Will Sloan returns to the pod to discuss his new monograph Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA, which provides fresh insight on the legendary “bad” director by considering his entire body of work.
For this episode we focus on the final frontier for Ed Wood fans, the pornographic films and books he produced in the twilight of his life.
We discuss in detail 4 of his XXX features: Take It Out in Trade (1970), Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love! and The Only House in Town (both 1971) and his final film, The Young Marrieds(1972). These films (most shot in vivid colour) reveal a dark truth about the Hollywood dream factory, reflecting both the desperation of Wood’s final years and his absolute commitment to his artistic vision no matter the circumstances.
Plus: RIP Diane Keaton.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Will Sloan on Twitter and Bluesky and subscribe to his substack and his podcasts The Important Cinema Club and Michael and Us.
Will’s new book Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA (OR Books) is now available through the publisher or in fine bookstores.
AGFA trailer for the restored Take It Out in Trade (Ed Wood, 1970)
Writer, filmmaker and co-host of the Box Office GROSS podcast Rob Stammitti joins me from Pittsburgh to begin a miniseries on the UK cult band Prefab Sprout, a critically acclaimed band that sold millions of albums and yet didn’t become as huge as they deserved to be. They were hard to categorize, barely toured outside of continental Europe and were somewhat out of step with prevailing trends in popular music in their day and still left behind a fascinating body of work that more people should be aware of.
In part one we discuss arriving late to the game in discovering Prefab Sprout and the long shadow Paddy McAloon casts on modern music before returning to the origin story in County Durham, England, their attention-getting early singles and then track-by-track on their 1984 debut LP Swoon (Songs Written Out Of Necessity). McAloon throws down the gauntlet here, combining post-punk with Bacharach and Broadway influences to create a stunning set at odds with the commercial trends of the era, songs about hard-to-express emotions presented in complex arrangements, which also served as a portrait of the artist as a young man and his declaration of intent, which included projecting an insane youthful self-confidence in his own greatness and great scorn for his contemporaries, wanting to be compared to Sondheim, not Spandau Ballet.
Along the way we discuss the importance of Wendy Smith’s voice, the Steely Dan factor, Paddy’s “Shots Fired” diss tracks, and some of our favourite moments from Swoon that we hope will Sproutpill the uninitiated.
Follow Rob Stammitti on Bluesky, subscribe to his Substack, visit his YouTube page and listen to his podcast with Brian Schmid, Box Office GROSS.
“Side by Side with Sondheim – Swoon and the Great American Musical”, from the Sproutology website, a great resource for the Sproutpilled.
Music video for Don’t Sing, Prefab Sprout, 1984
CW: Spoilers for 28 Days Later and discussions of disturbing subject matter.
Jacob Dallas and Lenore Olson of the literary podcast The Socialist Shelf join me from Atlanta for a discussion of Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later.
Set a couple of decades after the UK was consumed by the Rage Virus of the first film and is now a nation isolated from the rest of the world, 28 Years Later takes place on a small island community in Northern England that has in turn isolated itself from the mainland, and depicts the rituals of this broken society where the surviving men are the hunter gatherers and the women are the providers.
28 Years Later also operates as a metaphor for the UK in the shadow of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, with a society that has forgotten the details of the past but carries on. We discuss some of the provocative ideas 28 Years Later puts forward, including some sympathy for the infected, some contempt for the surviving human race, and the disturbing (and unexpectedly comedic) coda that marks this film as Extremely British, which may not have been clear to international audiences (and indeed enraged some British viewers), while setting up next January’s sequel.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Jacob Dallas and Lenore Olson on Bluesky and visit The Socialist Shelf’s website.
Jacob’s upcoming novel They Called Her Rebel (Collective Ink) is now available for pre-order!
Trailer #1 for 28 Days Later (Danny Boyle, 2025)
Trailer #1 for 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple (Nia DaCosta, 2026)
CW: Spoilers for Eddington and discussions of cinematic violence and sexual abuse.
The film writer Del Winters joins me from Philadelphia for a deep dive into Ari Aster’s contemporary Neo-Western/Comedy/Horror hybrid Eddington, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone.
