Get ready for the most disgusting, amoral, nastiest podcast-iest episode ever! We are delighted to bring you a discussion of John Waters masterpiece of filth Pink Flamingos. Underground cinema edges closer to the mainstream with this early 70s

Primate Palooza: Planet of the Apes Franchise

May 13th, 2024 2h 34m

We bring you a special new episode ahead of our usual schedule! The excitement of the release of the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has got all of the millions of the fans of the recent entries of the franchise abuzzing. So of course, given

Déjà Who’s Your Daddy: Obsession (1976)

May 4th, 2024 2h 28m

Question: If a movie about doppelgängers is itself a doppelgänger of another movie about doppelgängers… uh… like… what’s up with that, huh? Our hosts will attempt to answer at least a version of that question as they voyeuristically peek into t

Toons of the City: Heavy Traffic (1973)

Apr 14th, 2024 1h 58m

It’s Problematic Art Week on KYI! This episode Alana and Sam are joined by animator Frank Gidlewski for a round-table on Ralph Bakshi’s 1973 Künstlerroman "Heavy Traffic". There is much talk of the film's depictions of various taboos both sexua

The Greatest Depression: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969)

Mar 23rd, 2024 1h 30m

Destiny’s dance continues! This week the hosts go around and around in their conversation on Sydney Pollack’s 1969 ode to the hopelessness of human existence (under capitalism)! This 1930s era Jane Fonda vehicle proves to be delightful fodder f

Conspiracy Buddies: All the President’s Men (1976)

Mar 3rd, 2024 2h 13m

It’s Watergate time on Kael Your Idols! Sorry to jump right in to it but we didn’t want to bury the lede. In this episode the hosts get drawn into a web of lies and cover-ups as they discuss the 1976 classic “All The President’s Men”. This tale

Anti-Protagonist: Wanda (1970)

Feb 10th, 2024 2h 36m

This week on the ol’ podcast: Barbara Loden’s massively under-seen film Wanda (1970). We held this conversation a few months ago in the wake of the film placing 49th on the most recent Sight and Sound poll. Is this reputation warranted? Has the

Director Spotlight: Three from Hal Ashby

Jan 28th, 2024 2h 37m

If you want to sing out! Sing out! Kael Your Idols is pleased to bring you another Very Special Episode as we turn our attention and our empathy towards the career of Hal Ashby. The hosts are joined by film person Michael J. Dougherty to trace

Transcendent Neo Wave: Taxi Driver (1976)

Jan 13th, 2024 2h 33m

Welcome to 2024 fellow Kael Your Idolators! For this first episode of the New Year we’re gassed up, got the meter running, and we’re offering you a midnight ride into the twisted minds of De Niro, Scorsese, and Schrader. These three New Hollywo

Our top 5 movies of 1973 AND 2023

Dec 31st, 2023 2h 38m

1973 vs 2023: the match-up of the century! To celebrate the new year we are counting down our top 5 films from these two years in cinema. Which movies were our favorites? Which movies missed the mark? And will 1973 or 2023 reign supreme? Listen

A Final Fan Dance: The Right Stuff (1983)

Dec 16th, 2023 1h 38m

The pod is taking a slight temporal detour this week and covering The Right Stuff - a film that began its development during New Hollywood and was finished and released in the wake of the Heaven’s Gate debacle. Sam and Alana pontificate about w

Nostalgia for the Recent Past: American Graffiti (1973)

Dec 2nd, 2023 1h 31m

This week Kael Your Idols welcomes filmmaker Levi Butner to discuss George Lucas’s mega-hit American Graffiti. The film is, in a sense, the director’s first prequel - showing a day in the life of some Modesto teens in 1962 way way back before t

Magic Hour Meditations: Days of Heaven (1978)

Nov 19th, 2023 1h 4m

Love! Betrayal! Sunsets! That’s right - Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven gets the Kael Your Idols treatment this week. A Texas farm sets the scene for this unusual love triangle unfolding amidst some very loopy voice-over narration. This deeply

