Hit Factory

Justice Warrior Ben Clarkson returns to discuss the 1997 action thriller The Jackal, starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, and Sidney Poitier in his final film role. Ostensibly a remake of the the 1973 Fred Zinneman film The Day of the Jackal (itself an adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's 1971 debut novel of the same name), the film attempts to update the story of lethal methodology and intrigue to a contemporaneous post-Cold War, "End of History" milieu that sees a collaboration between US intelligence, Russian police, and a former IRA sniper to stop Bruce Willis's titular shapeshifting hitman from assassinating (spoilers) an analogue of Hillary Clinton. While there are some fun bells and whistles, and a heaping of Bruce Willis disguises, the movie ultimately represents diminishing returns on the promise of this type of movie, forsaking procedural thrills for something far more rote and predictable. We begin with an extended discussion of form and film language, why it's meaningful in the context of our current media landscape, and what an illiteracy toward formalism suggests about the way culture engages with everything we see via a screen. Then, we discuss the distinctions between Fred Zinneman's 1973 thriller and its 90s update: what it does well, and where it goes very, very wrong. Finally, we expound on the film's sociopolitcal moment, and what its moralizing of its most compelling character says about the broader cultural trends of nationalism in the mid-90s.Justice Warriors Vol. 2: Vote Harder is out now. Find your copy HERE.Follow Ben Clarkson on Twitter. Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Writer, curator, and author of the upcoming book Revolutionary Desires: The Political Power of the Sex Scene, Xuanlin Tham joins us to discuss the work of Taiwanese New Wave director Tsai Ming-liang and his 1994 film Vive L'Amour. It's a quietly devastating exploration of longing, desire, and urban alienation about a trio of young Tapei residents who, unbeknownst to one another, all occupy the same luxury model apartment.We discuss the context of early 90s Tapei, its status as a bustling center of rapid economic growth and a hub for global commerce, and how this unique urban setting coupled with Tsai's outsider status as a Malaysian-born transplant inform his cinema. Then we explore the distinctive formal components of Tsai's filmmaking, its radical underpinnings, and its rejection of commodifying language or labels. Finally, we look to Tsai's evolution across the decades since Vive L'Amour and how his self-referential and increasingly sparse approach has further liberated his cinema from the strictures of capitalist impulses. Follow Xuanlin Tham on TwitterPre-Order Revolutionary Desires: The Political Power of the Sex Scene from 404 InkGet access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....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.We take a moment away from the 90s to share our thoughts on Coralie Fargeat's latest brash body-horror festival darling The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. It's a stylish, blunt provocation ostensibly targeting the oppressive brutality of patriarchal beauty standards that feels completely at odds with its own intentions, often reinforcing the very ideology it purports to be railing against. We discuss the film's formal elements, and how they so frequently contradict the film's messaging. Then, we talk about the the movie's many (empty) reference points and why they are indiciative of the diminishing returns of a generation of filmmakers interested in aesthetic homage to great filmmakers without seriously contending with their themes. Finally, we consider some troubling rhetoric around who the movie is for, who "genuinely" understands it, and who is excluded from this understanding. ....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.Writer, researcher, and fellow podcaster John Semley joins the program to discuss Buffalo '66, directed, written by, and starring the ever-controversial Vincent Gallo and co-starring Christina Ricci, Anjelica Huston, and Ben Gazzara. It's a film of profound beauty, humor and humanity, and although Gallo claims the movie is non-autobiographical, it nonetheless draws from deep reservoirs of personal experience in its depiction of alienation and the grace that can bring broken people back from the precipice.We discuss the career of Vincent Gallo and his status as perpetual provocateur, often exchanging barbs with fellow flimmakers and critics alike, including a notorious saga with the late Roger Ebert. Then, we talk about the film's depthful exploration of its thoroughly unlikable character as portrayed by Gallo, and how he manages to make Billy Brown a remarkably captivating misanthrope through his particular manner and distinctive speaking cadence. Finally, we discuss Gallo's recent foray into the MAGA movement and adjacent vestiges of the right, and why his work's portrayal of ecstatic revelation feels antithetical to the politics of resentment that defines the modern conservative movement.Follow John Semley on Twitter. Read John's piece on Gallo's work with The Daily Wire, "Can Conservatices Make a Real Movie?" at The New Republic.Watch Vincent Gallo's infamous 2003 interview with Hikari Takano.Watch Vincent Gallo confront critics on a 1998 episode of Sky TV's Movietalk.....