Death is a Photograph

Our Patreon. [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod]  It's giving unemployed. This week, DPP is joined by poet, podcaster, author, and host of Varn Vlog [https://www.youtube.com/@VarnVlog] — C. Derick Varn — to discuss Richard Linklater's non-linear, slice-of-a-generation classic, Slacker (1990) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacker_(film)]. Set in the suburbs of Austin, Texas, Slacker follows an interwoven set of 20 and 30-somethings, doing, well, not exactly much. This is pre-techlord and podcaster Austin. However, Linklater still captures glimmers of the hipster explosion that is to come in the characters of Slacker — conspiracy theorists, anarchists, conceptual artists, skaters, post-punk drummers, etc. In 2026, we live in a world where Gen X's children across much of the western world, and increasingly the far east, are out of work, out of education and on the scrap heap (NEETs, lying flat etc). If Gen Z are structurally excluded from much of the work force, Gen X conciouslessly opted-out. As always, like, rate, subscribe [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod] — or don't: whatever, man.

You can find our Patreon here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod].  This week, the DPP lads are joined by writer, critic and marketing director at publishing house Deep Vellum (and friend of the pod) Jon Repetti [https://x.com/pourfairelevide] — to discuss Spike Lee's 1999 crime thriller Summer of Sam [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_Sam]. Summer of Sam revolves around the fallout from a real-life killing spree committed by David Berkowitz between 1975 and 1977. Lee's 1999 feature is an odd combination of 1970s nostalgia aimed at a young Gen X, combined with subcultural analysis and crime thriller tropes. The film delves into the urban psychogeography of New York City's outer boroughs and ethnic neighbourhoods — at a time when NYC was widely considered to be in decline, yet also experiencing a huge cultural flourishing of underground scenes, musical creativity, and club life. Does Gen X's childhood fear of the city and the urban, in the 1970s, translate into today's pervasive paranoia about large American cities? Find out in today's episode. Like, subscribe, rate, and venture over to our Patreon [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod].

Subscribe [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod] for upcoming premium content.  This week, Chase and Sam at DPP are joined by architecture critic and writer Owen Hatherley [https://owenhatherley.co.uk/] to discuss British director Patrick Keiller's London (1994) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxbg6QTkmUw] and Robinson in Space [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crVFU-5B6fs] (1997). London and Robinson in Space form the first two parts of the decade-long Robinson trilogy [https://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/38477]. Keiller's two essay films capture Britain during the interregnum between Thatcher and Blair — an oft-forgotten period, after the end of the Cold War, but before the short-lived ecstasies of Cool Britannia. Keiller charts a country still very much in thrall to tradition, mediating its own decline, and with a surprisingly intact industrial base. Both films feature an unnamed narrator who journeys around England with an unseen accomplice: the titular Robinson (a permanently precarious academic). Keiller's camera lingers over petrol stations, suburban business parks and other liminal spaces — a post-Thatcherite, globalised, netherworld of commercial utilitarianism. Through a patched-together series of shots and reams of economic data, Keiller, arguably, makes the case that Gen X, not the boomers, were the UK's last industrial generation: squatting over the final flames of manufacturing during the rule of John Major — the infamous prime ministerial 'grey man.' Major and Blair haunt the background of Keiller's work, bookending the period his films explore. The former is presented as a bland technocrat at the End of History, the latter a representative of American-style personality politics. Keiller's films place us in a British interregnum — and, to steal a line from Gramsci, 'morbid symptoms' are everywhere. Hatherley is the author of several books, including Militant Modernism, Trans-Europe Express, Red Metropolis: Socialism and the Government of London, Modern Buildings in Britain: A Gazetteer and, his latest, The Alienation Effect (out now with Penguin [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/311898/the-alienation-effect-by-hatherley-owen/9780141989778]). Our Patreon can be found here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod]. Like, rate and subscribe — or Sam will drag you on a 5 hour walk under Birmingham's Spaghetti Junction in search of mutated fish.

