Film Trace

We start Season 3 with the opening salvo of Promising Young Woman, a genre confection spiked with razors that rides the line between pitch-black comedy, exploitation rape-revenge, and 90s romcom. Carey Mulligan plays a down and out con artist who reaps revenge on date rapists and anyone associated with a life-altering crime that took her best friend. A saccharine sheen is mixed with catastrophic trauma, and the die feels cast in the opening scenes of slurred pink and runny red. 

Join us as we trace the life of Promising Young Woman from conception (opening scene spark) to production (shoestring shoot) to release (film twitter hype) and reception (loved by many, hated by few).

Merry Christmas from Finland! Chris shares this wonderful little gem from the great north and the land of Soviet crushers. Rare Exports is clearly a labor of love, and it became Finland's first breakthrough film export, ironically. It started as two very gonzo film shorts made in the early to mid-2000s and culminated in one of the most bizarre and enjoyable holiday films of the 21st century. Santa is a massive monster, and his elves are Crazies. It's fun, weird, perfectly paced, and full of holiday terror. Highly recommended.

Join us as we trace the life of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale from conception (admen got bored) to production (filmed on location in Santa's backyard) to release (International cult hit) and reception (aged very well, new holiday classic).

Have you ever felt like a stranger inside of your own head? Brandon Cronenberg takes you on a dissociative bender in his second feature, Possessor. This cyber noir freak show is just as unsettling as the work of Brandon's father, the body horror king himself, David Cronenberg. A mind-jumping hitwoman is sent by the nebulous company to take out soft targets for big dollars. Both disgusting and riveting, Possessor is elevated horror that may leave you nauseous and ponderous or perhaps sick and bored.

Join us as we trace the life of Possessor from conception (philosophy 101 mad libs) to production (7 damn years) to release (Sundance darling) and reception (a split-brain response).

Get out your MAGA hat (made in China) and your Bernie 2016 organic cotton t-shirt (made in Vietnam), it's time for everyone's favorite middlebrow polemic, V For Vendetta (2005). Chris decides to punish Dan and himself in the process by revisiting our mid-20s and this sloppy attempt to adapt Alan Moore's pretty awesome graphic novel about a coming dystopia. Spoiler alert: Dystopia is already here, but instead of Norsefire and Fingermen, we have Alexa, Covid, and the Republican party. Dan rants while Chris sighs as we breakdown why a 3rd stringer was brought into direct Lilly and Lana Wachoskowi's vision for Anarchy in the UK. But it is a beloved film, and we would be remiss to not add an extra level of condescension to aggravate the masses.

Join us as we trace the life of V for Vendetta (2005) from conception (turning wine into swill) to production (who needs locations when you have a soundstage) to release (perfect timing) and reception (an average person's idea of a thinking man's movie).

Let the Werewolf renaissance begin! Chris and Dan discuss the new "indie" horror film The Wolf of Snow Hollow from the director-writer-star, Jim Cummings. Wolf is a gumbo of tones and a buffet of horror tropes served piping hot. It is a fun movie, especially for horror nerds who enjoy their gore with a wink. More than anything, this film creates a unique and layered cinematic world without wasting anyone's time (sub 90 minute run time). That is quite a feat. This has been a long season of some pretty bad and mediocre movies, but we finally found a movie we both love.

Join us as we trace the life of The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) from conception (what if Zodiac was a comedy) to production (guerilla filmmaking in Utah) to release (a pandemic treat) and reception (critics love, audiences like, we praise).

Ian Mungall of the great CineSiblingsPod joins us to discuss the turn of the century maladapted-male classic, High Fidelity (2000). John Cusack plays a thirty-something music nerd who can't seem to find the right rhythm in his love life. Based on the once-beloved now belittled novel of the same name, High Fidelity is a pristine time capsule of how Gen X men translated their suppressed emotions through obsessions about how other people, mostly dead, expressed their emotions. Is the MCU fanboy a newer version of the 1990s vinyl snob? Listen and found out as three white males discuss a sacred text of casual chauvinism. 

Join us as we trace the life of High Fidelity (2000) from conception (I wonder what men think?) to production (Chicago is cheaper to film than London) to release (I don't see a lot of money here) and reception (loved in its time but grown stale with age).

Special guest, good friend Molly, joins us for a deep dive into Aaron Sorkin's attempt at storming the bastille, The Trial of the Chicago 7 (or 8 or 10 depending on who you ask). In 2006, Steven Spielberg tapped Sorkin to write this courtroom thriller about a pivotal moment in American history, a 1969 political show trial Nixon concocted to take out the leaders of the anti-war movement. Sorkin finished the script in a year, but the movie went through development purgatory for a decade before the money men could see a profit with the upcoming last election in America ever. The cast is wonderful. The script is vintage Sorkin. The pieces are all there, but do they fit together?

Join us as we trace the life of The Trial of the Chicago 7 from conception (Sorkin's historical amnesia ) to production (creating a painting, not a photo) to release (a 24-hour bidding war between the streaming giants) and reception (beloved by all except the deeply cynical and the British).

Chris and Dan along with special guest Evan from the great Spoilerpiece Theatre podcast discuss the finer points of 90s elevated schlock, Species. What starts out as a high concept alien invasion film quickly devolves into a dutch angle thriller with a syfy channel finale. Natasha Henstridge gets her infamous start flanked by a motley crew of thespians: Micheal Madsen, Marg Helgenberger, and Forest Whitaker. Ben Kingsley leads this ragtag team of alien hunters searching LA for a female model who wants to procreate in a plot that could have only be concocted by a frustrated middle-age man. 

Join us as we trace the life of Species from conception (8 rewrites of the script) to production (HR Giger sending hate faxes) to release (good enough for 3 sequels) and reception (genrework as its best defense).

The Sandlerverse births another low-brow Netflix comedy that plays for background noise rather than laughs. Adam Sandler may be the most powerful person in comedy filmmaking, but he uses his clout to make this soft-serve swill that appeals to the indolent and ignorant alike. Hubie features an amazing array of SNL cutouts, bored and possibly broke celebrities, and newcomers who have wandered into Sandler's web. We traverse the Sandlerverse to discover the event horizon between art and commerce, a place where Grown Ups 2 plays on repeat for eternity. 

Join us as we trace the life of Hubie Halloween from conception (Sander's posse needed cash) to production (Salem's first film since Hocus Pocus) to release (Netflix  Triple-A) and reception (universally disliked but not hated).

Guests Mark and Brigitte from the Screen Time: A Quarantine Podcast join us for the second episode of season two where we dive into reclusive genius Micheal Cimino's bizarro attempt at a house invasion remake, Desperate Hours (1990). A year before Mickey Rourke temporarily dropped out of acting to become a pro boxer, he played the charismatic gang leader Micheal Bosworth in this genre film gone ham. The all-star cast mostly sits idly in the stands as Cimino and Rourke try to hit dingers in every scene. Little British man Anthony Hopkins plays a Vietnam vet grunt. Supposed femme fatale Kelly Lynch is a brilliant yet also hysterical victim. Elias Koteas and David Morse are both bit-part jesters making the most of it. It's not great, but it's a lot of fun.

Join us as we trace the life of Desperate Hours from conception (a true story sensationalized) to production (randomly Utah) to release (DOA) and reception (the penultimate film of Micheal Cimino).