Some Like It Unauthorized

Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974)

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 04:00:54 +0000

Though he was present in the heyday of Cahiers du Cinema, that contrarian film review mag where the biggest names in french new wave would ferment and develop their eclectic taste, Jacques Rivette had a lot more false starts on his way to directing films full time. Rather than endearing himself to wide audiences, he endeared himself to actors, and fostered an improvisational style almost akin to Cassavetes, but frencher. Next to the behemoth Out 1, Céline et Julie vont en bateau stands as his most celebrated work today, a low-budget madcap farce with few analogs in film history.

Zach and J Brooks Go Podcasting with a pair of opposite reactions to this french meta fantasy. We discuss the french new wave in its late stages, what sets Rivette’s style apart, and why his films have risen in esteem over the decades. Questions arise of whether art is political or whether it must be approached politically, and if the joke’s on us.

Next week: Jeanne Dielman (1975) by Chantal Akerman

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 04:00:31 +0000

Filmmaking genius or fraud provocateur? The work of John Cassavetes has been the subject of unending adoration and extensive dissection ever since the actor picked up a camera in NYC in the late ‘50s and joined the likes of Jonas Mekas and Shirley Clarke in the burgeoning independent film scene. Almost instantly, he became a cult figure to cinephiles in the know, and while he would go on to make some films for the major studios, his housewife-on-the-edge vehicle for his wife Gena Rowlands could garner no interest from a single studio or distributor. After eventually self-funding, the film would instead go on to be Cassavetes’s biggest hit, an oscar nominee, and a film forever in the critical pantheon.

On this episode, we discuss the film’s loudest naysayer, Pauline Kael, and why the Cassavetes style remains divisive. We also discuss what his imitators get right and get wrong, second-wave feminism, and what the film itself says about the experience of women in the nuclear family.

Next week: Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) by Jacques Rivette

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 04:00:50 +0000

30-some feature films. 24 plays. 3 tv miniseries. Many drugs, many relationships. Dead at 37. Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a chaser (in more ways than one), and remains among that rare class of film artists that turned cinema into a verb, into an ongoing process and processing of the world around him. What’s astounding is that his films, while so specific to postwar german society, have a universal resonance that makes them just as worthwhile today.

In talking about his most well-regarded film about the unlikely romance between a moroccan immigrant and an older german woman, Angst essen Seele auf, we untangle the association with Douglas Sirk’s hollywood films, how Fassbinder broke new ground with subjects under-seen in movies, and how immigration and xenophobia remain so fraught in the age of nation-states.

Afterwards (56:00), Zach shares 5 albums from 1974 worth listening to.

Next week: A Woman Under the Influence (1974) by John Cassavetes

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Intro music by hetchy

The Mother and the Whore (1973)

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 04:00:03 +0000

If Godard and Truffaut busted down the door for a new generation of french filmmakers, Jean Eustache followed them in and stood in the corner and received little attention. After making a few docs and shorts, he finally made a bid for cinematic immortality with this first-person-epic (longer than Jeanne Dielman!), La Maman et la Putain. It stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, the avatar-du-jour for many autobiographical directors, and in this episode we compare Eustache’s film with another experimental french film featuring Léaud’s antics, Jacques Rivette’s Out 1. Why do these films now reside on the Sight and Sound Top 250? We sort out our very different reactions to the Eustache film, talk about his life and philosophy, and grapple with how alien this caustic ‘70s behavior feels today.

Next week: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

American Graffiti (1973)

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 04:00:33 +0000

George Lucas’s breakout Best Picture nominated film reanimated a time barely a decade past, 1962, before a generation of boys went to Vietnam, before rock and roll went psychedelic, and before baby boomer nostalgia was an entire industrial complex. Less melodramatic and more laid back than the teen films of his youth, American Graffiti was exactly realistic enough, misogynist warts and all, to catch fire at the box office and set the template for the teen hangout genre.

On this episode, we discuss the film’s strengths and weaknesses with the hindsight of today, the consequences of american car culture post-WWII, and the new hollywood savviness of guys like Lucas and Coppola, and what it means to consciously chase mainstream success.