This week, DPP is joined by prolific podcaster and Renaissance man J.G. Michael of Parallax Views [https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/] to discuss two underappreciated gems by director Adam Rifkin [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Rifkin]: The Chase (1994) and Detroit Rock City (1999). Rifkin, who got his start in the world of wrestling (could there be a more Gen X origin story?), has produced an oeuvre defined by Hollywood's commercial needs. Yet, in between, family-friendly forgetables like 1997's Mouse Hunt and 2007's Underdog, Rifkin has directed films that speak to the zeitgeist. The Chase is a knowing satire on the car-chase genre combined with a deconstruction of 24/7 news and 'infotainment.' Detroit Rock City, meanwhile, is that strange Gen-X beast - a 1970s nostalgia film (think Summer of Sam, Dazed and Confused, etc.) entirely centred around the band Kiss. It's our contention that Rifkin may well be the Gen-X Robert Zemeckis — someone who understands the median tastes of a generation forgotten about by history, and too often Hollywood. As always, our Patreon can be found here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod]. We'll be publishing subscriber-only episodes on everything from Trainspotting and Clockwatchers — to interviews with leading theorists of our historical moment. Subscribe.

Today, and once again, the Europeans outnumber the Americans on this week's DPP. Chase and Sam are joined by British GQ staff writer and friend of the pod, Josiah Gogarty, [https://x.com/josiahgogarty] to discuss Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's seminal feature film The Great Beauty (2013) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyt430YkQn0] and slightly self-indulgent coming-of-age piece The Hand of God (2021). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_1VW_0i6vo] Sorrentino, alongside Luca Guadagnino, is probably Italy's best-known Gen X director. Behind the elevated chorals, lush birdsong, Palladian architecture and eurotrash fashion — The Great Beauty is a savage takedown of Italy's boomer elite, under Silvio Berlusconi and Forza Italia, by a rising Gen X figure. It's Rome, sometime in the late 2000s, and the city's elderly elite have traded in the Marxism and literary idealism of their youth for easy indulgence, cocaine, dinner parties, and idle chatter. But they can't escape the rising generation below them, who, far from being lapsed idealists, present a front of destructive and cynical nihilism. As the post-political age [https://thepointmag.com/politics/everything-is-hyperpolitical/] of Berlusconi transitions into the anti-political epoch of the Lega Nord, Five Star Movement and, finally, Giorgia Meloni (Gen X'ers to the last) — what can be salvaged from the wreck? Art, friendship, faith, really nice suits? Find out in today's episode. Josiah can be found on Twitter, at GQ [https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/profile/josiah-gogarty], the New Statesman [https://www.newstatesman.com/author/josiahgogarty], Monocle [https://monocle.com/contributors/josiah-gogarty/] and many other outlets. Our Patreon can be found here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod]. (Subscribe — or we won't invite you to our cool parties).

In today's episode of DPP - Chase and Sam are joined by filmmaker Charles Pinion [https://www.instagram.com/charlespinion/?hl=en] to discuss his 1988 film Twisted Issues. Pinion's films — made during Gen X's heyday — revolve around skater culture, punk rock, DIY aesthetics and, in the case of Twisted Issues, maniac zombie killers with fencing masks. You can see Pinion's back-catalogue of films here [https://letterboxd.com/director/charles-pinion/]. As ever — like, rate, subscribe. Or ya know — go join the man... Our Patreon can be found here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod].

It's the new year, and Sam and Chase have returned to their PMC day jobs in force. Less mind-numbing conversations by the water cooler, less pizza parties, less boredom — but far more existential dread and precarity (who said things couldn't get better). In today's episode, we're joined by sociologist and writer Dan Evans [https://x.com/dai_alectic?lang=en] to discuss two Gen X films about work and working: Joel Schumacher's Falling Down (1993) and Mike Judge's Office Space (1999). During a period of steady wage growth, relatively low asset prices, declining (but still powerful) labour union power, and porous gatekeeping practices — why did Gen X hate work so much? We find out in this week's DPP. Evans is the author of the brilliant A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie [https://repeaterbooks.com/product/a-nation-of-shopkeepers/] (you can watch him talking about it here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRp5xBKL54M&t=4s]). You can find our Patreon here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod].