Set in a fictional small town in New Mexico during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Eddington depicts a showdown between the liberal mayor Ted Garcia (Pascal) who takes public health measures seriously and the town’s conservative sheriff Joe Cross (Phoenix) who resents the mask mandates and warps an existing personal grudge against Garcia into a campaign to defeat him in the upcoming election, spewing internet-borne conspiracy theories that pit neighbour against neighbour in an escalating situation that may threaten the planned construction of a new data centre.
Eddington has divided audiences along political lines, mirroring what the film has to say about how the pandemic exacerbated already existing problems in how we communicate with each other, how online communities have people now preferring to live in their own realities that reinforce their own beliefs, and the shadowy corporations that shape these divides through the use of technology and social media towards their own purposes.
Del and I discuss how Eddington has been mistaken by some as an “equal opportunity satire" or one with a centrist or even MAGA agenda, the skill in which Aster blends various genres of filmmaking and how it moves from reality to hyperreality, and our responses to some of the most provocative ideas Aster puts forward in this pitch-black satire about modern, broken America.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Del Winters on Bluesky and Twitter.
More of Del’s film writing can be found at MovieJawn and the Absolute Reality blog.
Trailer #1 for Eddington (Ari Aster, 2025)
Access this entire 84-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. https://www.patreon.com/posts/218-fantastic-136977726
My first twin guests for the show, the film writers Adam and Liam Quane, join the podcast from the Liverpool region for a discussion of the new MCU attempt to adapt the Fantastic Four for the big screen, but our conversation focuses on how blockbusters have used colour coding to convey ideological ideas, particularly in the last decade or so.
The Quanes think American electoral anxiety and an overall Hollywood Liberal fear of the future in the Trump era play a role in the blockbuster semiotic rules of Blue meaning “the good guys”, Red being “the bad guys” and Purple meaning “the bad guys who could potentially be good guys or at least have good ideas”.
We explore this idea by applying it to recent superhero movies in general and finally how it can apply to the new Fantastic Four, which has been a financial disappointment but like the new Superman, was more entertaining than the three of us expected it to be and despite some quibbles we may have about it, points the way to how to fix these endless comic book movie franchises.
Follow Liam Quane on Bluesky, Facebook and VERO.
Follow Adam Quane on Facebook.
Liam’s novel Road to Juneau (Beaten Track Publishing) is available in Kindle and paperback!
Original teaser for The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Matt Shakman, 2025) that briefly features John Malkovich (who was cut out of the finished film)
This episode contains spoilers for Superman.
The film writer Jessica Ritchey returns for a look at James Gunn’s hard reset of the DC cinematic universe starting with his new Superman, starring David Corenswet as the Last Son of Krypton, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
After a decade of Henry Cavill’s Übermensch Superman, Gunn has returned to the original idea of the Man of Steel as a kind and decent protector of the planet. incorporating elements of the character from the last 90 years of comic books, radio, tv, cartoons and cinema, while also plugging the idea of Superman into modern life, where real life supervillains like Trump and Elon Musk seem to have the upper hand. Gunn’s Superman contends with techbros and oligarchs who use other metahumans to inspire fear and social media to corrode the public discourse while running private prisons and engineering global conflicts for profit.
Jessica and I discuss what we appreciate about Superman as a light and goofy movie that holds up kindness as a virtue and goodness as a choice one can make, including the gentle rebuke of Man of Steel in the main plot twist, and how it has enraged the Snyder Bros and conservatives who confidently predicted this movie would fail, but we also eat our words about how sure we were this movie was not going to meet the moment.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Jessica Ritchey on Bluesky, and support her work on Patreon.
Pre-release teaser for Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)
Trailer for Superman (James Gunn, 2025)
The veteran boom operator for film and television Sean Armstrong returns to the show for a deep dive into Joseph Kosinski’s new big budget sports drama F1®: The Movie starring Brad Pitt as former racing prodigy Sonny Hayes who returns to the Formula One circuit decades later at the behest of his old friend, APXGP team owner Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) to provide mentorship to his hot-headed young British rookie Joshua Pierce (Damson Idris) and rescue the struggling underdog team’s season.
