Podcast Like It's ...

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  105: The Gift with April Wolfe 31.07.2026 1時間 26分

  Phil and Emily are joined by writer and critic April Wolfe for Sam Raimi's The Gift (2000). Cate Blanchett plays a widowed Georgia fortune teller who reads cards to keep her family afloat and gets pulled into a murder when a local woman (Katie Holmes) goes missing. Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves, Hilary Swank, and Greg Kinnear round out a stacked Southern-gothic ensemble.The three dig into Raimi working in a minor key between the Evil Dead films and Spider-Man, Blanchett anchoring a lurid pulp thriller with total conviction, the movie's very year-2000 ideas about class and the South, and the simple pleasure of a mid-budget, star-packed genre picture that basically nobody makes anymore. April brings a horror writer's eye to what works, what's silly, and what quietly holds up.Follow the show & guest:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsApril Wolfe - https://www.instagram.com/awolfeful💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  104: Pay It Forward with Carson Olshansly 24.07.2026 1時間 38分

  Phil and Emily are joined by comedian Carson Olshansky for Mimi Leder's Pay It Forward (2000). Haley Joel Osment plays a seventh-grader who answers a social-studies assignment think of a way to change the world by inventing a simple chain reaction: do a big favor for three people, and ask each of them to "pay it forward." Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt orbit as the scarred teacher and the struggling single mom the plan quietly sets out to fix.The three get into how a movie this earnest slowly curdles into something else, the infamous ending and whether it earns a single second of it, Spacey and Hunt doing an enormous amount of Very Serious Acting, and what it's like to revisit a turn-of-the-millennium prestige weepie with fresh, unsentimental eyes. Affectionate and merciless in roughly equal measure.Follow the show & guest:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsCarson Olshansky - https://www.instagram.com/carsonolshansky💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  103: The Box with Jude Ellison Doyle 17.07.2026 1時間 53分

  Phil and Emily are joined by writer Jude Ellison Doyle to open up Richard Kelly's The Box (2009). Cameron Diaz and James Marsden play a cash-strapped 1976 couple handed a simple, horrible deal by a scarred stranger (Frank Langella): press the button on the box, collect a million dollars, and somebody you don't know dies. What starts as a Twilight Zone morality test (via Richard Matheson's "Button, Button") spirals into NASA, Mars, and a very literary sense of damnation.The three dig into Kelly's whole deranged sensibility after Donnie Darko and Southland Tales, whether he's fully in on his own material, how he writes women, and why a studio thriller this strange even got made. There's a real case here for reading The Box as a big, glossy panic attack about being broke in America. Heady, funny, and a little unhinged same as the movie.Follow the show & guest:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsJude Ellison Doyle - https://www.instagram.com/byjudedoyle💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  102: “Wendy & Lucy” with Mitchell Beaupre 10.07.2026 1時間 33分

  Phil and Emily are joined by Mitchell Beaupre, editor and podcast host at Letterboxd, to dig into Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy (2008). Michelle Williams stars as a woman driving to Alaska for work who gets stranded in a small Oregon town when her car dies and she loses her dog, and the film turns that small catastrophe into one of the quietest, most devastating portraits of American poverty the 2000s gave us.The three of them get into why Reichardt is so good at trapping her characters, and us, in situations that tighten without anyone noticing, how the movie looks at the unhoused with a clear eye instead of pity, and where it lands in the show's Reichardt run. There's a detour into Richard Kelly and The Box, a bit on how Williams does more with a single look than most actors manage with a monologue, and Mitchell's case for why this one stays with you long after the credits.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsMitchell Beaupre - https://www.instagram.com/mitchellbeaupre💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  101: Southland Tales with Josie Riesman 03.07.2026 1時間 37分

  Phil and Emily are joined by journalist and author Josephine Riesman to continue their Richard Kelly Reichardt mini-series with the magnificent disaster that is Southland Tales (2006). And there is no better guest for it: Josie wrote the definitive deep-dive on this movie and once spent three hours walking Venice Beach interviewing Richard Kelly himself.Set in an alternate 2008 where nuclear attacks on Texas have tipped America into a surveillance-state apocalypse, Southland Tales unleashes Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, and a cast of SNL alumni across a sprawling, end-of-days Los Angeles on the Fourth of July. It premiered at Cannes as an unfinished cut on DVD, got booed into oblivion, made a legendary $374,000 against a $17 million budget, and then quietly became the cult object that fans swear is more true than the reality we actually got..The gang digs into why a movie this incoherent is also this irresistible. Emily makes her case that it is what you would get if Philip K. Dick novelized Robert Altman's Nashville, while Phil counters with "Magnolia with a head injury." Josie reveals what Kelly told her about that surreal Justin Timberlake lip-sync to The Killers, the tie-in graphic novels, the Cannes catastrophe, and why he has a reason for every baffling choice, even the ones that never made the final cut. Plus its eerie kinship with Children of Men and The Handmaid's Tale, and the thin line between satire and prophecy.Misunderstood masterpiece or beautiful trainwreck? On America's 250th birthday, it might be the only movie that fits. This is the way the world ends.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsJosephine Riesman - https://www.instagram.com/josie.zone💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  100: Old Joy with Isaac Feldberg 26.06.2026 1時間 29分

  Phil and Emily are joined by critic and editor Isaac Feldberg to continue their Richard Kelly Reichardt mini-series with Kelly Reichardt's quiet breakthrough, Old Joy (2006). Isaac edits at Letterboxd Journal and writes for RogerEbert.com and Fangoria, and as a former Eagle Scout, he might be the perfect guide to a movie about two guys going camping.Made for roughly $30,000 and shot in the forests east of Portland, Old Joy follows old friends Kurt (Will Oldham) and Mark (Daniel London) on a weekend trip to a hot spring deep in the Cascades. Almost nothing happens, and somehow everything does. It became Reichardt's calling card, earned rapturous reviews including four stars from Roger Ebert, and announced one of American cinema's most quietly essential filmmakers.The gang gets into why Reichardt remains a beloved secret, the kind of filmmaker fans swear will one day get a Criterion box and a wave of "how did we not know about this?" They dig into the ache underneath the film's radical simplicity, the suspense of a friendship that can't quite say what it means, the tender and unspoken queerness running through it, and why these two men sound less like a Richard Linklater hangout and more like real life. Plus Lucy the dog, "the John Cazale of canine performers," the perfect Old Joy double feature, and the image of a slug on a mossy boulder that Ebert never forgot.Why do we remember the small moments more than the big ones? Old Joy has a few answers. Come sit with it.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsIsaac Feldberg —https://www.instagram.com/ijfeldberg💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  99: Donnie Darko with Fiona Dourif 19.06.2026 1時間 22分

  Phil and Emily are joined by actress Fiona Dourif to launch a brand new mini-series, Richard Kelly Reichardt, with the cult classic that started a thousand dorm-room arguments: Donnie Darko (2001).Richard Kelly's debut premiered at Sundance, opened the same day the Patriot Act was signed into law, and promptly bombed in theaters before Drew Barrymore's Flower Films, a $4.5 million budget, and a generation of video-store rentals turned it into a phenomenon. The gang digs into why it became the movie every college bro swore was a misunderstood masterpiece, and whether it actually holds up a quarter century later.They get into the big stuff: the tall bunny named Frank, the pocket-universe time-loop mechanics, and that gut-punch ending where Donnie chooses to sacrifice himself. Emily, who has seen this more times than almost any movie in her life, untangles Kelly's "ironclad" explanation, why she prefers the simpler emotional read, and why the director's cut overexplains everything. Fiona connects it to American Beauty and Magnolia, the search for God after religion, and her own time-bending turn in Christopher Nolan's Tenet. And the whole table takes on modern film-discussion culture's obsession with mapping every rule instead of just living inside a story that doesn't quite make sense.Plus: baby Noah Wyle, the most unhinged high-school teacher ever written, and a stacked early-2000s cast that keeps making you hit pause. Does Donnie Darko hold up, or did it age like the 25-year-old screenwriter dialogue it's built on? Listen and decide.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsFiona Dourif — https://www.instagram.com/fionadourif💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  98: Wanted with Elias Isquith 12.06.2026 1時間 39分

