Rotten Rewind

Art-House and Grindhouse join forces for part three of our Vulgar Vibes miniseries. Cinematographer Matthew Hayes joins the podcast this week to chop it up about a pair of ultra-violent meditations on masculinity and free will. First up, it's VOD maverick John Hyams's surrealist fourth entry in the Universal Soldier franchise with "Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning" starring Scott Adkins, Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme. After that, it's Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling's much anticipated but far more divisive follow-up to "Drive" with 2013's "Only God Forgives."

Is John Hyams the most underrated action director working today? Why isn't Scott Adkins leading more mainstream action films? Was Refn leaning too hard into his edgelord sensibilities with "Only God Forgives?" Was anything going to be considered a disappointment after the zeitgeist-capturing "Drive?" Did anyone expect the fourth entry in a dying VOD franchise to be a straight up Lynchian body horror nightmare? Find out now on Vulgar Vibes Pt. 3...

You can find Matthew's work at matthay.es and follow him on Instagram @matthewhayesiii.

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Filmmaker and musician William Breen returns to the podcast to unpack the hot mess that is Baz Luhrmann's maximalist take on "The Great Gatsby." Headlined by Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular Gatsby, Luhrmann's adaptation divided critics at its Cannes premiere 10 years ago, but went on to clean up at the box office and build a small but vocal cult following. But what ultimately went wrong? Was it Jay-Z's extremely 2010's soundtrack? Was Carey Mulligan up for the task of playing such a beloved character that early in her career? Why does Isla Fisher sound like Betty Boop? Is the "I Can't Stop" needle drop the most unhinged moment of Baz's career? And most importantly, was at-the-time 38 year-old Tobey Maguire really the best choice for Nick Carraway? Join us for our Vulgar finale as we explore the pure, unfiltered vision that is Baz Luhrman's "The Great Gatsby."

You can find Will's work on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/user40368710 and follow him on Instagram @willmakesfilms.

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In 1994, Quentin Tarantino was on top of the film world. He had just won Cannes with "Pulp Fiction." He was riding the cult success of "Reservoir Dogs" and the Tony Scott-directed "True Romance." At the same time, Oscar-winning provocateur Oliver Stone desperately needed a hit after the box office failure of "Heaven and Earth." Months before "Pulp Fiction" premiered theatrically, Stone and Tarantino's "Natural Born Killers" debuted in dog days of summer amidst a torrent of controversy. Not only was there a heated critical debate taking place surrounding the artistic merits of the film, but the screenwriter himself was publicly disowning the film after claims that Stone had butchered his original vision.

Nearly 30 years later, "Natural Born Killers" remains a polarizing work. Years before films like "Fight Club" and "The Matrix" dominated the conversation of gun violence in the media, "Natural Born Killers" was the one of the tip of every conservative politician's tongue. Has the film endured as a satirical takedown of 90's media or is just a fascinating cultural artifact? Is it possible to make an intelligent or important satire in our social media saturated world today? Is Woody Harrelson one of our best, most underappreciated actors? Why won't Robert Downey, Jr. return to gonzo performances like this?

Filmmaker and writer Alex Kolpan returns to the podcast to answer all these questions and more, right here on America's #1 podcast.

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What makes a foundational movie experience? For critic and podcast regular Logan Kenny, it was seeing Joseph Kosinski's meditative tech opera "TRON: Legacy" in IMAX 3D when he was 9 years old.

Logan returns to us for an episode discussing two Vulgar Maximalist cult classics that polarized anti-digital critics at the time of their releases over 10 years ago. First up, it's The Wachowski's fever dream cartoon come to life "Speed Racer" starring Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci and John Goodman. After that, we'll break down the most expensive first feature of all time with the aforementioned "TRON: Legacy" starring Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde and a pre-Irishman de-aged Jeff Bridges reprising his role nearly 30 years later.

Has time been kind to both of these films? Is "Speed Racer" a Letterbox approved cult classic? Did Emile Hirsch's cultural cache peak in 2008? Is John Goodman actually America's Dad? Do people really hate Matthew Fox? Is Garrett Hedlund a leading man? How often do you piss during movies? These are the questions on everybody's minds this holiday season and there's only one place to get the answers.

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Vulgar Vibes continues this week with two cyberpunk thrillers from two world-renowned auteurs. First up, it's Abel Ferrara's feverish adaptation of William Gibson's "New Rose Hotel." Starring Willem Dafoe, Christopher Walken and Asia Argento, Ferrara's take on the short story was heavier on vibes than plot, centering much of the action around a prostitution ring moonlighting as a karaoke bar. It's heady sci-fi for people who fuck. After that, we're logging in to the dark web corporate espionage vibes of Olivier Assayas' disturbing, ice cold "Demonlover." Like past podcast favorites, "Gamer" and "Southland Tales," Assayas' film was both radically ahead of its time and a perfect encapsulation of early aughts cyber paranoia.

Film critic and writer Olivia Willke joins us to show her unabashed love for all things Ferrara and Demonlover to ask the question... what happens when vibes meet plot?

In 2003, Vincent Gallo brought his second feature "The Brown Bunny" to the Cannes Film Festival. The rest is history.

The so-called controversy surrounding Gallo's film became bigger than the film itself. It was called indulgent. Embarrassingly sincere. Most famously, in the words of Roger Ebert, it was "the worst film in the history of the Cannes Film Festival." And that didn't even touch on the infamous unsimulated blowjob. But what qualifies a failure? Is indulgence always a bad thing? Is the blowjob even the most disturbing part of Gallo's sophomore feature? And more importantly, in the age of PornHub, is an unsimulated blowjob that crazy to see on screen?

Critic and filmmaker Alex Kolpan joins us for an in-depth look back at Gallo's deeply personal and disturbing meditation on loneliness, trauma, and the fractured male psyche. After that, we'll be switching gears for a different kind of road trip romance for Wong Kar-wai's first and only American film, "My Blueberry Nights." Starring a beautiful ensemble of stars like Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz, the film sees Kar-wai meshing his signature style with the twee sensibilities infused in American indie films of the mid-2000s. Is the film a forgotten gem or more of a curiosity for Wong Kar-wai completists? Are both of these films tailor-made for this podcast? Is Vincent Gallo trolling all of us, or is he far more sincere in his convictions than modern day shit stirrers like Kanye West and Bret Easton Ellis? Find out right here on America's #1 podcast.

You can watch Alex's short film "Voice Male" co-directed by the late, great Eli Hayes right here!

Hell is what you make it. Or maybe it's just an alternate reality created by a prolific Lovecraftian author.
For our penultimate installment in the Vulgar Horror series, we're taking listeners back to the mid-90's for a pair of unhinged bangers starring Sam Neill. First up, it's John Carpenter's meta take on a Stephen King-esque horror writer with 1994's "In the Mouth of Madness," starring Neill as a skeptical insurance investigator slowly unraveling. After that, we're boarding Paul W.S. Anderson's 1997 haunted spacecraft nightmare "Event Horizon," which saw Neill square off against current Thick King Laurence Fishburne.

Writer/critic Nick Laskin and filmmaker/animator Shawn Chiesa join the podcast to reflect on both films' initial failure and current cult status amongst hardcore horror fans. Was "Jurassic Park" actually the anomaly in Neill's versatile filmography? Is Laurence Fishburne one of our most undervalued leading men? Has any director in the Vulgar Auteurist canon received as much of a reappraisal as Paul W.S. Anderson? How many 90's kids suffered nightmares from "Event Horizon?" Is Orgy one of the only enduring nu-metal bands? There's only one place to find out.

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Director Robert Zemeckis could have never predicted that his 1992 box office disappointment "Death Becomes Her" would endure 30 years later as an essential entry in the queer cult classic canon. Pitting Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn against one another as frenemies in a quest for eternal youth and casting Bruce Willis as the hapless alcoholic they're fighting over, Zemeckis created an inspired piece of camp with groundbreaking VFX work and pitch-perfect offbeat casting. The co-host of Gay Wine, Kae Whalen, returns to the podcast to talk about a childhood favorite and how the film has endured as a 90s sleepover staple and iconic queer classic.
Follow Kae on Instagram @gaewhalen where you can find their fantastic podcast, Gay Wine.

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We're kicking off our 3rd Annual Rotten Horrors™ with two podcast favorites! Writer and one of our in-house Queer Cinema commentators Kaycee Felton-Lui joins us for a look back at Tony Scott's feature debut "The Hunger," starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon. At the time of its release in 1983, Scott's debut was panned and written off as a lurid exercise in style over substance. Today, it's regarded as a midnight classic and one of the most important debuts of the 20th century. Featuring the iconic pairing of Bowie and Deneuve, haunting cinematography by Stephen Goldblatt, impossibly cool vibes, and one of the most unforgettable sex scenes in Hollywood history, "The Hunger" is a queer horror classic that announced Scott as one of the definitive voices in American cinema.

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When Sony gave Paul Verhoeven $100 million to adapt H.G. Wells' "The Invisible Man," they might not have been expecting a nihilistic, hard-R slasher, but that's what they got! Kevin Bacon underwent a notoriously grueling shoot with groundbreaking VFX to give what is still the most bleakly realistic depiction of the source material to date. Many directors have offered their take on the question: What would a man do if nobody could see him? But only Verhoeven could bravely answer: "Well, he'd probably rape his neighbor and brutally murder his co-workers!"
Novelist and critic Mike Thorn joins the podcast to unpack the film that sent Verhoeven packing his bags and heading back to Europe for good. Is this the last time Hollywood produced an expensive summer movie with an utterly despicable protagonist? Could this movie even get made today and would it survive the discourse that would inevitably ensue? Is Kevin Bacon one of our most underrated actors? Remember when Hollywood tried to convince us Josh Brolin could play a scientist? Has there ever been a more incestuous professional workplace than the lab these horny scientists work in? Find out all this and more in our final Rotten Verhoeven film!
You can find Mike Thorn's fantastic writing at mikethornwrites.com and follow him on Twitter & IG @mikethornwrites.

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