Made with the full co-operation of F1’s governing body the FIA, F1®: The Movie is propaganda for the sport where the screenplay takes a back seat to extraordinary action sequences as we follow the team through the back half of their circuit season all over the globe. Sean provides his full knowledge and understanding of Formula One to explain how this movie tries to serve two masters: fans of the sport and a general audience.
We also discuss the sport’s appeal to women and how F1®: The Movie sometimes lets this cohort down in terms of some sexist content, how this movie measures up to other racing films, Apple’s investment in the film biz (this being by far their most successful release, despite the gargantuan production cost). Plus how the stars have been using the high-profile publicity tour: Pitt hoping to whitewash his damaged personal image of the last few years, Bardem taking every opportunity to use this spotlight to bring attention to the genocide in Gaza and remind people of reality.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Sean Armstrong on Twitter and Bluesky.
Final trailer for F1®: The Movie (Kosinski, 2025)
Cinerama trailer for Grand Prix (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
Trailer for Le Mans (Lee H. Katzin, 1971)
In this Junk Filter sequel to our discussion of season 1 of Tony Gilroy’s Star Wars: Andor streaming series, the writers Roxana Hadadi and Corey Atad return to assess the second and final season, which compresses the four years leading up to the start of Rogue One into four sets of three-episode arcs.
On this episode we discuss the program’s political content and Gilroy’s refusal to play Culture War games during the promotion of the series. We cover the controversial first arc of the series which parallels the plans of the Empire with the Final Solution of the Nazi era, as they flood the galaxy with propaganda to demonize a planet they plan to colonize, and how a fascist regime uses sexual violence and unwitting dupes who think they’re serving a greater good through their collaboration. And we talk about the upsetting eighth episode of season 2 which depicts a massacre on the “French Planet” of Ghorman, clearly modelled on Nazi-occupied France in World War II, which of course has parallels both to Gaza and the Trump Era.
Plus: the fates of the show’s ‘Power Couple’ Dedra and Syril, the barnburning Saw Gerrara monologue, and Tony Gilroy’s illuminating interview with Ross Douthat, who is determined in their discussion to tag Andor (and Michael Clayton) as ‘left wing art’ and fails miserably.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Roxana Hadadi on Twitter and Bluesky
Follow Corey Atad on Twitter and Bluesky and visit coreyatad.com
I Am High on Saw Gerrera’s Supply - by Roxana Hadadi, for Vulture, April 30, 2025
Andor Dared To Say ‘Genocide’ - by Roxana Hadadi, for Vulture, May 7, 2025
Print The Myth: A Few Words About a Star War - from Corey Atad’s Substack, May 14, 2025
Your Next Star Wars Addiction is Already Here - by Corey Atad, for Slate, May 23, 2025
Trailer for Star Wars: Andor, Season 2 (2025)
The film writer Meg Shields returns to the podcast from Vancouver for a show to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Tobe Hooper’s 1985 Lifeforce.
Cannon Films’ big swing for the fences, Lifeforce had an astronomical budget for the time, with huge practical sets, hundreds of extras and innovative special effects from the great John Dykstra including massive miniature work and cutting-edge optical effects, all in the service of a bonkers tribute to Hammer horror. But the runaway production was a cocaine-and-Dr Pepper-fueled vision of naked space vampires hiding in Halley’s Comet (led by the beautiful Mathilda May) who arrive on Earth and unleash havoc on the city of London.
We discuss 1955’s The Quatermass Xperiment and 1967’s Quatermass and The Pit, huge influences on John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper, before diving into the madness of Lifeforce, rejected by audiences in 1985 and setting off the eventual collapse of Cannon Films. We also compare the two cuts of the movie (as the American distributor Tri-Star changed the title from Space Vampires and shortened their version by 10 minutes against the director’s will) and how this crazy movie has stood the test of time to become a cult favourite.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Meg Shields on Bluesky.
Trailer for Quatermass and the Pit (Roy Ward Baker, 1967)
Teaser trailer for Lifeforce (Tobe Hooper, 1985)
Full trailer for Lifeforce
“Cannon Fodder: The Making of Lifeforce” documentary (Calum Waddell, 2013)
Billy Idol - Dancing with Myself music video, directed by Tobe Hooper (1981)
The film writers Brian Abrams and Will Sloan return to the podcast for a salute to one of our favourite screen presences, the great American character actor Joe Don Baker, who passed away this month at the age of 89.
