The Reeler caught up with Christopher Guest last week in New York, where the actor was making the publicity rounds on behalf of his new Oscar-season send-up For Your Consideration. He brought his core four -- Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer and co-writer Eugene Levy -- along with him, and in this edition of The Reeler Podcast, we bond over Oscar loathing, bicker over satire and try to get to the bottom of just how doomed the poor actors in Consideration might be in the long run. HINT: Guest decided to cut a scene featuring their weathered tombstones. It's that kind of movie.

But it is also funny and honest, as are its principals, so please do have a listen:

The Reeler Podcast with Christopher Guest and the cast of For Your Consideration (8 MB)

(For Your Consideration opens today in New York.)

As reported last week on The Reeler, there's been a lot of weirdness surrounding director Steven Shainberg's latest film Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, which opens today in New York. There's lead actress Nicole Kidman absent at her own premiere, Robert Downey Jr. covered in hair, a combustible exchange or 10 between Shainberg and his critics, and God knows what else I'm missing. But set all of that aside for a second and just consider the film, which is actually a well-made little fairy tale about Arbus' transition from loyal housewife and her husband's photography assistant to being a internationally acclaimed photographer in her own right. It has its narrative flaws, agreed, but it also wields its titular imagination in wildly revealing and magnanimous ways, and should be considered on its own terms rather than those demanding a Behind-the-Musicesque concession to bloodless melodrama.

But enough of me: I asked Shainberg about where Fur came from, where he tried to take it and what he makes of the reaction it has received since its festival roll-out late last summer. It's an intriguing listen.

The Reeler Podcast: Steven Shainberg (15 MB)

Check back next week for a Reeler podcast double feature with Fast Food Nation director Richard Linklater and the ensemble behind Christopher Guest's latest, For Your Consideration. I have to take these headphones off for a while.

No one ever doubted Pedro Almodovar was a big deal, but this is kind of crazy: Between his new picture Volver, his eight-film retrospective currently making the American distribution rounds and last month's wildly hyped New York Film Festival stopover that felt at times like a coronation weekend, the 57-year-old director arrives back in NYC theaters Friday at what seems like the height of his powers. In the middle of it all, The Reeler somehow caught up with him and Volver leading lady Penelope Cruz -- whose work commanded its own loyal festival following -- to learn more about their latest collaboration and what makes them such a formidable pair.

Have a listen:

Reeler Podcast: Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz (11.7 MB)

Needless to say, the pleasure was mine.

At any rate, enjoy, and drop back by next week for the next Reeler Podcast, featuring Fur director Steven Shainberg.

(Photo: Emilio Pereda and Paola Ardizzoni / Sony Pictures Classics)

As noted last week, The Reeler caught up with Shortbus filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell during his recent press and party whirlwind through town, a succession of rich and ribald offerings that I was fortunate enough to partially catch on the record. (What was off the record you'd have to see to beilieve, anyway). And thus the return of the Reeler Podcast: A conversation with the director about his daring new film and all the oversexed madness surrounding it. If you've ever wondered how one parlays a tough Catholic upbringing into tender scenes of autofellatio and ass-eating, your wait to find out is over.

Click the link below for the full podcast, one of what I hope will be many as The Reeler finds its sea legs in the weeks and months ahead. ADVISORY: This is a large file -- 14 MB -- so please be patient as it loads. -- STV

The Reeler Podcast with John Cameron Mitchell -- Sept. 25, 2006