For this week’s episode, Jamelle and John were joined by Linda Holmes of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Our to discuss the 1995 political romantic comedy “The American President,” directed by Rob Reiner, written by — you guessed it — Aaron Sorkin, and starring Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Martin Sheen, David Paymer, Samantha Mathis and Michael J. Fox, among others.“The American President” stars Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd, a widow, who falls in love with an environmental lobbyist, played by Annette Bening, while he also runs for re-election and attempts to pass major legislation. The film is both a romantic comedy, depicting the president’s courtship, and a political drama, depicting the effort to win votes, dodge criticism and shore up the White House’s political position.The tagline for “The American President” is “Why can’t the most powerful man in the world have the one thing he wants most?”“The American President” is available for rent or purchase on Amazon and iTunes.Our next episode will on the 1995 science-fiction thriller, “Twelve Monkeys.” Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.Contact us!Follow us on Twitter!John GanzJamelle BouieUnclearPodLinda HolmesAnd join the Unclear and Present Patreon! For just $5 a month, patrons get access to a bonus show on the films of the Cold War, and much, much more. The latest episode of our Patreon podcast is on the 1970 film “The Conformist.” Our next episode will be on Elia Kazan’s 1957 political drama “A Face in the Crowd.”

For this week’s episode, Jamelle and John were joined by Isaac Chotiner of the New Yorker magazine to watch and discuss 1995’s GoldenEye, the first James Bond film of the 1990s and the first James Bond film of the post-Cold War era. GoldenEye is the seventeenth film in the James Bond series and the first to star Pierce Brosnan, who would go on to star in three subsequent pictures, all of which we will eventually cover on the podcast: Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day.Directed by Martin Campbell and starring, in addition to Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Alan Cumming, Judi Dench and Joe Don Baker, Goldeneye was something of a reboot for the Bond franchise, which had been on a six-year hiatus since the previous entry, License to Kill starring Timothy Dalton. The plot of GoldenEye is as straightforward as one of these movies can manage: Bond is tasked with stopping the mysterious Janus syndicate from stealing and using a Soviet-era space weapon capable of causing an electro-magnetic pulse blast anywhere on the planet. Complicating this mission is the fact that the leader of Janus, Alec Trevelayn, is a former MI6 agent who was supposed to have died on a mission with Bond, nine years earlier. There’s the usual adventures and explosions and casual sexual encounters, culminating in a final showdown between Bond and Trevelayn on a massive satellite.GoldenEye, if you’ve somehow never seen it, is available for rental and purchase on iTunes and Amazon.For our next episode, we’re covering the 1995 romantic-political comedy, “The American President,” starring Michael Douglas and Annette Benning.Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.Contact us!Follow us on Twitter!John GanzJamelle BouieUnclearPodAnd join the Unclear and Present Patreon! For just $5 a month, patrons get access to a bonus show on the films of the Cold War, and much, much more. The most recent episode of the Patreon is on the 1970 Italian political drama, “The Conformist.”

For this week’s episode, we watched the 1995 coming-of-age tale slash Vietnam War movie slash crime thriller “Dead Presidents,” produced and directed by Albert and Allen Hughes. It stars Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, N’Bushe Wright, Freddy Rodriguez and Bokeem Woodbine.“Dead Presidents” is the story of Anthony Curtis, a soon-to-be high school graduate from the Bronx who chooses to join the Marines in search of his own destiny. The year is 1969 and he is sent to Vietnam, leaving his family, his girlfriend Juanita and his friends behind. He experiences the worst of the war and returns home, angry and alienated, to his old girlfriend and his daughter. His friends, who also went to war, have also had their own trials. Each desperate for meaning and for money, they devise a plan to rob an armored car. As you might expect, things get quickly out of hand.In the course of the episode, Jamelle and John discuss the experience of Black veterans in America’s wars, the role of Vietnam in American national memory and the way race shapes our understanding of crime.The tagline for “Dead Presidents” is “The only color that counts is green.” You can find the move for rent on iTunes and Amazon.Episodes come out every two weeks, so we will see you then with an episode on the first James Bond film of the 1990s, “Goldeneye.”Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.Contact us!Follow us on Twitter!John GanzJamelle BouieUnclearPodAnd join the Unclear and Present Patreon! For just $5 a month, patrons get access to a bonus show on the films of the Cold War, and much, much more. Our latest Patreon episode is on the 1975 German political thriller, “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum.”

For this week’s episode, Jamelle and John watched Kathryn Bigelow’s 1995 cult favorite Strange Days, a collaboration with James Cameron inspired by the political and social turmoil of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Although not quite “cyberpunk” — it isn’t a William Gibson pastiche like its contemporary Johnny Mnemonic — Strange Days borrows heavily from the genre and its various conceits. Strange Days stars Ralph Fiennes as protagonist Lenny Nero, Angela Bassett as “Mace,” Juliette Lewis as Faith and Tom Sizemore as Max, with appearances from Vincent D’Onofrio, Michael Wincott, William Fichtner and Richard Edson.Here is a brief plot synopsis:Set in the year 1999 during the last days of the old millennium, the movie tells the story of Lenny Nero, an ex-cop who now deals with data-discs containing recorded memories and emotions. One day he receives a disc which contains the memories of a murderer killing a prostitute. Lenny investigates and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of blackmail, murder and rape. Will he survive and solve the case?The tagline for Strange Days is “New Year’s Eve 1999. Anything is possible. Nothing is forbidden.”Strange Days is available to stream on HBO Max and is available for rent or purchase on iTunes and Amazon. Our next episode is on the Hughes brother’s crime thriller Dead Presidents.Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.Contact us!Follow us on Twitter!John GanzJamelle BouieUnclearPodAnd join the Unclear and Present Patreon! For just $5 a month, patrons get access to a bonus show on the films of the Cold War, and much, much more. Our latest episode of the patreon is on The Battle of Algiers.

This week, Jamelle and John were joined by scholar and author Sam Goldman to watch and discuss the1994 alt-history thriller “Fatherland,” a made-for-HBO adaptation of Robert Harris’ 1992 novel of the same name. Both the novel and the film take place in a 1964 where Nazi Germany won the war in Europe. In the week leading up to the 75th birthday of Adolf Hitler, and the opening up of diplomatic relations with the United States, an investigator in the SS looks into the suspicious death of a high-ranking Nazi official. He soon discovers that a cadre of senior Nazis are being murdered under unusual circumstances to cover up something of great importance. Our detective, along with an American journalist, eventually discover the “something” in question: evidence of the Holocaust. “Fatherland” is not available for streaming on HBO Max, but you can find a free copy of decent quality on YouTube.Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.Contact us!Follow us on Twitter!John GanzJamelle BouieUnclearPodAnd join the Unclear and Present Patreon! For just $5 a month, patrons get access to a bonus show on the films of the Cold War, and much, much more. Our latest episode of the Patreon is on “The Battle of Algiers.” It was a great conversation and you should check it out.