  Phil and Emily are joined by writer Elias Isquith (Necessary Fictions blog) to close out the Angelina Jolie Action Films of the 2000s miniseries with the loudest, messiest entry yet: Timur Bekmambetov's Wanted (2008).James McAvoy plays a cubicle drone recruited by Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman into a secret fraternity of assassins that takes its orders from a magical loom. Yes, a loom. The movie was a surprise hit the summer it opened alongside WALL-E, weeks before The Dark Knight blew everything away, and none of them had seen it since theaters. Rewatching it in 2026 was a very different experience.The conversation digs into how Wanted plays like a proto-incel power fantasy, a movie that negs its audience for 110 minutes and then stares into the camera asking "what the fuck have you done lately?" They trace the line from Fight Club and The Matrix to this film's confused politics, where the message is "be free and take charge of your life" but also "obey the magic loom or die." Emily breaks down the gendered self-loathing baked into so many films aimed at young men, and Elias connects the movie's hyper-individualism to the toxic masculinity pipeline that would migrate to social media just a year later. They also talk about Angelina Jolie's decision to kill off her own character, why the film's structure feels like a video game with half-assed cutscenes, and how Zack Snyder somehow handles this same territory with more nuance.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsElias Isquith — NecessaryFictions.blog - https://www.instagram.com/eliasisquith💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  97: Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Lindsey Romain 05.06.2026 1時間 31分

  Phil and Emily bring in writer Lindsey Romain for the fourth installment of the Angelina Jolie action films miniseries, and it is the one LaToya Ferguson was promised. Lindsey's work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Vulture, and Bright Wall/Dark Room, and she saw this movie four times in theaters as a teenager. She still has the promotional pin from when she worked at a movie theater in high school. She is the right person for this.Mr. and Mrs. Smith follows two upper-class assassins who are also, it turns out, married to each other and working for rival agencies. It opened June 10th, 2005 against Madagascar, Star Wars Episode III, The Longest Yard, and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D, and made $487 million on a $110 million budget. The script originated as Simon Kinberg's graduate thesis. Carrie Fisher, Akiva Goldsman, Jez and John Henry Butterworth, Ted Griffin, and Terrence Winter all took passes at it. Angela Bassett and Keith David filmed scenes that were cut entirely. What remained was Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, which Roger Ebert correctly identified as the only thing that needed to remain.The conversation covers the Doug Liman of it all, specifically his "we'll make it up as we go along" approach and what that costs the film in its final act. Emily identifies the half hour from when they can't kill each other through the home improvement store sequence as the movie locking in completely, and the final action sequence as where it loses her. Phil compares the last scene to Eyes Wide Shut. The group also gets into how the affair backdrop has shifted what it feels like to watch now, the surprisingly durable premise and its various attempted adaptations, who was responsible for the ex-wife jealousy beat, and where exactly 2005 Brad Pitt ranks in the full Brad Pitt hotness timeline. The answer is not first.This is the fourth installment of the Angelina Jolie action films miniseries. Wanted is next.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsLindsey Romain — https://www.instagram.com/lindseyromain💜 Patreon (bonus episodes and video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  96: Tomb Raider 2 with Caroline Thompson & Carson Betts 29.05.2026 1時間 36分

  Phil and Emily continue the Angelina Jolie action films miniseries with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life (2003), joined by Carson Betts and Caroline Thompson, co-hosts of the How Have You Not Seen It podcast. All four participants are watching this film for the first time. This is relevant information.The Cradle of Life follows Lara Croft racing to find Pandora's Box before a rogue scientist with strong Peter Thiel energy can use it as a biological weapon, with complications provided by her ex-lover Terry Sheridan, played by Gerard Butler. It cost $95 million, grossed $160 million worldwide, and opened July 25th, 2003 against Spy Kids 3D, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bad Boys 2, and Seabiscuit. It received three stars from Roger Ebert, which nearly convinced Emily to see it in theaters that summer. She saw The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen instead. Phil does not believe she made the better choice. The film was also banned in China for giving the impression of a country in chaos overrun by secret societies. Hollywood had not yet figured that out.The consensus is that this movie is more competent than the first Tomb Raider along nearly every axis, which somehow makes it less enjoyable. Phil calls it dumb and not fun, as opposed to the first film, which was dumb and fun. Emily notes the big action set piece in the middle is a shootout in a lab, which she finds strange given the title. The group also covers Jan de Bont's filmography and what it means that this was his final film, the Sasquatch creatures that the script introduces and then declines to explain, and the actual Cradle of Life, which turns out to be visually underwhelming in a way that Carson compares to a YouTube video that will not load.The true climax, Carson argues, was always going to be in Lara's heart.This is the third installment of the miniseries on Angelina Jolie's 2000s action films, following Gone in 60 Seconds and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsCarson Betts — https://www.instagram.com/carsonlbettsCaroline Thompson — https://www.instagram.com/sportclimbbarbieHow Have You Not Seen It — https://www.instagram.com/hhynspod💜 Patreon (bonus episodes and video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  95: Tomb Raider with BJ & Harmony Colangelo 22.05.2026 1時間 34分

  Phil and Emily continue the Angelina Jolie action films miniseries with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), joined by BJ Colangelo and Harmony Colangelo, co-hosts of the This Ends at Prom podcast. BJ and Harmony previously joined the show for Hard-Boiled, which Phil describes as a superior action movie. Harmony agrees with everything about that sentence.Tomb Raider follows aristocrat archaeologist Lara Croft racing against the villainous Illuminati to retrieve the two halves of the Triangle of Light before a rare planetary alignment allows them to unlock its power over time. It cost $150 million, grossed $274 million worldwide, and opened June 15th, 2001 against Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Shrek, Swordfish, Pearl Harbor, and Evolution. Paramount had purchased the video game rights in 1998. No fewer than seven screenwriters took a pass at the script before Simon West stitched something together and pointed a camera at Angelina Jolie.The group agrees on several things: Jolie is perfectly cast, clearly having a blast, and simply is Lara Croft in a way that very few actors embody a character that completely. They do not agree on much else. Phil's issues are with the script, specifically a 45-minute delay before the film bothers to explain what is actually at stake. Harmony's defense is that this is video game logic, anything is possible, and sometimes you just want to watch someone cool do cool things. Emily ran into Angelina Jolie at a grocery store once and has thoughts.Daniel Craig is also in this movie. Nobody can identify what accent he is doing. Emily has a theory involving one specific block in Lincoln, Nebraska.This is the second installment of the miniseries on Angelina Jolie's 2000s action films, following Gone in 60 Seconds.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsBJ Colangelo — https://www.instagram.com/bjcolangeloHarmony Colangelo — https://www.instagram.com/harmonycolangeloThis Ends at Prom — https://www.instagram.com/thisendsatprom💜 Patreon (bonus episodes and video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  94: Gone in 60 Seconds with LaToya Ferguson 15.05.2026 1時間 30分

  Phil and Emily are joined by LaToya Ferguson to kick off a new miniseries on Angelina Jolie's action films of the 2000s, beginning with Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). LaToya is a TV writer, critic, and co-host of the Empire Diaries podcast. She has appeared on the show before, covering The Other Sister and Ladybugs on previous installments. She wanted to cover Mr. and Mrs. Smith. She did not get Mr. and Mrs. Smith.Gone in 60 Seconds follows retired master car thief Memphis Raines, forced back into the game to steal 50 high-end cars in one night to save his brother from a ruthless crime boss. It cost $100 million, grossed $237 million worldwide, outperforming both Remember the Titans and Coyote Ugly from the same Bruckheimer production year. Angelina Jolie had just won the Oscar. The film was sold entirely on her. She is barely in it. Nicolas Cage plays the lead, does not radiate car energy, and shares with Jolie what Emily describes as the opposite of chemistry. The movie goes dull at exactly the moment it should not, Frances Fisher has less screen time than the dog, and Christopher Eccleston delivers the villain line "it never rains, but it pours" with complete conviction.Phil makes the case for where this sits in the Bruckheimer era and why it signals the end of something, Emily misses the era of movies that made audiences want to steal cars, and LaToya has thoughts about Nicolas Cage, Billy Bob Thornton, and what actual dirtbag energy looks like on screen. They also get into whether Gone in 60 Seconds quietly paved the way for Fast and Furious, and why Phil rides for Sorcerer's Apprentice to the dismay of everyone present.This episode opens the miniseries on Angelina Jolie's 2000s action films, with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider up next.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsLaToya Ferguson — https://www.instagram.com/thelafergs💜 Patreon (bonus episodes and video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  93: Where the Wild Things Are with Drew McWeeny 08.05.2026 1時間 47分

  Phil and Emily are joined by film critic, screenwriter, and Hip Pocket podcast host Drew McWeeny to discuss Where the Wild Things Are (2009), the Spike Jonze adaptation of Maurice Sendak's 85-word picture book that cost roughly $100 million, barely broke even, got one Blu-ray release, and has been sitting in a strange kind of limbo ever since.Drew has been close to this film longer than almost anyone outside the production. He saw a rough cut in Pasadena before a single effects shot was completed, got a personal call from Legendary Pictures founder Thomas Tull asking for his honest reaction, and later sat down with Spike Jonze himself for two hours as the film fought to find its finish line. Phil thinks it's a miracle it exists at all. Emily finds it formally audacious and sometimes frustrating in equal measure. Drew thinks it's a great film. He also thinks it might not be a film for children.The three dig into the full production story, from the Jim Henson Company's 50-pound creature heads that got scrapped six weeks before filming to Spike's decision to shoot everything handheld with no green screens and no tracking dots on any of the creatures. They talk about why James Gandolfini was the perfect choice for Carol, what the voice cast recorded running around a black box theater instead of isolated booths, and what it means to watch this movie as a parent who has been the angry one in the room.This episode wraps up the show's Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman miniseries, following Adaptation and Synecdoche, New York.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's 2000s — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeits2000sPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsDrew McWeeny — https://www.instagram.com/drewmcweeny💜 Patreon (bonus episodes and video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  92: Synecdoche, New York with Angie Han 01.05.2026 1時間 37分

  Phil and Emily are joined by Angie Han, TV critic at The Hollywood Reporter, to discuss Synecdoche, NY (2008), Charlie Kaufman's audacious directorial debut and the film Roger Ebert called the best of the 2000s.Kaufman wrote and directed this hallucinatory portrait of Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an ailing theater director who uses a MacArthur Fellowship to build a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse. As the decades pass and his art consumes his life, the film tunnels deeper into mortality, creative obsession, and the quiet horror of living in a body that won't cooperate. Originally conceived as a horror film with Spike Jonze, Synecdoche, NY opened in October 2008 against High School Musical 3 and Saw 5, made $4.5 million on a $20 million budget, and has since been ranked among the greatest films of the 21st century by the BBC, the Guardian, and Time.Phil finds it deeply triggering as a self-described hypochondriac. Angie has seen it a dozen times and finds it weirdly soothing. Emily thinks it's funnier than people give it credit for. All three dig into why this film bombed commercially and became a critical touchstone, what it means to watch it in your 20s versus your 40s, and why it still doesn't have a Criterion edition.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsAngie Han — https://www.instagram.com/ajhan06💜 Patreon (bonus episodes and video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  91: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Katey Rich 24.04.2026 1時間 34分

  Phil and Emily are joined by Katey Rich, awards editor at The Ankler and host of the Prestige Junkie podcast, to discuss Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Michel Gondry's Charlie Kaufman-written love story and one of the defining films of its generation. This episode is part of the ongoing miniseries on the 2000s films of Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry.Jim Carrey plays Joel and Kate Winslet plays Clementine, former partners who independently undergo a procedure to erase each other from their memories. The film also stars Tom Wilkinson, Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, and Elijah Wood. Released March 19th, 2004, it opened against Dawn of the Dead, The Passion of the Christ, and Starsky and Hutch, earned only two Oscar nominations, and somehow still became Charlie Kaufman's highest-grossing film.Phil, Emily, and Katey dig into how a movie that felt like a March dump release became a Sight and Sound list entry and a Letterboxd top 5 staple, why the Academy of 2004 simply wasn't ready for it, and how Jim Carrey managed to get overlooked by Oscar voters again six years after The Truman Show. They also get into how the Gondry and Kaufman collaboration works so much better here than it did on Human Nature, what the ending means when you come back to it older, and why Everything Everywhere All At Once couldn't exist without this film.Katey saw it right after her first real breakup and was completely walloped by it. Emily has seen it over ten times and has been happily married since college. Phil was 24 when it came out and was in exactly the right kind of romantic chaos for it to hit hardest. Three very different relationships with the same movie.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's...: https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove: https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James: https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsKatey Rich: https://www.instagram.com/kateyrichtalkingPatreon (bonus episodes and video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  90: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with Jason Bailey 17.04.2026 1時間 35分

