Podcast
The Film Talk
The 20-year human conversation about movies and what they mean.
In 2006 TV director Jett Loe and peace activist Gareth Higgins both walked out of the same, terrible, movie at the Queen's Film Theatre in Belfast, Northern/North of Ireland. They encountered each other in the lobby, started talking, and so began a 20 year, and counting, conversation about movies, how they're made, and more importantly, what they mean.
They enjoyed their conversations so much they began recording and distributing them, with the first incarnation of the show debuting that year. It's still going.
- Episodes
- 70
- Releases
- Every two weeks
- Typical length
- 40 min
- On air since
- 2024
- Latest episode
- 1 week ago
Episodes
70 episodes, newest first
-
36 min
Are Movie Theaters Going to Be OK?
Episode 348
Show notes
Are movie theaters dying, or are we entering a new golden age of moviegoing?
Jett sits down with Miles Williams, artistic director of the historic Alex Theatre in Glendale, California, to talk about the future of cinema, the remarkable resurgence of 70mm film, and why the experience of watching movies together still matters.
Following the Alex's enormously successful 70mm presentation of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, Williams sees reason for optimism. Younger audiences are embracing analog film, historic movie palaces are finding new life, and filmmakers are exploring creative ways to reach audiences outside traditional Hollywood distribution.
But what about smaller independent theaters? Can they survive without the resources of a grand movie palace? And can cinemas become the community gathering places that many of us are missing?
From the legendary repertory theaters of the past to a new generation of filmmakers taking their movies on the road, Jett and Miles explore what's changing, what's worth preserving, and why the future of cinema might be brighter than we think.
Plus, a few thoughts on Nathan Fielder's You Can See Everything, the strange appeal of old technology, and why Jett feels Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome, is still relevant.
-
24 min
Boorman and the Devil and the Beautiful Disaster of Exorcist II: The Heretic
Episode 347
Show notes
Is Exorcist II: The Heretic really one of the worst sequels ever made, or have we been watching it all wrong Dear Listener?
Thanks to the documentary Boorman and the Devil, Jett and Gareth reconsider a movie that has been mocked for nearly 50 years. They explore Boorman's career, from Point Blank and Deliverance to Excalibur and The Emerald Forest, and examine how The Heretic fits into his lifelong fascination with myth, nature, and spirituality.
Along the way: Richard Burton's hypnotic screen presence, the spiritual differences between the two Exorcist films, and the mysterious synchronizer that just might explain 20 years of The Film Talk.
Sometimes folks the most interesting movies aren't necessarily the best ones.
Films discussed: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and Boorman and the Devil (2025).
-
39 min
Digger: A Requiem for the World We Find Ourselves In
Episode 346
Show notes
Jett and Gareth are overwhelmed by DIGGER, a film they see as exhilarating, horrifying and the most important movie of the moment.
How do you make art in a world that too absurd to satirize? Is DIGGER a climate horror movie, a satire, (or farce), a work about our complicity in the systems we condemn or a piece of art about the difficult job of making art itself? All of the above?
This is a spoiler-heavy conversation. If you haven't seen DIGGER, go see it first, preferably on the biggest screen you can find and then come back.
-
28 min
Should We Stop Anthropomorphizing AI? What 2001, Colossus and The Outer Limits Can Teach Us
Episode 345
Show notes
Why are we working so hard to make artificial intelligence seem human?
In this solo episode, Jett turns to three works of classic, and semi-classic, science fiction: Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Colossus: The Forbin Project, and Harlan Ellison's Demon with a Glass Hand, asking what movies can teach us about our increasingly personal relationship with AI.
HAL raises one possibility: What if a machine really does become something like a living being, with emotions and even a fear of death? Colossus offers a darker path, imagining what happens when we surrender authority to a machine and begin treating it less like a tool than an all-knowing god.
