Comedian Rick Ramos sits down and talks current theatrical releases and offers suggestions for additional movie watching choices. A film fans dream come true, WatchThis is about the art, beauty, and possibilities of cinema. Each week Ramos discusses the greatest films ever made (including those that you may have missed) as well as the artists that have created these films. He also goes further in discussing how much these films mean to him and how much they will - hopefully - mean to you. Enjoy!
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Kirby Dick's SICK: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan - SuperMasochist Listener Distrection Advised: There are a number of films that burrow into the hearts and minds of its viewers. In 1997 the Los Angeles poet, writer, performance artist, comic, and BDSM celebrity, Bob Flanagan would succumb - at the age of 43 - to cystic fibrosis (a disease that is comparable to drowning as one's lungs constantly…
Nick Bromfield's Fetishes This week we dive into the world of High-End S&M/Bondage through the lens of provocateur director Nick Bromfield - Fetishes. A 1996 HBO documentary in the American Undercover series, Bromfield's camera walks into New York's exclusive, expensive, and fascinating world of dominatrixes, fantasy, race-play, whipping, humiliation, and dungeons. Lorded over by Mistress Raven…
John Dahl's The Last Seduction Continuing with an idea that we started a few episodes back focusing on Lena Olin in Romeo is Bleeding , this week Mr. Chavez & I take a look at an overlooked neo-noir, erotic thriller from 1994 featuring a stand-out performance from Linda Fiorentino. Our basic idea is the difficulty of casting "dangerous and strong" female characters with intimidating and daring…
J-P Valkeapää's Dogs Don't Wear Pants This week Mr. Chavez & I explore Finnish Cinema with a look at J-P Valkeapää's Dogs Don't Wear Pants. A brave and troubling look at emotional trauma, BDSM, and auto-ertotic asphyxiation, Valkeapää's 2019 erotic black comedy is an exploration of the erotic underground subculture of dominance and submission. There's a great deal to admire in this film including…
Peter Medak's Romeo is Bleeding In the 1990s low-budget studio films on the periphery (in this case Polygram Filmed Entertainment) were being made with casts that - in some cases - would become mainstream stars throughtout the decade and the upcoming milennium. 1993s Peter Medak directed Romeo is Bleeding , is an under-watched, hidden gem with a cast that almost defines the 1990s - Gary Oldman,…
David Lynch's Wild at Heart This week we return to a World of Dreams and the Land of Oz through the dark and chaotic eyes of David Lynch (January 20, 1946 - January 16, 2025). A Homage/Love Letter to the classic MGM masterpiece, Lynch's 1990 Wild at Heart is a pulsating cinematic shotgun blast. The story of young lovers breaking parole and crossing the country to find a future that is never clear,…
Victor Fleming's (w/Directorial Contributions from George Cukor, Richard Thorpe, and King Vidor) The Wizard of Oz A long time coming, this week's episode focuses on the 1939 MGM Technicolor Classic The Wizard of Oz . In the early days of the studio system, each studio focused on a specific genre, Metro Goldwyn Mayer was the home of the musical and The Wizard of Oz is one of the greatest, most…
Wolfgang Petersen's The Never Ending Story This week we look into the cinematic psyche of Mr. Ibrahim Chavez. Our path is Wolfgang Petersen's 1984 Childrens' Dark Fantasy, The Never Ending Story . A childrens' adventure/heroes journey of youth battling nihilism (in this case The Nothing ), bullies, parental loss, and the power of imagination, self-worth (self-belief), and self-realization.…
John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China When I first saw John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China , it was a Pan & Scan VHS copy from my local video store. I immediately fell in love with one of the strangest and most imaginative films of the 1980s. The fourth collaboration between Horror icon, John Carpenter, and Disney legend Kurt Russell (doing an over the top and ridiculous parody of…
James Mangold's Cop Land Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, and Sylvester Stallone in one of the most highly-anticipated films of the 1990s . . . Springing from the headlines of the 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, and today, James Mangold's 1997 police corruption drama was released to critical acclaim and tepid box-office. In an era of 90s Independent filmmaking, focusing on newspaper/magazine…
Richard Linklater's Dazed & Confused (70s Soundtrack) This week Mr. Chavez & I return to Richard Linklater's 1993 "Hang-Out" Masterpiece, Dazed & Confused , focusing on the importance and use of its soundtrack. Featuring Aerosmith, KISS, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, WAR, ZZ Top, Edgar Winter Group, and Deep Purple, among others, Linklater's "Cinematic Soundtrack" would establish nostalgia, youth,…
Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly It's becoming increasingly difficult to find straight-forward, honest, and personal stories at the movie theater. The low to medium budget films that populated the 1970s have cast a shadow that continues to excite and inspire modern audiences. In the wasteland of re-vamps, sequels, action and comic book dreg, a handful of pictures crawl out of the monotony. In…
Kevin Smith's Clerks The 1990s were a strange, wondrous, and hopeful decade for Cinema. Three decades later we look back on those mid 90s attitudes, trends, screams, and shouts. With the emergence of Sundance, The Weinsteins, and voices such as Tarantino, Fincher, Rodriguez, and others, Independent Cinema was flexing in a way that threatened the studios in much the same way the 70s thrilled,…
Richard Linklater's Dazed & Confused On this week's episode we explore 1976 through the eyes of 1993, with Richard Linklater's slacker/high-school masterpiece, Dazed & Confused . Linklater's love letter to high school coming-of-age films is one of the stand-out productions of early 90s independent cinema; a film that blends aimless storytelling with a pounding and nostalgic 70s soundtrack, to…
Michael Mann's Heat On this week's episode we celebrate our 600th episode with a look at one of the most important films of our generation, Michael Mann's Crime-Thriller, Heist Film, Masterpiece . . . the coming together of two of the greatest and most important actors of their generation, Al Pacino as Lieutenant Vincent Hannah and Robert DeNiro as Professional Criminal Neil McCauley in 1995s Heat…
Doug Liman's Go (1999) This week, we revisit an underseen/little-discussed comedy from 1999, Doug Liman's Go . In the 1990s cinema was overwhelmed by the influence, financial, and critical success of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction ; any number of copycats and knock-offs would flood theaters. Probably, the very best, would be Liman's three-story, intersecting narrative of young adults, struggling…
Greg Araki's The Doom Generation This week Mr. Chavez & I explore the 1990s with a cult film that is remembered as an early classic of New Queer Cinema . Greg Araki's The Doom Generation is remembered as a violent and trashy exploration of 1990s alternative cinmea. A Gen X Bisexual Bonnie & Clyde/Badlands profile of alienation and stylized camp, Araki's film is the second edition of his "Teen…
Eddie Martin's We Were Once Kids In a continuation of last week's episode on Larry Clark and Harmony Korine's 1995 Kids , Mr. Chavez & I discovered a documentary peeling back the layers of that problematic and controversial film. Although we continue to believe that the earlier film is - in many ways - exceptional, Eddie Martin's 2021 expose (produced with Kids actor, Hamilton Harris), titled We…
Larry Clark's Kids This week Mr. Chavez & I travel back to the mid-1990s to look at a difficult, troubling, and polarizing film that raises questions concerning good taste, artistic license and victimization, as well as exploitation. Few films have caused the uproar that Larry Clark's Kids did in 1995. A quasi-documentary examination of aimlessness in an alcohol, drug, and sex driven New York of…
Robert DeNiro's The Good Shepherd This week we springboard off of Robert DeNiro's 2006 spy film, The Good Shepherd , profiling the birth of the Central Intelligence Agency and its role throughout the second half of the 20th Century. From its origins during the end of World War II thru The Cold War, The Bay of Pigs, and the early days of the Kennedy administration, DeNiro's passion project is a…
Stefano Solima's Sicario: Day of the Soldado This week we discuss the struggle between the United States, its neighbors, allies, and enemies depicted in the Taylor Sheridan scripted, Stefano Solima directed, 2018 C.I.A. action thriller detailing border wars, fabricated criminal kidnappings, cartel violence, and the never-ending, never winnable drug wars. Exciting performances from Josn Brolin and…
Ben Affleck's Argo (2012) In 2012 Ben Affleck would co-write and direct Argo, winning the Best Picture of the Year at at that year's Academy Awards celebration. Although a skillful and professional job it's - quite simply and obviously - a hack job, typical of the US's need to paint itself in the proper light while also giving Hollywood the opportunity to congratulate itself yet again (as well as…
Barry Levinson's Wag the Dog Nothing's Changed/Nothing's New and we learned that in 1996 with Barry Levinson's Wag the Dog . As important 30 years later as when it was released, this week Mr. Chavez & I sit down to understand a film that predicted its own time (being released a few weeks before The Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky White House Scandal would break), but is also a simpler and almost…
Denis Villeneuve's Arrival Since the beginning of this new century Popular Cinema has become increasingly obvious and simplistic. It is rare that a major studio will take a chance with "challenging, thought-provoking" material. In 2016 Denis Villeneuve would adapt Tony Chiang's 1998 novella "Story of Your Life" with a beautifully executed non-linear narrative. A sci-fi drama incorporating alien…
Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story Recognized as "The Greatest Film of All Time" in the 2012 Sight and Sound Magazine poll, Yasujiro Ozu's 1953 masterpiece is a quiet, contemplative examination of generational conflict, modernization, and aging in Post-War Japan. Masterfully directed and beautifully acted by Ozu's stock company, including Chishū Ryū and Setsuko Hara, Tokyo Story is arguably the greatest…
Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut In 1999 filmmaker Stanley Kubrick would shoot his final cinematic statement. Adapting a 1926 Freudian novella, Kubrick would (seemingly) explore the dark mysteries of sexual trafficking, secret societies, infidelity, and the paranoia inherent in all of it. A Psycho-Sexual Drama centered around a Masked Ball Orgy and images that would haunt the minds of popular…
Pier Paolo Pasolini's Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) For most serious cineastes, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom is a bridge that we all arive at and struggle with crossing; a cinematic rite of passage that challenges each of our ideas of art. Is Pasolini's final film - an interpretation of the Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom - A Political Critique exploring…
Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times In 1936 Charlie Chaplin (arguably the most iconic figure of Silent Films) would produce his final (mostly) silent masterpiece, Modern Times . This week Mr. Chavez & I continue our look at Cinema that challenges the status quo , with a film that examines the de-humanizing drive of capitalism to push profit over people and the subsequent endurance of the individual to…
Fritz Lang's Metropolis In 1927 Cinema was still in its relative infancy. The great German auteur, Fritz Lang would revolutionize the film industry with his first masterpiece, Metropolis. Nearly eleven years earlier D.W. Griffith had established the "grammar of cinema" with his epic masterpiece, The Birth of a Nation . The subsequent decade would showcase spectacles ( Ben-Hur, Intolerance ),…
Remakes, Re-Imaginings, Expansions. In 2004 Director Jonathan Demme would explore the world of Politics, Espionage, and Cold War Brainwashing with a new and novel take on John Frankenheimer's 1962 Cold War Classic The Manchurian Candidate . Demme would expand and manipulate Richard Condon's source material (a best-selling novel from 1959), replacing the Korean Conflict with an updated Persian Gulf…
John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos, Mr. Chavez & I sit down to discuss a classic of Cold War, Political Cinema, John Frankenheimer's groundbreaking 1962 The Manchurian Candidate . Based on the 1959 novel by Richard Condon, Frankenheimer's film would captivate audiences with a paranoid and chilling story of American soldiers brain-washed by…
Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man 2026 finds us digging into the Beautiful, Strange, and Challenging filmography of auteurs unafraid of being misunderstood or the offensive nature of the stories and images they deliver. It would be difficult to find a film that challenges it audience more than Shinya Tsukamoto's 1989 Cyber-Punk Classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man . There is no simple way to…
Akira Kurosawa's Ran Happy New Year WatchThis Fans. Depending on Your Perspective, 2025 was a horrible year or the beginning of a grand awakening, returning America to its rightful place as Leader and Benefactor of the Unwashed Ignorant Masses. There are many ideas of what 2026 can and will be. We here at WatchThis W/RickRamos believe that Akira Kurosawa's 1985 masterpiece, Ran , is a film that…
Robert Wise's Odds Against Tomorrow & James Foley's After Dark My Sweet This week Rick Ramos flies solo for a new episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos and the last new episode of 2025. After a heartfelt look at the past year, dreams, the job, and making sense of the art, we look at two Noirs that have been criminally overlooked: Robert Wise's 1959 Classic Odds Against Tomorrow and James Foley's After…
Scott Sanders's Black Dynamite We're finishing out the month of December - two more weeks left in 2025 - and having a great time exploring the world of Cult Cinema and Midnight Movies. This week we take a look at one of the best comedies of the 21st Century . . . a film that should have been exactly the definition of Midnight/Cult Movie. In 2009 Director Scott Sanders and Writer/Star Michael Jai…
Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain This week we continue our love for Midnight and Cult Movies. For this episode we return to the great Chilean-French filmmaker, Alejandro Jodorowsky. A Visionary Artist and Poet of the Cinema, Jodorowsky has created some of the most beautiful and challenging images and concepts ever conceived. Problematic, Polarizing, Poetic, and Personal, Jodorowsky's films…
Mike Judge's Office Space Recorded some time ago, we've been holding onto this episode until the right time. As we move into our second month of Midnight & Cult Movies it is clear that Director Mike Judge (creator of Beavis & Butthead , Idiocracy , and King of the Hill ) is a director whose filmography is almost entirely cult films and television shows. In 1999 he was approached by 20th Century…
Robert Aldrich's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Not a "Midnight Movie" but certainly one of the great Cult Classics, 1962s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was an audience's dream pairing. The coming together of Oscar winners Bette Davis and Joan Crawford - two of the greatest stars the medium has known - created a film that has captivated film lovers for decades. The story of two sisters -…
Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! If you allow it to do so, Cinema will take you to strange, hypnotic, and brilliant places. For close to forty years I have known about Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and have assiduously avoided it. Cinematic Snobbery stopped this podcaster from one of the strangest and - seemingly - sexist and self-indulgent exercises in moviemaking. I…
David Lynch's Eraserhead This week we continue our look into Midnight/Cult Movies. One of the earliest films to find an audience (and build its directors career) was 1977s Eraserhead . A film that baffles description, this weeks episode takes the angle of describing the "feelings" and memories that have followed our initial viewings of this brilliant debut film. Brilliant Black & White…
Jim Sharman's The Rocky Horror Picture Show Cinema is art, Viewing Cinema is an artistic experience. We sit in the theater and drift into the beauty of a story that either entertains, explains, or enlightens. Sometimes all of these and even more. In 1975 20th Century Fox would distribute a film that would fail miserably with mainstream audiences, but would survive box office death and be reborn on…
Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark This year Halloween fell on a weekend . . . We've come to the end of the Halloween season. Two months of Vampire movies finds us ending on a cult favorite from the 1980s. In 1987 Kathryn Bigelow would direct her first solo-outing by re-imagining the Vampire film as a Neo-Western centered around a young couple and the family of vampires that haunt and terrorize a modern…
E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire Sometimes it's simply a thrill to watch one your favorite actors let loose and have a great time. F.W. Murnau's 1922 Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is widely - and deservedly - considered one of the greatest films of all time. A mythology has formed around the making of the film including the idea that its star, Max Shreck, was an actual vampire. With this…
Carl Theodore Dreyer's Vampyr If you dig deep enough, Cinema will unleash great treasures. The Silent Era ended in 1927 with the release of The Jazz Singer . . . Movies would never be the same. A number of filmmakers would utilize the new technology in innovative, imaginitive, and groundbreaking ways. Fritz Lang's M comes to mind. Musicals became a reality and would astonish audiences. Storytellng…
Adrien Beau's The Vourdalak If you dive into the depths of World Cinema you will often discover magic. You may not know that you're viewing something exceptional while you're watching it, but you will find yourself realizing the power of the image, the power of ideas from different corners of the world. This week Mr. Chavez & I find Adrien Beau's 2023 French "Folk" Tale The Vourdalak, a film of…
Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot From time to time movies slip through the cracks. Although Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot is considered a television classic, it is a film that your movie podcaset host has somehow missed these 46 years. Adapted from Stephen King's 1975 best-seller, this 1979 adaptation features David Soul from TVs Starsky & Hutch, as well as future Mrs. Holly McClane, Bonnie Bedelia. What…
Park Chan-wook's Thirst One of the great thrills of the past ten-plus years is the discovery of new, exciting, and challenging films. On this week's episode of WatchThis W/RickRamos , Mr. Chavez & I dive into the cinema of South Korea's Park Chan-wook for 2009s Thirst . It's fascinating to watch stories we believe we understand and are sure we have witnessed every variation. Park Chan-wook's…
John Landis's Innocent Blood There are times when you have to take what you can get from a project. This week Mr. Chavez & I look at John Landis's 1992 Horror/Mob/Vampire/Comedy, Innocent Blood . With a talent such as Landis, the strokes are broad and without nuance. Innocent Blood is no exception. There are definitely the seeds for an exceptional Horror/Comedy hybrid, however this film is serving…
Samurai Dhampir - Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust What an incredible find! This week Mr. Chavez & I return to the world of Japanese Anime with this discussion of Yoshiaki Kawajiri's 2000 Dark Vampire Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust . Coming fifteen years after Toyoo Ashida's Vampire Hunter D , what Kawajiri creates is breathtaking. Simply put, Japanese Anime expands the…
Fanged Housemates - Taika Waititi & Jermaine Clemente's What We Do in the Shadows This week Mr. Chavez & I dive into the World of Reality Cinema with Taika Waittit & Jermaine Clemente's 2014 mockumentary, What We Do in the Shadows . A comical look at the undead that misses more often that it hits, Waititi & Clemente take a reality television approach to the vampire legend, both literary and…
