Cows in the Field

NICKEL BOYS (2024)

We welcome back Bilge Ebiri (Vulture / New York Magazine) to discuss RaMell Ross’s 2024 film, Nickel Boys! We talk about the film’s formal stylistic innovations, its focus on interstitial moments, its exploration of different responses to injustice, how it invites us to integrate our own memories and experiences with its narrative, and more!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1RMI3nmWV4lKreY6Cf1j2N?si=QVp1KZwdSBi75Z_3s9IFXQ

There’s four ways out of Nickel. Serve your time -or age out-. Court might intervene -if you believe in miracles-. You could die -they could kill you-. You could run. Only four ways out of Nickel.
Turner

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NOSFERATU (2024)

We sit down with Phil Iscove (of Podcast Like It’s…) to discuss Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu! We discuss how the film is Ellen’s story, compare it with the many other versions, sexual liberation and sexual angst, scientific progress and the patriarchy, the beauty in decay, and the film’s dark sense of humor.

Professor, my dreams grow darker. Does evil come from within us, or from beyond?
Ellen

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GRINCH x3

Merry Christmas to all, including THE GRINCH! We sit down with Emily St. James to discuss all three Grinch movies (How the Grinch Stole Christmas ’66 + ’00, and The Grinch ’18). We inquire about what the Grinch story is all about, whether we really needed a Grinch backstory, what part of speech “Grinch” is, which of the movies is da best, and more!

Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.
Narrator

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HOME ALONE (1990)

Join us and Dan Harris (Philosophy, CUNY) to discuss HOME ALONE! We consider the film’s permission structure for excusing parental negligence, humoring breaking and entering, the film’s ideological implications about the nuclear family, and what Kevin really thinks he did to his parents. Christmastime begins with the COWS now!

This is my house. I have to defend it.
Kevin

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GASLIGHT (1944)

We sit down with film historian Joseph McBride to discuss George Cukor’s 1944 film, Gaslight. We discuss Cukor’s reputation among the great studio directors, his skill working with actors, the social and political dimensions of the film, including what makes diagnosing and resisting gaslighting so challenging.

I thought you were being polite, you really wanted to see her? If you really wanted to see her all you had to say was, ‘Show her in Nancy.’
Gregory Anton

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DRIVE (2011)

Cars, men, masculinity, westerns, scorpions, frogs, wanderers, conservative values, violence, very hot people, and more… it’s Nicholas Winding Refn’s DRIVE with Roxana Hadadi!

Getting to be around you and Benicio was the best thing that ever happened to me.
Driver

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SONG TO SONG (2017)

Join us and Matt Strohl (Philosophy, Montana) to live from Song to Song and discuss Terence Malick, genuine freedom, the challenges of dealing with aesthetic dismissal, the value of “difficult” art, family, situated abstractionism, art and commerce, temptation, regret, second chances, and much more!

I gotta go back and start over, like a kid. I didn’t have the right heart in me.
BV

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THE FLY (1986)

We get crazy with the flesh with Becca Rothfeld (The Washington Post) discussing David Cronenberg’s 1986 film THE FLY. We discuss erotic transformation, de-evolution, gothic horror, mind/body interactions, Veronica’s many excellent fits, inside-out baboons, and much more!

I bet you think you woke me up about the flesh, but you only know society’s straight line of the flesh, you can’t penetrate beyond society’s sick gray fear of the flesh. Drink deep, or taste not the plasma spring.
Seth Brundle

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DEATH BECOMES HER (1992)

Death becomes HER?! What does this title even mean? We get into that and more with Sean O’Connell (Managing Editor for @CinemaBlend and co-host of @ReelBlend). What is this film’s ideological stance on the pursuit of beauty? What makes this film a queer masterpiece? Where does it fit into Bruce Willis’s career? Who wore it (death) better — Goldie or Meryl? 💀

The morgue? She’ll be FURIOUS!
Ernest Menville

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I SAW THE TV GLOW (2024)

We are joined by Emily St. James to discuss Jane Schoenbrun’s excellent sophomore outing. We discuss transformative experiences, leaps of faith, egg cinema, kissing on the astral plane, nostalgia and the specialness of inaccessibility, and (if that’s not enough) why we do this podcast at all! It’s a very special episode, and we want to hear what you thought about the film! Email us at cowspod@gmail.com!

I told myself, “This isn’t normal. This isn’t normal. This isn’t how life is supposed to feel.”
Maddy

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