Raiders of the Podcast

     This week two films about Chinese-Americans and cross cultural experiences.       Billi maintains a close relationship with her Nai Nai (paternal grandmother), despite there being half a planet between them. When Nai Nai is diagnosed with late stage terminal lung cancer, which the rest of their family have decided to keep secret from Nai Nai. The whole family gathers under false pretenses to have The Farewell...

     This week two movies with couples that really want to kiss but never do.      Mia is almost 16 and has just moved to a new town. Before long she befriends Gianna, head of a more rebellious clique, and tries to fit in. Unfortunately, she is about to undergo some changes which are a far cry from normal adolescence. The first feature by Lisa Brühlmann, Blue My Mind...

     This week two strangers in strange lands and the rednecks that oppose them.     When new infrared images reveal an uncharted island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, Petrox Oil sends an expedition to take samples for drilling. Along the way they pick up a stowaway paleontologist and an adrift ingenue. If they don't find oil, they will have found a forty foot tall primate named Kong by the indigenous population...

     This week- two movies about people trapped in places they are unable to leave. Some metaphorically, others literally.     Sascha drifts through her days, getting by as well as she can at work and with occasional visits to her young son. Maria is a dreamer who wants to be a performer and poet. When sparks fly between them, both women embrace their blooming romance but can't see how it could be threatened by their individual outlooks...

     This week we finish our journey through the Lodges and find more questions than answers in the strangest and most unlikely of places. Like Buckhorn, South Dakota.     25 years after being trapped in the Black Lodge, Special Agent Dale Cooper final prepares to escape. Unfortunately, his evil doppelgänger has other plans. Meanwhile, old allies are called to investigate a new case which seems to connect to a case they thought was long behind them...

     This week- a once reviled prequel that debuted only 11 months after the series finale.     In 1988 outside a small town in Washington state, a body, wrapped in plastic, floats down river. The body is that of Teresa Banks and the town is Deer Meadow. FBI Special Agents Chester Desmond and Sam Stanley are sent to investigate. Things do not go as expected...

     This week the once quiet northwestern town is hoping with pageants and pawns, simply overrun with generals and golems, and we still can't shake the feeling there might just be something in the woods watching us all.     Special Agent Dale Cooper's first nine days in Twin Peaks couldn't possibly have prepared him for the next 22...

     This week we discuss the first season of David Lynch and Mark Frost's influential masterpiece of mystery television.     February 24, 1989. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper arrived in the northwestern logging town of Twin Peaks to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer, the town's most beloved resident, who washed up on a beach wrapped in plastic...

     This week a pair of trips to cities of night.      Aaron Boone dreams of Midian, a city of monsters. Boone's psychotherapist, Dr. Decker, has a hobby he wants Boone to take credit for. Soon both men will seek out Midian and its secrets for very different reasons...

    This week two films with a heavy focus on local transportation preferences.     Frank Martin, a mercenary who specializes in the timely conveying of sensitive items and people, only has three rules. Never change the deal, no names, and never open the package. When he breaks his own rules on a delivery, his employers try to kill him, and Frank finds himself working against the clock to find a container filled with 400 trafficked people...