90s thrillers

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Aaron is joined by Jordan Fish and Ray Tintori of the preeminent Coen Bros. podcast, To The White Sea, to discuss the chilly, snow-capped neo-noir 'A Simple Plan', directed with uncharacteristic restraint by master stylist and Coen Brothers collaborator Sam Raimi.

We discuss the career of Sam Raimi and the techniques he employs here to generate the unsettling, stern tone of the film. Then, we talk about the long gestation period of the project, and its many iterations attached to various directors (including Mike Nichols, John Dahl, and Ben Stiller!). Finally, we unpack the similarities and differences between Raimi's vision of the snowbound, Midwestern morality tale and that of his pals Joel & Ethan Coen in their 1996 landmark 'Fargo'.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

Chicago-based academic and horror obsessive Peter Raleigh joins to discuss reliable journeyman director Peter Hyams and his 1997 creature feature, 'The Relic'. Maligned critically and a failure at the box office upon its initial release, the film has endured as an example of the tactile, sturdy genre work of the 90s with capable hands on both sides of the camera, including brilliant creature designs from legendary special effects guru Stan Winston.

We discuss the film's impressive balancing act, managing to glide over a host ludicrous genre tropes and plot holes with ease while maintining a keen pacing and immersion. Then, we praise the excellent directorial work of Hyams, who serves here as his own cinematographer and generates a mesmerizing, impressionistic array of horror imagery in stark, dimly lit spaces galore. Finally, we discuss the delights of the monster movie, its flattening of distinctions among people that make for compelling survival thrills, and why the sensibilities of the decade were uniquely attuned to the subgenre.

Watch the 35mm trailer for The Relic.

Follow Peter Raleigh on Twitter

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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.

Another solo episode this week as we discuss Michael Mann's thriller 'The Insider', based on the true story of whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and his explosive 1996 interview with 60 Minutes that exposed secrets about the tobacco industry and their complicity in manipulating their product with known carcinogens to increase the addictive effect of nicotine. The film is at once the story of the the tremendous power of corporate entities to take down those who seek to share the truth with the American public and an expressionist masterpiece that showcases some of Mann's most disciplined and mature directorial work. 

We discuss the film's seismic lead performances from dual leads Al Pacino and a career-best Russell Crowe. Then, we praise the Michael Mann & Eric Roth script, and its critical portrayal of its subjects, avoiding lionization. Finally, we discuss the story's terrible prescience, and how the film's shock at corporate media interests overruling the efforts of journalists can sometimes feel quaint by today's standards. 

Read Marie Brenner's profile of Jeffrey Wigand "The Man Who Knew Too Much" in Vanity Fair. 

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish 

New York-based film writer Jason Miller joins to discuss the strange, beautiful cinematic worlds of the unsung Alan Rudolph and his 1992 film 'Equinox' starring Matthew Modine as identical twin brothers separated at birth.

We begin with a discussion of Rudolph's career, beginning as an assistant director to the great Robert Altman before branching out and producing some of the most compellingly idiosyncratic films of the 1980s (as well as his feature 'Remember My Name' from 1978, arguably his greatest work).  Then we turn our sights to 'Equinox' and talk about the film's distinctive rhythms and characters as well as the ways Rudolph imbues his fantasy world with a potent naturalism and sense of place. Finally, we discuss the injustice of Rudolph's relative obscurity within cinephile circles, and why the filmmaker's entire body of work is due for a necessary and urgent reappraisal.

We're committed to getting 'Equinox' in front of as many eyes as possible! Email us at hitfactorypod@gmail.com for more info.

Follow Jason on Twitter and check out links to his work here.

Read Dan Sallit's teriffic monograph on Alan Rudolph here.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

0:00 - Intro & Summary

2:00 - Movie Discussion

44:07 - Cast & Crew/Awards

48:08 - Pop Culture 

53:21 -  Rankings & Ratings

To see a full list of movies we will be watching and shows notes, please follow our website: https://www.1991movierewind.com/

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https://linktr.ee/1991movierewind

Theme: "sunrise-cardio," Jeremy Dinegan (via Storyblocks)

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It's Hit Factory's third birthday, and you're invited to celebrate along with us! Join us as we count down our baker's Top Ten films from past episodes.

Links To Episodes Mentioned Here:

The Blair With Project

Ravenous feat. Matt Monagle

Lost Highway feat. Jonah Koslofsky

Safe feat. Catherine Liu

The Bridges of Madison County feat. Comrade Yui

Close-Up feat. Roxana Hadadi

The Game feat. Bilge Ebiri

Slacker feat. Robert Raymond

The Limey feat. Matt Belenky

Irma Vep feat. Brandon Streussnig

Cronos

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Journalist at KQED San Francisco Carly Severn joins us to discuss the 1997 thriller THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE. It's a film that is equal parts Faustian parable and John Grisham legal kitsch and features a scene-chewing Al Pacino as the titular prince of darkness.

We praise the film's singular cast (including the aforementioned Pacino, Keanu Reeves in 90s accent mode, and an extremely commited Charlize Theron), relate the film's fixations on good and evil to some other stalwart film properties of the decade, and unpack why the late 90s was a period uniquely positioned from a prime reappraisal of America's spiritual condition.

Follow Carly Severn on Twitter.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Film critic Bilge Ebiri (Vulture, New York Magazine) joins us to discuss David Fincher's oft-diminished 1997 thriller, 'The Game'. It's a fascinating, intricate follow-up to the hit 'Se7en' that showcases Fincher at his most technically adept and stepping outside of his thematic comfort zone for the first time.

We discuss the star power of Michael Douglas and why he is the perfect match for the movie's stark vision of trial and catharsis, uncover the film's prophetic vision of the inescapable and constantly-surveiling eye of big tech, and tease out the myriad pleasures of its controversial "happy" ending - a rarity in Fincher's ouevre.

Follow Bilge Ebiri on Twitter.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

Los Angeles-based literary manager and producer Jarrod Murray joins the crew of the USS Hit Factory to discuss 'Under Siege', the 1992 action thriller starring Steven Seagal.

We discuss the exemplary direction of journeyman Andrew Davis who would go on a year later to make his opus, 'The Fugitive', praise the transcendent performance of Tommy Lee Jones as the madcap leader of a group of nuclear terrorists, and return to one of our favorite preoccupations: the meteoric rise (and astonishing fall) of Steven Seagal, movie star.

Finally, we mourn the loss of a bygone staple of Hollywood: Cool Boat Cinema™, and contemplate who might be able to take up the mantle and revive the genre in 2023.

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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

David Parsons from Nostalgia Trap Podcast joins us for a deep dive int Oliver Stone's maximalist 1994 thriller 'Natural Born Killers' starring Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis. We discuss the movie's complicated and controversial legacy, how it (sometimes) trancsends its cartoonish pastiche to paint a portrait of American violence and media sensationalism, and how it fits into a broader conversation about problematic and difficult art that is still resonant today.

Listen to Nostalgia Trap and follow the show on Twitter.

Follow David Parsons on Twitter.

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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.

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 discuss the 1993 box office sensation 'The Fugitive' a meticulously detailed and expertly crafted thriller without an ounce of fat on it. Topics include the film's unusual and effective narrative structure, the bravura performances by the film's two leads, Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, and the anxieties at the heart of man-on-the-run thrillers.

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.

No new episode this week, so enjoy this unlocked Patreon epsiode...

We explore a fascinating critical and commercial dud from the great William Friedkin: 1995's erotic thriller 'Jade'. Topics include the pitch perfect performance from Linda Fiorentino, the film's brilliant "bare essentials" approach to its genres, and its thematic relationship to a classic of the 70s neo-noir canon. We also talk some recent critical misreads of onscreen eroticism and explore a new paradigm of cultural myopia we like to call "The Smoothening".

Read "The Sex Scene is Dead. Long Live the Sex Scene" from The New Yorker.

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.
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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.

Writer and podcaster Aaron Thorpe joins us (for once) firmly in the 21st century to discuss the 'The Matrix Resurrections', the divisive latest entry in the franchise. We examine director Lana Wachowski's incisive commentary on the commodification of revolutionary ideas, her vision of a less overt- but more insidiously oppressive- system of control, and the ways in which the film challenges the neoliberal hegemony of modern blockbusters through its subversive modes of storytelling.

Follow Aaron Thorpe on Twitter.

Read Aaron's piece "What May Have Been: Retroism, Nostalgia, & Futurelessness" at his Substack Space+Light

Listen & subscribe to Trillbilly Worker's Party and support the podcast on Patreon.

Consider becoming a Hit Factory Patron to get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

Kurt & Chris from Parents Just Don't Understand return to discuss the lean, mean and underseen 1997 thriller 'Breakdown' starring Kurt Russell, Kathleen Quinlan, and indelible character actor J.T. Walsh. We discuss the simple pleasures of discovering a great movie while watching cable TV, the film's economical mastery of multiple subgenres, and the 90s resurgence of hicksploitation cinema as managerial class gratification.

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Follow Blood Knife Magazine on twitter and support the show on Patreon.

For the month of December, we will be donating all of our Patreon funds to the donorbox project to Protect Pasadena Tenants. The more cities we win rent control in, the easier it is to combat bad-faith arguments about the chaos it will supposedly cause. This is an important campaign to win rent control in Pasadena for renters and housing activists everywhere, particularly as rents are being raised going into the holidays. Consider becoming a Hit Factory Patron to support the cause and get access to exclusive bi-weekly episodes and bonus content.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

We're joined by film writer and filmmaker Jonah Koslofsky to go long on the 1997 neo-noir mindbender Lost Highway, a turning point in the career of David Lynch which would lay the stylistic groundwork that would come to define his output through the next 20+ years. We discuss the filmmaker's singular (and unexpectedly humanist) aesthetic, the futile endeavor of talking about David Lynch literally, and how the director's ideological influences propagate art that antagonizes the thresholds of the neoliberal imaginary.

Follow Jonah Koslofsky on Twitter

Read Jonah's Philip Seymour Hoffman column 'P.S.H. I Love You' at The Spool

Read Nick Pinkerton's 'Lost Highway' piece "Switchback" on Substack (Subscriber read only)
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.