3D artist, animator and director of the new film Boys Go to Jupiter Julian Glander joins us to discuss the live wire pleasures of SLC Punk! starring Matthew Lillard as a Stevo, a brash, blue-haired anarchist punk rocker who, alongside his best friend Bob, seeks meaning in the aimlessness of Salt Lake City, Utah. Though set amidst the deeply conservative Reagan 80s, the film belongs to the long lineage of early 90s slacker movies, navigating the push-pull of material stability at the expense of authenticity and self-actualization.
We discuss the film's take on the punk in the 80s and how it finds common throughlines with 90s slacker culture through a flattening of the political contours of the anarcho-punk movement. Then, we explore how the film fluctuates between flattery and fetishization for its disaffected protagonists' lifestyle and critique of its shallowness, as well as the harsh realities of conforming to the capitalist systems we all seek to rebel against.
Finally, we discuss Julian's new film Boys Go to Jupiter, and how it updates many of the concerns of the 90s slacker era, finding rich satirical terrain in the gig economy, hustle culture, and a system that asks us to choose between integrity and comfort.
Go see Boys Go to Jupiter, now playing at a theater new you.
Follow Julian on Twitter.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
More new movie talk as we take on the most divisive film of the summer, Ari Aster's COVID-era neo-western Eddington. The film follows Joaquin Phoenix as Joe Cross, the sheriff of Eddington, NM who - frustrated by the state's mask mandates in early 2020 - decides to run for mayor to depose the incumbent Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), a boilerplate liberal looking to move the town into the future by granting subsidies to a tech company attempting to build a data center at the edge of town. The film also traces the various conflicts that erupts as the era's wave of Black Lives Matter protests (following the murder of George Floyd) run up against the sheriff's department and the competing ideologies of the townsfolk, all emboldened by the hypermediated, isolated existences that defined the pandemic.
We beging by addressing the film's politics, rejecting criticisms of the film as "centrist" or evincing a "both sides are bad" mentality, instead revealing the fundamental retreat of material politics as the defining order of the 2020s. Then, we discuss the film as western, how it embraces the lineage of John Ford, and how its world of localized, independent vacuums of internet-fed ideology suggest a collapse of the dialectic. Finally, we look at what the movie has to say about Big Tech, the victims of capitalism, and its (quite cynical) read on where America all headed.
Read Alex on Eddington at More Like Shit Stack
Read Ed Berger on Eddington at Reciprocal Contradicton 2.0
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
Writer, academic, and prestigious poster Peter Raleigh earns his hat trick, returning to the Factory Floor to discuss Abel Ferrara's philosophical vampire film The Addiction. Shot in stark, vivid black & white cinematography and featuring a breathtaking lead performance by the great Lili Taylor, the film explores vampirism as a natural extension of the maladies of the world, a physical expression of the spiritual sickness of existing in modernity as a subject of the American Empire.
We begin with a discussion of Abel Ferrara as director, his unsparing eye for difficult subject matter, and the unexpected tenderness and humanism that emanates from such an exacting body of work. Then, we explore the film's multifaceted take on vampirism, simultaneously allegorizing addiction, spiritual retribution, and a subjective manifestation of imperial blowback. Finally, we discuss the potency of a film that locates a cutlural zeitgeist and comment on its afflictions through formalism rather than mimeography, conjuring the essence of a historical-material milieu rather than seeking shallow pattern recognition.
Follow Peter Raleigh on Twitter.
Read and Subscribe to Peter's Substack Long Library.
Read Peter on Abel Ferrara's The Addiction.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
We welcome the esteemed critic, journalist, and podcaster Jourdain Searles to the show to discuss Quentin Tarantino's seminal third feature Jackie Brown, an adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch that also serves as Tarantino's love letter to Blaxploitation cinema and one of its defining stars, Pam Grier.
We begin with a discussion of Blaxploitation cinema, Pam Grier's status within the genre, and how Tarantino navigates the fine line between homage and aesthetic fetishism. Then, we unpack the film's taught, thoughtfully structured script that manages to pack the customary twists and reversals of a Leonard adaptation without skimping on the romance and hangout vibes that underly Tarantino's most accomplished work. Finally, we pull back to discuss Tarantino today and whether we can successfully decouple the director's artistry from his support for Israel.
