The Story Punk Podcast

Episode 046: This week on Story Punk, we continue our June international cinema series with a trip to 1977 Brazil for The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s sprawling and unsettling political thriller starring Wagner Moura.

Moura plays Armando, an engineer living under the alias Marcelo after a confrontation with a powerful businessman forces him into hiding. He travels to Recife hoping to escape the country with his young son, finding refuge among a community of ordinary people whose lives have been disrupted by political persecution, corporate influence, and a government that can make its enemies disappear.

We explore how The Secret Agent uses the ingredients of a conventional espionage thriller, including secret identities, surveillance, code names, hired killers, and political conspiracy, while refusing to become a traditional spy movie. The real threat is larger and harder to see: a system in which wealthy corporations, police, and state power overlap until no one can tell where one ends and another begins.

They discuss the movie’s patient world-building, the slow accumulation of dread, and why the danger becomes more immediate once it finally takes human form. They also examine the film’s shifting timelines and its portrait of political violence echoing through children, families, buildings, and entire generations long after the original victims have disappeared.

The conversation also covers Wagner Moura’s grounded performance, and the film’s remarkable ensemble, its blend of professional and nonprofessional actors, Udo Kier’s memorable appearance, Recife’s distinct identity, and the strange legend of the murderous Hairy Leg.

Plus: corrupt cops, casual brutality, movie-palace ghosts, Jaws, The Omen, David Lynch energy, regional accents, fever-dream heat, and why the most frightening villain may be one too large to fit inside a single frame.

Listen now to Story Punk, where story matters.

Episode 045:

In this episode of Story Punk, we put Parasite under the microscope, the 2019 South Korean film directed by Bong Joon Ho. Winner of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film at the 2020 Academy Awards, Parasite follows the struggling Kim family as they infiltrate the wealthy Park household by posing as unrelated skilled workers.

The episode explores why the film remains one of the most acclaimed movies of the 21st century. We discuss Bong Joon Ho’s direction, the film’s class commentary, its shifting tone, the shocking basement reveal, the use of smell as a marker of poverty and class separation, the Park family house, the Kim family’s flooded apartment, and the movie’s unforgettable third act.

The conversation also covers Song Kang Ho, South Korean cinema, Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer, The Host, the film’s production design, its Oscar wins, the Criterion edition, the black-and-white version, and why Parasite works as a thriller, comedy, tragedy, social satire, and class-war horror story all at once.

For fans of movie podcasts, film analysis, Bong Joon Ho films, Korean cinema, international movies, Best Picture winners, social thrillers, class satire, and conversations about why stories matter, this Story Punk episode is for you.

Listen now to Story Punk, where story matters.

Episode 044: This week on Story Punk, we begin our June international cinema series with a trip to Norway for Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s 2025 family drama about art, absence, memory, and the complicated wreckage parents leave behind.

The film follows sisters Nora and Agnes as they reconnect with their estranged father, Gustav, a once-celebrated filmmaker hoping to mount a comeback by turning deeply personal family history into a new movie. When Nora refuses the role he wrote for her, Gustav casts an eager Hollywood star instead, setting off a quiet emotional collision between career ambition, unresolved trauma, and the question of whether art can repair what real life has broken.

We dig into why Sentimental Value feels different from the usual Story Punk fare: more contemplative, more emotionally layered, and more interested in connection than easy answers. They discuss Gustav as a charming but deeply flawed father, the bond between Nora and Agnes, the film’s use of the family house as both memory capsule and battleground, and why the ending gestures toward healing without pretending forgiveness is simple.

They also get into Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, the film’s performances, Joachim Trier’s visual choices, the blend of present-day story and generational memory, and how Sentimental Value uses filmmaking itself as a way for damaged people to speak when ordinary conversation has failed.

Plus: Scandinavian movie vibes, absent fathers, artistic narcissism, emotional generosity, family cycles, 35mm close-ups, 16mm flashbacks, and the uneasy truth that sometimes connection is not the same thing as forgiveness.

Listen now to Story Punk, where story matters.

Episode 043: This week on Story Punk, we revisit Wonder Boys, Curtis Hanson’s 2000 literary comedy-drama starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., Frances McDormand, and Katie Holmes.

Based on the novel by Michael Chabon, Wonder Boys follows Grady Tripp, a once-celebrated writing professor whose life has stalled somewhere between a never-ending manuscript, a collapsing marriage, a complicated affair, and one increasingly chaotic weekend. What begins as a story about writer’s block quickly becomes something stranger, funnier, and more human: a movie about people standing at the edge of major life changes, trying to figure out whether they are stuck, lost, or finally ready to become someone else.

We dig into why Wonder Boys has become one of those “why didn’t more people see this?” movies, while also debating why it may not connect with everyone. They discuss Michael Douglas as the rumpled, self-sabotaging Grady Tripp, Tobey Maguire’s mysterious James Leer, Robert Downey Jr.’s comic energy, Frances McDormand’s emotional gravity, and the film’s mix of literary anxiety, academic chaos, dark humor, and midlife unraveling.

The conversation also covers Curtis Hanson’s unusually varied career, the movie’s place in the late-’90s/early-2000s wave of adult character-driven studio films, Dee Dee Allen’s Oscar-nominated editing, Bob Dylan’s Oscar-winning “Things Have Changed,” and why this is exactly the kind of messy, funny, mid-budget movie Hollywood rarely makes anymore.

