Episodes

  • With no Trade to Inherit – Breaking Away
    Mar 31 2025

    Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore the Stohler family, their friends, and the Cutters that the sons of Bloomington, Indiana, will never become.

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Piazza della Famiglia – Amarcord
    Mar 28 2025

    Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith spend four seasons in Fellini's Rimini, drifting from character to character in this sprawling piazza della famiglia.

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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Without My Parents – The 400 Blows
    Mar 17 2025

    Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss the film that launched the French New Wave—François Truffaut's semi-autobiographical tale of a boy navigating parental neglect in post-war France.

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Father Knows Death – The Stepfather
    Mar 10 2025

    Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith talk family murder in the suburbs and the cost of fetishizing the perfect 50s family.

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Father Figures of Balance vs. Brutality – The Karate Kid
    Mar 3 2025

    Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss the influence of surrogate fathers with competing philosophies of discipline vs. domination in The Karate Kid.

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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • When Chaos Moves In – Firstborn
    Jan 27 2025

    Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore the under-appreciated 1984 portrayal of a single mom and her two sons as their household adapts to the arrival of the mother’s boyfriend.

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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • It's a Fargin Family Picture – Johnny Dangerously
    Jan 16 2025

    Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith talk you fargin bastiges about the 1984 gangster satire–a family picture?–Johnny Dangerously.

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    53 mins
  • Escaping Family Destiny – At Close Range
    Jan 9 2025

    Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith visit the 1970s Pennsylvania gothic crime family of Bruce Whitewood Sr. as he draws his son into the business in the 1986 film At Close Range.

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    1 hr and 3 mins