Hit Factory

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Chicago-based critic and author of the new book "Talk 90s with Me: 23 Unpredictable Conversations with Stars of an Unforgettable Decade" Matt Pais joins us to discuss the kids cult classic 'Heavyweights'.

After a conversation about Matt's new book, we talk through the film's empathetic and nuanced portrayal of fatness (notably featuring an ensemble of actors of size), its place within the canon of 90s anti-conformity comedies, and why this might be Ben Stiller's most pitch-perfect performance.

Follow Matt Pais on Twitter.

Check out Matt's new book "Talk 90s with Me: 23 Unpredictable Conversations with Stars of an Unforgettable Decade".

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 at KQED San Francisco Carly Severn joins us to discuss the 1997 thriller THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE. It's a film that is equal parts Faustian parable and John Grisham legal kitsch and features a scene-chewing Al Pacino as the titular prince of darkness.

We praise the film's singular cast (including the aforementioned Pacino, Keanu Reeves in 90s accent mode, and an extremely commited Charlize Theron), relate the film's fixations on good and evil to some other stalwart film properties of the decade, and unpack why the late 90s was a period uniquely positioned from a prime reappraisal of America's spiritual condition.

Follow Carly Severn 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. 

Film critic Bilge Ebiri (Vulture, New York Magazine) joins us to discuss David Fincher's oft-diminished 1997 thriller, 'The Game'. It's a fascinating, intricate follow-up to the hit 'Se7en' that showcases Fincher at his most technically adept and stepping outside of his thematic comfort zone for the first time.

We discuss the star power of Michael Douglas and why he is the perfect match for the movie's stark vision of trial and catharsis, uncover the film's prophetic vision of the inescapable and constantly-surveiling eye of big tech, and tease out the myriad pleasures of its controversial "happy" ending - a rarity in Fincher's ouevre.

Follow Bilge Ebiri 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. 

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.

Los Angeles-based literary manager and producer Jarrod Murray joins the crew of the USS Hit Factory to discuss 'Under Siege', the 1992 action thriller starring Steven Seagal.

We discuss the exemplary direction of journeyman Andrew Davis who would go on a year later to make his opus, 'The Fugitive', praise the transcendent performance of Tommy Lee Jones as the madcap leader of a group of nuclear terrorists, and return to one of our favorite preoccupations: the meteoric rise (and astonishing fall) of Steven Seagal, movie star.

Finally, we mourn the loss of a bygone staple of Hollywood: Cool Boat Cinema™, and contemplate who might be able to take up the mantle and revive the genre in 2023.

Follow Jarrod Murray 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. 

Critic, writer, and film historian Nora MacIntyre joins Aaron to discuss John Waters's 1994 satire 'Serial Mom' starring Kathleen Turner as the titular murderous matriarch.

Topics include Waters's exploitation origins and the film's ties to splatter maven Herschell Gordon Lewis, the movie's brilliant send-up of the capitalist patriarchal structures of modernity, and the immediate prescience of the story's exploration of true crime obsession in the wake of the O.J. Simpson trial.

Follow Nora MacIntyre on Twitter.

Read Nora's work at her website, Notoriously Nora.
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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.

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.