Next week: The Mother and the Whore (1973) by Jean Eustache

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 04:00:50 +0000

It’s time to talk Víctor Erice. It’s time to talk bees. On this episode, we examine this legendary spanish film’s reputation and the filmmakers that influenced ‘70s dream cinema, and we consider what the Frankenstein and beehive metaphors have to say about social rigidity and childhood fluidity. In addition, we dive into some albums coming out in 1973, from funk to krautrock to reggae, and everywhere in between.

2:20 - Spirit of the Beehive discussion

57:10 - Zach’s 5 albums to check out from ‘73

Next week: American Graffiti (1973) by George Lucas

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Intro music by hetchy

The Godfather (1972)

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 05:00:23 +0000

Early 1971, young upstart director Francis Ford Coppola, who had already founded his own independent production company to sidestep studio meddling and had recently produced George Lucas’s debut feature THX 1138, was weighing the offer to direct the adaptation of Mario Puzo’s bestselling novel, a project that was ostensibly Paramount’s, and particularly the vainglorious Robert Evans’s, baby. It was exactly the for-hire scenario Coppola didn’t want to be in, but good friend Lucas, after his film financially flopped, encouraged Coppola to cash them checks and ensure their future projects. Coppola took the job, and the rest is history.

In this discussion, we share perspectives on toxic masculinity and the fandom of the franchise, the origins of the modern mob/crime drama and why this film took the world by storm in ‘72, and what the story says about capitalism and american assimilation.

Next week: Spirit of the Beehive (1973) by Víctor Erice

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

An Oscar Nominations Reaction Show

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 20:00:09 +0000

We react LIVE to the 2026 Oscar Nominations, giving you our honest, unauthorized opinions on all the nominated films and the shameful snubs.

Next episode: The Godfather (1972) by Francis Ford Coppola

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young.

Top 10 Films of 2025! plus, a Movie Draft of Additions to Our History of Film List

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 18:11:52 +0000

EndadaYear! Hosts Zach Domes and J Brooks Young reveal each of their Top Ten Films of 2025, and the 1st ever cumulative Some Like It Unauthorized Top Ten Official Official Best Films of the Year. In a year of aliens and monsters, political radicals and ping pong players, which film will be crowned the totally not arbitrary best of the best? Listen to find out! Or watch on youtube!

Additionally, we revise our chronological watchlist of 485 films from cinema’s history by selecting the final 15 films to round off the list at 500. Our project, which has been ongoing for over two years, is for both of us to watch every single film on this list, and upon completion, become Experts in Film History. Listen in to hear what we decide must be watched to better understand the medium of film, whether it’s an unsung cult masterpiece or Wolfgang Peterson’s Das Boot, and hear what each of us, movie draft style, is gonna force the other sibling to watch.

1:37 — Top Ten Countdown

44:00 — Honorable Mentions

55:55 — Movie Draft of the final additions to our History of Film list

Next episode: The Godfather (1972) by Francis Ford Coppola

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Marty Supreme (2025)

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:00:30 +0000

The year ended not with a bang, but with the ping and the pong of that little ball of energy Timmy Chalamet bouncing across the silver screen in Josh Safdie’s new film. Topics include: the rise of the Safdie/Bronstein anxiety wave of films, the adoption of these films by the awards voters, and a segue into the 60s avant-garde and what radical filmmaking looks like today.

Next episode: Top Ten Lists of 2025, and a Movie Draft to round out the History of Film list

… and then …

THE GODFATHER (1972) by Francis Ford Coppola

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Sambizanga (1972)

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 05:00:39 +0000

Filmmaking was a mid-life discovery for Sarah Maldoror: she made her first short film at the age of 39, after making waves in Paris as part of a black theater troupe, advocating abroad for african independence and supporting the fight in places like Algeria and Angola, and crucially, studying film in the USSR before assisting on The Battle of Algiers. As she witnessed Gilles Pontecorvo’s film become an international rallying cry for anti-imperialists everywhere, she knew without question that she had to bring the tools of cinema to the fight against portuguese occupiers in Angola, the birthplace of her husband.

Her first feature-length film, Sambizanga, began to be shown (outside Angola, where it was banned) before independence was won. 50 years later, it made its first appearance on the Sight and Sound Top 250. And on this episode, we’re excited to discuss how this boldly modern film took us by surprise on first watch, and unpack the ways it stands apart in film history.

Next time: Marty Supreme (2025) by Josh Safdie

Watch the trailer for our short film

Suggest a film to be added to our Film History watchlist

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 05:00:49 +0000

We’re joined by Werner Herzog to discuss his early career film imagining the search for El Dorado by the spanish conquistadors, starring Klaus Kinski, and we explore post-colonial art, unexpected comedy, and the legacy of white dudes making their own epic jungle movies.

Next week: Sambizanga (1972) by Sarah Maldoror

Watch the trailer for our short film

Suggest a film to be added to our Film History watchlist

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Pink Flamingos (1972)

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 05:00:28 +0000

Garbage man John Waters witnessed the explosion of specialty theaters in the 60s that offered all manner of forbidden fruit, from nudie european films to gross-out gore films, and with natural business savvy, he catered to that growing audience with his own ultra out-there amateur films. He made out with a nice profit, but his films really persisted in public consciousness because of their smart satire, and because they felt like a coming out party for a whole community of interesting, self-sustaining freaks. On this episode, we share our two differing reactions to seeing the film for the first time, go deep on the film’s place in history, and celebrate that incredible cast headed by the one and only, Divine.

3:33 - Pink Flamingos discussion

59:45 - Zach’s 5 albums to check out from 1972

Next week: Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972) by Werner Herzog

Watch the trailer for our short film

Suggest a film to be added to our Film History watchlist

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 05:00:14 +0000

Larry McMurtry, the author of the novel that he and Peter Bogdanovich adapted into this smash success film, made it his life project to reconcile the popular image of the american west with the reality he grew up in post WWII. His novel “Horseman, Pass By” became the Paul Newman starring Hud, as defeatist as a film western can get, and The Last Picture Show is no sunnier. We explore how the film depicts sex and growing up in small town USA, and talk about the Gen Z aversion to sex in films today. We also detail how Bogdanovich became a respected name in hollywood while blowing up his marriage to creative partner Polly Platt, and discuss the strong ensemble cast, including new school actors Jeff Bridges and Cybill Sheperd.

Next week: Pink Flamingos (1972) by John Waters

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

A New Leaf (1971)

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 05:00:18 +0000

As fate would have it, young divorcée Elaine May would move across the country, leaving her baby daughter with her parents, to pursue higher education at one of the only colleges that admitted people without a high school diploma: the University of Chicago. Only there would she befriend Mike Nichols, with whom she would become a nationally known comedic performer, before they quit while they were ahead and forged separate careers. By ‘71, Nichols has already won the Best Director Oscar for The Graduate, and finally, May is here to prove her mettle as a filmmaker. We talk about our favorite moments in the film, and the state of comedy, then and now.

We open with some semi-spoilery reactions to the new film Sentimental Value before talking A New Leaf (5:30), and like we did on the first episodes covering ‘69 and ‘70, we close with Zach sharing his top 5 albums to check out from ‘71 (50:22).

Next week: The Last Picture Show (1971) by Peter Bogdanovich

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

The Conformist (1970)

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Bernardo Bertolucci has us thinking about World War 2 and the effects wrought by loser fascists like our protagonist Clerici, and the generation that came after, Bertolucci’s own baby boomers. We talk about his influences in hollywood and the french new wave, the legacy of this era of italian cinema, and queer readings of the film.

9:25 - The Conformist discussion begins

Next week: A New Leaf (1971) by Elaine May

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Bugonia (2025)

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 05:35:40 +0000

We interrupt your regularly scheduled podcast to hash out our Bugonia feelings - does Yorgos Lanthimos strike a chord with his sci-fi class war extremity, or do these provocations ring hollow? Topics include: Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, Stanley Kubrick and Rian Johnson, and the nature of meaning in the universe.

Next week: The Conformist (1970) by Bernardo Bertolucci

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Wanda (1970)

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 04:00:54 +0000

This week we tackle another “reclaimed” classic, actress Barbara Loden’s sole feature-length directing effort, the spare character study Wanda. Should we be wary, like Paul Schrader suggested after the 2022 BFI Sight and Sound List was published, of the new canonizing of just this sort of previously unsung film? To find the answer, we go deep on Loden’s aesthetic choices, and the themes to be teased out of both the images and the narrative of this american ghost story.

