Slow Motion Triple Feature

31) Actor/Directors PT I - Night of the Hunter (1955)

We discuss Charles Laughton’s only directorial credit, an undeniable masterpiece that flopped at the box office when it debuted in 1955. Comic book movies hadn’t been invented yet, so I don’t know what the supposed Greatest Generation’s excuse could have been. Kit recorded this episode in the midst of a bout with coronavirus, proving her dedication to podcasting about film no matter how disgusting she sounds.

30) Mike's Delightful DePalma Triple Feature PT III - Snake Eyes (1998)

Alternate title: Blow Out for Eyes. Hey, that’s fine. More movies should be Blow Out. Trigger warning: Mike argues controversially that this movie is actually about America. As a patriot, I disagree with what he says. As a cinephile, I will lay down my life to protect his right to say it.

29) Mike's Delightful DePalma Triple Feature PT II - Blow Out (1981)

In spite of being a nearly perfect film (number 18 on the American Friend Institute’s top 100) and featuring a career-best performance from John Travolta, this movie bombed. Imagine you were as good at your job as Travolta is at acting in this movie and instead of a promotion you got exiled so hard only Tarantino could bring you back. No wonder he hasn’t come out of the closet, John Travolta doesn’t owe us shit. Well, we see you, Travolta. We see you, De Palma. We see you and we love you. (Listen closely and you can hear the telltale fap fap of a cinephilic circle jerk.)

28) Mike's Delightful DePalma Triple Feature PT I - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Before Jim Steinman let the bat out of hell, back when all anyone thought to make was music of the day, there was a little flop called Phantom of the Paradise that went on to inspire everyone from Daft Punk to Del Toro. Step aside, Rocky Horror, there's a new techno-horror-glam-rock-musical in town!

SNYDER CUT: Journey's End - Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

In the span of a generation there are but a handful of events earth-shattering enough to change all of us at once. The fall of the Berlin Wall. The twin towers falling. A third thing that’s not something falling. No reasonable person can doubt that the release of the Snydercut marks one such harrowing hour (or four). Like Prometheus before him, Zach Snyder, the wily trickster, has stolen fire (the Snydercut) from the selfish gods (Warner Bros.) to bring mankind (us) into a new Age of Enlightenment. The Snydercut is the white-hot forge, its director the gleaming hammer—will you endure the cleansing flames and assume your new form? Or will you burn before the light of glory and be reduced to ash along with the sins of your fathers?

SNYDER CUT: The Journey Continues - Justice League (2017)

This week we continue our in-depth coverage of the Snyder Cut with a discussion of the little movie that launched a movement. Here's a tease for you: one of us kind of loves this film. Is it Andrew, The Optimist? Mike, The Contrarian? Or Kit, The One Who Would Let Henry Cavill Do Whatever He Wants to Her, Literally Anything?

SNYDER CUT: The Journey Begins - Batman v. Superman Dawn of Justice: Ultimate Edition (2016)

Beware the ides of March, or thereabouts! The Snyder Cut cometh, and we're marking the end of cinema as we know it with the movie-watching equivalent of the Barkley Marathons. Up first it's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the three-hour Ultimate Edition. As for the three-hour Ultimate Edition of this podcast, is it real? Does it exist? Of course it does. You think Kit took eight pages of notes about this movie and then didn't recite every last banal word? Ball's in your court, Andrew. #ReleaseTheKitCut

27) Reign of the Supermen Pt. III - Man of Steel (2013)

Kit here again. I’ve never had a real dark night of the soul. I’ve never done ayahuasca. I’ve never danced with the devil in the pale moonlight. But I’ve seen Man of Steel. I have been lost in its labyrinth of inanity. I have let it tear my psyche down to the studs. I have bought its counterfeit screenplay on eBay. If kryptonite was a movie, it would be Man of Steel. And yet I am better for having seen it. A man can’t know who she really is until she’s lost everything. Man of Steel took away all I’ve ever known, but in that hollow shell of my former self a tiny hermit crab has made a home. And that hermit crab’s name is purpose. Now I know what I am meant to do, what I must do. Tell my father I love him. Tell my mother I’m sorry. 

26) Reign of the Supermen Pt. II - Superman Returns (2006)

Kevin Spacey and Bryan Singer walk onto a yacht. No, it’s not a New York Post headline from 2018, it’s Superman Returns! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…two alleged pedophiles! But seriously, folks, this movie is not good, and yet Andrew has seen it ten times, Mike would still rather watch it than Avengers: Checkmate or whatever the hell it’s called, and, much like Bryan Singer and a vulnerable child, Kit can get behind a Superman movie where Superman doesn’t really fly or save anybody or do anything except have domestic drama with Lois Lane.

25) Reign of the Supermen Pt. I - Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)

Kit here. Guys, it’s triples like this that get me out of bed in the morning. The year of our Lord 2020 will go down in history for many things, many terrible things. But to me it will always be the year I broke my brain watching three different Supermen. To paraphrase Tolstoy, all Marvel movies are alike, but every Superman movie fucks up Superman in its own way. Fasten your weird, yellow panty belts because this one is going to break the sound barrier.