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.Twitter-banished Brazilian Gus Lanzetta makes a long-awaited and triumphant return to discuss Iain Softley's sexy, stylish Hackers. Impressively researched and committed to creating a dazzling, expressionistic visual style to evoke the sensations of exploring the uncharted corners of the world wide web, the film is both an ode to the young, brilliant minds at the forefrunt of cyberspace and an anthropological time capsule of a subcutlure that would aesthetically inform the way the burgeoning landscape of the internet and its denizens were depicted on film throughout the rest of the decade and beyond.We discuss the film's impressive layers of authenticity, as elicited by screenwriter Rafael Moreu alongside real-life hacker consultants (including then-teenager Nicholas Jarecki, who would later become a filmmaker himself). Then, we discuss Hollywood's attempts to visualize the unconquered, uncharted landscape of the fledgling internet, and how the film paints its protagonists as intrepid trailblazers in the same spirit as classic character motifs from the American western. Finally, we discuss the noteworthy landmark design of the film, from its production and sets, to its immaculate fashion, and its pitch-perfect, multi-volume soundtracks of contemporary electronic music.Brazil isn't on Twitter anymore, so follow Gus Lanzetta on Bluesky.Check out Gus's latest podcast adventure The Boku Diaries.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Independent filmmaker Zach Clark joins to discuss the work of punk auteur legend Jon Moritsugu and his 1994 cult favorite Mod Fuck Explosion. A riff on classic Hollywood tales like West Side Story, the film is brash, outrageous, occasionally reprehensible, and is (in Zach's words) less about teen angst so much as it simply *is* teen angst manifested onscreen.We first discuss the singular style of Moritsugu as filmmaker, his movies' no-budget charms, and how their hyper-stylized aesthetic, formalism, and performances turn the film's budgetary limitations into distinctive attributes that call attention to the their own artifice. Then, we discuss Mod Fuck Explosion's brilliance as a totem of 90s teen ennui and an interrogation of Moritsugu's career-long targets such as the prison of domesticity, anti-Asian racism, and gender roles. Finally, we discuss why the film's of Moritsugu transcend basic descriptiors like satire and camp, embracing genuine sincerity and uncovering deep emotional truths with a commendable level of vulnerabiltiy. On the back half of the show, we spend some time discussing Zach's new film The Becomers, a 21st century take on science fiction B-movies about body snatching aliens finding love in the time of COVID. The Becomers is out on VOD today! Check out the trailer here.Pre-order The Becomers on limited edition Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Journalist and writer Séamus Malekafzali returns to the program to discuss Johnny Mnemonic. Directed by artist Robert Longo and adapted by William Gibson from his own short story, the film was met with lukewarm box office reception and critical derision upon initial release, but has since endured as a classic of 90s cyberpunk aesthetics and startling prescience in its depiction of a 21st century dystopia overrun with corporate malfeasance, an increasingly atomized technological existence, and a global pandemic overwhelming the world's healthcare systems. We discuss the work of William Gibson, pioneer and godfather of cyberpunk; how the film functions as an extension of the worlds he created with his landmark debut novel Neuromancer, and how the film honors both his vision and distinctive style. Then, we praise the incredible cast of characters, led by a deliberately mannered Keanu Reeves performance, with support from Dina Meyer, a crazed Dolph Lundgren, resistance leader Ice-T, and the great Udo Kier. Finally, we discuss the film's breathtaking production design and worldbuiliding, the merits of art that swings for the fences, and the exceptional experience of viewing the film in its Black & White version (as originally intended by Longo, if he had been granted full control of the film). Watch Robert Longo, Keanu Reeves, and William Gibson in conversation for the Black & White release of the film. Follow Séamus Malekafzali on Twitter.Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....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.You voted for it, we watched it.We discuss the winner of our Patron Poll, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Double Life of Veronique - A new film to both Hit Factory hosts, and one that has become an instant favorite.Enigmatic, ethereal, and steeped in a gentle magical realism, the film finds ways to make grand the quotidian and the interior emotional plane of existence, transcending attempts to articulate its power and majesty with mere words.We discuss the brilliant Irène Jacob, whose dual performance as Weronika and Veronique communicates an entire world of feeling with her eyes, and we ask if this is perhaps the most beautiful anyone has ever been onscreen. Then, we make meaning of the film's many distinct totems of symbolism - refracted images, melodies, marionettes, and their significance as links not just to the film's two protagonists, but to the imperceptible bond between all people. Finally, we discuss director Kieślowski’s initial plan to release hundreds of slightly different iterations of the film in various theaters across the globe, and how the film's subtle graces are made more meaningful by their potential absence.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Director, co-writer, and star of The People's Joker (one of our favorite films of the year), Vera Drew joins for a discussion of the sexy, taboo-breaking, teen thriller Cruel Intentions. A 90s update of the 18th century Peirre Choderlos de Laclos novel 'Les Liaisons dangereuses' (aka Dangerous Liaisons), the film is a darkly comic and gleefully misanthropic erotic thrill ride featuring a top notch cast of up-comers-comers playing deeply unlikable - but incredibly sexy - people, who are all (in the words of our guest) "acting their asses off."We discuss the sensational young cast, including Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Ryan Phillippe, and an exceptional Sarah Michelle Gellar, and find delights in the "teens play-acting adults" uncanniness of the movie's milieu. Then we revel in the film's preternatural handling on eroticism and desire, finding ways to constantly steam up the screen even while the actors (mostly) keep their clothes on. Finally, we find a through-line from some of Vera's other favorite films to Cruel Intentions, note how the movie defies a "so bad its good" valuation, and illimunate why criticisms of the film's supposed moralism might be reading it wrong. The People's Joker is still in theaters and now available on VOD, Blu-Ray and VHS! Find showtimes near you or purchase your copy today.Follow Vera Drew on Twitter.Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....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.Writer, programmer, and filmmaker Juan Barquin joins to explore the work of M. Night Shyamalan and his breakout feature, The Sixth Sense. Now somehwat underrated in Shyamalan's impressive oeuvre, even and especially by M. Night die-hards, the film is a patient, startling, and deeply human ghost story that also functions as gorgeous melodrama, introducing Shyamalan's career-long pet themes of parenthood, familial reconciliation, the beauty of otherness, and the power of love as a shelter from the terrors of modernity. A critical and commercial hit, The Sixth Sense became the second-highest grossing film of the extremely stacked 1999 box office (behind only Star Wars Episode I), and netted six Oscar nominations including Best Picture.We discuss the career of M Night Shyamalan, its peaks and valleys, and how his vision as an artist often places him at odds with cultural and critical trends. Then, we discuss the phenomenon that was/is The Sixth Sense, and how its power stems from far more than just its (very good) shocking twist ending. Finally, we discuss the filmmaker's singular humanity, and how his films reflect form and function aligning with profoundly personal vision, resulting in truly peerless work.Then, it's time for some TRAP talk, as we give our initial thoughts on Shyamalan's latest film TRAP, now in theaters. We discuss the incredible work of Josh Hartnett as a serial killer evading capture at a pop concert, the gorgeous cinematography from Thai visionary Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, and the film's many narrative surprises (some more effective than others).Follow Juan Barquin on Twitter.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish