Today we’re tackling two controversial landmarks in gay cinema with help from Guy Lodge, film columnist for The Observer and chief UK film critic for Variety. Both films were scandalous for the early 1980’s, pushing boundaries with their unflinching depictions of the lives of gay men just before the AIDS crisis. First up is 1982’s QUERELLE, the final and most provocative film from legendary German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder; followed by 1980’s even more daring (and graphic) cult classic TAXI ZUM KLO (aka TAXI TO THE TOILET).

You can find more from Guy at https://www.filmoftheweek.co.uk/

This week’s Unwatchables is a double feature of “NYC cop movie sleazecore”— a term coined by guest Jason Bailey, film critic, author, and host of the popular film podcast A Very Good Year. Both of these films were mired in controversy for their explicit content; both are by directed by legendary, and legendarily cranky, auteurs; and both star iconic New York actors navigating the city’s seedy underbelly. The films are William Friedkin’s (R.I.P) 1980 undercover crime thriller CRUISING, and Abel Ferrara’s 1992 morality play BAD LIEUTENANT.

You can hear more from Jason at tinyurl.com/avgy-pod and find his latest book at amazon.com/Jason-Bailey/

Today we’re joined by Bilge Ebiri, one of the country’s leading film critics for Vulture and New York Magazine, to tackle Peter Greenaway’s most disturbing film. The British director may be best known for his 1989 arthouse classic THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER, but he made several other singular, controversial, and often shocking films in the 80’s and 90’s. Perhaps the most shocking of all is 1993’s THE BABY OF MÂCON, which distributors found so disturbing that it wasn’t seen for years in the U.S. and has still never had an official North American release. Now that it can finally be streamed, we see what all the fuss is about and if there’s any saving this baby from the bathwater.

Today’s guest is Christopher Norris aka Steak Mtn, the visual artist behind album art for bands like Against Me!, the frontman of Combatwoundedveteran, and now the author of the new book THE HOLY DAY. He’s here to help us figure out what happened to Lindsay Lohan, former teen idol from films like FREAKY FRIDAY and MEAN GIRLS, who seemed on her way to working with legendary directors like Robert Altman. Instead her career took some strange turns before fizzling out, and we’re talking two of the most Unwatchable examples: 2007’s horror fiasco I KNOW WHO KILLED ME, and Paul Schrader’s 2013 “erotic thriller” THE CANYONS.

Unwatchables welcomes author and film/TV critic Charles Bramesco to discuss one of the most intimidating of all cinematic rites of passage. Bela Tarr’s SATANTANGO is 7 hours and 20 minutes long, and at least one of our hosts endured the entire film in one butt-numbing sitting. And lest you think that 7+ hours flies by, it’s also a quintessential example of slow cinema at its bleakest and most punishing. We discuss the nature of “endurance cinema,” how best to endure this particular example, and the scene that Marc found to be the hardest to watch in all of Unwatchables history.

You can find Charles' book, COLORS OF FILM, at https://www.quarto.com/books/9780711279384/Colors-of-Film

Today’s Unwatchables features Aisha Harris, cohost of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour and author of the new book Wannabe: Reckonings With the Pop Culture That Shapes Me. On our “Stranger Than Fiction” episode, we discuss two bizarre true crime stories dramatized in unflinching detail: Craig Zobel’s shocking drama COMPLIANCE, and Stuart Gordon’s darkly comic thriller STUCK. We talk about what these incidents say about human nature, and how these disturbing films’ very different approaches illuminate how ordinary people can do the unthinkable.

You can find more from Aisha at https://linktr.ee/aishaharris

Unwatchables is hosted by Marc Dottavio and Seth Troyer, produced by Tony Scarpitti, featuring artwork by Micah Kraus.

On today’s Unwatchables, we ask the question: how do you follow up one of the most popular sci-fi trilogies ever made? If you’re the Wachowskis, it’s with three straight flops, each one stranger, more expensive, and more widely derided than the last. We’re joined by Brad Efford of the internet zine Wig Wag to survey the sisters' entire post-Matrix career, and figure out if anything deserves cult status— or if it’s all just Unwatchable. They are 2008’s live-action cartoon SPEED RACER, 2012’s literary adaptation CLOUD ATLAS, and 2015’s space opera JUPITER ASCENDING.

Unwatchables is hosted by Marc Dottavio and Seth Troyer, produced by Tony Scarpitti, featuring artwork by Micah Kraus.

You can support us on Patreon at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/unwatchables⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get access to exclusive bonus content and weigh in on what we watch next. Find us online at www.unwatchablespod.com or shoot us an email at [email protected]. We're on Instagram and Twitter under @unwatchablespod.

(Content Warning: The second half of this episode contains discussions of suicide)

It’s time for Unwatchables to dive into some REALLY nasty stuff with an assist from Tom Davies, writer and podcaster for http://AVForums.com. Jörg Buttgereit’s infamously gross cult horror film Nekromantik defied state censors with its gruesome yet empathetic look at necrophiliacs (and the women who love them!), while his follow-up The Death King is an experimental anthology film about murder, suicide, and castrating Nazis (and not so much the women who love them). Are they merely gut-churning provocations, or is there more than meets the severed eye?

You can find more from Tom at http://AVForums.com⁠.

Unwatchables is hosted by Marc Dottavio and Seth Troyer, produced by Tony Scarpitti, featuring artwork by Micah Kraus.

You can support us on Patreon at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/unwatchables⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get access to exclusive bonus content and weigh in on what we watch next. Find us online at www.unwatchablespod.com or shoot us an email at [email protected]. We're on Instagram and Twitter under @unwatchablespod.

Today’s Unwatchables takes our first dive into non-fiction with help from Jon Nix, documentary filmmaker and director of the new film Don’t Fall in Love with Yourself. Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentaries about the 1960’s Indonesian mass killings are a singularly bizarre and uncomfortable spectacle: The Act of Killing allows the killers themselves to gleefully re-enact their atrocities, while The Look of Silence sets up direct confrontations between the perpetrators and a victim’s brother. We discuss the ethical considerations of such a project, which film better illuminates its harrowing subject, and why genocidal killers are so into gaudy musical numbers.

You can find more from Jon at https://www.jonnixfilm.com/

Unwatchables is hosted by Marc Dottavio and Seth Troyer, produced by Tony Scarpitti, featuring artwork by Micah Kraus.

You can support us on Patreon at ⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/unwatchables⁠⁠⁠ to get access to exclusive bonus content and weigh in on what we watch next. Find us online at www.unwatchablespod.com or shoot us an email at [email protected]. We're on Instagram and Twitter under @unwatchablespod.