Enter The Void

Closing out season 3 of Enter The Void, Renan and Bill consider Don Hertzfeldt's Oscar-nominated animated short WORLD OF TOMORROW, which asks more brilliant and terrifying questions in its 17 minutes than many feature length sci-fi movies put together. For Emily, the 4-year-old central protagonist, and the viewer alike, it's a head-spinning tour of the medium-near future where cloning and life extension, virtual reality, autonomous robots, "discount" time travel, and even living on the moon are all part of the same tedious experience as our own smartphones and instant communications. Also discussed: what happens when our memories become art, or commodity?; in this Netflix-YouTube age, why aren't more short films being made?; what themes from this resonate with Hertzfeldt's earlier work?; and how close are we to virtual reality with the Oculus Rift and the 2016 procedurally generated adventure game No Man's Sky?

Film links:

• World of Tomorrow on IMDb
• World of Tomorrow on Wikipedia
• Rent World of Tomorrow on Vimeo
• Hertzfeldt interview on NPR
• Hertzfelt interview with The Dissolve
• Hertzfeldt Simpsons couch gag
• The Atlantic on World of Tomorrow
• AV Club on World of Tomorrow
• Simulation hypothesis on Wikipedia
• The Playlist Best Sci Fi Films of 21C
• No Man's Sky on Wikipedia
• Trailer for It's Such a Beautiful Day
• High Maintenance on Vimeo
• Grantland on short films

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes!
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!

Wong Kar-wai's CHUNGKING EXPRESS is a little different from the psychological thrillers and existential horrors this show usually talks about, but it's no less experimental and just as much a ride through crazytown. It's appropriate that the 1994 film could be called Pulp Fiction meets Reality Bites, since the film's Western popularity is largely thanks to Quentin Tarantino, who brought it to U.S. theaters. Today, Bill and Renan also discuss: whether it matters that Faye Wong is a so classic "manic pixie dream girl"; the cinematography and contributions of Chris Doyle; how it relates to Hong Kong's recent history; also: Bill buries the lead and eventually gets around to sharing his personal experiences of Hong Kong, Chungking Mansions, and mid-level escalators.

Film links:

• Chungking Express on IMDb
• Chungking Express on Wikipedia
• Roger Ebert 1996 review
• Quentin Tarantino gushes about the movie
• The Dissolve on "22 seconds [of] eternity"
• Amy Taubin essay for Criterion
• Janet Maslin's misbegotten review
• Feminist Music Geek on "manic pixie dream girls"
• AV Club on "California Dreamin'" in Chungking Express
• Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'"
• Faye Wong's "Dream Person"; Cranberries cover
• Dennis Brown's "Things in Life"

Hong Kong links:

• The Stranger on Chungking Mansions
• Chungking Mansions on Wikipedia
• Mid-level escalators on Wikipedia

Follow-up links:

• Karyn Kusama on Bret Easton Ellis podcast
• Alfred Hitchcock's Rope on Wikipedia
• NY Mag: "literary chauvinists" love DFW
• Salon: DFW "was not a bro"
• LitHub: "Reclaiming" DFW from the "lit-bros"

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes!
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!

Darren Aronofsky's first feature and still one of his weirdest, PI (or "π") is a B&W-shimmering orb providing a view to several convergent trends of the late 1990s: young independent directors scraping together a mainstream career; the use of obscure math and especially chaos theory in popular art; and the low-level burbling ambient electronic music of artists with names like Orbital and, well, The Orb. In this week's episode, Renan and Bill consider all of the above, and with it: pop mysticism and numerology, the whiter whites and blacker blacks of reversal film, the long arm of Gilliam and Serling's influence, and how PI compares to another ETV favorite, PRIMER (S1E2).

Film links:

• Pi on IMDb
• Pi on Wikipedia
• Roger Ebert review
• AV Club on Pi and Primer
• Aronofsky + Gullette interview
• The Stygian Port on secret numbers in Pi
• Passwall on secret numbers in Pi
• James Gleick's Chaos on Wikipedia
• Tom Stoppard's Arcadia on Wikipedia
• YouTube: The Fibonacci in Lateralus
• Orblivion by The Orb on Spotify
• In Sides by Orbital on Spotify
• History of the Snorricam

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes!
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!

If you think you've ever had an uncomfortable dinner party experience, well, THE INVITATION will remind you just how boring your life really is. The most contemporary film we've discussed on the show to date, Karyn Kusama's 2015 slow-burn seriocomic ensemble drama / psychological thriller is one worth seeing knowing as little as possible, but still an absorbing study of character and group dynamics even if you know where it's going. This week Renan and Bill are joined by Emily Gaudette of Inverse.com to talk about her interview with Kusama, other dinner party films, how we react to grief and trauma, and gendered things which are not obviously so—including, alas, this show.

Film links:

• Wikipedia
• IMDb
• The Atlantic review
• The Guardian review
• Film School Rejects review
• @emilygmonster
• Gaudette Kusama interview for Inverse

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes!
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!

Many years after directing SECONDS, John Frankenheimer reflected, the 1966 film went from failure to classic without ever having been a success. It was too arty and weird for Rock Hudson fans, and too Rock Hudson-y for weird art film fans. Though rejected by the public upon first release, the story it tells is no less compelling 50 years later. And now, thanks to Criterion and iTunes, this once obscure-for-a-cult-classic is available for rediscovery at the push of an Apple TV remote button. In this episode Renan and Bill are joined by guest host Ray Patnaude, who first saw it on TV late one night more than twenty years ago, and had it stick with him long enough to recommend for this show.

Film links:

• Wikipedia
• IMDb
• Slate
• The Atlantic
• Senses of Cinema
• Film School Rejects

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes!
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!

What exactly is one to make of INLAND EMPIRE? Certainly, it's the kind of film only David Lynch could make. But it's unusual even by his own famously weird standards. It seems to have no plot or maybe three or else a secret design connecting it all together; it deliberately confuses you about its characters' identities, but at least its characters are confused, too; even the symbolism seems to have been sliced apart and glued back together as if to deliberately frustrate the viewing audience. Oh, and it's three hours long! But considered as a work of art, and for Laura Dern's brave (and bravura) performance, INLAND EMPIRE is nonetheless compelling and made for an entertaining discussion in this week's episode. Love it, hate it, or still don't know what you think, listen in as Renan and Bill try to sort out their own thoughts and feelings about it.

Film links:

• Wikipedia
• IMDb
• Lynch / Dern interview at Collider
• Jim Emerson review at RogerEbert.com
• Keith Uhlich review at Slant
• I Talk You Bored "road map"
• IE out-incepts Inception theory
• Owl Creek Bridge theory of Lynch
• Lynch's decision to shoot on DV
• David Lynch's Rabbits
• Lynch's cow-supported Oscar campaign
• McBain movie hidden in The Simpsons

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes!
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!

Why isn't JACOB'S LADDER better known than it is? It's director Adrian Lyne's best film, Tim Robbins' first starring role, secretly way more influential than you know, and one of the few Hollywood movies to avoid flinching at the implications its psychological horror implies. Besides that, it has has Biblical allegories, military testing of psychoactive drugs, and is one of the few films to sustain a commitment to dream logic through its entirety. In this episode, Renan and Bill unpack its possible meanings, its long gestation period from page to screen, how it relates to movies like The Sixth Sense and video games like Silent Hill, and what to make of the upcoming remake. Oh, and by the way, what happened to Tim Robbins' film career?

Film links:

• Wikipedia
• IMDb
• Roger Ebert review
• Jacob's Ladder Biblical story on Wikipedia
• An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
• 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate (BZ) on Wikipedia
• "Rabbit in Your Headlights" music video

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes!
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!

For the first episode of season 3, Renan and Bill consider their second Jeunet et Caro film: 1995's THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN. Featuring Ron Perlman in his first starring feature role (in phoenetically-memorized French!), six times the Dominique Pinon as Delicatessen, incredible constructed harbor town sets and all the water to go with it, Rube Goldberg-inspired sequences, and conjoined twins, CITY is a feast for the senses. So, how does it stack up against other Jeunet films? What makes it work (or not) as a story? How does it borrow from Charles Dickens? What tropes does it trade on? And what went wrong with Alien: Resurrection? This episode has all that, and more!

Film links:

• Wikipedia
• IMDb
• 366 Weird Movies
• Roger Ebert review
• Stephen Holden review
• Disenchantment and the City of Lost Children

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes!
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!

Season 3 of ENTER THE VOID is almost here! And because our episodes come with absolutely no spoiler warnings, we want to give you advance notice of what we're watching and discussing so you can keep up with us. In this short episode, Renan and Bill discuss a modest change to the show's schedule, and then get on to previewing the films themselves:

1. The City of Lost Children (Jeunet et Caro, 1995)
2. Jacob's Ladder (Lyne, 1990)
3. Inland Empire (Lynch, 2006)
4. Seconds (Frankenheimer, 1966)
5. The Invitation (Kusama, 2015)
6. Pi (Aronofsky, 1998)
7. Chungking Express (Kar-wai, 1994)
8. World of Tomorrow (Hertzfeldt, 2015)

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes!
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!

The final episode of season 2 attempts to grapple with Terrence Malick's 2011 THE TREE OF LIFE, a wildly ambitious epic concerning matters both micro and macro, from small-town family life in midcentury Texas to nothing less than the birth and death of the universe. Starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain with behind-the-camera contributions from Douglas Trumbull and Emmanuel Lubezki, your hosts aren't entirely sure what it all means, but it sure is fascinating to think and talk about. In this episode: the state of grace vs. the state of nature; comparisons to 2001: A Space Odyssey; a curious advisory before the film begins; "shibboleth nicknames"; and what's up with those dinosaurs, anyway? We hope you enjoyed season 2 as much as we did, and we'll return in July!

THE TREE OF LIFE links

IMDb ◇ Wikipedia ◇ Trailer ◇ NYT ◇ New Yorker ◇ Globe

Enter The Void links

iTunes ◇ Tumblr ◇ Facebook ◇ Spotify ◇ @enterthepod

We did good? Rate us on iTunes! Got a movie for us? Email us at [email protected]!