Double Feature

Step into a world of child like wonder. Or maybe one is just, like, smut. It’s time for an adults-are-childen Double Feature. Also, an accidental Dan O’Bannon Double Feature. Tobe Hooper’s Invaders from Mars is a children’s film. What happened to children’s films starring children?  Understanding the art of the underappreciated Master of Horror. Weird practical effects and surprise endings. South Park helps keep Michael from having to discuss Heavy Metal directly. Film for horny teenagers and adults who like fun. Further iterations of Heavy Metal and other smutty nonsense. Netflix Non-tent. Defining the lines between nudity, erotica, and porn.

Summer break has arrived. Eden Lake and The Wicker Man: two films about being in the wrong place at the wrong time and doing wrong. Hooded teens and Broken Britain come to your very American hosts with Eden Lake. Eric finally gets to talk about Eden Lake. Fighting children is somehow never considered okay. Machismo, intrusion, escalation of conflict, hopelessness, and razors. The Wicker Man, but not the NOT THE BEES one. Other things notably absent from the horror masterpiece, The Wicker Man: Nicolas Cage, in bear suit, punching an old woman in the face. Purging yourself of Nick Cage so you can enjoy the greatness of the original and the completely different, superior execution of the same story. Mystery cults and being in over one’s head. Religious ritual, sacrifice, and futility of prayer.

Heroes large and small? Michael finally gets to watch Ratatouille. Big Man Japan Bites Dog. Brad Bird returns to the show with Ratatouille, the best Pixar film. Michael attempts to shame Podmanity for never watching the films. The only perfect film is formulaic and entirely predictable. The villain is not really that bad. Hitoshi Matsumoto returns to the show as director and star of Big Man Japan. Getting big to defend Japan from monsters. Legacy superhero and the superhero’s legacy in boredom culture. Using a faux expose documentary to examine aspects of our broader culture. The impact of Man Bites Dog. Careful cultivation of one’s image. Getting your head run over by a film’s ending.

Spiritual trilogies align as Double Feature covers a new pair of filmmakers. A freshly minted episode to begin Lucio Fulchi’s Gates of Hell trilogy and Krzysztof Kieślowski’s colors trilogy. Michael has a high thoughts lists and a silent colon. Giallo, cause that’s what you want. Pretend gore never hurt anybody. Polish director Kieślowski makes his first non-AC appearance on Double Feature. Did you know the French flag consists of three colors? A meditation on freedom, like the kind of freedom when your whole family dies. Art doesn’t need to worry about its audience liking it. Sometimes you know that everyone is going to make fun of your excessively heavy film, but you should make your excessively heavy film because fuck ’em.

It’s finally happening. Year 12 begins here. The perfect introduction for a new Double Feature listener: Blade Runner and Fargo, the most-requested listener films from a decade ago. Eric tries to embrace the fresh start. Michael embraces the show’s deep cuts. The many versions of Blade Runner and which one best captures Ridley Scott’s vision. Double Feature gets some more Dick. What makes something a Fargo story? The Coen Brothers’ Fargo and recent Fargo television series. Coen characters, relatability, Peter Stormare, and something about wood chippers.

A spoiler-free look back at all of Double Feature Year 11. Are you new to Double Feature? This is a great place to start.

Ending the year on the most transgressive films. Those fucking kids Double Feature. The most dangerous film in recent history, Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade. Also, A Serbian Film. If there’s a new year of Double Feature, Eric promises that Michael will stop making ten-year-old self-references. The challenges of subversive art. Pastel subversion. Presenting both parent and child as human beings. Should I be seeing this? Adult discomfort at normal childhood sexuality. School shooting practice is not normal to adults. Dangerous times in cars. A Serbian Film is a doctorate level fucked up film and smarter than its reputation would have you believe. Oh Fuck, this is a real film. The mystery. The discomfort of everyone at the most infamous scene. A Serbian Film: Really Watchable.

This are not really sequels. The craziest episode of the show. Until next week. Depression is exacerbated by the Patreon. The third, first, and only entry in a franchise. The use of deceptive film titles. Video nasties and lost film. Self-awareness in film. Why would anyone who hates dude bro films watch Dude Bro Party Massacre? The overlap of late horror film hours and early straight world hours. Using the joke title to show a gag reel. Hamlet 2 spent over a decade in the secret, mythical Double Feature graveyard. A film about the nonexistent film sequel to the play, Hamlet. Not showing you the meta film or relating to the play. Realizing you’re not good at creating art. The origins of Michael’s Soundcloud rapper career. Starting a film during the fall from grace. Eric’s imaginary friends show up in support of his art.

The Hammer and Disney journey ends with The Woman in Black and The Princess and the Frog. The new face of Hammer and Disney making A modern animated film. A pairing not based on racism. A scary ghost film. Legitimizing scares in horror. Period horror, not to be confused with Carrie. The bizarre genre of early 1900s property litigation paperwork films. The more recent history of Hammer. The Krimsey’s menu. What if Disney made a cartoon about Louisiana? If you make a cartoon character, you’re going to end up with caricatures, and it’s not necessarily racist. Probably. Maybe. A formulaic, classic Disney princess film with a black princess who gets her hands dirty and spends most of the film as a frog. A frog. The strategy of Disney characters, music, and plot. Eric’s sensitivity TED talk. Racism somehow survived two POTUS terms. Attacking individuals when voting doesn’t make a difference. The dangers of propaganda and distinction between hateful caricatures and innocuous ones. Acknowledging the time a film was made, not as an excuse, but to understand them.