Unspooled (2018-Present) Review

Podcast: Unspooled
Year(s): 2018-Present
Star(s): Amy Nicholson & Paul Shcheer
Country: US
Language: English

Amy Nicholson is the host of the Earwolf podcast, The Canon, and critic for KPCC's Film Week. She has had a lengthy career as the cheif film critic for L.A weekly. According to her Rotten Tomatoes profile "Her interests include hot dogs". Paul Scheer is an actor, director, comedian, writer and producer. He is a recurring actor on Veep, hosts the podcast How Did this Get Made? and is just generally ridiculously busy. Together they co-host a new favourite podcast of mine called Unspooled. 

Unspooled is a podcast that explores American Film Institutes 2007 list of the "Greatest American Films of All Time". The co-hosts seek to dissect each picture, talk to industry experts, and examine if the "classic" deserves to be on the list. 

A professional film critic inspired by- and on the level of- Pauline Kael, Amy Nicholson provides a great deal of depth regarding each picture Paul & her review. She gives a cup of critical analysis, a teaspoon of history and a pinch of trivia to give Unspooled's audience a greater understanding of the film in question. I consider myself well versed in Chaplin, having published lengthy essays about his career, but even I found new information in the Gold Rush episode. 

While Amy's role seems to have a more objective/informative approach, Paul Scheer is the subjective/opinioned based half. Scheer is not afraid to say how he feels about a film, often to hilarious degree. "Fuck The Deer Hunter! It's fucking bullshit" Caution; Paul does a lot of swearing, he's not for the faint of heart. Having great chemistry together,  they are equal parts education & entertainment, keeping me interested throughout the episode. 

Though the guests are a smaller piece of the episode, I rather enjoy when they come on. My favourite guest so far, admittedly having only heard 15 or so episodes, is Kevin J. Goff. He is the great grand-nephew of oscar winner Hattie McDaniel (Gone with the Wind). Overall, Unspooled is a great podcast that I now look forward to every week, so I thought I'd write a review and share this discovery with my readers. Please go to earwolf.com/show/unspooled to hear the podcast for yourself!