"If my fanny squirms, it's bad. If my fanny doesn't squirm, it's good" with Dana Stevens | The Movie Racket

What can your body tell you about a movie? According to legendary Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, everything.

This week's Movie Racket explores Cohn's infamous rule for separating hits from flops. Joining Michael Phillips is Slate film critic Dana Stevens (Cameraman), who helps unpack what that deceptively simple dictum reveals about audiences, critics, attention spans, and streaming culture. Along the way, they cover The Odyssey, Jeanne Dielman, Citizen Kane, and whether laughter, tears, gasps, or simple restlessness can ever be trusted as measures of a film's success.