Junk Filter

Latest Episodes:

TEASER - 153: Godzilla Minus One (with Ben Clarkson) Dec 20, 2023

Show notes

Access this entire 93 minute episode and additional monthly bonus episodes by becoming a Junk Filter patron! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/153-godzilla-one-95000376

The cartoonist and co-creator of Justice Warriors, Ben Clarkson, joins the pod from Montreal to talk about Godzilla Minus One, the 33rd film in Toho Studios' venerableseries which turns 70 years old next year.

As big budget Hollywood movies underperform and business models collapse, two Japanese films have been surprise hits in North America - Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron and Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One, which reportedly only cost a tenth of the budget of a typical MCU film.

Our discussion casts a critical eye on Godzilla Minus One as symptomatic of larger problems in modern blockbuster filmmaking that not even this film can avoid; wasteful spending, labor conditions for VFX artists, creative accounting, and most crucially a lack of cinematic style and vision in the finished product. Ben offers a critique from the perspective of a creative as well, how camera placement and the concept of “shooting for the edit” as important storytelling techniques seem to be afterthoughts in the modern age.

We also compare Godzilla Minus One to a better recent Japanese Godzilla movie we both love, 2016’s Shin Godzilla, which works both as a kaiju film and a satire about bureaucratic Japan’s failure to handle the 2011 earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Plus Ben and I talk about Justice Warriors and his great trailer for season 4 of the Blowback podcast.

Follow Ben Clarkson on Twitter.

Get your copy of Justice Warriorsby Ben Clarkson & Matt Bors now!

Trailer #2 for Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki, 2023)

Japanese trailer for Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016)

Trailer for Season 4 of the Blowback podcast (Ben Clarkson, 2023)

152: Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (with Jacob Bacharach) Dec 06, 2023

Show notes

The author Jacob Bacharach returns for a show about Ridley Scott’s latest, the 200 million dollar epic Napoleon, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby.

History nerds, YouTube film cranks and the Roman statue bluechecks on Twitter are up in arms about the latest from the Riddler, for straying too far from the real history and most egregiously for hiring their beloved Joker to portray their beloved Emperor of France as a cucked loser. Jacob and I highly enjoyed it as old Hollywood spectacle and as a strange historical comedy about a horny weirdo, hilariously sold to the masses as a badass action film with Black Sabbath in the trailer.

We also compare this Napoleon to previous attempts to depict him in cinema, with special emphasis on 1970’s Waterloo, a spectacular and extremely expensive recreation of that fateful battle starring Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington, literally a co-production between Dino De Laurentiis and the Soviet Union!

It’s fashionable in some circles to complain about Ridley Scott but we discuss some movies of his we like, our hopes for the extended version, and discuss some fun facts about the Napoleonic Era including his horny letters to Josephine and an explanation of the French Revolutionary Calendar.

Plus: Napoelon Musk, finally facing his Waterloo after an assault on advertisers at a New York Times summit.

Follow Jacob Bacharach on Twitter and visit jacobbacharach.com

You can sign up to be notified of when orders can be placed for the third edition of Ursula Lawrence’s French Republican Wall Calendar here.

Over 30% of Junk Filter episodes are exclusive to patrons of the podcast. Some of our notable previous guests include Jared Yates Sexton, David Roth, Bryan Quinby, Sooz Kempner, and Will Sloan. More to come! Sign up at https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Trailer for Waterloo (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1970)

Trailer #2 for Napoleon (Ridley Scott, 2023)

Napoleon meme, popular in France.

151: The Marvels & The Heroic Trio (with Jessica Ritchey) Nov 22, 2023

Show notes

The writer Jessica Ritchey returns to the pod for a show about the continuing collapse of the superhero movie as the dominant American film genre with the latest MCU entry, Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels, which cost $270 million dollars and after 4 release date changes finally opened last week and bombed as hard as a Marvel movie has ever bombed, especially considering it’s the sequel to a movie that made well over a billion dollars in 2019.

We discuss what went wrong with The Marvels and the troubles now plaguing the MCU but we also (perhaps unfairly) compare this film to an excellent cinematic female superhero team up, Johnnie To’s 1993 Hong Kong action extravaganza The Heroic Trio starring Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung.

Become a patron of the podcast to access to exclusive episodes every month. Over 30% of Junk Filter episodes are exclusively available to patrons. To support this show directly please subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Jessica Ritchey on Bluesky, and support her work on Patreon.

