Mutiny of Preverts: A Film Podcast

For our second episode of Out There in the Dark, Azed & Tom take a look at the films honoured by this year's Academy Awards. Yeah, we know it's months after they aired but hey, this is largely a vanity project for Azed and Tom, so shut it!  As much as we find the Oscar's an increasingly cringe-inducing affair, we figure if you're going to do a movie podcast, you can't avoid talking about them at some point. Everyone seems to have a love / hate relationship with the Oscars, and Azed & Tom are no exception. From an industry perspective, they have an incalculable effect on box office, peer recognition and they can make or break careers; from a cineaste's perspective, they invite endless debate and controversy around the films that win, lose or are completely neglected. Listen in and take a deep dive into why these films were honoured this year; if they deserved their awards or not; and what made them connect with audiences: the level of excess in Everything Everywhere All At Once, the pointed narcissism of the titular character of Tar, the empty pleasures of Top Gun: Maverick, the polarizing profundity of Triangle of Sadness, problematic representation in The Whale and the beauty and intelligence behind The Banshees of Inishirin - think on all of these as well as many other films and ideas. The Oscars are and always will be a cracked mirror, giving us a skewed, shattered reflection of cinema both as an industry and as an art form. Note: Tom slapped Azed during the recording of this episode, in honour of last year's best Oscar moment.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Out There in the Dark.  In this episode, Azed & Tom discuss Sight & Sound's decennial poll of the Greatest Films of All Time and the seemingly out of nowhere elevation of a little known, 1970's experimental French feminist film to the number one spot.  Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, was released in 1975 to quiet acclaim within the halls of critical film discourse. A comfortable in-crowd of elite cineastes wrote, discussed and championed the 3+ hour film as a major artistic breakthrough in feminist cinema.  But whereas previous S&S top spot films, The Bicycle Thief, Citizen Kane and Vertigo are all accessible narratives, Akerman's film is not.  A 3+ hour film where there is very little dialogue, the camera is mostly still and the "story" unfolds through a highly structured look at the domestic chores of a largely inscrutable protagonist isn't necessarily going to appeal to the Marvel crowd. While the synopsis of Jeanne Dielman may make it sound like a chore, it really isn't.  Akerman's masterpiece holds the viewer in a state of hypnotic suspense.  it is almost impossible to make a film that captures the audience's attention to this degree, it is a miracle when it is achieved by a 24 year old female artist. As Jessica Winter wrote in the New Yorker, "The Sight and Sound tabulations are a striking turn of events, representing a consensus that one of the pinnacle films ever produced in an overwhelmingly male-dominated art form was made by a young woman, with a crew mostly made up of women, starring a middle-aged woman, about women's work."

The recent death of Peter Bogdanovich prompted the Preverts to record an episode to explore the career of what might be the most neglected of the major directors to emerge from the New Hollywood movement of the 70s. Despite sharing an intense love for the cinema with peers such as Scorsese, Coppola and De Palma, Bogdanovich clearly had a more single minded focus on the early days of Hollywood from the silent era up to and including the 40s and his films reflect a desire to explore the basic forms established by his personal favourites like Welles, Hawks and Ford. He had a somewhat sad story having both direct and indirect connections to some of the more tragic Hollywood deaths of his time. And his reputation also seemed to wane after some poorly received films in the 70s and never fully recovered, but his contributions were undeniably substantial and he had a unique style and perspective that persisted throughout his career.  His representations of love and sex are particularly refreshing and may even give him some claim to being one of the horniest Hollywood directors of all time. Although his career was hindered by poor critical reception and an inability to get funding this episode makes the case that he still made a significant number of truly memorable films.

The recent release of Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of  Frank Herbert's Dune got us Preverts thinking back to a simpler time. A time when neo-liberalism was just a babe in the crib, when rap was a mere novelty genre and getting laid was in the realm of possibility. Yes, 1984! The year that David Lynch's version of Dune was released. Long pilloried as a colossal flop, Azed and Jay find a lot to admire in Lynch's mess of a movie, and also a lot to admire in Villeneuve's solemn, faithful update. Luckily, Azed's son, Ishmael (Recent U of T graduate-BSC with High Distinction and the only one among us who has read the source material) is along to school us on the whole Dune ethos and to set us straight on how recent accusations of "White Savior" syndrome miss the mark of Herbert's Magnum Opus. Still, while Villeneuve's film is a beautiful spectacle, some of us prefer Sting in a leather diaper to Timothy Chalamet attempting to act tough. It's a question of which is more believable?