But The Outer Limits episode Demon with a Glass Hand suggests another way forward. Its computer, manifested as a literal hand of glass, is intelligent, extraordinarily useful, and completely unsentimental. It doesn't flatter. It doesn't pretend to be your friend. It's a tool.
Along the way in this episode: AI "personalities," the strange idea of giving software a soul, the pleasure of actually making things, Robert Culp's impeccable wardrobe, Harlan Ellison's legendary temperament, and why Jett has spent the past week wearing a glove and calling ChatGPT "the Glass Hand."
Maybe the question isn't whether AI can become more like us. Maybe it's whether we should stop asking it to.
-
31 min
Coyote vs. Acme: Absurdity, Empathy, and Why We Keep Going
Episode 343
Show notes
A cartoon coyote, Albert Camus, Mira Nair, and Albuquerque walk into a podcast. Jett and Gareth dig into the wonderfully humane Coyote vs. Acme: a film about persistence, absurdity, and the radical possibility of seeing the world through somebody else's eyes—even when that somebody has spent decades being flattened by anvils.
-
45 min
Steven Spielberg Ranked: Our Number Ones, and What Greatness Means
Episode 342
Show notes
Six episodes later, the ranking project finally reaches the summit. Jett and Gareth reveal their respective No. 1 Steven Spielberg films, argue about greatness, wander briefly into Vincente Minnelli's Lust for Life, and confront the terrifying possibility that ranking art may have told us more about themselves than Spielberg.
-
23 min
Steven Spielberg Ranked: Late Epiphanies and the Road to No. 1
Episode 340
Show notes
The Spielberg ranking has now escaped all reasonable containment. As Jett and Gareth approach the top of the filmography, old assumptions collapse, unlikely favorites rise, and Gymkata, Zodiac, and Quantum of Solace somehow enter a conversation ostensibly about Steven Spielberg. Cinema is a mysterious business.
-
25 min
Blue Heron: Grief, Family, and the Miracle of Being Seen
Episode 339
Show notes
Sophy Romvari's Blue Heron opens a conversation about memory, damaged families, grief, and the profound human need to be seen accurately. Jett and Gareth also consider why New Yorker critic Richard Brody remains such a vital voice—and why criticism is at its best when it risks having a point of view.
-
56 min
The Odyssey: War, Homecoming, and Our Responsibility to Act
Episode 337
Show notes
THE ODYSSEY: It's important that a film at this scale is speaking to this moment that we're in Dear Listener. In this wide ranging discussion our hosts Higgins and Loe get into why THE ODYSSEY is so thought provoking and important a piece of mainstream entertainment, while along the way enjoining discussions about matters of life and death, one's responsibilities to act, and also completely forget to mention Zendaya's role in the film. Enjoy.
-
43 min
Steven Spielberg Ranked: Sam Neill, Near Misses, and the Top Tier
Episode 335
Show notes
Jett and Gareth would like to apologize for believing Steven Spielberg's entire theatrical career could be ranked in one episode. Part Four gets them almost, but emphatically not quite, to the end, while making room to remember the wonderful Sam Neill and the films and performances that stay with us after the rankings become meaningless.
-
45 min
The Mandalorian and Grogu: Does Star Wars Still Have Moral Weight?
Episode 334
Show notes
What is Star Wars actually for? Jett and Gareth welcome educator and Star Wars expert Dan Zehr to talk The Mandalorian and Grogu, the future of the franchise, and whether this enormous mythology still carries moral weight—or has become merely a very expensive machine for moving familiar shapes around the screen.
-
55 min
Steven Spielberg Ranked: War Horse, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the Movies That Divide Us
Episode 333
Show notes
The great Spielberg ranking rolls onward, pausing for Au Hasard Balthazar, Tom Stoppard's work on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Gareth's entirely defensible—or indefensible—love of War Horse. The rankings matter less than the arguments they provoke, which is probably the point.