We discuss the full arc of Joe Don’s career, thrust into leading man status in the early seventies playing Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser who waged war against the Dixie Mob in 1973’s populist smash hit Walking Tall, and the less financially successful followup with the same director (Phil Karlson), the brutal, sweaty noir thriller Framed, to the role that (like it or not) defined him for so many in the culture as a scuzzy cop in 1975’s Mitchell (immortalized on one of the funniest episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000) to his comeback in the eighties in the masterful BBC miniseries Edge of Darkness (where he received the most acclaim he ever got as an actor), his several appearances in the Bond series (where he played both a good guy and a bad guy), and his notable supporting role in Scorsese’s remake of Cape Fear.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Brian Abrams on Twitter and Letterboxd.
Brian and Liz Charboneau have a new film podcast: It Gets Better.
Follow Will Sloan on Twitter and Bluesky and subscribe to his substack and his podcasts The Important Cinema Club and Michael and Us.
Will’s new book Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA (OR Books) can be purchased now!
“RIP JDB”, from Will’s substack, May 19, 2025
Trailer gallery:
Walking Tall (Phil Karlson, 1973)
Golden Needles (Robert Clouse, 1974)
Mitchell (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1975)
Checkered Flag or Crash (Alan Gibson, 1977)
Joysticks (Greydon Clark, 1983)
German trailer for Getting Even (Dwight H. Little, 1986)
Access this entire 90-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. https://www.patreon.com/posts/212-accountant-2-128936873
The comedy writer Ursula Lawrence returns to the podcast from Madison Wisconsin for a sequel to our Junk Filter episode about Ben Affleck’s ludicrous 2016 thriller The Accountant.
Coming along almost 9 years after the original, Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant 2 chronicles the continuing adventures of Christian Wolff, the autistic number-cruncher slash hitman who is brought in to solve the murder of retired Financial Crimes detective J.K. Simmons and crack a human trafficking ring with the help of his estranged assassin brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) and his silent partner Justine who runs a secret school of autistic hacker children who can break into any computer system to help him solve the case.
Whereas the first film was so serious in tone it lapsed into unintentional comedy, the sequel doubles down not only on the laughs (and convoluted plotting) but also on the controversial portrayal of autism as a superpower to create an equally loopy thriller / hangout film that forges the way to this becoming a regular franchise, and stands as a necessary cultural corrective to Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s ongoing real-life demonization of people with autism. In fact we hope RFK Jr. is the villain in The Accountant 3!
Plus: a discussion of the Oscar-winning short film The Accountant (2001) starring a pre-fame Walton Goggins, and a deluge of bad puns from the reviews of The Accountant 2!
Follow Ursula Lawrence on Twitter and Bluesky and you can purchase the latest edition of her French Republican Wall Calendar here!
Trailer #2 for The Accountant 2 (Gavin O’Connor, 2025)
CW: This episode contains discussions of alcoholism and cinematic violence including animal cruelty.
The writer, comedian and musician Patrick Marlborough returns to the podcast from Perth, WA to discuss Wake in Fright (1971), the landmark Australian film by the late Canadian director Ted Kotcheff.
One of only two films to be shown twice in the history of the Cannes Film Festival, and influential in shaping both the Australian New Wave and Ozploitation genres, Wake in Fright was acclaimed around the world but outraged local audiences with its brutal and merciless depiction of Australian toxic masculinity, violence, and alcoholism.
Patrick gives us some insight on how Wake in Fright captures some of the ugliest aspects of the Australian national character, and we discuss how Kotcheff’s Canadian-ness was an asset for his outsider’s view of this world, the amazing supporting performance by Aussie comic screen icon Chips Rafferty in his final role, and how this great film was nearly lost forever.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Patrick Marlborough on Bluesky, and subscribe to their wonderful Substack The Yeah Nah Review.
Trailer for the new restoration of Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971)
Original US trailer for Wake in Fright (aka Outback)
"The Making of Wake in Fright", Peter Galvin’s extensive 3-part feature on the production, for SBS
“Wake in Fright understood the horrors of Australian booze culture. 50 years on, nothing’s changed” by Joseph Earp, for The Guardian, April 9, 2025
“Andor in the Genocide” by Patrick Marlborough, for the literary journal Overland, April 30, 2025
The writer and podcaster Will Sloan returns for a show about Robert De Niro’s latest film, Barry Levinson’s The Alto Knights, where he plays two parts on screen, the mob boss Frank Costello and his hotheaded rival Vito Genovese, and their decades-long struggle for control of the New York mafia.
The Alto Knights was the pet project of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who brought this expensive vanity production to the screen seemingly as a personal favour to the veteran screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, a film made by elderly creatives that flopped hard at the box office on release. So why this project? And why is Robert De Niro playing both lead parts? This is what Will and I wanted to know, and so we discuss the failures of The Alto Knights along with a look at De Niro’s public persona as one of Trump’s biggest haters and how he can still deliver as a great actor from time to time, depending on the director.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Will Sloan on Twitter and Bluesky and subscribe to his wonderful podcasts The Important Cinema Club and Michael and Us.
Will’s new book Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA (OR Books) can be purchased now!
Trailer for The Alto Knights (Barry Levinson, 2025)
Access this entire 92-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. https://www.patreon.com/posts/209-beekeeper-126797811
The writer and friend of the pod Adam Jackson returns for a look at the new dynamic duo of American action cinema, Jason Statham and director David Ayer, who are on a roll these days at the multiplex.
2024’s The Beekeeper was a solid hit, a ludicrous conceit milked for every drop of its potential, starring Statham as a retired secret military operative who goes back to the life when a friend is exploited by a shady phishing operation, and as he moves up the pyramid taking revenge it turns out this criminal enterprise goes all the way up to the heights of state power.
The followup, A Working Man (co-written by Sylvester Stallone!) finds Statham as Levon Cade, a former British soldier now working in construction in Chicago, who is asked to rescue the daughter of his employer from a sex trafficking ring run by the Russian Mafia.
We discuss this unique writer/director partnership, a lightning round of some of our favourite Jason Statham movies, and the many highlights from both The Beekeeper and A Working Man, action films that know what they are, deliver the goods and correctly identify the worst people in today’s society (scam artists, crypto bros, white South African psychos and guys with Jared Leto beards).
Follow Adam Jackson on Twitter and Bluesky.
Follow Junk Filter on Bluesky too!
Trailer for The Beekeeper (David Ayer, 2024)
Trailer for A Working Man (David Ayer, 2025)
To mark the passing of the great Gene Hackman, the writer and critic Sean T. Collins and the cartoonist and graphic novelist Julia Gfröher are my special guests for a deep dive into one of our favourite films, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974).
The Conversation was groundbreaking in terms of film editing; when Coppola was pulled away to direct The Godfather Part II, editor Walter Murch had to streamline a narrative out of an incomplete film shoot and synthesized new approaches to picture editing and sound design which he credited to studying Hackman’s precise performance as the surveillance expert Harry Caul, a lonely middle-aged man whose Catholic guilt and past sins begins to weigh on his conscience as he obsesses over his latest spycraft job, plagued with worry over the fate of the young couple he’s recorded and what the tape will be used for by his sinister corporate client.
We discuss the autobiographical details Coppola lent to the characterization and Jungian psychoanalysis that can be applied to the content, some of our favourite moments, and how the themes of The Conversation continue to resonate with audiences over half a century later.
Follow Sean T. Collins and Julia Gfrörer on Bluesky. And support Sean and Julia’s work on Patreon!
Julia Gfrörer’s newest collection of fiction World Within the World: Collected Minicomix & Short Works 2010-2022 (Fantagraphics) is now available.
‘I’m Not Afraid of Death’: How Gene Hackman’s Dream in The Conversation Mirrors Our Dark Moment, by Sean T. Collins, for Decider, February 27, 2025
“The Making of The Conversation: An Interview with Francis Ford Coppola” by Brian De Palma, from Filmmakers Newsletter, 1974, reproduced by Cinephilia & Beyond
Trailer for The Conversation (Coppola, 1974)
Access this entire 87-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. https://www.patreon.com/posts/207-john-ford-124925337
The writer and film programmer Chris Cassingham returns to the podcast from Milwaukee to discuss one of John Ford’s greatest films, 1955’s The Long Gray Line, Ford’s only film shot in the CinemaScope format.
