We’re joined by Werner Herzog to discuss his early career film imagining the search for El Dorado by the spanish conquistadors, starring Klaus Kinski, and we explore post-colonial art, unexpected comedy, and the legacy of white dudes making their own epic jungle movies.

Next week: Sambizanga (1972) by Sarah Maldoror

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Suggest a film to be added to our Film History watchlist

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Garbage man John Waters witnessed the explosion of specialty theaters in the 60s that offered all manner of forbidden fruit, from nudie european films to gross-out gore films, and with natural business savvy, he catered to that growing audience with his own ultra out-there amateur films. He made out with a nice profit, but his films really persisted in public consciousness because of their smart satire, and because they felt like a coming out party for a whole community of interesting, self-sustaining freaks. On this episode, we share our two differing reactions to seeing the film for the first time, go deep on the film’s place in history, and celebrate that incredible cast headed by the one and only, Divine.

3:33 - Pink Flamingos discussion

1:00:25 - Zach’s 5 albums to check out from 1972

Next week: Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972) by Werner Herzog

Watch the trailer for our short film

Suggest a film to be added to our Film History watchlist

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Larry McMurtry, the author of the novel that he and Peter Bogdanovich adapted into this smash success film, made it his life project to reconcile the popular image of the american west with the reality he grew up in post WWII. His novel “Horseman, Pass By” became the Paul Newman starring Hud, as defeatist as a film western can get, and The Last Picture Show is no sunnier. We explore how the film depicts sex and growing up in small town USA, and talk about the Gen Z aversion to sex in films today. We also detail how Bogdanovich became a respected name in hollywood while blowing up his marriage to creative partner Polly Platt, and discuss the strong ensemble cast, including new school actors Jeff Bridges and Cybill Sheperd.

Next week: Pink Flamingos (1972) by John Waters

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

As fate would have it, young divorcée Elaine May would move across the country, leaving her baby daughter with her parents, to pursue higher education at one of the only colleges that admitted people without a high school diploma: the University of Chicago. Only there would she befriend Mike Nichols, with whom she would become a nationally known comedic performer, before they quit while they were ahead and forged separate careers. By ‘71, Nichols has already won the Best Director Oscar for The Graduate, and finally, May is here to prove her mettle as a filmmaker. We talk about our favorite moments in the film, and the state of comedy, then and now.

We open with some semi-spoilery reactions to the new film Sentimental Value before talking A New Leaf (5:30), and like we did on the first episodes covering ‘69 and ‘70, we close with Zach sharing his top 5 albums to check out from ‘71 (50:22).

Next week: The Last Picture Show (1971) by Peter Bogdanovich

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Bernardo Bertolucci has us thinking about World War 2 and the effects wrought by loser fascists like our protagonist Clerici, and the generation that came after, Bertolucci’s own baby boomers. We talk about his influences in hollywood and the french new wave, the legacy of this era of italian cinema, and queer readings of the film.

9:25 - The Conformist discussion begins

Next week: A New Leaf (1971) by Elaine May

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

We interrupt your regularly scheduled podcast to hash out our Bugonia feelings - does Yorgos Lanthimos strike a chord with his sci-fi class war extremity, or do these provocations ring hollow? Topics include: Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, Stanley Kubrick and Rian Johnson, and the nature of meaning in the universe.

Next week: The Conformist (1970) by Bernardo Bertolucci

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

This week we tackle another “reclaimed” classic, actress Barbara Loden’s sole feature-length directing effort, the spare character study Wanda. Should we be wary, like Paul Schrader suggested after the 2022 BFI Sight and Sound List was published, of the new canonizing of just this sort of previously unsung film? To find the answer, we go deep on Loden’s aesthetic choices, and the themes to be teased out of both the images and the narrative of this american ghost story.

Next week: Bugonia (2025) by Yorgos Lanthimos

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

King Hu stood at a crossroads early in his career, just before the release of 1967’s Dragon Inn. He had left Hong Kong and the film industry he had just begun to break into, following his mentor Li Han-Hsiang to Taiwan at a time when there was no taiwanese film industry. To make matters worse, Li’s epic gamble Beauty of Beauties had just flopped, casting the entire future of their independent enterprise into doubt. Against all odds, Dragon Inn was a smash success, and set the template for King’s fantastical high-flying martial arts films to follow. On this episode we discuss his direct follow-up, a film that threatens to bend the genre beyond its breaking point, and we interrogate what works and what doesn’t about one of the most ambitious chinese films to date. 

0:00 - J Brooks recaps the 60’s in film

3:30 - A Touch of Zen discussion

59:12 - Zach shares his top 5 albums to check out from 1970

Next week: Wanda (1970) by Barbara Loden

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

What does it mean to be an artist in a fascist country? Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio appears to be less about revolutionary politics and more about the universal experience of two generations of a family struggling to relate. The politics are timely, but is there something untoward about an overtly political film, especially in the Trump era, that wants to frontline its emotional family drama and sideline, or altogether avoid, a tangible call to action? We put our heads together to examine the role of film in politics, and what One Battle After Another has to say about idealism, political unrest, and America’s #1 weirdo, Sean Penn.

Next week: A Touch of Zen (1970) by King Hu

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Do yourself a favor, and watch this Toshio Matsumoto film. It’s made by a playful and original filmmaker, whom was almost certainly versed in the work of Godard, Resnais, and every other new wave voice in that moment, but whom brought his own eye and his own inventions to film and made something totally new. It stars strikingly beautiful trans and queer actors that you’d otherwise never see on film, whom perform in daring roles with aplomb, and get to speak for themselves in documentary interludes. And it captures a world in flux, when a booming postwar Japan is seeing young people stand up and rebel against all of society’s traditions. In this episode, we discuss the film’s legacy, the Oedipus myth, and our own experiences navigating gender.

Next up: One Battle After Another (2025) by Paul Thomas Anderson

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy