Friends of the Site – The Goods: Film Reviews

Out Now: Come Home to My Heart by Riley Redgate

Dan Stalcup — Sun, 11 May 2025 13:42:05 +0000

Hey friends — I missed release day this past Tuesday, but I wanted to share the launch of my friend’s book, a young adult romance called Come Home to My Heart. Her name is Rioghnach but she publishes YA under the pen name Riley Redgate, and this is her sixth book (at least according to her Instagram).

Available wherever you get your books, including Bookshop

Rioghnach is a wonderfully kind and friendly person, and I’ve really enjoyed the two books I’ve read by her. She also likes movies! She appeared on my podcast to discuss Disney music a few months ago, and she posted the first comment ever on this version of The Goods web site! I met her in person about a year ago after multiple years of Internet friendship:

I’ve ordered my copy of Come Home to My Heart from Volumes BookCafe, which delivers signed copies. I’ve also made a donation in the book’s honor to Harriet Hancock Center, a LGBTQ+ resource center in South Carolina where Come Home to My Heart is set. Please consider checking out the book and making a donation if you are in a position to.

Cheers, Riley-if-that-is-your-real-name, and congrats on the huge milestone!

Friend’s project – The Lobsters at Beach Party Point

Dan Stalcup — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 15:51:55 +0000

Hey friends – I’m excited to share with you a project that my friend is working on. Brian Terrill is my good friend — we’ve known each other since we were about 16 years old. Together, we co-host of The Goods: A Film Podcast. Brian was also the host of Count Gauntly’s Horrors from the Public Domain, a horror host public access show that ran for 100+ episodes. He is pursuing an MFA in filmmaking. For his capstone project he is making a short film, and it’s very a “Brian-core” concept, to borrow a term we often use on the pod. Here is his announcement and crowdsourcing for it:

Indiegogo – The Lobsters at Beach Party Point

The film will be entitled The Lobsters at Beach Party Point. It is heavily inspired by some films that we’ve covered on the podcast, including some that I have written about here. One touch point is the Z-O-M-B-I-E-S musicals by Disney. I’ve reviewed Part 1 and Part 3 here, and we’ve discussed the series twice on the podcast: Parts 1 & 2, then later Part 3.

But the central aesthetic comes from ‘50s cheap, kitschy sci fi – the kind lovingly rendered with string-dangling sauce pans as stand-ins for space ships. Not too long ago we had one of the crew members of Brian’s project, Lindsey Aranson, on the podcast to discuss a key text of the wave, Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), as well as an homage that was formative for Brian, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001). You can listen to that episode here.

Brian has created several proofs of concept and videos related to the short:

Please consider donating a few bucks to Brian’s fundraiser on Indiegogo so we can get the most delightful version of this project possible. It is based on a screenplay that won Brian a student scriptwriting award. If you know anyone who might be interested in a project like this, please pass the link on to them.

Here’s the link one more time:

Indiegogo – The Lobsters at Beach Party Point

Check out We Call It Godzilla

Dan Stalcup — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 15:33:41 +0000

If you’re a kaiju fan or Japanese cinema fan or really movie fan of any kind, I recommend you check out Christopher Brown’s new essay series, “We Call It Godzilla” which is a detailed look at the monster movie franchise. Brown is an Internet friend of mine, and he’s done a nice job so far with the series.

We Call It Godzilla at “CPB Writes”

Brown opens with a look at some films that laid the groundwork for Godzilla, then offers a detailed essay on the 1954 film. I appreciate Brown’s approach here — a mix of personal reflection and how that influenced his perspective on the film, blended with an analytical recap, and including a lot of historical details on the production and context. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how this ongoing series by Brown develops.

Check out Cinema Purgatorio

Dan Stalcup — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 20:03:13 +0000

I’d like to alert you all to a new movie review site/newsletter Cinema Purgatorio. You can find it here:

Cinema Purgatorio

The site was started by my friend Ben. The first piece he published was a reflection on his favorite movie, Inside Llewyn Davis, to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Since then, he’s hit some new releases, Oscar snubs, and a couple classics. Ben has been writing great stuff on Letterboxd and elsewhere for awhile, and I’m glad to see him take his writing about film to the next level. I’m really enjoying Cinema Purgatorio so far and encourage you all to subscribe!