The MixTape podcast · Movie Review Podcast

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''1977'' film

June 30, 2025·1 hr 8 min·1 clip

Child wakes to toys turning on by themselves, runs into field toward invisible entity

The Mixtape Podcast opens its 100th episode with a milestone callout and a clear handoff. Marcelo introduces the special episode and gives Dean the floor. They are there to talk about Steven Spielberg’s *Close Encounters of the Third Kind*. Dean frames the movie as a story about Roy Neary having his quiet, ordinary life turned upside down after a close encounter with a UFO. The conversation keeps circling back to how carefully the movie is built. The Sonora Desert opening gets immediate attention. The scene is described as terrifying and tense, and the mother’s panic becomes part of the dread. The boy laughing while everything falls apart only makes it worse. The crawl through the doggy shoot lands as a brutal turn. Dean and Marcelo both treat the abduction as genuinely disturbing. They admire how much terror Spielberg pulls out of practical filmmaking. ILM’s early work comes up as a big reason the movie still works. The show keeps pointing to the small details that make the scene land. A grate on the floor, a screw popping out, and the phone failing to work all become part of the praise. The hosts keep saying the movie is so well storyboarded and so well thought out. Then the mood shifts into irritation with the government material. Spielberg’s habit of painting the military as bullies gets called out and debated. The press conference scene becomes the example they keep returning to. There are so many witnesses that the official skepticism does not feel convincing. That frustration does not cool the affection. If anything, it makes the conversation feel more personal. Marcelo and Dean keep tugging the movie apart because they care about how it works. The episode eventually winds down with trivia and a playful closing stretch. The show teases the next film, *I Know What You Did Last Summer*. It ends on the familiar mixtape idea that being handed one means you are loved.

As heard by us

A lively Spielberg rewatch that values craft and sparring in equal measure.

The Mixtape Podcast uses its 100th episode to revisit Close Encounters of the Third Kind with clear enthusiasm. Marcelo and Dean spend time on Spielberg's 1977 film, from the practical effects and strong shot design to the small touches, like the grate and the screw, that make…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for a 100th-episode conversation about Close Encounters of the Third Kind that never stops loving the movie.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The MixTape podcast