The Twin Geeks

This week, we're joined by the Marvelous Matt Farley, The Earl of Christmas, Freaky Farley, the composer of 23,000 published songs, friend of the show, and the star of many site favorite cult movies such as Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You! (2012) and Local Legends (2013). There's even a new Motern Media film coming this month, Metal Detector Maniac — releasing on Vimeo and Blu-ray from Gold Ninja Video — we discuss the new movie, connect over a love for low budget film, and simply achieve a bit of wish fulfillment for Calvin and Stephen (who sits in for David this week). Someone released a new movie, too! It was James Wan, purveyor of slick modernized horror and with Malignant, a hilarious director with more than a few tricks up his sleeve. That's not our only trick and certainly not our only treat, as Matt joins us for a spirited and fun-movie-loving discussion about Friday the 13th: Part II (1981), the film that really ignited the long-running horror franchise, and take a closer look at whether the horror is what matters, or if it's the hangout movie of it all. So, grab some s'mores and gather around the campfire friends, it's Friday the 13th (Oh No!)... All of this and more from your independent resource for classic and contemporary cinema.

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How many horror movies can truly claim to have changed the landscape of popular culture as we know it, becoming such a widespread influence on everything to come after that the very conceit upon which its built becomes as ubiquitous as centuries of prior genre myth-making? George Romero's legacy will forever be associated with his first feature film, the groundbreaking and pioneering zombie progenitor, Night of the Living Dead. Not only did it invent all the mechanics of a modern movie horror, structured to operate as both a vessel for social projection and as a uniformly terrifying fictional threat, it also managed to revolutionize the tools of modern genre filmmaking with a grounded approach to its low budget production, enhancing the realistic sensation of horror one feels when watching this masterpiece. As we lurch into the spookiest month of the year, we relay the last of our non-horror watches of the year with trips to the repertory theater and a brief look at Michael Showalter's new biopic, The Eyes of Tammy Faye. All of this and more from your independent resource for classic and contemporary cinema.

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Last week, we lost one of the people who made us laugh the most. Iconic comedian Norm Macdonald left behind a vast legacy of work and we've spent the last week chewing over his great contributions to comedic storytelling. What we've found is a veritable treasure chest of profoundly funny material spanning diverse forms and functions. Today we celebrate the endless joy Norm Macdonald has provided us with, from his stint on Saturday Night Live with Weekend Update, to his legendary appearances on David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, to Norm's own hosting forays on YouTube and Netflix. It's time to give Norm his flowers. With guest host Pavlos stepping in, we also highlight the Late Era-careers of Clint Eastwood, Paul Schrader, and Sion Sono, with Cry Macho, The Card Counter, and Prisoners of the Ghostland. Meanwhile, awards season begins! The Emmys happened and we lightly reflect on the year's show and the space for television awards shows in a media climate that heavily favors streaming services. And it's an Anime Takeover on The Twin Geekscast, as we discuss the long, storied history of Mobile Suit Gundam (1981), and the outsized influences of the show and their movies. All of this and more from your independent resource for classic and contemporary cinema.

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After many attempts of conjoining in person yet again, a mutual love of the French comic auteur and his gargantuan masterwork PlayTime have reunited our two cohosts for an in-person discussion of their various misadventures throughout the day, as well as the setting and spectacle of Tati's grandiose playground for his signature Monsieur Hulot character. Tati's recurring themes about the oppressive reach of modernist design and technological advancements reach skyscraper-like heights in this epic farce, at the time the most expensive film made in France. The meticulous detail of Tati's eye vigilantly crafts every detail in every frame, capitalizing on every moment as an opportunity for social satire and absurdist romp. We talk about all the big moments that make an audience roar, as well as the small jokes that illicit a constant chuckle. But most of all, we zero in on what makes Tati's comedy so universal, to such a point where a cacophony of languages are heard throughout the film with nary a sign of a subtitle to translate, much to the surprising benefit of the overall piece. On top of all that, we recount the wonderful day we shared together, from Calvin's unfortunate brush with the law to the latest videogames we're eagerly anticipating the return of the Daydreamcast for proper discussion, not to mention the time we had tearing up the town at the various arcades and restaurants we visited before moseying our way over to the historic Hollywood Theater for an incredible cap on our raucous night out. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

Timestamps:

00:00: Back Together Again!

00:45: Calvin's Brush with The Law

02:33: Uhh this isn't the Daydreamcast?

04:29: Calvin Comes to Town/The Cultural Allures of the Big City

09:35: Crying about Cry Macho, Neo-Westerns vs Modern Westerns, The 2020 Oscars?

12:55: An exclusive look at the first trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza

17:24: Arcade Escapades

29:11: Introducing the Hollywood Theater

36:39: PlayTime

The inimitably stylish worlds of American Film Noir and pre Nouvelle Vague French crime cinema collide in the most commanding display of technical execution ever implemented in translating the artistry of the heist to the silver screen. After getting caught in the crosshairs of Hollywood's blacklisting during the McCarthy Era, director Jules Dassin found himself excommunicated to France, with nary an opportunity to reinvigorate his career in sight. With a meager budget and a cast of relative unknowns, including himself, Dassin set about making a film which reflected his desolate state of being, basking in the fabulously dark aesthetics of Film Noir and aided by all the salacious attributes of contemporary French cinema at his disposal. Rififi is most famous for its thirty-six minute long heist sequence, which plays out in almost complete silence. It is a high watermark for both the genre at large and for technical filmmaking in the abstract, as meticulously planned and executed as the crack team of jewel thieves demonstrate themselves to be throughout the film. We are joined this week by fellow The Twin Geeks staff member Stephen Gillespie, who has just returned from his double dose of festival coverage alongside Calvin, doling out the details for the highs and lows of both Fantasia Festival and Japan Cuts. We follow up last week's documentary discourse of Robert Epstein's The Celluloid Closet (1995) with his earlier, more resounding success, The Times of Harvey Milk (1984). All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

Timestamps:

0:00: Stephen and Calvin go to Fantasia Festival

11:13 Stephen and Calvin go to Japan Cuts

26:00 The Times of Harvey Milk (1984)

38:22 Rififi

Summer is coming to a close, but before we pack it in for the season we’ve got one last major thrill to end it on. Point Break is the ludicrous, amazing, exhilarating action spectacle which still defines the high point of Kathryn Bigelow’s directorial career. It embodies the best of what we love about Keanu Reeves and is brimming with career-best performances from the likes of Patrick Swayze, Lori Petty, Gary Busey, and a number of others. The fusion of high-octane sports spectacle like surfing and sky diving melds beautifully with the adrenaline of heist movie action, brilliantly delivered by Bigelow’s peerless eye in numerous unforgettable action sequences that still stand as some of the best of all time today. As autumn rears its head over the horizon we’ve got new films to cover as well, like the box office success of Nia DaCosta’s Candyman before jumping back into the ’90s to revisit the history of another important minority group in the movies with a review of The Celluloid Closet (1995). All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

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The titanic scale and legacy of Fritz Lang's monolithic Sci-Fi epic is undeniable, despite a tumultuous and storied history of arduous ambition, calamitous failure, enduring influence, and eventual resurrection. The history of Metropolis' evolution within the public conscious is at least as fascinating as the innovative film itself. Its nearly complete form has only existed for little more than a decade at this point, making its all-encompassing influence all the more impressive. Seeing it in any form, however, it's not difficult to understand why its maintained such a high status in the canon of Sci-Fi classics. The visual splendor and grandeur of Lang's dystopian masterpiece is awe-inspiring in a way that dwarfs most ever other film produced in its ninety-year shadow. The story is simple yet poignantly effective for its immense scale to capture, providing a straightforward vehicle through which the spectacle of Lang's vision can truly transcend. Along with chronicling its mammoth impact and fascinating legacy we dive into the complex lineage of the beloved Neon Genesis Evangelion series, along with a lengthy look at the propaganda films produced by affluent Hollywood directors as chronicled in Mark Harris' seminal biography on the subject, Five Came Back. To round things out Calvin attempts to seduce David to the offerings of Apple TV+ with the recent offerings of the deaf coming of age film CODA as well as the plethora of prestige television offerings to come from the service as of late. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

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Paul Newman and Robert Redford pair as another couple of aces in this sleek, stylish portrait of a fantastical Depression Era Chicago in which grifters and gamblers run amok making their way the only way they know how. The Sting is a textbook example of great screenwriting, with a meticulously crafted narrative brimming with colorful characters and satisfying twists, you can't help but be enraptured by its carefully plotting and sensational sleight of hand. The film is a brilliant testimony to the nature of artifice as a form of trickery, swapping out the standard facade of technical wizardry for cleverly incorporated narrative subversion. It's all backed by a lush setting and intoxicating style, set to the sounds of an anachronistic Ragtime score that intentionally operates nondiegetically to immerse us in its beguilingly faux world. We start the show off with a lengthy discussion of the rock/jazz-infused band Steely Dan, as promised last week, working off the in-depth deconstruction of their 1977 album Aja from the Classic Albums documentary series, running through what makes the band so unique and our favorite tracks and albums they've bestowed us with. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

Stephen King and Frank Darabont's second prison-set adaptation captures the same sense of literary and cinematic symbiosis that its more famous predecessor is most lauded for. Though The Shawshank Redemption (1994) reigns supreme amongst King adaptations, The Green Mile is perhaps an even more compelling reverse side of that same coin, aligning its perspective with the prison guards instead of the inmates this time. An all-star cast lead by Tom Hanks and featuring the likes of Michael Clarke Duncan, Harry Dean Stanton, Sam Rockwell, David Morse, James Cromwell, and numerous others, realize King's compelling conclave of dynamic characters for the screen, bringing to life the dramatic and engrossing story of these several prison guards and their relationships to the doomed men on death row. We bring a host of green-themed films this week, with coverage on David Lowery's recently acclaimed The Green Knight as well as a brief rundown on the history of the color green in the movies. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

Timestamps:

0:00 A celebration of Green in the movies

7:48 The Green Knight

18:34 The Green Mile

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The famous film that brought together the power couple of Bogie and Bacall, Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not is an enigma of sensual fascination. Ostensibly an adaptation of the famous Ernest Hemingway novel of the same name, but in actuality anything but, Hawks' laissez faire pairing of the hard-boiled Bogart and the sumptuous ingénue Bacall marinates in electric chemistry sparked between its two leads, emphasizing little else beyond their seductive rapport. The tropical Martinique setting and World War II background help set the stage for the film's undercurrent and intrigue, but its appeal pales in comparison to the iconic romance of the soon-to-be real life couple. We explore all the reasons why the film works so well despite the hodgepodge nature of its construction as well as a litany of subjects ranging from the latest M. Night Shyamalan film to the maligned history of innovative children's cartoons to the complete rage-induced disaster of Woodstock '99. All of this and more from your independent resource on classic and contemporary cinema.

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