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A Very Good Year — Film History
A Very Good Year

“Fun City Cinema” hosts Jason Bailey and Mike Hull proudly present “A Very Good Year,” a podcast with a simple premise: each week we invite a guest (filmmakers and actors, critics and historians, comedians and musicians) who loves movies, and ask them to select their favorite year of movies. Some pick a year from their movie-going past; some go deep into film history. Whichever the case, we spend (about) an hour talking about that year: we ask them to share their top five films of the year, and tell us why they love them; we look at the year’s news headlines, award winners, and box office champions; and we finish with a lightning round, where we talk about as many films as possible in as few minutes as possible.

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Copyright: © Michael Hull

Latest Episodes:

1998 with Esther Zuckerman Mar 10, 2024

Show notes

Esther Zuckerman is an appropriate guest for Oscar Sunday, as she is the author of the fabulous book “Beyond the Best Dressed; A Cultural History of the Most Glamorous, Radical, and Scandalous Oscar Fashion.” She joins us to talk about famous Oscar spoiler “Shakespeare in Love,” the wildly underrated “Velvet Goldmine,” the one and only “Big Lebowski,” and more of the movies of 1998.

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1968 with David Fear Mar 03, 2024

Show notes

David Fear, chief film critic and senior editor at “Rolling Stone,” had not yet joined the living in the year 1968, but he’s always been fascinated by its contradictions and commentaries. He joins us to discuss the genius of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the majesty of “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and the stickiness of “Rosemary’s Baby.”

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1978 with Katie Rife Feb 25, 2024

Show notes

The whip-smart and hysterically funny Katie Rife joins us to talk about the movies of 1978 — from the terrifying precision to “Halloween” to the sweaty muscularity of “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” to the impeccable formalism of “Les Rendez-vous d’Anna” — and why ‘70s genre cinema holds up so well.

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1970 with Blake Howard Feb 18, 2024

Show notes

Our Aussie invasion continues with this week’s guest, film critic and podcaster extraordinaire, Blake Howard, the mastermind of One Heat Minute Productions. Blake joins us to talk about unhealthy relationships with movies and his love for the films of 1970, from the gallows humor of “M*A*S*H” to the working class heroism of “Five Easy Pieces” to the unequalled cool (and Frenchness) of “Le Cercle Rouge.”

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1992 with Sam Adams Feb 11, 2024

Show notes

Sam Adams, writer and senior editor for Slate, was in the midst of his cinephile awakening in 1992, when he was taking in new indies and other risky delights at the SoNo Cinema. Join us as we walk through the vérité discomforts of “Husbands and Wives,” the radical queer art of “Edward II,” the biting-the-hand-that-feeds-you brilliance of “The Player,” and more.

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1971 with Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Feb 04, 2024

Show notes

Film critic, author, “Fangoria” columnist, physical media mainstay, and recovering academic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas joins us for a jaunt through the dark laughs of “Little Murders” and “A New Leaf,” the knotty gender politics of “Straw Dogs,” and more of the disturbances and pleasures of 1971.

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1999 with Brian Raftery Jan 28, 2024

Show notes

Brian Raftery is the host of the excellent narrative podcasts “Gene and Roger and Do We Get to Win This Time? for the Ringer and Spotify; he’s also SUCH an expert on the movies of 1999, he wrote an entire book about them: the wonderful “Best. Movie. Year. Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen.” He joins us to talk about why “Election” still hits, why “Eyes Wide Shut” has had such a wild afterlife, how “Blair Witch” is somehow underrated, and much more.

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1988 with Jen Johans Jan 21, 2024

Show notes

We're talking about movies during the quiet time with the host of "Watch with Jen" and (relevant to our interests here) the co-host of "Midnight Run-Through," Film Intuition's Jen Johans. She's joining us to discuss the formative year of 1988, when her frequent babysitting gigs were highlighted by stacks of such VHS favorites as "Bull Durham" and "A Fish Called Wanda." Plus, BOGOSIAN!

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1973 with Brian Saur Jan 14, 2024

Show notes

For season two, we’re wiping the slate clean and letting our guests pick any year they want, even if we covered it in season one. So first up, the very knowledgable and extremely affable host of the wonderful “Just the Discs” podcast, and the co-host of our beloved (and influential) “Pure Cinema Podcast” joins us to discuss the lovable losers of “Scarecrow,” the fast friends of “The Last Detail,” the witty whodunit “The Last of Sheila,” and more of the movies of 1973.

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Janet & John Pierson's Very Good Year (in Fiji!) Jan 07, 2024

Show notes

For the first of our hiatus bonus episodes, we’re proud to welcome back one of the season’s most popular guests: indie guru John Pierson, who joined us back in April to talk about 1989. When we were discussing his appearance, he proposed talking about the year that he and his family spent a year operating the 180 Meridian Cinema, the most remote movie theater in the world. At this 288-seat venue on Tavueni Island in Fiji, the Piersons programmed a full year of programming, mostly new releases, as free nightly movies; the last month of that year was documented in the film Reel Paradise, directed by Steve James of “Hoop Dreams” fame.

We are also joined by John’s wife Janet Pierson, an equally legendary figure on the indie film scene, thanks to her 15 years overseeing the vision, programming, and execution of the SXSW Film Festival. If you’d like to know more about their time in Tavueni, here’s a summary, in the Los Angeles Times, from right before the release of Reel Paradise..John also wrote two pieces for that publication about their time there, one in July of 2002, another that December.

Thanks for listening!

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