The writer Meg Shields (Film School Rejects) returns to the show for a look at one of the highlights of Criterion Channel’s lineup of 80s Horror, Chuck Russell’s 1988 remake of the fifties cult classic The Blob.

Not as celebrated as two other eighties Body Horror remakes of fifties sci-fi (Carpenter’s The Thing and Cronenberg’s The Fly), The Blob is ripe for rediscovery with it’s incredible use of practical special effects and miniatures to tell the tale of a goopy pink organism that terrorizes a small ski town in California which is revealed not to be an alien creature but in fact a secret biological weapon on the loose when government agents seize control of the area in an attempt to contain it. But a pair of plucky local teens (Shawnee Smith and Kevin Dillon) might be mankind’s only hope for survival.

The Blob succeeds thanks to a smart screenplay by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont that leans into the ridiculousness of the premise while showing a gleeful disregard for genre expectations throughout. A box office flop at the time thanks to a bad marketing campaign, sometimes movies like The Blob take a long time to find an audience.

Plus: Meg recommends some other highlights of Criterion’s well-chosen lineup of eighties horror offerings.

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Follow Meg Shields on Twitter.

“Slime and Space Dust: How They Built The Blob”, by Meg Shields, for Film School Rejects, August 19, 2020

Theme from The Blob by “The Five Blobs” (written by a young Burt Bacharach, 1958)

Trailer for Beware! The Blob (Larry Hagman, 1972)

Trailer for The Blob (Chuck Russell, 1988)

Trailer for Junglee (Chuck Russell, 2019)

Access this entire 81 minute episode (and additional monthly bonus episodes) by becoming a Junk Filter patron: https://www.patreon.com/posts/108-holly-hunter-73420058

Comedy writer Ursula Lawrence (Drunk History, Adam Ruins Everything) returns to the pod for a show about the great actor Holly Hunter, with a look at the two classic movies she made to launch her big-screen career in 1987, Raising Arizona and Broadcast News, as well as one of her best performances in Michael Ritchie’s 1993 small-screen satire for HBO, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom.

Along the way we discuss why Nicolas Cage only worked once with the Coen Bros, how Broadcast News is just as prescient about the future of news media as Network was, our shared love of Albert Brooks, and we marvel at the incredible Emmy-winning performance Hunter gives as Wanda Holloway in Cheerleader-Murdering Mom, a postmodern comedy about true crime and tabloid culture more people should know about.

Patrons of the Junk Filter podcast can access additional exclusive episodes every month: some of our notable previous guests include Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Will Sloan, Bryan Quinby and Sooz Kempner. More to come! Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Ursula Lawrence on Twitter.

Trailer for Raising Arizona (Joel Coen, 1987)

Trailer for Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987)

The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (Michael Ritchie, 1993) is currently available to watch for free on YouTube (but the last 15 minutes of the film are heavily pixelated)

Few genres of music are as critically maligned as the Hair Metal genre, also known as Glam Metal, a term invented to distinguish “Legitimate" Heavy Metal from the poppier and more ridiculous guitar rock performed by men with big hair who wore “feminine” makeup and accessories and performed power ballads.

The music writer and podcaster Elana Levin joins the show from Brooklyn to discuss the lineage of Hair Metal, how it functions as camp, the importance of pop music as an influence on the sound, the controversial content that earned the wrath of the censorious PMRC in the eighties, and spotlight some of the best bands and songs from the era that deserve more attention (Cinderella, Ratt, Kix and Faster Pussycat.) And we explore how the sound of eighties Hair Metal influenced adult contemporary and country music in the nineties.

Sign up for the Junk Filter Patreon to support the show directly and access dozens of bonus episodes! https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Elana Levin on Twitter and check out their podcasts Graphic Policy Radio and Deep Space Dive!

Elana’s essay “Notes on Camp: David Lee Roth”

Elana’s appearance on the Is It Camp? podcast to talk about David Lee Roth and Van Halen

"There’s No Wrong Time To Rock: A Peacemaker-Inspired Playlist" by Elana Levin for Women Write About Comics

Cinderella’s local commercial for Pat’s Chili Dogs, 1983

Kix - Cool Kids, 1983

Ratt - Round and Round, 1984

Motley Crüe - Too Young To Fall In Love, 1984

James Slaymaker, a film writer and the author of Time is Luck: The Cinema of Michael Mann returns to the show from Southampton, England to discuss one of Mann’s finest films, 1999’s The Insider.

One of the great films about journalism, The Insider is based on the true story of Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, a former tobacco company vice president who dares to go on the record about Big Tobacco and the product tampering that posed a public health risk. Wigand agrees to appear on 60 Minutes thanks to their tenacious producer Lowell Bergman. But in a shocking turn of events, CBS tampers with the story; fearing a massive lawsuit from Brown & Williamson for “tortious interference” that could destroy the network, they force a sanitized version on the air, putting Wigand in further jeopardy when a smear campaign is concocted by B&W to further discredit and destroy him. Critics loved the film but it was beset by media controversy upon release and never found an audience.