Follow Jourdain Searles on Twitter.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
Vulture and New York Magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri returns to discuss Bernardo Bertolucci's stunning mood piece Little Buddha, a rich and evocative story of an American family who travel to Bhutan after learning their son may be the reincarnation of the spiritual leader of a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks. The film also chronicles chapters in the life of Siddartha (played by Keanu Reeves) who rejects his life of sheltered privilege after learning of human suffering in order to seek a path of spiritual enlightenment. Exhibiting Berolucci's customary visual richness - emboldened by breathtaking images from Academy Award-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro - and an otherworldly emotional frankness, Little Buddha conjures the sensation and grandeur of a personal spiritual awakening.
We discuss the career of Bertolucci and his "Eastern Trilogy" beginning with 1987's Best Picture winner The Last Emperor, in which Bertolucci's fascination with the spiritual and cultural practices of the Asian continent became a personal endeavor into a deeper understanding of his own artistic ethos. Then we unpack the splendid uncannines of Little Buddha and how Bertolucci's directorial mastery allows for a film of constant settling and de-escalation to feel thrilling and proulsive through it's evocation of a preternatural emotionality. Finally, we discuss the west's fascination with the Tibetan independence movement in the 1990s and the American films it inspired during the decade.
Follow Bilge Ebiri on Twitter
Order Little Buddha on 4K or Blu-ray from Kino Lorber
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
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We're back with more Danny Boyle coverage, this time discussing his latest film 28 Years Later, the long-awaited sequel to Boyle's own 28 Days Later (as well as its sequel 28 Weeks Later) that bracingly rejects the template set by both its predecessors and the broader scope of modern blockbusters to deliver a visceral, formally daring, and narratively audacious film that feels both mythic and keenly of-the-moment.
We begin by discussing the reunion of Boyle's 28 Days Later collaborators, secreenwriter Alex Garland and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, and the film's narrative and technical accomplishments achieved by shooting on the iPhone 15 and employing a breakneck editing style that ventures occasionally into the realm of the avant-garde. Then, we contemplate the film's episodic structure, producing tonally distinct chapters that feel indebted both to Homeric and Alighierian epics as well as fantasy storytelling. Finally, we engage with the film's perspectives on death and mass crisis in the 21st century, how it speaks to our moment post-COVID and amidst Israel's ongoing genocide, and asks us to honor and value life in ways unfamiliar and reverent.
Watch the trailer for 28 Years Later
Listen to Taylor Holmes' reading of Rudyard Kipling's "Boots"
Listen to Young Fathers' soundtrack for 28 Years Later
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.
Film journalist and friend of the show Brandon Streussnig returns to discuss Danny Boyle's debut film Shallow Grave, a British riff on the 90s neo-noir template, self-described by Boyle and his collaborators as their take on the Coen's Blood Simple. The film chronicles a trifecta of beautiful, sociopathic yuppies sharing an Edinburgh flat (Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, and Ewan McGregor) who unravel after the untimely death of their new roommate and the discovery of a suitcase full of cash. Frenetic, aesthetically bold, and brimming with terrific performances from its cast of newcomers, Shallow Grave stood in stark opposition to the more muted social realism of established British filmmakers of the era like Mike Leigh and Ken Loach and showcased the collaborative power of Boyle, McGregor, screenwriter John Hodge, and producer Andrew Macdonald only a handful of years removed from their landmark feature, Trainspotting.
We discuss Boyle's aesthetic inclinations, his history in the theater, and how the cinematic medium can liberate a particular type of artist from the confines of the stage. Then, we unpack the film's stellar trio of performances, its economy of character, and especially McGregor's star-making turn that suggests the greatness he would achieve with Boyle in their next several collaborations. Finally, we explore the film's ire for post-Thatcherite individualism, its attacks on the moral vacuum of the upwardly mobile, the dramatic irony of a film about the corruptability of money even for those who don't need it.
In addition, we spend a brief moment looking forward to Boyle's latest film 28 Years Later (a full Bonus episode on the film coming later this week) and what it supposes for Boyle's late period.
Follow Brandon Streussnig on Twitter.
Read Brandon's recent interview with Palestinian-American filmmaker Reem Jubran about her new film Don't Be Long, Little Bird at his Substack.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
We went exceptionally long on the late John Singleton’s undersung period western Rosewood, a film (and filmmaker) whose fingerprints are all over Ryan Coogler’s recent box office sensation, Sinners. Rosewood tells the story of an independent Black township in Florida and the barbaric racial violence it faced in 1923, incited by a white woman’s false accusation of assault and the Klan-assisted mob that followed. It’s believed that over 100 Black citizens were murdered during the attacks, though the true number has never been properly counted.
Despite the brutality, the legacy of Rosewood was forgotten—suppressed for nearly 60 years by both those who endured it and those who carried out the violence—until investigators uncovered the truth. That reckoning ultimately led to a 1994 vote in the Florida State Legislature to pay reparations to the survivors and their descendants.
In Singleton's hands, the story of Rosewood becomes a rich, downtempo historical epic of properly grave tone; a film that never shies away from the violent realities of Black life in America's south in the early 20th century, the racial animus stoked by class anxieties and lingering slavery era resentments, and the complicity of white audiences and their ancestors in carrying out the violence that shaped our country's past and present.
We discuss Singleton's inimitable capacity to juggle the rhythms of mainstream studio moviemaking with the formal radicalism of a Black story told with limited equivocation and compromise, as well as how blockbuster moviemaking primes us for absolution rather than honest reckoning. Then, we explore the rich character work within the film, how Singleton utlizies the embellishments of genre and archetype to root Blackness in a cinematic history linked conspicuously to white supremacy, and the refreshing stroke of having "no good white guys" in the movie. Finally, we relate the film to Coogler's latest, where it achieves a similar filmic mastery as well as where we feel it falls short of Singleton's vision.
Read The Rosewood Massacre at Esquire Magazine
Watch The 1983 Rosewood Massacre segment from 60 Minutes
Read Robert Daniels on Sinners at Roger Ebert
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.
We stayed up for three consecutive days without sleep and kept at least one hand on a microphone at all times in order to test our mettle and discuss S.R. Bindler's 1997 "gawkumentary" Hands on a Hardbody, a story of 23 contenstants in Longview, Texas squaring off in a competition of stamina to win a Nissan hardbody truck. Over the course of three days, Bindler and his crew record the ecstasy of victory, the agony of defeat, and the enormity of - as one particularly philosophical contestant puts it - "the human drama thing."
We begin with a discussion of commodity fetishism (in the Marxian sense) and how the film explores the mystification of value surrounding the titular hardbody truck and what it means within the lives of all the contestants. Then, we dig into the film's many "characters", how they fulfill or transcend archetype, and how they beguile us with the profundity of their small-town wisdom. Finally, we discuss the feat of Bindler and Co's filmmaking as well as its limits, and how the strain the competition's longevity begins to bleed into the acuity and perceptiveness of the movie itself.
Watch Hands on a Hardbody on YouTube.
Rent or Purchase Hands on a Hardbody
Read Ethan Warren on Hands on a Hardbody at Bright Wall/Dark Room.
The Roxie theater in San Francisco is still seeking funds to help buy their building! Be sure to listen to our recent conversation with producer and Roxie board member Henry S. Rosenthal and visit the Roxie website to donate today!
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
This is a re-upload for Spotify of a conversation originally held in November of 2023. Hit Factory wishes to extend our deepest gratitude and reverence to the National Music Publishers’ Association - tireless defenders of intellectual property, guardians of taste, and brave crusaders against independent podcasts that allegedly included a brief clip of copyrighted music within a previous version of this episode.
Journalist and writer Séamus Malekafzali returns to the program for a lengthy conversation about Martin Scorsese's 1995 crime epic 'Casino'. Initially viewed by critics and audiences as a retread of Scorsese's masterful crime saga 'Goodfellas', the film has since been reevaluated as a masterpiece in its own right - one enriched by the director's late period films and preoccupations.
