Recent events have gotten me thinking about Roger Ebert's quote about movies being empathy machines, bringing us closer to people we might think we have nothing in common with. When I first saw the Berlinger/Sinofsky documentary 'Brother's Keeper' I was overwhelmed with empathy and heartbreak and humor and feeling for these odd-duck brothers and their ramshackle farm existence and the small town in Upstate New York that became roiled by a murder trial when one brother was accused of killing another by smothering. And so, not having seen the film in many decades, I wanted to revisit it, to see if it retained its power and ability to create empathy. In this episode I start with a brief prologue talking about first encountering the film.&nbsp; Then I pause and rewatch the film and come back on the mic to share my thoughts on seeing the movie anew. 'Brother's Keeper' is one of the first films I would mention to anyone who wanted to know what movies of any genre I held closest to my life as a moviegoer. If you've seen it, you'll know what I mean. If this podcast episode is the first you're hearing of it, I hope you'll give it a watch, and let me know what you think!

244. Empathy and Revisiting 'Brother's Keeper' (1992)

I'm joined by Charles Fleming, LA-based writer, author and returning FCAC guest to talk about todays news of the death of Robert Redford. We discuss Redford's extraordinary career and difference-making life, including his environmental activism and the Sundance Film Festival and Institute. Redford was born in Santa Monica and after a peripatetic youth marked by extreme religious pressure, hooliganism, college expulsion, found himself in New York City planning to be a set designer.&nbsp; He stumbled into acting and paid his dues in the emerging TV world of the 50's before breaking out as a film star in the 1970's. His interesting combination of extraordinary good looks and inner turmoil lent his characters a similarity even as he was never just playing himself.&nbsp; His is one of the more interesting acting careers to contemplate, and Charles I try and do justice to the decency and morality with which Redford seemed to conduct his life and his work.

245. Robert Redford is Dead at 89

JC Chandor's 2nd feature film after 'Margin Call' was 2013's sailing-catastrophe film 'All Is Lost', and it's a unique film in that it has virtually no dialogue and a single cast member in Robert Redford, who delivers a tour-de-force of non-verbal acting filled with pathos, regret, and rueful recognition of one's own self-delusions. As we continue to contemplate Redford after his death last week, it feels right and necessary to devote a few episodes to some Redford films that might be slightly off the well-worn pathways of The Sting and Butch &amp; Sundance. Listen to  &nbsp;

246. Robert Redford & 'All Is Lost' (2013)

Continuing the Redford Appreciation Episodes with a revisit of Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford's 1972 deceptively revisionist Western, 'Jeremiah Johnson'. Shaped by Redford and Pollack from an apparently off-the-wall John Milius screenplay, and only shot on location in the Utah wilderness through Redford's intervention with the studio, 'Jeremiah Johnson' is, I think, secretly one of everybody's favorite comfort watches.

247. 'Jeremiah Johnson' (1972)

Gus Van Sant's 2nd feature, starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Le Gros, Heather Graham, William S. Burroughs, James Remar, and Max Perlich. &nbsp;

248. 'Drugstore Cowboy' (1989)

Diane Keaton died over the weekend at the age of 79, and it's been fascinating to read her various obituaries and memories of her being shared.&nbsp; Also interesting to contemplate what a singular presence she was for more than 50 years on stage and screen.&nbsp; 'Annie Hall' won Diane Keaton her only Academy Award, although she was also nominated for 'Reds', 'Marvin's Room' and 'Something's Gotta Give', which shows you the range she had as an actor.&nbsp; Revisiting here was a pleasure and reminded me of what we've lost as a movie-going culture of late.&nbsp; Smart, funny comedies that don't talk down to an audience but also play as mass entertainments seem in such short supply, as do superlative onscreen personalities like Diane Keaton. This quickie episode isn't mean to be expansive or complete..just an excuse to watch one of her most famous roles in a film named after her character and drawn from her real-life romance with Woody Allen some years before the film was made.