We talk about The Insider as one of Mann’s most radical works, a big budget drama (released by Disney!) about corporate malfeasance and heroic individuals fighting against overwhelming systems. Along the way we discuss the fantastic performances, Mann’s visual approach that borders on abstract expressionism, pointing the way to his 21st century digital filmwork, and why this film is a Dudes Rock classic.

There are additional Michael Mann episodes (on Heat and Thief) available now on the Junk Filter Patreon feed, as well as dozens of bonus shows. Patrons help to make Junk Filter possible. You can subscribe at patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow James Slaymaker on Twitter.

James’ book Time is Luck, The Cinema of Michael Mann, is now available in paperback and Kindle.

The full version of Jeffrey Wigand’s interview with 60 Minutes, aired February 4, 1996

“Jeffrey Wigand: The Man Who Knew Too Much” - the Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner that The Insider was adapted from, May 1996

Trailer for The Insider (Mann, 1999)

Access this entire 81 minute episode (and additional monthly bonus episodes) by becoming a Junk Filter patron: https://www.patreon.com/posts/72332422

Filmmaker Peter Fishbeast returns to the podcast from Belper, England to discuss the great director William Friedkin and his 1977 thriller Sorcerer.

Hot off two of the biggest hits of the seventies (The French Connection and The Exorcist), Friedkin decided to do his own version of one of the most acclaimed international films of all time, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear, the tale of four desperate fugitives who are paid by an avaricious oil company to drive trucks full of nitroglycerine hundreds of miles to put out a raging fire at their refinery. It was an expensive and troubled production and had the bad timing of opening the same weekend that Star Wars was released widely across North America, heralding a cultural sea change in Hollywood that swept up his fellow auteurs in the New American Cinema of the seventies.

Peter and I compare Sorcerer and The Wages of Fear, the two different ways these films criticize U.S. imperialism, and how Friedkin’s misbegotten film eventually got a proper restoration in the 2010s and found a new audience. We also discuss the notorious international cut of Sorcerer, re-titled Wages of Fear and heavily tampered with by the worldwide distributor against the director’s wishes.

Plus: Peter tells us about the mood in the UK in the wake of the passing of Her Majesty.

Patrons of the Junk Filter podcast can access additional exclusive episodes every month: some of our notable previous guests include Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Will Sloan, Bryan Quinby and Sooz Kempner. More to come! Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Peter Fishbeast on Twitter and visit his website.

Trailer for Le Salaire de la peur (Clouzot, 1953)

Trailer for Sorcerer (Friedkin, 1977)

To commemorate the death of Jean-Luc Godard, we’ve assembled a panel to discuss his impact on cinema: returning guests Will Sloan and Ben Nash are joined by two new guests, the Southampton-based film writer and PhD researcher James Slaymaker, and in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Toph, friend of the show, francophile socialiste and Twitchstreamer.

We’ve all come to Godard from different directions and different parts of the world, and we discuss the effect his films have had on each of us, with a particular emphasis on Godard’s post-commercial film career after 1967: his radical Marxist tracts with the Dziga Vertov Group, his epic falling-out with François Truffaut, his “comeback” in the eighties that peaked when he tricked Golan & Globus into financing his 1987 experimental “all-star” practical joke King Lear for Cannon, his pivot to video criticism which yielded his epic essay Histoire(s) du cinéma, and the Late Style works Film socialisme and Le Livre d'image. 

Patrons of the Junk Filter podcast can access additional exclusive episodes every month: some of our notable previous guests include Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Will Sloan, Bryan Quinby and Sooz Kempner. More to come! Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Ben Nash, James Slaymaker, Will Sloan and Toph on Twitter. 

Meetin’ WA (Godard short film where he grills Woody Allen, 1986)

Selected Godard trailers:

Week-end (1967)

King Lear (1987)

Film socialisme (2010)

Goodbye to Language (2014)

Washington Post political reporter Dave Weigel returns to the show for a look at the new conservative political satire My Son Hunter, directed by the actor Robert Davi, his first directorial feature in 15 years. 

The story of the chaotic lifestyle of Hunter Biden, his business dealings and the salacious details of the contents of his recovered laptop has frustrated the right ever since it failed to change the outcome of the 2020 election. Davi’s movie about the affair, distributed online directly through Breitbart and toplined by “cancelled” actors Laurence Fox and Gina Carano, was designed to blow up the political discourse but comes across as a conservative attempt to emulate Adam McKay’s approach to left-leaning political satire. The filmmakers insist the news about My Son Hunter is being suppressed by the liberal media and Big Tech, so Dave and I were happy to watch this movie for Junk Filter listeners.

As a political reporter, Dave knows perhaps a little too much about the Hunter Biden saga and acts as a helpful interpreter to explain the conservative talking points this movie is trying to make to the uninitiated. We speak about the filmmakers, the decision to film this patriotic project in Serbia, and the film’s ultimate lack of nerve in depicting the events.

Follow Dave Weigel on Twitter and subscribe to his Washington Post newsletter The Trailer.

Patrons of the Junk Filter podcast can access additional exclusive episodes every month: previous guests include Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Alex Shephard, Bryan Quinby and Sooz Kempner. More to come! Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Trailer for My Son Hunter (Davi, 2022)

Access the entire 109 minute episode (and additional bonus episodes) by becoming a patron of the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102-blood-with-71701563

In the latest in a recurring series on the albums of Elvis Costello, Scott Bunn, the author of the wonderful Recliner Notes blog, joins me from Asheville, North Carolina for an in-depth discussion of EC’s final album for Columbia Records before the breakup of his band The Attractions, Blood & Chocolate.

After a creative low point in the wake of the end of his first marriage, and with a dysfunctional band who were nearing their end, Costello roared back in 1986 with both King of America and Blood & Chocolate, the latter a strange, loud rock record about breakups, jealousy, infidelity and increasingly psychotic cuck fantasies, set against an apocalyptic world spinning off its axis.

We go track by track into the album; along the way we discuss the role his new partner Cait O’Riordan played in its creation and the various personae Costello inhabits on the record, including his alter-ego Napoleon Dynamite (yes, that name derives from this album, though unacknowledged by the film’s director).

Patrons of the Junk Filter podcast can access additional exclusive episodes every month: some of our notable previous guests include Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Bryan Quinby, Alex Shephard, and Jacob Bacharach. More to come! Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Scott Bunn on Twitter, check out the Recliner Notes blog, and listen to Scott’s indie radio podcast!

"I Want You" - Fiona Apple (live with Costello’s band), 2006

Writer and trivia host Terrance Balazo returns to the show to mark the passing of Olivia Newton-John. Beyond achieving iconic screen stardom as the “good girl gone bad” Sandy in Grease, she changed the sound of country music in the seventies and then pop music in the eighties with “Physical”, the biggest chart hit of the decade and a key influence on performers like Madonna and later Kylie Minogue.

Of course we discuss Grease (and Grease 2), but we also dive into Olivia’s notorious rollerskating musical Xanadu as well as her screen debut in the obscure 1970 British sci-fi musical comedy Toomorrow and her reunion with John Travolta Two of a Kind (featuring the uncredited voice of Gene Hackman as God!)

Plus, we watched her insane 1980 prime-time tv special Hollywood Nights, an all-star salute to Tinseltown.

Patrons of the Junk Filter podcast can access additional exclusive episodes every month: some of our notable previous guests include Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Bryan Quinby, Alex Shephard and Sooz Kempner. More to come! Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Terrance Balazo on Twitter.

Terrance’s Twitchstream for his weekly trivia contest Another Round Trivia.

Olivia Newton-John accepting the 1974 CMA award for Best Female Vocalist of the Year

Argentine trailer for a 1979 cash-in re-release of Toomorrow (Val Guest, 1970)

Olivia Newton-John: Hollywood Nights (ABC TV special, 1980)

Trailer for Xanadu (Robert Greenwald, 1980)

TV spot for Two of a Kind (John Herzfeld, 1983)

“Magic” - Olivia Newton-John, 1980

"Physical" music video - Olivia Newton-John, 1981

“Make a Move on Me” - Olivia Newton-John, 1982

Olivia’s anti-crack PSA, 1987

Access the entire 79 minute episode (and additional bonus episodes) by becoming a patron of the podcast: https://www.patreon.com/posts/100-michael-mann-70847596

For the 100th episode of Junk Filter, public health worker and trivia host James Majure joins us from Athens, GA to discuss Michael Mann’s first feature film as a director, 1981’s Thief starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld.

Thief is a fundamental text of modern cinematic language, and the starting point for all of Mann’s career-long preoccupations; the personal code of the professional, the challenges facing the criminal trying to re-enter society, and an immersion into a nocturnal world of city streets, dive bars and diners. Notably Thief offers a fairly Marxist critique of the capitalist system and the personal compromises one is forced to make to operate within it.

Plus: farewell to the great James Caan, and a preview of the new novel “Heat 2”!

Patrons of the podcast can hear this and over 30 premium episodes that are exclusive to the Patreon feed, including guests Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Alex Shephard, Chris Calogero, and Jacob Bacharach.  Access bonus episodes every month and support the show directly by going to https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

James Majure runs a mobile public health vaccination team operating in and around Northeast Georgia. He also hosts a weekly trivia game in Athens!

Trailer for Thief (Michael Mann, 1981)