Plus: impossible manuscripts, stolen Marilyn Monroe memorabilia, dead dogs, Pittsburgh, Alan Tudyk sightings, L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile, The Big Lebowski, and the danger of turning your life into a first draft you never finish.

Listen now to Story Punk, and remember story matters.

Episode 042: In this episode of Story Punk, we focus on Marty Supreme, the 2025 film directed by Josh Safdie and starring Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a fiercely ambitious young table tennis player trying to become a legend.

The episode explores how Marty Supreme works as a sports movie, character study, period piece, and chaotic portrait of obsession. We discuss Marty’s reckless pursuit of greatness, the difference between ambition and self-destruction, and how the film turns the niche world of professional table tennis into a larger story about ego, masculinity, myth-making, self-promotion, and the American hunger to be remembered.

We also explore the connection to Josh Safdie’s earlier work, including Uncut Gems, while comparing its themes to movies like The Smashing Machine, Challengers, King of Kong, Fitzcarraldo, Nightcrawler, Citizen Kane, The Social Network, and The Wolf of Wall Street. The conversation includes Timothée Chalamet’s performance, Gwyneth Paltrow’s return to the screen, Kevin O’Leary’s casting, Abel Ferrara’s memorable role, Darius Khondji’s cinematography, the film’s 1950s New York setting, Jewish New York atmosphere, and the movie’s unexpected, anachronistic music choice.

If you are interested in Timothée Chalamet movies, Josh Safdie films, A24-style chaos, Safdie brothers cinema, sports movies that are not really about sports, or stories about ambition curdling into obsession, or if you enjoy movie podcasts that go beyond your basic film analysis, the Story Punk Podcast is for you.

Episode 041: In this episode of Story Punk, we review and analyze Outland, the 1981 science fiction thriller directed by Peter Hyams and starring Sean Connery, Frances Sternhagen, Peter Boyle, and James Sikking.

Set on a mining colony on Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, Outland follows Federal Marshal William O’Niel as he investigates a series of suspicious worker deaths and uncovers a corrupt corporate drug operation designed to push miners beyond human limits. The film is often compared to High Noon, using the classic western setup of a lone lawman waiting for hired killers, but reimagining it as a gritty, industrial sci-fi thriller.

We discuss how Outland works as both a space western and a corporate dystopia, with themes of moral integrity, labor exploitation, systemic corruption, and the loneliness of doing the right thing when everyone else is paid to look away. We also explore how the movie fits into the early 1980s sci-fi landscape alongside films like Alien, Blade Runner, and other used-future science fiction stories.

The conversation covers Sean Connery’s grounded performance, Frances Sternhagen as Dr. Lazarus, Peter Boyle as the corrupt mining boss Sheppard, Jerry Goldsmith’s score, the film’s practical effects, production design, sound, 4K physical media release, and the debate over whether inaccurate science matters if the story still works.

For fans of classic sci-fi movies, 1980s science fiction, Sean Connery movies, Peter Hyams films, space westerns, High Noon, corporate dystopian fiction, and thoughtful film analysis, this Story Punk episode revisits one of the most underrated sci-fi thrillers of the early 1980s.

Episode 040: This week on Story Punk, we launch into Project Hail Mary, the 2026 sci-fi crowd-pleaser based on Andy Weir’s novel and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory, no crew, and one tiny problem: the sun is dying, Earth is in danger, and he may be the only person who can help stop it.

No pressure.

Scott and Drew dig into why Project Hail Mary works as more than just another “save the world” space movie. They talk about the film’s emotional core, its clever science problem-solving, the challenge of adapting a book built around internal monologue, and the surprisingly moving friendship between Grace and Rocky, the alien lifeform who helps turn a cosmic survival mission into one of the most heartfelt movie relationships of the year.

The conversation also covers Ryan Gosling’s performance, Lord and Miller’s blend of humor and sincerity, the practical magic behind Rocky, Greg Fraser’s warm and inventive cinematography, the film’s hopeful spirit, and why this story feels like the kind of big-hearted, Amblin-style blockbuster Hollywood needs more often.

It’s science, friendship, sacrifice, space survival, emotional damage, and yes, a few tears in the vacuum of space.

Listen now to Story Punk wherever you get podcasts or find us at storypunk.com

Because at Story Punk… story matters.

Episode 039: This week on Story Punk, we unpack No Other Choice (2025), the latest razor-edged thriller from acclaimed director Park Chan-wook, and it might be one of the year’s most unsettling examinations of desperation, morality, and the machinery of modern capitalism.

When a man loses his job, his solution isn’t to reinvent himself… it’s to eliminate the competition.

Simple premise with complicated implications.

In this episode, we take a closer look at how No Other Choice transforms economic anxiety into psychological horror, exploring the terrifying logic of a system that can convince ordinary people that monstrous acts are simply practical decisions. We also examine the how its themes connect to last week’s discussion of A Shock to the System, creating a fascinating double feature on ambition, obsolescence, and what happens when people feel discarded by the systems they helped build.

🎬 In this episode:
• Why this might be one of Park Chan-wook’s most disturbing films yet
• How late-stage capitalism becomes the real villain
• The terrifying psychology of “I had no other choice”
• Why the audience becomes an uncomfortable accomplice to the story
• How this film turns workplace anxiety into a bloodstained moral spiral

Darkly funny, deeply uncomfortable, and impossible to shake, No Other Choice asks a brutal question:

How far would you go to protect your place in the world?

🎧 Listen now and follow Story Punk for new episodes every Thursday.

Because at Story Punk… story matters.