  Phil and Emily are joined by film critic and author Jason Bailey to revisit Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, George Clooney's 2002 directorial debut based on Chuck Barris' unauthorized autobiography. Jason is the author of Gandolfini: The Real Life of the Man Who Made Tony Soprano, now available in paperback.Chuck Barris created The Dating Game and The Gong Show. He also claimed to have secretly killed 33 people for the CIA. Charlie Kaufman wrote the screenplay, Sam Rockwell stars as Barris, and Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts co-star. Before Clooney made it, the film passed through David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky, Sam Mendes, Bryan Singer, Johnny Depp, Ben Stiller, Sean Penn, and Mike Myers over nearly a decade of development.The three dig into what Clooney kept and what he stripped from Kaufman's original script, whether Sam Rockwell's performance holds the whole thing together, and what Roberts and Barrymore bring to a film that never quite commits to its own tonal chaos. They also get into Clooney's arc as a director, a genuinely promising debut followed by a filmography of diminishing returns, and whether Confessions of a Dangerous Mind holds up as his most interesting work two decades on.Jason says yes, unequivocally. Emily loved it then and is reconsidering. Phil never fully clicked with it. They all agree the ending is something close to perfect.+Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's... https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove: https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James: https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsJason Bailey: https://www.instagram.com/jasondashbaileyPatreon (bonus episodes and video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  89: Adaptation with David Iserson & Dana Schwartz 10.04.2026 1時間 36分

  This week on Podcast Like It’s the 2000s, Phil Iscove is joined by writer David Iserson (Ponies) and author/podcaster Dana Schwartz (Noble Blood, Anatomy: A Love Story) to unpack one of the most inventive films of the decade: Adaptation.Part of our Spike Jonze & Charlie Kaufman mini-series, the group explores Kaufman’s famously meta screenplay, Nicolas Cage’s dual performance as Charlie and Donald Kaufman, and how the film turns writer’s block into one of the most daring Hollywood movies of the early 2000s. They also discuss the film’s wild journey from Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief to the screen, along with unforgettable supporting turns from Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper.A deep dive into creativity, storytelling, and one of the strangest Oscar-winning screenplays ever written.Podcast Like It’s the 2000s is a weekly podcast revisiting the movies, culture, and filmmaking that defined the decade.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsDavid Iserson - https://www.instagram.com/davidisersonDana Schwartz - https://www.instagram.com/danaschwartzzz💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  88: Human Nature with Colby Day 02.04.2026 1時間 38分

  Phil and Emily are joined by Colby Day to discuss Human Nature (2001), Michel Gondry's feature directorial debut and Charlie Kaufman's second produced screenplay. The trio dives into this offbeat comedy about a woman with hypertrichosis, a scientist obsessed with teaching table manners to mice, and a feral man raised in the wild. They explore how Kaufman and Gondry use this absurd love triangle to interrogate what it means to be "civilized." They also discuss the film's place in the early-2000s Kaufman canon, how it compares to Gondry and Kaufman's later collaboration Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and why this strange, underseen comedy deserves a second look. Plus Tim Robbins as a 35-year-old virgin, Patricia Arquette's full-body hair, and Rhys Ifans eating with his hands at a fancy dinner.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It's... -  https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove -  https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsColby Day - https://www.instagram.com/thecolbyday💜 Patreon (bonus episodes & video): http://patreon.com/Podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  87: For Your Consideration with Adam B. Vary 27.03.2026 2時間 3分

  Phil and Emily are joined by Adam B. Vary to discuss For Your Consideration (2006), Christopher Guest’s razor-sharp satire of Hollywood awards campaigns and the strange machinery behind Oscar buzz. As actors, publicists, and studios chase nominations, the film hilariously exposes how quickly hype can spiral into ego, anxiety, and manufactured prestige.This episode also wraps up our brief three-film Christopher Guest 2000s miniseries, looking at how Guest’s mockumentary style evolved from Best in Show and A Mighty Wind into one of the most biting Hollywood satires of the decade.Follow the hosts and guestPhil Iscove - Instagram: @pmiscoveEmily St. James - Instagram: @emilystjamsAdam B. Vary - Instagram: @adambvaryPodcast Like It’s… Instagram: @podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  86: A Mighty Wind with Carrie Courogen 20.03.2026 1時間 33分

  This week on Podcast Like It’s the 2000s, Phil and Emily continue their Christopher Guest 2000s miniseries with A Mighty Wind, joined by writer and author Carrie Courogen.They break down Guest’s uniquely gentle mockumentary style, the film’s satirical take on folk music culture, and why its characters feel both absurd and deeply human. Plus, a closer look at the performances, the emotional undercurrent beneath the comedy, and how A Mighty Wind fits within Guest’s larger body of work.Phil also provides context for listeners on the film’s premise following three folk groups reuniting for a tribute concert highlighting its blend of nostalgia, melancholy, and humor.Follow the show & guests:Podcast Like It’s…: https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove: https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James: https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsCarrie Courogen: https://www.instagram.com/carriecourogen Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.