Talking Pondo: Rare Exports and The Ref with Jessica Stone

 In this episode, Jessica Stone joins the podcast. She brings along the movie Rare Exports. Marty and Clif give Jessica the movie The Ref to watch.

This milestone episode gets it's start with Ted Demme’s The Ref (1994). The trio breaks down Dennis Leary’s breakout performance as a cat burglar forced into referee duty for a brutally unhappy family, discussing the film’s sharp dialogue, performative holiday traditions, and why its mix of rage, therapy, and forced honesty still works decades later.

The conversation then shifts north - way north - with Rare Exports (2010), a Finnish holiday horror film that re-imagines Santa Claus as something far older and far more dangerous. The group digs into what makes the film so effective, how it contrasts with The Ref, and why both movies ultimately tap into the same holiday anxieties in very different ways.

 It’s funny, unhinged, thoughtful - and the perfect way to ring in 100 episodes of Talking Pondo. 

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