The Film Stage Presents

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.

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

Today we discuss Spike Lee! One of our absolute favorite filmmakers! Our B-Sides today are: Girl 6, Get on the Bus, Summer of Sam, Passing Strange, and Chi-Raq.
We discuss what makes Lee a singular artist, his early films and early success, his celebrity as a commercial star, and his unbridled, unwavering optimism as a stylist.

Spike Lee has mentioned that Crooklyn is the movie most fans mention to him, I’ve written about Lee’s incredible movie openings, and Conor and I celebrate his maximalist aesthetic. There’s also his ambitious alchemy of tone. Consider the minefield scene from Da 5 Bloods, which we talk about. It’s funny for a moment, then awfully tragic.

There’s discussion about our dream Patreon mini-podcast series Macht Speed (a deep dive on the career of Gabriel Macht), the Spike Lee-Quentin Tarantino feud, and the audacity of ambition it takes to make a movie like She Hate Me.

Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!

Take one step into the world of festivals and you'll understand that making a movie isn't just "making a movie." Even if one has the fortune to get some money for the script they've slaved over, get some actors in front of a camera, and survive the labyrinthine editing process, a veritable mountain of tasks faces those hoping to actually get the thing up and running. I might not know anybody who's better-learned in these spaces than my friend Gabe Klinger, who has worked in festivals, programming, criticism, and filmmaking, with his third feature, Isabel, debuting at this year's Berlinale.

Music courtesy of Lex Walton: “Love Theme from an Unreleased Film” from the album Giving It Up.

Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we usually talk about movie stars and not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones they made in between. Today, however, we talk about Oscar movies (!), or better yet, movies that remind us of Oscar movies!

Conor and I welcome back the great Chris Feil, co-host of This Had Oscar Buzz! Today, we dive into defunct Academy Awards categories! 

The movies include In Old Chicago (which won the Oscar for Best Assistant Director, a category that was discontinued after this 1938 ceremony), The Americanization of Emily (which was nominated for Best Cinematography (Black-and-White) in its final year of competition), the much-maligned film adaptation of A Little Night Music (which won for, deep breath, Best Music, Original Song Score, and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score), and finally Sleepers (which was nominated for Best Original Dramatic Score, back during the time when there were two categories for music, Original Dramatic Score and Original Musical or Comedy Score).

We talk about the upcoming (or just-aired, depending on when you listen) 2026 Academy Awards, the recent Oscar season and its surprises, changes that could be made to the format to make it more interesting, and personal favorites from the 2025 movie year.

Additionally, we talk about Elizabeth Taylor singing in A Little Night Music, the endurance of the animated film Shrek (which won the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature back in 2002), and that time James Garner and Steve McQueen had a falling out because Garner starred in Grand Prix.

Be sure to give us a follow on Bluesky at @tfsbside.bsky.social. Enjoy!

Last month brought suitable mourning for Robert Duvall and Frederick Wiseman, whose legacies are so enshrined that the lengthy obituaries published by major outlets could have—likely were—written years ago. But immediately after came a quieter announcement that hit me hardest: Tom Noonan, the actor best-known for his collaborations with Michael Mann and Charlie Kaufman, and a filmmaker who made formally elegant and emotionally lacerating features based on his own plays. (As discussed in my 2021 interview with him.) While his passing may, to various film institutions, not seem so notable as Duvall or Wiseman, I noticed that the online reaction was essentially as instant and admiring. It’s perhaps impossible to experience a Noonan performance, with that tall frame and mellifluous voice, and come away feeling like you’d seen any other actor.

My friend, the critic Keith Uhlich, had known Noonan closely, working with him in both theater and cinema. I considered here and now the proper time to reminisce on Noonan’s work, and a unique opportunity to Keith tell intimate stories of him as both an artist and friend.

Music courtesy of Lex Walton: “Love Theme from an Unreleased Film” from the album Giving It Up.