Enter The Void

If destruction is a form of creation, then what are we to make of the relationship between Donnie Darko (2001) and its controversial director's cut? In the first full episode of ENTER THE VOID season 6, your hosts Renan and Bill consider this box office flop and cult classic written and directed by Richard Kelly, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jena Malone, featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, and even Seth Rogen. Topics discussed: the incredible soundtrack; the inexplicable changes to said music in the director's cut; fan theories and the value of fan theories; Kelly's confounding subsequent career; how much Bill and Renan each relate to Donnie as former teenage hellions; and other movies with terrible timing.

Film links:

• Donnie Darko on IMDb
• Donnie Darko on Wikipedia
• Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut on Wikipedia
• Wired on Donnie Darko's legacy
• Vox interview with Richard Kelly
• Vulture on Donnie Darko's ending
• Quartz on the film as 80s artifact
• The Verge on Donnie Darko in 4K
• Salon Donnie Darko explainer
• Donniedarko.org.uk explainer
• Alternate theory on Reddit
• Donnie Darko as sequel to Dirty Dancing
• Richard Kelly interview about fan theories
• "These Donnie Darko Fan Theories Won't Change the Fact that You're 30 and Need to Get Your Shit Together"

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Like we always do about this time, it's the season 6 preview episode for ENTER THE VOID, a podcast about movies that may have nothing at all in common except completely messing with your head. Your hosts Bill and Renan are ready to tackle another 8 films, each getting a short introduction here today. But we're also doing something special: as the season gets under way, Twin Peaks: The Return is at its midpoint, so your co-hosts spend a few minutes offering their views of David Lynch's current project. Below, the list of season 6 films so you can watch ahead:

1. Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001)
2. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Tsukamoto, 1989)
3. Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013)
4. Gummo (Korine, 1997)
5. THX 1138 (Lucas, 1971)
6. The Dark Crystal (Henson + Oz, 1982)
7. Dead Man (Jarmusch, 1995)
8. Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)

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The final episode of season 5 is about either the worst film David Lynch has ever made, or possibly one of his greatest—the 1992 TV-to-film crossover TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, revealing the last seven days of Laura Palmer's troubled life, plus a lot of other strange things that don't really make sense unless, you know, they kind of do. In this episode, Renan and Bill discuss their separate paths to this film; Renan's experience of watching the complete series for the first time; Bill's long-term relationship with the Twin Peaks franchise; how it was reviled by critics and audiences (and Quentin Tarantino) upon release, then reconsidered in years afterward; Sheryl Lee's campily riveting performance; where all the rest of your favorite Twin Peaks characters went; oh here they are, in the long-rumored deleted scenes now available if you know how to find them; how FWWM presaged later Lynch films; and what Bill and Renan are hoping to find in the 2017 reboot coming to Showtime.

Film links:

• Fire Walk With Me at IMDb
• Fire Walk With Me at Wikipedia
• Alex Pappademas on FWWM
• Village Voice's Calum Marsh on FWWM
• Nerdist on reconsidering FWWM
• Rolling Stone's Greil Marcus on FWWM
• BuzzFeed on FWWM's "Missing Pieces"
• Twin Peaks 2017 series at Wikipedia
• Fire Walk With Me at Wikia
• TwinPeaks.org Fire Walk With Me FAQ

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From the annals of low-budget mind-trip filmmaking, today the show examines James Ward Byrkit's 2013 sci-fi drama COHERENCE. Starring a cast of unknowns, shot in a pseudo-documentary style on a very short schedule, the film is an ingenious example of economical, seat-of-your-pants filmmaking. But it's also one that divides your hosts. In this episode, Bill inexplicably compares it to the Bourne movies; Renan inexplicably compares it to The Wire; the various fan-offered timelines are explored; the influence of Amazon and Netflix on independent film and the definition of "duopsony" are discussed; the logical implications of certain storylines are debated; and and two actors' struggles with alcohol and Bill Clinton are gossiped about.

Film links:

• Coherence on IMDb
• Coherence on Wikipedia
• Quora timeline of the film
• Taylor Holmes interview with Byrkit
• Article on Tunguska Event
• Miller's Comet at Deletionpedia
• List of Halley-type comets at Wikipedia

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Clearly still recording together in NYC—though they never actually say so—Bill and Renan talk EL TOPO (1970), the legendary, head-spinning "acid Western" by the irascible Alejandro Jodorowsky. The film is remarkable for many reasons: its status as the undisputed first "midnight movie", its embrace by heroes of the 70s counterculture, for being locked away for decades in a contractual dispute, and for the very very questionable (potentially criminal) circumstances regarding its production. Discussed in this episode: Jodorowsky as proto-Tarantino and anti-Kubrick (but he's still a fan of the Master!); Jodorowsky, Frank Zappa, Yayoi Kusama, and why artists aren't like you and me; why Jodorowsky called John Lennon's manager "a gangster"; all the things in this movie that you can't do anymore, should never have happened in the first place, might not have happened at all, and which Jodorowsky interview should we believe?

Film links:

• El Topo on IMDb
• El Topo on Wikipedia
• El Topo on 366 Weird movies
• New York Times review (1971)
• Roger Ebert review (2007)
• El Topo: A Book of the Film (PDF)
• Nightmare Alleys on rape claim
• Yayoi Kusama at the Hirshhorn
• Elgin Theater on Wikipedia
• Acid Western on Wikipedia

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Renan and Bill are finally back in the same room this week to discuss Lars Von Trier's 2011 science-fiction end-of-the-world-melodrama MELANCHOLIA. Their wide-ranging conversation touches on the subject of depression and the director's struggle with it; comparisons to The Tree of Life and Last Year at Marienbad; oh, and of course Another Earth, the other movie from 2011 about a mysterious planet in Earth's orbit; Bill's rogue planet Wikipedia rabbit hole; here again is Pieter Bruegel's The Hunters in the Snow; Stack Exchange, Wallace-l, fake news and internet theories; von Trier's crazy Cannes interview and what we think of his other work; keeping your Skarsgårds and Sarsgaards straight; plus, Bill and Renan share their past—and future experiences—of celestial flybys.

Film links:

• Melancholia on IMDb
• Melancholia on Wikipedia
• Melancholia on Stack Exchange
• Hunters in the Snow on Wikipedia
• Rogue planet on Wikipedia
• Dana Stevens Lars von Trier

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ANOTHER EARTH, written and directed by Mike Cahill, written by and starring Brit Marling, and technically top-line starring William Mapother, is a 2011 sci-fi drama about bad decisions, tragic loss, difficult choices, and terrible regret. Oh, and also the appearance in the sky of, well, another Earth. In this episode, Bill and Renan talk about the limitations and innovations of low budget sci-fi, how much one can really enjoy movies about sad people, Hollywood's tendency to cast younger women and older men as romantic leads, what the ending is supposed to mean, and your hosts' thoughts and feelings about Marling's hit Netflix series The OA.

Film links:

• Another Earth on IMDb
• Another Earth on Wikipedia
• An explanation of the film's ending
• Cahill interview in Film School Rejects
• Glenn Kenny on Woody Allen's reputation

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When your 1981 animated feature makes its central villain a glowing green orb called Loc-Nar that causes civilizations to rise and fall across time and space and vaporizes anyone who attempts to absorb its power... is it really fair to judge by the standards of 2017? Well, that never stopped Renan and Bill from going right ahead! In the third episode of season 5, your hosts consider the film's worldview (i.e. that of a horny teenage boy); this film's relationship to Sausage Party and The Fifth Element; which segments worked better than others; Hollywood remake rumors; and what if there was a hip-hop version?

Film links:

• Heavy Metal on IMDb
• Heavy Metal on Wikipedia
• New York Times review
• Fifth Element connection?
• Gerald Potterton DGAF

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This week your show hosts consider THE LOBSTER, a very funny and very weird 2015 black comedy directed and co-written by Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz. In this conversation, Bill and Renan examine the absurdist rules of the film's future society; what the film has in common with The Sopranos, Nocturnal Animals and No Country For Old Men; whether or not it says anything about Tinder; the uses of Colin Farrell; and which animals would your hosts want to be? Plus, Bill develops a theory of the film in real time, and Renan has a "Usual Suspects moment".

Film links:

• The Lobster on IMDb
• The Lobster on Wikipedia
• The Lobster official site
• New York Times review
• Colin Farrell interview in EW
• Quora users on animals they wouldn't want to be

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For the first full episode of ETV season 5, Bill and Renan talk SOLARIS: mainly the 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky classic, but also the 2002 Steven Soderbergh remake. Although they tell the same story, they are very different films. Your hosts evaluate each film on the merits and in relation to one another, plus: their very different pacing and runtimes; how each film is dated in different ways; the pros and cons of flashbacks; which film had the better ending; the practicalities of filmmaking under Brezhnev; and the film's awkward relationship to Stanley Kubrick and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Film links:

• Solaris (1972) on IMDb
• Solaris (2002) on IMDb
• Solaris (1972) on Wikipedia
• Solaris (2002) on Wikipedia
• Solaris (1972) Ebert review
• Solaris (2002) Ebert review
• Solaris (1972) Criterion essay
• Andrei Tarkovsky on Wikipedia
• Soderbergh films on Wikipedia
• 2001: A Space Odyssey on KubrickCast

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