We have a special treat for you Mutiny of Preverts listeners who have long grown tired of the format and are now only listening as a result of A) losing a bet, B) being related to the hosts, or C) out of the sheer ecstasy you feel from hate listening to us and fantasizing about what incredible horrors the Devil will reign down on Azed and Jay when they are inevitably banished to Hell. We will not only be discussing an excellent new film called Drunk On Too Much Life, but for the very first time, we have the makers of the very film we are discussing, Michelle Melles and Pedro Orrego, on the show to discuss it with us. The film is a very personal one about their daughter Corrina and her experience with "madness"  or what she referred to as being "drunk on too much life." We go deep with Michelle and Pedro on their family's search for something more than the biomedical diagnoses and medications that proved inadequate for Corrina and discuss everything from the history of mental health through the centuries, the influence social power has on mental health and the central role that art, poetry and music has played for Corrina, Michelle and Pedro in the healing process. We also dig into a few of the greatest and/or most notorious examples of madness portrayed on film including Titicut Follies, Warrendale, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Grey Gardens, Crumb and others and discuss some of the ethical considerations that have often been ignored, especially in the case of documentaries.

The first in our series called Our Lives in Movies where we revisit different stages in our lives and choose movies that impacted us at that time.  In this the first of the series, we explore a movie from childhood that made an impression on us. Azed & Jay, being from different generations, have very different selections but, as often happens, there are overlapping thematic tropes in both of their individual choices. Azed, being a child of the 70's, remembers the impact of Ken Russel's film adaptation of The Who's Tommy, while Jay being a child of the 80's remembers the impact of Robert Altman's Popeye.  Other topics covered here: How VHS changed the whole game with movies, How kid's today just don't get it, Shelly Duvall in the Multiverse, and Anne Margaret as Azed's 12 year old masturbatory fantasy woman.

Welcome to the sequel to our wildly popular episode on the most underappreciated comedies of the 2000s except with a radical new twist; instead of the 2000s we cover the 1990s! Upon writing that sentence I recognize its probably not that radical, BUT WE DID IT ALL THE SAME! Joining us is the crew from that 2000s episode, filmmaker Omar Majeed and Mongrel Media bigwig Tom Alexander with films ranging from Clifford (yes, that Clifford), The Watermelon Woman, Joe vs the Volcano and The Butcher Boy (yes, that The Butcher Boy). So strap on a scrunchy, pull out your Reebok Pumps, tell an authority figure to "eat your shorts" and let's all go back to that bygone era when MTV still played actual music and Leonardo DiCaprio played second fiddle to boob tube superstar Kirk motherf***ing Cameron.

If you're anything like the Mutiny of Preverts crew, and you've spent decades watching and appreciating all the great cinema of the world, there is one question you find yourself returning to time and again: What exactly does it look like when Rip Torn has vigorous, athletic coitus with a coed? Well,  lucky for you the films of Nicolas Roeg have the answer. And they also have the answer to similar copulatory questions about Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie, Theresa Russell, David Bowie, Candy Clark, James Fox, Mick Jagger, Rutger Hauer... We could go on. Despite the wealth of boning related topics, Azed, Jay and unofficial third host Omar Majeed also make time to discuss many of the formal and thematic elements of Roeg's films that make him one of the all time great directors. Azed, in particular, makes an astute connection between Roeg's fragmented visual and auditory style and the deeply alienated and traumatized characters that inhabit his films that you will not want to miss.

“He’s More a Painter, Maybe, Than a Director”: Jean-Luc Godard on Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis, as a filmmaker, entertainer and celebrity persona, was constantly polarizing.  In America, he was loved by audiences, hated by critics. In France he was placed alongside such filmmakers as Howard Hawks, Hitchcock and Chaplin.  New Wave luminaries  such as Godard, Resnais and Chabrol, cited Lewis as a cinematic genius, while in America the critics maligned him as puerile, infantile and vulgar.  In this episode, Azed & Jay discuss the work and persona of Jerry Lewis and argue that his work is best understood by  re-contextualizing him as an experimental artist who used cinema as his personal psychoanalytic couch.  From the early Martin & Lewis days through to his increasingly bizarre but fascinating auteurist films, Lewis is the embodiment of a fragmented psyche searching for a coherent subjective position. A project which both in front of and behind the camera, Lewis consistently, but interestingly, fails to achieve. Speaking of using media as a personal therapy session, hopefully this episode will finally put to rest Azed's concerning obsession with Jerry Lewis and finally free him to concentrate on his other obsession: the music of John Tesh.

On this episode of Mutiny of Preverts we discuss something quite rare indeed. Along with our special guest, filmmaker Sean Cisterna, we talk about the very best Canadian films of all time, including Hard Core Logo, Dead Ringers, 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, Begone Dull Care and a bunch more. We also dig into the inner workings of the Canadian film industry itself. What works? What doesn't? Are we as a country really producing the best cinema we could be? What's holding us back? After an honest and insightful discussion the truth behind all Canadian cinema revealed itself to us like a shining beacon from a plane of existence beyond all human knowledge and understanding. That truth sprouted and swelled inside our minds until we all saw that the one true analogue for all of Canadian cinema is the feminist sit-com classic The Golden Girls. Think about it; David Cronenberg is Bea Arthur, the core figure and ringleader. Denis Villeneuve is Rue McClanahan, the diva who is also (let's face it) kinda slutty (he just can't seem to keep from getting in bed with our American cousins). Guy Maddin is Betty White, the kooky one. And Arthur Lipsett is Estelle Getty, the grump. Whether a film fits into The Golden Girls paradigm should now and forever be the standard by which all Canadian cinema is judged. All else should be expelled from the country and labelled as... oh I don't know, Belgian.

