FOLLOWING FILMS - Podcast, Movies, Music, and More

Joining us today is a veteran of the screen who has over two decades of experience and more than 70 television episodes under his belt, from intense dramas like Ozark and Will Trent to beloved comedies like Modern Family . But in a movie defined by pure psychological tension, he manages to steal the show with a brilliant comedic performance that has quickly become an audience favorite. I’m thrilled to be speaking with the incredibly versatile, risk-taking man behind Harry in Obsession,  the fantastic Darin Toonder ! Thank you for listening!

The history of early Hollywood is filled with fascinating intersections where the raw mythology of the American frontier crashed headlong into an emerging film industry that traded squarely in make-believe. Perhaps no intersection is more evocative than the genuine, documented friendship between silent film megastar Tom Mix and the legendary frontier lawman Wyatt Earp, who spent his final years in Los Angeles serving as an occasional, unpaid technical adviser on early Westerns. This bizarre piece of historical trivia forms the bedrock of Sunset, a highly ambitious, deeply eccentric 1988 genre hybrid written and directed by Blake Edwards. Coming off a string of broad comedies, Edwards attempted something remarkably complex here, trying to fuse a nostalgic period piece, a breezy buddy comedy, and a dark, hard-boiled murder mystery into a single cohesive experience. While the resulting film famously tanked at the box office and divided critics, looking back at it reveals a flawed, deeply ...

The year 1990 was a transitional crossroads for Hollywood romance. On one side of the ledger, audiences were treated to the glossy, heavily sanitized fantasy of Pretty Woman, a film that corporate capitalism could easily digest. On the other side stood director Luis Mandoki’s White Palace, a sweatier, rowdier, and fundamentally more honest look at human connection. Based on Glenn Savan’s novel, the film is an interesting, deeply authentic artifact of an era when major studios still made explicit, character-driven adult dramas. While it falters under the weight of traditional Hollywood expectations in its final act, the picture remains an incredibly compelling study of how social class, profound grief, and ageism warp the architecture of a relationship. At the center of this collision are two individuals who should never have crossed paths. Max Baron, played with cold, repressed elegance by a twenty-seven-year-old James Spader, is a successful St. Louis advertising executive. Max is a n...

Physical media is having a massive resurgence, especially with a new generation of film fans discovering the simple joy of owning a movie on a shelf. Looking to tap into that nostalgic energy, boutique distributor Arrow Films has announced the launch of a brand new subsidiary label called Toy Robot Video. Set to debut this September across the US, Canada, and the UK, the new label is designed to recreate the classic experience of browsing a local video store. Toy Robot Video promises high-quality film transfers from the best available elements, but with a major twist: everything will be packaged with vibrant new cover artwork, colorfully branded OBI strips, slipcards, and art cards, all at allowance-friendly prices that leave you with enough cash for snacks. "We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new home entertainment video label," said Toy Robot Video’s Mike Hewitt. "Toy Robot Video is intended to be a fun and inclusive label, designed to complement our core Arro...

In the late summer of 1977, American cinema was undergoing a massive tectonic shift. Audiences were standing in lines wrapped around city blocks to escape into space-opera visuals, while the counter-culture grit of the early part of the decade was gradually giving way to slick, neon-drenched escapism. Tucked quietly behind these massive pop-culture milestones was a small, independently financed romantic melodrama that managed to carve out its own strange corner of history. That film was You Light Up My Life, a movie written, directed, produced, and scored by Joseph Brooks. While the film itself has largely faded into a historical footnote, its titular song became a towering behemoth of the late-seventies airwaves. Yet, looking past the shadow of its chart-topping theme song reveals a piece of cinema that is fascinatingly odd, deeply flawed, and uniquely representative of its era. The story centers on Laurie Robinson, played by Didi Conn in her first major leading role just a year befor...

  Welcome to the Following Films Podcast. I’m Chris Maynard. This Friday, a chilling new nightmare arrives on Shudder, and it explores the dark, complicated, and sometimes supernatural bonds of family. The film is The  Voices of our Mother , and it follows Harriet Scaflen after the death of her 95-year-old mother. When Harriet suffers an unexplainable health scare, her four estranged children return to the ancestral family home to care for her. But as old animosities and long-buried secrets come to light, they quickly realize their mother’s illness is anything but medical. There is a supernatural evil awoken inside her—one seeking revenge on her own children just to survive. Joining me today to discuss this tense, 93-minute psychological horror film is its writer, director, and co-star, Mark O'Brien. You know Mark from his incredible work in front of the camera on shows like Perry Mason , Your Honor , and Halt and Catch Fire , as well as his recent role opposite Simu Liu in Pe...

The 1984 teen sex comedy Lovelines (frequently referred to as Love Lines) is a fascinating cultural artifact. Directed by Rod Amateau, a veteran of mid-century television sitcoms like The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, the film exists as a bizarre, hyper-saturated time capsule of mid-1980s American youth culture. It is a movie that attempts to be absolutely everything to everyone at a specific moment in cinematic history. It tries to function as a modern teen variation on Romeo and Juliet, a raunchy flesh-baring sex romp, a fully realized rock musical, a showcase for practical high school pranks, and a fourth-wall-breaking vehicle for Michael Winslow of Police Academy fame. By refusing to pick a single narrative lane, the film careens wildly between genres, delivering a viewing experience that is simultaneously exhausting, baffling, and undeniably entertaining for connoisseurs of pure vintage cheese. At its core, the thin narrative outline centers on an intense, cross-town rivalry between...

The late 1980s neon-noir landscape is littered with forgotten titles that briefly flared in video rental shops before vanishing into obscurity. Among these, the 1987 thriller Cold Steel occupies a fascinating, almost surreal position. Directed by Dorothy Ann Puzo, daughter of The Godfather author Mario Puzo, the film attempts to straddle the line between the gritty, psychological torment of early decade urban crime and the bombastic, explosive action of the emerging blockbusters. At its center is Brad Davis, an actor whose intense, trembling energy frequently threatened to burst the confines of standard genre cinema. Watched today, Cold Steel stands as a fascinating time capsule, a film of wild tonal shifts, remarkable character actors, and a frantic, sweaty desperation that feels entirely distinct from the slickly manufactured thrillers of modern cinema. The narrative structure of Cold Steel begins with an abrupt subversion of holiday cheer. Brad Davis plays Detective Johnny Modine, a...

 Written and directed by Emmy-winning documentarian and former PBS producer Robyn Symon, this feature is set to make its world premiere next month at Dances With Films in Los Angeles. Shot entirely in Mexico with a local cast and crew, the film takes a fascinating piece of Mexican culture and pushes it to a cinematic extreme. The story centers on the real-world game that is a test of endurance where people voluntarily shock themselves with electricity. In Queen of Shock, this tradition is reimagined as a brutal, viral underground circuit. We follow a struggling single mother who is forced into these escalating electrical matches in a desperate bid to save her kidnapped daughter. Joining us on the podcast is Robyn Symon to discuss: The process of adapting a real cultural tradition into genre cinema. The technical challenges of creating intense underground competition sequences. Her experience directing a Spanish-language feature in Mexico. The creative leap from documentary filmmaki...