249. Diane Keaton in 'Annie Hall'

Like a thunderbolt from another dimension, a dimension where $90 million-dollar comedies with top-tier talent and a first-class, Oscar-winning cinematographer combine with an expensive location shoot in Hawaii (standing in for Viet Nam) to gross $200 million dollars and spawn at least two Pantheon-level comedy characters in Tom Cruise's Les Grossman and Robert Downey, Jr's Kirk Lazarus-as-Staff-Sergeant-Lincoln-Osiris. I woefully failed to mention in the episode that Downey's transformation into Lazarus-as-Osiris was done by none other than the legend Rick Baker. To say they don't make 'em like this anymore is a sad truth.&nbsp; We have truly lost as a film-going society when big time stars gather to be in a movie this funny and big-screen watchable. I suppose the big screen's loss is HBO's gain, however.&nbsp; And soda: Ben Stiller has a new line of sodas and they're very good. You should try one!

Tropic Thunder

It's the 40th Anniversary of 'Back to the Future' and I read a review of Michael J. Fox's brief new memoir about the making of the film, and about his life before, during, and just after the film's release. This sent me to finally watch 2023's 'Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie', a brilliant documentary from noted director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconveniant Truth, It Might Get Loud, Waiting for Superman) that defies the Streamerification of documentary filmmaking that I've long decried on the podcast (see my episode on Brother's Keeper). This episode covers a lot of what I really loved about those two primary sources of information about Michael J. Fox's life and battle with Parkinson's Disease, a battle he's fought privately and publicly. The Michael J. Fox Foundation has to date raised more than 2 billion dollars for Parkinson's research and in 2022 spent more than the US Government did on research seeking a cure for the disease. 'Back to the Future' has an incredible story of near-disaster followed by infinitesimal chance of salvage represented by the casting of Fox, and finally, worldwide pop-cultural magnitude of the highest and most enduring order.&nbsp; This episode serves as an introduction to this superlative example of Hollywood moviemaking at its best and a tribute to the incredible, extraordinary and everyday life of its star.

251. 'Back to the Future' (Part 1)

Here's the 2nd and final episode of my 'Back to the Future' revisit, enjoy!  &nbsp;

252. 'Back To The Future' (Part 2)

In this first of a multi-part exploration of William Friedkin's ground-breaking and massively successful adaptation of William Peter Blatty's best-selling novel 'The Exorcist': Friedkin &amp; DP Owen Roizman coming off 'The French Connection' and into 'The Exorcist' Casting travails involving Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman, Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, and Audrey Hepburn. Jason Miller and Ellen Burstyn willing themselves into their roles. Studio pushback on the film's prequel, set in Iraq, and Friedkin's demand that they film there despite political upheaval and a lack of an Iraqi film industry. The search for a girl to pay Regan; over 1,000 seen, hundreds screen-tested, before Linda Blair walked into the film production's offices. Special Effects approaches courtesy of Dick Smith and Rick Baker. Soundtrack troubles with Bernard Hermann and Lalo Schiffrin and the saving grace of Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells'. This episode features Friedkin, Blatty, Roizman, and Ellen Bursytn in their own words. Other Friedkin Full Cast &amp; Crew Episodes:   &nbsp; &nbsp;

253. 'The Exorcist' (1973) Part 1: Origins

(Werner Herzog voice) FULL CAST & CREW is a podcast that awards a film the coveted honor of our going down the rabbit hole of the Full Cast & Crew section of its IMDB page, coaxing forth meaning, dancing with its animal spirits, divining the divine fire that burns at its very heart, and reading, like runes, the unlikely connections, weird trivia, and strange quotes to determine where this film sits in the grand cave painting that is human culture. All done in the patented FCAC way that has made hosts Chris and Jason household names. Or will make them household names. By March. At the latest. Maybe early April.

252. 'Back To The Future' (Part 2)

Full Cast And Crew