Well, it happened. The pandemic has finally pushed Azed & Jay over the brink and into the mouth of madness. How else to explain this episode, wherein Kieran Dick, a Toronto/Brooklyn experimental video and film artist, who once refused to shake David Bowie's hand, zestfully defends the greasy 80's "comedy" DC Cab?  Kieran is on record declaring that DC Cab is the one movie he would take "into the bunker". Can a movie using Mr. T as it's main selling point really be defended?  Is there a hidden subtext in this otherwise clunky, super-inappropriate movie? Were the 80's all a dream? Tune in to find out. Joining in on the "fun" is comic performer and entrepreneur Trevor Burnett, who classes up the episode with some true Hollywood tales about his time as a  background performer in Billy Madison. And we go full TMZ when Trevor starts throwing shade on Adam Sandler for trying to pick up hot extras on set and having zero game.   NOTE: Azed gets increasingly drunk as the episode progresses and subsequently becomes more belligerent and sloppy than usual.

Here we are at episode 50 for the Mutiny of Preverts podcast! A milestone that neither Azed nor Jay bothered to even mention while recording. Is it because they switched from milk to lead based paint in their breakfast cereal? Or could it be the result of too little grey matter in their temporal lobes? The latter would certainly be fitting since lack of grey matter is one of the signs of psychopathy. And that very mental disorder (and sociopathy too) is the topic for this episode. In particular, Azed and Jay discuss how the loneliness of our times may be particularly fertile ground for the proliferation of sociopathy and the values of the post-Thatcher/Reagan era have been disturbingly kind to the psychopathically inclined. Some of the films discussed are Mike Leigh's Naked, No Country for Old Men, A Clockwork Orange, In a Lonely Place, Man Bites Dog, The Vanishing, Gone Girl and Titanic. *Disclaimer: Any murderous ideation resulting from the listening of this episode is not the responsibility Mutiny of Preverts. Should you decide to act on this ideation you do so at your own risk. P.S. But if you do commit murder please don't just hide the bodies in your crawl space. It's been done. Have a little respect for your craft.

In the first of our new series of "micro-episodes", MoP favourite, Omar Majeed defends the much maligned Adam Sandler movie, Billy Madison (1995).  The conceptual reasoning behind these micro-episodes is to up our production output by doing, what the kids call, a "hot take" on a movie or topic within the cinematic discourse.  Less work, less impressive but a hell of a lotta fun! And these days, don't we all just want a little more fun in our lives? Still, it wouldn't be an MoP episode without some random Lacan references and some unnecessary psychoanalytic cultural theory thrown in there to impress the elites! So don't panic pseudo intellectuals, we will never forget about you, as we are one of you!  NOTE: MoP highly recommends that you re-watch the film in question while high, with multiple shitty snacks, wearing either a "onesie" a "slanket" or just in your underwear, as long as you've been wearing them for at least three days straight.  ENJOY!

We're back with Part 2 of our discussion with Omar Majeed, Tom Alexander and Raul Pinto on our favourite films of 2020. In this part we discuss categories like The Film You Wish You Made, Biggest Disappointment, Most Original Film and Best Old Film You Watched. Same rules apply as last time, no biting, pinching or hair pulling, but crotch shots wholly encouraged! We hope you enjoy.

If there's one thing that Mutiny of Preverts prides itself in is our ability to read the cultural moment. And what do people want to do now more than reminisce about what a splendiferous and joyous experience that was the year 2020? But what might be hard to believe is that after looking back we realized that a lot of bad stuff happened and 2020 wasn't really that splendiferous after all. Maybe even the opposite of splendiferous which I'm going to say is something like drinking a big puddle of dog water filled with napalm and used bandaids. So we decided to have some fun with this one and instead of doing a simple best of list we mined the Preverts back catalogue and used the same format that we did for our best of the decade by organizing the episode around a series of unusual, but hopefully insightful categories including The Crypto-Fascist Award, Most Original Film, The Film That Made You Skip Pornhub and a bunch more. To help us ensure that we didn't miss any hidden gems we also invited three of our favourite guests from past episodes, Omar Majeed, Tom Alexander and Raul Pinto to join us. With these three devoted cinephiles we ended up with a diverse and sprawling discussion on everything from Mank to Another Round to First Cow and a whole lot more. So much more that we had to break the episode into two parts. But we won't leave you hanging for long. Part two will be out in a week.

The authorship of Citizen Kane has been the subject of much debate ever since Pauline Kael's essay Raising Kane which put forth the strange notion that Orson Welles was less of the driving force behind Kane and naming screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as the unsung hero who deserved sole credit for one of cinema's greatest achievements.  Fincher seems to be using this template for his bio pic of Mankiewicz, played by Gary Oldman as a shambolic court jester much in demand among the Hollywood elites until his own self-destructive tendencies bring it all down. As with all Hollywood lore, the characters that populate this myth are well known epic figures from Irving Thalberg to Upton Sinclair, but the underlying themes of movies as propaganda and the political machinations of the media machine bely a certain unconscious irony for Fincher, who seems to be trading in the very same myth making by upholding the idea that Welles was a megalomaniacal credit hog and not the brilliant filmmaker who would go onto make many superb films.  

When asked about the creation of Godzilla Ishiro Honda said that his character was too tall, too strong, too heavy. The monster wasn't evil by choice. That was its tragedy. The sympathy engendered by this tragedy is what makes Godzilla such an iconic monster. But what kind of monster wreaks destruction not only by choice, but because of resentment stemming from a perceived lack of strength and power? Can or should we ever have sympathy for such a monster? Using several iconic Hollywood films chosen by his subject, Errol Morris explores the depths, or perhaps the lack of depth, in Bannon's ideology. By intercutting between characters like Gregory Peck in Twelve O'Clock High, John Wayne in The Searchers and Orson Welles in Chimes at Midnight  and his interview with Bannon does Morris make the mistake of reinforcing Bannon's own myth-making or does it offer a subtle undermining of Bannon in comparison to these iconic characters? The controversy surrounding American Dharma derives from the perception that Bannon is a figure that needs to be erased at all costs. Why make a film which runs the risk of legitimizing him? Azed and Jay dig into the complexities of making a film about someone whose ideology is defined by its drive for destruction. They also share a few thoughts on the election that is about to take place in the U.S. revealing some disagreements they have about the state of things and what hope there may be for the future.

The Spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.--Guy DeBord Writer/director Charlie Kaufman utilizes aspects of horror, surrealism and art house to produce one of the most intriguing and talked about movies of the year.  Starting out as a sort of "meet the parents" road trip movie, it slowly starts to devolve into strange, absurdist territory that leaves one unhooked from the narrative in frightening but fascinating way.  Azed and Jay discuss the themes of interiority, suicidal ideation and crushing alienation...and then they talk about the movie! Ha, ha! See what I did there? Self burn! Also in this episode: we respond to a request from one of our fans, discuss the movie Independence Day: Resurgence and superhero take down series, The Boys. 

After the gluttonous excesses of the most recent multi-film and guest host packed episodes Azed and Jay strip the podcast bare and tackle a single film, the Brazilian genre exercise  Bacurau. When a group of Western tourists with a taste for hunting the "most dangerous game" isolate and surround the small Brazilian village of Bacurau the stage is set for a massacre. But directors Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles recognize a strength in this tightly knit community that the atomized Westerners lack. The social bonds between the residents have been strengthened as a result of multiple generations having to defend their very lives against violent and exploitative outside forces. Influenced by numerous Western films like Wake in Fright and filmmakers like John Carpenter and Sergio Leone, the film both draws on and breaks down just about every genre convention it encounters for a vision totally unique to the Global South.

"It is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism,” -Frederic Jameson Apocalypse in the original Greek meant an "uncovering, disclosure, or revelation", but has at become more commonly understood as an event heralding the end of the world.  In this episode, Azed and Jay are joined yet again by filmmaker Omar Majeed (Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam) and Azed's son, Ishmael (because...you know, what else is there to do during the Covid lock down?) as they explore 4 of their favorite Apocalypse themed movies; Snowpiercer (2013) directed by Bong Joon-ho, Children of Men (2006) directed by Alfonso Cuarón,  The Sacrifice (1986) directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and Melancholia (2011) directed by Lars Von Trier.  All your favourite topics are in this one episode: existential despair, denial of death, capitalist fascism, and the destruction of life as we know it as an inevitable consequence of human folly and ignorance. Enjoy!

The last several months have delivered an overwhelming dose of hard knocks and brutal reality. With COVID-19 dominating our every social interaction many people including the Preverts crew have been turning to the films that promise some kind of respite from the stress-filled anxiety of our everyday lives. With special guests Ishmael and Omar Majeed we each pick a few films that help make life just a little bit brighter including Spirited Away, The Life Aquatic, Duck Soup and Singin' in the Rain, among others. In the process of discussing what escapism means and what it offers to each of us we discovered how each of these films manage to capture some aspect of our deeply ingrained fantasy lives. The films discussed explore dance, myth, adventure and pandemonium in ways that soothe our dread and excite our spirits. The benefits of which often last far beyond the length of the films themselves. You'll have to forgive us for the quality of Omar's audio. He was piping in from Operation Hennessy's Underwater Sea Laboratory. We apologize to Kieran Dick for cutting our discussion of the Gary Busey classic DC Cab due to time constraints.

Like the screwball comedy and the musical, The Western would seem to be a dead genre. While every so often we get a "revisionist" take, like The Coen Brothers' True Grit or Tarantino's Hateful 8, still the western seems to belong to a by-gone era.  However, the Western being the quintessential American genre, depicting the very origins of American identity, it arguably has more relevancy today than at any other time.  In this episode, Azed and Jay sift through the annals of film history and pluck out their favourite underappreciated Westerns. No Rio Bravo or The Searchers here, these meta-westerns expose the underlying issues of race, class and gender that form the ethos of American "exceptionalism" and the paradoxical idea that history's greatest democracy somehow co-exists with it's oligarchic underpinnings. Films covered in this episode: Jay's Picks: Two Mules for Sister Sarah (1970, d: Don Siegel), Comanche Station (1960, d: Bud Boetticher), Persued (1947, d: Raoul Walsh), The Missouri Breaks (1976, d: Arthur Penn) and Bend of the River (1952, d: Anthony Mann). Azed's picks: The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (1949,d: Preston Sturges), Forty Guns (1957, d: Samuel Fuller), Little Big Man (1971, d: Arthur Penn), Heaven's Gate (1980, d; Michael Cimino) and The Ox Bow Incident (1947, d: William A. Wellman) 

As promised this episode is Part Two of our Tarantino retrospective where we tackle some of the most important questions in the history of the podcast. Will Azed let Jay get a word in edgewise? Will Jay start a race war by agreeing too much with Kieran and not enough with Omar and Azed? Will Tarantino get one of us to use the "n word"? And is Kieran Dick his real name? The answers; no, maybe, yes (Omar) and he'll probably kill me for even divulging the possibility of such a thing (at the very least he might crush my windpipe or maybe cleave a hamstring). Aside from all the violence and racial tension we discuss every film between Kill Bill and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood developing a deeper understanding of the themes and methods behind Tarantino's filmography. For discussions of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown check out Part One. Once again, if you're in a particularly Tarantino-esque mood you can check out a playlist Jay made for a fictional Tarantino film right here. It's filled with all kinds of the funk, psych, soul, surf, pop nuggets that Quentin packs into his films (including a smattering of Ennio Morricone of course).

Welcome back to another episode of Mutiny of Preverts where we scratch that preverted itch for all you cinema lovers out there! In this episode we brought back two of our favourite guests in Omar Majeed and Kieran Dick to break down the career of Quentin Tarantino. We get into some heated debates regarding the merit and intentionality behind some of his biggest hits. Is he a straight forward revisionist or is he engaging in the rich history of uchronia, a kind of speculative fiction that explores alternate histories of our world? We tackle that question in a general discussion then get into a film by film breakdown from Reservoir Dogs to Jackie Brown (and even a little nubbin of content covering My Best Friend's Birthday, his debut short film). In Part Two we'll cover the rest of his filmography from Kill Bill to Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood. As an extra treat Jay put together a playlist of a fictional Tarantino soundtrack featuring all kinds of the funk, psych, soul, surf, pop nuggets that Quentin packs into every frame of his films (including a smattering of Ennio Morricone of course). Click here to check it out.  

Pandemic Shmandemic! MoP will courageously continue to do our show as a way of giving back to the 70-80 listeners who continue to support us. So here it is, the long-awaited Nicolas Cage episode, focusing on his "infamous" performance in the much maligned 1988 film Vampire's Kiss (dir. Robert Bierman).  Azed and Jay enthusiastically defend the film as deeper than merely highly meme-able kitsch, while our guest Brooklyn filmmaker and bon vivant, Keiran Dick declares, "it's not a good movie, you guys know that".  We also discuss other great and not so great Cage performances and dissect his unique acting style. Other topics covered in this episode: Life during lock down, Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide, DC Cab and Keiran un-ironically asking us which one film we would take into the underground bunker? MoP BONUS FEATURE: New recipes for Bat soup and Pangolin burgers!

The Academy Awards caused a stir on the twitter sphere by awarding South Korean film, Parasite with Oscars in 4 major categories ( Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film).  Usually, we at MoP love to spew vitriol and general 'bitch-iness" at the Oscars, but this year our sneering contempt was tempered by this show of authentic "wokeness".   On this episode, Azed and Jay are joined by guest critic, Tom Alexander, Director of Theatrical Releasing at Mongrel Media, as they cover the 9 films nominated this year, pick their personal fav's and almost come to fisticuffs over Jay's (traitorous?) change of heart about Joker.  Attorney Bill Barr is launching an investigation into Jay and has already revealed that he once hired prostitutes to urinate on a picture of Martin Scorsese.  

After a substantial hiatus the Preverts are back! And we've founded a brand new awards ceremony called The Preversions with all the prestige of the East Tampa Film Critics Association and the popularity of the Films for Incels subreddit. Some of the many categories include; Most Crypto-Fascist Film, Best Film That Made You Skip Pornhub That Day, Most Indelible Image, Most Depressing Film, Best Film You Don't Understand and a whole bunch more! We also get into larger discussions about trends throughout the decade that we liked such as the accessibility of certain tools that made the films of Don Hertzfeldt possible or that we didn't care for like the box office dominance of movies that Scorsese would refer to as "theme park rides". Within this construct we cover many of the decades most discussed films from Joker to Holy Motors and Birdman to Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. It's a sprawling episode that only begins to cover the past decade in film that gave us some of the most memorable cinematic moments of all time. Anyway, we were very excited to get back at it and we'll have another episode coming at you soon.

We will back with a new episode in early 2020.  Meantime, here's our Christmas movies episode from last year with special guest, director Sean Cisterna, currently killing it with his latest film, From the Vine (https://mythicproductions.ca/joe-pantoliano-to-star-in-mythic-productions-wine-drama-from-the-vine-came-the-grape/). Enjoy and happy whatever you do! Why are so many Christmas movies about suicide, despair, poverty and criminality? Isn't it supposed to be all about peace, love and hope? In this episode , Azed and Jay welcome filmmaker, Sean Cisterna (Kiss and Cry) to discuss their favourite Christmas movies. Sean breaks down his chosen favourite, Gremlins, to reveal the fascinating subtext woven deep in this seemingly benign monster movie. Jay unearths an obscure Ukrainian Christmas movie called Melody for a Street Organ, and Azed chooses a Jimmy Stewart Christmas classic, but not the one you're thinking about. Also, in the spirit of the holidays, we fully analyse the alternative version of 'Jingle Bells' and attempt to comprehend what it is that is causing Batman to smell. Could it be a glandular issue?

Azed and Jay are busy makin' a movie, and haven't had time to do a new episode, but with the recent news that the mercurial and alluring Elaine May is set to direct her 5th feature film at the age of 87, we are re-posting our tribute to the formidable Ms.May from last year. We'll be back in December with a new episode. “Elaine was formidable…. one of the most intelligent, beautiful and witty women I had ever met. I hoped I would never see her again.” —Richard Burton One of the most innovative artists to emerge out of the Beat era, Elaine May has been an object of fascination and curiosity for her entire strange, volatile career. On this episode of MoP, we take a deeper look at the life and work of the great Elaine May who only made 4 feature films A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mickey & Nickey and the infamous, Ishtar.

MoP is on a bit of a break, and will be back in December with a new episode! In the meantime, and just in time for Halloween, we're re-releasing our infamous "Heuristics of Horror" episode from last year. Enjoy! In this episode of MoP, we look beyond the horror canon and unearth obscure, international and arty horror films that make us pee our pants (Although Jay pees his pants on every episode. I have urged him to see a urologist but he's stuck in his ways). Some of the horror gems discussed in this episode: two Larry Cohen films, It's Alive and God Told Me To, Brian DePalma's Sisters, Cure directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, House byNobuhiko Ôbayashi and more. Then, we delve deep into our chosen films Michael Hanke's Funny Games and Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore.

In a creepy occurrence of synchronicity Jay and Azed choose a couple of noir films that compliment each other a little too well. To the point where doctors have mandated a period of separation for the mental health of both to avoid a potentially catastrophic merging of their identities. But before the state got involved and surgically separated the two hosts and lucky for you listeners the pair managed to record this podcast on Otto Preminger's Angel Face and John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven first. Two noirs that took the iconic femme fatale character to new and disturbing depths, brilliantly played by Jean Simmons and Gene Tierney. See, even the actresses names are the same! Before they get into the noir discussion special guest and filmmaker Kieran Dick joins Azed and Jay to tell them just how terribly wrong they've been this whole time. In particular Kieran (a Philip K. Dick expert) digs back into the Blade Runner episode and gives some insight and alternate reads on some of the topics that were discussed. And yes they all somehow managed to bring up Twin Peaks again (multiple times!).

Blade Runner is an undeniable sci-fi classic, but is it also a white nationalist dog whistle cloaked in super cool, neo-noir set design? Azed & Jay dive deep into the whole Blade Runner phenomenon and both find a lot they hadn't seen in previous viewings. From Kierkegaard's concept of ressentiment to why Hitler would have been the best Pokeman Go player, we cover it all. Also, Azed's son, Ishmael, gives us his take on our Twin Peaks episode and geeks out with a Twin Peaks/Lord of the Rings breakdown.

David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks marks a high point in television history. The merging of Lynch's experimental film background with the more conventional TV landscape created a mesmerizing series that continues to defy any attempt at a simple interpretation. Azed & Jay and returning guest Omar Majeed welcome special guest philosopher/author Tamler Sommers from the popular podcast Very Bad Wizards to take a deep dive into the world of Twin Peaks. Note: no mention of poop or vomit in this episode. Apologies.

On episode 28 Azed and Jay discuss Harmony Korine's latest film The Beach Bum and in a rare show of discord have somewhat divergent takes. Is Korine using the character of Moondog to tell his own story as an artist living a charmed life or is he more of a perceptive imposter, using the lives of the freaks and outsiders in his films as a way to give his films a credibility he otherwise lacks? They also have another edition of Films You Are Ashamed You Haven't Seen. Jay reveals that he has only just watched what is probably one of the most influential documentaries ever made. His shame is so great that for years he deceived Azed into thinking that he had seen this film even though he hadn't. Tune in to witness Jay's very public humiliation and Azed's righteous indignation on this episode of Mutiny of Preverts.

Another in our continuing series of "criminally forgotten" films, Little Murders (1970) directed by actor Alan Arkin and starring Elliot Gould contains a deep political statement buried in a somewhat surrealist, trenchantly black comedy. Written by political cartoonist  and screenwriter Jules Feiffer, Little Murders is remarkably prescient about the correlation of the rise of violence in society and the loss of faith in institutions, but is paradoxically very critical of those institutions at the same time. Azed and Jay use this obscure gem to get into a larger discussion around Trump, Richard Rorty and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Also, we revive a favourite segment, "movies we are ashamed we haven't seen yet", Azed admits guiltily that he just recently saw Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. As a punishment Azed has been instructed to burn all his (unread) Derrida books and rip up his Che Guevara poster.

In an unprecedented episode for Mutiny of Preverts Azed and Jay invite not one, but two guests to join us on this episode about the most underappreciated comedies of the 2000s. We each make a list of five films that we think has been overlooked and deserves just a little more love. Our guests, Mongrel Media director of theatrical releasing Tom Alexander and MoP favourite Omar Majeed, are pitted against each other in a film podcast duel to the death. Tune in to find out which of them wins the honour of having made the definitive list and which one is deemed the loser and subsequently disemboweled on air. We think you'll be surprised. We also discuss the beloved careers of Doris Day and Tim Conway and some of the exciting films playing at this year's Cannes Film Festival. You'll also have to excuse some of the sound on Jay's mic. This is our first time recording four people at once and we simply lacked the equipment to do it properly. We hope it's not too much of a distraction. And if it is, well you can just skip his parts like usual.

MoP co-creator Azed Majeed is part of a collective in Toronto called TALKIES. What is TALKIES?  In a casual atmosphere, we screen a film, listen to an informal talk about it by an engaging and informed speaker, and then have an open Q&A and discussion. Originally started back in 2009, TALKIES ran for a couple of years and then took a long hiatus while lives, families, careers forged on. And now we are back.  For our relaunch, we screened Nicholas Ray’s 1954 classic, Johnny Guitar, and Professor and author Nikolas Kompridis discussed the film in relationship to toxic masculinity. We offer it here with an intro from your usual hosts, Jay and Azed, who are neither professors nor authors but who are toxic- not toxic males-just toxic. Nikolas Kompridis is an affiliate of the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto and was the former director of the Centre for Social Justice at ACU. He is the author of The Aesthetic Turn in Political Thought (Bloomsbury), Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory Between Past and Future (MIT), and Philosophical Romanticism (Routledge).

The world of cinema has lost some true giants with the deaths of Stanley Donen, Agnes Varda and actor Seymour Cassel in the past few months. But Larry Cohen, one of the most overlooked filmmakers of his generation, also passed away recently. Aside from a few outlier critical voices like Robin Wood, Cohen's work has had a great deal less critical analysis than it deserves. Jay, Azed and guest host Omar Majeed try to do their own small part to rectify this oversight giving particular attention to the films Bone, God Told Me To and It's Alive. A trio of films that make indelible criticisms of race, religion and the nuclear family and expose cracks in the dominant social order with an acuity rarely seen before or since. The hosts also briefly discuss Agnes Varda's death, Julian Assange's arrest and, most importantly, how Omar's recent CSA award really classes up the show. A tastefulness we suspect Cohen would have found oddly inappropriate considering his own stubborn commitment to his status as the ultimate schlockmeister.

Charlie Chaplin was, perhaps, the most beloved comic artist of all time. His Little Tramp character in the silent era was known from the US to the Far East. That's why it was so courageous of him to star in and direct this film about a "Bluebeard" killer. Set in the aftermath of the depression and just before the rise of Fascism, Chaplin's Verdoux preys on woman for their money in a coldly calculating manner stating that it's "just business". Cerebral and nihilistic, Monsieur Verdoux was a flop when it was released in 1947, partially because of its anti-hero narrative but also because of Chaplin's reputation at the time of being a communist sympathizer.  Azed and Jay discuss the finer points of Chaplin's deconstruction of the logical endpoint of Capitalism and also get into an extended discussion of the Mueller report, the current state of journalism and as always some poo and pee.

Alex Cox emerged in the 80s as one of the great hopes for counter cultural cinema and faded into obscurity almost as quickly. Azed and Jay talk about how his rise and fall mirrored many of the themes that recur throughout much of his filmography, but are also present in maybe their most fully realized form in his debut film Repo Man. Cox's films explored the punk movement, self-mythologizing, and the commodification of the counter-culture as plainly and with as much insight as any filmmaker before or since.   Of course one message towers above all the rest -- Don't trust anyone over 30 kids. They're all either sell outs or pedophiles (And sell outs don't give you candy before they screw you).

