We’re dropping our first listener pick of 2026, and it comes from twenty-five years ago, courtesy of Listener Bryan. In 2001, actor-turned-director Peter Howitt released his sophomore film (following 1998’s Sliding Doors), a techno-thriller with a hot young cast including Ryan Phillippe, Claire Forlani, and Rachael Leigh Cook. In the film, tech mogul Gary Winston…

Aspiring screenwriter Max Frye wrote a spec script in film school about a straitlaced yuppie’s “best worst night ever,” which his agent later told him would be perfect for either Martin Scorsese or Jonathan Demme to direct. Since Scorsese was busy on another “yuppie’s best worst night ever” movie, After Hours, Demme ended up getting…

Nineteen Seventy-Six. America’s bicentennial was a great year for cinema, with films like A Star is Born, King Kong, All the President’s Men, Carrie, and The Omen heating up the box office, and instant classics Rocky and Network earning the most accolades. After a six-decade career in the director’s chair, Alfred Hitchcock released his last…