The Take-Up

Settle into library chairs and let's research, mama! Andrew and Josh go down the Chronovisor rabbit-hole with Cosmic Salon's galaxy-brained semi-experimental/semi-horror/semi-doc/semi-slow cinema debut feature.

First, Josh recommends what he calls one of the most important films of the year, NAZA, from the filmmakers of No Other Land. Lastly, for One More Thing, Andrew is loving his tent and Josh is loving Barbra Hershey and Peter Tscherkassky.

Next week, programmer and historian K.J. Shepherd of Muscle Distribution joins with their candidate for the canon, Claud Chabrol's class warfare classic La cérémonie.

Until then, read on at thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and Devil’s Reject Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

With Halloween around the corner, Josh and Andrew dig through the ditches and burn through the witches in The Lords of Salem! An underrated movie in Rob Zombie’s career of shock and gore, they share their thoughts with its take on liberation and addiction, discuss the ups-and-downs in Zombie’s filmography (you will not guess which movie Josh thinks is “close to a masterpiece”), and soak in the delight of a grimy film that features Velvet Underground-style satanic music and Sheri Moon Zombie in dreadlocks.

Finally getting to show their appreciation for an often-hated director, our hosts acknowledge his style and vibes that The Lord of Salem has in spades. Like our hosts, maybe you will also consider joining a satanist cult after this. Then, they have One More Thing, treating themselves with Ann Scott’s queer rave-scene novel Superstars and Andrew’s favorite movie of the year (so far) Mad Bills to Pay.

Next week, Josh and Andrew take a look at the indie sci-fi film Chronovisor. Until then, read on at thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and Devil’s Reject Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

Out on the wily, windy moors, “Josh” and “Andrew” take a trip down to “Emerald Fennel”’s psychosexual take on the much-adapted Gothic classic “Wuthering Heights”! Daring to give kudos to one of the most controversial films of the year, they praise the sensual atmosphere, the pervasive thoughts on kink and sex, the wild production and costume design, and how well it works as its own adaptation/Charli XCX visual album.

Living in different camps over what to make of Fennel, our hosts meet in the middle and indulge in a lush, wet romance that’ll leave you begging for more. Then, they have One More Thing, bringing up Criterion program Highway Horror (featuring road trip classics Duel, Joy Ride, Road Games, and Maximum Overdrive) and Simón Mesa Soto’s acclaimed tragicomedy A Poet.

Next Week, kicking off a spooky season at the Take-Up, Josh and Andrew check out Rob Zombie’s witchy flick The Lords of Salem. Until then, read on at thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and cumwater slurper Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

If anyone's going to podcast with Andrew and Josh, it'll be Joe Bowman, San Francisco film programmer. (They don't like podcasting with strangers.) Joe brings Lee Daniels' The Paperboy, his midcentury Florida-set "crime thriller" with more than a few kinks in its legacy, to The Take-Up. The three get to the heart of Daniels' killer instincts as a filmmaker and the freedom he gives major stars like Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron. For One More Thing, Andrew and Josh discuss your viewers' choice options for an upcoming episode!

Next week, Josh and Andrew stay in some, ahem, wet lands with Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights". Until then, read on at thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and our very own paperboy, Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

Andrew and Josh tear through David Robert Mitchell's career and his latest, the dino-invades-the-suburbs 80s throwback The End of Oak Street. There's a lot of meat on its bones too. Is the peak Amblin key-jangling to a purpose? Or is it just an excuse to see Anne Hathaway whack away at a titanaboa? Why can't it be both? Andrew has One More Thing with one of this year's best, the underseen Thai film A Useful Ghost, and Josh visits with Mr. Scorsese from Rebecca Miller and AppleTV+.

Read on at thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and our son we just caught smoking cigarettes, Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

After having differing thoughts on if they saw the TV glow, Josh and Andrew go nightswimming in Jane Schoenbrun’s much-talked-about slasher romance Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. A wild departure from Schoenbrun’s usual work, our hosts share a bigger appreciation for its big swings at the slasher genre, its thoughts on sex, fantasy and media, the best Counting Crows needle drop since Shrek 2, and for being a surprise contender for one of the funniest movies of the year.

Grab a KFC 8-pc Family Bucket, munch on some Jolly Ranchers, and prepare to be dipped into a saucy episode that seems to cure Josh’s ailment of skeptical-of-Schoenbrunitis (for the most part). Then, they get into One More Thing, bringing up the criminally underrated revenge gothic Is God Is and another film about female pleasure, Shōhei Imamura’s final film Warm Water Under a Red Bridge.

Next week, Josh and Andrew head on over to 80s Spielbergsploitation with The End of Oak Street, David Robert Mitchell’s latest that’ll have them seeing if it's up to par with his films that made him a Take-Up staple. Until then, read on at thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and The Hole at the Bottom of the Lake Where the Episodes Come From Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

Shannon Weber of the new (and great) St. Louis culture mag Soundbite stops by for her third visit with Joshua and Andrew. Could it be that she keeps getting her memories of the Take-Up erased, or does she really do just love it and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that much? Find out if a second (!) Shannon pick enters the canon after the three discuss Charlie Kaufman (and Michel Gondry's) lovelorn memory-palace heist-movie. Is it one for the ages or simply another twee Aughts artifact?

For One More Thing, Joshua takes trips down filmmaker Ross McElwee's memory lanes, recommending his 1986 breakout Sherman's March, and his new release, Remake. Meanwhile, Andrew is sticking up for the new-to-streaming subway-from-hell film Exit 8.

On the next episode, find out if Joshua is finally on Jane Schoenbrun's wavelength or if Andrew has to convince him that Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is actually great. Until then, read on at thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and Contributor Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

As school goes back in session, Lindenwood professor and Catching Bullets director Ben Scholle stops by the Take-Up to discuss a class favorite, Kirsten Johnson’s Cameraperson. A sprawling, non-chronological documentary he loves to show his students, Ben gets deep into it with Josh and Andrew, discussing the several story fragments of people and wars that Johnson shot and pieced together during her 30-year career, the bending of the Ecstatic Truth, True/False film festival stories, and what other documentaries have come close to achieving the same effect (spoiler: it is definitely not Life Remote Control). 

Inspired by Johnson’s innovation, they shakes things up over One More Thing, bringing up Sodebo, a French food company that makes the tastiest everything salads complete with an edible fork, and acclaimed 2000 multicultural novel (if you ignore scholar James Wood forcing it onto the academic hot seat) White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

Next Week, Josh and Andrew bring on local writer and Soundbite magazine editor Shannon Weber to discuss her pick Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, their first Kaufman-related film on the podcast! Until then, read on at thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and Contributor Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

A hundred eps, a hundred eps, you can hear the whistle blow a hundred eps. On our 100th episode (if you ignore the bonus episodes, panel discussions, and two-parters, so, like, using Tarantino logic), Josh and Andrew rummage through the archives and search for which films are worthy of being a part of the Take-Up Canon. Will it be Gus van Sant’s shot-for-shot remake of Psycho? Will it be Björk’s magical sounds that spin you around in Dancer in the Dark? Or Ousmane Sembène’s masterpiece Black Girl? Or the gross, bacon-taped lewdness of Gummo? Listen in, fuck around, find out, and join our celebration at The Take-Up!

Continuing the festivities, they have One More Thing, spreading the word over Lance Oppenheim’s Texan documentary Ren Faire and AppleTV sci-fi show Silo, starring Take-Up favorite Rebecca Ferguson.

Next week, filmmaker and Lindenwood professor Ben Scholle comes by and talks with our hosts about the collage documentary Cameraperson. Made by Dick Johnson is Dead director Kirsten Johnson, the trio spotlight the globe-trotting doc that has made her a critic darling. Until then, read on at the thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and suicidal virgin Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

On a very special episode of the Take-Up podcast, Josh and Andrew peer into the memory palace of Sophy Romvari’s semi-auto-biographical debut Blue Heron, giving their own two cents on one of the most acclaimed films of the year. Praising the introspection and heartbreak, they admire the dedication to the late-90s childhood period drama that manages to hold its own against the other semi-biographical late 90s childhood trauma drama they inevitably compare it to.

Comparisons aside, prepare for a deep discussion about regret and loss for a movie that provides the most therapeutic Take-Up episode yet. Next, they have One More Thing, bringing up Kate Folk’s objectophilic tale of love, sex, death, and plane crashes in her novel Sky Daddy, and Milagros Mumenthaler’s hydrophobia-centered psychological drama The Currents.

In two weeks, on the Take-Up’s 105th episode (or 100th, according to JoshMath), our hosts will do the impossible and look back on their past talks and figure out if any of the films they discussed deserve a spot on the Take-Up Canon. Finally, they will answer the question: Does Gus van Sant’s Psycho get to be in the canon?

Until then, read on at the thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and Contributor Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.