DOLLY BACK

An examination of a dolce vita losing its vigor, Michelangelo Antonioni's efforts in this 1961 neorealist effort turns its viewfinder towards Italy's alienated upper class. Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, and Monica Vitti form one of cinema's most formidable acting trios as they meander through the claustrophobic downtowns and dysphoric  villas of Milan; much as their passions...

Real life doesn't fit into little boxes that were drawn for it - and surely, the ambitions of this week's high concept exploration of the superhero by M. Night Shyamalan can hardly fit into this episode.  In Unbreakable , Bruce Willis' David Dunn learns he is nigh-invincible following a deadly train crash, as Samuel L. Jackson's enigmatic Elijah Price observes his progress and...

It's groovy being insane - surely the modus operandi of Paul Thomas Anderson's hippie noir vision in 2014's INHERENT VICE, an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's eponymous novel. A renaissance detective's odyssey through Los Angeles high life and cults reveals fissures in his own recollection of an ephemeral ex-girlfriend, aided in no small part by the filmmakers' intertex...

The lows of solipsism and the highs of stargazing - director Paul Schrader and Yukio Mishima indulge in both as they search for the purest forms of their respective disciplines. In this fierce 1985 biopic, Schrader marries his subject's facts and fictions, words and worlds, arts and actions, in order to resolve not only the dilemmas that plagued the late author and nationalist, but his own re...

We live in a podcast world, and there are no hot takes at dusk! Dolly Back passes through a turnstile to discuss Christopher Nolan's 2020 action sci-fi TENET , a palindromic puzzle box that now stands as one of the celebrated director's most confounding and certainly one of the most thrilling studies of his favorite subject - time. As John David Washington's Protagonist embarks on a...

Nearly a decade before his eventual directorial debut, writer Charlie Kaufman made a name for himself with his idiosyncratic, if not absurd, handling of characters in a surreal setting. His foray into self-identity and psycho-analysis shines through the weird and unnerving performances from the likes of a pony-tail sporting John Cusack and coloured-contact-wearing Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkov...

"There are people throwing the money, and people doing the dance," as Jennifer Lopez's Ramona opines in Lorene Scafaria's 2019 smash HUSTLERS, an ostentatious and blistering look into the camaraderie of four strippers pushing back against the pressures of Wall Street following the 2008 financial crisis. Dolly Back is joined by Margaret Pereira, whose scholarly work dives into h...

As the era of athlete-turned-action star raged on with the likes of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Lundgren, and Van Damme all committed to their respective franchises and filmmakers, one lone American football star dared to  turn the spotlight from international talent to domestic.  Unfortunately, his efforts resulted in little except the efforts of your hosts trying to piece together its successes an...

As 1 million pounds of train barrels down Southern Pennsylvania, director Tony Scott captures tensions between man and machine, old and new, worker and corporation, with a stunning ferocity that cements his place as one of Hollywood’s greatest action auteurs. In this episode, Erich and Krishiv examine his roots in commercial filmmaking and the tendencies that define his adrenalized filmmaking usin...

In the world of John Woo, to reload is to wave the white flag! Renegades and outcasts, both cop and criminal alike, shower each other in gunfire in this fiery tale of a Hong Kong on the brink of change in Hard Boiled (1992) . Erich and Krishiv are joined by fellow UofT alumni and Hong Kong cinema aficionado, Thomas Chan, to discuss the filmmaker’s last hurrah for chivalry in his Hong Kong career b...

Joining your hosts today is UofT student and cinephile, Joshua Edwards to discuss George Lucas’ STAR WARS - Episode II: Attack of the Clones ! While there is hardly a shortage of prequel discourse online, Lucas’ visionary trilogy never fails to stimulate some sort of discussion over its varied themes and styles. From its use of genre allusion ranging from the jidai-geki, Douglas Sirk romances, and...

Young men come from abroad or poached from their homes close by, swelter in the Djibouti sun, staring out at the ocean’s mirage. The same bodies that dance a choreographed routine in the desert also tire as they practice military drills. Largely considered her opus, Claire Denis’ Beau Travail (1999) loosely adapts  a tale of envy and wrath from Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd”, all the while weaving...

In this week's episode, yours hosts turn to a seminal work in the noir tradition, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï (1967), in which a nocturnal hitman prowls  France's City of Lights in a desperate bid for survival against the forces that seek to erase his shadow. It is a notable intersection of world histories and mythologies, particularly that of the eponymous, Japanese samurai,...

With an animated offering comparable to taking a draught of Frank Bean's "liquid gold" cider, Wes Anderson shows off his mise-en-scene mastery in 2009's Fantastic Mr. Fox. A tail about a retired thief who's Bean put through the trials of fatherhood, and grows so tired of his domesticated, Boggis surroundings that he is quickly forced to Bunce from farm-to-farm with a caval...

This week, Erich and Krishiv put their cards on the table in discussion over Steven Soderbergh’s masterpiece caper film, Ocean’s Eleven (2001). They discuss the vacuum left in the wake of the (arguably) disappearing myth of the movie star, in one of the century’s most stacked lineups. A picture that pays homage to heist films of yesteryear on vibrant celluloid, join them as they discuss a globaliz...

CONTENT WARNING Violence, Suicide, Death As if the negotiation of 'authorial intent' wasn't enough, this week Erich and Krishiv propose the reading of two auteurs through Werner Herzog's documentary Grizzly Man (2005). Following the summers Timothy Treadwell spent in the Alaskan wilderness until his death, Grizzly Man offers an interesting glimpse at the animal activist's...

Hot off the heels of Tiger Woods' comeback at the Masters, and to push the podcast's understanding of auteur theory even further, hosts Erich and Krishiv turn to the cornerstone of Adam Sandler's filmography - the Dennis Dugan directed Happy Gilmore (1996)! Join them as they chart Sandman's eclectic Hero's Journey through the golf green and the Hollywood studio system, ask...

Listen this week as your hosts Erich and Krishiv approach the work of a legendary filmmaker. While many may remember Akira Kurosawa for Ikiru (1952) , Seven Samurai (1954), and Ran (1985), High and Low (1963) remains one of his best, and surely one of the greatest procedurals of all time. From its jaw-dropping black and white cinematography to Toshiro Mifune's commanding demeanor, High and Lo...

Cronenberg's knack for the intimate and the uncomfortable shines off newly waxed bodies in his 1996 film Crash. With an erotic vision of the machine-aged present, Crash follows various victims of car accidents as they indulge in their gas-guzzling and passionate desires, stalking each other on moonlit highways and retreating to the back seat. Join your hosts Krishiv and Erich as they talk abo...

Erich and Krishiv tackle one of the most monumental studio efforts of the 2000s with the Wachowski's Speed Racer. As a follow up to the immensely successful Matrix Trilogy, Speed Racer had a lot to live up to, and while initial reception was not too great, listen as your hosts trace the reason for its greatness. From its amazing visual style, endearing story of underdog talent raging against...

Before the time of eXistenZ  (1999) and The Matrix (1999), Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995) approached the techno-induced anxiety of moving into a new millennium. A cyber-noir induced daydream infused with social commentary which grounds it in the everyday, Strange Days acts as a significant entry into millennial cyberspace. Listen as Erich and Krishiv lurk the streets of Los Angeles and...

This week's episode lands in England where co-hosts Erich and Krishiv look into Guy Ritchie's sophomore film, Snatch (2000). Among Irish Travellers, underground boxers, and indecipherable Brad Pitt accents, Snatch dials in Ritchie's style to its purest form--making for 100 minutes of hilarity and tension. Join Erich and Krishiv as they talk about Ritchie's tendencies as an aute...

In the inaugural episode of DOLLY BACK, Erich and Krishiv discuss Johnnie To's 2004 masterpiece, Throw Down . Following the intersecting lives of a former judo champion-turned-bar-owner, an up and coming judoka, and an aspiring pop star, Throw Down drenches the melodramatic struggles of regular people in the neon of Hong Kong. From style, to form, to themes, and much more, join the co-hosts a...