Awesome Movie Year is a podcast co-hosted by film critic Josh Bell and filmmaker and comedian Jason Harris. Each season looks at why a certain year was an awesome movie year. Each episode focuses on a different film from the year being investigated. Produced by David Rosen of the Piecing It Together Podcast for the All Points West Podcast Network
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The People Under the Stairs (1991 Josh's Pick)
Season 26 · Episode 5
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 • Duration 01:05:01
The fifth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1991 features Josh’s personal pick, Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs. Written and directed by Wes Craven and starring Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A.J. Langer and Ving Rhames, The People Under the Stairs was partially inspired by a true-crime incident from the 1970s.
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1991 episode, with our documentary pick, Apocalypse Now behind-the-scenes chronicle Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.
Barton Fink (1991 Cannes Palme d'Or Winner)
Season 26 · Episode 4
Wednesday, October 21, 2026 • Duration 01:18:08
The fourth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1991 features the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner, the Coen brothers’ Barton Fink. Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring John Turturro, John Goodman, Judy Davis, Michael Lerner and John Mahoney, Barton Fink also won awards at Cannes for Best Director and Best Actor.
The third episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1991 features the year’s biggest flop, Michael Lehmann’s Hudson Hawk. Directed by Michael Lehmann and starring Bruce Willis, Andie MacDowell, Danny Aiello, Richard E. Grant and Sandra Bernhard, Hudson Hawk is based on a character created by Willis and songwriter Robert Kraft.
The second episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1991 features our pick for a notable debut feature, John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood. Written and directed by John Singleton and starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long and Angela Bassett, Boyz n the Hood made Singleton the youngest-ever Best Director Oscar nominee.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991 Box Office Champ)
Season 26 · Episode 1
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 • Duration 01:15:55
The first episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1991 features the box-office champion, James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Directed and co-written by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick and Joe Morton, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the second film in the long-running Terminator sci-fi action franchise.
This bonus episode for our season on the awesome movie year of 1985 features Savage Steve Holland’s Better Off Dead. Written and directed by Savage Steve Holland and starring John Cusack, Diane Franklin, Curtis Armstrong, Amanda Wyss and Aaron Dozier, Better Off Dead is the first of two movies that Holland and Cusack made together in the 1980s.
In this epilogue to our season on the awesome movie year of 1946, we talk about alternate movies we considered including in all of our different categories this season, and read suggestions from some listeners about their favorite 1946 movies.
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
The Big Sleep (1946 Audience Choice)
Season 25 · Episode 14
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 • Duration 01:04:35
The finale of our season on the awesome movie year of 1946 features our audience choice poll winner, Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep. Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Martha Vickers, The Big Sleep defeated two other film noir classics in our 1946 audience choice poll.
The Beast With Five Fingers (1946 Future Cult Classic)
Season 25 · Episode 13
Wednesday, September 9, 2026 • Duration 52:55
The thirteenth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1946 features our cult classic pick, horror movie The Beast With Five Fingers. Directed by Robert Florey and starring Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen and J. Carrol Naish, The Beast With Five Fingers is based on the short story by William Fryer Harvey.
The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Bosley Crowther in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/1946/12/26/archives/the-screen-in-review-stairway-to-heaven-a-british-production-at.html), Variety (https://variety.com/1945/film/reviews/the-beast-with-five-fingers-1117788929/), and William R. Weaver in the Motion Picture Herald.
If you’re a Letterboxd user and you watch any of the movies we talk about on the show, tag your review “Awesome Movie Year” to share your thoughts.
Swing Parade of 1946 (1946 Dave's Pick)
Season 25 · Episode 12
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 • Duration 59:27
The twelfth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1946 features our producer David Rosen’s pick, musical comedy Swing Parade of 1946. Directed by Phil Karlson and starring Gale Storm, Phil Regan, Edward Brophy, Mary Treen and the Three Stooges, Swing Parade of 1946 marks one of the Three Stooges’ relatively rare feature-film appearances.
The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Thalia Bell in Motion Picture Herald, Showmen’s Trade Review, and Wanda Hale in the New York Daily News.
If you’re a Letterboxd user and you watch any of the movies we talk about on the show, tag your review “Awesome Movie Year” to share your thoughts.
You can find our producer David Rosen and his Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com, on Instagram at , on Bluesky at piecingpod.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1991 episode, with Josh’s personal pick, Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs.
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1991 episode, with the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner, the Coen brothers’ Barton Fink.
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1991 episode, with the year’s biggest flop, Michael Lehmann’s Hudson Hawk.
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1991 episode, with our pick for a notable debut feature, John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood.
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for future episodes.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in next time for the premiere of our season on the awesome movie year of 1991, featuring the box office champion, James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1946 episode, our season epilogue.
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1946 episode, featuring our audience choice poll winner, noir classic The Big Sleep.
Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.
Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen
Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1946 episode, featuring our cult classic pick, horror movie The Beast With Five Fingers.
