“Fun City Cinema” hosts Jason Bailey and Mike Hull proudly present “A Very Good Year,” a podcast with a simple premise: each week we invite a guest (filmmakers and actors, critics and historians, comedians and musicians) who loves movies, and ask them to select their favorite year of movies. Some pick a year from their movie-going past; some go deep into film history. Whichever the case, we spend (about) an hour talking about that year: we ask them to share their top five films of the year, and tell us why they love them; we look at the year’s news headl...
Latest episodes
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1 h 30
Bonus Episode - A Very Good Gandolfini
Jason and Mike return to your feed for a special occasion: today’s release of Jason’s new book “Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend.” They discuss the book — its origin…
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1 h 07
New Show - Guide for the Film Fanatic
On the first episode of our film-by-film rundown of Danny Peary’s beloved 1986 movie guide, we are joined by Vulture TV critic and longtime friend Roxana Hadadi, who explains her p…
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1 h 53
2000s highlight show!
Hello cult leaders and self-loathing playwrights and all the ships at sea and welcome to A Very Good Year. As you probably know by now we are retiring this show and coming back in…
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2 h 26
1990s highlight show!
Hello hunny bunnies and Presidential assassins and all the ships at sea and welcome to A Very Good Year. As you probably know by now we are retiring this show and coming back in 20…
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1 h 53
1980s highlight show!
Hello alien dogs and Sta-Puft Marshmallow Men and all the ships at sea. By now everyone knows we're retiring A Very Good Year after more than 100 episodes and coming back with an a…
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2 h 08
1970s highlight show!
Hello New Hollywood hippies and malaise monkeys and all the ships at sea and welcome to A Very Good Year. If you’ve been listening you know we’re retiring A Very Good Year and comi…
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1 h 18
1960s highlight show!
As you MUST know by now we are retiring A Very Good Year after 2 very good years of the show and over 100 episodes (if you count the bonuses, and why not?). There will be an all ne…
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1 h 06
Bonus Episode - 2024 with Alissa Wilkinson
In what has become an annual tradition, we welcome back our good friend, New York Times film critic Alissa Wilkinson, to look back at the movie year we just finished — without the…
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52 min
1950s highlight show!
After 2 years and 100 episodes we're retiring A Very Good Year and coming back in 2025 with a whole new show. In the meantime we're looking back at some of our favorite guests and…
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43 min
1940s highlight show!
After two years and 100 episodes we're taking a look back at A Very Good Year with highlights from some of our favorite guests. In this episode we're going way back to the 1940s, w…
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57 min
1920s & 30s highlight show!
Hello, and welcome to the wrap party.After two years and 100 episodes we're taking a look back at A Very Good Year with highlights from some of our favorite guests. In this episode…
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1 h 21
2000 with Mac Welch
Mac Welch is an actor, cartoonist, filmmaker, and podcaster, but more importantly, he’s been friends with Jason and Mike nearly as long as they’ve been friends with each other. Joi…
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1 h 15
1974 with Kevin M. Kruse
Author, historian, and professor Kevin M. Kruse joins us to walk through the very eventful year — historically and cinematically — of 1974, including the take-no-prisoners energy o…
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1 h 27
1996 with Kristen Lopez
Film and television critic, author, and essayist Kristen Lopez joins us to discuss her book “But Have You Read the Book,” the TWO books she’s working on next, and the movies of 199…
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1 h 16
2008 with Daniel Waters
Screenwriter (“Heathers,” “Demolition Man,” “Batman Returns”) and encyclopedic cinephile Daniel Waters joins us to discuss 2008—a key year for him as a filmmaker and film lover, th…
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1 h 05
1930 with Catherine Stebbins
Catherine Stebbins is intimately acquainted with the year of 1930 - because it was the subject of the most recent of her year-by-year movie ‘zines, which makes her an ideal (and ov…
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1 h 14
2018 with Abby Olcese
Abby Olcese’s new book “Films for All Seasons” walks the reader through “the church year at the movies,” finding unexpected movies to tie in to the liturgical calendar; she joins u…
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1 h 12
1958 with Beatrice Loayza
Film critic, editor, and intrepid festival traveler Beatrice Loayza joins us for another probing look into the oft-dismissed 1950s—this time 1958, as we look at a Hitchcock classic…
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1 h 08
1966 with Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor is the author of one of our fave film books, “Opening Wednesday at a Theater or Drive-In Near You,” so he joins us to discuss the “hinge year” of 1966, which include…
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1 h 07
1947 with April Wolfe
Screenwriter (and former film critic and podcaster) April Wolfe joins us to talk up the postwar pleasures of 1947, so bring your nun’s habits (“Black Narcissus”), femme fatales (“O…