Hit Factory

Jesse Hawken, host of Junk Filter Podcast, returns to the show to discuss 'Primal Fear'. The film is a taut piece of middlebrow entertainment which offers maximum reward as a cable classic.

We discuss the film's two standout performances - one from aging handsome guy Richard Gere as a hotshot attorney looking for his next big break, the other from then-newcomer Edward Norton who took audiences by storm and wound up on the short list of actors nominate for an Academy Award for their very first film performance. Then, we talk the movie's famous twist ending, and the way that it betrays an uncomfortably reactionary streak that resonated with audiences in mid-90s America. Finally, we have some words about the death of the midbudget cable classic, and look at the current state of the industry vis-a-vis the tandem strike efforts from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.

Listen & Subscribe to Junk Filter Podcast and support the show on Patreon.

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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.

San Francisco-based Drafthouse programmer Jake Isgar stops by to discuss 'Dick Tracy', Warren Beatty's dazzling passion project released during a brief, bygone moment in big-budget filmmaking when artistic liberty and studio buy-in were wed.

We discuss the byzantine journey the film took to the big screen, which included several iterations under different directors and actors in the titular role. Then we discuss Warren Beatty as auteur, and how the character of Dick Tracy reflects his predilections, fears, and fetishes all in one. Finally, we look at Disney's ubiquitous promotional campaign for the film, which featured Dick Tracy iconography and songs from the soundtrack perfromed during Madonna's Blond Ambition Tour. 

Read Jeffrey Katzenberg's 1991 Memo 'The World Is Changing: Some Thoughts On Our Business' .

It's Hit Factory's third birthday, and you're invited to celebrate along with us! Join us as we count down our baker's Top Ten films from past episodes.

Links To Episodes Mentioned Here:

The Blair With Project

Ravenous feat. Matt Monagle

Lost Highway feat. Jonah Koslofsky

Safe feat. Catherine Liu

The Bridges of Madison County feat. Comrade Yui

Close-Up feat. Roxana Hadadi

The Game feat. Bilge Ebiri

Slacker feat. Robert Raymond

The Limey feat. Matt Belenky

Irma Vep feat. Brandon Streussnig

Cronos

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.

Returning Hit Factory favorites and fellow Neptune High Class on 1980 Sea Dogs Taylor Grimes and Hard Mike join for a testosterone-heavy conversation about Brian De Palma's 'Snake Eyes'. It's a throwback thriller that satisfies as both sleazy genre exercise and one of the director's most stylish metacommentaries on the craft of filmmaking itself.

We discuss Brian De Palma as auteur, and how this film continues his career-long devotion to past masters like Hitchcock and their shared fascination with perversion, voyeurism, and corruption. Then we discuss the film's brilliant grasp on both form and function, as it employs its technical acuity to externalize the interiority of it's lead character (portrayed with considerable aplomb by a never-better Nicolas Cage). Finally, we discuss the film's many brilliant collborators, including the late Ryuichi Sakamoto of the influential Japanese electronic outfit Yellow Magic Orchestra who provides this movie's haunting and lyrical score.

Follow Hard Mike on Twitter. 

Find Taylor online (if you can). 
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Writer Maggie Serota joins to discuss the 1993 comedy 'So I Married An Axe Murderer', a movie that takes inspiration from classic screwball comedies, Hitchcock thrillers, and SNL-style sketch comedy in equal measure.

We discuss the rise of the film's star, Mike Myers, a gifted comedic performer who dedicated much of his 90s output to an evolving pantheon characters, often involving elaborate makeup and outlandish vocal affectations. Then, we talk about the film's stunning bullpen of comedy veterans, including Alan Arkin, and the late Phil Hartman and Charles Grodin - all contributing hilarious riffs on their signature characters. Finally, we talk about Myers's career today by way of his most recent work, the dire Netflix series 'The Pentaverate' and why audiences might welcome a career pivot in the vein of other SNL alum Adam Sandler or Bill Hader.

Follow Maggie on Twitter.

Read & Subscribe to Maggie's Substack.

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.

Montreal-based film programmer, writer, and critic Justine Peres Smith joins us to discuss Catherine Breillat's 1999 film 'Romance'. It's a fascinating film that challenges patriarchal views of intimacy and desire, exploring the interiority of one woman's sexuality with a bracing level of nuance and honesty.

We discuss the film's graphic depictions of (purportedly unsimulated) sexual encounters and the fearless performer who gives these raw scenes life, Caroline Ducey. Then, we examine the film's uncommon embrace of the textures of feminine sexuality, subverting reductive and confining depictions in the mainstream, and offering an alternative to the capitalist impulses of "productive sexuality". Finally, we explore sex in film more broadly, and many audience's troubling aversion to exploring sexuality in ways that consider its emancipatory power. 

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Cenephile and severe weather head @MatineeMode joins us to discuss 'Twister', one of the biggest hits of 1996. It's a film that takes several well-worn, sometimes quaint, and seemingly disparate cinematic tropes and combines them into a transcendent and irreplicable experience.

We discuss the rise and fall of filmmaker Jan de Bont, from his time as one of Paul Verhoeven and John McTiernan's key collaborators, to his work on back-to-back 90s action hits (this film and 1994's 'Speed'), to his gun-for-hire status for the 2003 'Tomb Raider' sequel that stands as his last film as director to date. Then, we talk about the film's host of influences, most notably its screwball comedy premise wrapped in a disaster movie's skin. Finally, we discuss the movie's groundbreaking special effects and champion the film as a state-of-the-art blockbuster spectacle.

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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.

Journalist and writer Séamus Malekafzali joins us to discuss the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle 'Eraser'. It's an above average & satisfyingly self-aware film that represents the waning impact of a once-dependable action formula.

We discuss the film's gleeful subversions of action movie tropes and the ways it challenges Arnold's well-cultivated action hero status, the star's late-90s twilight years before his next era as a politiician, and the seemingly long-abandoned notion of vertically integrated tie-in materials for big studio releases.

Follow Séamus on Twitter.

Read Séamus's Substack on Middle East politics.

Read & Listen to Burnt Nitrate, Séamus's explorations of lesser-known and lesser-discussed 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.