Enter The Void

Hard to believe, but we're finally at the end of the inaugural season of Enter The Void. We close out with one of the most polarizing films of the last ten years: Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York. Simultaneously brilliant and frustrating, obvious and impenetrable, Synecdoche features Philip Seymour Hoffman as theater director Caten Cotard whose life falls apart as he tries to put it together, and as it stretches ahead of and behind him. To summarize it is impossible, and so we won't try. Enjoy the show, and we'll be back with season 2 in early 2016!

S1E10:

• Film: Synecdoche, New York (2008)
• Director: Charlie Kaufman
• Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener

Film links:

• IMDb: Synecdoche, New York
• Wikipedia: Synecdoche, New York
• Review: Roger Ebert
• Video: Official Trailer
• Video essay: (Part 1) | (Part 2)

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist

With our ninth and penultimate episode of season 1, we're finally getting to the namesake movie of this very podcast: Enter The Void, Gaspar Noé's dreamlike, drug-like meditation on sex, death, and the afterlife. Presented entirely from the perspective of Oscar, a young American living in Tokyo, it gives viewers an experience of seeing something through a character's eyes like they've never seen before.

S1E9:

• Film: Enter the Void (2009)
• Director: Gaspar Noé
• Starring: Paz de la Huerta, Nathaniel Brown, Cyril Roy

Film links:

• IMDb: Enter the Void
• Wikipedia: Enter the Void
• Review: Manohla Dargis
• Video: Opening Titles
• Video: Official Trailer

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist

The year 1998, averred one critic at the time, would be remembered as the year of There's Something About Mary, Monica Lewinsky's dress, and Happiness. Almost 20 years later, is that quite how it worked out? When Todd Solondz's follow-up to Welcome to the Dollhouse first arrived, it drew raves from critics, controversy over its frank subject matter, and rejection by its major studio backer. The eighth episode of Enter The Void considers the story of Happiness and what we should make of it today.

S1E8:

• Film: Happiness (1998)
• Director: Todd Solondz
• Starring: Dylan Baker, Jane Adams, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Film links:

• IMDb: Happiness
• Wikipedia: Happiness
• Review: Roger Ebert

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist

Six years and four films after Sex, Lies and Videotape, Steven Soderbergh was in a creative funk. History has since recorded the incredible streak of successful commercial entertainments he made beginning with Out of Sight. And just before he did so, Soderbergh made this experimental comedy, a home movie project starring himself, his ex-wife, their friends, and a complex topology that makes it as much of a mind-bender as anything else we've talked about all season.

S1E7:

• Film: Schizopolis (1996)
• Director: Steven Soderbergh
• Starring: Steven Soderbergh, Betsy Brantley, Katharine LaNasa

Film links:

• IMDb: Schizopolis
• Wikipedia: Schizopolis
• Criterion: Schizopolis
• Book: Down and Dirty Pictures
• Re-appraisal: AV Club
• Review: New York Times
• Eddie Jemison commercial: "Yes, I am!"

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist

When Lost Highway arrived in theaters in early 1997, Lynch's reputation was on the line, critics hated it, basically no one went to see it... and yet almost 20 years later, for as flawed and occasionally incomprehensible as it may be, it is also one of David Lynch's strongest and best-realized visions. In the seventh episode of Enter The Void, Renan and Bill consider all of this and David Foster Wallace's famous essay on Lynch making this movie.

S1E6:

• Film: Lost Highway (1997)
• Director: David Lynch
• Starring: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty

Film links:

• IMDb: Lost Highway
• Wikipedia: Lost Highway
• Premiere mag: David Foster Wallace essay (abridged)
• ASFTINDA book: David Foster Wallace essay (unabridged)
• Review: Roger Ebert hated it
• Review: David Edelstein also hated it
• Review: Owen Glieberman also also hated it
• Commercial: Whoa, Robert Loggia!

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist

For the fifth episode we talk about the third feature film by the great Werner Herzog:

S1E5:

• Film: Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
• Director: Werner Herzog
• Starring: Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Helena Rojo

Film links:

• IMDb: Aguirre, the Wrath of God
• Wikipedia: Aguirre, the Wrath of God
• Wikipedia: Lope de Aguirre
• Wikipedia: Gonzalo Pizarro
• Wikipedia: Gaspar de Carvajal

Non-film links:

• Podcast drama! Richard Dietsch w/ James Andrew Miller

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist

The fourth installment of Enter The Void is about possibly the strangest recent Cannes hit you can find on Netflix:

S1E4:

• Film: Holy Motors (2012)
• Director: Leos Carax
• Starring: Denis Lavant, Édith Scob, Kylie Minogue, Eva Mendes

Links:

• IMDb: Holy Motors
• Wikipedia: Holy Motors
• YouTube: MERDE from Tokyo!

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist

For the third time out Enter The Void takes on a newer film, in fact, it's master of body horror David Cronenberg's latest California-by-way-of-Canada extravaganza:

S1E3:

• Film: Maps to the Stars (2014)
• Director: David Cronenberg
• Starring: Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson, Olivia Williams

Links:

• IMDb: Maps to the Stars
• Wikipedia: Maps to the Stars
• Review: Matt Zoller Seitz

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist

In the second installment of Enter The Void, we try our best to disentangle the 2004 winner of the 2004 Sundance grand jury prize, truly an example of how movies like this can hurt your head if you try to think about them.

S1E2:

• Film: Primer (2004)
• Director: Shane Carruth
• Starring: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan

Links:

• IMDb: Primer
• Wikipedia: Primer
• Infographic: How time travel works in Primer
• Infographic: The nine timelines of Primer

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist

It's the debut episode of Enter The Void! We hope you're as excited to talk about crazy, mind-altering films as we are. And we'll kick things off with...

S1E1:

• Film: Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
• Director: Brian DePalma
• Starring: William Finley, Paul Williams, Jessica Harper

Episode links:

• IMDb: Phantom of the Paradise
• Wikipedia: Phantom of the Paradise
• Vimeo: RogerEbert.com review
• New York Times: Blu-ray release review
• The Dissolve: The devil's bargains and unsparing satire of Phantom of the Paradise
• Rocky Music: Soundtrack lyrics

Show links:

• Website: enterthevoid.fm
• Twitter: @enterthepod
• Facebook: Enter The Void Podcast
• Spotify: Enter The Void playlist