Hit Factory

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Jake Serwin and Ian Rhine of the illustrious Pod Casty for Me join to discuss Alex Cox's 1991 crime drama Highway Patrolman. Made during a period of exile in Mexico after Cox's ostensible blacklisting from Hollywood (and the WGA) following the dramatic failure of his 1987 film Walker, the film tells the story of - you guessed it - a rookie highway patrolman in rural northern Mexico as he navigates the job, The System™, and myraid problems domestic and romantic. 
We survey the signature punk style of Alex Cox as filmmaker, and how he renders Mexico an environment of characteristically seedy texture and aesthetic while preserving nuance, never letting the people or the country become a monolith. Then, we discuss the film's handling of character, specifically protagonist Pedro Rojas (played excellently by Roberto Sosa) and how he relates to two women in the film - his wife (Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez) and his sex worker girlfriend (Vanessa Bauche). Finally, we consider the film's reflections on policing, the things distinctive to Mexico and its people's relationship with law enforcement, as well as those things that remain consistent in how young men become attracted to the job and how value systems and ideology are propagated and preserved. 
Watch Highway Patrolman on YouTube via Kino Lorber
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Writer and critic Robert Rubsam returns to the show to discuss Kiyoshi Kurosawa's enigmatic, unclassifiable thriller Charisma, the story of a failed hotage negotiator torn between factions of scientists, government agents, and madmen all fighting to decide the fate of a very unique tree in a mysterious, nameless forest. It's as strange as it sounds!
We discuss Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s vision of nature as a dialectical force where harmony and disorder coexist. Then we debate the film’s titular tree, Chrisma. Is it malevolent, toxic, or a neutral force weaponized by humankind? Finally, we trace Kurosawa’s lineage through filmmakers like David Cronenberg and the great journeyman Richard Fleischer, and how their influence, filtered through his austere style, produces a deeper sense of distance and unease.
Follow Robert Rubsam on Twitter.
Read Rob on spiritual cinema (The Testament of Ann Lee, Sirāt, & Revelations of Divine Love) at The Baffler.
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

CW: This episode contains discussion of sexual assault and violence, including abuse of minors, in relation to recent revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Listener discretion advised.   

Some Big News Weeks led us to a slightly unwieldy conversation about several topics alongside Joel Schumacher's 1999 thriller 8mm. Written by Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker and boasting a rich ensemble cast including Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, and Peter Stormare, the film explores elite depravity, snuff films, and the dark core of the American dream where desperate people's lives become a commodity.
We first begin with some thoughts on recent events at the Berlin Film Festival and offer our definitive answer to the question on everyone's lips, "Is cinema political?" Then, we venture into Schumacher's film, a not-very-good grisly crime thriller with some resonant considerations about the brutalization of young women within the machinery of capital. Finally, we share some personal thoughts on the most recent releases from the Epstein Files, what they tell us about the nature of power in the world, and offer up an alternative movie title for those thinking more deeply about the case's reverberations.
 
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
Sam Raimi's new film Send Help is in theaters, so we decided to look back at the director's undersung maximalist Western pastiche The Quick and the Dead. A Raimi Movie™ through and through, the film pays loving homage to revisionist entries in the western canon like Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter, but also sacrifices some of the thematic potential of the genre's Golden Era in favor of shoot-em-up schlock and a thoroughly fun time with a knockout cast of established and up-and-coming greats including Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, and a fresh-faced Leonardo DiCaprio.

We begin with a discussion of the Western, its persistence and malleability as genre, and where Raimi's vision falls in the lineage of America's mythmaking. Then, we examine the political limitations of The Quick and the Dead, its topicality as a piece of pop filmmaking, and its reduction of symbolism to mere signifier. Finally, we discuss Sharon Stone as actor and producer, and how the film offers her an oppotunity to explore a character that runs counter to the archetypal femme fatale roles she had made her career playing thus far.

Elsewhere, we briefly discuss another great 00s thriller in our ongoing watch project - David Twohy's A Perfect Getaway and share some thoughts on the new Isaac Chotiner interview with The Quick and the Dead and Melania DP Dante Spinotti.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
Something new for our faithful Patrons - A conversation about all the movies, new and old, that we've been enjoying this month not covered elsewhere on the show. We hope you enjoy!
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Our Theme Song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.