A Podcast about movies from the fine folks at the Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation, with Corbin Smith (The Famous Writer) and Dr. Movies, Matt Ellis (A Professor of Movies)
Old Cinema! New Cinema! Here they are, together! Ellis and Corbs talk about "Hugo," Martin Scorsese's honestly conspicously excellent family movie about a an orphan, a great filmmaker, and the open wounds of World War One. Topics: how exactly is Scorsese so good at making a special effects extravaganza, the 3D moment, fated to fail, color, and Scorsese's ability to bring a wide range of techniques to the table. Read a fascinting article about Rave Culture in Britain here. Corbin Rec. Matt rec. Next episode is about Leviathan. Watch here.
Welcome. In this episode Matt and Corbin talk about Abbas Kiarostami's 2010 brainscrew "Certified Copy," a movie about two strangers hanging out in the Italian countryside. Topics include: Binoche's performence, an anchor in a storm, Kiarostami as a natural candiate for digital cinema owing to his particular unfussiness, and Walter Benjamin. So much Walter Benjamin. Matt's recc. Corbin's recc is available on your music streaming application of choice. Our next episode is about "Hugo." Watch it here.
(sorry for the double post. this is a repost of a bad upload. LISTEN TO THIS ONE) Hi there! Matt made a guest appearance on a great new podcast about cinema, history, and the left and we are sharing it, with you, RIGHT HERE! The podcast is called 'Cold War Cinema,' and you can find it here and here. Join Ellis and hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as they discuss: The Phoenician Scheme's connections to the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA-backed cultural operation from 1950 that weaponized writers, artists, and other thinkers for intelligence operations. How Anderson's film reveals the Cold War origins of the contemporary world in its critiques of capitalism and the neoliberal project. The ways that The Phoenician Scheme breaks Anderson's hermetically sealed aesthetics and alludes to its formal limitations. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find them online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema. For more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic. Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com alright that's all. we'll be back on friday with Certified Copy, which i need to watch RIGHT NOW
Hi there! Matt was on a different podcast, and we are sharing it, with you, RIGHT HERE! It's called 'Cold War Cinema,' and you can find it here and here. Join Ellis and hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as they discuss: The Phoenician Scheme's connections to the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA-backed cultural operation from 1950 that weaponized writers, artists, and other thinkers for intelligence operations. How Anderson's film reveals the Cold War origins of the contemporary world in its critiques of capitalism and the neoliberal project. The ways that The Phoenician Scheme breaks Anderson's hermetically sealed aesthetics and alludes to its formal limitations. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema. For more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic. Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com alright that's all. we'll be back on friday with certified copy, which i need to watch RIGHT NOW
Corbin and Matt talk about THE SOCIAL NETWORK, David Fincher's (And also Aaron Sorkin's) parable about the fouding of Facebook and the terrible dream of what felt like was coming next. Topics include: capital and moral hazard, the Winkelvosses and Eduardo, the movie's make believe version of Zuckerberg, Fincher setting the palate for the future by accident, and a bunch of other stuff. I dont know if you can see but this episode is very long. Corbin recc. Ellis recc. Next episode is about "Certified Copy." Have a good day!
Documentarian CHRISTOPHER JASON BELL (MeansTV, 'Miss Me Yet,' the upcoming 'Failed State') joins us to talk about 'A Married Couple,' Alan King's 1969 documentary about a ditentegrating Canadian marriage. Topics include: reality TV, the weird sexism of how people recived this movie at the time, performence in documentary, the parade of hideous outfits this guy wears, and the terrible language of irrational arguements stuck deep in a nightmare mire. I will not be indexing our recs this week, there are simply too many of them. Next week's episode will return to the DIGITAL MINES as we talk about "The Social Network," David Fincher's symphony for the end of human communication. Check it out!!!
Ellis and Corbin talk about post-continuity infusted found footage horror extravaganza PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. Topics include: real estate in 2006: the true horror, why there wasn't a second demonologist in San Diego at the time, the editing style, HDR cameras, porn aesthetics, and other stuff. Read some Fabulous Criticisim about Paranormal Activity here. NOTICE: OUR NEXT EPISODE IS NOT ABOUT THE SOCIAL NETWORK, LIKE WE SAID HERE. It is about "A Married Couple." Watch it here.
We had to do it, so we did. Topics include: the insane camera setup they used on this, Cameron: Movie Napolean, the... particular aesthetics, and the faint nostalgia for Michael Bay real heads feel while watching this thing. There's stuff we like about it to. Read this if to learn stuff about Avatar. Ellis recc here. Corbin recc'd a video game, again. Next week: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.
Speed Racer. It's a masterwork. It also might give you a headache. We must live in that contradiction. Topics: Comic Books and post-continuity cinema, the movie's collagey qualities, the alternate Hollywood it presents, and the movie as a product of globalization. Matt's reccomendation. Corbin's. Next episode is about "Avatar," which you can watch on Disney+, if you dare.
Ellis and Corbin and ERIC MARSH discuss "Che: Part One," Steven Soderbergh's process oriented tale of the Cuban Revolution, first movie ever shot on a 4K Movie Camera. Topics include: Oakley Sunglasses, Soderbergh during this time, digital cinemtography blessing his particular way of working, and why CAPITALIST STREAMING PLATFORMS make this movie hard to watch. Ellis: 'Song at the end is "Carlos Puebla – Hasta Siempre, Comandante," which is about Che.' Our next episode is about SPEED RACER. Tremble in fear.
Eyy! Rachel Getting Married! It's a heavy movie! We talk about Ann Hathaway playing into public type, the incredibly strange casting, Demme as a phyical filmmaker working in a kinetic-digital world, rehab, European family vs American Family, 'Realism,' and other stuff. Hey: there's a weird little background sound in this episode. Sorry we hope it doesn't drive you insane. We were recording at Workers' Tap and the music was a little loud. We swear the episode is good enough that you will be able to ignore it. Intersting interview about the movie's sound mixing here. Good essay comparing the movie to Mike Leigh's work here. Matt recommends the new Adam Curtis thing. It's called 'Shifty.' Corbin recommends "On Fire" by Galaxie 500. Our Next Episode is about "Che," a movie that is very hard to watch on the internet. More information on this in the audio of the episode.
Some big news: Corbin and Matt lost their minds and recorded about film academy stuff for two hours. Our topic is Hollywood Continuty and its accelerants and defectors, which we process thought the frame of Tony Scott's 2006 Sort-of-sci-fi movie Deja Vu. Topics are wide and varied and include: comic book storytelling, film scanning, the digital console, Jim Cavizel, Ozu (again), and Michael Bay, the angel and the demon in one manifestation and the role of superhero movies in rebelling AGAINST post-continuity. Read Bordwell on late continutiy here. Read Shaviro on Post-Continuity here. Corbin recc's Mulaney's latest special, which is not NEW. Matt recc's his own Substack. Next week's episode is about RACHEL GETTING MARRIED. check that out it's great
We still got a will and a burning rage to win, folks, because Ellis and Corbs are talking about WALK HARD! Topics: Non-linerar editing and audience testing, Judd Apatow, John C. Riley, paralell world Phil Hoffman, the evolving form of the comedy star during this time, the superior but rarely seen director's cut of this movire, and the weird line between parody and pastiche the movie straddles. Weirdly long? Corbin's Recco Here. Matt reccommends The Ankler, a newsletter about Da Movie Buziness. Next week's episode is an episode about post continuity. Check out "Deja Vu" by Tony Scott and one of the Michael Bay Transformers movies if you want to be totally abreast of the thing we're doing but it's not necessary.
Corbin and Matt ride their horses across the Digital Frontiers and arrive at BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, a world historic bummer that legendary director Sidney Lumet stages in a series of disgusting interiors. Also PSH drops a bunch of rocks on a glass table. It's excruciating. Corbin recommends a donut shop. Matt recommends "The Studio," on Apple TV. Next week's episode is about "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," which you might have to rent? Sorry.
We got a live one here, folks! Matt and Corbin talk about 'Zodiac,' David Fincher's digital cinema landmark that also happens to be one of the best movies of the aughts. Topics include: slip sliding into the place where no knowledge can validate you and the terror that remains, Fincher's San Fran past, ILM, a smoking fetus, digital's capacity to enable control freaks in directors chairs and executive's offices alike, and Matt's buckwild thesis on how the Zodiac killer is digital cinema. Corbin recommends this game. Matt recommends the second section of the second season Andor, which you can watch on Disney+. Next Week's episode is about 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," which you can watch on Prime, if you're into that kind of thing.
After months in the digital mines, Matt and Corbin come up for air with NATE FISHER, co-writer of the fabulous new American Baseball Picture EEPHUS. We discuss Tony Scott's 1996 Travis-Bickle-As-Sports-Fan classic THE FAN. Topics include: Frederick Weisman, Deniro in a very strange mode, Barry Bonds, and modernist stability slipping into the chaotic morass of the next thing. Our recs this week don't have any relevant links, so I will spare you the description of them here. But, Eephus is currently available on your VOD utility of choice, watch it today. Also make sure to check out Nate's scripted podcast with Will Senett, 'A Closer Look.' We return to Digital Cinema next week with ZODIAC. Finally.
It goes without saying that a fake holiday to celebrate a film franchise owned by the Disney Corporation is an atrocity of taste and nonsense of the highest degree. Why does life under the social mediaized form of capitalism subject you to all this simpery, this nonsense, this neverending wave of novelty? Truly we are in hell. But hey we had a Star Wars episode in the tank so screw it, Happy Star Wars Day, May the Fourth Be With You! We are joined by friend of the program Ryder Canepa to talk about Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith! This is a freewheeling episode about how this movie made me and Matt into Men, the emergence of Digital Cinema as we know it, and how a lot of this bad boy is sick with it, if you let it into your heart. Guess what: our next epsidoe isn't about Zodiac no matter what I say! It's going to be about "The Fan," from 1996. Also watch "Eephus" from earlier this year. We will have a guest. It's a whole thing.
Corbin and Matt have spent week dreading the moment when they would have to watch INLAND EMPIRE, David Lynch's extreme digital cinema expirment that he shot with a skateboard camera. But what if... it's actually kind of sick with it? Corbin recommends The Long Good Friday. Matt recommends Protean Magazine. Our next episode will be about STAR WARS EPISODE THREE: REVENGE OF THE SITH. It was in theaters again! It's not in theaters anymore, boo!
Hey sorry the episode is late, we recorded like three episodes this week and Matt didn't have time to edit. Anyway while we were scrambing to figure out something to watch for weird scheduling reasons, we discovered that Apocalypto was shot on digital and boy oh boy were we lucky for that fact because this is a weird one/wild digital artifact. Topics include: Gibson's unrelenting thrist for a certain kind on screen violence, the weird push and pull between woke method and conservative values in the movie, and the uses of digital video in creating a kind of on screen murkiness as a central unifying aesthetic. An artcicle about the movie's busted concept of Mayan history can be read here. Our friend Ryder recommends "Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest" for a pointed corrective on the kind of anthropological thinking that Gibson promotes here: we don't tak about it much because we're a film scolar and a local dummy but Ryder went to fancy history school. Matt recommends a book that won't be out for a few months. Yeah I don't get it either. Corbin recommends a video game, available on your local video game console of choice. Thursday's episode is about INLAND EMPIRE. Watch it here.
Corbin and Ellis talk about the new proliferation of tracking takes at the dawn of digital cinema, focusing in particular on "Children of Men,' Alfonso Cauron's movie about the whole world losing their minds when fertility ends. Also metioned: Timecode, Russian Ark, video games, Gravity, and 1917. Matt reccomends an album. Corbin reccomends a movie. Next week's episode is about APOCOLYPTO, which you can watch on Hulu.
Statham. Handheld cameras. Offensive stuff. Insane continuity. Statham. Violence. Statham. Statham. Statham. Statham. It's Crank, baby. Matt reccomends this article. Corbin reccomends this article. Next week's episode is about tracking shots, you could watch Children of Men and/or Russian Ark, but you don't have to, I don't think.
ERIC MARSH joins Matt and Corbin to talk about MIAMI VICE, Michael Mann's digital fantasia/globalization fable/index of excruciatingly hot one liners. Topics include: globalization as topic and as aesthetic driver, the insane looking sky, and the unstability of digital filmmaking in an unstable time. Matt Recommends "Tokyo Vice" on MAX. Corbin recommends "Hell Hath No Fury," an album available on your local music streaming service. Eric recommends the song "Alone," by The Cry. Check out Eric's Podcast, "The Gaunlet," here. Next week's episode is about CRANK. It's not streaming for free anywhere, somehow, but you SHOULD rent it.
Corbin and Matt are joined by TYLER THEUS, a famous academic, to discuss "Still Life," a movie by a friend of the program who I have never said anything bad about, Jia Zhangke. Topics include: slow cinema, fiction/doc hybridization, the movie's relationship to neorealism, critical forms and aesthetic forms, hyper-mediated Mise-en-scène and the Three Gorges Dam. Watch Still Life here. Seriously, watch it, it's great. Corbin reccomends an album, avaibale on album streaming services or at your local record shop. Tyler reccomends Passing Fancy, an Ozu movie. Matt reccomends Eternity's Pillar, available here. Next week, the boys take it to the limit one more time and discuss Michael Mann's Generational Male Frienship/Global Capitalism Epic MIAMI VICE. Watch it on Apple TV if you can stand to spend four bucks, it's looks GREAT there and kind of bad in other streaming locations.
PIXAR TIME BABY! Ellis and Corbin talk about 'Cars,' a movie about a civilization of Cars. Why are the Cars alive? What build the world they live in? How do they reproduce? Then, after they talk about the important stuff, they talk about Pixar, their history and centrality to digital cinema as a practice, the Pixar-to-SFX pipeline, their storytelling technique, and the nostalgia for modernity that lives in this particular movie. Good Episode! Corbin reccomends a new video game, available in your video game e-store of choice. Matt reccomends this. Friday's episode will be about SILL LIFE, a wonderful movie by friend of the program Jia Zhangke, a director I've never said anything bad about. Watch it here.
Corbin and Matt talk about 'WHAT IS DIGITAL CINEMA,' a 1995 essay by Lev Manovich concerned the difference between filmic cinema of the 20th Century, and the emerging technological and artistic form that we have been talking about the last few weeks. It's a little hard to explain this episode to be honest, but it's good. Read Manovich's essay here. Corbin reccomends a movie currently in theaters. Matt reccomends "Blackberry," a movie. Next week's episode is about 'Cars,' from 2006. We will have a bonus episode regarding "Me and You and Evereyone We Know" and also maybe "Timecode" sooner rather than later: We watched them for this episode but didn't get to them. Sorry the episode is late: I was covering a card show all weekend. Matt wanted me to tell you Closing music is by i/o, it's called wasted my time. It's only available on Youtube.
Huh? Why? Good question: it's because of Rodriguez's approach to economical filmmaking, which would come to whoopsiedoodle dominate everything uh oh! We get into it, as well as one or two other topics. Banderas is actually Spanish, not Mexican (I looked) but I don't think this invalidates my broader point. Corbin Reccomends the Mars Trilogy. Matt reccomends 'Hail Satan?" a documentary about jerks. Next week's episode is about a few movies trying new things in digital around the early/mid-aughts, including: Me and You and Everyone we Know, Once, and Timecode.
28 Days Later is a "Zombie" movie made with a TV Camera that you watch on a big screen. It's really great! We talk about the practical and impractical applications of digital technology, materiality and zombie movies, the movie's depiction of fascism and soildering, then and now, and also what a spectacular bummer this thing is. Read a great essay about filmic materiality and the zombie movie here. Research also pulled up this extemely weird but kind of nifty essay about how 28 Days Later is kind of about the new apocolyptic bent that food writing took in the early aughts. A very good interview with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle can be read here. Matt reccomends 'Cinema's First Nasty Women,' an anthology fron Kino Lorber, available now. Corbin reccomends Dinner in America. He also likes that new Pixar show on Disney+ but your milage might vary. Next Week's episode is about either Spy Kids 2 or 3, we havent quite decided yet. If anyone had a strong opinion about which is the superior one, tell us I guess.
Bro we're so back. We've never been more back. Because two white guys got in a room and talked about STAR WARS EPISODE TWO: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, which is, in addition to being one of the most reviled movies (By total weight, not percentage of hatred per person) of all time, the first major motion picture ever shot on digital cameras. We sorta think it's neat? Topics include anything but the plot, which, you know, it not important. The cameras they made, the difficult dransition to HDR Sensors, Lucas's monumental individual role in pushing movie technology forward, the way that his decision to use digital on this movie took him a step behind his contemparies and how, in its way, it proposes an alternate path of digital cinema that was not taken. Read 'Digital Cinema, a False Revolution," a half precient, half non precient about where digial production would take us right here at JSTOR. Check out a fascinating contempary interview Lucas did with American Cinematographer right here at a 2002 lookin' webpage. Nifty sort-of doc about the making of the movie here. Matt reccomends Hundred of Beavers, which you can watch here. Corbin reccomends Paddington in Peru, currently in theaters in glorious 4k, and an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. We forgot to tell you what next week's episode is about: it's 28 Days Later, a movie shot on an honest to god Sony DCR-VX1000. Not really streaming on a service, but you can rent movies, right?
HEY EVERYONE! Corbin and Matt are starting a new series! It's called Digital Frontiers: Digital Cinema From 1998-2011, and it's about the movies' transition to digital as a primary medium, as seen in the movies that took the first steps forward. We are excited for you to join us on this journey, seeking answers to the eternal present question: "hey, why do movies look like that now?" Our first episode is about "Festen," ('The Celebration,' in English), The first certified Dogme 95 movie and an absolute banger. Topics include: the weird little camera they made it with and the heights of emotional intensity it archives, the family as a model for society, the usefulness of digital artifacts in creating an aesthetic, and skateboarding videos. Matt recommends some reading on digital cinema here. Corbin recommends Monster Hunter. Also of note for this episode, C. Claire Thompson's monograph on "Festen," available on University of Washington Prss (or a library of some sort, it's pretty expensive)! Next week's episode is about "Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones." There is a chance you've seen it but if not it's on Disney+.
Matt and Ryder love The Brutalist! Corbin thinks it's fine. We talk about it! Topics: codings in the text, the question of a broad anti-oppression reading vs. a zionist one, and the life of an artist, which sucks ass. Corbin reccomends TWO MOVIES currently in theaters. Ryder reccomends "Different Trains" by Steve Reich. Matt reccomends "Blueprinting" by the Aizuri Quartet. Next week's episode will be the beginning of a new series, DIGITAL FRONTIERS, a history of the early days of Digital Cinema. Our subject will be "The Celebration" by Thomas Vintenberg. Watch it here.
Last year, Timothee Chalamet played the role of Bob Dylan in a major motion picture. It was all a little pointless, though, seeing as Robert Zimmerman has been playing the role of Bob Dylan in the movies for 60 years now. This week, we watched America's Onery Boy in 'Don't Look Back," D.A. Pennebaker's Cinéma vérité classic about Dylan's 1965 tour of England, where our hero spins Donnovan around, gets in fights with journalists, and meets the high sherrif's wife, and talked about it with Corbin's fellow Dylan sicko Ryder Canepa. Corbin reccomends Skyrim, which you probably already own. Matt reccomends an appliance. Ryder reccomends 'The Creature' and 'Zeiram,' two weird little movies. Corbin also reccomends this essay by Patricia Lockwood. For reasons too tedious to get into here, next week's episode is NOT about Unrest. It will, instead, be about The Brutalist, which is currently in theaters. Ryder will be joining us again for the episode, which is pretty funny.
This week, David Lynch, a titan of the form and one of the great American artists of the post-war era, passed away at the age of 78. In tribute, Corbin and Matt talked about 'Mulholland Dr.,' his 2001 masterpiece. Watch it here. Check out a really neat essay about the movie's multifuntional narrative here. Matt reccomends The Brutalist, currently in theaters. Corbin reccomends UFO 50, snag it here. Our next episode will PROBABLY be about "Don't Look Back," finally, but it could end up being about The Brutalist. We'll find out together.
A few months back, Corbin and Ellis watched a movie about anarchist swiss watchmakers. Then they talked about it. Whatever else happened, Corbin cannot presently recall. Next week's episode will PROBABLY be about 'Don't Look Back,' but David Lynch's death (RIP) might complicate that plan. Whatever the case it will exist.
Hey I know we promised you Bob Dylan Sicko Stuff but the episode has some tech problems we gotta work out so first Ellis and Corbin are talking about 'Songs from the Second Floor," a Swedish Kids in the Hall Movie. It's been. while since we watched it so I can't remember what happens in it. Watch it here. Next week's episode will be about either 'Unrest' or 'Don't Look Back,' depending on like six things. Sorry for the break, It was New Year's.
How did consumer culture change in the 50 years following "A Miracle on 34th Street? (1947)?" Big news, they made ANOTHER ONE and it TELLS YPOU EVERYTHING YOU KNOW! Topics include: Dylan McDermott: too hot to not get a shot, too untalanted to make much of it, the weird loss of the original's cynicysim, Wal-Mart, and the question of what the NEXT remake of this movie will look like. Next week's episode is about "DON'T LOOK BACK." Watch it here.
Corbin and Matt talk about 'MIRACLE ON 34th STREET, a Sentimental Christmas Classic about Department Stores and the supremac y of the suburban lifestyle. We recorded it a few weeks ago so Corbin forgot specific topics but he suspects they talk about the emergence of consumer culture in America, the eternal American Christmas Disconnection, and the movie's oddly cynical edge. Watch the movie here. Check out Land of Desire, a book about the history of the department store, here. Corbin reccomends "THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS," a Bob Dylan album. Matt reccomends his own website. Next week's episode is about "Miracle on 34th Street," but the 1997 version. Watch it here.
Matt and Corbin are joing by CAM CROWELL (Inaction) to talk about VOLCANO, a Los Angeles Disaster Movie. Topics include: Anne Heche, sweet as pie, Mike Davis, man's craving to see LA Doomed, the percise geography at work in this bad boy, and, of course, Don Cheadle. Watch Volcano here. Read "The Literary Destruction of Los Angeles" by Mike Davis here. Matt reccomends the director's cut of Ridley Scott's Napolean. Cam reccomends Christmas Evil. Corbin reccomends Corbin reccomends "The Duelists." Next week's episode is about "Miracle on 34th Street," the 1947 version. (I do not know why I said it was Unrest, which will come out around the beginning of ng of next year). You can find it everywhere.
Ellis and Smith talk about 'RAP WORLD,' Connor O'Malley's lo-fi fantasia about America after the 2008 Crash and also three dunces trying and failing to make a rap song. Topics: handmade culture's pre-social lack of gloss, melllenial trash culture, just how terribly sad the project is, O'Malley's early appearences in Corbin's consiousness and the dog he is watching. Matt reccomends a mexican resturaunt. Corbin reccomends Bob's Burgers. Next week's episode is about "VOLCANO," a movie about a Volcano. Watch it here.
Wilmes Joins us to talk about THIEF, Michael Mann's totallyt realized debut. Topics: reversenoir, Nietzsche and capitalism, and sone other stuff. Matt reccomends coffee. Corbin reccomends Hobswan. John reccomends Saul Bellow. Next week's episode is about RAPWORLD. Watch it here.
Noirvember goes to FRANCE, where Corbin and Matt talk about 'Le jour se lève,' known as Daybreak in America, a sorta-noir/sorta-crime movie/sort of allegory for the annhilation of Europe as Hitler prepared to invade everyone. Does it resonate in the present political climate? Unfortunately, yes! Corbin reccomends Elliott Smith and Quasi on the Live Music Archive. Matt reccomends this song, I think? hard to say. Our next episode is about THIEF. Special guest! Rent it or watch it on MGM+, I guess.
Listen to Corbin and, lesser degree, Matt, get all swoony over STRAY DOG, a police procedural by THE MASTER Akira Kurosawa. Topics include: soup, noir-and-not-noir elements at work, Kurosawa's enduring influence, and the heroic impulse vs. the rational impulse. Corbin reccomends a movie currently in theaters. Matt reccomends "Tokyo Vice" on HBOMAX. Next week's episode is about Le Jour Se Leve/Daybreak, which you will have to rent. Matt: "Song at end: Himiko Kikuchi- Don't Be Stupid. Famous Japanese Jazz album apparently"
Matt and Corbin talk about "Kiss Me Deadly," a film noir about a Nietzschean superman lost in an existential world... right up until the point when it turns out he's actually in a science fiction disasterpiece. Our analysis of the election: wrong. Sorry! Corbin reccomends "BALATRO," a video game. Matt reccomends e-readers. Next week's NOIRVEMBER selection is "STRAY DOG," which you can watch here.
Corbin and Ellis are joined by MATEA, Portland's Elvira (Letterboxd here, subscribe today!), for a conversaion about the early indie horror touchstone "Let Scare Jessica to Death." Topics include: the shifting uses of mental health care as a literary device, the bitter end of the sixties playing out on screen, the thin line between madness and a vampire invading your mind, and the movie's wild sound design. Corbin reccomends a movie. Matt reccomends another movie. Matea reccomends yet another movie. Next week's episode, which i neglected to mention, will be the first in a series of NOIRVEMBER selections: Kiss Me Deadly! Watch it here.
Corbin and Matt talk about "The Apprentice," a movie that persues an impossible goal and comes out Interesting. Topics: Sebastian Stan, who is incredible, where orbin was when Trump won, Fred Trump, and how "Humanization" is actually like, the only honest way of telling this story. Corbin reccomends "Persona 5," he guesses. Available wherever you buy games. Matt reccomends "It Happened One Night," watch it here. Next week: "Let's Scare Jessica to Death." Watch here. After that: NOIRVEMBER
Ellis and Da Corb talk about "The Breaking Ice," a lil' character drama about three people in a chilly city on China's border with North Korea. Topics: America in the 50's and China in the now's, capital's universal qualities, China's particular qualities, and a depressing story that happens in a Safeway. Watch the movie here. Ellis's reccomendation can be heard here. He totally reccomended it last week, despite what he claims. Check out some of Mike Watson's music here. Our outro music this week is "Violet Gibson" by Lisa O'Neill.
Cory Atad (The Baffler) Joins Dr. Movies and The Corb to talk about "MEGALOPOLIS," a movie about Francis Ford Coppola getting extremely baked and creating a drastically less efficent method of public transit. Corbin writing this right now just wants to say: my opinion on this movie has curdled into something meaner and less forgiving after recording this episode. I have come to think of it as a monument to one man's narcissim, a canker sore on the art of cinema, a pile of garbage for precisely no one. I will concede that it is not boring, though, and John Voight does say "Gargatua is here!" Also, this week, Musk announced the Robotaxi thing. The cars have two seats in them, just like the crummy cars in this movie. Corbin reccomends Diamond Jubilee, an album by Cindy Lee you can acquire here. Matt reccomends the new Blood Incantation record. Cory reccomends High Potential, a new TV show. Next week's episode is about "The Breaking Ice," which you can see here. Matt said this: "Can you note the song at the end? It's Cult of Luna on a Metropolis themed record called "Vertikal."
Matt and Corbs talk about the recently departed Frederic Jameson and his thoughts on VIDEODROME, David Cronenberg's 1983 masterpiece about the terrifying merger of man and machine occuring en masse in front of your very eyes and also the pleasures and perils of having a gigantic hole in your abdomen that someone can stick living videotapes inside, compelling you to murder people on behalf of a shadowy right wing technoconspiracy. Read 'Totality as Conspiracy' here. Matt told me to link this piece about Jameson by Jeet Heer. If it's bad, I didn't read it, blame Matt. Matt reccomends I Love Lucy and The Outer Limits on PlutoTV. Corbin reccomends "Charlie Hustle" by Keith O'Brien. He wrote about the book a while back here. Next week's episode is about Megalopolis, which is maybe the self absorbed movie of all time, currently in theaters.
Jackie Chan. Early eighties. Fred Astaire. Buster Keaton. Buddy if you need convincing to watch The Young Master please, get your fun switches cleaned. Check out a good essay about Jackie here. Corbin reccomends a sandwhich. Next week's episode is about VIDEODROME. Then: MEGAOLOPOPPOIS!
Big Matt and Lil' Corbs talk about 'CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI,' a movie about a dissident who get sent to the world's cruddiest village by Benito Mussolini. He learns lessons. Topics include: Pringles, anarchism, its similarities and differences to "The Tree of Wooden Clogs," another movie about pesants, and which came first: Christianity or History? Matt reccomends Roger Waters' new Dark Side of the Moon remake. Corbin reccomends a video game. Next week's episode is about "The Young Master," available at Criterion. RIP Fredric Jameson.
Ellis and the Corbot talk about "DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD," Radu Jude's recent bang bang exploration of the feeling of being alive under late capitalism. Subjects include: terrible Romanian techno, exploitated people observing other exploited people for the purpose of exploitation, and international business's wholesale domination of our lives. Corbin reccomends concerts by Ted Leo, Matt reccomends ASASSINS CREED. Next week's episode is about "Christ Stopped At Eboli," which you can watch here.
Ellis and Corbin talk about "The Rocketeer," a Walt Disney Live Action Classic™ about a guy who acquires a Rocketpack and becomes... not like, a superhero but like... a guy with a jetpack and good intentions? Topics include: Fredric Jameson, the nexus of technological emergence in turn of the century California, and the deep and profound tragedy at the center of this movie: lazy casting. Corbin reccomends "Red Mars," a book available at your local library. Ellis reccomends "Promethus" and "Alien: Covenent." Next week's episode is about "Do Not Expect too Much from the End of the World," which you can watch on mubi if you're that degree of art-film-sicko.
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