Cinema Oblivia

Episode 24: Viva Knievel!

Leslie Nielsen tries to murder Evel Knievel so he can use his corpse to smuggle dope. Gene Kelly tries to help Knievel, but he's held hostage by Dabney Coleman. Lauren Hutton wants to take a photo of Evel breaking his neck, but is also in love with him so she feels bad about it. There's also a kid with a mop top. And orphans.
Viva Knievel! is a weird movie. Elliot Long joins me to try and make sense of it. I don't know if we succeed.

Episode 23: Ghost World

Ghost World isn't a movie about ghosts, it's a movie about teenage isolation, misanthropy and self-hate, which are actually way scarier than anything supernatural.
The totally awesome Maddie Copp and I talk about this early-2000s classic of malaise, go over what we think the film is trying to say, and hypothesize about where its protagonists would be in the year 2021.

Episode 22: The Legend of the Stardust Brothers

Ever wonder what would happen if a Japanese filmmaker decided to make their own tribute to Brian De Palma's Phantom Of The Paradise, while throwing in a bit of The Who's Tommy and possibly a slice of the Faustian disco musical, The Apple?
Well, wonder no more, because that's exactly what happened with The Legend of the Stardust Brothers, a magical lost Japanese film from the 80s. I'm joined by Third Window Film's Adam Torel to talk about why he decided to re-release the film, and what it has to say about Japanese media, when it's not being totally crazy.

Episode 21: Ravenous

You are what you eat, and today Sonya Ballantyne and I are eating the late-90s cannibal western megabomb, Ravenous. Well, we're not so much eating it as discussing its troubled production, portrayal of First Nations people, and what the hell metaphor they're trying to go for in this flawed, but interesting, flick.

Episode 20: Full Contact

When people talk about Hong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s, John Woo and Jackie Chan are usually at the forefront of the conversation, but Ringo Lam also released some amazing films during that time.
For example, Full Contact, the dark, grimy and crazy 1992 classic that serves as an evil twin to the glossy and sleek Hard Boiled. Henry Gilbert from Talking Simpsons stops by to talk about this unjustly forgotten bloody masterpiece.

Episode 19: Gymkata

T.L. Foster wanted to talk about Gymkata, so today we are talking about Gymkata! Legendary for being "so bad it's good" but is it really just bad? The Kurt Thomas gymnastic vanity project gets all the discussion is deserves, and then some!

Episode 18: An Episode About My Dad

My dad passed away a few weeks ago.
My love of movies, and this podcast, would not exist without him, so I wanted to take some time to talk about him, the movies he loved, and all the ways he was a really awesome dad.
I miss ya, guy.

Episode 17: The Driver

Walter Hill's 1978 existential, minimalist masterpiece about a getaway driver trying to outsmart not only the cops, but the crooks who want him dead, was a bomb when it first came out. But in the years since it's rightfully earned its place as a cult classic. Writer and hardcore film geek Brian Ashcraft joins to talk about this under-appreciated gem.

Episode 16: Natural Born Killers

I am very happy to be joined by Kyle Shutt from the band The Sword and the podcast The High Way to talk about Natural Born Killers, a film that could have only been made the year it came out and no other year. Is it super dated? For sure, but does it hold up? Find out!

Episode 15: Perfect and Killer Workout

Put on your leg warmers! Matt Kucick joins me to talk about two films that tried to cash in on the 80s aerobics craze, and failed miserably: the John Travolta/Jamie Lee Curtis romantic drama Perfect, and the cheapo sleazo slasher Killer Workout (aka Aerobicide). Both are bad, but in entirely different ways. Although, both have pretty great soundtracks.
Disclaimer: This episode was cursed and plagued with technical difficulties that shan't happen again. The audio quality dips from time to time, and the conversation does get a bit scattershot as we were continually disconnected throughout our talk.
Travolta must've heard us smack-talking his crotch.