This week John Dolan, co-host of Radio War Nerd [https://www.patreon.com/radiowarnerd], joins the DPP boys to discuss Sam Raimi's closer to the Evil Dead trilogy, Army of Darkness (1992). Dr. Dolan regales your co-hosts with tales of late 80s-early 90s masculinity in all its nerdy, machismo-laced infamy. Before the Marvel movie, before 4chan, there was the comic book shop and the 80s-blockbuster action superstar. How did these tropes shape and ground the youth of the 80s and 90s? John, as always full of wisdom and anecdotes, has answers. John's newest book, They Should Have Been Hanged [https://www.magersandquinn.com/product/THEY-SHOULD-HAVE-BEEN-HANGED/28604375], is out now!

This week, DPP is joined by Jacobin film critic [https://jacobin.com/author/eileen-jones] and host of the Filmsuck podcast [https://www.patreon.com/filmsuck]: Eileen Jones [https://x.com/Eileen15Jones]. We gather in the police station break room over coffee and doughnuts to discuss Errol Morris's 1988 film, The Thin Blue Line [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Blue_Line_(1988_film)]. Morris's documentary has been incredibly prescient — bringing to the fore big 21st-century questions about 'fake news,' 'polarisation,' and state power. Sam, Chase, and Eileen contemplate a few questions — "what even is the truth, man?" and "what if justice just serves the system, dude?" as they discuss the rise of postmodernism and narrativisation in late 20th century documentary making. Like, subscribe, and rate us on Spotify. (Or we'll fabricate evidence against you.) Our Patreon can be found here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod]. (Free for now).

This week DPP is joined by filmmaker William Garcia Bigelow [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3123571/?ref_=tt_ov_1_1] of Sometime the Wolf (2025), Attrition (2013) and The Couple. Chase and Will discuss Danny Boyle's directorial debut Shallow Grave [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRbvZ7WwHhc] (1994).  Sam, who once briefly lived in a massive flat in Edinburgh as a toddler, (many heinous crimes were committed there), is off sick. In his absence, Chase and Will try to figure out why young professionals in the 1990s were flat sharing and whether Gen X is innately doomed to murder each other.  In what ways does Shallow Grave foreshadow the nihilism and violence of later generational films like Trainspotting? Find out in today's episode. Our Patreon can be found here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod]. Free for now. Paid updates forthcoming.  Like, rate and subscribe — or we'll get Ewan Mcgregor to chuck you out of the topfloor window of a Morningside Edinburgh flat. You've been warned.

DDP is joined today by cultural historian Shalon van Tine [https://www.shalonvantine.com/] to discuss Martin Bell's Streetwise [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetwise_(1984_film)] (1984) and Larry Clark's Kids [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_(film)] (1995). As of two months ago — all the hosts of DPP are now on the wrong side of thirty. Consequently, there couldn't be a better time to dive into the archives and explore some youth culture both Chase and Sam are too young to remember — 1980s streetkids in Seattle and 1990s skaters in Manhattan. Was Gen X really as independent as they say they were? And where did this latchkey ethos come from: family breakdown, liberation, austerity, neoliberalism, outsourcing, the corrosion of the counter culture, the end of social democracy? With Gen Z dubbed, rightly or wrongly, 'puriteens [https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/puriteens-sex-negative-lgbtq-pride-tiktok-twitter-1180208/]' by the mainstream press (with teen pregnancy, drug use and drinking down), why were their parents, in contrast, so darn hedonistic? Find out in today's episode. Our Patreon — as ever — can be found here [https://www.patreon.com/deathphotopod].  For now, everything is free. Bonus episodes, polls and other features coming up.  * Like, rate, and subscribe: Sam and Chase need to buy Christmas presents for Francis...

