James Majure returns to the pod from Athens, GA for a two-part episode on Michael Mann’s Manhunter, a box office and critical disappointment in 1986 that has emerged over the decades into being extremely influential not only on Mann’s future works but on film and television in general, from genre conventions to forensic procedurals on TV.

In part 1, we discuss the various cuts of Manhunter in existence, the source material, Thomas Harris’ bestselling novel Red Dragon, Mann’s tremendous empathy towards all the characters in his adaptation, the ways Manhunter’s themes keeps turning up in Mann’s later works, and how the Miami Vice series seems to have been a test kitchen for a lot of Mann’s preoccupations as a film stylist. 

Plus: a Michael Mann update with the surprise arrival of The Keep to Bluray and the 25th anniversary of The Insider.

Part 2 of our discussion about Manhunter, including the Brett Ratner remake Red Dragon and a mid-series episode of Miami Vice that feels a lot like Manhunter, is available on the Junk Filter Patreon feed. 

Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/junkfilter

"There Was Courage at Disney In How We Approached It": Michael Mann Reflects on The Insider 25 Years Later, by Tamera Jones & Steven Weintraub, in Collider, December 6, 2024

Trailer for Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986)

Original music video for The Prime Movers ’Strong As I Am’ from the Manhunter soundtrack, directed by Dante Spinotti

The author Jacob Bacharach returns for a show about Ridley Scott’s latest, the big-budget sequel to his Oscar-winning Gladiator.

Set 16 years later, Paul Mescal plays Lucius, the secret son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus, who seeks revenge against Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) the Roman general who conquered his home and enslaved him. He is sent into gladiator combat in the Colosseum by the scheming arms dealer Macrinus (Denzel Washington) a former slave who plans to use Lucius to seize power from Rome’s tyrannical twin emperors.

Jacob and I discuss The Ridler’s latest epic, which means to top the original in terms of sheer spectacle (including queer-coded villains, baboon and rhino gladiator battles and a crazy naval battle set in a flooded Colosseum filled with sharks), and yet can’t quite get out from under the shadow of the original, despite a fantastic supporting turn by the always dependable Denzel.

Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Jacob Bacharach on Twitter and Bluesky and visit jacobbacharach.com

Trailer #2 for Gladiator II (Ridley Scott, 2024)

Access this entire 94-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. ⁠https://www.patreon.com/posts/188-teri-garr-21-116729215

The writer and content strategist Karen Geier returns for a show to mark the passing of the great Teri Garr, a gifted and influential comic actress and pop cultural icon who worked with everyone from Elvis Presley, Cher and Jack Nicholson to Spielberg, Scorsese and Coppola.

We discuss a cross-section of highlights from her body of work, from her 9 appearances as a background dancer in Elvis movies, to tv and commercials in the seventies, to her breakout role in Young Frankenstein, her Oscar-nominated performance in Tootsie, some of her lesser-known but interesting parts and her legendary status as David Letterman’s favourite talk show guest, which cemented everyone’s love for her. But we also discuss how brutally honest and aware she was about showbiz sexism and how it helped (and hurt) her career.

Many of the Teri Garr performances we discuss are available to watch on YouTube or Dailymotion including all of her Letterman guest appearances and her 1986 comedy miniseries with Carol Burnett and Charles Grodin, Fresno.

Follow Karen Geier on Twitter.

Random Roles: Teri Garr, by Sean O’Neal for The AV Club, July 22, 2008

Teri Garr in the amateur short film Where’s the Bus? by John Harris, 1964 (shot in b&w anamorphic 16mm)

The film writer Corey Atad and I went on opening day to see the new Clint Eastwood courtroom drama Juror #2, which is getting an extremely limited release in North America even though Warner Bros. gave it a full rollout in the UK, France and Spain. Why is David Zaslav doing Clint, still working at age 94, one of the icons of American cinema and of Warner Bros., so dirty?