-
41 min
Disclosure Day: Spielberg, Wonder, and the Courage to Listen
Episode 332
Show notes
Take out the earplugs of your mind, Dear Listener. Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day prompts Jett and Gareth to talk about wonder, attention, and what happens when popular cinema asks us to remain open to something larger than our own certainty. Sometimes the recommendation really is simple: see the movie, then talk about what it did to you.
-
35 min
Steven Spielberg Ranked: Raiders, Duel, and the Madness of Ranking Art
Episode 331
Show notes
Gareth has placed Raiders of the Lost Ark somewhere Jett regards as evidence of a collapsing civilization. Part Two continues the impossible Spielberg ranking, with Duel helping clarify a useful principle: in the absence of reason, there is madness. Naturally, this does nothing to stop them.
-
54 min
Steven Spielberg Ranked: The Absurdity of Applying Metrics to Art
Episode 330
Show notes
Can art be reduced to a numbered list? Almost certainly not. Jett and Gareth proceed anyway. Part One begins the dangerous work of ranking every theatrically released Steven Spielberg film from least great to greatest—or perhaps from slightly brilliant to most brilliant. Metrics meet movies. Reason does not necessarily prevail.
-
10 min
Backrooms: AI Anxiety and the Death of the Analog World
Episode 329
Show notes
Backrooms arrives disguised as analog nostalgia and turns out to be something more unsettling: a film about what it feels like to live amid synthetic images, AI-generated culture, and the nagging suspicion that reality itself is becoming less tangible. Recommended—with caveats, unease, and a healthy distrust of infinite content.
-
32 min
Natchez: Southern Charm, American Myth, and the Need to See Clearly
Episode 328
Show notes
Natchez dismantles comforting myths about the American South while asking a larger question: what happens when culture lets us float free of place, history, and consequence? Gareth calls it an early film-of-the-year contender; Jett recommends it without reservation. Before we act, the episode argues, we first have to see.
https://facebook.com/TheFilmTalk
To contact Jett and Gareth go to:
info@thefilmtalk.com
-
45 min
Field of Dreams: Fathers, Sons, Regret, and the Possibility of Repair
Episode 326
Show notes
Gareth has spent roughly 20 years trying to make Jett watch Field of Dreams. The long national nightmare is over. What follows is a conversation about fathers and sons, baseball ghosts, Burt Lancaster, lost monoculture, regret, forgiveness, and whether it is ever truly too late to make amends.
https://facebook.com/TheFilmTalk
To contact Jett and Gareth go to:
info@thefilmtalk.com
-
1 hr 5 min
Project Hail Mary: When Big-Hearted Sci-Fi Leaves Us Cold
Episode 325
Show notes
What? Two film critics who may not actually recommend PROJECT HAIL MARY? It's true folks, in this massive episode we go in-depth into the pitfalls PROJECT HAIL MARY falls into and recommend some alternatives, namely: E.T., TITANIC, SILENT RUNNING, THE DAY AFTER (TOMORROW), THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE, LIFEFORCE, MELANCHOLIA, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, SOLARIS, CONTACT, I, ROBOT, DARK CITY, KNOWING and even THE OMEGA MAN. We hope you enjoy.
https://facebook.com/TheFilmTalk
To contact Jett and Gareth go to:
info@thefilmtalk.com
-
56 min
Oscars 2026: The Movies, the Crafts, and the Stories We Choose
Episode 324
Show notes
The 98th Academy Awards become an excuse to talk about what awards occasionally get right, what they miss, and the hundreds of people whose work makes movies possible. Jett and Gareth discuss the directors, actors, cinematographers, editors, craftspeople, and Best Picture nominees—with the usual understanding that art stubbornly refuses to behave like a horse race.
https://facebook.com/TheFilmTalk
To contact Jett and Gareth go to:
info@thefilmtalk.com
Film History lists
More Film History shows picked out from the charts
More in Film History
Placed highest on Apple Podcasts' Film History chart right now