Another in our series of 'criminally forgotten" films and filmmakers, Azed and Jay discuss the short but fascinating collaboration of Frank and Eleanor Perry. Their 1969 film Last Summer is the primary subject, but the films David and Lisa, The Swimmer, and Diary of a Mad Housewife are also discussed. The Perry's explore themes of alienation and delusional thinking especially as experienced by those living in the repressive world of the Northeastern upper class and the children whose identities are formed in this callous and cynical environment. We also discuss the futility of caring about the Oscars, the recent death of Hollywood legend Stanley Donen and the excellent new TV series Russian Doll.

With it's emphasis on gender relations, class distinctions and anarchic political ideology, the screwball comedy is a lost art that maintains its relevancy in the current zeitgeist. Azed and Jay are joined by producer and journalist, Raúl Pinto to discuss the rise and fall of the screwball comedy and each of them select a personal favourite to explore. Also, in this episode, we employ a rapid-fire, exchange of witty barbs and double entendre's and Jay dresses up as a 12 yr old girl...but he always does that so not really relevant to mention it here. Jay's pick: Howard Hawks' Bringing Up, Baby (1938), Azed's pick: Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve (1941) and Raúl's pick: Billy Wilders' The Major and the Minor (1942).

Azed and Jay discuss 2019 in typically unconventional style. Yes they list their favourite films of the year, but the episode is actually dedicated to a series of random categories selected by a super-intelligent chicken named Harold. These categories include, most depressing film of the year, best CGI and best use of a super-intelligent chicken (which in retrospect doesn't seem like a random selection Harold). Tune in and enjoy the best 2018 had to offer.

Why are so many Christmas movies about suicide, despair, poverty and criminality? Isn't it supposed to be all about peace, love and hope? In this episode , Azed and Jay welcome filmmaker, Sean Cisterna (Kiss and Cry) to discuss their favourite Christmas movies. Sean breaks down his chosen favourite, Gremlins, to reveal the fascinating subtext woven deep in this seemingly benign monster movie. Jay unearths an obscure Ukrainian Christmas movie called Melody for a Street Organ, and Azed chooses a Jimmy Stewart Christmas classic, but not the one you're thinking about. Also, in the spirit of the holidays, we fully analyse the alternative version of 'Jingle Bells' and attempt to comprehend what it is that is causing Batman to smell. Could it be a glandular issue?

Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind has finally been finished and released by Netflix. Welles is a mythic figure in the world of cinema and this film, started in the early 70's and unfinished at his death in 1985, stands as the last statement of a cinematic giant. Or does it? Can it really be considered a Welles film considering it was completed by a group of his friends and acolytes?  Azed and Jay discuss the film and all other things Welles over cigars and a 10 course meal. Also discussed in this episode: the deaths of Bernardo Bertolucci and Nicolas Roeg, All in the Family, Azed's first date with his wife and, as always, some pee and poo.

In this episode, the first in a new series we are calling "Criminally Forgotten", where we unearth a cinematic gem from the depths of obscurity. Here we discuss the exquisite yet obscure 1987 film adaptation of Marilynne Robinson's novel Housekeeping, written and directed by the Scottish auteur, Bill Forsyth, whose career has also been almost completely erased from cinematic memory.  Forsyth, better known for his quirky yet extremely nuanced films Gregory's Girl and Local Hero, here realizes what we consider to be one of his finest achievements and one of the best films of the 80's. 

Is there a canon for cinema? What metrics are used to determine the best films out there? Are there objective criteria or is all down to what hits you? And most importantly, does porn count? In this episode Azed and Jay are joined by filmmaker, Omar Majeed to discuss these ideas and to reveal our own lists of the best films of the 2000's thus far. IMPORTANT NOTE: Azed's list is the best of the three. 

Azed and Jay discuss the magnificent First Reformed starring Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried. Written and directed by Transcendental Cinema theorist and acolyte Paul Schrader, the writer of Scorsese classics Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

Wes Anderson's stunningly beautiful Isle of Dogs could be called "Lost in Translation" with dogs. A film about how language is both a barrier and a facilitator of understanding between living beings. Also, there is some mention of vomit and poop towards the end of the episode.

In this episode of MoP, we look beyond the horror canon and unearth obscure, international and arty horror films that make us pee our pants (Although Jay pees his pants on every episode. I have urged him to see a urologist but he's stuck in his ways). Some of the horror gems discussed in this episode: two Larry Cohen films, It's Alive and God Told Me To, Brian DePalma's Sisters, Cure directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, House byNobuhiko Ôbayashi and more. Then, we delve deep into our chosen films Michael Hanke's Funny Games and Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore.

“Elaine was formidable…. one of the most intelligent, beautiful and witty women I had ever met. I hoped I would never see her again.” —Richard Burton One of the most innovative artists to emerge out of the Beat era, Elaine May has been an object of fascination and curiosity for her entire strange, volatile career. On this episode of MoP, we take a deeper look at the life and work of the great Elaine May who only made 4 feature films A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mickey & Nickey and the infamous, Ishtar.