River Cities Reader Podcast

Latest Episodes
October 16, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “The Smashing Machine,” “Anemone,” “Good Boy,” “Tron: Ares,” “Roofman,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” and “John Candy: I Like Me”
Back after their successful world tour last week, Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz talk film. The here: The Smashing Machine (dir Benny Safdie, starr Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader,
October 2, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “One Battle After Another,” “The Strangers: Chapter 2,” “Dead of Winter,” and “Eleanor the Great”
Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz talk film. They will be taking holiday next week, so no new talk until 16 October. Whats in the theaters: One Battle After Another (dir Paul Thomas Anderson
September 25, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” “Him,” “The Senior,” and “The History of Sound”
Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz discuss film in their own inimitable idiomatic fashion. The here: A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (dir Kogonada, starr Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Kevin Kline
September 18, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale,” “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” and “The Long Walk”
Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz chit the chat over film in particular, both generations of Spinal Tap. The reviewed: Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (dir Simon Curtis, starr Paul Giamatti
September 11, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” “Highest 2 Lowest,” and “Twinless”
Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz talk film. Schulz talks about The War of the Gargantuas, the 1966 kaiju film directed by Ishir Honda, which does sound very enjoyable perhaps even more th
September 4, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “The Roses,” “Caught Stealing,” “The Toxic Avenger,” and “The Thursday Murder Club”
Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz have reunited, and it feels so good. So good, it seems, that they can brook any amount of disappointment, so long as its baked into a given films story, an
August 28, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “Honey Don’t!,” “Eden,” “Relay,” and “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley”
Dave Levora and Mike Schulz sit around wondering, Wheres Darren? (Chicago, concert) and Does Jaws still hold up? (seeing how its been re-released on its fiftieth anniversary, its still an aesth
August 21, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “Nobody 2,” “Americana,” and “Shin Godzilla”
Dave Levora, Darren Pitra, and Mike Schulz are looking forward to weeks to come, as the balance of previews to available films is hopelessly lopsided this time around. The stuff thats here: Nobody 2
August 14, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “Weapons,” “Freakier Friday,” and “Sketch”
Dave Levora and Darren Pitra debate the merits of Jamie Lee Curtis while Mike Schulz can only sit nearby and wonder, Who else can I throw into this Verdun of fandom, this Somme of celebrity? Whats he
August 7, 2025 with Dave and Darren — “Together,” “The Bad Guys 2,” and “The Naked Gun”
Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra discuss films that you shouldnt see with your parents. These are the Blue Velvets of the Twen-Tennies: The reviewed: The Naked Gun (dir Akiva Schaffer, star