To the White Sea

<div> <p>Today we’re keeping it light, mostly with scenes of horrific violence, all of which evoke a paradoxical sensation, a strange weightlessness like you feel at the top of a rollercoaster. This is THE LIGHT TOUCH. Think Wade Gustafson’s jacket expelling feathers in Fargo, or Moon’s God-fearing monologue in True Grit. We conclude with a deep dive into the ending of Raising Arizona, which is perhaps the ultimate manifestation of a lightness that’s unreliable yet unshakeable. We also discuss the multitude of Lump-like characters in the Coens ouvre, and follow up on our Point of View episode with some rad listener contributions from the Discord!</p><p><strong>Coens covered: </strong>Fargo, The Man Who Wasn’t There, The Ladykillers, True Grit, Raising Arizona</p><p><strong>Plus: </strong>Night of the Hunter</p><p><strong>Want to join the study group? Follow us on </strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/to_the_white_sea/"><strong>social</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="https://x.com/tothewhitesea"><strong>media</strong></a><strong>, tell your friends about the show, and leave a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. These all really help. </strong><strong><em>And join the </em></strong><a href="https://t.co/wZuwCaaJJq"><strong><em>Discord</em></strong></a><strong><em> too!<br></em></strong><br> *<strong>*You can also support us directly at </strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea"><strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea">https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea</a></strong></a><strong>**<br> </strong><br> <strong>For all things TTWS visit </strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me/"><strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me">tothewhitesea.me</a><br></strong></a><br></p></div>

<div> <p>It’s movie night in New York City! Join us for some roving recording as we pound the cobblestones of Manhattan and take in two films in vastly different formats: Robert Altman’s <strong>Short Cuts</strong> in <em>glorious</em> 35mm and Sam Raimi’s <strong>Send Help</strong> in <em>sensuous</em> 4DX.</p><p>Along the way we discuss Raymond Carver’s short stories, Altman’s influence on <em>hyperlink cinema</em>, Cast Away as an archetype of 21st century filmmaking, and why Raimi is the king of disgusting CG animals.</p><p><strong>Want to join the study group? Follow TTWS on </strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/to_the_white_sea/"><strong>social</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="https://x.com/tothewhitesea"><strong>media</strong></a><strong>, tell your friends to listen, and leave a rating &amp; review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. These all really help the show. </strong><strong><em>And join the </em></strong><a href="https://t.co/wZuwCaaJJq"><strong><em>Discord</em></strong></a><strong><em> too!<br></em></strong><br><strong>You can also support TTWS directly at </strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea"><strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea">https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea</a></strong></a><strong><br></strong><br><strong>For all things TTWS visit </strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me/"><strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me">tothewhitesea.me</a></strong></a></p></div>

<div> <p><em>You</em> are about to listen to a mega episode. Charged up and sans guest, we dive deep into a core facet of moviemaking and film-viewing: point of view—the power of films to invisibly place you behind the eyes, and inside the mind, of a specific character. Jumping off from two dynamite script pages, and pulling crucial info from our film studies education, we explore how subjectivity is essentially inescapable as soon as a camera angle is chosen. We also turn our attention to what “objectivity” could possibly mean in a cinematic context, what happens when multiple POV characters collide, and whether we may have found the most perfect pair of socks for a cold weather film set.</p><p><strong>Coens covered: </strong>Barton Fink, Touileries (from <em>Paris, je t'aime</em>), Fargo, A Serious Man, True Grit, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail, Caesar!, The Gal Who Got Rattled (from Buster Scruggs)</p><p><strong>Plus: </strong>Frankenstein (2025),<strong> </strong>Amélie</p><p><strong>Want to join the study group? Follow us on </strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/to_the_white_sea/"><strong>social</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="https://x.com/tothewhitesea"><strong>media</strong></a><strong>, tell your friends about the show, and leave a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. These all really help. </strong><strong><em>And join the </em></strong><a href="https://t.co/wZuwCaaJJq"><strong><em>Discord</em></strong></a><strong><em> too!<br></em></strong><br>*<strong>*You can also support us directly at </strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea"><strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea">https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea</a></strong></a><strong>**<br></strong><br><strong>For all things TTWS visit </strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me/"><strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me">tothewhitesea.me</a></strong></a></p></div>

<div>Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good commentary! That’s right—to celebrate the holiday season and ring in the new year we’re watching Terry Zwigoff’s 2003 holiday classic <strong>Bad Santa</strong>. We’re joined by our dear friends Jason Adam Katzenstein, New Yorker cartoonist and co-author with Roz Chast of the forthcoming graphic novel The Two Saddest Kitchens, and Michael Tyburski, director of Palimpsest, The Sound of Silence, and Turn Me On.<br><br>Together we discuss Bad Santa as a seasonally perfect encapsulation of the lows of Christmastime in America, and the Coens’ role in the film’s development from initial idea to the various edits of the film that have been released over the years. (Note: we’re watching the unrated version, aka <strong>Badder Santer</strong>.) We also open advent calendars and talk the malls of our youth.<br><br>Please enjoy this cozy episode and have a wonderful holiday. Sending immense gratitude to everyone out there who has joined us on this journey “to the white sea.” We'll see you again in 2026!<br><br><strong>Want to join the study group? Follow us on </strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/to_the_white_sea/"><strong>social</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="https://x.com/tothewhitesea"><strong>media</strong></a><strong>, tell your friends about the show, and leave a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. These all really help. </strong><strong><em>And join the </em></strong><a href="https://t.co/wZuwCaaJJq"><strong><em>Discord</em></strong></a><strong><em> too!<br></em></strong><br>*<strong>*You can also support us directly at </strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea"><strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea">https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea</a></strong></a><strong>**<br></strong><br><strong>For all things TTWS visit </strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me/"><strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me">tothewhitesea.me</a><br></strong></a><br></div>

<div>We’re back with a positively joyful episode about white-knuckling it through life :) These are scenes where characters are undercover, pretending to be different than they are, or otherwise just trying to act normal while being observed and under significant stress. Yikes! To help light a path through this nine-eyed, five-0 vision quest we’re joined by writer, actor, comedian, and podcaster Rebecca Rose Bulnes! This is a free-ranging conversation with all the trimmings, so put your shades on and tuck in.<br><br><strong>Coens Covered:</strong> Burn After Reading, Blood Simple, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, Hail, Caesar!<br><br><strong>Plus:</strong> The Beekeeper, Weapons, The Wolf of Wall Street, Spike Lee’s <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/C90kykdx9CE/">“vitaminwater: From New York”<strong><br></strong></a><br><em>Check out Rebecca’s podcast </em><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/classroom-crush/id1288717126"><strong><em>Classroom Crush</em></strong></a><em>!</em><br><br><strong>Want to join the study group? Follow us on </strong><a href="https://www.instagram.com/to_the_white_sea/"><strong>social</strong></a><strong> </strong><a href="https://x.com/tothewhitesea"><strong>media</strong></a><strong>, tell your friends about the show, and leave a rating/review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. These all really help.</strong><strong><em><br></em></strong><br>*<strong>*You can also support the show directly at </strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea"><strong><a href="https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea">https://ko-fi.com/tothewhitesea</a></strong></a><strong>**<br></strong><br><strong> </strong><strong><em>And join the </em></strong><a href="https://t.co/wZuwCaaJJq"><strong><em>Discord</em></strong></a><strong><em> too! <br><br></em></strong><strong>For all things TTWS visit </strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me/"><strong><a href="http://tothewhitesea.me">tothewhitesea.me</a></strong></a> </div>