Before seeing Clint’s latest, Corey embarked on a journey into the last decade of Eastwood’s work for his Substack, so we touch on these films and where Juror #2 fits in with the preoccupations of Clint in his Late Style period, a series of films that examine what takes to be a hero, the concepts of right and wrong, the challenges of modern American life, and the people trying to do their best within failing systems, in this case a struggling justice system not designed to handle people operating out of self-interest.

In our discussion we don’t give away any spoilers for Juror #2 that aren’t in the trailer. Go see this movie!

Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Corey Atad on Twitter and visit coreyatad.com

Corey's interview with Juror #2 screenwriter Jonathan A. Abrams, for GQ, November 15, 2024

Corey’s reviews of all the Late Style Clint movies discussed in this episode are on his Substack - here’s his review of Juror #2.

“The Mystery Behind Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 Release Is Solved” by Pamela McClintock, for THR, Nov 4, 2024

“Halftime in America” - Clint’s 2012 Super Bowl ad for Chrysler, directed by David Gordon Green

Trailer for Sully (Clint Eastwood, 2016)

Trailer for Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood, 2024)

Access this entire 48-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. https://www.patreon.com/posts/186-apprentice-2-115230237

On part two of our discussion about The Apprentice, Sami Gold and I discuss the 2024 election and have a more specific conversation about the role of Trump in modern political life and how he’s changed both political parties, and our concerns about the outcome of the 2024 election.

Sami also brings us a report from the “Make America Healthy Again” rally in Washington DC with Russell Brand and Jordan Peterson.

Follow Sami Gold on Twitter and subscribe to his Substack, Shmulik’s Takes.

“There’s No Check on Trump Except Reality”: A Q&A With Wayne Barrett, by Alex Shephard and Theodore Ross, for The New Republic, December 1, 2016

CW: This episode discusses cinematic sexual violence.

Sami Gold, undergraduate political science student at George Washington University and contributor to Liberal Currents, returns to the podcast for a two-part deep dive into the controversial new Donald Trump origin story The Apprentice, which was released weeks before the 2024 election despite half-hearted attempts from the Trump campaign to block the film. 

Featuring Sebastian Stan as young Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as his notorious mentor, the political fixer Roy Cohn, The Apprentice exceeded our low expectations. Part one of our discussion is about the film itself: the challenges of depicting Trump cinematically, an evaluation of how Toronto does standing in for Manhattan in the seventies and eighties, and the mixed reaction to the film from within Trump’s inner circle. 

Part two of our discussion, on Trumpism in general and the upcoming election, is available on the Patreon feed. 

Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Sami Gold on Twitter and subscribe to his Substack, Shmulik’s Takes

“Don't Mess With Roy Cohn” by Ken Auletta, for Esquire, December 1978

“How Gotham Gave Us Trump”, by Michael Kruse, for Politico, July/August 2017

“The Apprentice at Cannes: Location Manager Richard Hughes on the Whirlwind Of 50 Locations In 30 Days”, from the Directors Guild of Ontario’s “The Wider Lens”, May 21, 2024

International trailer for The Apprentice (Ali Abbasi, 2024)

The author and film critic Adam Nayman returns to Junk Filter to discuss the new Jason Reitman race-against-time comedy thriller Saturday Night about the backstage antics leading up to the first episode of SNL in 1975, a feature film that serves an an ode to its producer Lorne Michaels while trying to spin tension and suspense out of a foregone conclusion. 

Reitman is back in Oscar Bait mode after having some success with the new Ghostbusters films, but this one, like many of his recent award season efforts, failed to connect with audiences. Adam and I discuss the film’s shortcomings, which real life characters it chooses to venerate and which it chooses to attack or demean, and how Reitman, in his supposed recreation of a comedy revolution, actually values the establishment of an institution. 

Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Adam Nayman on Twitter. 

Saturday Night Live Deserved Better Than Saturday Night, by Adam Nayman for The New Republic, September 30, 2024

Trailer #1 for Saturday Night (Jason Reitman, 2024)

Access this entire 68-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/183-curse-of-meg-114731524

The film writer Meg Shields returns from Vancouver for a spooky season show about one of her favourites, the 1961 Hammer Films gothic horror The Curse of the Werewolf, the first starring role for the great Oliver Reed.

