Trylove

Frank Galvin will try the case — against the medical professionals whose negligence left a woman a vegetable, against the church that funds it, against the wishes of the victim’s family, and against just about everybody else. THE VERDICT, Sidney Lumet’s OTHER courtroom drama has a bit of a ‘70s vibe to it, despite releasing in 1982. Maybe it’s because of its miserable hero, an alcoholic lawyer portrayed masterfully by the perpetually handsome Paul Newman; maybe it’s because the whole desperate affair feels less like an underdog success story and more like a hard-won battle with the self; maybe it’s in the misogynist implications of David Mamet’s script (particularly with regard to Charlotte Rampling as Laura). On this episode, we look at THE VERDICT as a product of its time AND with the benefit of hindsight and come to different conclusions about its makers’ intentions, the means by which they get there, and what the film has to show for its effort after the gavel falls. References: Watch THE VERDICT on the Internet Archive “A Phenomenology of the East Coast: Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict” by MH Rowe for Perisphere, the Trylon blog Review: The Verdict by Roger Ebert Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/ #CharlotteRamplingsIllusionsOfInvulnerability #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “The Bottom” by Johnny Mandel from the THE VERDICT soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 281: THE VERDICT (1982) 6:01 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 8:05 - Not the feel-good underdog story the marketing might lead you to believe 21:02 - What a messy version of justice this is 30:27 - Charlotte Rampling as Laura and where we end up in the finale 47:04 - The Junk Drawer 51:07 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1982 52:00 - Cody’s Noteys: The Verdictionary (definitions applied to cast names)

With Natalie Marlin! Whatever you know about ZARDOZ — it’s by the guy who made DELIVERANCE (1972), it’s a weird meme, Charlotte Rampling’s instant pregnancy, Sean Connery’s nutsling — we promise you, it’s just the beginning. A critically divisive movie that’s garnered a cult following in the five decades since its release, it’s certainly earned that reputation. It’s a movie where philosophical mishmash rubs shoulders with overt sexual politics and more dick jokes than you can shake a dick at. But when you step back, it’s got way more going under the hood; in fact, some of us are convinced it’s an iconoclast warning signal for the era of the blockbuster, releasing just a year before JAWS (1975) and three before STAR WARS (1977). Go on this inter-Vortex journey with us as we welcome Natalie to go inside the big stone head, down the yellow brick road, and to the very heart of ZARDOZ! References: Watch ZARDOZ on the Internet Archive “Down the Yellow Brick Road and Through the Looking Glass: How Zardoz Was Colored by its Era and Reflects Back on Today” by Zach Staads for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “I Have Seen the Future, and It Doesn’t Work: The Off-Kilter, Semi-Genius of Zardoz” by Michael Popham for Perisphere, the Trylon blog Find Natalie… On Twitter and Bluesky at @NataliesNotInIt On Letterboxd at @framingthepic In the byline for "Noise Music," a forthcoming entry in Genre: A 33 ⅓ Series book about the noise genre  On Trylove Episode 162: THE THIRD MAN (1949), Episode 182: CHESS OF THE WIND (1979), Episode 197: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985), Episode 210: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015), Episode 239: MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001), Episode 249: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), and LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018) Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/ #CharlotteRamplingsIllusionsOfInvulnerability #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Symphony No.7 in A major op.92 - II, Allegretto" composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, conducted by Eugen Jochum, and performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from the ZARDOZ soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 280: ZARDOZ (1974) 3:06 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 4:28 - The provenance of ZARDOZ 18:01 - What “versions” of science fiction it’s referencing/playing on 25:30 - The visual communication vs. long stretches of dialogue 29:06 - The fourth wall-breaking setup 38:59 - Aaron FINALLY gets his freak on 41:03 - A sci-fi piss-take that occasionally reads straight 46:18 - Zed’s “base” existence vs. the bored, infallible upper caste 1:04:59 - Where the movie ends up thematically 1:11:00 - An allegorical warning for the future of movies 1:21:16 - The Junk Drawer 1:29:33 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1974 1:31:49 - Cody’s Noteys: The Zar-dossier (ZARDOZ-adjacent trivia)

With Kelly Krantz! Liliana Cavani’s psychological, post-Holocaust perverted thriller went down as one of the most controversial movies of all time. In a concentration camp during World War II, concentration camp officer Max (Dirk Bogarde) and his prisoner victim Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) form a sadomasochistic relationship. Their relationship is colored as much by their shared depravity as by Max’s evil humanity and Lucia’s shame over her burgeoning desire. Pretty inflammatory stuff! Hence the reputation. But we’re not convinced it’s the irresponsible exploitation film it’s been remembered as. On this episode, we explain why by focusing on the lead characters’ psychology, what brings them together, and what dooms them from the start. References: Watch THE NIGHT PORTER on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/the-night-porter-1974-dirk-bogarde “Pain, Pleasure, and Depiction of Manipulation in The Night Porter” by Matt Lambert for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “This Just In: Evil is STILL Banal” by Veda Lawrence for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “The Night Porter: Power, Spectacle, and Desire” by Gaetana Marrone for The Criterion Current “The Night Porter: Is this the most controversial film ever made?” by Steph Green for the BBC “The Legacy of World War II in European Arthouse Cinema” by Samm Deighan Find Kelly… On Twitter at @kransekage_ On Letterboxd at @luckyhoss On Trylove episodes about WINGS OF DESIRE (1987), ARREBATO (1979), and PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974), REVOLVER (1973), and THE DOOM GENERATION (1995) Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/ #CharlotteRamplingsIllusionsOfInvulnerability #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Sonata 1950" by Daniele Paris from the THE NIGHT PORTER soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 279: THE NIGHT PORTER (1974) 5:05 - Starting THE NIGHT PORTER with context 17:24 - Mistaking this movie for exploitation cinema 22:20 - Max’s perverse self-denial 37:46 - Lucia, Charlotte Rampling, voyeurism, transgression, and performance 41:26 - The power Max and Lucia have in their relationship 55:23 - The ending 1:02:50 - The Junk Drawer 1:13:10 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1974

NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a hinky Hitchcock tale of mistaken identity, assumed identity, shifting truths, and a man with a huge butt chin using a SpongeBob-comically-small razor. Cary Grant stars as an ad man who gets caught up in a Cold War game of cat-and-mouse (he’s the mouse) opposite double agent Eva Marie Saint, Broadly European Bad Guy James Mason, and the FBI/CIA/NSA/WTFE as the other players stringing him along (they’re the cats). A certain amount of NORTH BY NORTHWEST is best appreciated in context of Hitchcock’s previous films. After all, screenwriter Ernest Lehman said he wanted to write “the Hitchcock film to end all Hitchcock films”! To that end, it’s kind of a greatest hits collection, a suspenseful road movie keeping the tension high all the way from NYC to Mount Rushmore. What’s amazing is that it actually works totally on its own, too. Our discussion touches on the delightful sense of playfulness the movie has, Cary Grant as the perfect avatar of lovable pissantism, the cultural and political implications Hitchcock did not want us thinking about it, and how the auteur’s finely tuned filmmaking sensibilities serve his eighth-to-last film. Do these things: Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/ #Hitchcock125 #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Main Theme” by Bernard Hermann from the NORTH BY NORTHWEST soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 278: NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) 3:01 - The episode actually starts 6:44 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 9:47 - How NORTH BY NORTHWEST plays to Hitchcock’s well-rounded filmmaking style 23:38 - Hitchcock looking back 45:43 - Critique of masculinity, nations, Cold War politicking 52:47 - Balancing critique and lighthearted fun 1:01:33 - The Junk Drawer 1:13:04 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1959 1:14:21 - Cody’s Noteys: Trylove Movie Draft

LEGEND is a 1985 fantasy film directed by Ridley Scott and written by William Hjortsberg. It stars Tom Cruise in one of his first leading roles as Jack, a pure-hearted forest-dweller who is in love with Princess Lily (played by Mia Sara). Hoping to show her something beautiful, Jack introduces Lily to two majestic unicorns that live in a remote part of the forest. In doing so, he breaks one of the forest’s most sacred rules: That mortals must never touch the unicorns, lest they “upset the order of the universe”. The encounter creates an opportunity for goblin emissaries of the Lord of Darkness (played by Tim Curry) to poison one of the unicorns, steal its horn (alicorn), capture the other unicorn and enslave Princess Lily, threatening to plunge the world into darkness — unless Jack, the pure-hearted hero, can return the unicorn’s horn and avoid everlasting darkness. It’s an arrow-straight premise with promise for more underneath — but after more than a dozen screenplay revisions and numerous cuts, LEGEND comes out the other end feeling rather hollow. So we’re reading WAY too far into it to see what we can get out of it beyond what it shows us! On this episode, we also talk about the magical production design, marvel at Tim Cunty’s — er, Curry’s — sassy, satanic swagger; Tom Cruise’s tooth/teeth; and guess how tall two Tom Hardys are toe-to-tip when you stack them on top of each other. Do these things: Read “Before Lift Off: Tom Cruise in Legend” by John Blair for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/04/19/before-lift-off-tom-cruise-in-legend/ Read “When I’m Bad, I’m Better: Legend and Tim Curry’s Legacy of Villainy” by Courtney Kowalke for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/04/19/when-im-bad-im-better-legend-and-tim-currys-legacy-of-villainy/ Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/ #OfSwordsAndSorcery #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "The Dance" by Tangerine Dream from the LEGEND soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 277: LEGEND (1985) 2:16 - The episode actually starts 3:18 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 8:08 - Starting thoughts 16:17 - TC’s CT 18:40 - The power of nostalgia in evaluating movies like LEGEND 33:31 - Rich visuals and a hollow story 42:47 - How Lily’s sexual awakening would bring this story together 1:07:41 - The Junk Drawer 1:16:53 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1985 1:19:40 - Cody’s Noteys: L’edging (legend-adjacent movie trivia)

THE BEASTMASTER is a 1982 fantasy action movie directed by Don Coscarelli (best known for the PHANTASM films #TheBallIsBack). Marc Singer stars as Dar, rightful heir to the throne of Aruk and prophesied slayer of the evil priest Maax (Rip Torn). Born with the power to speak to animals, Marc befriends a number of mammals on his journey to reclaim the throne (including other humans, though they play a distant second fiddle to the beasts in this film, tbh). THE BEASTMASTER is not a GREAT movie, and a couple of us even struggled to find much joy in it at all. But it still makes for a great discussion, including an evaluation of the movie on its own terms and plenty of comparisons with its (much better) contemporary, CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982). Plus, what animal familiar would we pick? What’s the largest animal we could beat in single combat? (My money’s on Harry and the kangaroo.) Do these things: Donate to help our friend and previous guest Nick Ransbottom get life-saving cystic fibrosis care: https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-nick-lifesaving-cystic-fibrosis-care Read “Hey, Beastmaster’s On: Epic Fantasy Gets Its Revenge” by Michael Popham for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/04/05/hey-beastmasters-on-epic-fantasy-gets-its-revenge/ Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/ #OfSwordsAndSorcery #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Main Theme" by Lee Holdridge from THE BEASTMASTER soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 276: THE BEASTMASTER (1982) 3:42 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (under exclusive license from AG Enterprises, Ltd.) 10:38 - It’s not very good, is it? Or maybe it’s just boring 28:17 - Things that kind of make no sense 43:34 - CONAN-parisons 57:27 - The frustratingly un-pullable threads of this movie 1:05:35 - Our favorite bits of animal acting 1:13:24 - The Junk Drawer 1:17:42 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1982 1:19:24 - Cody’s Noteys: Phy-love (animal-adjacent questions)

Featuring filmmaker/programmer Kris Montello and Something Rotten host Blake Hester! SAMURAI REINCARNATION is a 1981 samurai fantasy action film written and directed by Kinji Fukasaku. Shiro Amakusa (Kenji Sawada) is the sole survivor of a massacre of Japanese Christians during the Shimabara Rebellion. Witnessing the devastation, Shiro renounces the Christian God and vows vengeance on the Tokugawa regime that perpetrated the massacre. Now in league with Satan, Shiro gains the power to resurrect the dead and assembles a team of the aggrieved undead to execute his plans, including disgraced samurai wife Gracia Hokusawa (Akiko Kano), the lustful monk Inshun Hozoin (Hideo Murota), legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (Ken Ogata), and young ninja Kirimaru Iga (Hiroyuki Sanada). The movie follows Shiro’s group as he amasses a demonic force, pursued by Musashi’s rival, Jubei Yagyu (played by Sonny Chiba). With noted Fukasaku Freak Blake Hester (of Something Rotten) and Kris Montello (filmmaker, Programming Manager for the Asian-American International Film Festival, and programmer for the Slamdance Film Festival), we’re picking apart this tokusatsu samurai freakout with a fine-toothed comb. How well does it work as an action movie? How do its historical origins make its transgressive violence hit even harder? How does it use Judeo-Christian imagery to tap into a specific Japanese social context? What does Fukasaku’s no-holds-barred iconoclasm bring to a demonic fantasy setting? That’s all in here! Find Kris… At the the Asian-American International Film Festival in August 2024 at https://www.aaiff.org/ On Twitter at https://twitter.com/kris_montello Find Blake… At https://blakehester.rocks/ On Twitter at @metallicaisrad On Something Rotten, the podcast he co-hosts about nihilism in video games https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/something-rotten/id1523064458 On Trylove episodes about POSSESSION (1981), PULSE (2001), and BURST CITY (1982) On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/blakedtfp/ Also do these things: Donate to help our friend and previous guest Nick Ransbottom get life-saving cystic fibrosis care: https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-nick-lifesaving-cystic-fibrosis-care “Street Fighting Man: Samurai Reincarnation Star Sonny Chiba Was a Kinji Fukasaku Favorite” by Hannah Baxter for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/04/05/street-fighting-man-samurai-reincarnation-star-sonny-chiba-was-a-kinji-fukasaku-favorite/ Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/ #OfSwordsAndSorcery #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Illusion” by Hozan Yamamoto from the SAMURAI REINCARNATION soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 275: SAMURAI REINCARNATION (1981) 7:06 - What is it about Fukasaku? 12:19 - Militarized power and the historical context of SAMURAI REINCARNATION 20:34 - No good guys or bad guys — just a struggle for power 28:21 - How Fukusaku robs powerful institutions of their ‘honor’ 42:23 - Where the movie slows down and how well it actually works as an action movie 57:22 - Japanese cultural context of Judeo-Christian imagery 1:02:59 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1981 1:06:34 - The Junk Drawer

