A defunct podcast about trading films with friends. Each month I chose a film for a friend to watch and they chose one for me. Then we discussed. There were two episodes a month, first my choice and then theirs. Subscribe via iTunes or Overcast.

My guest for this month is Herb van der Poll, and he's joined me to discuss the film he chose for me, the 1992 American-British satirical mockumentary film Bob Roberts. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.

Show notes:

• The cast is seriously insane, with Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, Ray Wise, Gore Vidal, John Cusack, Peter Gallagher, Alan Rickman, and Susan Sarandon
• Oh and also James Spader, Helen Hunt, Jack Black, Jeremy Piven and his sister Shira, and Bob Balaban
• Unless you've been living under a rock, you already know we have an election happening
• The film shows some strong parallels to the presidency of George W. Bush
• Ray Wise, of course, was famously Laura Palmer's dad on one of my all time favorite shows, Twin Peaks
• In this film, he and Alan Rickman play Dick Cheney and Karl Rove type figures
• Folk music is often in the service of liberal causes, and the subversion of that idea is one of the reasons this film is so compelling
• Specifically the music here is in the style of Bob Dylan, with Bob Roberts naming his albums The Freewheelin' Bob Roberts, and Bob on Bob
• The Alan Rickman character also has a distinctly Oliver North vibe to him
• Strom Thurmond was a terrible human being
• This film feels like a satire of Ronald Reagan's America
• Bob Roberts himself represents a response to the JFK and RFK eras
• The 24-hour news cycle is designed for 9/11 level attacks, not the daily news
• I still haven't seen Toy Story 3, much to my shame
• The Mass Psychology of Fascism, by Wilhelm Reich, is the book I was referring to
• If for some reason you haven't listened to Hamilton yet, you really should, it's phenomenal
• Herb may be right that most people know Giancarlo Esposito from Breaking Bad, I know him from Do the Right Thing, School Daze, The Usual Suspects, and King of New York
• This film is very different from other Tim Robbins directed projects, like Dead Man Walking) or Cradle Will Rock
• The film has a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, built on 36 positive essays
• The Simpsons episode that is named for this film is Sideshow Bob Roberts, from 1994's season six)
• James Spader's current show Blacklist) is about to start its fourth season
• Technically Miramax is still a studio, but it's changed hands several times in the last few years, and I don't think they're producing new films
• StudioCanal uses Lionsgate for their US distribution
• I think the involvement of Robert Altman and Gary Trudeau is probably why Criterion released Tanner '88
• This film was an influence on another of my favorite television shows, The West Wing
• I've never seen Tapeheads, so I'll have to take Herb's word that "Retake America" from this film came from it

Buy the film from Amazon