Watch With Jen™

It was a joy to bring on a fellow Arizona critic & film scholar, the brilliant & funny Barbara VanDenburgh, to discuss the masterful Arizona-raised filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Barbara's favorite director and her greatest area of film knowledge; it's wild to realize that we haven't done an official Spielberg episode of the pod before this one. I know you'll love it! Covering the filmmaker's life, career, major themes, techniques, collaborators, and more, we touch on most of his pictures in this fast-paced conversation, and pay special attention to three of his summer releases, JAWS, JURASSIC PARK, and A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.Guest Bio: Barbara VanDenburgh is a longtime arts and entertainment journalist, a film critic, and a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle. She is also the founder and host of the First Draft Book Club, a popular, long-running book club that discusses recently published works of literary fiction at Changing Hands Bookstore in Phoenix. She is the former books editor of USA Today and currently manages programming and communications for The Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University.Originally Posted on Patreon (6/16/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/FilmIntuition/posts/161259047Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

When we wrapped last year's wonderful fan favorite Watch With Jen episode on Jean-Claude Van Damme, my guests Jordan Harper, Priscilla Page, Jed Ayres, & I knew that we needed to have another martial arts movie chat in Season 6. Although Jed bowed out of this conversation (but did recently appear on a cool installment devoted to Andy Garcia you need to check out), Jordan and Priscilla returned to discuss the filmography, history, skills, range, & persona of the once-in-a-generation talent Jackie Chan. Covering several of the superstar's films in our overview & referencing his smash American crossover success with RUMBLE IN THE BRONX as well, Jordan & I shared stories of trading bootleg videotapes in school of Chan's foreign work in the '90s midwest, & the brilliantly encyclopedic Priscilla Page offered key insights & analysis on so many movies that you'll want to listen with a pad & pen to add them to your watch list. A funny, free-spirited, affable breakdown of the man that is Chan, in this episode, we walk you through DRAGONS FOREVER, LEGEND OF DRUNKEN MASTER II, SUPERCOP, & more.Originally Posted on Patreon (11/12/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/143421332Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPalTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Happy Halloween! We don't dedicate too many episodes of Watch With Jen to television shows, mostly because of the time & effort involved in rewatching several seasons over a long period of time. But if a TV series touches us enough, if it's beloved, created & executed with a true original vision, raises & sets the bar, has been unfairly overlooked, or if it's something that has impacted an entire generation of fans, then we want to be sure to celebrate its greatness. After all, in every generation, a slayer is born, & in our second of two Halloween episodes, past guests Elizabeth Cantwell, Jessica Ellis, & Roxana Hadadi join me to discuss all seven seasons of the landmark Gen X/Millennial favorite "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Honoring its legacy, evolution, the creative minds & talents involved, we take you on a journey of the highs & lows of Joss Whedon's Scooby Gang in Sunnydale, California & all seven seasons of episodes of this WB & UPN series. Comprised mostly of a long conversation between myself, Elizabeth, (+ a cameo by her son Cooper) & Jessica, the final segment of this installment includes a great bonus chat/afterward with Vulture TV Critic Roxana Hadadi as well. (Note: We will return in Season 7 with another conversation focused on the spin-off series "Angel.")Originally Posted on Patreon (10/28/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/142276745Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

It's such a joy to introduce everyone to my delightfully knowledgeable work buddy Pat King (aka PK), who's a veteran bookseller at Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, AZ. One of our most beloved employees with decades of experience, PK is a Book Ninja, in that you can walk in, tell him what you're interested in or the kind of stuff you like & he'll find you your new favorite read. This week, I brought him on to discuss another one of his passions beyond Science Fiction & Horror. As a video game enthusiast & collector, PK is the perfect person to inject the pod (& this heavy year) with a little bit of nostalgia. Sharing our early memories of our first video game systems & favorite games, we move on to discuss the film adaptations of LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER (2001), the first RESIDENT EVIL film (2002), SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (2020), & the recent animated SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE (2023).Originally Posted on Patreon (10/14/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/141220694Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down over Zoom & chatting with one of my favorite couples, Chris & Elizabeth Cantwell. An L.A.-based television & comic book writer, listeners first heard Chris discuss his work on the brilliant series he co-created HALT & CATCH FIRE in one of Watch With Jen's most popular episodes. His wife is the ever-insightful, poet, teacher, scholar, & Bright Wall/Dark Room essayist & editor Elizabeth Cantwell, who has taught me so much about horror movies over the years.Originally recorded just to cut together into a larger episode alongside other chats about recent Criterion 4K releases, since the podcast is still on a break while I'm dealing with an autoimmune issue, I thought it'd be fun just to release it as an enjoyable, short, thoughtful, story-filled summer coda to the pod. It's also a vital reminder that, while you're planning your vacations in August, to try to avoid any undertaking which requires driving a big rig filled with unstable nitroglycerin across rickety bridges when you're on the run with fake papers in Latin America. That's right, Chris & Elizabeth are here to discuss William Friedkin's masterful 1977 picture SORCERER, which has gained new appreciation over the last decade especially, yet remains one of his most unsung, fascinating, mind-bogglingly ambitious works.Originally Posted on Patreon (7/29/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/watch-with-jen-5-135241438Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

I've been pre-scheduling podcast episodes this summer &, forgetting that we are now living in a time of anything goes chaos in the U.S., last week's conversation wound up publishing in the hours after the news involving Iran. Hopefully anyone who knows me knows that I wouldn't normally pivot from major world news to self-promotion but I still wanted to take this opportunity to apologize for any confusion or insensitivity that the accidentally ill-timed new episode caused. To make up for that gaffe, I thought I'd deliver this third conversation in our summer suite of episodes devoted to Physical Media early, just in case you're heading to the airport or about to unplug for the next week or so since it's a big time for summer travel here in the states. (So far, nothing Earth-shattering has happened that I'm aware of as I type this but as a friend joked, it's getting harder & harder to find a day without a catastrophe.) In any case, may this be a distraction for you. In last week's new Watch With Jen, we led you down the dark streets of neo-noir. This installment is centered on American independent filmmakers (or in the case of Billy Wilder, very independently minded ones) & is devoted to matters of the heart. Kicking things off, VULTURE's brilliant TV critic & Peabody Awards juror Roxana Hadadi joins me to discuss Sean Baker's Oscar winning ANORA, SAINT OF THE NARROWS STREET novelist William Boyle returns to tackle CHOOSE ME by one of his favorite filmmakers Alan Rudolph, & I reunite with the knowledgeable film essayist Peter Avellino to talk about the magic of Billy Wilder's SOME LIKE IT HOT. Emotional, sparkling, & warm, I know this conversation will delight. Thanks so much for listening! Originally Posted on Patreon (6/27/25) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/132487075Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopDonate to the Pod via Ko-fiTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive