An examination of a dolce vita losing its vigor, Michelangelo Antonioni's efforts in this 1961 neorealist effort turns its viewfinder towards Italy's alienated upper class. Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, and Monica Vitti form one of cinema's most formidable acting trios as they meander through the claustrophobic downtowns and dysphoric  villas of Milan; much as their passions threaten to burst from their sublimated seams, the film's form is an equal masterclass in inviting viewer interpretation through its deep space compositions and tragic dialogue. Join your hosts on their trip to Italy's concrete jungle, as they grapple with the ambiguity raised by the film's cinematography, restrained performances, and adventurous use of neorealist style!

Kevin Catalano's Article - "Antonioni the Architect: ARNHEIM, SPACE, AND THE POST-WAR WORLDS OF LA NOTTE AND L’ECLISSE"

Real life doesn't fit into little boxes that were drawn for it - and surely, the ambitions of this week's high concept exploration of the superhero by M. Night Shyamalan can hardly fit into this episode.  In Unbreakable, Bruce Willis' David Dunn learns he is nigh-invincible following a deadly train crash, as Samuel L. Jackson's enigmatic Elijah Price observes his progress and guides him to use his gifts in the service of others. Speaking 22 years after the release of a film that was very much on the vanguard of comic book properties in studio filmmaking, this episode conducts a retrospective analysis of this film's metafictional aesthetics, Shyamalan narrative toolbox, and the budding "rivalry" between mediums - comic books and film!

Denis Mellier's Article - "World Building and Metafiction in Contemporary Comic Books Metalepsis and Figurative Process of Graphic Fiction"

It's groovy being insane - surely the modus operandi of Paul Thomas Anderson's hippie noir vision in 2014's INHERENT VICE, an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's eponymous novel. A renaissance detective's odyssey through Los Angeles high life and cults reveals fissures in his own recollection of an ephemeral ex-girlfriend, aided in no small part by the filmmakers' intertextual connectivity, needle drops, and highly calculated camera work. Join your hosts as they knock down the proverbial door on this delightfully grainy and psychedelic jigsaw puzzle, in an investigation on perhaps the most thorny text of one of the best storytellers working today!

Adam Nayman's Book: "Paul Thomas Anderson's Masterworks". Link proceeds to TIFF's online shop, but available wherever books are sold! Support local bookstores whenever possible :)

The lows of solipsism and the highs of stargazing - director Paul Schrader and Yukio Mishima indulge in both as they search for the purest forms of their respective disciplines. In this fierce 1985 biopic, Schrader marries his subject's facts and fictions, words and worlds, arts and actions, in order to resolve not only the dilemmas that plagued the late author and nationalist, but his own reach towards transcendental style in film. Join your hosts as they take to the atmosphere in a much more aesthetically inclined episode than usual, in an attempt to disentangle the contradictions put in play by both authors, and just how long both spectator and auteur can pour themselves into the pursuit of such an unfathomable text before they burn up in the process.

Thomas Prasch's Article “'So I Found Another Form of Expression': Art and Life/Art in Life in Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters"

We live in a podcast world, and there are no hot takes at dusk! Dolly Back passes through a turnstile to discuss Christopher Nolan's 2020 action sci-fi TENET, a palindromic puzzle box that now stands as one of the celebrated director's most confounding and certainly one of the most thrilling studies of his favorite subject - time. As John David Washington's Protagonist embarks on a globe-trotting, self-fulfilling prophecy, your hosts dive into Ludwig Goransson's immaculate score, Nolan's narrative trickery, and naturally, the nature of free will itself. Join them on their journey as TENET cements its place as an anachronism of COVID-19 film exhibition!

Keith Phipps' Article "'Tenet' is Destined to Become a Cult Movie"

Ludwig Goransson's Score Breakdown on Rolling Stone

Nearly a decade before his eventual directorial debut, writer Charlie Kaufman made a name for himself with his idiosyncratic, if not absurd, handling of characters in a surreal setting. His foray into self-identity and psycho-analysis shines through the weird and unnerving performances from the likes of a pony-tail sporting John Cusack and coloured-contact-wearing Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich. Join your hosts Erich and Krishiv as they journey down the mysterious Malvochian-wormhole and try to see things through a kaleidoscope of intersecting perspectives and relationships.

Leign Monson's Article: The Gender Euphoria of Being John Malkovich

William Young's Article: Otherwise Than BEING JOHN MALKOVICH - Incarnating the Name of God

"There are people throwing the money, and people doing the dance," as Jennifer Lopez's Ramona opines in Lorene Scafaria's 2019 smash HUSTLERS, an ostentatious and blistering look into the camaraderie of four strippers pushing back against the pressures of Wall Street following the 2008 financial crisis. Dolly Back is joined by Margaret Pereira, whose scholarly work dives into how exchange value, thing power, and materialism's ties to the body are central players in this new economy, everywhere from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's iconic WAP music video to the jaw-dropping, Britney Spears-backed montages in Scafaria's latest outing! Join your hosts on what ranks among their most ambitious discussions for one of the podcast's most modern films to date - trust us when we say you've got to join the center ring or stand in the corner on this one!

Margaret's Golden Butts, Breasts, and Black Feminist New Materialism: WAP as an Articulation of the Commodity-Agent

Todd Banhazl on HUSTLERS' cinematography

Margaret's Twitter

As the era of athlete-turned-action star raged on with the likes of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Lundgren, and Van Damme all committed to their respective franchises and filmmakers, one lone American football star dared to  turn the spotlight from international talent to domestic.  Unfortunately, his efforts resulted in little except the efforts of your hosts trying to piece together its successes and downfalls. So bleach your mullets and cut off your t-shirts as Krishiv and Erich are joined this week by esteemed Toronto film critic and writer, Adam Nayman, to discuss the Craig R. Baxley directed, Brian Bosworth vehicle that is Stone Cold (1991). From its renegade cop protagonist to the always electric Lance Henrikson, Stone Cold may not be the best or most memorable action thriller of the 90s, but it certainly has a case for one of the most interesting anomalies in the genre.

Adam Nayman on Twitter

As 1 million pounds of train barrels down Southern Pennsylvania, director Tony Scott captures tensions between man and machine, old and new, worker and corporation, with a stunning ferocity that cements his place as one of Hollywood’s greatest action auteurs. In this episode, Erich and Krishiv examine his roots in commercial filmmaking and the tendencies that define his adrenalized filmmaking using this uniquely mid-budget blue-collar thriller as a guidepost for modern production practices. If you’re prepared, hop on their cab as they chase after the elusive runaway train of B+ filmmaking and salute one of the best to ever do it.

Robert Arnett's Essay "Understanding Tony Scott: Authorship and Post-Classical Hollywood"

In the world of John Woo, to reload is to wave the white flag! Renegades and outcasts, both cop and criminal alike, shower each other in gunfire in this fiery tale of a Hong Kong on the brink of change in Hard Boiled (1992). Erich and Krishiv are joined by fellow UofT alumni and Hong Kong cinema aficionado, Thomas Chan, to discuss the filmmaker’s last hurrah for chivalry in his Hong Kong career before making the trip to Hollywood. Make a paper crane or get in your favorite convertible before tuning in as your hosts dive headfirst into the melodrama and action filmmaking that continues to reverberate on the global cinematic landscape to this day!

Philippa Gates' Article "The man's film: Woo and the Pleasures of Male Melodrama"

David Bordwell's "Planet Hong Kong" (Episode discusses Chapter 4's Enough To Make Strong Men Weep)

Thomas Chan's Letterboxd