This week DPP is outside of linear time entirely — or is it? We're joined by writer, author, and journalist Philip Womack [https://x.com/WomackPhilip] to discuss Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride (1987). Irony, cynicism, earnestness — new sincerity? Cold war analogy or riff on Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels? We discuss it all through the prism of blockbuster 1980s Hollywood. Womack can be found at @WomackPhilip [https://x.com/WomackPhilip], he's a frequent contributor to the Literary Review, The Spectator and The Telegraph. He is also a children's book author. His latest novel is Ghostlord (2023). [https://www.waterstones.com/book/ghostlord/philip-womack/9781915071262] You can find our Patreon here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod]. Bonsues episodes, polls and other paid features forthcoming.  As always, please like, rate and subscribe — it smooths the wheels as we hurtle towards the End of History.

This week DPP is joined by academic, podcaster, former editor of Sublation Magazine and founding member of the Platypus Affiliated Society: Spencer Leonard to talk about the 1989 Civil War flick Glory [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(1989_film)].  Leonard briefly taught Sam a course on Indian political history at the University of Virginia in the depths of the 2010s — so this is a homecoming of sorts. Glory marked a high-water mark for a certain liberal and intergrationist conception of race-relations in the USA. In 1989, the struggle for civil rights 'appeared' to be over, the threat of radical alternatives to the American social compact was diminishing in day-to-day and week-to-week as the Soviet Union collapsed and Reganism ran its course. Yet, at the same time, left-liberal conceptions of 'recognition' and Rawlsian justice were at their height. Then, Gen X could look forward to a 21st century defined by postracial politics — not the Afro-Pessimism that actually emerged. Can some men with moustaches and silly frock-coats run at each other with rifles without triggering a Hegelian meditation on The End of History? The answer is no. Chase and Spencer Yank out on Civil War references, while Sam is left baffled and wishing this was all about an earlier, 17th-century civil war. Who exactly were James Montgomery, Robert Shaw?, and Frederick Douglass? And why do they matter so much to Gen X? Find out in today's episode. Leonard can be found at @SpencerALeonard [https://x.com/SpencerALeonard], he formerly edited Sublation Magazine [https://www.sublationmag.com/] and his latest publication is Marx and Engels on Bonapartism: Selected Journalism, 1851–59 [https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/marx-and-engels-on-bonapartism-9781666928051/]. As always, please like, subscribe, rate on Spotify and follow us at DeathPhotoPod on X [https://x.com/deathphotopod].  You can find our Patreon here [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod].  Bonus episodes to come.

This week we're joined by podcaster, writer, artist and academic Matthew Ellis [https://x.com/matthiasellis?lang=en] to talk about Wes Anderson's 2007 hit-and-miss feature The Darjeeling Limited. Can Gen X find spiritual sustenance in the East, or will they fail like their Boomer forerunners, empty, cold, confused and shivering in some pay-as-you-go ashram? Isn't it more fun to go shopping anyway? Sam (as a Brit) gets his Indian-hat on and Chase freaks out about Anglican hymns. This, and more, in today's episode. You can find Ellis's podcast at the Andersonianlly named 'The Pacific Northwest Insurance Corporation Moviefilm Podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pacific-northwest-insurance-corporation-moviefilm/id1712416222].' Check out his Substack, "Histories of the Present." [https://www.historiesofthepresent.com/] DPP Patreon: [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod]

In today's episode Sam & Chase are joined by American novelist, founding editor of the LA Review of Books, and screenwriter Matthew Specktor — who worked directly on the optioning of David Fincher's 1999 classic adapation of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club (1996). Was 1999 the height of human civilisation? Or simply the start of a rage fueled dissent into middle child syndrome? Listen to find out. Find our Patreon at [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod].

Chase & Sam launch DEATHPHOTOPOD with a series of questions: what is Tony Blair? Who is the End of History? Whither Gen X?  Head to our Patreon at [https://www.patreon.com/c/deathphotopod] Dedicated to a paragon of Gen X virtue: Giles Alexander Hardyman-Charter (1967-2025).