifully plays the human emotions against the iron and steam of the trains themselves, creating a powerful film about the triumph of the will. Hmm, that didn't come out quite right.

On a very Special Episode of Filmically Perfect, Niki and JT discuss the role of The Library of Congress in Film Preservation with Geo., who is their "inside man" at the new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, VA.