Trylove

Featuring special guest and THE FIFTH ELEMENT stan Seth Zarate!

What does THE FIFTH ELEMENT add to the sci-fi canon? It's certainly not the first action/comedy/sci-fi hybrid. It's also a slurry of politically unfocused mishmash that seems altogether uninterested in exploring the endpoints of those elements. If it's special, it's because of the world built around it – one that features gender-fluid talk show hosts, Middle Eastern breakbeat radio hits, whole bodies 3D printed from a single cell, and a whole lot of other ideas brought vividly to life by the teams of visual effects artist Mark Stetson and costumer Jean-Paul Gaulthier.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.

Forget what you heard about FARGO (1996): BARTON FINK is actually the Coens' most autobiographical movie. Telling the bizarre odyssey of self-righteous playwright-turned-Hollywood screenwriter Barton Fink, the film was scripted during a bout of writer's block while making MILLER'S CROSSING (1990) – and counting the rings of this script, that adds up. It indicts Barton himself (no small feat in a movie where John Goodman does what he does in this one) by questioning any writer's ability, intent, and responsibility to write for "the common man".

This episode is the sixth and final in our short series on a selection of Coen Brothers films screened at the Trylon Cinema in 2019.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.

The Coen Brothers' 2009 existential dramedy A SERIOUS MAN trades on their Jewish upbringing to paint a larger picture about the voices that take over amid the inescapable silence of organized religion. As Harry says, it's a movie about "paying more attention to the people in your life." With eternal suffering the only constant in human existence, inaction is a recurring motif – the line, "I didn't do anything!" is meant in a different way each time it's spoken – as an increasingly untenable excuse in the woebegone life of St. Louis Park physics professor and cuckolded family man Larry Gopnik.

This episode is the fifth in a short series on a selection of Coen Brothers films screened at the Trylon Cinema in 2019.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.

Featuring special guest Eric Leith!

In Tom Reagan's gritty gangster world, caring is a quick way to get yourself shot. It's too bad, then, that he cares very much about Leo O'Bannon, his Irish mob boss, and Verna Bernbaum, the woman they both think they love. When Verna's brother runs afoul of the rival Italian mafia, Tom is forced to reconcile the charge of his position, his loyalty to Leo, and the pain in his heart. "What heart?"

This episode is the fourth in a short series on a selection of Coen Brothers films screened at the Trylon Cinema in 2019.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.

***

Note: This episode was originally recorded and released in June 2019 during a series on the films of Joel and Ethan Coen at the Trylon. We've republished it to coincide with the Trylon's showing of RAISING ARIZONA as part of the NIC CAGE: NATIONAL TREASURE series that screened in the summer of 2022. We didn't really know what we were doing with this show back then, but we're still pretty happy with how the conversation went. Thanks for coming back.

***

Featuring special guest Eric Leith!

Aren't we all H.I. "Hi" McDunnough, trying to prove to ourselves and those we care about that we can change despite all odds? Fighting against the ghosts of our past while squaring with the geist of our present, occasionally scraping our knuckles on the popcorn ceiling of prescriptive social rhetoric? And whom among us can claim to not be former cop Edwina "Ed" McDunnough, whose career and lifestyle ambitions seem increasingly at odds with the realities afforded to her in the shadow of late stage capitalism?

It's a comedy.

This episode is the third in a short series on a selection of Coen Brothers films screened at the Trylon Cinema in 2019.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.

CW: Discussions of suicide as plot. Listening advisement: Harry's track ended up sounding bad. Sorry.

While watching THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE, it's easy to see why it's one of the Coen Brothers' relatively overlooked films: nested between box office smashes O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000) and INTOLERABLE CRUELTY (2003), it failed to break even on its modest budget and has become a cult classic in a filmography full of cult classics. From its period setting to its black-and-white presentation to its Camus-like reckoning with the absurd, it also sometimes feels like it purposefully evades scrutiny. That didn't stop us!

This episode is the second in a short series on a selection of Coen Brothers films screened at the Trylon Cinema in 2019.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast!

Featuring special guest and honorary Minnesotan Emily Csuy!

FARGO is probably a non-Minnesotan's first impression of Minnesotans, but how essentially Minnesotan is it? Why is it set here, and what does that choice reveal about the Coen Brothers' attitude toward their home state? How often does a Minnesotan actually say "you betcha"? Is FARGO secretly a case study for the Second Noble Truth of Buddhism? Now, you know, none of us are scholars of Eastern religion, but all of us live in Minnesota, so we thought we'd give these questions a try anyhow. Real good, then.

This episode is the first in a short series on a selection of Coen Brothers films screened at the Trylon Cinema in 2019.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.

Featuring Nabil Azzouzi!

Just to put it out front: THE PLEASURE GARDEN isn't a mystery, thriller, or horror film. It has its moments (it's even funny sometimes, which is awe-inspiring for a 90-year-old movie to pull off), but being Alfred Hitchcock's first feature, it's most interesting to watch in the context of his filmography. It's got the corrupting influence of power; it's got love and lust; it's got men (even the "good" ones) being really terrible people. In that way, it's kind of a proto-proto-Hitchcock movie – like seeing the outline of a movie he would've scrapped later in his career.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.

In a special, spoilery, distinctly non-Trylony episode, we're proud to host Nick Ransbottom (@TheEzioKenway) to talk about Rob Letterman's loose adaptation of the 2016 video game of the same name. We – four video game-literate men in the same general demographic – all liked it a lot. Go figure! And then go see it!

It probably would've been enough to make POKÉMON: DETECTIVE PIKACHU a facsimile of the game from which it takes its title or any in its namesake series. Fan service would've gotten millions of butts in millions of seats. But the movie is far more than fan service. It's a heartfelt realization of the world of Pokémon, and just a really well-rounded film, that succeeds by finding natural ways to include the mega-popular creatures in the story rather than by relying on them as its focus.

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.

Content warning: This film contains depictions of attempted sexual assault and plenty of "period-specific" racism. Heavy on the air quotes.

For all his cowboy pageantry and vague machismo, John McCabe is just a sad, insecure man (and not the kind who's rewarded for it, either). In Robert Altman's "anti-Western" MCCABE & MRS. MILLER, he's a wingless frog who keeps bumping his ass, flailing to escape the gravity of society, capitalism, and emotional vulnerability he's evaded his whole life. He's foiled by the incredibly competent Constance Miller, who deals with the same pressures like a well-adjusted adult: through companionship, self-expression, determination, and drug use.

In this episode, we pore over the film's depiction of place, violence, performance, and what the hell it means to be an "anti-Western."

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters.