Rotten Rewind

We're celebrating big budget body horror this week on the podcast by revisiting two of the most bonkers movies that ever slipped through the cracks of some of Hollywood's biggest studios. Actress and designer Mariko Enkoji-Busch joins us to discuss the 2000 Jennifer Lopez thriller "The Cell" and the more recent studio bomb "A Cure for Wellness" from "The Ring" director Gore Verbinski. Are we just nostalgic for studios writing blank checks to visually ambitious directors to take their big swings or were the critics completely off base for these hard R thrillers? And more importantly, what does it mean to be a "cummy actor" and who is the cummiest of them all? There's only one place to find out.

"The Cell" is streaming with ads on Tubi and available to rent wherever you rent movies. "A Cure for Wellness" is available to rent on iTunes and all the usual rental streaming apps. 

Can you believe it's been 20 years since Heath Ledger and Shannyn Sossamon donned 14th century attire for a David Bowie dance sequence in Brian Helgeland's jousting action comedy "A Knight's Tale"? Or that it's been 15 years since Sofia Coppola followed up her Oscar win with an 80s New Wave-scored take on "Marie Antoinette" with Kirsten Dunst and fellow Coppola, Jason Schwartzman? We feel old.

This week on the podcast, we're looking back on two of the most polarizing films of the 2000s: Jonathan Glazer's mostly forgotten oddity "Birth" and Lars Von Trier's Criterion approved "Antichrist." Both genre-defying tales of grief with fully committed lead female performances from Nicole Kidman and Charlotte Gainsbourg, these controversial dramas divided critics and alienated audiences, but only one will be deemed a "misunderstood masterpiece" by your fearless hosts. Is it the one where Nicole Kidman sports a pixie cut and cucks Danny Huston with a 10 year-old boy or is the one where Willem Dafoe's penis cums blood? There's only one way to find out...

"Antichrist" is streaming on The Criterion Channel and "Birth" is streaming on STARZ.

Cage. Cusack. Malkovich. Chappelle. Rhames. Trejo. Buscemi.

We're celebrating Oscar weekend on the podcast by discussing two gritty youth dramas with a prestige bent that failed to resonate with the Academy and critics. First up, it's Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio's 1995 breakout indie drama "The Basketball Diaries" where we get to see a young Leo shoot up and get public restroom blowjobs from old men. After that, we're rewinding to the not-so-distant past with this years Tom Holland starring "Cherry" from Marvel's #1 in-house directors, The Russo Brothers. Where did these intense stories of addiction go wrong? Does "The Basketball Diaries" endure after all these years of cult status? Will "Cherry" find later success from Gen-Z or will it disappear into the abyss of streaming films on Apple? What is Everclear's Art Alexakis up to these days? Find out on our latest episode right now.

"The Basketball Diaries" is not currently streaming and is out of print, but can be found at your local video store or eBay. "Cherry" is streaming exclusively on AppleTV+.

We're back and we're kicking off this brand spankin' new season of Rotten Rewind with perhaps the most infamous rotten movie of all time: Paul Verhoeven's seminal camp masterpiece "Showgirls." Featuring a career-ending turn by Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan with a body double, Gina Gershon with a Southern accent, and Robert Davi sincerely delivering the line "What's it like not havin' guys cum on you?" You know the movie! You know the history! We're here to offer our take on it with Kae Whalen, the host of Gay Wine and a camp enthusiast.

You can find "Showgirls" streaming for free on Cinemax, or you can find the V.I.P. edition on DVD and Blu-Ray in which the producers refused to pay Elizabeth Berkley $2,500 to be interviewed! Yay!

We can't believe it's here but today marks our first ever season finale. We're going out with a bang - or a Spark - by discussing two of the most iconic millennial romances, written by multi-millionaire Nicholas Sparks. First up, it's the Shane West/Mandy Moore leukemia love story "A Walk to Remember" featuring a score by Moore and emo Christian rockstars Switchfoot. After that, we're going all in on the grand daddy tearjerker "The Notebook," starring former real life couple and current Oscar nominees, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. We're honored to close out the season with Johnny Langan, in what is sure to be his least horny episode to date. Thank you for helping us get through this horrible year and supporting us as we went down the most rotten cinematic roads we could find. We'll be back after a short hiatus more rotten than ever.

The 90s and 2000s might be the most ubiquitous time for romantic comedies, but they also gave us some of the most truly unhinged entries the genre had to offer. This week, we're discussing a pair of malicious magazine themed rom-coms that pair a couple of successful sociopaths and unemployed losers as they search for love in the big city (and Boston)! Is the 2003 box office smash "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" regressive and awkward in 2021? Is the genre wackiness of "What's Your Number?" an unlikely parable for North Korean spies? Is Matthew McConaughey an undiagnosed sociopath? Will Hollywood ever figure out what to do with Anna Faris? We're joined by film studies professor and "What's Your Number?" enthusiast Macy Todd to answer these important questions.

We signed up for a free week of Peacock Premium so that we could endure six hours of BDSM-lite and talk about what we learned for you, our loyal listeners. That's right: we watched all three "Fifty Shades" movies and now we get to discuss the transfixing effect they had on us with our favorite horny correspondent, Johnny Langan. Grab your favorite ripped jeans and your finest pair of Ben Wa balls and get comfortable because this our longest episode yet.

All three films are streaming through Peacock Premium and the roughly 20% of the films devoted to fucking or fucking adjacent activities are available for free on PornHub.

We're kicking off our month long series of Rotten Romances with a couple of supernatural fuckboys and the doctors that love them unconditionally. First up, it's the "holy shit I can't believe this actually exists" 1998 studio bomb "Meet Joe Black" starring Anthony Hopkins as the lamb sandwich loving rich guy who's about to watch his daughter (Claire Forlani) get fucked by Death himself (a very blonde Brad Pitt). After that, we're skipping forward eight years to the time travel love story that reunited Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, "The Lake House." We're also thrilled to have artist and time travel romance enthusiast Ella Talkin join us this week to make sense of the plot mechanics and sheer existence of both films.