Fiends for mojitos Katie Walsh and Blake Howard begin their drink-along podcast through every loveable morsel of Michael Mann's misunderstood masterpiece MIAMI VICE (2006).
On their addictive podcast dedicated to Miami Vice, called Miami Nice, critics Katie Walsh and Blake Howard regularly invite guests on to talk about the film. (I’ve been on, as you might imagine.) But unlike most other podcasts devoted to single titles, the guests on Miami Nice are rarely there to talk about some specific element of the picture. Rather, the podcast serves almost as a confessional. Guest after guest talks about how they became obsessed with this strange, once-detested marvel of a movie and the circumstances that led them to it. Then they (and by they, I of course mean we) try to make sense of the film and ascertain why it’s so … habit-forming. Usually, there comes a point when it seems that everybody has simply run out of words.
Katie Walsh is a Los Angeles-based film critic, journalist, podcast host, and moderator. She reviews weekly film releases for the Tribune News Service, and the Los Angeles Times, and is a frequent guest host of the Maximum Fun podcast Switchblade Sisters. Her writing has been published inVanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Playboy,The Playlist, Nerdist,Slate, The Hairpin, indieWIRE, Women and Hollywood, Town & Country, Movieline, CAP the Magazine, and Nonfics, and she frequently contributes film reviews to KCRW’s Press Play with Madeline Brand. She has covered many international film festivals as a critic and reporter, and has moderated dozens of Q&As with filmmakers and actors around LA. She is a part-time lecturer at Chapman University, teaching the Film Studies class “Practices of Writing About Film.”
Check out Twitter or Rotten Tomatoes for links to recent reviews, and use the contact form to get in touch for any writing, hosting, or moderating needs.
Series includes:
MIAMI NICE: One of a Colin w/ Dan Mecca
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins co-host on The B-Side Podcast, co-founder of The Film Stage and filmmaker Dan Mecca. Dan joins us to unpack the MIAMI NICE cut, and to excavate the fascinating rollercoaster career of Colin Farrell.
MIAMI NICE: To See If You Go Meet The Mann w/ Justin Liberman
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins former Michael Mann assistant during the COLLATERAL & MIAMI VICE, Justin Liberman. Justin shares his incredible tale from waiting tables to working at Michael Mann's office at Forward Pass and seeing the pre-production of the abandoned Worcester Cold Storage, the casting 'what-ifs' of Collateral and an insider's guide to the chaos of Miami Vice.
MIAMI NICE: The Sound of Vice with Elliott Koretz
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard join one of three people, including Michael Mann, that contributed to both the Miami Vice T.V series and the 2006 film, Sound Designer and Sound Supervisor, Elliott Koretz. Elliott, Katie and Blake discuss working on the Miami Vice pilot, the work of a Sound Supervisor when you’re working with Michael Mann, Mann’s two-hour sleep cycle in the edit of his films and secret ingredients in the Collateral sound design.
MIAMI NICE: Colin Farrell's Handler Pt. 2 with Japheth Gordon
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard join filmmaker, writer, producer and COLIN FARRELL’S HANDLER on Miami Vice, Japheth Gordon. Katie and Blake talk with Japheth who paints a picture of the wild reality of making Miami Vice, the tension between the stars, Michael Mann’s work ethic and the way movies were made BEFORE the global financial crisis.
MIAMI NICE: Colin Farrell's Handler Pt. 1 with Japheth Gordon
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard join filmmaker, writer, producer and COLIN FARRELL’S HANDLER on Miami Vice, Japheth Gordon. Katie and Blake talk with Japheth who paints a picture of the wild reality of making Miami Vice, the tension between the stars, Michael Mann’s work ethic and the way movies were made BEFORE the global financial crisis.
MIAMI NICE: This is the End with Joshua Caldwell
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard join Director, Producer, Writer, MENDING THE LINE, INFAMOUS, NEGATIVE, LAYOVER and MTV Movie Award Winner, Joshua Caldwell. Katie and Blake talk with Josh about his fascination with Michael Mann's aesthetic, the regret that he can't re-see Miami Vice again in the theatre with a memory wipe and finally ending with the end, as we should.