Director Spotlight: 4 Films by Sidney Lumet

Nov 4th, 2023 1h 48m

This week we have a change of pace for the show. Instead of an episode on a single movie, Alana and Sam turn their focus onto the career of a filmmaker - namely the legendary Sidney Lumet. This is the first of many special episodes we have plan

The Times They Are a-Zombie-ing: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Oct 21st, 2023 1h 18m

In this episode Sam and Alana sink their teeth into one of the most influential films of all time: George Romero’s independently produced Night of the Living Dead (1968). A gripping flick about flesh eating Ghouls and the people trying to fight

Satan Goes Mainstream: The Exorcist (1973) and The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

Oct 13th, 2023 2h 33m

When we found out that the 70s classic The Exorcist was to be the latest victim in Hollywood’s obsession with Legacy Sequels, a terrifying truth became all too clear: we would have to cover BOTH films on the podcast. This week your hosts braved

Suburban Sexual Revolution: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

Sep 23rd, 2023 1h 17m

This week Alana and Sam bring a somewhat *ahem* personal touch to the podcast in discussing Paul Mazursky’s tale of two upper-class couples in the late 60s doing what swingin’ 60s couples were wont to doooo. The New Hollywood touches are myriad

Birth of New Hollywood Part 2: The Graduate (1967)

Sep 9th, 2023 1h 11m

The One-Two punch that began New Hollywood continues with the suburban dramedy, “The Graduate”. This sophomore effort from director Mike Nichols is a highly quotable tale of a listless youngster falling into an affair with first the wife, and

Birth of New Hollywood Part 1: Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Sep 9th, 2023 1h 5m

At long last: the central conceit of the podcast has arrived! We celebrate New Hollywood officially beginning with… what else but Warner Bros. megahit “Bonnie and Clyde”. In this episode, Kael Your Idols’ own dynamic duo explores the fascinatin

Japanese New Wave Influences: Crazed Fruit (1956) and Tokyo Drifter (1966)

Aug 26th, 2023 1h 30m

In this episode Sam and Alana continue to explore the foreign film movements that served as precursors to New Hollywood. The focus is on Japan and its studio-mandated ‘New Wave’ which allowed for salacious sex, violence, and a more anti-nationa

French New Wave Influences Part 2: La Pointe Courte (1955)

Aug 12th, 2023 1h 13m

On the previous episode we discussed Jean-Luc Godard and the influence of Cahiers du Cinéma, the famed French film magazine. This week we tell the tale of Agnès Varda and the other half of the French New Wave: the filmmakers associated with the

French New Wave Influences Part 1: Pierrot le Fou (1965)

Jul 22nd, 2023 1h 9m

New Hollywood didn’t just come out of nowhere, ya know! European and Asian art movements from the 50s and 60s had a profound impact on American filmmakers and inspired many of the revolutionary impulses they brought to mainstream USA. The next

The Fall of Old Hollywood: Doctor Dolittle (1967)

Jul 2nd, 2023 1h

We've seen Old Hollywood at its best, now let's see it at its worst. Recall how last episode was a splashy Old Hollywood Musical? Well, this episode is basically the same thing except instead of a delightful masterpiece, it’s a godawful film th

Zenith of Old Hollywood: Mary Poppins (1964)

Jun 10th, 2023 1h 12m

Ready for more New Hollywood? Hold your horses! Let’s first see what the films of the late 60s and 70s were reacting to by going *back* to the eras and movements that directly preceded New Hollywood. This week finds Alana and Sam traveling back

Quintessential New Hollywood: Apocalypse Now (1979)

May 21st, 2023 55m 45s

In this episode Alana and Sam begin their journey through New Hollywood by jumping nearly to the end of the era as they discuss Francis Ford Coppola's controversial masterpiece Apocalypse Now. Topics include: the nature of celebrity, the drug c