Trylove

Featuring special guest Abbie Phelps (https://twitter.com/goodhunterabbie)!

DRIVE ANGRY is not a very good movie. In fact, it’s kind of a piece of shit. But like a lot of piece of shit movies, it’s far more charming, fun, and likeable than the sum of its parts would lead you to believe. Nic Cage is John Milton (yeah), a man back from hell who seeks revenge on cult leader Jonah King (yeah) for killing his daughter and kidnapping his granddaughter in pursuit of netherworldly gain. Piper (Amber Heard) is honestly just kind of caught up in it, but eventually she makes it her sworn mission to help Milton. If at this point in the summary, you get stuck on questions like “why,” maybe it’s not for you. That’s okay.

Links:

- Find Abbie on Twitter at https://twitter.com/goodhunterabbie

- Find your local abortion fund at https://abortionfunds.org/funds/

- “NIC CAGE, NATIONAL TREASURE” (June - Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/national-treasure/

- “GENE TIERNEY” (July 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/gene-tierney/

- “YAPHET KOTTO” (Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/yaphet-kotto/

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: "Alive" by Mark Campbell and performed by Meatloaf from the DRIVE ANGRY soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 184: DRIVE ANGRY (2011) with Abbie Phelps

3:10 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

6:22 - Why this movie sticks despite its stupidity

13:39 - ​​Casting & other unconventional choices

19:43 - ​​Hell Dudes Rock: The Movie

27:08 - ​​Flavors of exploitation

34:45 - How 2010s this movie is

50:58 - The Junk Drawer

57:13 - Cody’s Noteys: Drivelove (driving movies trivia)

Content warning: Discussions of sexual violence and abuse.

Neither Jodorowsky’s most remembered film nor his most surreal, SANTA SANGRE is still a horror-drama marked by its many allusions to faith, guilt, responsibility, and triumph of the self over evil. Fenix, a young circus performer, is left forever scarred when his father kills his mother and then himself. Years later, he gets what he thinks is an opportunity to resolve his trauma when his mother returns to him – but instead, he’s dragged further into the cycle of violence as she compels him to exact her revenge on the innocent for the evils of Felix’s father.

Links:

- Find your local abortion fund at https://abortionfunds.org/funds/

- “NIC CAGE, NATIONAL TREASURE” (June - Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/national-treasure/

- “GENE TIERNEY” (July 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/gene-tierney/

- “YAPHET KOTTO” (Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/yaphet-kotto/

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: “Holy Guitar” by Simon Boswell from the SANTA SANGRE soundtrack.

Featuring special guest Natalie Marlin (https://twitter.com/NataliesNotInIt)!

Screened only once at release before it was banned during the Iranian cultural revolution, Mohammad Reza Aslani’s CHESS OF THE WIND (aka THE CHESS GAME OF THE WIND) is still shocking after more than 40 years in obscurity. Focusing on the lurid power plays conducted behind the closed doors of an aristocrat’s mansion (including marriage for status, murder, and revenge for both), it’s squarely pointed at the powerful and influential and the ways and reasons they leverage and maintain power. A paraplegic spinster plots against her stepfather, whose lust for status cost her mother her life, while suitors and staff leverage the home’s growing paranoia and tension to maneuver for rank underneath them both.

In this episode, we mull over the movie’s sense of style, genre fluidity, humor, and how its late restoration feels as much like an act of rebellion as its original release.

Links:

- Find your local abortion fund at https://abortionfunds.org/funds/

- Find more of Natalie’s work at https://twitter.com/NataliesNotInIt

- “NIC CAGE, NATIONAL TREASURE” (June - Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/national-treasure/

- “GENE TIERNEY” (July 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/gene-tierney/

- “YAPHET KOTTO” (Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/yaphet-kotto/

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: Closing ambiance from CHESS OF THE WIND (1976).

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 182: CHESS OF THE WIND (1979) with Natalie Marlin

4:00 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

5:47 - Restoration, lost media, and censorship

15:19 - Idealizing – and criticizing – the future

26:49 - ​​Style, form, setting, dust, and how the movie presents itself

55:00 - The time-traveling final shot of the movie

59:45 - It’s actually a really fun movie, too

1:06:34 - Cody’s Noteys: Trylibs – Spooky Crime Part II

With returning guest and Trylon volunteer Finn Odum (https://twitter.com/Finnematic)!

Maybe the question isn’t whether CON AIR is ‘sincere’ or not. Maybe it’s more like “What’s it doing to leverage action tropes to comment on the American carceral state?” or “Is it possible to rehabilitate a whole society?” or “Is Steve Buscemi even real in this movie?” or “Why is John Malkovich in this movie?”

Links:

- Find your local abortion fund at https://abortionfunds.org/funds/

- Follow Finn on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Finnematic and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/finnofthedead/

- “NIC CAGE, NATIONAL TREASURE” (June - Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/national-treasure/

- “GENE TIERNEY” (July 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/gene-tierney/

- “YAPHET KOTTO” (Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/yaphet-kotto/

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.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 181: CON AIR (1997) with Finn Odum

5:05 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

1:11:38 - Cody’s Noteys: Gettin’ Cagey (Nic Cage trivia)

With returning guest Sarah Huisken of the Cult Film Collective!

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE is plot-light but craft-heavy. Its French style takes inspiration from many eras and regions of animation to build a descriptive, sometimes unsettlingly detailed picture of a fictional city and its unique inhabitants. With Sarah, we pull apart what exactly the movie is doing with its technical achievements, share our favorite bits of character-building animation, and discuss mixing discrete styles and conventions to make something that feels new.

Links:

- Find your local abortion fund at https://abortionfunds.org/funds/

- Find the Cult Film Collective and inquire about membership at https://cultfilmcollective.com/

- Find Sarah on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/CalzoneWizard/

- Source for the pronunciation of sacre bleu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12XFhoID0jw

- “NIC CAGE, NATIONAL TREASURE” (June - Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/national-treasure/

- “GENE TIERNEY” (July 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/gene-tierney/

- “YAPHET KOTTO” (Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/yaphet-kotto/

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. Closing song: “Belleville Rendez-Vous” by Benoît Charest and Sylvain Chomet and performed by Matthieu Chedid from the THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 180: THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (2003) with Sarah Huisken

2:46 - Cult Film Collective membership and the Video Library

8:07 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

10:15 - What makes TRIPLETS a touchstone on the stage of world animation

24:28 - The Oscar-nominated song “Belleville Rendez-Vous” and remix culture

31:37 - Little gestures, pointed grotesqueries, and “descriptiveness” vs. “expressiveness”

54:38 - The Junk Drawer

1:10:41 - Cody’s Noteys: Trylove Feud

A bunch of people in Virgil, Texas, are gearing up for the sesquicentennial celebration – the Celebration of Specialness – and in TRUE STORIES, David Byrne of Talking Heads is your guide to the lifestyles, traditions, and movers & shakers of the oddball town. In this episode, we discuss the kind of world Byrne and company imagined in TRUE STORIES, the assumptions its inhabitants make about their changed world, what its exaggerations of contemporary American society say about the real thing, and the effectiveness of punching without punching down.

Links:

- The Escape at Dannemora tweet we reference in the Junk Drawer: https://twitter.com/bobby/status/1081971563635847168

- HomeTownNews.com, which we reference in Cody’s Noteys: https://www.hometownnews.com/home/state/tx/

- “NIC CAGE, NATIONAL TREASURE” (June - Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/national-treasure/

- “GENE TIERNEY” (July 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/gene-tierney/

- “YAPHET KOTTO” (Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/yaphet-kotto/

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. Closing song: “People Like Us (feat. John Goodman)” by Talking Heads from the TRUE STORIES soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 179: TRUE STORIES (1986)

4:41 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (under exclusive license from AG Enterprises)

7:21 - David Byrne, STOP MAKING SENSE (1984), and understanding through idiosyncrasies

21:45 - Mockumentaries, political alignment, and punching without punching down

41:12 - Louis Fyne and love in a post-alienation society

49:03 - Musical numbers and the stuff between the stuff

1:00:44 - The Junk Drawer

1:12:27 - Cody’s Noteys: Try Stories (small-town TX headline trivia)

Featuring special guest Dan Nagan (@aDapperDanMan)!

What is even going on in John Woo's FACE/OFF? The simplest conceit – swap badass criminal Nic Cage and sadboy cop John Travolta's faces for max irony – is stretched beyond its reasonable boundaries and into truly bizarre territory. How can two whole men live as half of each other? What do they become when united in flesh and singular purpose?

Through it all, FACE/OFF retains trademark Woo-isms (sometimes for the better, sometimes for the... other one), which fortunately play off the audience's familiarity with its lead actors to generate some of the wildest, most off-the-wall plot nonsense in cinema history.

Listen to Dan Nagan's podcast, Everything We Learned, wherever you already listen to podcasts and follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd at @aDapperDanMan!

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.

With returning guest Charlie Mackin (https://twitter.com/charliemander13)!

Frank thinks he’s supposed to save lives. Frank’s got it backwards. Join us in discussing BRINGING OUT THE DEAD: number two in the Trylon’s Nic Cage summer series, one of the black sheep of Martin Scorsese’s filmography, and a stylized-but-intimate look at what motivates and depresses EMTs. Stick around for our takes on the impact of failed systems on individuals and communities, the hard-learned lessons of guilt and the grief that follows, how BRINGING OUT THE DEAD leverages action tropes to bizarre ends, and the nature of messianic self-sacrifice when nobody asked you to.

Fair warning: This was recorded from 9:30 p.m. until about 11:15 p.m. on a Tuesday, immediately after a screening of the movie. No apologies. Just a warning.

Links:

Find Charlie on Twitter at https://twitter.com/charliemander13

Find her work at https://charliemackin.com/

And on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/charliemander/

- “NIC CAGE, NATIONAL TREASURE” (June - Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/national-treasure/

- “GENE TIERNEY” (July 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/gene-tierney/

- “YAPHET KOTTO” (Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/yaphet-kotto/

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. Closing song: “TB Sheets” by Van Morrison from the BRINGING OUT THE DEAD soundtrack.

MOONSTRUCK is a perfect film made in 1987 by Norman Jewison and written by John Patrick Shanley. Loretta (played by Cher), a neurotic Italian woman in her mid-30s, is set to marry Johnny (Danny Aiello), a neurotic Italian man in his mid-40s, even though she doesn’t really love him. She meets his brother Ronny (Nic Cage) and falls into a whirlwind romance that starts to crumble her idea of what she wants from her life. MOONSTRUCK was acclaimed at release and is considered a classic romantic comedy, having won three Academy Awards (Best Actress for Cher as Loretta; Best Supporting Actress for Olympia Dukakis as Rose, Loretta's mother; and Best Screenplay for John Patrick Shanley).

Kick off the Trylon’s Nic Cage: National Treasure series with MOONSTRUCK and our accompanying episode – the best discussion you’ll find on the internet!

Links:

- “Moonstruck: Life in the In-Between” by Emily VanDerWerff for The Criterion Collection: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7192-moonstruck-life-in-the-in-between

- Buy tickets to EDDIE MURPHY (June 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/eddie-murphy/

- “NIC CAGE, NATIONAL TREASURE” (June - Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/national-treasure/

- “GENE TIERNEY” (July 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/gene-tierney/

- “YAPHET KOTTO” (Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/yaphet-kotto/

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. Closing song: “That’s Amore” written by Harry Warren and Jack Brooks and performed by Dean Martin from the MOONSTRUCK soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 177: MOONSTRUCK (1987)

4:40 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (under exclusive license from AG Enterprises)

6:11 - The ridiculous, romantic tightrope MOONSTRUCK walks

24:57 - Practical emotion and Loretta’s transformation

40:14 - Nic Cage’s ‘earnest commitment to absurdity’

53:04 - Perry, Cosmo, and infidelious foils

59:56 - The Junk Drawer (Magical realism and John Patrick Shanley)

1:04:20 - Cody’s Noteys: That’s A Garage Sale

Featuring the first appearance of writer, Trylon volunteer, Horrorthon body counter, and comms specialist Michael Popham (https://twitter.com/mpopham)!

A direct sequel to the movie where Godzilla rips Mechagodzilla’s head off, TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA is a movie (written by newcomer Yukiko Takayama!) where Godzilla rips Mechagodzilla’s head off… and there’s a dinosaur… being controlled by aliens… who’ve teamed up with a disgraced scientist… whose daughter is a cyborg… that controls another Mechagodzilla. It’s a pretty stacked movie! It’s also the lowest-grossing Godzilla ever and it marked the end of Godzilla’s Shōwa era before a nine-year hiatus.

Somewhere in that milieu, there’s a strangely human, tender core to the story, anchored largely by Katsura Mafune (Tomoko Ai), the mad scientist’s daughter-turned-cyborg whose position in the plot. We talk about her many motivations and how her character – dutiful to her father’s cause, finding love in her enemies, possessed by her extraterrestrial overlords – reflects both the humanity in the movie’s monsters and the monstrosities of its humans.

Links:

Follow Michael on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mpopham

Michael’s blog memorializing Horror Incorporated, a 1970s late-night creature-feature series from MSP: https://horrorincorporatedproject.wordpress.com/

- Buy tickets to EDDIE MURPHY (June 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/eddie-murphy/

- “NIC CAGE, NATIONAL TREASURE” (June - Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/national-treasure/

- “GENE TIERNEY” (July 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/gene-tierney/

- “YAPHET KOTTO” (Aug 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/yaphet-kotto/

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. Closing song: Main theme by Akira Ifukube from the TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 176: TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA (1975) with Michael Popham

4:19 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

7:04 - Movie good? (Movie good.)

15:45 - Balancing the human and the alien

31:56 - Katsura as nexus between them

46:37 - The Junk Drawer (kaiju insurance, a sense of scale & more)

53:13 - Cody’s Noteys: Godzilla or Not-zilla (tagline trivia)