Next week: Bugonia (2025) by Yorgos Lanthimos

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

A Touch of Zen (1970)

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 04:00:13 +0000

King Hu stood at a crossroads early in his career, just before the release of 1967’s Dragon Inn. He had left Hong Kong and the film industry he had just begun to break into, following his mentor Li Han-Hsiang to Taiwan at a time when there was no taiwanese film industry. To make matters worse, Li’s epic gamble Beauty of Beauties had just flopped, casting the entire future of their independent enterprise into doubt. Against all odds, Dragon Inn was a smash success, and set the template for King’s fantastical high-flying martial arts films to follow. On this episode we discuss his direct follow-up, a film that threatens to bend the genre beyond its breaking point, and we interrogate what works and what doesn’t about one of the most ambitious chinese films to date.

0:00 - J Brooks recaps the 60’s in film

3:30 - A Touch of Zen discussion

59:12 - Zach shares his top 5 albums to check out from 1970

Next week: Wanda (1970) by Barbara Loden

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

One Battle After Another (2025)

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 04:00:23 +0000

What does it mean to be an artist in a fascist country? Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio appears to be less about revolutionary politics and more about the universal experience of two generations of a family struggling to relate. The politics are timely, but is there something untoward about an overtly political film, especially in the Trump era, that wants to frontline its emotional family drama and sideline, or altogether avoid, a tangible call to action? We put our heads together to examine the role of film in politics, and what One Battle After Another has to say about idealism, political unrest, and America’s #1 weirdo, Sean Penn.

Next week: A Touch of Zen (1970) by King Hu

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 04:00:51 +0000

Do yourself a favor, and watch this Toshio Matsumoto film. It’s made by a playful and original filmmaker, whom was almost certainly versed in the work of Godard, Resnais, and every other new wave voice in that moment, but whom brought his own eye and his own inventions to film and made something totally new. It stars strikingly beautiful trans and queer actors that you’d otherwise never see on film, whom perform in daring roles with aplomb, and get to speak for themselves in documentary interludes. And it captures a world in flux, when a booming postwar Japan is seeing young people stand up and rebel against all of society’s traditions. In this episode, we discuss the film’s legacy, the Oedipus myth, and our own experiences navigating gender.

Next up: One Battle After Another (2025) by Paul Thomas Anderson

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Easy Rider (1969)

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 04:00:24 +0000

A new generation of cinephilic filmmakers have arrived on the scene in the US; raised on Hitchcock and Godard, these youngsters know what makes a film feel exciting, and they know how to get their kicks in real life too: with drugs and women. But, as we examine on this episode, Easy Rider is not just a hangout film. Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson are out to explore why they’ve hit the road and why this generation is so rebellious, and that means examining both the country and themselves. Throw in some gorgeous photography and an innovative rock and roll soundtrack, and you’ve got the formula for one of the biggest box office hits of 1969.

Next up: Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) by Toshio Matsumoto, and then, One Battle After Another (2025) by Paul Thomas Anderson

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Army of Shadows (1969)

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 04:00:51 +0000

Jean-Pierre Melville’s look back at the perilous times of France’s occupation during WWII arrived while the French were trying to look forward; protests and workers’ strikes throughout ‘68 had attempted to spur change in de Gaulle’s government, and that man, who had made a political career of his role in the campaign to free France from nazi occupation, was the last person that young audiences wanted to see celebrated. Army of Shadows was a box office failure as a result, but more recent reevaluations have heralded the film as one of Melville’s best. We examine how the genre filmmaker confronted the audience with impossible questions and avoided propagandistic pitfalls, and we lose our minds over some of the more shocking scenes in cinema history.

And at the end (51:33), Zach shares his top 5 albums to check out from the year 1969!

Next week: Easy Rider (1969) by Dennis Hopper

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Theorem (1968)

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 04:00:21 +0000

Pier Paolo Pasolini described his 1968 film with young star Terence Stamp as the story of when “a young man, maybe god, maybe the devil, that is to say, authenticity, visits this bourgeois family,” and the aftermath that follows. It’s a boldly provocative work from a gay catholic marxist that never failed to speak his mind, even when it meant defying those whom might otherwise identify with him. It’s also a work that skirts many lines: comic and tragic, flippant and earnest, indulgent and austere. We had to break down the film character by character, and get at the heart of Pasolini’s persona, to decide how we feel about the one and only Teorema!

Next week: Army of Shadows (1969) by Jean-Pierre Melville

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

if... (1968)

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 04:00:19 +0000

What do you know about Free Cinema? Not much, Lindsay Anderson would presume, as he and his group of british outsider filmmakers put on screenings of their films in the 50’s and did not set the world on fire like they hoped. Some of his cohorts would make the biggest films of the kitchen-sink genre that followed in the 60’s: gritty, working-class portraits of modern discontentment in Britain. But while those filmmakers left for Hollywood, Anderson stayed in Britain and produced a truly scandalous takedown of the british school system, “if…”. It won the top prize at Cannes whilst being denounced by the UK’s ambassador to France, and it began the career of a young phenom, Malcolm McDowell.

We talk about how the film combines the naturalism of 60’s/70’s filmmaking with the surreal, the way real world trends informed how homosexuality is depicted in the film, and other stand-out boarding school films.

Next week: Theorem (1968) by Pier Paolo Pasolini

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Playtime (1967)

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 04:00:49 +0000

Jacques Tati enjoyed great critical and commercial success as the director and star of comedies in the 50’s, but like Chaplin or even Fellini, he wouldn’t dare repeat himself twice. He dreamt of going above and beyond, and it would take a decade to finally realize the giant, genre-bending Playtime. The gentle, conservative satire did not capture the attention of the young radicalized french audience that was about to embark on widespread protest throughout ‘68, but Playtime’s reputation has continually risen in the decades since.

We discuss how its pastoral nostalgia is rooted in a worldview that’s less nationalistic and more radically inclusive, and how the film defies cinematic convention and forces you to watch it in a novel way that reorients how you see the wider world altogether.

Next week: if… (1968) by Lindsay Anderson

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 18:00:13 +0000

Like in hollywood with the bloated roadshow musical, the italian film industry faced a crisis of identity in the 60’s as their investment in huge historical epics drew in smaller and smaller crowds. Sergio Leone had the antidote. The son of a director, Leone worked his way up to that vaunted role and started making westerns that borrowed liberally not just from his favorite Ford or Hawks films, but also samurai films and new bloody, edgy horror films like those of Mario Bava. The resulting films were so fresh and exciting that they reinvigorated the italian box office, and when the Dollars trilogy released in the US over the course of 1967, they made Clint Eastwood a top movie star and made the hollywood studios come calling to Leone.

This week we talk about his hollywood western, Once Upon a Time in the West, and what we love about the meticulous production design, seeing Henry Fonda turn heel, and falling for the old gun-in-the-boot trick on a train.

Next week: Playtime (1967) by Jacques Tati

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Belle de Jour (1967)

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 04:00:58 +0000

They don’t make ‘em like Luis Buñuel anymore, a true blue iconoclast whose career charted across continents and spanned the last days of silent film up to cinema’s heyday in the 70’s. We catch up with the serial offender of catholic and bourgeois sensibilities in his late career team-up with an adventurous movie star, Catherine Deneuve, in this fantastical exploration of taboo sexuality among the Paris elite. We talk about how the Venice Golden Lion winner toes the line between sexual liberation and exploitation, and how it reflects the shifting landscape of european art cinema.

Next week: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) by Sergio Leone

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Wavelength (1967)

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 04:00:07 +0000

The only artists Michael Snow wanted to model his career after defied categorization, mixing mediums and blowing out boundaries of what was or wasn’t fine art. Artists like Dalí and Warhol loomed large, and each had also deigned to touch the lowly cinema when it was still thought to be below painting or sculpture. Snow saw the camera as a tool that had not yet been utilized to its full potential, not by conventional narrative cinema nor by the avant-gardists he rubbed elbows with in NYC. His best known film, Wavelength, astounded everyone in that scene, and today in 2025, it hits us just as hard. Its celluloid is seemingly ready to disintegrate before our eyes, and it draws forth nostalgia and makes us ponder the subjectivity of memory, personal and collective.

Zach and J Brooks gathered in a Chicago loft beside a busy train yard to watch Wavelength for the first time and record their immediate reactions, and they discuss nuclear destruction, Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage, how the film was personal to Michael Snow, and the greater history of experimental film.

Next week: Belle de Jour (1967) by Luis Buñuel

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 04:00:11 +0000

Few movie stars enjoyed the laurels or faced the criticisms that Sidney Poitier did, a historic Best Actor winner and a man accused of abetting all of hollywood’s fantasies of easy racial reconciliation. He played many a saintly character on screen before playing hollywood’s first black (and decidedly self-assured) detective in Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night. This novel role would allow him to embody the discontent of being black in late 60’s America, and audiences were more than ready for it — they made him the biggest box office draw of the year.

We reflect on how the film has aged, how quickly and dramatically the film landscape was changing with New Hollywood youngsters around the corner, and what it meant to bring together a talented production team that included Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Hal Ashby, and Haskell Wexler.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Eddington (2025)

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 04:00:02 +0000

We expanded the podcast for this episode and brought in some new voices to help us make sense of Ari Aster's new movie Eddington.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Black Girl (1966)

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 04:00:57 +0000

From our vantage in the US today, we’re not just unaware of the history of african film, we’re unequipped — it’s hard to find documents that go beyond the surface level facts, and in many cases, even the films themselves have only recently been restored and widely released. Ousmane Sembène later in life said that even he did not know where many of his film’s original prints or negatives were. Would we be watching this film for the pod today if not for a restoration by the Scorsese-led World Cinema Project and a home release by Criterion?

It’s also hard to gauge the immediate impact of Sembène’s Black Girl, a film that breaks new ground in a way that few films ever have, because it may have screened mostly to relatively privileged audiences. Large portions of Senegal then could not understand French or read subtitles. What we do know is that it inspired filmmakers and intellectuals in Africa and abroad; Sembène’s acolytes are innumerable. This episode, we talk about the political conditions that brought african perspectives to the screen for the first time, and we talk through questions of intended audience and historical significance as a way of understanding the role cinema has in our lives.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 04:00:39 +0000

Mike Nichols. Elizabeth Taylor. Richard Burton. An expletive-filled broadway play. A draconian Hays Code on its last legs. These were the ingredients for a film that would shake hollywood to its core in the mid 60’s. We talk about a notorious production, the scenes that astounded us, and how the film feels like an inspiration for filmmakers like Cassavetes, Aster, and the Safdies.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 04:00:25 +0000

French New Wave gets all the publicity, but the Soviet New Wave might be the most astounding development that cinema had seen to date. In this episode, we talk about the precursors to Sergei Parajanov’s career-changing, and medium-changing, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, from Dovzhenko to Tarkovsky, and the films this Ukrainian folk art epic inspired, like Children of Men. We also discuss how folk art and music affects us deeply in this day and age when so much of culture is manufactured and lacking any tradition. And we explain what’s happening in the film plot-wise, with the help of the original short story.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Materialists (2025) and Berlinale 2025

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 04:00:00 +0000

We take a break from the 60’s to discuss the new film from director Celine Song, Materialists, a contemporary romantic drama that has divided audiences. After that, we talk about our trip to the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and some of the standout films shown there from directors like Radu Jude and Hong Sang-soo.

2:09 - Materialists

21:58 - Materialists w/ spoilers

41:59 - Berlinale intro

43:21 - Magic Farm

44:12 - If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

46:45 - Kontinental ‘25

49:46 - What Does that Nature Say to You?

52:04 - Dreams (Sex Love)

57:59 - Dressed in Blue (1983)

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Le Bonheur (1965)

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Agnès Varda arrived as a filmmaker before the french new wave became a known trend (La Pointe Courte, 1955), and endured in the culture decades after it faded from public consciousness. Overlooked doesn’t begin to describe the biases she faced as a young female director; at least one american critic labeled Cléo From 5 to 7 as a derivative clone of earlier new wave films, not aware that Varda had released a stylistically daring feature film before Chabrol, Truffaut, or Godard. Her third film, Le Bonheur, arrived as Godard was being crowned the artiste-du-jour, and while her film shared a jury prize with Polanski’s Repulsion at Berlin, she would receive criticism for the film’s “absurdity” and “immaturity”. To make sense of Le Bonheur’s place in history, we talk second wave feminism, polyamory, and mixing documentary and fiction.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Pierrot le Fou (1965)

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Jean-Luc Godard’s feature film-shaped provocations have incited eye rolls and ire since the start: in the leftist literary mag Les Lettres Françaises, Louis Marcorelles read Pierrot Le Fou for filth, likening it to “the refusal to construct a film, to tell a story.” But in a later issue of that same publication, poet Louis Aragon settled the score, declaring Godard himself to be “art today.” Godard’s deification says as much about the times as it does the man himself; the 60’s were pretty square, mostly. Youths and the youthful were ready for someone to erase the borders of polite society, and this brash, self-obsessed filmmaker was more than happy to.

We try to match Godard’s freak and mash-up his life, work, his influences and the influenced, and talk it out!

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Charulata (1964)

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 04:00:00 +0000

We talk a lot on this show about film festivals, and film itself as a mass-produced art form, redefining the vertices of contact between cultures post-WWII, and Satyajit Ray is one filmmaker that changed countless people’s perceptions of India in the 50’s. We chart his history at the euro festivals as a way of understanding his stature in the wider film world, and we talk about this virtuoso film, and what moved us.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Red Desert (1964)

Wed, 28 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Bicycle Thieves topped the first BFI Sight and Sound List of the Greatest Films of All Time, published in 1952. Vittorio De Sica’s portrait of an impoverished family, shot all across the real streets of Rome, was the perfect avatar for postwar italian cinema, which astonished audiences and made the cinema of carefully designed sets feel dated and fake in comparison.

So when the new Sight and Sound list arrived in ’62, the fact that Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura came two votes short of the #1 spot (and four votes ahead of Bicycle Thieves) signaled a shift in attitudes. De Sica’s neorealism was passé, patronizing, and obvious. Antonioni’s modernism was startlingly provocative, unresolved, and new. Red Desert in ’64 would cap off this series of films set in Italy with soon-to-be ex-partner Monica Vitti, and it challenged audiences more than ever. Critics loved it — but how does it stand up today? We talk about it.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Wed, 21 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000

How does a silly goofy comedy take a young director of minor note and launch him into the upper echelon of auteurs to pay attention to in the 60’s? Before he was the patron saint of film bros, Stanley Kubrick was a low budget film stylist, a hired hand for Kirk Douglas’s Spartacus, and a provocateur still in search of the right buttons to push. We talk about how Lolita and Dr. Strangelove attempt to push the envelope in very different ways, and we answer the age-old question — what’s the deal with Peter Sellers?

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

8 1/2 (1963)

Wed, 14 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Cannes Film Festival 1960 was the best time and the worst time for Fellini. He won the Palme d’Or for La Dolce Vita, but by beating out Antonioni’s L’Avventura, he was made a bit of a target by the festival jury, as critics and filmmakers rallied into a frenzied support of his fellow countryman’s film. It was not the first time one of Fellini’s against-the-grain films had caught ire, contributing to ongoing imposter syndrome that formed a dangerous mix with ever-skyrocketing expectations for his next film. So what did he do? He put it all on the screen.

We finally watched it for the first time, now listen to us wrestle with the gargantuan legacy of 8 1/2!

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Harakiri (1962)

Wed, 07 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Shochiku Films may have been the studio that traditionalist Yasujirō Ozu called home, but in the 60’s the studio was also keen on supporting young new filmmakers, including the brash Masaki Kobayashi. His stylish genre-subverting Harakiri was an instant sensation and a critical success internationally, and now sits atop letterboxd as the most well reviewed feature length film, but you won’t find it on BFI’s Sight and Sound Top 250. We go deep on the film and then discuss the past, present, and future of “film canon”.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

An Autumn Afternoon (1962)

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Yasujirō Ozu could not have imagined the stature his films would take on some 60 plus years after his death in 1963. He lived in the present, in his process, making sure his japanese audience had a new film each year to go see in the theater. Wait, you could watch movies on tv by this point! I wonder if they put Ozu films on tv, and what did Ozu think if they did?

Anyway, we reflect on the mystique of one of cinema’s poet laureates, the way film festivals bridge cultures, and learning how to be an adult.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 04:00:00 +0000

At the Oscars in the spring of ‘63, host Frank Sinatra pleaded with hollywood to basically get out of an artist’s way, let them make their film, and the audience will come. He also threw shade at foreign films and implied they were eating hollywood’s lunch. Later that night, David Lean’s gargantuan epic won Best Picture, and seemed to prove Sinatra right. Or maybe it was the exception that could not be replicated. We talk about it.

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy