Cathode Ray Mission

This week we get a little crazy and pop in Albert Pyun's 1992 VHS classic Nemesis. We'll talk bad accents, cheap practical effects, and and the bazillion different directions this movie goes before finally settling on a plot.

Nemesis is available on Amazon Prime

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This week Randy & Will take a spiritual road trip across the northern stretches of the U.S. by watching Powwow Highway, Jonathan Wacks's 1989 buddy road movie starring A Martinez and Gary Farmer. Along the way we talk about marijuana laws, Randy & Will's early exposure to Native American culture in Oklahoma, and Randy has a brief rundown of several Native American authors.

Powwow Highway is available on The Criterion Channel.

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Find Cathode Ray Mission on Letterboxd at crmpod

Or on Instagram at cathoderaymissionpod

Emails us at [email protected]

Find Randy & Will on Letterboxd at Raygun Busch & Wolf Dakota

Or on Instagram @raygun_busch and @will.scovill

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we are joined once again by Kristee Ono who may or may not have arrived to the recording on the back of a riding mower. Regardless, we watched a movie where a man rides just such a machine across three states after he hears that his brother's health has swiftly taken a turn for the worse. Unable to drive and with a distaste for the bus, Alvin Straight (Academy Award nominee Richard Farnsworth in his final role) takes a very long and sometimes lonely journey across two state lines. Along the way he meets several people who all share with him some of their deepest personal feelings.

Released by Disney, this was a bit of a departure for director David Lynch who made this film between Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr. We talk about how Lynch's techniques work in a family friendly movie and how this film can help shed light on his darker work. We also explore Lynch's greater filmography and how this film fits in with other outliers such as Dune and The Elephant Man.

The Straight Story is available on Disney+

Find Kristee on social media @rabidpixie

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Find Cathode Ray Mission on Letterboxd at crmpod

Or on Instagram at cathoderaymissionpod

Emails us at [email protected]

Find Randy & Will on Letterboxd at Raygun Busch & Wolf Dakota

Or on Instagram @raygun_busch and @will.scovill

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we present In A Lonely Place, Nicholas Ray's loose adaptation of the Dorothy Hughes novel of the same name. The film stars Humphrey Bogart as a sour and often violent Hollywood screenwriter Dixon Steele. Dixon has been suspected of killing a coat check girl he hired to summarize a novel he was hired to adapt, though his neighbor Laurel, played by co-star Gloria Grahame, testifies that she saw him and the girl the night of the murder but does not believe that Dixon committed the crime. The two begin a romantic relationship and as they grow closer Dixon's violent behavior makes Laurel wonder if the man she loves could be a killer.

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Find Cathode Ray Mission on Letterboxd at crmpod

Or on Instagram at cathoderaymissionpod

Emails us at [email protected]

Find Randy & Will on Letterboxd at Raygun Busch & Wolf Dakota

Or on Instagram @raygun_busch and @will.scovill

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week special guest Stephen Ku is back and brings forth another 2020 Netflix original movie; this time it's The Half of It, Alice Wu's follow up to 2004's Saving Face. In The Half of It we meet Eli Chu, a smart and creative but romantically confused high school girl who doesn't see a chance to escape her small town. When a local jock hires her to ghost write love letters to a popular girl at school, Eli realizes that they both have a crush on the same girl.

Once again we try to figure out the target demographic that Netflix is going for in some of their recent releases, we compare this movie to some of our favorite high school love stories, and wonder if we're maybe just too old to get this movie.

Catch Stephen on Nerd Rage! The Great Debates available wherever you find podcasts or on Twitter @TheSuperKu and Instagram @kudetat

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Find Cathode Ray Mission on Letterboxd at crmpod

Or on Instagram at cathoderaymissionpod

Emails us at [email protected]

Find Randy & Will on Letterboxd at Raygun Busch & Wolf Dakota

Or on Instagram @raygun_busch and @will.scovill

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week special guest Kristee Ono takes us on a trip back to our collective youths with Allan Arkush's 1979 classic Rock 'n' Roll High School. Along with being a promotional vehicle for punk rock pioneers The Ramones, Rock 'n' Roll High School adds a slapstick story of Riff Randell who is on a neverending quest to party hard and be cool.

Kristee Ono is a San Francisco based stand up comedian exploring depression and food obsession with an unwarranted optimism entertaining enough that no one has asked her to stop as of yet. She is a member of the Komedio Comedy a nerd comedy network, a regular debater on "Nerd Rage: The Great Debates Podcast," and co-produces "Mental Health Comedy Hour" in Oakland.

Rock 'n' Roll High School is available on HBO Max

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Find Cathode Ray Mission on Letterboxd at crmpod

Or on Instagram at cathoderaymissionpod

Emails us at [email protected]

Find Randy & Will on Letterboxd at Raygun Busch & Wolf Dakota

Or on Instagram @raygun_busch and @will.scovill

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week Randy & Will stumble into the mumblecore genre and look at Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess. Released in 2013, the film is set at a hotel where a computer chess tournament is being held in one of the ballrooms. The film follows a cast of characters both during and after each day's competition with comedic and dramatic vignettes that touch on success, ego, and the limits of human intelligence.

Computer Chess is available on Amazon Prime Video and Kanopy.

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Find Cathode Ray Mission on Letterboxd at crmpod

Or on Instagram at cathoderaymissionpod

Emails us at [email protected]

Find Randy & Will on Letterboxd at Raygun Busch & Wolf Dakota

Or on Instagram @raygun_busch and @will.scovill

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week Randy & Will watch The Nightingale, writer-director Jennifer Kent's follow-up to 2014's The Babadook. Set in Tasmania in the 1820s, The Nightingale follows the story of Clare Carroll, an Irish convict forced to work as a servant to the British Army overseen by an abusive commander, Lieutenant Hawkins. When Carroll is accidentally left alive after watching her husband and baby murdered while being raped by Hawkins and his men, she sets out for revenge with an Aboriginal tracker named Billy.

This film is incredibly violent and contains several scenes of rape, the killing of an infant, & racism so please be warned.

The Nightingale is currently available on Hulu.

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Find Cathode Ray Mission on Letterboxd at crmpod

Or on Instagram at cathoderaymissionpod

Emails us at [email protected]

Find Randy & Will on Letterboxd at Raygun Busch & Wolf Dakota

Or on Instagram @raygun_busch and @will.scovill

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we directly address the historic demonstrations that have been held across the U.S. and around the world in response to the most recent wave of highly public murders and other violent crimes perpetrated by police officers and their supervising agencies.

To do this we watched Uptight, Jules Dassin's 1968 crime drama made following his return to the U.S. after being blacklisted from Hollywood. Uptight was released the same year as Rev. Martin Luther King's assassination and uses the aftermath as a backdrop to tell the story of a group black revolutionaries in Cleveland, OH and the botched gun heist that threatens to tear their movement apart.

The screenplay was written by Dassin along with the film's star Julian Mayfield and co-star Ruby Dee who also co-produced the film alongside Dassin. It's based on The Informer, a novel originally set in Ireland had been twice adapted to film with John Ford's 1936 version winning 3 Oscars.

The film's clear political stance made it a risky release for Paramount and despite helping to inspire the political messages of the emerging Blaxploitation genre, the film has been largely ignored for over 50 years.

This film is obscure but easily available for purchase on DVD, rental or purchase on Amazon Video, it appears on channels like Criterion occasionally, and several versions are available on YouTube at the time of this release.

This week we encourage listeners to check the movie out, show and discuss it to others, and donate anything you can (be it cash or your own time) to organizations in your community that help citizens fight against abuse from the police and other systems of power.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week Randy & Will are whisked away to 2009 and watch Chloe, Atom Egoyan's clearly Canadian low-stakes erotic thriller with Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, & Amanda Seyfried in the title role.

Support independent theaters with Virtual Screenings! Virtual screenings let you purchase a ticket from your local theater to stream first run movies at home. Your theater will get to keep a portion of the ticket to help maintain business and keep people employed during lockdown.

We're suggesting two of our local theaters but check your area to see if any independent theaters are hosting virtual screenings and support them if you can.

Roxie Theater (San Francisco) - roxie.com

Rodeo Cinema (Oklahoma City) - rodeocinema.org

Get Chat Pile's new vinyl release at Reptilian Records http://www.reptilianrecords.com/products/666243-chat-pile-this-dungeon-earth-remove-your-skin-please-lp

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Find Cathode Ray Mission on Letterboxd at crmpod

Or on Instagram at cathoderaymissionpod

Emails us at [email protected]

Find Randy & Will on Letterboxd at Raygun Busch & Wolf Dakota

Or on Instagram @raygun_busch and @will.scovill

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.