A filmmaker is joining the podcast today! That’s Ava Maria Safai, the director behind the 2023 body horror short film “ZIP” and the 2025 horror movie Foreigner. Arthur was fortunate enough to discover her through “ZIP,” which you can find on YouTube thanks to ALTER’s platform for terrifying and imaginative horror media. Appreciation for Final Destination, using “ZIP” to call for the liberation of Iranian women, Ava’s music background, pinpointing the right horror-comedy balance, and the importance of being grateful and supportive to your film crew emerge as some of the topics for this conversation.

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Ava’s Good Word: Coraline, Requiem for a Dream, DAHLIA by Christian Laurian, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Boroughs, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team, Dance Moms, Outlast, Little Fires Everywhere, Legally Blonde, Mean Girls, Carrie, Holy Spider, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and Telefilm Talent to Watch

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

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Tune in as Robert “Stew” Stewart (Stew World Order) strides back onto the podcast to discuss 5 Centimeters per Second, the 2007 anime coming-of-age movie about the love and connections that drift in and out of a yearning boy’s life over the course of several years. Reading Takaki through a lens of depression, the other adaptations of this film fleshing out the narrative a little more, 5 Centimeters per Second having walked so that Your Name could run, and Arthur’s ambivalent feelings towards Makoto Shinkai’s filmography appear as a few of the subjects in this episode.

Written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, 5 Centimeters per Second stars:

• Japanese cast:

Kenji Mizuhashi, Yoshimi Kondō, Ayaka Onoue, and Satomi Hanamura

• English cast:

David Matranga, Johnny Yong Bosch, Hilary Haag, Tara Platt, Serena Varghese, and Kira Buckland

Spoilers start at 37:30

Interview with Makoto Shinkai | Electric Sheep Magazine

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Good Word:

• Stew: Obsession

• Arthur: Alter’s “Couples Therapy,” Alter’s “In Sound, We Live Forever,” and Alter’s “ZIP”

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

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Tune in as Pride Month reaches its conclusion on 2CC, where we’ve spent all of that time directing the focus towards queer art! And now for the fourth and final episode of June, Misty Rose (@mistyroseva) circles back around to the podcast for a dive into Bound, the 1996 neo-noir erotic thriller about the lesbian affair between an ex-convict and the girlfriend of a mobster, with the two women cooking up a scheme to steal $2 million from the Mafia. The movie’s ability to play around with femininity and masculinity, the utter sensuality thrumming between Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, appreciation for how intimacy coordination can help to flesh out media like Bound and Heated Rivalry, and the Wachowskis being fully successful at showing off their stylishness in this feature film debut of theirs pop up as some of the discussion matter in this episode.

Written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Bound stars Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly, Joe Pantoliano, John P. Ryan, Christopher Meloni, Richard C. Sarafian, Barry Kivel, Mary Mara, Susie Bright, Margaret Smith, Peter Spellos, Ivan Kane, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Gene Borkan.

Spoilers start at 28:05

Writing and Directing Bound: A Talk with Lilly and Lana Wachowski (beware that this article from 1996 deadnames the filmmaker duo)

Jennifer Tilly Remembers Her Bound Sex Scene

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Good Word:

• Misty: Showgirls and Love Lies Bleeding

• Arthur: Desert Hearts and The Archer

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

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Tune in as Pride Month keeps rolling down its path on the program! For this third episode of June, Clayton Jones II (Men Who Like Men Who Like Movies Podcast) is regaining his guest chair to unpack Banana Fish, the 2018 crime thriller anime series about a 17-year-old street gang leader and a 19-year-old photographer’s assistant who get drawn into a criminal conspiracy involving a dangerous drug. The deeply homoerotic bond between Ash and Eiji, the traumatic and tragic backstories that numerous characters have suffered from, and the surprising amount of tact that this anime uses to depict rape and pedophilia make up some of the topics for this episode.

Directed by Hiroko Utsumi and adapted from the manga that’s written and illustrated by Akimi Yoshida, Banana Fish stars Yuma Uchida, Kenji Nojima, Hiroaki Hirata, Makoto Furukawa, Jun Fukuyama, Shoya Chiba, Shinji Kawada, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Unshō Ishizuka, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Kenyu Horiuchi, Yu Hayashi, Hidenari Ugaki, Kenta Miyake, Masato Niwa, Takehiro Sumi, Rica Fukami, Kazuhiro Fusegawa, Soma Saito, Ayumu Murase, Mitsuru Ogata, and Yōji Ueda.

Spoilers start at 22:40

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Good Word:

• Clayton: Widow’s Bay and Apple TV+ in general

• Arthur: What Keeps You Alive

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, Letterboxd, and TikTok: @arthur_ant18

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Tune in as Pride Month advances onward with the focus that 2CC is giving to queer media! For this second episode of June, Joshua R. Pangborn (Sidekick Productions) re-collaborates with the podcast for a review and recap of Bit, the 2019 horror movie about an 18-year-old trans woman who moves to LA and encounters a lesbian vampire gang that’s on a mission to hunt down predatory men. Subverting vampire tropes, subtly handling trans rep, and how interesting it is for a cishet man to helm this queer movie emerge as a few of the talking points for this episode.

Written and directed by Brad Michael Elmore, Bit stars Nicole Maines, Diana Hopper, Zolee Griggs, Friday Chamberlain, Char Diaz, James Paxton, Greg Hill, Julia Voth, M.C. Gainey, Brent Chase, Zack Cosby, Riley Litman, Matt Pierce, James Jagger, Tiffany Milian, Dayton Sinkia, and Muneeb Rehman.

Spoilers start at 28:15

INTERVIEW: A Talk with Brad Michael Elmore, Director of OUTFEST’s ‘Bit’

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Good Word:

• Joshua: Hollow Lake

• Arthur: Erase Me by Josh Silver

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, Letterboxd, and TikTok: @arthur_ant18

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Tune in as the podcast dives into Pride Month and spends all of it covering queer media! For this first episode of June, Katrina (@katrinaslibrary) is jumping back onto 2CC to explore Light from Uncommon Stars, the 2021 speculative fiction book by Ryka Aoki that follows the interconnected stories of a trans girl who runs away from home and dreams of being a violinist, a music teacher who has sacrificed multiple students’ souls to Hell in order to preserve her own, and a family of aliens who are managing a donut shop while taking refuge from a galactic war. Telling a tale in a way that’s oddly cozy and heavy at the same time, using extraterrestrials from outer space to explore the theme of immigration, the gritty realism of what it’s like to be trans in a transphobic world, and the ability that video game music and other forms of art have to move people comprise a few of the subjects for this episode.

TW: death, transphobia, deadnaming, homophobia, racism, sexual content, rape, sexual coercion, sexual assault, self-harm, mention of suicide (in the past), domestic abuse, child abuse, pedophilia, murder, gun violence, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, and discussion of war

Spoilers start at 21:10

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Good Word:

• Katrina: Mermaids

• Arthur: Obsession

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, Letterboxd, and TikTok: @arthur_ant18

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Tune in as Rolo Tony (@PoorOldRoloTony and These Guys Got Juice) hops back onto the program for a review and recap of Dream Lover, the 1994 erotic thriller about a recent divorcee who jumps fast into another relationship with an alluring woman, only to find that there may be more to her than it seems at the outset. Comparing this to Gone Girl and You, James Spader being an expert at sleaziness, frustrations with how this thriller (and Tenet) portrays domestic abuse, and those goddamn carnival dream sequences stand out as some of the discussion material for this episode.

Written and directed by Nicholas Kazan, Dream Lover stars James Spader, Mädchen Amick, Larry Miller, Fredric Lehne, Bess Armstrong, Kathleen York, Kate Williamson, Tom Lillard, William Shockley, Clyde Kusatsu, Alexander Folk, and Scott Coffey.

Spoilers start at 35:30

Dream Lover (1993), or, Probably the Single Most Misogynist Film I’ve Ever Seen

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Good Word:

• Rolo Tony: The Shape of Things

• Arthur: Headlights by CJ Leede

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, Letterboxd, and TikTok: @arthur_ant18

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Tune in as Rolo Tony (@PoorOldRoloTony and These Guys Got Juice) hops back onto the podcast to navigate Strange Days, the 1995 tech-noir thriller that follows the last two days of 1999 as an LAPD vice cop-turned-black marketeer and a bodyguard/limo driver rush to uncover a criminal conspiracy involving illegal technology that records your memories and physical sensations for other people to viscerally experience. Comparing this to movies like Reminiscence and Alfred Hitchcock’s work, the lib-coded commentary on the police system and its racist violence, the unnerving rape sequence that somehow manages to be respectfully handled, and showering praise onto Angela Bassett’s Mace pop up as some of the topics for this episode.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Strange Days stars Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Tom Sizemore, Juliette Lewis, Michael Wincott, Richard Edson, Glenn Plummer, Vincent D’Onofrio, William Fichtner, Brigitte Bako, Josef Sommer, Michael Jace, Nicky Katt, Louise LeCavalier, David Carrera, Jim Ishida, Todd Graff, Joe Urla, and Anais Munoz.

Spoilers start at 36:25

James Cameron’s scriptment for Strange Days

Los Angeles Times | Rave Party Extras Are ‘Dee-Lited’: Drug overdoses mar otherwise orderly concert for 10,000 who also are filmed for movie scene

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Good Word:

• Rolo Tony: Cyberpunk 2077

• Arthur: Too Old to Die Young

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, Letterboxd, and TikTok: @arthur_ant18

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Tune in as Vanessa Ondi (Best Week Ever Podcast) returns to 2CC for a dive into One of the Good Guys, the 2024 thriller novel by Araminta Hall that follows the secrets rising to the surface when a man searches for a fresh start in the wake of his broken marriage by moving to a tranquil place out on the coast, where he befriends an intriguing artist and then gets drawn into the mystery of two young women suddenly vanishing in the area. The insidiousness of Nice Guys, misogyny’s ability to show up under the guise of well-intentioned benevolence, the impact that social media and news channels have on our view of women, and looking at this story through a racial lens land as a few of the talking points for this episode.

TW: misogyny, gaslighting, emotional abuse, rape, pedophilia (in the past), child abuse (in the past), sexual harassment, sexual content, pregnancy, infertility, miscarriage, medical trauma, stalking (in the past), animal death, alcohol, alcoholism, and vomit

Spoilers start at 17:30

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Good Word:

• Vanessa: Like, Follow, Subscribe: Influencer Kids and the Cost of a Childhood Online by Fortesa Latifi

• Arthur: The Devil She Knows by Alexandria Bellefleur

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, Letterboxd, and TikTok: @arthur_ant18

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Tune in as Andy (Fat Dude Digs Flicks Movie Podcasts) returns to the podcast as it rolls out the 2026 Oscars recap! Another awards season has passed us by, and it's fitting to say that this year was relatively enjoyable compared to all the messy toxicity from last year (remember Emilia Pérez?) Timothée Chalamet’s comment on ballet and opera, contrasting opinions towards F1, Diane Warren’s persistent quest for an Oscar win, appreciation for Ludwig Göransson, and the continuing presence of Palestine at the Oscars emerge as some of the subjects for this episode.

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Good Word:

• Andy: Nothing Tastes As Good by Luke Dumas and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

• Arthur: Gossip

Reach out at [email protected] if you want to recommend things to watch and read, share anecdotes, or just say hello!

Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or any of your preferred podcasting platforms!

Follow Arthur on Twitter, Goodpods, StoryGraph, Letterboxd, and TikTok: @arthur_ant18

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