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It's a New Year and we don't feel any different!

In typical Hit Factory fashion, the simple task of creating an "In/Out" list for 2025 became a discussion about the infantilization of culture, embracing cinephilia beyond marketing cycles, and how the current state of art reflects an empire in decline. If you've ever wanted to hear a movie podcast tell you that you "have an ethical and spiritual imperative to seek out better films...you're in the right place!

Other topics include the reign of filmmaker Alan Rudolph, how autonomous vehicles are definitely surveiling you, whether Doechii will be at the Met Gala, and our eager anticipation of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Brooklyn-based writer and editor Robert Rubsam joins to discuss the work of Terence of Davies and his 1992 masterwork, The Long Day Closes. An impressionistic evocation of memory and sensation, the film is the culmination of Davies' early autobiographical period, exploring the roughly 5 year period between when the filmmaker's abusive father died and when he began his time in primary school, which Davies has called "the happiest years of [his] life."

We discuss the films distinctive formal approach to autibiography, forgoing concrete scenes in favor of a densely-woven, ellipticap tapestry of music, sounds, and images that give the impression of searching memory in real time. Then, we explore how the film reckons with the concept of nostalgia, offering reverence for and criticism of the social values of Liverpool in the 1950s in equal measure. Finally, we explore the life and work of Davies beyond The Long Day Closes, how the filmmaker's irresolute feelings about his own identity informed his later works, and why he may never be en vogue with cinematic tastemakers.

Follow Rob Rubsam on Twitter and visit Rob's website to read his work. 

Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.

We discuss the winner of our latest Patreon poll: Aki Kaurismäki's The Match Factory Girl, the story of a young working class woman, Iris, looking for love and a sense of belonging in industrialized Helsinki. The final installment of Kaurismäki's 'Proletariat Trilogy', the film resembles that of a fable that takes an unexpected and comically violent turn as Iris seeks revenge on those who have done her wrong.

We describe the film's sparse formal elements - an abbreviated runtime, minimal dialogue, nominal use of diegetic music, and austere mise en scène - and how it employs these components to reflect Iris' profound subjugation. Then, we examine the film's narrative and how it functions, briefly, as a mechanized process, mirroring its opening assembly line sequence and asking us to connect modes of production with an atomized social structure. Last, we discuss the film's final act, and how constant reminder of our own unfreedom often results in unexpected, volatile response.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

Toronto-based critic, lecturer, and author Adam Nayman joins us to look back at Billy Bob Thornton's directorial debut and acting showcase Sling Blade. Once considered a high-water mark of 90s American indie cinema success within popular culture and the awards circuit, Thornton's film is now often relegated to 'curio' status; a fascinating time capsule of the mid-90s with very little (if any) cultural purchase among today's cinephiles.

We discuss the work of Billy Bob Thornton, the evolution of Sling Blade (from one man show to short film to feature), and suggest some reasons for its breakout success. Then, we discuss the film's fascinating hodgepodge of elements and inspirations, combining the social economy of Southern American Gothic, the moralism of Christian parable, and formal qualities of independent cinema to make something at once distinctive and comfortably inessential. Finally, we ask if movies like Sling Blade can still gain the same level of critical and commercial cachet in today's film environment and what some of this fall's box office hits and awards front-runners might indicate about where we're headed.

Follow Adam Nayman on Twitter.

Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

London-based film writer Esmé Holden joins us to discuss David Cronenberg's M. Butterfly. Based on the Tony Award-winning David Henry Hwang play - itself based on the the real life relationship between Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Beijing opera singer - Cronenberg's film embraces the conventions of melodrama while thoughtfully exploring gender & queernes and weaving a complex romance tragically undone by the conventions and bigotries of the colonial-capitalist order.

We begin by discussing the films explorations of gender, queerness, and transness, and how Cronenberg showcases an exceptionally forward-thinking and nuanced portrayal of these concepts in an era of films content with caricature, stereotype, and parody. Then, we consider how M. Butterfly presents a ground-zero for further explorations of the body, its presentation within societal perfrormance, and the fluidity of sexual expression that would become hallmarks of Cronenberg's signature style throughout the next few decades. Finally, explore the complicated ideological stictures that confine the film's protagonists and how capitalism's myopic definitions of identity continue to hinder self-actualization in its subjects.

Follow Esmé Holden on Twitter.

Read Cinema Year Zero.

Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.

Following our conversation with the film's director Pascal Plante, we dive into one of the year's best films, Red Rooms: a thriller tailor made for our disaffected, hyper-mediated moment that asks many unsettling questions about the way emerging technologies sever us from empathy, create parasocial complexes, and push toward frightening new modes of nonconsensual connectivity and surveilance.

We continue our contemplations on Haneke's "Violence and the Media", and how Red Rooms explores notions of equivalency amongst the images on our screens. Then, we praise Plante's formal control and ethics, how he constructs his 21st century milieu, what he chooses to show and how he shows it. Finally, we caution against passivity when engaging with mediated forms and why our moment demands that we make meaning of our realities, even as powerful forces work toward our mindless complicity in ever-expanding horrors.

Red Roomsis available now on VOD and on Region A Blu Ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Filmmaker Pascal Plante (director of Red Rooms, one of our favorite movies of the year) joins to discuss Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar's 1996 debut, Thesis. While riveting simply at the topical level of its tense genre thrills, the movie also metatextually concerns itself with the moving image as a mediated reflection of our corporeal realities, the push-pull of commercialism and artistry, and the ethics of satisfying a violent culture's sublimated desires for shocking, exploitative imagery. 

We discuss Amenábar's preternatural capacity behind the camera; how his ability to mystify with the language of cinema allows viewers to recognize their complicity in the film's graphic scenarios as spectators while never sacrificing the raw thrills of moviegoing. Then, citing Michael Haneke's writing, we discuss the nature of violence in media, the responsibilites of the artist, and the morbid concept of mindless entertainment. Finally, we connect the film's subject matter to that of Pascal's latest, discussing parallels, distinctions, and the reward of watching films that assume their audience's intelligence. 

Red Rooms is available now on VOD and on Region A Blu Ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.

George Washington University ungergrad and Liberal Currents contributor Sami Gold just informed us that there's an election coming up in the good ol' US of A, so we decided to discuss a foundational text of presidential cinema - Oliver Stone’s brilliant, frenetic JFK. Meticulously composed on several different film formats, masterfully edited in a radical, experimental style, and structured as a steady unraveling of institutional footings, the film stands as one of the finest formal evocations of political radicalization ever made for the silver screen.

We discuss the film's groundbreaking formalism, how it creates an unmooring effect on behalf of its viewers, and charts the cacophonous frenzy of conspiracy thinking. Then, we talk about where Stone sits in relation to the film's protagonist Jim Garrison, what the film gets very wrong, and why the minutiae doesn't ultimately matter in the borader context of its critique of empire. Finally we look to the upcoming election, share our personal thoughts on the outcomes, and what it means for Palestinian resistance and political movements in our own country.

Follow Sami Gold on Twitter.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

An impromptu decision to do something "Halloween-y" led us to 1994 meta-slasher Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the seventh installment in the long-running A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, which sees Craven returning to the director's chair for the first time since the original installment and OG Nightmare final girl Heather Langenkamp returning, playing a semi-fictionalized version of herself. Several layers more complex than the premise initially suggests, New Nightmare brings the franchise back to its roots, examining childhood trauma and ideation and offering thoughtful considerations about Craven's legacy as a storyteller and how his films have affected those who participate in bringing his nightmarish visions to life - a full two years before Craven's smash hit Scream would go on to mine similar thematic territory with its meta explorations of genre.

We discuss the film's self-reflexive look at the Nightmare franchise, and how Craven attempts to ellicit new fears from purposefully identifiable rehashes of his work. Then, we discuss the film's surprisingly intricate exploration of Langenkamp as performer and icon - how the film reckons with audience expectations and seeks atonement for turning its star into curio for our own catharsis. Finally, we discuss reference, reflexivity, and homage and consider why Craven's self-quoting offers more than the empty nostaligia-laden iconography of so many current films. 

Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Justice Warrior Ben Clarkson returns to discuss the 1997 action thriller The Jackal, starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, and Sidney Poitier in his final film role. Ostensibly a remake of the the 1973 Fred Zinneman film The Day of the Jackal (itself an adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's 1971 debut novel of the same name), the film attempts to update the story of lethal methodology and intrigue to a contemporaneous post-Cold War, "End of History" milieu that sees a collaboration between US intelligence, Russian police, and a former IRA sniper to stop Bruce Willis's titular shapeshifting hitman from assassinating (spoilers) an analogue of Hillary Clinton. While there are some fun bells and whistles, and a heaping of Bruce Willis disguises, the movie ultimately represents diminishing returns on the promise of this type of movie, forsaking procedural thrills for something far more rote and predictable. 

We begin with an extended discussion of form and film language, why it's meaningful in the context of our current media landscape, and what an illiteracy toward formalism suggests about the way culture engages with everything we see via a screen. Then, we discuss the distinctions between Fred Zinneman's 1973 thriller and its 90s update: what it does well, and where it goes very, very wrong. Finally, we expound on the film's sociopolitcal moment, and what its moralizing of its most compelling character says about the broader cultural trends of nationalism in the mid-90s.

Justice Warriors Vol. 2: Vote Harder is out now. Find your copy HERE.

Follow Ben Clarkson on Twitter. 

Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.