Trylove
300 episodes - English - Latest episode: 16 days ago - ★★★★★ - 18 ratingsGo see a movie.
(Not officially affiliated with or endorsed by the Trylon Cinema or Take-Up Productions, but they seem to like us well enough.)
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Episodes
Episode 48: TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)
December 09, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 29.7 MBCW: discussions of portrayed suicide. For all the artifice displayed by the Warsaw acting troupe in Ernst Lubitsch's TO BE OR NOT TO BE, one thing is very real: their disdain for Nazi occupation and displacement of their people. Slowly infiltrating the ranks of Warsaw's occupying forces – sometimes by accident – they use the tools of their trade to subvert Hitler's ground offensive while having some fun exclusively at his expense. What is a meaningful act of resistance? What does that look li...
Episode 47: RONIN (1998) [feat. Dan Nagan]
December 01, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 40.8 MBFeaturing special guest Dan Nagan! Like a samurai wandering without a master, John Frankenheimer's RONIN kind of meanders unjustifiably in the no-man’s land between Parisian noir and fantastic bombast. Too overwritten to be cool and underserved by questionable directorial choices, its characters feel out of place in a world made specially for them. Like the third of Sam’s absurd aphorisms, maybe it’s best to accept RONIN and move on. Listen to Dan Nagan's podcast, Everything We Learned, where...
Episode 46: BRUTE FORCE (1947) [feat. Nick Ransbottom]
November 26, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 31.2 MBFeaturing special guest Nick Ransbottom! BRUTE FORCE is a leftist melodrama that is at its best when it leans into its pulpy sensibilities. It displays an unprecedented amount of sympathy for a group of prison inmates who use their strength and camaraderie as they search for a way out of a flawed yet impenetrable system. As our heroes spiral towards their fate, we all find ourselves asking the same question: why persist at all? Is it worth pushing onward, even when the system has all exits co...
Episode 45: CHRISTINE (1983) [feat. Ben Savard]
November 18, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 37.1 MBFeaturing Trylon volunteer Ben Savard! 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘐𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰? 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘥𝘰, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 Small-town senior Arnie Cunningham feels like he’s denied true happiness – by girls, the expectations of his parents, and by bullies at school. That all changes when the car of his dreams revs to life in the form of Christine, a cursed coupe that promises to grant him status, dominance over women, independence, and machismo, against the r...
Episode 44: ENTER THE DRAGON (1973)
November 12, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 39 MBIn the final complete movie released before Bruce Lee's death, ENTER THE DRAGON, characters stand in for themes and empires stand in for philosophies. It’s a little rough around the edges as a movie, but what can't be denied is its impact writ large on every form of media to this day. In this episode, we try to pick apart ENTER THE DRAGON’s various competing philosophical accusations and discover that the only way to confront the self is to realize it doesn’t exist. Cody also ties the movie t...
Episode 43: Greetin' and Tweetin' – A Conversation with Trylon Volunteer Ben Savard
November 05, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 32 MBMedia & Cultural Studies major who says he doesn’t know what that means ✔️ David Lynch hater ✔️ Likes tweeting ✔️ One of our favorite things is talking to people who know the Trylon from the inside out. On today’s episode, we’re elated to share a conversation we had with Ben Savard, a Trylon volunteer and professional film editor who says that his time with the theater has helped him figure out what kind of cinema he likes, what he doesn’t, and why. Most importantly, he says that places like...
Episode 41: CARRIE (1976)
October 30, 2019 00:00 - 54 minutes - 25.1 MBBrian De Palma is a legendary and divisive filmmaker. Stephen King is an even more legendary and divisive storyteller. These two careers came together in 1976 to make CARRIE, now considered a landmark of the horror genre and one of King's most successful screen adaptations. Have you ever wondered what two cishet male twenty-something podcasters who don't know De Palma from De Niro think of it? Well, now you can find out! Recorded mere minutes after watching the questionably feminist would-be ...
Episode 40: THE THING (1982)
October 29, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 32.5 MBWe’re all going to lose ourselves someday. The betrayal of the body is the surest thing since taxes. We’ll forget, or we’ll die, or both at the same time. It’s when we lose each other – the social trust of our communities – that our understanding of the world shatters like frozen blood. THE THING (1982) is another one of those horror classics that defies nature by remaining relevant, astounding, and popular decades after its release. From the mechanical mirroring of its soundtrack and plot to...
