Culture writer Owen Morawitz joins us to discuss Roland Emmerich's galaxy-hopping 1994 sci-fi action blockbuster 'Stargate'. With the help of the well-studied Owen, we unpack the film's open-ended  (sometimes shallow) mythology, examine 'Stargate' as a Gulf War parable, and briefly discuss the ongoing challenges of separating the art from the artist.

Readings:

Variety: 'Stargate Turns 25: How Roland Emmerich's Sci-Fi Classic Overcame a Chaotic Birth'
Entertainment Weekly: 'James Spader is Slack Happy'

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Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

Sarah Jaffe is a reporting fellow at Type Media Center and the author of 'Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone'. She joins us in our den-of-slack to discuss 'Reality Bites' directed by Ben Stiller and starring some of your all-time 90s faves Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, and Stiller himself. Topics include the flattening of class dynamics within the story's central love triangle, the myth of the "labor of love", and the film's position within the 90s neoliberal imaginary.

Follow Sarah Jaffe on Twitter.

Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

Film writer Kyle Turner joins us to discuss Peter Jackson's horror-fantasy thriller 'Heavenly Creatures', the movie that introduced the world to Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. We discuss the film's bridging of Jackson's early horror experiments and his later fantasy epics, explore the colonial dynamics personified by the relationship at the center of its narrative, and canonize the film in the small pantheon of a "transcendent queer cinema".

Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content.

Read Kyle's excellent Polygon piece on camp aesthetics in Peter Jackon's 'Lord of the Rings' Trilogy: https://www.polygon.com/lord-of-the-rings/2021/5/19/22444043/lord-of-the-rings-galadriel-speech-frodo-face-camp

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Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

Subscribe today for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content. www.patreon.com/hitfactorypod

"Who's ever written the great work about the immense effort required not to create?"

Robert Raymond of Upstream Podcast joins us to discuss Richard Linklater's breakout indie hit 'Slacker'. We go long on the film's radically impressionistic narrative form, the tepid nature of modern political cinema, and slacker culture's demise at the hands of the neoliberal project.

Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content.

Listen and subscribe to Upstream Podcast.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

Subscribe today for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content. www.patreon.com/hitfactorypod

Film writer Zach Vasquez joins Hit Factory to discuss the David Mamet-penned wilderness survival thriller 'The Edge' starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. Topics include the film's relationship to classic mythology, the frustrating politics of one of America's great storytellers, and praise for the exemplary performance of Bart the Bear.

Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content.

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Read Zach's piece for Bright Wall/Dark Room, "What One Man Can Do, Another Can Do"
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

Toronto-based writer, filmmaker, and host of Junk Filter podcast Jesse Hawken joins us to discuss Curtis Hanson's thrilling 1997 crime epic "L.A. Confidential". We go long on the near-flawless narrative and aesthetic choices of the film's creators, its complex indictment of modern policing, and the complicated politics of the story's original architect, novelist James Ellroy. We also make the case for the film as a seminal "Dudes Rock" text.

Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content.

Listen and subscribe to Junk Filter.

Follow Jesse Hawken on Twitter.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" Chris Fish

Subscribe today for access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content. www.patreon.com/hitfactorypod