Hammer & Camera

In the 31st episode of our show, we're still trapped in the miasma of coronavirus-induced cinema deprivation. But, the culture industry churns on, and has turned out three new pictures over video-on-demand for us to talk about. Quentin Dupieux's Deerskin, Josh Trank's Capone, and Dan Sallitt's Fourteen are a balanced mix of genre, tone, and quality, and we illuminate them as only we can.

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Episode 30 of the Hammer & Camera podcast finds our dynamic duo deep in the doldrums of corona quarantine. Luckily, there are three new releases we can talk about, beamed over the internet through streaming services, which we love now, I guess. First is British balladeer of the working class Ken Loach's new flick Sorry We Missed You, then Eliza Hittman (Missman?)'s paean to abortion Never Rarely Sometimes Always, and rounding it out is precocious Russian heartthrob Kantemir Balagov's Cannes-adored Beanpole. Cinema ain't dead folks, we've got the vaccine.

Our twenty-ninth episode finds the boys deep in our quarantine bunkers, reminiscing about the films of early March and the days of going to theaters. Before everything changed, we saw Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Emma, and Bacurau. Join us in chanting these names as we prepare to rebuild cinema on the other side, based on the oral tradition of what we've seen in the last surviving record of film; Hammer & Camera.

The twenty-eighth episode of the Hammer & Camera podcast sees us deep in the doldrums of February, and doing our best to keep our spirits up. On the slate are Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus' ill-advised remake Downhill, the crowdsourced design of Sonic the Hedgehog, and the #MeToo document The Assistant. Along the way, we talk about Florence Pugh getting typecast, product placement, and what to do when you find yourself lost in the woods on a dark and stormy night.

Episode 27 sees the Hammer & Camera crew tackling the work of longtime loadstone David Lynch for the first time. Specifically, we're talking 2017's Twin Peaks: The Return, and we're joined by author, professor, and fellow Lynchian, Dr. Todd McGowan. We talk about what's special about Lynch and his approach to cinema, what's great about Twin Peaks, whether or not The Return is "cinema," and delve deep into the thematic elements of one of the most interesting series of television ever produced.

Fascism... What is it? And more importantly, is it in movies? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in our twenty-sixth episode, which features Abdul, Laura, and Evan from the Kino Lefter podcast. We talk Life is Beautiful, JoJo Rabbit, Dragged Across Concrete, and Starship Troopers as representations and depictions of fascist movements, and inquire about their function and the responsibilities of the artist.

In an act of open hostility towards the film industry's release schedule, instead of considering any of the bad movies of January, we are going back to the good movies of December. We're looking at the Safdie Brothers' Uncut Gems, Greta Gerwig's Little Women, and Sam Mendes' 1917. This episode was recorded completely live and without a single cut! Take our word for it.

In the twenty-third episode of the podcast, we cover a modern pantheon of American auteurs; with Todd Haynes' Dark Waters, J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life. Come for the riveting reviews, stay for Phil's defense of The Phantom Menace.

Become a Patron and join us for our Movie Night episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/hammercamera

On our 22nd episode, we're joined by David Parsons from the Nostalgia Trap podcast. David helps us try to make some kind of sense of over 50 years of filmmaking from America's foremost cinematic figure, Martin Scorsese. We talk Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Gangs of New York, Silence, and more, along with Scorsese's latest film, The Irishman, released this year. It's epic in length, but also, it must be said, in subject. Scorsese... the man simply makes movies.

Become a Patron and join us for our Movie Night episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/hammercamera

If podcast episodes were years, this podcast would now have enough to legally drink. We're into Good Movie Season, and we're discussing Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, and Pedro Almodóvar's Pain and Glory. We also discuss Taylor's quest to watch 100 movies from 2019 in 2019, and our seafaring pirate radio operation.

Become a Patron and join us for our Movie Night episodes here: https://www.patreon.com/hammercamera