The Film Stage Presents

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. 

Today we talk about one of the most successful performers of all time: Eddie Murphy! Our B-Sides include: Metro, Holy Man, Life, and I Spy. Our guests today are filmmaker and returning guest Nicholas Gray and incredible actor Alvin Keith. 

We discuss Eddie’s stratospheric rise, the perceived failure of the underrated Harlem Nights, and his underwhelming ‘90s output. In 1987-1988, Eddie’s stand-up special Raw was one of the most financially successful theatrical releases of the calendar year.

There’s the tonal strangeness of Metro, the fact that Eddie is not the lead of Holy Man, the subtle brilliance of Life, and the tired, cynical result that is I Spy. 

We talk about how Eddie only ever auditioned for Saturday Night Live as an actor, as well as his famous moment at the Academy Awards in 1988 in which he called out the lack of Black representation.

There’s this great quote from Carmen Ejogo about working with Eddie on Metro: “He was utterly charming but... did he tell me this? He gets told, "There's this script, it's a bit shitty, are you interested?" "No, not really." "Well, you know, we're going to give you $30 million to do it." "Yeah, all right then." And that's where he's at. He's not doing it to be the next Poitier. It is what it is for him, and that's what he's like on set. He's just showing up and getting paid, whereas I was like, ‘What's the motivation here?’”

We debate Eddie’s inherent softness (and also his edge) and how it works to his advantage, him turning down Rush Hour in favor of Holy Man, and his music career!

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. 

Today we celebrate an actor with an incredible range: Chow Yun-fat. Our B-Sides include 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife, City War, Peace Hotel, and The Corruptor. 

We discuss Chow Yun-fat’s emergence in Hong Kong, his early work with John Woo, the breakout that was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. Conor and I debate which Western star Chow Yun-fat reminds us of, before resolving that he’s quite a bit more dynamic than any one of them.

There’s debate over the success of his move to Hollywood and his brief stint as a Western leading man (lest we never forget about Bulletproof Monk!), the City on Fire influence on Reservoir Dogs, the John Woo Hollywood run (and why Chow wasn’t in any of them!?), and the impossible influence of Asian action cinema on Hollywood action blockbusters to this day.We also discuss the difficult and narrow needle to thread when making a slapstick marital comedy, and why 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife fails where a few succeed.

Whatever the last great horror movie was, I doubt it was so strange or compelling as City Wide Fever. Shot on video, seemingly whenever the talent had free time from whatever else they were doing, this is a film rejects the eye-deadening digital that defines so many genre movies that go for prestige only to end up at TUBI. It’s also funny, with a sense of humor that is pranksterish, even juvenile without dipping into an edgelord attitude to which it could’ve so easily resorted.

City Wide Fever is now on Blu-ray. But if you’re in New York, then you have a special occasion to see it on Wednesday, April 15 at the Lower Manhattan Alamo Drafthouse, where filmmaker Josh Heaps is doing a Q&A. Josh, I feel compelled to note, started as a film publicist, and through his years there built enough connections to support this film, which he shot during his free hours with very little money. He’s a friend, but also someone whose film I genuinely like very much, and hope this conversation reflects those distinctions and commonalities alike.

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.

Today we celebrate our greatest living comedian: Steve Martin! Our B-Sides include The Man with Two Brains, The Lonely Guy, The Spanish Prisoner, and Novocaine.
Our guest is our dear friend Eric D. Snider, avowed Steve Martin fan and all-around smart-and-funny-and-good person who used to be a great film critic.

We celebrate Martin’s early career - his stand-up success, his Saturday Night Live appearances, his myriad interests (he’s written great books, made great music!) - and the early comedies that made him a movie star.

We discuss Martin’s willingness to play the straight man and let other comedians flourish (Charles Grodin in The Lonely Guy a prime example), his slow evolution into a dramatic actor (the supremely strange A Simple Twist of Fate is mentioned), and his incredible variance in quality of movies throughout his legendary career.

How often do you think about dolphins? That’s a serious question. Because it’s a topic worth turning over, which makes especially valuable… deep breath as I say the title… John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office, a documentary about the man whose work with dolphins blurred boundaries between science and counterculture. The filmmakers are Michael Almereyda and Courtney Stephens. While the former is better-known for his fiction features, including the recently restored Nadja, his portraits of artists—such as Sam Shepherd, William Eggleston, and Hampton Fancher—make him well-suited to the project. The latter, meantime, is shortly off Invention, which concerns sui generis experiments and the conspiracies they may or may not have engendered.

With voiceover from Chloe Sevigny and a hypnotic soundtrack, John Lilly is a suitably dense exploration of a complicated mind. I spoke to Almereyda and Stephens as the film begins its theatrical run from Oscilloscope.