The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'Tucker: The Man and His Dream,' 'Passion Fish' and Looking Back at 2005

On this week's episode, we have two Reboots: Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream and John Sayles' Passion Fish. Here are two films from distinctive auteurs that would be pretty hard to get made in modern times. (And I don't mean because of the pandemic.) But the show kicks off with our deep dive into movie year 2005. Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Munich ... and my pick for the year's actual best film. Check it out below.

'Go for Sisters' Review

For my book FilmCraft: Screenwriting, I wanted desperately to feature writer-director John Sayles. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to participate. He remains a hero of mine, but his latest offering, Go for Sisters, isn't particularly good, which is a bummer. My review is up at Paste.

'amigo' review

John Sayles is a filmmaker I love, but I have to admit that he hasn't made a great film in quite a while. Sadly, his latest, Amigo, is one of his weakest. It's a look at the Philippine-American Way, but it's clear Sayles is more interested in another conflict, our current occupation/misadventure in the Middle East. It's not very subtle and, unfortunately, just not very good. I reviewed the film for Yahoo.

honeydripper

John Sayles is one of America's real filmmaking treasures. His newest film, Honeydripper, isn't one of his finest, but it's worth seeking out.