Starring Tyrone Power in one of his final films before his unexpected death at age 44, The Long Gray Line tells the true story of Marty Maher, a young Irish immigrant who arrived to the West Point military academy in the late 1800s and lived and worked there for 50 years, moving up from the kitchen to become a non-commissioned officer and athletic instructor and a beloved figure to generations of cadets. The film spans this half-century and the narrative evolves from a wacky comedy to a stark and tragic tale of loss, as Maher and his wife Mary (Maureen O’Hara) continue to age as the continuum of young cadets come and go, some to die in combat through the two World Wars.
We talk about Ford’s innovations in the use of the then-new technology of CinemaScope, with his camera favouring the Z-axis (the depth of the widescreen image) to visually depict the theme of the film, life’s vanishing points, with a protagonist who slowly realizes the lack of control he has over his own life, a film certainly influential on Scorsese’s The Irishman, with Ford offering at once a tribute to West Point and a questioning of the futility of Maher’s task, a lifetime spent training young men to die for their country.
Follow Chris Cassingham on Twitter and Bluesky and subscribe to his new substack Dark Optimism.
The Long Gray Line is currently available to watch for free (with ads) and in CinemaScope on YouTube and Tubi.
Trailer for The Long Gray Line (John Ford, 1955)
CW: Spoilers for Conclave.
The author Jacob Bacharach returns to the pod for a show about Edward Berger’s entertaining political thriller Conclave starring Ralph Fiennes as a conflicted Cardinal who is required to preside over the selection of the new Pope, and amidst the infighting among the Cardinals, uncovers a shocking conspiracy within the halls of power in Vatican City.
To discuss the reaction to Conclave from some offended Catholics means we have to spoil the big twist, but despite this movie being practically a commercial for the virtues of The Holy See and the future of the church, many have been outraged by the film’s “liberal agenda” and its interpretation of Catholic dogma and we review some of the apoplectic highlights, from Megyn Kelly to Catholic film critics. We also discuss some of Our Boys in this: John Lithgow’s ambitions to be the first Canadian Pontiff, and the two Italian men who would be Pope, Sergio Castellitto’s racist, vaping Cardinal and the American liberal Stanley Tucci.
We also discuss a completely forgotten all-star religious epic that is vaguely relevant to Conclave, 1972’s Pope Joan, starring Liv Ullmann as a pious ninth-century woman who disguises herself as a man to save her life, moves up the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and is elected Pope, a medieval legend the film presents as fact.
Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Jacob Bacharach on Twitter and Bluesky and visit jacobbacharach.com
Trailer #1 for Conclave (Edward Berger, 2024)
Pope Joan can be found on the Russian social network / streaming service Odnoklassniki.
SCTV sketch “The Man Who Would be King of the Popes”, 1977
Access this entire 70-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. https://www.patreon.com/posts/205-woman-in-2-123622191
In part two of our discussion about Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Jessica and I discuss Jane Campion’s 2003 “erotic thriller” In the Cut, savaged by critics on release for its graphic portrayal of a woman’s complex sexual desires in a dangerous New York City, also based on a best-selling novel.
It’s possible that In the Cut is Campion’s response to Mr. Goodbar, only directly from a woman’s perspective, and we talk about the sexist cruelty Meg Ryan was subjected to in the press for playing this role, and what Campion has to say about a woman’s sexuality amidst the violence of the patriarchy, and its implication of the NYPD as part of the problem, especially bold for a movie made in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
We also discuss a fun TV movie that acts as a bridge between Mr. Goodbar and In the Cut, 1982’s Hotline, starring Lynda Carter as a young woman working at a crisis call center who finds herself playing a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with a serial killer, in a film that continually threatens to tip over into a TVM Giallo.
Follow Jessica Ritchey on Bluesky, and support her work on Patreon.
Hotline (Jerry Jameson, 1982) is available to watch for free on YouTube.