Episode 42: :̷̫̯͇̲̤̥͈ ̷͎̟̮̙͔̖H̡A̤̘̘͕͎͉̪͟U̧͚̖͚̟ͅS̹̠̻̳U͚̠̱͚̮̦ ̦͉̩͠(̗1̤̮͈͢9̳͙̮̱̜̯̬7̙̮͇̥7́)̵͎
October 29, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 33.6 MBCW: discussions of violence. HAUSU is still a singular work 42 years after its release. In its walls, you'll find twists and parodies of pastoral life, arranged marriage, social expectations of women, and dozens of references to director Nobuhiko Obayashi's childhood trauma as a survivor of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear attacks. More than draw your eye with absurd grotesqueries, HAUSU wants to remind you that suffering is a burden all should seek to lessen for future generations – especi...
Episode 39: EVENT HORIZON (1997)
October 21, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 27.6 MBContent warning: Discussions of suicide and self-harm. We can't escape our demons. We could go to the other edge of the universe, or jump to an entirely new one, but the burdens we bear will always follow – and despite the lack of gravity, they might be even heavier up there. A mishmash of bad CGI, decent acting, cheesy writing, and hellish concept hamstrung by bad editing courtesy of (you guessed it) capitalist motivation, EVENT HORIZON is the "HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL in space" you never wante...
Episode 38: CURE (1997) [feat. Nick Ransbottom]
October 15, 2019 10:00 - 1 hour - 33.8 MBEveryone who runs into eccentric amnesiac Mamiya develops a murderous apathy, fully aware of their crimes but unable to explain their motives. Toxically repressed detective Takabe is put on the case, set on discovering a reason – for Mamiya’s madness, for his victims’ bloodlust, and for his own fragile sanity. Who do we become when faced with the platonic ideal? How do our perceptions – of ourselves, of others, of the lost and longing – change when we are ourselves aware of being perceived? B...
Episode 37: ALIENS (1986) [feat. Eric Leith]
October 07, 2019 00:00 - 56 minutes - 25.8 MBWelcome back Eric Leith (@biggergooseegg) for another episode! Whatever ALIEN (1979) added to cinema (including a treatise on aiming pop media at the powerful), ALIENS (1986) undid in favor of marketability and bloodshed. In the former, we found ourselves tightly wound aboard the Nostromo, trusting only in each other as Ellen Ripley faced the terrors of interplanetary capitalism. In ALIENS, we get dick jokes, incongruous themes of motherhood, and – gasp – lore. Though it’s an inoffensive acti...
Episode 36: ALIEN (1979) [Feat. Eric Leith]
September 29, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 39.1 MBCONTENT WARNING: Brief mention of rape and sexual assault. Featuring special guest Eric Leith (@biggergooseegg)! A perfect marriage of pulpy science fiction and gritty, sparse horror, Ridley Scott's 1979 masterpiece isn't just frequently cited as one of the best movies in either of these genres--it's frequently cited as one of the best movies ever made period! In this episode, the last surviving members of the ship Trylove examine ALIEN's mastery of worldbuilding, set design, and cinematograp...
Episode 35: HACKERS (1995)
September 24, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 45.4 MBContent warning: Discussion of problematic depictions of queer and marginalized communities. Brief mention of sexual assault. We start talking about the movie around four minutes in. HACKERS (1995) will always be fun to look back on. But it also feels timeless in how it uses the anti-capitalist queer origins of cyberpunk to build a world where young, tech-literate outcasts, blamed (and framed) for society’s ills, band together to stick it not just to The Man but to an entire generation – boom...
Episode 34: THE THIN MAN (1934) [feat. Nick Ransbottom]
September 17, 2019 00:00 - 59 minutes - 27.3 MBFeaturing special guest Nick Ransbottom! What other noirs didn't have, THE THIN MAN series did: levity, breathing room, characters who weren't written full of life just to have it snuffed out on the next page. Nick and Nora Charles's charmed life as bourgeois socialites and functioning alcoholics could be an uneasy basis for a hard-boiled plot but for William Powell and Myrna Loy's bedrock performances. Based on the 1934 Dashiell Hammett novel, THE THIN MAN made the leap from the page to the ...
Episode 33: The Trylon Turns Ten – A Conversation with Trylon Film Programmer John Moret
September 10, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 36.2 MBFeaturing Trylon film programmer John Moret! The Trylon Cinema (née "Microcinema") celebrates its 10th birthday this month with a day-long surprise movie marathon. Trylon film programmer John Moret calls it a rare "ritual space" – perhaps the only one in the Midwest – that celebrates the act of GOING to the movies rather than just SEEING one. For this episode, we were thrilled to welcome John in to chat about the origins of the Trylon, how he chooses movies, how the Trylon balances the desire...
Episode 32: VIDEODROME (1983) [feat. Nick Ransbottom]
September 03, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 31.7 MBFeaturing special guest Nick Ransbottom! VIDEODROME repurposes our own understanding of our bodies to tell a different story about critical media viewing. But does its wide lens preclude it from making a more pointed statement? Fuck James Woods. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.
Episode 31: FANTASTIC PLANET (1973)
August 27, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 66.3 MBFull of Seussian grotesqueries and allegorical slavery, FANTASTIC PLANET is probably remembered for exactly what it deserves to be remembered for (creative, creepy, crawly creatures, trippy visuals, and an extremely 1970s soundtrack). What it doesn't deliver is the intangible, experimental storytelling psychedelia that its marketing seems to sell the movie on. Do its depictions of sexuality, society, and subjugation go far enough to leave an impression? Sure. Do they go far enough to say anyt...
Episode 30: AKIRA (1988)
August 20, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.1 MBContent warning: Consistent stylized violence and one instance of attempted sexual assault. Katsuhiro Otomo’s film adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga, AKIRA, pits brother against brother as stand-in for the larger confrontation bubbling beneath the cracked asphalt of Neo-Tokyo’s bloody streets: a reckoning between the military, youth culture, masculinity, and nuclear anxieties with the shared trauma of old Tokyo’s annihilation. That thesis is complemented by florid, genre-benchmark animati...
Episode 29: THE HIDDEN (1987)
August 13, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 35.5 MBTHE HIDDEN is an '80s movie like many '80s movies in that it's super tropey, kinda gross, full of zany practical effects, and sloppily aimed at the conservativism of the age. Its twists on the burgeoning action/horror genre include some progressive(???) gender politics, a direct indictment of the American political schema (in which a white male need only say "I want to be president" to become president), and a rumination self-actualization under a capitalist dystopia. You're in Reagan's world...
Episode 28: FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW (2019)
August 06, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 32.2 MBThicc men, thin characters. We sure as hell didn't see THIS one at the Trylon! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.
Episode 27: SUNSHINE (2007) [feat. Ben Hanson & John Carson]
July 30, 2019 11:00 - 57 minutes - 26.4 MBFeaturing special guests Ben Hanson and John Carson! Directed by Danny Boyle (TRAINSPOTTING, 28 DAYS LATER) and written by Alex Garland (EX MACHINA, ANNIHILATION), SUNSHINE is a fun little space thing with dreams of being the next big postmodern space opera. What it ends up being is more of a bizarre tonal roller coaster (hitting all the notes from courtroom drama to odyssey thriller to gross-out slasher) that forces its characters to accept one universal truth: you can't escape the sun. Them...
Episode 26: POLICE STORY 2 (1988)
July 22, 2019 00:00 - 58 minutes - 26.9 MBStrap in for a second STORY about POLICE! The follow-up to Jackie Chan's blockbuster POLICE STORY (1985) doubles down on the stunts, explosions, and smarm of the original and adds more plot than is strictly necessary (about 25 minutes' worth). Despite that, and some reprehensible treatment of a deaf/mute villain, it's still a fun moment-to-moment movie that juggles violence and comedy with an appreciable subplot that moves Chan Ka-kui and May's relationship forward (a sweet thing which none o...
Episode 25: POLICE STORY (1985)
July 16, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 32.6 MBCW: some discussions of violence towards women (as played for comedy). Whatever else Jackie Chan is (poet, philosopher, philanderer, tax evader, bigot, tool of the state), he's a man who understands that the best part of martial arts is its humor. Like the best of Chan's work, POLICE STORY is a creative, reactionary, and funny celebration of the beauty of expressive motion. It also has a minute-long scene of Jackie Chan stepping in shit and moonwalking it off his shoes. So yeah. Perfect film....
Episode 24: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997) [feat. Seth Zarate]
July 08, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 34.8 MBFeaturing special guest and THE FIFTH ELEMENT stan Seth Zarate! What does THE FIFTH ELEMENT add to the sci-fi canon? It's certainly not the first action/comedy/sci-fi hybrid. It's also a slurry of politically unfocused mishmash that seems altogether uninterested in exploring the endpoints of those elements. If it's special, it's because of the world built around it – one that features gender-fluid talk show hosts, Middle Eastern breakbeat radio hits, whole bodies 3D printed from a single cell...
Episode 23: BARTON FINK (1991)
July 02, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 34.7 MBForget what you heard about FARGO (1996): BARTON FINK is actually the Coens' most autobiographical movie. Telling the bizarre odyssey of self-righteous playwright-turned-Hollywood screenwriter Barton Fink, the film was scripted during a bout of writer's block while making MILLER'S CROSSING (1990) – and counting the rings of this script, that adds up. It indicts Barton himself (no small feat in a movie where John Goodman does what he does in this one) by questioning any writer's ability, inten...
Episode 22: A SERIOUS MAN (2009)
June 26, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 35.7 MBThe Coen Brothers' 2009 existential dramedy A SERIOUS MAN trades on their Jewish upbringing to paint a larger picture about the voices that take over amid the inescapable silence of organized religion. As Harry says, it's a movie about "paying more attention to the people in your life." With eternal suffering the only constant in human existence, inaction is a recurring motif – the line, "I didn't do anything!" is meant in a different way each time it's spoken – as an increasingly untenable e...
Episode 21: MILLER'S CROSSING (1990) [feat. Eric Leith]
June 18, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 42.6 MBFeaturing special guest Eric Leith! In Tom Reagan's gritty gangster world, caring is a quick way to get yourself shot. It's too bad, then, that he cares very much about Leo O'Bannon, his Irish mob boss, and Verna Bernbaum, the woman they both think they love. When Verna's brother runs afoul of the rival Italian mafia, Tom is forced to reconcile the charge of his position, his loyalty to Leo, and the pain in his heart. "What heart?" This episode is the fourth in a short series on a selection o...
Episode 20: RAISING ARIZONA (1987)
June 10, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 39.2 MBFeaturing special guest Eric Leith! Aren't we all H.I. "Hi" McDunnough, trying to prove to ourselves and those we care about that we can change despite all odds? Fighting against the ghosts of our past while squaring with the geist of our present, occasionally scraping our knuckles on the popcorn ceiling of prescriptive social rhetoric? And whom among us can claim to not be former cop Edwina "Ed" McDunnough, whose career and lifestyle ambitions seem increasingly at odds with the realities af...
Episode 20: RAISING ARIZONA (1987) [feat. Eric Leith]
June 09, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 39.2 MBFeaturing special guest Eric Leith! Aren't we all H.I. "Hi" McDunnough, trying to prove to ourselves and those we care about that we can change despite all odds? Fighting against the ghosts of our past while squaring with the geist of our present, occasionally scraping our knuckles on the popcorn ceiling of prescriptive social rhetoric? And whom among us can claim to not be former cop Edwina "Ed" McDunnough, whose career and lifestyle ambitions seem increasingly at odds with the realities af...
Episode 19: THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE (2001)
June 04, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 31.9 MBCW: Discussions of suicide as plot. Listening advisement: Harry's track ended up sounding bad. Sorry. While watching THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE, it's easy to see why it's one of the Coen Brothers' relatively overlooked films: nested between box office smashes O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000) and INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (2003), it failed to break even on its modest budget and has become a cult classic in a filmography full of cult classics. From its period setting to its black-and-white presentatio...
Episode 18: FARGO (1996) [feat. Emily Csuy]
May 28, 2019 12:00 - 1 hour - 79.7 MBFeaturing special guest and honorary Minnesotan Emily Csuy! FARGO is probably a non-Minnesotan's first impression of Minnesotans, but how essentially Minnesotan is it? Why is it set here, and what does that choice reveal about the Coen Brothers' attitude toward their home state? How often does a Minnesotan actually say "you betcha"? Is FARGO secretly a case study for the Second Noble Truth of Buddhism? Now, you know, none of us are scholars of Eastern religion, but all of us live in Minnesota...
Episode 17: THE PLEASURE GARDEN (1925) [feat. Nabil Azzouzi]
May 21, 2019 11:00 - 51 minutes - 23.6 MBFeaturing Nabil Azzouzi! Just to put it out front: THE PLEASURE GARDEN isn't a mystery, thriller, or horror film. It has its moments (it's even funny sometimes, which is awe-inspiring for a 90-year-old movie to pull off), but being Alfred Hitchcock's first feature, it's most interesting to watch in the context of his filmography. It's got the corrupting influence of power; it's got love and lust; it's got men (even the "good" ones) being really terrible people. In that way, it's kind of a pro...
Episode 16: POKÉMON: DETECTIVE PIKACHU (2019) [feat. Nick Ransbottom]
May 13, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 39.4 MBIn a special, spoilery, distinctly non-Trylony episode, we're proud to host Nick Ransbottom (@TheEzioKenway) to talk about Rob Letterman's loose adaptation of the 2016 video game of the same name. We – four video game-literate men in the same general demographic – all liked it a lot. Go figure! And then go see it! It probably would've been enough to make POKÉMON: DETECTIVE PIKACHU a facsimile of the game from which it takes its title or any in its namesake series. Fan service would've gotten ...
Episode 15: MCCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971)
May 07, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 37.8 MBContent warning: This film contains depictions of attempted sexual assault and plenty of "period-specific" racism. Heavy on the air quotes. For all his cowboy pageantry and vague machismo, John McCabe is just a sad, insecure man (and not the kind who's rewarded for it, either). In Robert Altman's "anti-Western" MCCABE & MRS. MILLER, he's a wingless frog who keeps bumping his ass, flailing to escape the gravity of society, capitalism, and emotional vulnerability he's evaded his whole life. He...
Episode 14: CLUELESS (1995) [feat. Charlie Mackin & Erik Nystul]
April 29, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 77 MBInside CLUELESS (1995)'s comedic portrayal of stereotypically vapid California Beverly Hills high schoolers' lives, there might be a genuine message of self-actualization through social performance. Does it earn that appraisal? Does it matter? As guest Charlie Mackin says, "If you're becoming a better person just because you want to become a better person, that's an okay motivation to do things." Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.
Episode 13: SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) [feat. Nick Grossman]
April 23, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 45.5 MBFeaturing Nick Grossman! Throughout our little series on Akira Kurosawa's most popular works, we keep setting up each movie as the progenitor of modern genre pieces (STRAY DOG for police procedurals, YOJIMBO for highfalutin' Westerns, etc.). Even so, SEVEN SAMURAI is the genesis of most character-led ensemble movies – period – and has itself been remade countless times. It uses several samurai (born and adoptive) to criticize the institution of samurai, refocusing its message on the common pe...
Episode 13: SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)
April 23, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 45.5 MBThroughout our little series on Akira Kurosawa's most popular works, we keep setting up each movie as the progenitor of modern genre pieces (STRAY DOG for police procedurals, YOJIMBO for highfalutin' Westerns, etc.). Even so, SEVEN SAMURAI is the genesis of most character-led ensemble movies – period – and has itself been remade countless times. It uses several samurai (born and adoptive) to criticize the institution of samurai, refocusing its message on the common people of Sengoku-era Japa...
Episode 12: STRAY DOG (1949)
April 16, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 32.2 MBA straight-laced detective quickly frays when his gun is stolen on the bus home, leading him on a slow chase across Tokyo during a heatwave – and leading modern cinema to the genesis of police procedurals. Akira Kurosawa's STRAY DOG is noir with a heart, pulp with a conscience, and drama scarred with the impact of World War II on three generations of Japanese society. In this episode, we argue that STRAY DOG could be Kurosawa at his best, leanest, and most sincere. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-...
Episode 11: THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (1958)
April 09, 2019 00:00 - 59 minutes - 27.3 MBComparisons to STAR WARS aren't necessarily a bad way to look at THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (1958), but they won't add much to your viewing experience. Yes, Akira Kurosawa's feudal epic (featuring Toshiro Mifune as General Rokurota Makabe and Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki) lives in a cleverly-built world of deposed princesses and disgraced swordsmen, but it's also a picaresque grounded in people of the lower class – a hallmark of the best Kurosawa. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by ...
Episode 10: RED BEARD (1965)
April 02, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 37 MBThe closeness of Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa's relationship – a closeness that would be their undoing – is well-exemplified in RED BEARD. Their final collaboration for a number of reasons (personal and financial clashes are both rumored), the movie isn't typical Kurosawa, either. The director said as much at the time, admitting that the movie represented a turning point toward the conservative for his production process. The result is a somewhat more ponderous movie with maybe a little ...
Episode 8: YOJIMBO (1961)
March 26, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 29.6 MBLongtime Akira Kurosawa muse Toshiro Mifune’s grumpy ronin with a heart of gold in YOJIMBO (1961) codified the “man with no name” archetype on which Western movies survived for decades (including Sergio Leone's unlicensed 1964 remake A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS). The movie's synopsis – a town stuck in a bloody spat between two profiteering families is forced to reconcile when a mercenary swordsman blows into town – makes the movie sound significantly darker than it actually is, a fact highlighted by...
Episode 9: SANJURO (1962)
March 26, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 32.4 MB(You can skip to about 10 minutes in if you want to hear about the movie. It’s all sexy ASMR and shop talk until then.) SANJURO (1962), sequel to the groundbreaking YOJIMBO (1961), is not so groundbreaking. It’s where you start to get a sense for the commercial viability of Toshiro Mifune’s inimitable character (he’d go on to appear in ZATOICHI MEETS YOJIMBO in 1970, pairing him up with the blind swordsman for the most ambitious crossover event of all time). Despite being specifically named a...
Episode 7: VALLEY GIRL (1983) [feat. Emily Csuy]
March 19, 2019 06:00 - 57 minutes - 26.2 MBFeaturing Emily Csuy, Aaron Grossman, and Cody Narveson! Martha Coolidge's second directorial credit, VALLEY GIRL, can be a frustrating movie to love. Steeped in (plausibly self-aware) '80s aesthetics and some adorably goofy lingo (see "trippendicular"), it also has something to say about the cultural challenges of just relating to another person – and how we sometimes create those challenges for ourselves. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.
Episode 6: THE RAID (2011)
March 12, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 31.5 MBTHE RAID is one of the grandest entries in the conversation between action cinema and video games. But is it good or just loud? At least we can agree that JOHN WICK is better, even if it wouldn't exist without THE RAID. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.
THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)
March 05, 2019 00:00 - 56 minutes - 26 MBIs David Lynch's 1980 historical drama about Joseph Merrick one of his least Lynch-like films? Is it a straight-forward, sentimental, and even manipulative dramatization about a real-life tragedy? ...Or is it a quintessentially Lynch-like indictment of the culture of globalized, industrialized capitalism we still find ourselves living under, and how that culture has warped us to the point that dehumanize anyone we cannot mechanize for our own selfish ends, eradicating even the possibility of ...
Episode 4: KOYAANISQATSI (1983)
February 26, 2019 00:00 - 57 minutes - 26.3 MBOn the border between earnest tragedy and pseudo-hippie preachiness, there's KOYAANISQATSI, a plotless documentary-slash-visual tone poem about humanity's lopsided relationship with Planet Earth and how there are some things we just can't rebuild. This episode was recorded in 2018 after a free screening of KOYAANISQATSI at the Trylon, which was put on by the Moving Image & Media Studies Graduate Group at the University of Minnesota. Check them out at mimsgg.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Hu...
Episode 3: WANDA (1970)
February 18, 2019 00:00 - 59 minutes - 27.1 MBThe only feature-length film by writer/director Barbara Loden before her death in 1980, WANDA follows Wanda Goronski, a divorcee in Pennsylvania coal country whose options for a better life shrink with every man she meets. Content warning: discussions of depression, abuse of women, and attempted sexual assault. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.
Episode 2: HAUSU (1977)
February 05, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 34.4 MBWhat started as a commercial director's fever dream became a genre-blending staple of cult cinema. In this episode, Aaron Grossman (@aarbypls) joins the boys to talk about HAUSU, Nobuhiko Obayashi's feature-length debut, and its surprisingly resonant message about the virtues of peacetime and the echoes of wartime tragedy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.
Episode 1: THE 400 BLOWS (1959)
January 08, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 64.8 MBTHE 400 BLOWS (1959) is François Truffaut's first film, based in part on his own life as a ruffian on the streets of Paris. It's also widely regarded as a monument of French New Wave cinema. In our first episode that doesn't sound terrible, Jason, Harry, and John try to figure out what that meant at the time and how we look at it today. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.