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Travis Bickle On The Riviera


Hi there! I'm Tucker Stone, one of the three guys who hosts a podcast called Travis Bickle on the Rivieria. I've written for places like Flavorwire, The Comics Journal, Comixology and The Factual Opinion, and am currently punching the clock at Nobrow, a publisher of comics, graphic novels and children's books. Back in 2012, my friend Sean Witzke, a movie critic whose most recent work can be read at Grantland, started this podcast as a way to continue the conversations (and arguments) we had been having about movies amongst our mutual blogs.

Although neither one of us had listened to a lot of podcasts, we felt that our cantankerous, expletive laden diatribes might be of interest to others, and in the years since, we have been extremely lucky to be proven right: people, for whatever reason, like to listen to a couple of miserable depressives wax nostalgic over action movies from the 80's. (It probably didn't hurt that the hugely talented Michel Fiffe drew our logo image!)

When I became a father in 2013, longtime friend of the show and frequent guest host Morgan Jeske came on board to keep Sean from going stir crazy with backed-up opinions. Jeske--the talented cartoonist behind books for Image Comics like Change and Zero--rapidly made himself indispensable, and after my return to the show, it only made sense to welcome him on as an official host, turning this gruesome twosome into the trio it had always been destined to be. As the episodes have piled up (you can check out our episode guide, with every movie, director and special episode listed here), the show was continually graced with a murderers row of guests from the world of comics and film--you can see all of those amazing people at that link as well.

All of that brings us right up to right now, a cold day in October: the day where we ask for help. Simply put, the increased interest in the show has meant that we've had to put a bit more into the nuts and bolts of paying for it than we used to, and we thought 133 episodes (at most recent count) was enough to try passing the hat to help meet the costs. The show isn't in danger of going anyway anytime soon--Sean, Morgan and I like hurting each others feelings just a little too much for that to be a real concern--but we would appreciate the breathing room that financial support will allow.  Below you'll see the various levels of pledge options and the rewards they provide--we're pretty excited about them, especially the one where we send you surprises you can't return--but even if you come away thinking that we don't deserve one thin dime, it still means a lot that you stopped by in the first place. Thank you for reading, but most of all thank you for listening!

Jan 19, 2017

  • 0:00:00 - 0:34:27 - Bonus Beats - movies, scenes, or performances we loved that did not make our top 10s. Including: Wiener Dog, Midnight Special, Certain Women, Moonlight, Fences, Hail Caesar, Deepwater Horizon, Patriot's Day, 13 Hours, Age of Shadows, Train to Busan, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Hunt For The Wilderpeople
  • 0:34:28 - 2:39:30 - Top Tens! (presented in alphabetical order)
  • Certain Women (2016), directed by Kelly Reichardt, starring Laura Dern, James Le Gros, Jared Harris, Lily Gladstone, Kristen Stewart, and Michelle Williams.
  • Christine (2016), directed by Antonio Campos, starring Rebecca Hall, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts and Maria Dizzia.
  • Demon (2016), directed by Marcin Wrona, starring Itay Tiran, Tomasz Schuchardt, and Andrej Grabowski.
  • Elle (2016), directed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Isabelle Huppert, Christian Berkel, Anna Cosigny, Virginie Elfera, Laurente Lafitte, and Jonas Bloquet. 
  • Green Room (2016), directed by Jeremy Saulnier, starring Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, and Macon Blair.
  • The Handmaiden (2016), directed by Park Chan-Wook, starring Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-ri, Ha Jung-woo, and Cho Jin-woong.
  • High Rise (2016), directed by Ben Wheatley, starring Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Elizabeth Moss, Luke Evans, James Purefoy, Keely Hawes, Stacy Martin, and Reece Sheersmith.
  • Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), directed by Taika Waititi, starring Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House, Rhys Darby, and Taika Waititi. 
  • Hypernormalisation (2016), directed by Adam Curtis
  • The Invitation (2016), directed by Karyn Kusama, starring Logan-Marshall Green, Tammy Blanchard, Michael Huisman, John Carrol Lynch, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Lindsay Burge, Jay Larson, and Toby Huss. 
  • Manchester By the Sea (2016), directed by Kenneth Lonergan, starring Casey Affleck, Kyle Chandler, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, Gretchen Mol, Tate Donovan, and Matthew Broderick.
  • Moonlight (2016), directed by Barry Jenkins, starring Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland, Mahershala Ali, Naomi Harris, and Janelle Monae.
  • Nerve (2016), directed by Ariel Schulman & henry Joost, starring Emma Roberts, Dave Franco, Machinegun Kelly, and Juliette Lewis.
  • The Nice Guys (2016), directed by Shane Black, starring Ryan Gosling, Russel Crowe, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley and Keith David. 
  • Right Now, Wrong Then (2016), directed by Hong Sang-Soo, starring Jung Jae-young, Kim Min-hee, Youn Yun-jung, and Gi Ju-bong.
  • SPL 2 / Killzone 2 (2016), directed by Soi Cheang, starring Tony Jaa, Wu Jing, Simon Yam, Zhang Jin, Louis Koo, and Ken Lo. 
  • The Wailing (2016), directed by Na Hong-jin, starring Kwak Do-Wan, Hwang Jung-min, Jun Kunimura, Chun Woo-hee, and Kim Hwan-hee.

- - -

  • Tucker's Top 10
  1. The Wailing
  2. Green Room
  3. Elle
  4. Killzone 2
  5. The Handmaiden
  6. Manchester By the Sea
  7. Demon
  8. The Nice Guys
  9. The Invitation
  10. Hunt For the Wilderpeople
  • Morgan's Top 10
  1. The Wailing
  2. The Handmaiden
  3. Green Room
  4. Right Now, Wrong Then
  5. Hunt for the Wilderpeople
  6. The Invitation
  7. Moonlight / Certain Women
  8. Nerve
  9. Christine / Manchester By the Sea
  10. Elle
  • Sean's Top 10
  1. Elle (my immediate reaction to this movie was that it was the best movie I'd seen since in a solid fucking decade)
  2. The Wailing
  3. The Invitation
  4. High Rise
  5. Green Room
  6. Nice Guys
  7. Nerve
  8. Hypernormalisation
  9. Christine
  10. Manchester By the Sea
  • Next Week: Sleepless, Paddington, maybe more on Elle!
  • Our outro music this week: is "Sixteen" by Iggy Pop. And our intro, as always, is from Escape From New York. 
  • You can download episodes directly from itunes and rss. For a quick look at who has been on the show before and what movies have been discussed in each episode, look at our one-page episode guide. This is a Patreon-supported podcast, subscribing to the show can give you access to monthly criticism from the hosts. You can follow the show on twittertumblrletterboxd and facebook. The hosts are on twitter too - TuckerMorgan, and Sean
  • 2017: be afraid, be very afraid.