FALLING DOWN (1993) features Michael Douglas as an ordinary man who's mad as hell, turning into a Travis Bickle for the Rush Limbaugh era. It's Hollywood's attempt to make a serious statement about a post-Cold War malaise, and folks, it's a very, very bad movie. PLUS: we share memories of Canada''s greatest bad filmmaker.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/58314876

In this very special episode, Luke talks to Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and many others) and investigate journalist David Sirota to discuss their new podcast series Meltdown. The series looks back on the 2008 financial crisis and mounts the case that the institutional response from Democrats still haunt politics today, and represents a skeleton key to understanding the current moment. NOTE: this conversation was recorded before this week's US elections, but has much to say about the results.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/58157534

To tweak a phrase from Jeff Goldblum, so much time was spent asking IF the Superdelegate Patreon tier can vote for us to discuss Steven Spielberg's JURASSIC PARK (1993) and not whether they SHOULD. Just kidding, folks - we had a fun time revisiting this certified Popcorn Classic and discussing the ideological evolution from Spielberg's original to the 2015 reboot Jurassic World. PLUS: fiery hot takes on the new films The French Dispatch and Halloween Kills.

We travel to postwar Vienna to visit THE THIRD MAN (1949) and discuss how this classic film's style perfectly articulates a bleak and despairing state of being. PLUS: thoughts on the dark 'n' gritty new Buzz Lightyear origin movie, AND we finally answer whether politics is upstream or downstream from culture.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57836336

We're joined by our old pal Branko Marcetic to discuss the viral sensation that is the New York Times' "B*d *rt Fr*end" article. Why is it popular right now? Is either "friend" in the right or wrong? And is capitalism really the worst friend of them all? PLUS: we discuss the "debate" around the watered-down reconciliation bill.

EASY RIDER (1969) has been encrusted in so many layers of Boomer nostalgia that we were wondering: is there anything still there? So we sat down and watched one of the most iconic films of the 1960s, and... the answer may surprise you! PLUS: more memories of student journalism.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57533296

In some ways, no movie franchise is as responsive to trends and fads as the James Bond series. And in other ways, no franchise is more stubbornly resistant to change. We discuss how the latest entry, NO TIME TO DIE (2021), positions itself in the zeitgeist. PLUS: the Dave Chappelle discourse.

At long last, we are finally tackling something related to The Sopranos. We discuss the many things wrong (and some things right) with the big-screen prequel THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (2021); the spirit of American decline that The Sopranos captures at its best; and what the recent surge in prequels and reboots tells us about this world we live in.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57270569

The great thing about bad articles is: they don't stop makin' 'em. In this chill and jolly episode, we toss around some of our most beloved bad pieces of bad writing, including articles by such living legends as Jeffrey Wells, Jonathan Chait, and Jerry Seinfeld. PLUS: we discuss Toronto's most eccentric film exhibitor.

We have discussed many bad films on this podcast, but now we finally turn our attention to The Worst Movie Ever Made™. We analyze how Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1957) turns the movie industry's flotsam and detritus into a Hollywood dreamscape. PLUS: The Sopranos, Necromania, and Justin Trudeau's recent vacation.