Based loosely on Guy Endore’s novel The Werewolf of Paris, Hammer's only werewolf movie is a unique take on the usual lycanthropic fare, positing it as a spiritual curse tied to a person's environment rather than something you catch from a werewolf bite. Set in Spain, the film follows Reed as a young man who gets a job at a wine vineyard… cursed to transform into a werewolf when the moon is full. His only hope for a normal life depends on the love of a good Catholic woman. Complications ensue.

Despite its controversial violence and memorable werewolf transformation effects, the film was initially unsuccessful but has since garnered a cult following and is now considered one of Hammer’s best. Reed's tragic performance, mirroring his future troubled life, adds depth to this dark tale.

Plus: some great quotes from Oliver’s 1979 autobiography “Reed All About Me” and Meg’s takes on some of the other Horror FX movies now streaming on Criterion Channel, along with The Curse of the Werewolf. 

Follow Meg Shields on Twitter.

Trailer for The Curse of the Werewolf (Terence Fisher, 1961)

The author Jacob Bacharach returns to continue this podcast’s look at Megalopolis. On this episode we compare Coppola’s latest to another overheated epic about a visionary architect, King Vidor’s ludicrous 1949 adaptation of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.

Coppola has acknowledged the film version of The Fountainhead as a key influence on Megalopolis, but what Jacob and I value about these two films is how they each rebuke the reactionary source material: Vidor does it through hyperbole while Coppola rejects Rand’s philosophy outright in his parable about America as a near-future Roman Empire. And both films are intensely personal projects with Vidor pointing the way towards the future of cinematic language (no doubt inspiring Paul Verhoeven and the Coen Brothers) and Coppola emptying out his bag of tricks to finally finish a deranged project he spent half his life hoping to make.

And Jacob and I contrast the ways we each saw Megalopolis: from a packed out IMAX cinema in Toronto with a live-streamed Coppola q&a and the full “immersive” presentation to being the only people in a suburban cinema in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was the best time we each had in a movie theatre in eons.

Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Jacob Bacharach on Twitter and visit jacobbacharach.com

“Ayn Rand Made Me a Communist”, by Jacob Bacharach for the New Republic, January 27, 2016

Trailer for The Fountainhead (King Vidor, 1949)

Second trailer for Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis (that got pulled by Lionsgate)

CW: this episode contains spoilers for Joker 2 and discussions of cinematic sexual violence.

The film writer Jessica Ritchey returns to the podcast to discuss the Reverse Barbenheimer of 2024: the more or less simultaneous release of two extremely expensive blockbusters, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis and Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, two films that, as it turned out, nobody wanted to see.

The original Joker was a riff on Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, and the sequel drew inspiration from his earlier musical New York, New York as well as Coppola’s One from the Heart, but it was a shock to the studio and to fans of the first film when this unnecessary sequel turned out to be of little interest to general audiences (especially when word got out it was a musical, downplayed in the marketing) and was taken as a slap in the face by a significant section of the fanbase.

Megalopolis was not expected to be a hit but got a one-week theatrical release in the IMAX format and flabbergasted those few who saw it on that scale with its ludicrous plot, grandiose posturing and eye-popping visuals. But will this grand cinematic folly be reconsidered in the future as so many previous Coppola films have? We say yes. 

We discuss all four of these films, offer a post-mortem on where it all went wrong for Joker 2, and profess our unexpected enthusiasm for Megalopolis and why we think it bizarrely succeeds where these other bloated vanity productions all fail.

Over 30% of all Junk Filter episodes are only available to patrons of the podcast. To support this show directly and to receive access to the entire back catalogue, consider becoming a patron for only $5.00 a month (U.S.) at ⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Jessica Ritchey on Bluesky, and support her work on Patreon.

Trailer for New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977) 

Trailer for One from the Heart (Francis Ford Coppola, 1982)

First trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux (Todd Phillips, 2024)

First trailer for Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola, 2024)

Music video for “My Life”, Billy Joel, 1978