Noted Arnie fan Celia Mattison is back to discuss the swords and sorcery classic! John Milius’s CONAN THE BARBARIAN adaptation limits its view of the character to his pursuit of vengeance and conquest. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a rich, pagan paean to one’s drive for self-determination! On this episode, we talk about what rocks in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s star-making role, how James Earl Jones’s cold, calculating Thulsa Doom is a perfectly cast contrast to Conan’s Austro-Cimmerian barbarism, and the different paths men can go after they become self-aware. Find Celia on Twitter at https://twitter.com/CeliaMattison and on her Substack, “Deeper Into Movies”: https://deeperintomovies.substack.com/ Donate to help our friend and previous guest Nick Ransbottom get life-saving cystic fibrosis care: https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-nick-lifesaving-cystic-fibrosis-care “Fathers True and False in Conan the Barbarian” by Chris Ryba-Tures for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/03/29/fathers-true-and-false-in-conan-the-barbarian/ “Conan the Chad and Tolkien the Virgin” by Timothy Zila for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/03/29/conan-the-chad-and-tolkien-the-virgin/ Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/ Get tickets to the 43rd Annual Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival (April 11-15): https://mspfilm.org/mspiff/ #OfSwordsAndSorcery #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Anvil of Crom" by Basil Poledouris from the CONAN THE BARBARIAN soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 274: CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) with Celia Mattison 4:20 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 6:10 - A movie about conquering and being conquered 10:12 - A more moody, epic, anti-theist movie than you might assume 15:46 - How much character is there to Conan? 23:55 - Mythologization of the self as a man’s man 31:32 - “The opposite of ego death” 36:13 - Conan’s moral compass, such as it is 45:46 - How Thulsa Doom is cast in contrast to Conan 54:07 - How the ending foregrounds the action figure movies of the '80s 1:02:57 - The Junk Drawer 1:10:21 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1982 1:13:30 - Cody’s Noteys: Conan the Parnassian (Conan-themed haikus)

Two years before ALIEN (1979), Ridley Scott packed a bunch of audacious ideas about empire, masculinity, and class into his feature debut: THE DUELLISTS. Rival officers in Napoleonic France, Gabriel Feraud (Harvey Keitel) and Armond d’Hubert (Keith Carradine) are thrown into a mythical, divinely comic cycle of nearly deadly clashes after d’Hubert is instructed to rein in Feraud’s glorified bloodlust. No matter how far he goes, d’Hubert always finds himself at the tip of Feraud’s sword. Over the course of almost two decades, Feraud and d’Hubert orbit concepts of honor, loyalty, and the essence of servitude as each hones their blade on the other’s ego. In this discussion, we talk about how some of the movie’s ideas feel far ahead of their time; how the movie deflates and then glorifies the art of honorable single combat; how important a love story really is in a movie like this; and how THE DUELLISTS serves as something of a codex for almost 50 years of Ridley Scott’s directorial endeavors. Donate to help our friend and previous guest Nick Ransbottom get life-saving cystic fibrosis care: https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-nick-lifesaving-cystic-fibrosis-care “Sword Master Rates 10 More Sword Fights In Movies And TV | How Real Is It?” by Insider (Feb. 16, 2021): https://archive.org/details/youtube-0edTDUQfqys “Harvey, the Haughty Hussar” by Alex Kies for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/03/16/harvey-the-haughty-hussar/ Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/ Get tickets to the 43rd Annual Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival (April 11-15): https://mspfilm.org/mspiff/ #TheSimmeringFuryOfHarveyKeitel #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Main Theme” by Howard Blake from the THE DUELLISTS soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 273: THE DUELLISTS (1977) 3:50 - The episode actually starts 6:37 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 11:18 - It’s goofy until it’s not 16:22 - The DNA of Ridley Scott’s filmmaking 19:36 - Modern-feeling characters in a movie set during the Age of Enlightenment 23:53 - Ridley Scott’s strengths and how he adapted to the constraints of this project 33:34 - Managed doses of Harvey Keitel vs. Keith Carradine, the doofus 43:23 - Laura and the point of d’Hubert’s romantic subplot 59:38 - The ending 1:10:22 - The Junk Drawer 1:19:23 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1977 1:21:06 - Cody’s Noteys: Spot the Scott (Ridley Scott tagline trivia)

There wasn’t anything quite like Michael Roemer’s NOTHING BUT A MAN before it, and there arguably hasn’t been anything quite like it since. All the same, it’s often cited as “ahead of its time” – a critical, realistic look, almost documentary in nature, at the life of a black American man in the middle stages of the Civil Rights Movement. Duff Anderson (Ivan Dixon), the son of a deadbeat drifter hoping to avoid the same fate, leaves behind the independence of his railroad section gang to settle down with Josie (Abbey Lincoln), a well-to-do schoolteacher. Duff’s pride – in his independence, in his manhood, in his blackness – attracts Josie, but rankles the black community around him, who’ve adapted to leaving well enough alone in the deep Southern town they call home. Duff’s chief critics include the aggressive white populace and Josie’s father, a black preacher and community organizer sitting comfortably under the thumb of the town’s white movers and shakers. Written and directed by a German Jew who left the country at the start of World War II and released just months after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the movie was critically lauded but underpromoted, underseen, and misunderstood at the time of its release. Its 1993 U.S. rerelease brought it back to the world stage, with its reevaluation cementing it as a forerunner of a storytelling and filmmaking style that wouldn’t find its footing until arguably the 2000s. In this episode, we discuss the semi-autobiographical nature of Roemer’s story, its contemporary appraisal, its show-stealing performances, stage-play blocking, inventive cinematography, and the implications of its ambivalent ending. Donate to help our friend and previous guest Nick Ransbottom get life-saving cystic fibrosis care: https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-nick-lifesaving-cystic-fibrosis-care “Back to the Future: Michael Roemer’s Nothing but a Man” by Nazeeh Alghazawneh for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/03/18/back-to-the-future-michael-roemers-nothing-but-a-man/ “Film Notes: NOTHING BUT A MAN” by Michael Kerbel for the Yale Film Archive: https://web.library.yale.edu/film/notes/fn00003 Watch NOTHING BUT A MAN on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sKqyQ5eq2o Get tickets to the 43rd Annual Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival (April 11-15): https://mspfilm.org/mspiff/ #TooFarInFront #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave" by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas from the NOTHING BUT A MAN soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 272: NOTHING BUT A MAN (1964) 4:44 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 8:06 - How ahead of its time it really is 12:42 - How Roemer managed to “get it” 19:03 - Key performances 22:10 - Locking eyes vs. avoiding each other’s gaze 25:05 - Materialism for the marginalized and the need to feel like a man 31:02 - Surviving in a world that requires you to be more perfect than perfect 37:55 - The precariousness of these people’s way of life 49:56 - The climax of the movie 1:00:50 - What makes Lee the key to Duff’s decision to come back to Josie 1:05:06 - The ending 1:12:36 - The Junk Drawer 1:23:15 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1964 1:25:31 - Cody’s NO-teys: When Was This Photo of Jason Dafnis Taken? 1:27:58 - The first photo 1:31:12 - The second photo 1:33:16 - The third and final photo

Sweet, heartwarming, funny, and deeply weird, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH plays to its creator duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s strengths: swift writing, a flair for the dramatic, and deeply affecting images. David Niven stars as the should-be-late British RAF Squadron Leader Peter Carter, who falls in love with American soldier June (Kim Hunter) over the radio on his way to the hereafter. But in the throes of World War II, Carter’s demise slides under the radar of the reaper sent to collect his soul (Marius Goring as the foppish Parisian Conductor 71), leaving the lovestruck Lancaster pilot in the lurch, legally speaking: Does his passion for a woman he met minutes before his intended death warrant a stay of execution? Or should he be sentenced to serve out the term of his miscarried doom? Going two for two on the Trylon’s Spring 2024 highlight of Powell and Pressburger’s production company The Archers, we discuss A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH from several angles on this episode: As postwar comfort cinema; as a visual piece astonishingly ahead of its time; as a consideration of the value of human emotion in the face of celestial stakes; and as a singular mixture of the comic, the tragic, and the existential. Donate to help our friend and previous guest Nick Ransbottom get life-saving cystic fibrosis care: https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-nick-lifesaving-cystic-fibrosis-care “Make It So: A Journey in Overthinking ‘A Matter of Life and Death’” by Lucas Hardwick for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/03/01/make-it-so-a-journey-in-overthinking-a-matter-of-life-and-death/ “War, love and weirdness: A Matter of Life and Death – 70 years on” by Brian Dillon for The Guardian: https://theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/04/war-love-and-wierdness-a-matter-of-life-and-death-70-years-on Get tickets to the 43rd Annual Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival (April 11-15): https://mspfilm.org/mspiff/ #TwoByTheArchers #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Opening Sequence" composed by Allan Gray and performed by the Queen Hall Light Orchestra from the A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 271: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946) 4:09 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 6:30 - Did they EVER make ‘em like this? 16:23 - Fearlessness, experimentation, and creativity 24:37 - The controlled scattershot of ideas and how it wins you over again and again 31:38 - What works and doesn’t in the courtroom third act 54:16 - Our favorite shots 1:01:03 - The Junk Drawer 1:05:39 - Cody’s Noteys: A Platter of Life and Death (poisoned food dish movies trivia)

Five nuns. One Briton man-whore. A harem-turned-convent high in the Himalayas. Fellas – what could go wrong??? In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s BLACK NARCISSUS, an adaptation of Rumer Godden’s 1947 novel, external conditions reveal internal torment: Altitude, wind, and culture clashes in the hilltop former harem of Mopu help expose the repressed desires of a sisterhood operating in Calcutta. In our discussion of this Technicolor classic, we discuss BLACK NARCISSUS’s potential misnomer as a “haunted house” movie; its cultural implications in the wake of the British empire’s slipping stranglehold over India post-World War II; and how the film’s art, direction, and performances highlight its masterful double-dip into both “high” and “low” art. Donate to help our friend and previous guest Nick Ransbottom get life-saving cystic fibrosis care: https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-nick-lifesaving-cystic-fibrosis-care “Why Black Narcissus is a Haunted House Movie” by Sophie Durbin for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/03/03/why-black-narcissus-is-a-haunted-house-movie/ “Black Narcissus” by Dave Kehr for The Current (2001): https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/94-black-narcissus "‘Black Narcissus,' British Study of Missionary Nuns, Starring Deborah Kerr, Bill at Fulton -- Based on Novel by Godden” for The New York Times (1947): https://www.nytimes.com/1947/08/14/archives/black-narcissus-british-study-of-missionary-nuns-starring-deborah.html #TwoByTheArchers #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Opening Theme" by Brian Easdale from the BLACK NARCISSUS soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 270: BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) 5:59 - The episode actually starts 8:03 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 10:05 - He’s a whore 12:29 - Location, ‘haunted house,’ and orientalism 20:15 - The movie’s construction and our mileage with BLACK NARCISSUS 25:35 - Irreverence, manipulative cinematography, and use of Technicolor 38:42 - Using heightened reality to reflect a certain perspective 44:12 - Mr. Dean, the holy man Sir Krishna Rai, and counterbalancing the nuns 54:02 - Striking scene-setting and an introduction to Mopu as a character 59:37 - The ending of the movie and why Cody muted the phrase “BLACK NARCISSUS” on Twitter 1:12:48 - The Junk Drawer 1:24:27 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1947 1:26:50 - Cody’s Noteys: Pack of Narcissists (trivia about people who excel in their fields)

With special guest Bret Berg (Theatrical Sales Director at the American Genre Film Archive and Creator/VJ at the Museum of Home Video)! Bret Berg created the Museum of Home Video, a weekly stream comprising archival footage like commercials, TV shows, movies, and more, all edited for the quickest-hit emotional impact possible. Before he hosted two live MHV presentations at the Trylon (RING, RING: A DOORBELL CAM FANTASIA and THE MUSEUM OF HOME VIDEO’S GUIDE TO INFOMERCIALS), Bret sat down with us to chat about the project, his work, and the state of download culture. In this special interview episode, we discuss... The makings of a found footage showcase Meeting the Trylon's John Moret and Barry Kryshka a decade ago How you find the humanity in thousands of hours of strange, torrented content Young Sheldon What all this must be doing to Bret’s brain Find the Museum of Home Video’s streams at https://www.museumofhomevideo.com/ Follow the Museum of Home Video on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/museumofhomevideo/ Get tickets to RING, RING: A DOORBELL CAM FANTASIA and THE MUSEUM OF HOME VIDEO’S GUIDE TO INFOMERCIALS (March 15-17 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/film/the-museum-of-home-video-live-and-in-person/all/ #OtherProgramming #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Hit It and Quit It” by Funkedelic (heard in the RING, RING: A DOORBELL CAM FANTASIA promotional video). Timestamps 0:00 - Interview with Bret Berg, Creator/VJ/“Mad Scientist” of the Museum of Home Video 2:56 - Why people come back to the Museum of Home Video 5:23 - How Bret knows the Trylon 7:26 - What attracts Bret to film distribution 12:10 - Becoming a “mad scientist” to put on a good show 14:50 - Appointment viewing and “being people’s Tuesday night” 17:01 - RING, RING and why Bret’s showing this stuff at the Trylon 18:20 - Timely inspirations 21:02 - RING, RING in context of the Museum’s usual fare 24:18 - What it’s like to sift through lifetimes of torrented media 28:14 - Finding the uniting humanity in disparate content and the AI question 32:14 - Using contemporary content in the Museum 37:26 - Repertory cinema vs. download culture 40:45 - Joe Dante’s THE MOVIE ORGY (1968) 44:34 - What keeps Bret coming back to the Museum 46:43 - Bret’s favorite things that he’s put into the Museum of Home Video 50:35 - What is all this shit doing to Bret’s brain? (Also some Dune chat) 53:49 - Dumb Questions (SOUTHLAND TALES and other weird content Bret’s seen)

With special guest and Minnesotan Drew Tenenbaum (@AshCoolBro)! A threshing accident, exploding parade floats and trailers – contestants and participants in the Sarah Rose Cosmetics American Teen Princess Pageant meet untimely ends in a series of suspicious incidents in Mount Rose, Minnesota. In this episode (comprising exclusively Minnesota-born speakers), we discuss the class politics at play in the movie, its turn with the mockumentary format, how many of its jokes actually land, and the shared satirical nostalgia we feel for the uniquely “Minnesota-ness” of DROP DEAD GORGEOUS. Find Drew… On Twitter at @AshCoolBro Making music mashups and other stuff on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/ashcoolbro On a bunch of episodes of Stoop Kidz!, the Hey Arnold! podcast Harry, Cody, and Jason made with Emily Csuy: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stoop-kidz-a-hey-arnold-podcast/id1553292788 On itch.io: https://drewbys-games.itch.io/ In the credits of Décorum, the tabletop game Drew and Harry and Charlie Mackin created: https://floodgate.games/products/decorum “I Want All the Bisexuals To Know: If I Can Edit a Film Blog, You Can Too” by Finn Odum for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/02/16/i-want-all-the-bisexuals-to-know-if-i-can-edit-a-film-blog-you-can-too/ #OnlySkinDeep #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Love is All Around" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts from the DROP DEAD GORGEOUS soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 268: DROP DEAD GORGEOUS (1999) 3:22 - The episode actually starts 5:06 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 6:59 - Drew’s background with DROP DEAD GORGEOUS – a jolt of Minnesota memories 18:53 - Earning “cult film" status 25:56 - Infusion of class adversity 40:10 - The comedy of DROP DEAD GORGEOUS 57:11 - An ode to endearingly awkward pacing 1:04:46 - The Junk Drawer 1:13:51 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before (f.k.a. "Other Loves We've Tried"): 1999 1:15:45 - Cody’s Noteys: Miss Trylove 2024

With special guest Natalie Marlin (@NataliesNotInIt)! Bi Gan’s lovelorn neo-noir follows Luo (Huang Jue) as he pursues Wan (Tang Wei), the woman he fell in love with years before. Luo weaves in and out of half-recalled memories to trace Wan’s whereabouts, only brushing shoulders with reality as he dodges his own past in pursuit of the fading memory of love through decades of lost time. Famous for its non-linear structure, ethereal pacing, and the 59-minute long-take dream sequence that closes the film, LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT uniquely mixes the concrete drive of emotion with the fleeting nature of memory. In this episode, we talk about how the first half sets up the second, the protagonist’s intentional unreliability as narrator, the mechanical and narrative achievement of its dreamy long-take ending, and have a little fun picking out the first-act callbacks in the second half of the movie. “Lost in the Dream” by Natalie Marlin for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/02/13/lost-in-the-dream/ Find Natalie… On Twitter and Bluesky at @NataliesNotInIt On Letterboxd at @framingthepic On Trylove Episode 162: THE THIRD MAN (1949), Episode 182: CHESS OF THE WIND (1979), Episode 197: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985), Episode 210: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015), Episode 239: MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001), Episode 249: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) #NoirFestival #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Opening” (开场) by Lim Giong and Chih-Yuan Hsu from the LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 267: LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018) 3:50 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 5:01 - Tang Wei pretty 6:00 - Why Natalie keeps coming back to this movie 14:59 - The “trap” of the second half 24:03 - The power and rhythm of the first half 41:06 - Abstraction and looking at Luo through a noir lens 47:02 - Everything is always about to happen 55:56 - Luo, Zuo, and dualism 59:43 - The cathartic 59-minute long-shot dream sequence 1:08:22 - Luo reconstructing a version of himself in the subconscious 1:12:42 - Cyclical loop-closing 1:32:55 - LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT Ending Explained 1:42:26 - The Junk Drawer

Based on Charles Willeford’s noir novel, George Armitage’s MIAMI BLUES is ‘supposed’ to be about the escapades of Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward), a jaded, toothless Miami cop. Instead, it’s about Frederick J. Frenger Jr. (Alec Baldwin), a sociopathic, interloping hustler. Junior’s ongoing seduction of young prostitute Susie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) provides him insulation from Hoke’s suspicions, but threatens Junior’s own self-concept. In this episode, we talk about the ‘happy Sisyphean’ Junior, the movie’s comparison to a more typical noir, the pieces of this story that don’t fit, and why it’s better for them. MIAMI BLUES review by Roger Ebert (April 20, 1990) https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/miami-blues-1990 Review/Film: Cop, Thief and Prostitute in Miami by Janet Maslin for The New York Times (April 26, 1990) https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/20/movies/review-film-cop-thief-and-prostitute-in-miami.html #NoirFestival #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Spirit in the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum from the MIAMI BLUES soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 266: MIAMI BLUES (1990) 3:39 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 4:38 - The movie’s left turn from neo-noir to dark comedy 8:17 - Favorite parts/shooting style 14:41 - The pieces that don’t fit become the point 26:14 - Junior’s main character magnetism 33:50 - What Junior wants vs. how he acts around it 43:43 - Junior, Susie, and wearing the consequences of your actions 47:59 - Susie, disillusionment, and seducing the audience 56:23 - The Junk Drawer 1:02:22 - Other Loves We’ve Tried: 1990 1:05:47 - Cody’s Noteys: Miami Haikus

The truth behind the assassination at the center of Brian De Palma’s political paranoia thriller BLOW OUT isn’t really the point. It’s more about the ways in which fact comes to be distorted through many lenses, each built on relative understandings of the core event itself. When he happens to catch the sound of a politician’s murder on tape while scouting new SFX for a movie, sound designer Jack (John Travolta) is driven to piece together the truth. But with only the audible half of the story, he needs the help of Sally (Nancy Allen), a survivor of the crash, to prove what he saw. Unfortunately for Jack and Sally, they’re both loose ends caught in the increasingly dangerous machinations of political rivals, a hitman gone rogue, and a media machine that thrives on the first thing it can call “truth”. Watch BLOW OUT on the Internet Archive Get tickets to THE FIFTEENTH FILM NOIR FESTIVAL: NEO-NOIR (Winter at the Trylon & the Heights) “Paranoia, Failure, and Female Representation: Brian De Palma’s Blow Out” by Penny Folger for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “Do You Hear What I Hear?: The Salacious Self-Flagellation of Brian De Palma’s Blow Out” by Chris Polley for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “Blow Out: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Gadgeteer” by Pauline Kael (originally for The New Yorker in 1981, republished by The Criterion Collection in 2011) #NoirFestival #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org . Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Main Theme” by Pino Donaggio from the BLOW OUT soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 165: BLOW OUT (1981) 2:18 - The episode actually starts (ARGYLLE (2024) chat) 3:44 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 7:00 - A prescient, paranoid political thriller? 18:48 - A manipulative movie about media manipulation 27:37 - Counterpoint: Selling the “bigness” of the conspiracy at the heart of BLOW OUT 38:53 - Collaging “truth” through character ideologies 48:55 - A call to be more affected by the real traumas of the world 1:09:12 - The romantic mechanics of sound design and sound editing 1:15:34 - John Lithgow as Burke 1:24:16 - Other Loves We’ve Tried: 1981 1:26:48 - The Junk Drawer 1:36:04 - Cody’s Noteys: Trylove Feud (Family Feud but with movies that have a niche genre tag on Letterboxd)

In Béla Tarr’s dour, slow drama WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES, an aimless people’s anger and malaise is leveraged to violent ends by figures of power. A desolate town bristles when a traveling circus comes through with a stuffed whale as its centerpiece. Uncertain of its meaning, the townspeople respond with disbelief and skepticism as they suffer through the rapid decay of society playing out in parallel. Starry-eyed mail carrier János lets the grotesque attraction – and the shadowy Prince pulling the strings of the circus – enrapture his imagination while things fall apart, until János himself becomes its victim. Whether you see optimism, pessimism, the unfeeling cosmos, or just a reflection of yourself in the eyes of the impotent carcass rotting at the center of the town and its story, WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES positions itself among Tarr’s most watchable films – an enigma opting to expose rather than instruct. “A Whale of a Tale: Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies” by Luke Mosher for Perisphere, the Trylon blog #DCP #OtherProgramming Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at trylon.org . Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: "Old" by Mihály Vig from the WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 264: WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES (2000) 4:54 - The episode actually starts 7:47 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 10:51 - Scaling expectations of Béla Tarr and slow cinema in general 23:56 - Visual and non-visual framing devices 34:07 - The film’s expression of recognizable, universal themes 41:13 - János as our “way in” to WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES 52:22 - Grappling with the humanism of Béla Tarr 1:03:01 - The symbolism of the whale and the ending of the movie 1:14:34 - The Junk Drawer 1:19:41 - Other Loves We’ve Tried: 2000 1:22:22 - Back 2 the Junk Drawer 4 a Sec 1:24:06 - Cody’s Noteys: Whalemeister Harmonies (whale-related movie trivia)

With returning guest Blake Hester! BURST CITY is arguably more of a cultural document than a movie with a plot and a story. It consists largely of musical setpieces by the Japanese punk groups of its time, with plot threads (vengeful bikers, nuclear infrastructure, etc.) being more hinted at than shown. In this episode, Blake joins us to talk about BURST CITY's content, context, and creation. Find Blake… On Trylove episodes about POSSESSION (1981) and PULSE (2001) At Game Informer On Something Rotten, the podcast he co-hosts about nihilism in video games On Twitter at @metallicaisrad On Letterboxd at @blakedtfp Nuclear Punks Run Amok: Gakuryu Ishii’s “Burst CIty” by Margaret Barton-Fumo for Metrograph: https://metrograph.com/nuclear-punks-run-amok-gakuryu-ishiis-burst-city/ “REVIEW: Burst City (1982)” by Grant Watson for Fiction Machine: https://fictionmachine.com/2021/11/15/review-burst-city-1982/ DCP Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Wild Supermarket” by The Rockers from the BURST CITY soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 263: BURST CITY (1982) 00:45 - Poop talk, video game movies 10:12 - The episode actually starts 14:49 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 17:49 - Ishii and the Japanese cyberpunk cinema movement 23:30 - BURST CITY’s inspirations 25:11 - Appreciating BURST CITY vs. enjoying it 34:24 - BURST CITY as deconstructive cacophony 40:06 - American cyberpunk vs. Japanese cyberpunk 50:40 - Japanese appropriation of Western punk in BURST CITY 56:55 - BURST CITY as a cultural document 1:03:46 - Blake’s pairing recommendations 1:08:42 - Other Loves We’ve Tried: 1982 1:10:48 - The Junk Drawer 1:16:08 - Cody’s Noteys: Splurge City (movie-buying ultimatum) 1:31:34 - Good Grief, Give Me a GIF!

You’ve seen movies like Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1996 directorial debut, HARD EIGHT. In fact, if you called it part of the PULP FICTION (1994) neo-noir craze, you wouldn’t be wrong. Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) is an avuncular elder hustler who takes John (John C. Reilly) and Clementine (Gwyneth Paltrow) under his wing, keeping new blood small-timer Jimmy (Samuel L. Jackson) at bay while he sets up a better life for the young lovebirds. When things go south, Sydney goes to extreme measures to preserve the fiction he’s built so he can stay the person he thinks he is – the person he wants John and Clementine to see. In this Dry Run discussion, we compare and contrast different takes about what HARD EIGHT is trying to ‘say,’ if anything, and the value of a frictionless story if it’s competently told. “Meet Sydney: On Paul Thomas Anderson’s Hard Eight (1996)” by MH Rowe for Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2024/01/14/meet-sydney-on-paul-thomas-andersons-hard-eight-1996/ Get tickets to “THE FIFTEENTH FILM NOIR FESTIVAL: NEO-NOIR” (Winter 2024 at the Trylon and the Heights Theater): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/neo-noir/ NoirFestival #DCP Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Closing audio: “Sydney’s Work Walk” by Jon Brion and Michael Penn from the HARD EIGHT soundtrack.