On this episode, DUSTIN CELESTINO comes on the show to talk about GENERAL ADMISSION the newest movie he wrote.  Dustin is a multi-awarded fictionist and playwright. He also wrote and directed the black comedy crime thriller UTOPIA. In his work there's usually a running thread of satire that is meaningful and also intensely entertaining. *** Directed by Jeffrey Hidalgo, GENERAL ADMISSION stars Jasmine Curtis-Smith as Katja, a member of a sexy dance group who has a wardrobe malfunction on a Filipino noontime variety show. She and her boyfriend, Carlito, find themselves at the center of a media circus that results in a brutal, public murder. The movie is about the ruthless tendency of the entertainment industry to make a spectacle out of scandal and tragedy. It's also about the lengths people go to to satisfy the lust of their audience for blood or sleaze. *** This one was a real trip of a film, especially with how the story was meant to be satirical when Dustin wrote it, but now mirrors, almost exactly, our online celebrity culture. Curtis-Smith and her co-lead JC De Vera breathe life into the ill-fated lovers who just wanted a shot at stardom, eventually discovering that fame is a  gilded cage without an exit. The final sequence, for me, was just a mind-blowing laugh-cry moment. *** Listen up as Dustin about the creative life and how he's managed to be such a protean storyteller in many mediums. 

For those who wish to watch, GENERAL ADMISSION starts streaming on KTX by April 9, 2021. Book your tickets here.



CONTAINS sound samples from "Cottonmouth" by Surrogate Prey. Used with permission. Check out their music on Bandcamp. 

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