We discuss the film's dizzying construction, effectively evoking the glitz and glam of the Vegas strip through extended montages and voiceover (an effect masterfully rendered by Scorsese's deft hands as a director, a firecracker script with co-writer Nicholas Pileggi, and the brilliant editing of longtime Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker). Then, we examine the brilliant, career-defining performance of Sharon Stone as Ginger McKenna. It's a role that deserves every possible accolade, and strikes a note that no one but Stone could conceivably achieve. Finally, we discuss the film as capitalist allegory, and how Scorsese thoughtfully weaves commentary on the corporate centralization of the American economy and its steady collapsing of the middle class.
We also offer some thoughts on Scorsese's latest, 'Killers of the Flower Moon', and the evolution of the director's views on capitalism, corruption, and consequence.
Follow Séamus on Twitter.
Read Séamus's Substack on Middle East politics.
Read & Listen to Burnt Nitrate, Séamus's explorations of lesser-known and lesser-discussed films.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.
Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
We got our hands on Sofia Coppola's diary and read it to try and make sense of her dreamy, quietly devastating debut The Virgin Suicides. Adapted from the Jeffrey Eugenides novel of the same name, Coppola's film tells the story of the five Lisbon sisters as seen through the eyes of the boys they charm and perplex in equal measure. Adopting the male gaze as a means of dismantling it, the film is a gauzy, stylish showcase that approaches the concerns of girlhood with sincerity while unearthing the tragedies of femininity under the patriarchal thumb of suburban American life.
We discuss the film's aesthetic contradictions and how it weaponizes its own visual splendor against the viewer, its beauty a calculated veneer masking uncomfortable truths. Then, we examine the film's brilliant narrative device, using a single unidentified narrator to represent the collective attitudes of the young men incapapable of comprehending the fullness of the Lisbon sisters and their interiority. Finally, we ponder the connections Coppola draws between femininity and the natural world, how she literalizes this coupling within the film's suburban landscape and distinctive milieu.
The Roxie theater in San Francisco is still seeking funds to help buy their building! Be sure to listen to our recent conversation with producer and Roxie board member Henry S. Rosenthal and visit the Roxie website to donate today!
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
We finally bring the brilliant, indelible work of Claire Denis to the pod with a discussion of her 1994 TV movie U.S. Go Home. Produced as part of the anthology series Tous les garcons et les filles de leur age… alongside work from other French visionaries like Chantal Akerman, Olivier Assayas and André Téchiné, Denis' film is an elliptical, compassionate coming-of-age story that regularly subverts expectations and never succumbs to the potentially regressive tendencies of its narrative milieu.
We begin with some chatter about recent Hit Factory-featured filmmaker Edward Yang and a recent watch of his final work, Yi Yi. Then, we explore Denis' film - its lyrical formalism, its exquisite soundtrack - and how she crafts a work of simultaneously keen observation and hypnotic ambiguity.
Watch U.S. Go Home on YouTube
The Roxie theater in San Francisco is still seeking funds to help buy their building! Be sure to listen to our recent conversation with producer and Roxie board member Henry S. Rosenthal and visit the Roxie website to donate today!
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
David Cronenberg returns to the big screen this week with The Shrouds, perhaps his most autobiographical film to date. The film involves grieving tech entrepreneur Karsh (played brilliantly by Vincent Cassel) who has developed the means to surveil the dead in their tombs, including his recently deceased wife. After a series of grave defacements in the cemetery plot he owns, and in which his wife is buried, Karsh ventures down a rabbit hole of conspiracies technological, geopolitical, and psychosexual seeking answers in an increasingly indeterminate reality.
We attempt to unpack this rich text with an examination of Cronenberg's perspectives on our hypermediated present, and how the constant hum of "connectedness" becomes an impedement to our ability to process our own traumas. Then, we explore the films labyrinthine narrative, weaving an intricate - a deliberately unresolvable - web of various plots, evoking the derealization of our interconnected age of information overload. Finally, we explore the films nuanced, mature eroticism, and illuminate why Cronenberg is the master of making non-cinematic sex feel simultaneously trenchant and deeply arousing.
The Roxie theater in San Francisco is still seeking funds to help buy their building! Be sure to listen to our recent conversation with producer and Roxie board member Henry S. Rosenthal and visit the Roxie website to donate today!
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
The Roxie Theater, a San Francisco landmark in the Mission District, is one of the oldest continuously operated cinemas in the United States, with its history tracing back to the early 1900s.
Recently, The Roxie kicked off the public phase of their fundraising campaing, Forever Roxie, in order to purchase their buidling, invest in technology upgrades, and expand their programming. As the premier theater destination for both hosts of Hit Factory, we want to get the word out to listeners and ask for your support in ensuring that The Roxie remains a cherised and thriving institution in San Francisco for the long haul.
We sat down for a breif conversation with film producer, former punk drummer, and Roxie board member Henry S. Rosenthal to learn more about the Forever Roxie campaign, to talk movies and the state of cinema more broadly, and cast light on why The Roxie's efforts to guide their own future as the owners of their building extends beyond San Francisco's film community and could become a roadmap for independent film exhibition all over the country.
The Roxie is more than a theater. It is a home alive with engagement and inspiration where filmmakers, artists, and audiences forge a creative community through workshops, conversations, collaborative projects and fierce programming that place The Roxie at the forefront of independent film. Please donate what you can to help bring this quintessential SF film instituion into the future!
Donate to Forever Roxie & Find More Ways to Support HERE.
Help spread the word on your own with the Forever Roxie Social Media Toolkit.
Follow The Roxie on Instagram for more updates.
We inaugurate the brilliant Taiwanese master Edward Yang with a conversation about his transcendent 1994 social satire A Confucian Confusion. Following up his staggering masterwork A Brighter Summer Day, Yang turned his attention to Taipei in the 1990s at the height of its rapid evolution into a port city of global capital and the effects this shift had on the value systems and relational dynamics of the city's people. Evoking the slapstick and breackneck pacing of more popular modes of cinema - including the American romantic comedy - the film follows a large ensemble of Taipei's young professionals caught up in the frenzy of capitalism's mechanisms of social order, all in pursuit of an irresolute alternative that can liberate them from their self-made misery and help them achieve something approaching an honest, authentic way of life.
We begin with a conversation about Yang as artist, his preoccupations, his distinct convergence of heart and wit. Then, we break down A Confucian Confusion's ensemble, how the characters reflect Yang's feelings about Taipei's consumer-friendly, corporatized status, and how honest desire is sublimated into the cold calculus of business language - a phenomenon that presages and predicts modern tech culture and its bastardized language of wellness and attunement. Finally, we discuss the film's unique and delicate balance of trenchant political satire and touching character drama; how Yang achieves a profound and honest reflection of the minor victories and acts of liberation we can achieve within a totalizing capitalist milieu.
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.
Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
Xuanlin Tham, author of the new book Revolutionary Desires: The Political Power of the Sex Scene returns to the show to discuss the Wachowskis' debut feature - the sharp, sexy sapphic neo-noir Bound. Emboldened by brilliant performances from its two leads Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, the film is both an assured and nimble stylistic calling card for the future Matrix directors and a carefully studied lesbian romance, rendered in considered motif and visual flourish.
We begin with an examination of the Wachowskis as filmmakers and how their work exists at a singular nexus of mass appeal and subversiveness. Then, we discuss the influence of feminist author and journalist Susie Bright, a key influence and collaborator on the film, and how she informed the Wachowskis' formal approach to formally conveying the slow burn of lesbian eroticism. Finally, we discuss the film's erotic sequences, how they transcend simple arousal, and what they tell us about the revolutionary capacity of sex and pleasure as a weapon against capitalism's confining homogeneity.
Buy and read Xuanlin's book Revolutionary Desires: The Political Power of the Sex Scene at 404Ink.
Read Xuanlin's Manifesto for the Modern Cinematic Sex Scene at AnOther.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish
Film critic and author A.S. Hamrah joins for a conversation on his recent Fast Company piece "Hollywood’s obsession with AI-enabled ‘perfection’ is making movies less human", which details some alarming (and frankly, depressing) recent use cases of A.I. in both studio blockbuster fare and awards-contending independent releases like Brady Corbet's The Brutalist.
We attempt to unpack the psychology driving the pervasive and exponential use of A.I. in moviemaking - Is there a genuine impetus on the part of a moviegoing audience to iron out anything that antagonizes credulity? Why do filmmakers seem so eager to embrace the ease of A.I. at the expense of cinema's sense of "authenticity"? The, we examine the material implications of A.I. on film workers, and how the unanimous embrace of the technology poses an existential threat to the future of craftspeople in Hollywood. Finally, we look to the near future and ask, "Are we already past the tipping point? What, if anything, can we do to oppose A.I.s dominance of Hollywood at the expense of real artistry?"
Buy A.S. Hamrah's book, The Earth Dies Streaming from n+1
Read A.S. Hamrah on the 2025 Oscar nominees and the best films of 2024 at n+1.
Follow A.S. Hamrah on Twitter.
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.
Returning friend of the show Comrade Yui swings by to discuss the 1994 Full Moon direct-to-video masterwork Dark Angel: The Ascent. The story follows the exploits of a bored, beautiful young demon Veronica Iscariot (Angela Featherstone) as she defies the orders of her parents and the rules of hell to visit Earth and walk among the humans. It's not long before she realizes that humanity has forsaken its God-given gifts and descended into all manners of evil, which must be brutally punished. Written by Freeway director Matthew Bright and directed by Linda Hassani (her sole feature directorial effort), the film defies all expectations of the DTV format with an unusually rich premise, emotional depth, and style to spare.
We begin with a discussion of the film's unique theology, offering a vision of Heaven and Hell working in concert to do the bidding of the Almighty. Then, we explore how Bright's script searingly antagonizes many of society's ills, especially those germane and topical to the mid-90s - anti-welfare rhetoric, police brutality, antisexualism. Then, we uncover the film's depthful look at the notion of fallenness, and how its characters perceive of complacency and disregard for evil as tantamount to evil itself.
Follow Comrade Yui on Twitter.
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.
Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
We're back talking about the recently-released Babygirl, directed by Dutch actor-turned-director Halina Reijn. Despite some initial apprehensions based on the discourse and reviews from trusted sources, we both found the film to be a stylish, funny, and intelligent examination of desire, kink, and the ways that the patriarchy suppresses and rejects expressions of female pleasure that are incongruent with the capitalist guardrails of our culture.
We begin by discussing the film's nimble balancing of aesthetic impulses which heighten the proceeding's with a sense of hyperreality without sacrificing the story's emotional core. Then, we praise the magnetic work of Nicole Kidman, and the nuances of her performance and character: a high-powered woman caught in the ideological trap of patriarchy that grants her material success while demanding that she stifle her corporeal desires, judging them as aberrant, even wicked. Finally, we explore the film's thoughtful approach to the nature of sexuality and erotic experience, finding compelling layers of meaning and understanding often missing from today's films.
Read Justine Peres Smith on Babygirl for Cult MTL.
Read Jourdain Searles on Babygirl for the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Pre-Order Xuanlin Tham's Revolutionary Desires from 404Ink.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.
Fan favorite Hard Mike returns to the show alongside newcomer Syd Bricks to discuss Paul Schrader's Affliction, one of the filmmaker's most well-observed explorations of addiction and the generational cycles of suffering that manifest as a result of leaving personal trauma and pain unresolved. The film follows Nick Nolte's Wade Whitehouse, an alcohlic, washed-up cop in a small New Hampshire town whose maladies put him at odds with his community as he circles the drain, falling deeper into his own delusions of murder, conspiracy, and betrayal. The film also stars a monstrous James Coburn as the Whitehouse patriarch, in a role that would earn him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Together, we discuss our personal experiences with alcoholism and why the film is one of the very best about the subject in its dizzying, unmooring evocation of being caught in the chaos of addiction, both as the afflicted and as someone who loves them. Then we discuss the film's novel use of the neo-noir format as a subversive element of narrative to capture us in the dragnet of delusion meticulously architected by the film's unreliable protagonist. Finally, we praise the exemplary work of the film's cast, especially Nolte and Coburn, and how their screen personas function perfectly as characters filled with unmanageable woe, malice, and hurt.
Follow Hard Mike on Twitter.
Follow Syd Bricks on Twitter.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.