MIAMI NICE: "Mann-aissance" with Michael Mann Facts
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins the chief architect of the meme-ificiation of Michael Mann, the elusive @MannFacts. We discuss his Mann immersion and being at the nexus of the "Mann-aissance".
MIAMI NICE: "Miami Vyce" with Vyce Vyctus
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins the action film aficionado Vyce Victus. Katie, Blake and Vyce discuss the meta-American Empire apparatus expressed through the Bay-formers series, watching HEAT in basic training and generally championing "Gangster Ass Movies" (Trademark Vyce Victus).
MIAMI NICE: "Gravity of the Flux" with Jean-Baptiste Thoret
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins Michael Mann crusader, director, film critic and historian; Jean-Baptiste Thoret. Katie, Blake and Jean-Baptiste discuss Miami Vice as an era-defining movie and Michael Mann as one of the most influential American filmmakers of the last thirty years.
MIAMI NICE: "I do wanna talk about the shirts" with Emma Stefansky
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins Brooklyn based culture writer at Thrillist and Twitter "Imp", Emma Stefansky. Katie, Blake and Katie talk about Colin Farell embracing the weird, attending "Miami Vice (T.V Show) Nights", and prescribing Miami Vice 2006 for those feeling horny and lonely.
MIAMI NICE: "Their Code is No Code" with S.A Cosby
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins New York Times Best Selling author of Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears, S.A. Cosby. Katie, Blake and S.A. talk about "neon-noir", the film as the T.V series grown up, Michael Mann's mastery of tone and digressions to WIDOWS and TRUE DETECTIVE.
MIAMI NICE: "Finding Work/Life Balance" with Justin Khoo
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins Associate professor of philosophy MIT, movie podcaster about movies:
Cows in the Field. Katie, Blake and Justin talk about the epic tragedy, imagining Ricardo and Trudy's exhibited through Sonny's perspective and Mann's depiction of the sublime.
MIAMI NICE: "Colin's Not Here" with Thomas Grabinski
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins the co-host of the podcast Watching Movies at the Bar, Twitter "scamp", and script consultant Thomas Grabinski. Katie, Blake and Thomas talk about his new Mann obsession, a crusade to convince all people to love Miami Vice the way we do, and that Colin Farrell's performance is the best "enhanced" (not endorsed) performance of all time.
MIAMI NICE: "Cold Mojitos, And Guys Being Dudes" with Chris Evangelista
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins Senior Writer and Chief Film Critic for SlashFilm, Chris Evangelista. Katie, Blake and Chris yell at the clouds about the endlessness of television, negotiating with gravity, and pacing our lives like Michael Mann protagonists, just trying to get through to the end of the week.
MIAMI NICE: "Doomed Romance" with Isaac Feldberg
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard joins fellow “Mann Head” and pop culture critic Isaac Feldberg. Blake, Katie and Isaac have a digression laden, insightful examination of Miami Vice the themes that permeate the work of Michael Mann.
MIAMI NICE: "Sonny Crockett is the quintessential Mann protagonist" with Brandon Streussnig
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard join #FilmTwitter darling, Brandon Streussnig to Sonny as the ultimate Michael Mann protagonist in his great piece for the Playlist called ‘Miami Vice’: Quintessentially Michael Mann At 15 Years.
MIAMI NICE: "Opening the Third Eye" with Anna Swanson
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard join Anna Swanson of the Film School Rejects to discuss how Miami Vice opened her third eye as well as her great anniversary feature about Vice cinematography titled Navigating the Digital Landscape of Michael Mann’s ‘Miami Vice’.
MIAMI NICE: "You hear the sound of silence" with Kim Masters
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard join editor-at-large of The Hollywood Reporter and the reporter behind the seminal behind the scenes account of the making of MIAMI VICE - “Fleeing the Scene”.
MIAMI NICE: "One degree away from MACGRUBER" with BenDavid Grabinski
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard join writer/director of HAPPILY BenDavid Grabinski. We discuss the action, romance and the fact that MIAMI VICE is only one degree away from MACGRUBER.
MIAMI NICE: "Salutations from your friends in the South" with Bilge Ebiri
This episode of MIAMI NICE hosts Katie Walsh and Blake Howard join the elder statesmen of Michael Mann fandom writer and film critic Bilge Ebiri to talk about the romance, menace and music of MIAMI VICE.