Trailer for In the Cut (Jane Campion, 2003)
CW: This episode contains spoilers and discussions of cinematic sexual violence.
The film writer Jessica Ritchey returns to the show for a two-part series about two controversial films about a woman’s complex sexuality, films that took a couple of decades to be rediscovered and better understood.
In part one we discuss Richard Brooks’ 1977 drama Looking for Mr. Goodbar starring Diane Keaton, based on the popular seventies bestseller by Judith Rossner, based on the true story of a New York City schoolteacher who was murdered by a man she picked up at a singles bar. Mr. Goodbar was a major hit for Paramount upon release, but a few weeks later it was overshadowed by another Paramount release with an even bigger cultural impact and hit soundtrack, Saturday Night Fever.
Mr. Goodbar has been hard to see properly for decades due to its reputation as a misogynist, depressing film and the extremely expensive licensing costs for its disco soundtrack, until the end of 2024 when Vinegar Syndrome unexpectedly released a limited-edition restoration. Jessica and I dig into the thorny and complex issues this film presents about a woman’s sexuality, partly due to Richard Brooks’ determination to tell a more empathetic story than the more punishing tone of Rossner’s novel (she was angered by the adaptation). Brooks may not have been the ideal person to make this film being two generations removed from the subject but nevertheless his film contains an interesting and useful critique of the patriarchy, using his understanding of New Hollywood techniques.
Jessica and I also discuss the film’s use of music, Diane Keaton’s tremendous performance as Theresa Dunn, the depiction of all the terrible men in her life, and our responses to the shocking conclusion of the film.
Part two of this discussion is exclusive to the Patreon feed: more about Mr. Goodbar, contrasted against a controversial 2003 film that could be seen as a feminist response to it, Jane Campion’s In the Cut, and a 1982 TV movie about a woman in danger that echoes some of these themes, Hotline starring Lynda Carter.
To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at patreon.com/junkfilter
Follow Jessica Ritchey on Bluesky, and support her work on Patreon.
The limited edition Vinegar Syndrome release of Looking for Mr. Goodbar can be purchased here.
“Goodnight Theresa”, a YouTube playlist Jessica and I cooked up of disco songs that came out too late to be included on the Goodbar soundtrack but would have fit right in.
Trailer for Looking for Mr. Goodbar (Richard Brooks, 1977)
Gus Lanzetta returns to the podcast from São Paulo to discuss two films by the Brazilian director Walter Salles: 1998’s Central Station, starring Fernanda Montenegro, and his latest, Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here) starring Montenegro’s daughter Fernanda Torres, both Academy Award-nominated for their respective performances.
In Central Station Fernanda Montenegro gave one of the greatest screen performances of the 20th Century as Dora, a retired schoolteacher running a scam writing letters for illiterate people at Rio’s train station who winds up rescuing an orphaned boy and transporting him to the far reaches of the country to try and reunite him with his long-lost father, in a film that reaches an overwhelming emotional power.
Fernanda Torres received universal acclaim in Salles’ latest film as Eunice Palva, the wife of a former leftist congressman in Rio before the coup d'état. When he is disappeared by the secret police and she is also interrogated for weeks by the state, their happy domestic life is shattered and Eunice devotes the rest of her life to social justice work and getting the state to finally admit what they did to her husband, refusing to give in to the fear, in a film that Torres has described as a “national therapy session” for a country that would wish to ignore this period in their history.
Gus and I talk about these two acting dynamos, the Tropicalia movement, Burt Lancaster, Bugs Bunny, MF DOOM, crying at the movies, and our hopes that Brazil finally wins the first Oscar for their cinema. Is it coming home?
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Follow Gus Lanzetta on Bluesky.
Listen to Gus’ podcast project that is relevant to the topic of the Brazilian dictatorship, Um Espião Silenciado (A Silenced Spy, in Portuguese)
“Fernanda Torres Has Already Won” by Seth Abramovitch, for The Hollywood Reporter, February 15, 2025
French trailer for Central Station (Walter Salles, 1998)
Brazilian trailer for Ainda Estou Aqui (Walter Salles, 2024)
International trailer for I’m Still Here (Walter Salles, 2024)
“Minha Gente” (My People), Erasmo Carlos, 1972