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**Come see WTO/99 at The Balboa Theater SF on Sunday, April 26th 7:30pm, hosted by Hit Factory featuring a post-screening Q&A w/ director Ian Bell. Tickets are available here.** Filmmaker Caroline Golum joins Aaron to discuss her singular, stunning new feature Revelations of Divine Love (now playing in New York and Seattle with more cities on the way) alongside the work of visionary Winnipegian aueteur Guy Maddin, and his mesmeric, troubled Twilight of the Ice Nymphs. Revelations of Divine Love is a dramatization of the life and holy visions of the 14th-Century anchoress and mystic Julian of Norwich, whose collected writings are the oldest surviving English language texts written by a woman. the film is also, to quote friend of the show critic Robert Rubsam “a plague story; a rebellion story; an expression of the persistent supremacy of Love in a world of nearly unbearable suffering. It is both period-accurate and pointedly anachronistic, carefully handmade and plainly artificial. It is totally remarkable, and then some.” Alongside Caroline, we discuss the linkages between faith and a radical politics, the need for splendor within a vision of a new world, and the ways that the distancing effect of artifice in film binds us to a material history of handcrafted artistry in the medium. Then, we detail the fraught production history and conflicted returns of Guy Maddins Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, a film that famously almost broke the director, and led him to consider quitting filmmaking altogether. Finally, we extract the virtues of Twilight, its place in a canon of "cinema of the erotic lanscape", its gorgeous art direction, and a sublime turn from the inimitable Shelley Duvall. Watch the trailer for Revelations of Divine Love. Follow Caroline Golum on Twitter. Follow Revelations of Divine Love on Instagram. Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

**Come see WTO/99 at The Balboa Theater SF on Sunday, April 26th 7:30pm, hosted by Hit Factory featuring a post-screening Q&A w/ director Ian Bell. Tickets are available here.** Prolific filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay joins us to discuss her newest feature The Serpent's Skin (expanding this week to Los Angeles and San Francisco) alongside the high-gloss, sugary sweet, and characteristically transgressive Gregg Araki film Splendor. Structured as a prototypical romantic comedy, the film subverts the classic love triangle dynamic to explore the unique dynamics and language of intimacy that develops between a romantically committed threesome. We begin with a discussion of Alice's latest film The Serpent's Path - a lush, bold trans lesbian fantasy that wears its debts to teen classics like The Craft and Buffy the Vampire Slayer proudly on its sleeve. Then, we dive into the 90s work of Gregg Araki, and how Splendor subverts the expectations laid by the director's previous films in the Teen Apocalypse trilogy while losing none of the director's antagonisms toward the stricutres of heteronormative American society. Finally, we interrogate the film's subtle complexities, how Araki navigates the shifting dynamics of the threesome within the language of the romcom, and how the film pushes past the trap of "selling out vs. buying in" customary to so many films of the decade. See The Serpent's Skin, now playing in NY, SF & LA. Follow Alice Maio Mackay on Twitter. Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Jake Serwin and Ian Rhine of the illustrious Pod Casty for Me join to discuss Alex Cox's 1991 crime drama Highway Patrolman. Made during a period of exile in Mexico after Cox's ostensible blacklisting from Hollywood (and the WGA) following the dramatic failure of his 1987 film Walker, the film tells the story of - you guessed it - a rookie highway patrolman in rural northern Mexico as he navigates the job, The System™, and myraid problems domestic and romantic.  We survey the signature punk style of Alex Cox as filmmaker, and how he renders Mexico an environment of characteristically seedy texture and aesthetic while preserving nuance, never letting the people or the country become a monolith. Then, we discuss the film's handling of character, specifically protagonist Pedro Rojas (played excellently by Roberto Sosa) and how he relates to two women in the film - his wife (Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez) and his sex worker girlfriend (Vanessa Bauche). Finally, we consider the film's reflections on policing, the things distinctive to Mexico and its people's relationship with law enforcement, as well as those things that remain consistent in how young men become attracted to the job and how value systems and ideology are propagated and preserved.  Watch Highway Patrolman on YouTube via Kino Lorber Listen and Subscribe to Pod Casty For Me Follow Pod Casty For Me on Twitter . . . . Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Writer and critic Robert Rubsam returns to the show to discuss Kiyoshi Kurosawa's enigmatic, unclassifiable thriller Charisma, the story of a failed hotage negotiator torn between factions of scientists, government agents, and madmen all fighting to decide the fate of a very unique tree in a mysterious, nameless forest. It's as strange as it sounds! We discuss Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s vision of nature as a dialectical force where harmony and disorder coexist. Then we debate the film’s titular tree, Chrisma. Is it malevolent, toxic, or a neutral force weaponized by humankind? Finally, we trace Kurosawa’s lineage through filmmakers like David Cronenberg and the great journeyman Richard Fleischer, and how their influence, filtered through his austere style, produces a deeper sense of distance and unease. Follow Robert Rubsam on Twitter. Read Rob on spiritual cinema (The Testament of Ann Lee, Sirāt, & Revelations of Divine Love) at The Baffler. Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

CW: This episode contains discussion of sexual assault and violence, including abuse of minors, in relation to recent revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Listener discretion advised.   Some Big News Weeks led us to a slightly unwieldy conversation about several topics alongside Joel Schumacher's 1999 thriller 8mm. Written by Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker and boasting a rich ensemble cast including Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, and Peter Stormare, the film explores elite depravity, snuff films, and the dark core of the American dream where desperate people's lives become a commodity. We first begin with some thoughts on recent events at the Berlin Film Festival and offer our definitive answer to the question on everyone's lips, "Is cinema political?" Then, we venture into Schumacher's film, a not-very-good grisly crime thriller with some resonant considerations about the brutalization of young women within the machinery of capital. Finally, we share some personal thoughts on the most recent releases from the Epstein Files, what they tell us about the nature of power in the world, and offer up an alternative movie title for those thinking more deeply about the case's reverberations. Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Sam Raimi's new film Send Help is in theaters, so we decided to look back at the director's undersung maximalist Western pastiche The Quick and the Dead. A Raimi Movie™ through and through, the film pays loving homage to revisionist entries in the western canon like Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter, but also sacrifices some of the thematic potential of the genre's Golden Era in favor of shoot-em-up schlock and a thoroughly fun time with a knockout cast of established and up-and-coming greats including Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, and a fresh-faced Leonardo DiCaprio. We begin with a discussion of the Western, its persistence and malleability as genre, and where Raimi's vision falls in the lineage of America's mythmaking. Then, we examine the political limitations of The Quick and the Dead, its topicality as a piece of pop filmmaking, and its reduction of symbolism to mere signifier. Finally, we discuss Sharon Stone as actor and producer, and how the film offers her an oppotunity to explore a character that runs counter to the archetypal femme fatale roles she had made her career playing thus far. Elsewhere, we briefly discuss another great 00s thriller in our ongoing watch project - David Twohy's A Perfect Getaway and share some thoughts on the new Isaac Chotiner interview with The Quick and the Dead and Melania DP Dante Spinotti. ....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Something new for our faithful Patrons - A conversation about all the movies, new and old, that we've been enjoying this month not covered elsewhere on the show. We hope you enjoy!....Our Theme Song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

WTO/99 is a new, immersive archival documentary that depicts the four-day clash between the then-emerging World Trade Organization (WTO) and the 40,000+ people who took to the streets of Seattle in 1999 to protest the WTO Conference and the WTO’s impact on human rights, labor, and the future effects of continued globalization. Aaron sat down with WTO/99 director/co-editor Ian Bell and producer/co-editor Alex Megaro to discuss the film's bracing depiction of the WTO protests, their prevailing ramifications in the 2020s, and whether the event's radicalizing groundswell is replicable in today's polarized political reality. WTO/99 has its Bay Area debut at The Roxie next Wednesday 1/28/26. Find tickets HERE. WTO/99 returns to the Bay Area Tuesday 2/24/28 at The New Parkway. Find tickets HERE. Find more upcoming screenings of WTO/99. Watch the trailer for WTO/99. ....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

This week, we're discussing the winner of our latest Patreon poll, Senegalese auteur Djibril Diop Mambéty's Hyenas. Adapting Swiss-German playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 satirical tragicomedy The Visit and transposing its story onto post-colonial Senegal, the film tells the story of Dramaan Drameh, a grocer in the poor town of Colobane, whose life is upended when a former flame, Linguère Ramatou, returns to the town after decades. Having amassed a large fortune in the intervening years, Ramatou makes the township a disquieting offer - she will bestow her fortune onto Colobane in exchange for the murder of Drameh as revenge for abandoning her following a pregnancy during their brief love affair. Gorgeously-lensed, blackly satirical, and ultimately tragic, Hyenas imbues its tense tale of vengenace and greed with resonances examining Senagal's (and the greater continet of Africa's) subjugation under western capitalism in the post-colonial period. We begin with a discussion of Senegal's cinema, its anti-colonial dimensions, and how the rhythms of Mambéty's film antagonize western modes of narrative and filmmaking. Then, we examine the film's exploration of the corrupting nature of capital, and how forces like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank acted as coercive mechanisms for privatization and neoliberal policy in Africa and throughout the developing world. Finally, we discuss the film's sexual politics, where we feel its metaphors break down in its exploration of the character of Ramatou, and where fidelity to source material occasionally muddles the film's incisive colonial critique. Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

The party is nearing its end, the food has been consumed, and now it's time to pour yourself a rich, spicy, herbaceous(?) after-dinner drink to aid in the digestion of all your elsewhere and elsewhile 2025 year-end content... It's the Hit Factory 2025 Digestif: A rundown of some of our favorite un-discussed films of the past year as well as some brilliant new-to-us discoveries...A low-stakes sporting event becomes a metaphor for the cinematic experience. A high school becomes a microcosm of our technofascist panopticon. A mother at the end of her rope. An artist at the end of his prime. These and more are explored within. So pull up a stool, grab yourself a glass, and kick back one more before we call it a night. Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Denzember concludes as Journalist and host of the Turbulence podcast Séamus Malekafzali returns to the show to discuss Edward Zwick's 1998 geopolitical thriller The Siege, a film about a Muslim terrorist cell wreaking havoc on New York City, the resultant fear it stokes, and the vidictive results of martial law being enforced in an American city. Largely lost to time as an artifact of The End of History, the film nonetheless rings with a startling prescience as a pre-9/11 document of Hollywood's casual anti-Arab sentiments (even among well-meaning liberal sects), and trust in American institutions to disavow bad actors and preserve democracy. We begin by dissecting the films amorphous, byzantine, and *totally fabricated* understanding of Middle Eastern geopolitics, and how its obfuscations function as a tool of propaganda, making the threat of Muslim extremism feel omnipresent and unknowable. Then, we consider how the film contends with imperial blowback, individuating it as mistakes by discrete actors rather than the guiding policy of America's geopolitical meddling across the globe. Finally, we reckon with the film's countless contradictions, its liberal posturing toward the "right" kind of wariness toward extremism, and its unconscious buttressing of the same ideologies that lead to fascist persecution of The Other. Follow Séamus Malekafzali on Twitter. Listen and Subscribe to Turbulence Podcast. Subscribe to Séamus' Substack. Get access to the whole Denzember experience, all of our premium episodes and bonus content, and an invite to the Hit Factory Discord by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our Denzember Theme Song is "Funk" by Oppo.

Get access to this entire episode, the entire Denzember catalog, and all of our premium episodes by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Roger Ebert Associate Editor Robert Daniels returns to the show to once again discuss the work of Denzel Washington and Spike Lee, this time unpacking his brilliant 1998 sports drama He Got Game. The film stars Denzel Washington as Jake Shuttlesworth, an Attica inmate who is tasked with getting his high school basketball prodigy son, Jesus (Ray Allen), to commit to playing for the governor's alma mater in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. A film as concerned with the capitalist mechanisms undergirding basketball culture as it is with acknowledging the intoxicating allure of the game's myth, Spike crafts a uniquel rewarding sports movie in a melodrama's skin.  We begin with a discussion about Spike's formal ingenuity, and how he positions basketball as inextricable from broader Americana; a definitive part of American culture. Then, we praise the dual leading performances of Denzel Washington and NBA star Ray Allen. Finally, we disscuss the film's showstopper final act, showcasing Denzel and Allen's skills on the court in a brilliantly pitched one-on-one game that approaches the sublime, even supernatural. Follow Robert Daniels on Twitter. Read Robert on the musical direction of Spike Lee films at Letterboxd. . . . . Our Denzember theme song is "Funk" by Oppo.

Denzember continues with Culture Kitsch host Bobbi Miller joining us to discuss Kenneth Branagh's 1993 Shakespeare adaptation Much Ado About Nothing. Following his successful Henry V adaptation, Branagh returned to Shakespeare for a much airier, light-hearted affair, fashioning the classic play into an immensely pleasurable studio romantic comedy while preserving the spirit and (more importantly) the language of Much Ado..., assembling a showstopper ensemble led by Branagh, Emma Thompson, Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves, and Denzel as Don Pedro of Aragon, nearly 30 years before he would take on The Tragedy of Macbeth.  We begin with a discussion of Branagh's formal tendencies, how his maximalism works for the genre, and illuminate his underremarked upon technical prowess. Then, we discuss what Branagh's Much Ado...  preserves from Shakespeare's stage, what it omits, and how these ommissions speak to the film's position as an End of History artifact interested in reifying traditional family values centered around monogamous, heterosexual couplings. Finally, we discuss how Denzel's Don Pedro is utliized narratively and thematically in the film, and how Denzel's movie star persona and race factor into our perception of the character. Follow Bobbi Miller on Twitter. Watch and Subscribe to Culture Kitsch on YouTube. Get access to the whole Denzember experience, all of our premium episodes and bonus content, and an invite to the Hit Factory Discord by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our Denzember Theme Song is "Funk" by Oppo

Get access to this entire episode, the entire Denzember catalog, and all of our premium episodes by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Denzember 2 continues with the return of Vulture Film Critic Bilge Ebiri and a spirited discussion of Russel Mulcahy's 1991 thriller Ricochet, a film of lean premise that takes its story to absolutely batshit places at every turn. With the ever-capable journeyman director Mulcahy at the helm, a sturdy script from Die Hard writer Steven E. de Souza, and committed performances from Denzel Washington and John Lithgow, the film finds a way to make every one of its scenes memorable by maintaining its ludicrous energy from start to finish and finding lurid thrills behind every corner. We begin with an appraisal of our experiences with Ricochet, and the delight of finding a film marketed as a boilerplate thriller doing everything it can to shock and disarm you. Then, we examine the deceptively intelligent plotting of the film, pitting Denzel's Assistant DA Nick Styles - an ambitious Black lawyer seeking opportunity in the justice system- against not just Lithgow's psycopathic murderer on a quest for revenge but also the collective biases of the media and elite centers of institutional power that readily see Styles as an interloper in their predominantly white spaces. Finally, we discuss the rare position of Denzel as a movie star, how he stands singularly as both an actor of profound versatility and one that inhabits an intoxicating Movie Star persona. Follow Bilge Ebiri on Twitter ....Our Denzember theme some is "Funk" by Oppo.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Denzember 2 kicks off with a conversation about Spike Lee and Denzel Washington's first collaboration, 1990's Mo' Better Blues, a film about jazz, art-making, and the pursuit of greatness at the expense of personal relationships. The terrific Minnie Zondi is our guest! We discuss the film's tepid reception upon release, and how a (predominantly white) critical audience failed to understand the political dimensions of a film about Black music and its commercial and social appropriation. Then, we reflect on Spike Lee's career and his brilliant cohort of collaborators, including composer Terence Blanchard (making his first appearance on a Spike Lee soundtrack), cinematographer Ernest R. Dickerson, and the electric stylings of costume designer Ruth E. Carter. Finally, we reflect on the movie's complicated ending, and what we're to make of its reflections on artistry, family, and whether exceptional talents can hold the two in balance. Follow Minnie Zondi on Twitter. Follow Minnie on Substack. Read Minnie's Twitter thread on Ruth E. Carter's costume work for Ryan Coogler's Sinners. Get access to the whole Denzember experience, all of our premium episodes and bonus content, and an invite to the Hit Factory Discord by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our Denzember Theme Song is "Funk" by Oppo