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.Filmmaker, writer, and dude with an insanely high midi-chlorian count Neil Bahadur joins to discuss George Lucas's return to the Star Wars saga with the prequel trilogy kickoff 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace'. Met with ambivalence by most, genuine revulsion by others upon its initial release in the summer of 1999, the film (and the prequel trilogy more broadly) have seen a continued reappraisal, especially in the era of so many soulless Disney-era Star Wars productions. The Phantom Menace is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary with a recent limited re-release on IMAX screens. On this episode, we make a case for the film not just as comparatively good, but a genuinely excellent entry in the Star Wars canon.We discuss the film's place within the the decade-spanning saga as well as its position within the film landscape of the era - how it pushed the boundaries of digital effects integration, and signaled (in non-alarmist terms) an evolving style of blockbuster filmmaking. Then, we talk about the film's narrative highs and lows, and share our thoughts on the critical points of 25 years of criticism: Midi-chlorians, Jar Jar Binks, Jake Lloyd, Watto and more. Finally, we praise the film's many incredible formal qualities - its relationship to Lucas's early student films visual experiements, The Phantom Menace's debt to classic cinema greats like Kurosawa and Douglas Sirk, and the brilliance of the film's multi-phase finale, cross-cutting between four different theaters of action seamlessly.Follow Neil Bahadur on Twitter and LetterboxdWatch 'The Beginning: Making Start Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace'Watch '1:42:08 To Qualify', George Lucas's 1966 short film....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Writer, critic, and Hit Factory Discord all-star Jason Miller returns to the show to discuss Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan's 'Center Stage', an experimental biopic exploring the life and work of Chinese silent film star Ruan Lingyu who achieved an unprecedented celebrity before tragically taking her own life at only 24. Ruan is played magnificently by Maggie Cheung in one of her first "serious" (and arguably one of her very best) performances. The film brilliantly forgoes a traditional biopic structure, intercutting the filmic recreations with real footage of Ruan's handful of enduring film performances. From there, the film offers an additional layer of complexity by frequently inserting black & white interstitials of director Stanley Kwan and Maggie Cheung (as herself) discussing the life of Ruan Lingyu and the production of the film. As the film goes on, these distinct layers begin to fracture and smear, both emphasizing the unreality of the recreations and eliciting a deeper sense of truth to the real Ruan Lingyu that the film understands it can never fully capture. We discuss the way Kwan navigates his experimental form through the lens of classic melodrama (taking influence from the likes of Douglas Sirk) in order to create something that invites even as it antoginizes and provokes. Then, we consider the real Ruan Lingyu and some of her most well-known works (including 'The Goddess' directed by Wu Yonggang) and how the open construction of 'Center Stage' invites us to pursue further understanding rather than attempt to act as the final word on Ruan. Finally, we look at the state of the modern biopic and the furstrating lack on ingenuity and experiementation when approaching the titanic lives that these films consider. Follow Jason Miller on Twitter and everywhere else. Watch Wu Yonggang's 'The Goddess' starring Ruan Lingyu on YouTube.Watch Cai Chusheng's 'New Women' starring Ruan Lingyu on YouTube.Watch Maggie Cheung on her acting style alongside fellow Hong Kong actor Phillip Chan.Read Jonathan Rosenbaum on 'Center Stage'.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, comedian, and Lydia Tár's former publicist Daniella Mazzio joins to discuss Gus Van Sant's sharp, pitch-black satire of media, true crime, and a patently American brand of late 20th Century celebrity, 'To Die For'. The film is based on the Joyce Maynard novel of the same name, itself inspired by the true life trial of Pamela Smart, who seduced a teenage boy and coerced him and a friend to murder Smart's husband. The film features an excellent ensemble cast, including Joaquin Phoenix, Matt Dillon, Illeana Douglas, and a career-best Nicole Kidman. We discuss 'To Die For' as a nexus of many careers at compelling inflection points: Nicole Kidman breaking into leading woman roles while married to Tom Cruise, Gus Van Sant on the eve of his career skyrocketing to new heights with the success of the following year's 'Good Will Hunting', and the chance casting of Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix who would later become in-laws and artistic collaborators. Then, we examine the brilliant, kaleidoscopic script by 'The Graduate' screenwriter Buck Henry and how the film's patchwork construction foregrounds it thematically rich details. Finally, we discuss the real life inspiration for the film as well as the way the movie's indictment of the American media landscape anticipated elements of the OJ Simpson trial, which was playing out during the film's production and concluded just days before its release. (Editor's Note: This episode was recorded before OJ Simpson's death on April 10th, 2024 at the age of 76).Follow Daniella Mazzio on Twitter. Read Daniella's Substack, 'Room Tone'.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. 

