Watch With Jen™

A positive, sunny, and earnest spirit on social media, where she's known as The Film Bee (or @TheFilmB on Twitter), Bee Garner is the founder and editor of the website In Their Own League, which is dedicated to promoting diversity on film and shining a light on the roles that women have played in cinema throughout history.Additionally, a freelance writer who contributes to such outlets as Next Big Picture, InSession Film, Vodzilla, All the Right Movies, Zavvi, and more, Bee is a film studies program graduate whose favorite movies include American Psycho, Phantom Thread, Days of Heaven, The Piano, and Shoplifters.Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Fresh, knowledgeable, and funny, film critic Danielle Solzman remembers not only the first movie she saw on the big screen - which was The Land Before Time - but also recalls falling in love with film while watching Jurassic Park and Star Wars in the mid-1990s.A Kentucky native, Danielle initially relocated to Chicago to study improv and sketch comedy and although instead, she transitioned to becoming a film critic, she has never given up her love of comedy and tries her best to inject humor in film reviews when possible. Since 2018, she has traveled across the U.S. and Canada to cover Sundance, South By Southwest, Tribeca, and The Toronto International Film Festival.With quarantine keeping her stuck at home, she shifted from the feature film screenplay she'd been working on to write a short film instead. The first project that Danielle has made since she came out as transgender in 2015, Pandemic Therapy, which she not only wrote but also directed and starred in, made its online debut on September 15.In this freewheeling discussion, Danielle and Jen discuss her love of classic film books, plan an epic day of movies at Chicago's Music Box Theatre, discuss the epiphanies you get in the shower, lament the technical woes that come with screener trouble, and more.Originally Posted on Patreon (9/20/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41822548Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

A prolific crime writer, Nikki Dolson's work has been published in such well-respected places as Shotgun Honey, Tough, Thuglit, and Bartleby Snopes. Additionally, the author of what she affectionately describes as "a novelish thing" called All Things Violent, Nikki has also released a short story collection entitled Love and Other Criminal Behavior.With outstanding taste in not only crime movies but all film, Jen's greatly enjoyed following her on Twitter and couldn't wait to bring her on the pod to discuss some of her favorite underrated heist movies.In this all-encompassing chat, they discuss the weird noises you hear in old desert homes, the polite British murderers of Hitchcock, three stellar heist movies where the real draw is everything besides the heist, finding movie treasure in clearance bins, & their love of Sam Rockwell as a dancer. In fact, Nikki and Jen were so in sync throughout that if you took a shot for every time Jen exclaimed, "I know" you'd be dead in roughly five minutes flat. (So maybe don't do that!) Just be sure to listen with a notepad as this episode feels like it doubles as a new installment of her solo film recommendation pod Watch With Jen.Originally Posted on Patreon on 9/17/20 here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41714366Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

A well-respected veteran critic who is based in New York, Glenn Kenny has written for publications such as Premiere Magazine - which is where I first read his byline in the '90s - as well as Film Comment, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. He also contributes reviews to The New York Times and RogerEbert.com.Additionally, a film professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Glenn is the author of the books Robert De Niro: Anatomy of an Actor, along with today's brand new release Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas, and has appeared in such films as Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience and Ricky D'Angelo's The Sky is Clear and Blue Today.Looking back on his career writing about film, music, and video components, in this highly entertaining chat, Glenn shares his evolution as an entertainment writer and also gives us an amazing behind-the-scenes look at Scorsese, De Niro, Pileggi, Goodfellas, and what class is like with Professor Kenny at NYU.Originally Posted on Patreon (9/15/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41636882Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

A gifted, in-demand composer of film, television, theater, and dance scores, Tony-nominated and Drama Desk award-winner Grant Olding is often brought onboard projects early on to help shape the narrative as well as craft the music.Impressed with his musical contributions to the animated 2013 musical Saving Santa with Tim Conway and Tim Curry, I first met Grant on Twitter after I reviewed the film and learned that he actually started his career as a child actor and dancer in the 1980s.Cast in Jim Henson and Frank Oz's The Dark Crystal at the age of seven, which was the same year that he appeared onstage in Danton's Death at the National Theatre in London, Grant continued acting and played a number of roles in high-profile West End productions, opposite such co-stars as Daniel Day-Lewis, Brian Cox, and Judi Dench. Leaving school at sixteen, he performed in the original West End production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods and went on to study acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.Always playing, writing, and working on music in the background (whether with a band or solo as a singer-songwriter), when he performed in his now frequent collaborator Nicholas Hytner's original production of Miss Saigon, he wrote his first musical and stopped acting to concentrate on composing full time.Most famous for the smash hit One Man, Two Guvnors - for director Nicholas Hytner and starring James Corden - that ran for over three years in the West End, on Broadway, and played internationally, Grant has written dozens of scores since for The Royal Shakespeare Company, the BBC, and others.As funny and personable as he is sincere, it was a joy and a privilege to speak with Grant about all of this and more - including some of his favorite composers and film scores - in this fascinating episode.Note: As September has proven to be exceptionally busy, I've had to delay new episodes of my solo film recommendation pod Watch With Jen for a moment but with such engaging and diverse guests, I know you'll enjoy these conversations on Watch With Jen & Friends as much as I have.Originally Posted on Patreon (9/12/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41534060Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