Anita Mui performing "Bad Girl", a Cantonese cover of Sheena Easton's "Strut" on the Hong Kong variety show Enjoy Yourself Tonight, 1986

Final trailer for The Marvels (Nia DaCosta, 2023)

Trailer for The Heroic Trio (Johnnie To, 1993)

Trailer for Anita (Longman Leung, 2021)

150: The Exorcist (with Meg Shields) Nov 06, 2023

Show notes

For the 150th episode of the podcast, returning guest Meg Shields joins me from Vancouver for a show about William Friedkin’s legendary horror film The Exorcist, which turns 50 years old this December.

I had always been TOO SCARED to watch the original Exorcist (even though I had seen the first two sequels) so for this podcast, as a farewell tribute to Hurricane Billy who passed away this August, I watched it for the first time. Meg and I discuss this prototypical blockbuster based on the bestselling novel by William Peter Blatty, the first horror movie to be Oscar nominated for Best Picture, and a cultural phenomenon where audiences lined up for hours hoping to buy a ticket for this endurance test, with many reports of horrified walkouts and fainting spells in the lobby at every screening.

We discuss the differences between the original 1973 theatrical version and the “director’s cut” from the year 2000, the criticism of this film in some circles as a reactionary and patriarchal work, Friedkin’s insane conduct on the set (including mistreatment of the actors), the strange connection between The Exorcist and Freidkin’s later film Cruising, and Meg and I wonder what Hurricane Billy would have said about this year’s “legacy sequel” The Exorcist: Believer, which opened two months after his death.

The 2019 documentary Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist is available to stream in North America on Kanopy.

Follow Meg Shields on Twitter.

Original 1973 trailer for The Exorcist that was pulled from release because it was too scary (CW: strobing effects)

William Friedkin making fun of Exorcist II: The Heretic, from 2013

Trailer for Audrey Rose(Robert Wise, 1977)

Trailer for The Manitou (William Girdler, 1978)

Trailer for Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2019)

Mercedes McCambridge rolling a cigarette with one hand in Lightning Strikes Twice (1951)

TEASER - 149: Terence Davies (with Ben Nash and James Slaymaker) Oct 30, 2023

Show notes

Access this entire 83 minute episode and additional monthly bonus episodes by becoming a Junk Filter patron! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. https://www.patreon.com/posts/149-terence-with-91945894

To mark the passing of the great British filmmaker Terence Davies, I’m joined for this episode by two returning guests from the UK who are both big Davies heads, the film writers Ben Nash and James Slaymaker.

Davies was from the working class and only became a filmmaker in his thirties but made up for lost time with a series of semi-autobiographical, poetic works that drew on his troubled upbringing and instantly put him on the map of international cinema. After some underperforming literary adaptations in the nineties Davies had difficulties getting film financing for several years, but in 2008 he returned to acclaim with his expressionistic and personal documentary about the history of Liverpool, Of Time and the City which kicked off his second wind as a filmmaker through the 2010s including The Deep Blue Sea, Sunset Song and his final work, 2022’s biography of the queer anti-war poet and decorated WWI soldier Siegfried Sassoon, Benediction.

We discuss Davies’ singular vision as an film artist, his innovations in using stock footage and music to express his personal vision, his hilarious distaste for the Catholic Church, the Monarchy and the Beatles, and the sad state of film financing in the UK.

Currently Canadian and American listeners can stream Distant Voices, Still Lives and Of Time and the City on Kanopy.

Follow Ben Nash and James Slaymaker on Twitter.

Trailer for Distant Voices, Still Lives(Davies, 1988)

Trailer for The Long Day Closes(Davies, 1992)

Trailer for Of Time and the City(Davies, 2008)

Trailer for Benediction(Davies, 2022)

Trailer for The Long Gray Line(John Ford, 1955)

148: Sam Peckinpah: Junior Bonner (with Brian Abrams) Sep 25, 2023

Show notes

The writer Brian Abrams, author of the new book "You Talkin' to Me?”: The Definitive Guide to Iconic Movie Quotes, joins me from New York City to discuss Sam Peckinpah and his underrated 1972 rodeo drama Junior Bonner starring Steve McQueen and Joe Don Baker.