In honor of its upcoming 25th anniversary (as well as a chance meeting between the director and guest Matt Belenky), we're unlocking our episode on Spike Lee's 'Summer of Sam'. Here's what we had to say about this monumental work back in the summer of 2022: Writer Matt Belenky joins us from New York in the midst of a heat wave to discuss Spike Lee's 'Summer of Sam', an exuberant survey of Outer Boroughs New York in the late 1970s as well as a chilling study of working class anxiety, paranoia, and scapegoating of the Other.We discuss the many controversies surrounding the film's release (a common through line with Lee's films), the impeccable performances of the oft-undersung leads - including career-best work from John Leguizamo and Mira Sorvino, and the textured analysis of a politically tumultuos era that bears more than a few similarities to the Summer of 1999 in which the film was released. Follow Matt Belenky 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 and critic Eamon Tracy joins to discuss the brilliant James Gray and his debut feature 'Little Odessa' starring Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, and Vanessa Redgrave. Made when Gray was just 23 years old, it's a semi-autobiographical story that merges a character study of an estranged Russian-Jewish family with elements of the crime genre to arrive at something that pulls from the films of Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet and Luchino Visconti in equal measure.We begin by discussing the career of James Gray, his undersung filmography, and his reputation as a notoriously great interview subject. Then we explore the world of 'Little Odessa', its melodramatic flourishes, stunning camerawork, and deliberate tone and pacing. Finally, we look forward to what might be next for Gray as a filmmaker, having last released the film 'Armageddon Time' which functions as a compelling bookend to the director's three decades in filmmaking.Read Eamon's recent piece on 'The Battle of Algiers' and its relation to Palestinian resistance for The Hampton InstituteFollow Eamon Tracy on Twitter....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Leeds-based film journalist and podcaster Amber T. (@hornbloodfire) joins for a double feature discussion of bad vibes connoisseur Kiyoshi Kurosawa's V-Cinema revenge thrillers 'Serpent's Path' and 'Eyes of the Spider'. Written in collaboration with 'Ringu' screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi and directed back-to-back within an incredibly short production period of mere weeks, the films sidestep Kurosawa's customary supernatural impulses seen in hits like 'Cure' and 'Pulse' in favor of stripped-down genre thrills that keep the director's oppressive modern landscapes and bleak explorations of societal alienation intact. We begin by discussing the origins of the two films as well as Kurosawa's history with V-Cinema productions, a direct-to-video market in Japan that carries few of the pejorative connotations associated with DTV films produced in western markets. Then, we unpack each of the films' takes on the revenge thriller - 'Serpent's Path' explores the ugly spiral of dehumanization that occurs as conviction gives way to the reality of doling out violence and asks if there is any justice to be found at the end of vindictive pursuit. On the other hand, 'Eyes of the Spider' explores the aftermath of revenge and the hollowness of life once the fleeting satisfaction of vengeance has been achieved. Finally, we look forward to this year, where Kurosawa is preparing a French-language remake of 'Serpent's Path', with a likely debut at the Festival de Cannes.Follow Amber T. 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.Political reporter David Weigel joins to discuss the work of director Hal Hartley and his 1997 feature, 'Henry Fool'. The film, written and directed by one of the great undersung auteurs of American indie cinema during its heyday, blends a sense of sweeping literary scope with the understatedness of an indie comedy to tell a story about creativity, imperfect people, and the commercial forces that antagonize true outsider artistry. Henry Fool would become the first in a trilogy of films by Hartley, continuing with the 2006 riff on espionage thrillers, 'Fay Grim' and concluding in 2014 with the final installment 'Ned Rifle'.We begin with an examination of Hal Hartley, the unique alchemy of his work, and his debt to the films and filmmakers of the French New Wave. Then, we discuss 'Henry Fool' as a singular work of daring, frequently flying in the face of good taste, probing its audience's sense of morality, and asking us to find connection with a host of broken individuals who don't act in accordance with our own judgements. Finally, we look into the future and discuss Hartley's most recent (successful) attempts to get a new film off the ground and how a 2020's audience might receive a filmmaker who has always bucked commercial trends and swings for populist appeal.Follow David Weigel on Twitter.Subscribe to Semafor Newsletters....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

Writer and podcaster Jake Tropila returns for a dive into the dusty, hard-nosed pleasures of John Dahl's 1993 neo-noir western 'Red Rock West'. The film has been newly restored and released on blu-ray in a great edition courtesy of Cinématographe, a new sub-label from the folks behind Vinegar Syndrome. We start with a discussion of the career of John Dahl, an underrated director with a sharp style that made him a prime helmer of small, smart thrillers of the era alongside his skilled conteporaries like Bill Duke and Carl Franklin. Then we turn to Red Rock West, its influences, and where it exists downstream from the success of the Coen Brothers' 'Blood Simple', a film that bolstered a neo-noir resurgence in the late 80s and early 90s. Finally, we discuss the relative absence of the neo-noir in the modern cinematic landscape, the migration of these sorts of stories into longform, episodic television, and some hopes for the genre's future, courtesy of some recent releases like the latest Rose Glass film 'Love Lies Bleeding', a film that had yet to be released when this episode was recorded. Follow Jake Tropila on Twitter. Listen to and support Optimism Vaccine. 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 and Senior Vice President at The Black List Kate Hagen joins to discuss Nancy Savoca's 'Household Saints', a generational tale of Italian women in New York and the shifting influences of faith, divinity, and family in their day to day lives. Long unavailable and thought lost to time, an original print of the film was discovered by the filmmakers and has received a new 4k restoration courtesy of Milestone Films. The restoration is screening theatrically all across the country and a proper blu ray release of the film is headed to Kino Lorber in April.We discuss the work of Nancy Savoca, her recent string of restorations, and the position she occupies in the broader conversation about independent film of the 1990s. Then, we examine the film's brilliantly nuanced take on Catholicism and faith - how it manifests in the lives of its central characters, and how the film maintains a compelling balance of fascination and skepticism for the notion of divinity. Finally, we discuss the movie as a triumphant story of what can happen when film preservation wins out, and why there is even more work to be done on the front of preservation now and in the future. Follow Kate Hagen on Twitter.Read up on the how-to's of film preservation at Missing Movies.Watch Roger Ebert on Household Saints. 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.Unofficial Hit Factory Sci-Fi Correspondent Aaron Thorpe is back to discuss the time traveling eccentricities of Terry Gilliam's '12 Monkeys' - a sort of quasi-remake of Chris Marker's 'La Jatée' (1963) featuring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, and Brad PittWe unpack the career of Terry Gilliam, why he was seen as a studio liability in the early 90s, and how this film represents the very peak of his critical and commercial successes. Then we discuss the film's take on the messy narrative contrivance of time-travel, how it attends to its bleak vision of a futureless future, and how some modern time travel narratives help reveal a sliver of hope in the film's tragic determinism. Watch "George Carlin on The Environment".Follow Aaron Thorpe on Twitter.Listen & Subscribe to The Trillbilly Workers Party.Listen & Subscribe to Struggle Session. ....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.