Trylove

Featuring returning guest Nick Ransbottom (https://twitter.com/theeziokenway)!

The inherent conservatism of the horror genre isn’t spared in FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980), the seminal slasher film that, at least in retrospect, earns its keep as a bit of a commercial riff on the genre. It might not be the most high-concept use of horror’s toolkit (i.e., external violence addressing intergenerational anxieties), but our guest argues there’s something to truly value under its blood-soaked mysteries, simplified plot, and mommy issues.

Follow Nick on Twitter at https://twitter.com/theeziokenway and Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/eziokenway/!

Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: Main theme from FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) by Harry Manfredini.

Featuring special guest Taylor Zastrow (@teeemotional)!

In Gil Junger’s directorial debut 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU, there’s a little bit more than a ‘90s teen adaptation of Shakespeare. “Don't let anyone, ever, make you feel like you don't deserve what you want,” says Heath Ledger’s Patrick Verona, acknowledging the contractual nature of self-fulfillment: one’s pursuit of happiness, the world’s ability to satisfy it, and the compromises between the two. Of course, it’s also a charming time capsule of the fading 1990s bolstered by stunning performances that sometimes feel underserved by the film’s writing.

Follow Taylor on Twitter at https://twitter.com/teeemotional and Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/tee_zas/ !

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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “I Want You to Want Me” by Letters to Cleo from 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (1999).

For better and worse, Ingmar Bergman's 1957 historical fantasy epic THE SEVENTH SEAL has quite a reputation. Since establishing his career as one of the preeminent auteurs of his time, Bergman's spiritually-charged tale of a crusader confronting his mortality as he journeys home across plague-stricken Europe has been both celebrated and dismissed as intellectual, philosophical, austere, and unapproachable. But how does the film's reputation stack up to the actual experience of watching it – especially in the midst of a plague of our own?

On today's episode, SEVENTH SEAL newbies Jason and Harry join crusading veteran Cody to discuss the masterful – and often surprising – ways Bergman conditions the viewer to see the film's subject matter in a certain light, uses humor to both offset and further illustrate his themes, and repositions medieval and religious symbolism to make an ironically modern point about faith, pride, and a life worth living. We also discuss how we will confront and overcome Death when we face him ourselves. RIP to Antonius, but we're different.

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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: Procession scene from THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957).

Featuring special guest Sarah Seember Huisken – Minneapolis storyboard artist, and 25% of the Cult Film Collective!

There’s so much to love, to be joyful about, in SON OF THE WHITE MARE, including its recent long-awaited 4K restoration. Transplanting traditional Hungarian folklore for a 1981 audience in the name of nomadic peoples, this immaculately animated film communicates much more than its experimental trappings. Rather than play a straight fairytale, SON OF THE WHITE MARE dodges the audience’s firm grasp of form with nearly every scene change, reflecting the convulsive Hungarian social state (its original release was sandwiched between a 1956 revolt and the country’s formal shrugging of Communist rule in 1989).

With Sarah, we discuss the movie’s use of form, humor, nature, sex, soft edges, semi-traditional gender politics, and imagery both modern and primal to elevate its “heroes slay the dragons” narrative into something worth treasuring.

Find Sarah on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/calzonewizard/!

Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at [email protected] to get in touch!

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro ambiance from SON OF THE WHITE MARE (1981).

Through the not-so-straight-laced English mouthpieces of A FISH CALLED WANDA, you’re meant to feel the profound repression of being British – akin to being dead, as John Cleese's Archie Leach says – and then laugh at the morbidity of it all with the help of often morally objectionable humor. A jewel heist gone wrong at the last minute leaves American and British double-crossers spiraling, connecting, clashing, and wondering what you have to do in this life to make people trust you.

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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Main Titles” from A FISH CALLED WANDA by John Du Prez.

Featuring special guest and heist film aficionado Matt Clark (@TheMplsMatt)!

This Ealing train keeps a-rolling with another comedy of errors! Alec Guinness (again?) is Dutch, a bean-counter who’s protected government gold for 20 years, quietly plotting ways to rip them off in a big way. His plan accelerates beyond sustainability when he meets Al, an artist-turned-tchotchke maker with dreams of pursuing his passion instead of stuffing tourists’ suitcases.

What separates THE LAVENDER HILL MOB from the other films we’ve covered is its willingness to show us the solidarity shared between two (and then among four) criminals aspiring toward a better life – together – despite class objections.

Follow Matt on Twitter at @themplsmatt and Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/mplsmatt/ !

Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at [email protected] to get in touch!

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “The Lavender Hill Mob theme” from the eponymous film by Georges Auric.

A comedy classic or a flat farce? THE LADYKILLERS is pretty Ealing through and through, and it opts for a directness and simplicity that can come off as uninspired instead of prototypical – Alec Guinness aside. It’s probably the most approachable of the Ealing films we’ve covered so far, but is it one of the better? The boys are split as a Classic Grossman Ranking Mandate rears its ugly head! Stick around for the inaugural edition of Trylibs!

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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing music: "The Ladykillers” theme music from the eponymous film by Tristram Cary.

Featuring special guest and Hollywood film star Jason Statham!

Jason Statham (UK actor, former model, husband of Rosie Huntington-Whitely, and star of the later films in CRANK (2006), SNATCH (2000), THE TRANSPORTER (2002), the blockbuster Fast & Furious franchise), and more joins us to talk, appropriately, about a deeply British film! Without a stronger commitment to its premise (a Central London neighborhood grapples with its sudden independence from the British government that landlocks it), PASSPORT TO PIMLICO takes its central conceit a little too lightly to be a truly interesting critique, so in the absence of a grander message, we started to read a lot into it instead.

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Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing music: "Passport to Pimlico” credits music from the eponymous film by Georges Auric.

CW: A racial slur appears several times toward the end of this film. We talk about that.

Over the course of a darkly comic scenario that veers between dry and madcap, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS takes jabs at the aristocracy through the eyes of one who would be them, resulting in some fun dissonance between medium and message. In it, Alec Guinness is poisoned, Alec Guinness is incinerated, Alec Guinness is shot, Alec Guinness is crushed, Alec Guinness is drowned, Alec Guinness is exploded, and Alec Guinness dies of a stroke. In real life, Alec Guinness died once of liver cancer.

Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at [email protected] to get in touch!

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing music: "Kind Hearts and Coronets” from the eponymous film performed by The Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

CW: Discussions of suicide and sexual assault as plot elements.

A wacky entry in the "just tryin' to get home" genre, Martin Scorsese's post-THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST kickstarter couldn't be more indispensable. Both pointed critique of Reagan-era exceptionalism and pastiche of 20 years of Hollywood preceding its release, AFTER HOURS pits Griffin Dunne's entitled yuppie against a single night with the inhabitants of SoHo – a people and place he'd rather ignore – while he waits for the haven of his corporate word processor gig.

Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at [email protected] to get in touch!

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing music: "Midnight" by Howard Shore from AFTER HOURS.