Right after Peckinpah wrapped on his controversial Straw Dogs in England, he jumped into production on Junior Bonner, a small-stakes character study about an aging rodeo rider (McQueen) who returns to his hometown of Prescott, Arizona to compete for one more victory and to reconnect with his family, including his oafish brother, local real estate developer Curly (Baker) and his estranged parents (Robert Preston and Ida Lupino). It’s also the story of the landscape of the American West giving way to the suburban sprawl and exploitation of the modern world, literally being bulldozed all around the Bonner family. As Junior’s rodeo star father Ace asks: “If this world’s all about winners, what’s for the losers?”

Dismissed in its day, and somewhat of an outlier in Peckinpah’s run of action films in the 1970s, time has been kind to Junior Bonner, which can be appreciated now as a Hangout Movie, three days in the life of an aging rodeo star and a fading way of life, vividly brought to life by Peckinpah and his cast.

Plus we discuss Brian’s new book, which looks into the origins of hundreds of classic movie lines across American film history, how some lines have entered the lexicon and live on in the culture, and the movie quotes we each have rolling around in our heads.

Become a patron of the podcast to access to exclusive episodes every month, including our continuing Miami Vice sidebar series. Over 30% of Junk Filter episodes are exclusively available to patrons. To support this show directly please subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Brian Abrams on Twitter.

Brian’s book "You Talkin' to Me?”: The Definitive Guide to Iconic Movie Quotes is now available.

Trailer for Junior Bonner (Sam Peckinpah, 1972)

Music video for “Too Late For Goodbyes”, Julian Lennon (directed by Sam Peckinpah, 1984)

TEASER - 147: Miami Vice: GTA Vice City and John Woo (with Toph) Sep 04, 2023

Show notes

Access this entire 80 minute episode (and additional monthly bonus episodes, including the entire Miami Vice sidebar series) by becoming a Junk Filter patron! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. https://www.patreon.com/posts/147-miami-vice-88727844

For the eighth episode in our Miami Vice series, Twitchstreamer and friend of the show Toph returns from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to discuss the international influence Vice had on gaming, manga and Hong Kong action cinema.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City uses the DNA of Miami Vice to offer a complex satire of American society and culture within the gameplay, one of several games that took cues from the show, including the officially licensed (but inferior) Miami Vice for the PS2 in 2004.

We discuss two episodes from season one of the series that feel like Vice City game missions, and explore the clear influence Miami Vice had on Asian pop culture, in particular the films of John Woo during his hot streak in Hong Kong through the 80s; the signs of Vice are everywhere, especially in A Better Tomorrow II (1987), disowned by the director after studio interference, but like The Prodigal Son, it was also partly filmed on location in New York City and it climaxes in a Bushido-esque orgy of heroic bloodshed and Dudes Rock energy.

Episodes discussed on the show:

The Great McCarthy - Season 1, Ep 8

The Maze - Season 1, Ep 18

Here’s where you can find Toph on social media

Twitter: https://twitter.com/real91toph

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@91toph

Twitch: http://twitch.tv/91toph

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@tophscinematheque…

Toph’s Oppenheimervideo

Trailer for the PS2 Miami Vice game, 2004

Music video for “Self Control”, Laura Branigan (directed by William Friedkin, 1984)

Cover band version of “Self Control” from The Great McCarthy.

International trailer for A Better Tomorrow II(Woo, 1987)

TEASER - 146: Miami Vice: Attack of the Clones (with Jessica Ritchey) Aug 28, 2023

Show notes

Access this entire 90 minute episode (and additional monthly bonus episodes, including the entire Miami Vice sidebar series) by becoming a Junk Filter patron! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. https://www.patreon.com/posts/146-miami-vice-88370980⁠

Success breeds imitators, and on this seventh instalment of the pod’s Miami Vice series, the writer Jessica Ritchey returns to discuss the cultural peak of the series at the start of Season 2 and some now-forgotten Vice clones that were quickly put into production by the competition to try and cash in on this trend. We discuss the two ripoffs of Miami Vice served up by ABC in the 1985 fall season, Hollywood Beat and The Insiders, as well as NBC’s own Vice clone, Stingray, produced by Stephen J. Cannell, which lasted 2 seasons.

While all this was happening Miami Vice was at the top of its game, with high ratings, Emmy wins, and a soundtrack album that was #1 on Billboard for 11 weeks. The Season 2 premiere, The Prodigal Son, was a 2 hour epic with 14 pop songs and a full roster of guest stars including Gene Simmons, Pam Grier and Penn Jillette. Crockett and Tubbs travel to Colombia and New York City in pursuit of a cocaine cartel and discover the hard way that powerful interests beyond their reach are determined to perpetuate the drug war forever.

We also discuss how even a flawed episode of the series at its peak could still be appointment television with Season 2’s French Twist, where the Vice Squad has to work with a French INTERPOL agent to catch a Montreal criminal in Miami who has stolen a drug shipment and is targeting witnesses. This one features one of Jan Hammer’s most gorgeous scores for the series, and improbably a brief appearance by Leonard Cohen as the French crimelord Francois Zolan.

Episodes discussed on the show:

The Prodigal Son - Season 2, Ep 1 & 2

French Twist - Season 2, Ep 18

Follow Jessica Ritchey on Twitter, and support her work on Patreon.

Jessica’s YouTube mixtape “Miami Vice-A-Rama”

Opening titles for Hollywood Beat(ABC, 1985)

Opening titles for The Insiders(ABC, 1985)

Opening titles for Stingray (NBC, 1985)

Music video for “Tubbs and Valerie”, Jan Hammer, 1987

145: Papa Loach (with James Slaymaker) Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

The writer James Slaymaker, author of Time is Luck: The Cinema of Michael Mann, returns to the pod from Southampton for a discussion of selected works from the veteran British filmmaker Ken Loach, who at age 87 is about to release what is said to be his final feature, The Old Oak.

Ken Loach’s 1969 feature Kes is a staple of the British school curriculum to this day and his 2016 film I, Daniel Blake won the Palme d’or at Cannes and was a big hit in the UK. We discuss the role Loach recently played in British politics, first allied with the Labour Party under the left-wing leadership of Jeremy Cornyn and then ousted from Labour in the ideological purge of the Keir Starmer era.

We discuss three of his features on this episode: the controversial 1990 political thriller Hidden Agenda withBrian Cox and Frances McDormand, 2019’s gig economy drama Sorry We Missed You, anda lesser-seen Loach film from 2001, The Navigators. These works offer a critique from the left of several decades of austerity policies in the UK, the horrors of privatization and the overall exploitation of workers by management.

Plus: RIP William Friedkin.

Become a patron of the podcast to access to exclusive episodes every month, including this summer's entire Miami Vice sidebar series. Over 30% of Junk Filter episodes are exclusively available to patrons. To support this show directly please subscribe at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow James Slaymaker on Twitter.

James’ book Time is Luck: The Cinema of Michael Mann, is now available in paperback and Kindle.

Hidden Agenda is currently available to watch on Tubi. Sorry We Missed You is streaming on Kanopy (if you have a library card). And The Navigators is currently available to watch on YouTube.

McDonald’s UK advert directed by Ken Loach, 1991

Trailer for Hidden Agenda (Loach, 1990)

Trailer for The Navigators (Loach, 2001)

Trailer for Sorry We Missed You (Loach, 2019)

“Ken Loach’s Agenda Is to Rile the British Establishment” by David Gritten, for the Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1991

“Democracy is Dead in Keir Starmer’s Labour” by Ken Loach, for The Guardian, September 28, 2021

144: Big Love for Pee-wee (with Karen Geier) Aug 14, 2023

Show notes

The writer and content strategist Karen Geier returns to the pod to say farewell to Paul Reubens and his iconic Pee-wee Herman character.

Reubens created the Pee-wee character in the mid 1970s as part of the LA improv troupe The Groundlings, in a cohort that included Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks. A failed attempt to join the cast of SNL in 1980 doubled his resolve to be successful; he took his Pee-wee Herman show from cult status on stage to a smash-hit movie for Warner Bros. (the feature debut of director Tim Burton) and then to Saturday morning network tv with his innovative kids show Pee-wee’s Playhouse which ran for 5 years on CBS.

We talk about two of Karen’s three favourite movies of all time (1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and 2016’s Pee-wee’s Big Holiday), discuss the Pee-wee character as a queer icon, pop culture innovator and comedy god, lament the destruction of his success in 1991 with his notorious arrest at a porn theatre in Florida (from the days when so-called ‘Cancel Culture’ could actually cancel careers) and his hard-won third act with the return of Pee-wee to public life as Reubens fought a private battle.

Follow Karen Geier on Twitter.

Trailer for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985)

Pee-wee's Playhouse Season 1 opening and closing credits, 1986

Pee-wee finally makes it to the basement of the Alamo, 2011

Trailer for Pee-wee’s Big Holiday (John Lee, 2016)

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected