We're guestless first the first time in a while to discuss Wes Anderson's feature directorial debut, 'Bottle Rocket'. We detail the film's turbulent origins from a 16mm short film that played Sundance to a DOA box office dud, praise the breakout performances from fledgling stars Owen & Luke Wilson, and position the movie adjacent to other 90s indie breakouts about the listlessness of youth at The End of History. Then, we briefly consider the case of Anderson's staunchest detractors and try to articulate a case in defense of those left cold by the director's storytelling. Consider becoming a Hit Factory Patron to get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content 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.

What's your favorite scary movie? Culture writer Lindsay Lee Wallace joins us to revisit Wes Craven's slasher-reinvention "SCREAM" as it nears its 25th anniversary. We discuss the film's sensational cast of rising stars, its brilliant subversion of well-worn (and fundamentally conservative) slasher tropes, and the distinctively personal meditation on grief and loss that elevate the film beyond its genre constraints. We also talk the most recent developments in the ongoing IATSE negotiations and the recent tragedy on the set of "Rust". Follow Lindsay Lee Wallace on Twitter.Read Lindsay's piece "Why Women Watch Horror" for Blood Knife MagRead Lindsay's piece "Culture of Fear: 10 TV and Film Workers Call Out Hollywood Exploitation" for Bitch MediaSome Resources to support IATSE and its members (courtesy of Lindsay):- Fundraiser for Halyna Hutchins’ family, from IATSE Local 600: https://gofund.me/4ed44435 - The Halyna Hutchins Memorial Scholarship Fund at the American Film Institute: https://afi.com/halyna-hutchins-scholarship-fund/…- Aggregated petitions related to IATSE worker issues: https://iatse.net/take-action/- IATSE Safety Hotline: If you are on a film set, you can call to report unsafe conduct on any set with an IATSE contract, even if you’re not a union worker: 844-422-9273 (IATSE safety hotline also has an app, IATSE Safety Info, available for Apple and android devices)- Follow the @ia_stories Instagram account to read firsthand accounts of experiences people have had working in the industryFor the month of October, we are donating all of our Patreon proceeds to the UAWD Reform fund for John Deere workers on strike. Please also consider donating to the fund directly. John Deere workers are already being arrested, going without health insurance, medical care & need picket line provisions. Solidarity with all workers!....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

We recently joined our friends Forrest Miller and J. Andrew World on their livestream podcast Movie Night Extravaganza to revisit the 'The Blair Witch Project'. In this audio of our livestream episode, we watch extensive media and interviews released near the film's 1999 Sundance and theatrical premieres, and expand upon some key points from our original 2020 episode, including the film's legacy as a vanguard of viral marketing and found-footage cinema, its appeal to a greater sense of millennial malaise and other concepts popularized by Adam Curtis's 'HyperNormalisation', and the intrinsic horror that lies in the origin stories of our nation's founding.Listen to our original 2020 episode on The Blair Witch Project.Watch the full video of our livestream HERE.Support Movie Night Extravaganza on Patreon. 

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....For the month of October, we are donating all of our Patreon proceeds to the UAWD Reform fund for John Deere workers on strike. Please also consider donating to the fund directly. John Deere workers are already being arrested, going without health insurance, medical care & need picket line provisions. Solidarity with all workers!

Mattie Lewis is a St. Louis-based writer and co-host of The PodHand - a podcast delving into Kentaro Miura's Berserk, dark fantasy, horror and all things grimdark. She joins us to discuss a singular work in the sci-fi/horror canon, Paul W.S. Anderson's 'Event Horizon'. We chart the film's troubled production history, extol the virtues of Anderson's workmanlike approach to his craft, and explain why attempts at film comparisons fail to capture the potency of the movie's brilliant idiosyncrasies.Apologies for the audio issues on this one! Sometimes we record onto a grapefruit instead of a computer. Follow Mattie Lewis on Twitter.Read Mattie's stories "The Dark and Drowning Sea" and "Iron and Ashes" on Gumroad.Listen and Subscribe to The PodHandRead "Hell is Only a Word: The Enduring Terror of Event Horizon" by Miles Surrey at The Ringer.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.

SCOTTEMBER concludes with Tony's brilliant naval submarine action thriller 'Crimson Tide' featuring near-best performances from two titanic actors: Gene Hackman & Denzel Washington. Film writer Zach Vasquez returns to discuss the real-world geopolitics that inform the film's ideology, the script's racial undertones (and how much we might have Tarantino to thank), and why this might be our favorite Tony of them all. Plus - we finally give our definitive Top 5 Tony's.Follow Zach Vasquez on Twitter.Read Zach's Crooked Marquee pieces:Crimson Tide at 25: A Muscular Action Masterpiece for Bleeding HeartsI Hate Everybody: An Ode to the Racially-Charged Action MovieHit Factory Patrons have exclusive access to every episode of SCOTTEMBER along with our back catalog of premium episodes and bonus content. Consider subscribing for just $5 today.

For $5/month, Hit Factory Patrons have exclusive access to every episode of SCOTTEMBER, along with our back catalog of premium episodes and bonus content.

Writer and podcaster Gus Lanzetta joins us to discuss Tony Scott's prophetic surveillance technothriller 'Enemy of the State', starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman. We talk the who's-who ensemble of young 90s up and comers (including Jack Black, Jason Lee, and Seth Green), explore the film's libertarian-leaning (and liberal-indicting) perspective on national security, and make the case for Tony as the singular auteur capable of originating the visual language of surveillance cinema popularized in the post-9/11 era.Follow Gus Lanzetta on Twitter.Hit Factory Patrons have exclusive access to every episode of SCOTTEMBER, including an extended version of this episode where we discuss everything from Bolsonaro to Jon Hamm (along with our back catalog of premium episodes and bonus content). Consider subscribing for just $5 today.

For $5/month, Hit Factory Patrons have exclusive access to every episode of SCOTTEMBER, along with our back catalog of premium episodes and bonus content.

We kick off SCOTTEMBER with "the 'Chinatown' of racecar movies," and one of Tony's first films of the 1990s, 'Days of Thunder'. Taylor Grimes returns for his hat trick as we talk about the persistent popularity of NASCAR, Cole Trickle as a continuation of Tom Cruise's career-long delineation of the meritocratic mindset, and relish Robert Duvall dirty-talking a chassis. We also begin to sketch our working thesis of Tony Scott as Hollywood's seminal arbiter of cinematic pop art in the vein of Warhol.  Hit Factory Patrons will have exclusive access to every episode of SCOTTEMBER, along with our back catalog of premium episodes and bonus content. Consider subscribing for just $5 today.

Culture writer Owen Morawitz joins us to discuss Roland Emmerich's galaxy-hopping 1994 sci-fi action blockbuster 'Stargate'. With the help of the well-studied Owen, we unpack the film's open-ended  (sometimes shallow) mythology, examine 'Stargate' as a Gulf War parable, and briefly discuss the ongoing challenges of separating the art from the artist. Readings:Variety: 'Stargate Turns 25: How Roland Emmerich's Sci-Fi Classic Overcame a Chaotic Birth'Entertainment Weekly: 'James Spader is Slack Happy'Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content.Follow Owen Morawitz on Twitter....Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

Sarah Jaffe is a reporting fellow at Type Media Center and the author of 'Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone'. She joins us in our den-of-slack to discuss 'Reality Bites' directed by Ben Stiller and starring some of your all-time 90s faves Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, and Stiller himself. Topics include the flattening of class dynamics within the story's central love triangle, the myth of the "labor of love", and the film's position within the 90s neoliberal imaginary. Follow Sarah Jaffe on Twitter.Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content.....Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

Film writer Kyle Turner joins us to discuss Peter Jackson's horror-fantasy thriller 'Heavenly Creatures', the movie that introduced the world to Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. We discuss the film's bridging of Jackson's early horror experiments and his later fantasy epics, explore the colonial dynamics personified by the relationship at the center of its narrative, and canonize the film in the small pantheon of a "transcendent queer cinema". Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content.Read Kyle's excellent Polygon piece on camp aesthetics in Peter Jackon's 'Lord of the Rings' Trilogy: https://www.polygon.com/lord-of-the-rings/2021/5/19/22444043/lord-of-the-rings-galadriel-speech-frodo-face-campFollow Kyle Turner on Twitter.....Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

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"Who's ever written the great work about the immense effort required not to create?"Robert Raymond of Upstream Podcast joins us to discuss Richard Linklater's breakout indie hit 'Slacker'. We go long on the film's radically impressionistic narrative form, the tepid nature of modern political cinema, and slacker culture's demise at the hands of the neoliberal project.Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content.Listen and subscribe to Upstream Podcast.Follow Robert Raymond on Twitter.....Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

Subscribe today for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content. www.patreon.com/hitfactorypod

Film writer Zach Vasquez joins Hit Factory to discuss the David Mamet-penned wilderness survival thriller 'The Edge' starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. Topics include the film's relationship to classic mythology, the frustrating politics of one of America's great storytellers, and praise for the exemplary performance of Bart the Bear.Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content. Follow Zach Vasquez on TwitterRead Zach's piece for Bright Wall/Dark Room, "What One Man Can Do, Another Can Do"....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

Toronto-based writer, filmmaker, and host of Junk Filter podcast Jesse Hawken joins us to discuss Curtis Hanson's thrilling 1997 crime epic "L.A. Confidential". We go long on the near-flawless narrative and aesthetic choices of the film's creators, its complex indictment of modern policing, and the complicated politics of the story's original architect, novelist James Ellroy. We also make the case for the film as a seminal "Dudes Rock" text. Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content. Listen and subscribe to Junk Filter.Follow Jesse Hawken on Twitter.....Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

Subscribe today for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content. www.patreon.com/hitfactorypod

Pop culture critic Roxana Hadadi returns to discuss the landmark 1990 Iranian masterpiece 'Close-Up', directed by Abbas Kiarostami. We explore the film's multiple layers of artifice, the fundamental truths those layers reveal, and reflect on finding joy in Kiarostami's cinema of absence. Read Roxana's piece on 'Through the Olive Trees' at Bright Wall/Dark Room.....Our theme song is 'Mirror' by Chris Fish.

Renegade economist and host of Upstream Podcast Della Duncan joins us to discuss the Wachowskis' groundbreaking sci-fi action benchmark 'The Matrix'. We illuminate the film's bracing anti-capitalist critique, explore its undertheorized collectivist leanings, and reclaim the Red Pill as an emblem of left political action. ....Our them song is 'Mirror' by Chris Fish

Industry insider and returning guest Rich Pierceall joins us to discuss the pulpy Hollywood send-up 'Get Shorty'. We talk the resurgent success of Elmore Leonard adaptations in the 90s, Hollywood's enduring ties to the mob, and briefly touch upon the shape of cinema in the not-so-distant future.....Our theme song is 'Mirror' by Chris Fish

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Film writer and co-founder of Certified Forgotten Matthew Monagle enters the Hit Factory to discuss the cannibal horror 'Ravenous'. We discuss the film's onerous origins, its breathtakingly subversive score, and the wonders of an outsider's perspective on American colonialism. ....Our theme song is 'Mirror; by Chris Fish

We assembled an emergency panel of friends Chris Clayman, Brianna Zigler, and Chris Woodward to discuss one of our favorite films starring the late Charles Grodin (RIP), 'Clifford', also starring Martin Short as a miscreant 10-year-old boy who may or may not also be a terrorist. We offer some novel readings of the film's subtext, share our favorite Grodin moments, and make the case for bringing back little kid hatred in entertainment. Listen Chris Woodward's podcast, Parents Just Don't Understand and be sure to check out Blood Knife. Subscribe to Brianna's newsletter, That's Weird. Listen to the Catch Prichard album, I Still Miss Theresa Benoit.....Our theme song is 'Mirror' by Chris Fish

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Freelance film writer Brianna Zigler joins us to discuss David Cronenberg's 1999 VR body-horror extravaganza 'eXistenZ'. We talk the film's position in the cinematic landscape of the late nineties, its prescient sexual, social and technological anxieties, and briefly make the case for Comrade Cronenberg. Read and subscribe to Brianna's newsletter That's Weird.....Our theme song is 'Mirror' by Chris Fish

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We test our might with Leslie Lee III, host of Struggle Session, and revisit the original (still the best) Mortal Kombat directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. We discuss the distinctive charm of a pitch-perfect video game adaptation, reflect on the property's cultural ubiquity in the 1990s, and bemoan the severe lack of tournament-based action in the franchise's live-action follow-ups.....Support Hit Factory by becoming a patron www.patreon.com/hitfactorypod | Our them song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

San Francisco District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston is the first Democratic Socialist elected to local office in over 40 years. He joins Hit Factory to discuss national and local developments within the labor movement as well as some noteworthy San Francisco political projects like free public transit and a first-of-its-kind public banking institution. Learn more about Dean and the initiatives he is supporting in San Francisco here.....Support Hit Factory by subscribing at www.patreon.com/hitfactorypod

Co-hosts of the premier sci-fi & fantasy podcast Podside Picnic, Karlo & Pete, joined us to watch the 1997 cinematic adaptation of Todd McFarlane's signature comic creation, 'Spawn' - A film that reminds us that in the battle between the ultimate forces of Good and Evil, the real arbiters of justice are CNN, the intelligence community, and the police. The gang also reflect on the film's intrinsic atomization of societal woes and its potential links to the Satanic Panic. Check out our recent guest appearance on Podside Picnic here. ....Our them song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

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Catherine Liu is the author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class. She joins us to discuss Todd Hayne's 1995 masterpiece 'SAFE'. Topics include the director's razor-sharp indictment of PMC ambivalence, the dogmatic substitution of collective progress with personalized healing in New Age practices, and the indelible grotesquerie of peach and teal.....Our them song is 'Mirror' by Chris Fish

Our April Fool's Day episode. Friends of the pod Taylor Grimes and Travis Snyder join Hit Factory to discuss Good Burger starring the consummate Nickelodeon comedic duo Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell (not The Shawshank Redemption). We discuss the inherent exploitation of service industry culture, the minimum wage, and expound the eternal wisdom of Kel's mythic character creation, Ed. Read Jaya Saxena's Eater article 'Fast Food's Retro Glow-Up' and 'Fast Food Giant Claims Credit for Killing $15 Minimum Wage' in The Daily Poster. ....Our theme song is 'Mirror' by Chris Fish

Co-host of the We Need to Talk About Kevin podcast and contributor at Blood Knife digital magazine Trevor Drinkwater joins us to discuss James Mangold's 1997 police thriller 'Cop Land'. We discuss Sylvester Stallone's rutted career as a performer, the film's nearly-there indictment of policing, and place our bets on the upcoming bout between lizard and ape in 'Godzilla vs. Kong'......Our them song is 'Mirror' by Chris Fish.

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Aaron & Carlee enter the Hit Factory to discuss Carl Franklin's riveting neo-noir crime saga 'One False Move'. Along the way we discuss the corporatization of sexual wellness, the awards season's bleak reflection of the zeitgeist, and the film's refreshingly complex portrayal of law enforcement, racial tensions and the cultural divide between urban sprawl and small-town America. ....Our theme song is 'Mirror' by Chris Fish. 

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Pop culture critic Roxana Hadadi joins the Hit Factory crew to discuss the unsung masterpiece of the teen movie genre, 'Pump Up the Volume'. We talk hard about Christian Slater's indelible charm, the triumphs and follies of 90's "fight-the-system" narratives, and posit Hard Harry as the prototype for the leftist podcaster. Read Roxana's piece for Crooked Marquee: "Pump Up The Volume at 30: A Middle Finger to America's Suburban Monotony"......Our them song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

Ryan Cartwright, formerly of the Ded Air podcast (RIP), joined us in the Hit Factory to take on the gleeful, smart-shark insanity of 1999's 'Deep Blue Sea'. We discuss some recent Joe Biden comments, attempt to queer Michael Rapaport roles, and make a case for the return of the movie/music video tie-in. .....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

To celebrate Valentine's Day, we watched the most romantic film we could think of - David Fincher's grisly neo-noir thriller 'Se7en'. Aaron & Carlee discuss the false promise of 'The Middle' from last weekend's Bruce Springsteen Super Bowl ad, the immaculate precision of David Fincher's directorial approach, and the reactionary core at the center of the film's subversive aesthetics. Reminder that we are donating all of our Patreon proceeds for the month of February to the amazing organization Hotels Not Hospitals. Please consider subscribing or donating directly to help support our unhoused neighbors in San Francisco......Our new intro tune is 'Mirror' by our good friend Chris Fish. Outro tune is 'Brightest Sunrise' by Patricia Taxxon.

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It's officially Joe Biden's America™ and the resumption of The End of History. We took a look at one of the biggest comedies of the 90's, 'There's Something About Mary' to discuss the Farrelly Bros' fascination with disability, the comforting appeal of simulated normalcy, and the likelihood of an offensive comedy resurgence in a post-Trump society. What a time to be alive!....New intro tune is "Mirror" by our good friend Chris Fish

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Culture writer and premiere authority on all things concerning pop divas Sydney Urbanek joins Aaron & Carlee to discuss the 1996 adaptation of the classic Andrew Lloyd Weber & Tim Rice musical 'Evita' staring Madonna. We discuss the pop singer's efforts to silence her Erotica-era critics, the parallel lives of Madonna and the historical figure she portrayed, and the musical's tenuous relationship with Argentine politics. Read and subscribe to Sydney's newsletter Mononym Mythology. Further Reading: Madonna's Private Diaries from Vanity Fair.