The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast

Mar 06 2025 62 ep. 48 mins 120

The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast artwork

A podcast from Bright Wall/Dark Room, engaging with the business of being alive, one movie at a time. Hosted by Veronica Fitzpatrick & Chad Perman.

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Rewind: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (with Michael Koresky)

Mar 06 2025 67 mins

In honor of guest Michael Koresky's new book announcement, we're revisiting this conversation with him from last summer about Steven Spielberg's A.I.Michael's new book, Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness, will be out from Bloomsbury in June.---Reverse Shot⁠ co-founder and editor, and Editorial Director at Museum of th

A Different Man (with Frank Falisi)

Feb 04 2025 59 mins

We’re back with an episode analyzing writer-director Aaron Schimburg’s Kafkaesque body swap, A Different Man. Joining us is critic, actor, and BWDR darling Frank Falisi, co-founder of Garden State Lantern. We get into Adam Pearson’s Oscar snub and Sebastian Stan’s win, The Substance for boys, shooting in NYC, if you want to dance the mask, the humanism of karaoke, doing yo

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Jan 20 2025 17 mins

Our first mini-episode of 2025 looks to one of director Andrew Haigh’s curated picks: Billy Wilder’s subversive farce Some Like It Hot. We get into the unlikely modernity of Hot’s sexual politics, Orry-Kelly’s naked dresses, Wilder’s collaboration with I. A. L. Diamond, is this the greatest comedy of all time, and more. -- The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast is co-hosted b

Gladiator (with Blake Howard)

Dec 26 2024 66 mins

Be thankful we did your Gladiator II homework, rewatching Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 1 (2000) with amateur Russell Crowe historian Blake Howard. This is a Gladiator II-spoiler-free conversation: listen as we get into Crowe kissing disembodied feet, Scott’s world-building, the technology of acting, Oliver Reed’s digitized face (RIP), is anything better than practical effects, e

Don't Look Now (1973)

Dec 15 2024 18 mins

This month’s mini-episode takes us into the rich opening sequence of a pick curated by director Andrew Haigh: Nicolas Roeg’s Venetian nightmare, Don’t Look Now . We get into Graeme Clifford’s expressionist editing, celebrating movies for grownups, the color red, non-chronology, grief, and what lies “beyond the fragile geometry of space.” -- The Bright Wall/Dark Room Po

Rewind: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Dec 08 2024 40 mins

This holiday season, we're revisiting last year's holiday special: an audio essay of one of the most popular articles we've every published on the site: Ethan Warren's ⁠A Grand Yuletide Theory: The Muppet Christmas Carol is the Best Adaptation of A Christmas Carol⁠. Written and read by ⁠Ethan⁠ himself, with holiday music from ⁠Ryan Pollie⁠. (Originally aired December 1

The 62nd New York Film Festival (with Fran Hoepfner & Eli Sands)

Nov 08 2024 69 mins

On this special mega episode, co-host Veronica sits down with critic ⁠Fran Hoepfner⁠ and our producer Eli Sands to postmortem the 62nd New York Film Festival. This is a mainly spoiler-free conversation! We get into: Hard Truths, Caught by the Tides, Nickel Boys, April, Harvest, The Brutalist, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, The Shrouds, Queer, Maria, Stranger Eyes, Eephus, I’m St

Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

Oct 23 2024 16 mins

This month’s mini-episode takes us into one of costume designer Sophie de Rakoff’s curated picks: Irvin Kershner’s The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), an American giallo with style to spare. We get into Faye Dunaway’s scream, POV in horror, how this is Helmut Newton x John Carpenter, the ethics of glamorizing suffering, and, yes, the clothes. -- The Bright Wall/Dark Room Podcast

Trap (with Dan Mecca)

Oct 08 2024 60 mins

This whole episode is a trap. In it, we join Josh Hartnett scholar and The Film Stage gentleman Dan Mecca to dissect the ins and outs of M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap. We talk about: baby bangs, Hartnett always being a little bit weird, the tooth gap, Sleeping with the Enemy’s hand towels, auteur theory, one good part in The Village, Hayley Mills on the walkie-talkie, and more. Fu

Something Wild (1986)

Sep 17 2024 19 mins

Inspired by the curation of costume designer ⁠Sophie de Rakoff⁠, this month we're taking a loving look at the gear-shifting, hybrid charms of Jonathan Demme's screwball noir, Something Wild—and the Ray Liotta entrance that changes everything. -- This episode is sponsored by Galerie, a new kind of film club. BW/DR listeners can now sign up for 3 months of free access h