A Los Angeles based film critic, journalist, podcast host, and event moderator, the witty and wonderful Katie Walsh reviews weekly film releases for the Tribune News Service and The Los Angeles Times.Additionally, a frequent guest host of the Maximum Fun podcast Switchblade Sisters and one half of Miami Nice (which is the video podcast she hosts alongside our friend Blake Howard), Katie's work has been published by Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Playboy, The Playlist, Slate, Indiewire, Women & Hollywood, Town & Country, and more.In this lively exchange, she serves up some of the pearls of wisdom she shares with her students at Chapman University, where she works as a part-time lecturer teaching the Film Studies course Practices of Writing About Film. And whether she's championing some of her favorite female filmmakers (shout-out to Allison Anders, Kathryn Bigelow, & Karyn Kusama, among others) or talking about RuPaul's Drag Race, Katie is a woman who always entertains.Originally Posted on Patreon (9/8/20) with links to items & people mentioned here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41387832Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

A gifted film writer, critic, and historian with an engaging, inquisitive voice and bylines at such prestigious outlets as The New York Times, Vulture, The Playlist, and others, Jason Bailey is the editor-in-chief of the site Crooked Marquee. Additionally, the author of four books on film on such wide-ranging topics as Pulp Fiction and Richard Pryor, Jason's fifth book, on one hundred years of New York in the movies - entitled Fun City Cinema - is slated to be released in the Fall of 2021 from Abrams.Having recently kicked off his entertainingly informative companion podcast (also called Fun City Cinema), I was so excited to talk to my longtime Twitter friend about all of this and more. From our mutual childhoods spending time raiding the film section of B. Dalton's and Walden Books in the '80s and '90s to his move to New York City and evolution as an eventual film writer, this all-encompassing chat is sure to delight.Note: While you'd normally have a new episode of my solo film podcast Watch With Jen today, between deadlines and recording several episodes of Watch With Jen & Friends this week ahead of the long weekend, I've pushed the solo pod out one week so you get another awesome conversation instead!Originally Posted on Patreon (on 9/4/20) with links to items mentioned here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41243131Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

An eye-opening and thoughtful writer with a special focus on film criticism and history, Christina Lane has written the books Magnolia, Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break, and the critically acclaimed new title Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock.The Chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts at the University of Miami, Christina's writing and commentary has also been featured in numerous outlets including "The Daily Mail" and "NPR."In this episode of Watch With Jen & Friends, Jen was honored to talk to Christina about motion picture history, her books, and the film program where she teaches courses in media history, gender representation, film studies, and more.Originally Posted on Patreon (8/31/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/41070924Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Delightful, irreverent, and incredibly funny, Maria Lewis is an author, screenwriter, and journalist based in Australia. After first getting her start as a police reporter, Maria's writing on pop culture has appeared in publications such as the New York Post, The Guardian, Penthouse, The Daily Mail, Empire Magazine, Gizmodo, Huffington Post, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph, i09, Junkee and many more. Previously seen as a presenter on SBS Viceland’s nightly news program The Feed and as the host of Cleverfan on ABC, she has been a journalist for over 16 years.Maria's best-selling debut novel Who's Afraid? was published in 2016, followed by its sequel Who’s Afraid Too? in 2017, which was nominated for Best Horror Novel at the Aurealis Awards in 2018. Who’s Afraid? is being developed for television by the Emmy and BAFTA award-winning Hoodlum Entertainment. Her Young Adult debut, It Came From The Deep, was released globally on October 31, Halloween, 2017 and is a twist on The Little Mermaid meets Creature From The Black Lagoon.Maria's fourth book, The Witch Who Courted Death, was released on Halloween, 2018, and won Best Fantasy Novel at the Aurealis Awards in 2019. And her fifth novel set within the shared supernatural universe - The Wailing Woman - was nominated for Best Fantasy Novel at the Aurealis Awards in 2020.Maria, who Jen first met on Twitter through her best friend Blake Howard, was the host of the limited One Heat Minute Productions podcast series, Josie and the Podcats, about the 2001 cult film. In this chatty, free-spirited episode, the incredibly charming Maria regales us with lively tales about her career, podcasting, Blake Howard, Josie and The Pussycats, and, oh yeah, that time she almost ran down Gerard Butler with her car.Originally Posted on Patreon (10/5/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/42405274Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

As friendly as he is thoughtful, host Jen Johans greatly enjoyed her chat with Rotten Tomatoes certified, Chicago based film critic Robert Daniels. Chronicling his interest in writing about film from his time in college when he launched a film site and also took a life-changing film course with a terrific professor and local filmmaker, Robert gives us the scoop on the Chicago critic scene and provides some great advice to aspiring critics. From daring to love Cats to the unsung movies he wishes we discussed more, Robert's love of film is infectious in this episode.Originally Posted on Patreon (8/5/20) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40140177Theme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive