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Writer and filmmaker Jeremy Herbert joins us to discuss the fascinatingly flawed 1991 action thriller, 'Out For Justice' and its star Steven Seagal, a singularly minted Hollywood asshole. We examine the film's lofty ambitions to transcend the limitations of both its genre and star with weighty monologues and largely ornamental subplots and characters, explore the bizzare, brief rise of Seagal's star power (and its equally quick descent) through the 90s, and consider the deeper implications of how someone like Seagal got famous in the first place. 

Follow Jeremy Herbert on Twitter.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

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University of Toronto PhD candidate and writer Alex Ross joins to discuss culture writer Chuck Klosterman's latest collection 'The Nineties'. The book is a confounding, myopic work that frequently reveals both the sociopolitical blind spots of its author & the greater failures of Gen X to understand the decade's ramifications. We talk through the frenzied, dizzying construction of the book around a hodgepodge of discrete cultural markers, the books troubling lack of anything approaching a worldview, and the writer's baffling defense against what he calls Clinton "revisionism".

Follow Alex Ross on Twitter

Read David Wallace-Wells's interview with Klosterman at Vulture

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

We're joined by Shawn Glinis, co-host of Wiseman Podcast, to discuss a defining nonfiction film of the 1990s - 'Hoop Dreams'. The film is a singular and heartbreaking portrait of urban living, the education system, race & class that also succeeds as an incredibly gripping sports movie told through the journeys of its two subjects - Arthur Agee and William Gates. Topics include the film's litany of fascinating subjects and secondary characters, filmmaker Steve James's masterful ability to elicit empathy for even his most challenging subjects, and the cruel irony of one of the decades most vivid and humanizing portraits of urban poverty being released in the midst of an era especially hostile toward it.

Follow Shawn Glinis on Twitter.

Listen & Subscribe to Wiseman Podcast

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

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Writer Bill Ryan returns to talk about a pair of early masterpieces from Joel & Ethan Coen - 1990's 'Miller's Crossing' and their follow up, 'Barton Fink,' released the following year. We discuss both films' stacked rosters of scene stealing performers, a rare occurence of "coolness" in the Coens' ouevre, and extol the value of trusting an artist with exemplary instincts even when you're not quite sure what to make of their work. 

Follow Bill Ryan on Twitter

Read and Subscribe to Bill's blog, The Kind of Face You Hate

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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.

Caroline Thompson of the excellent movie podcast How Have You Not Seen joins us to discuss 'But I'm A Cheerleader' starring Natasha Lyonne & Clea DuVall. We talk the film's evolution from critically maligned coming-of-age comedy to Queer Canon Classic™, its sly anti-capitalist undertones, and the brilliant effect of comically satirizing one of the least funny places imaginable.

Follow Caroline Thompson on Twitter

Subscribe and listen to How Have You Not Seen and support the show on Patreon.

Follow How Have You Not Seen 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.