The Stacks

This week in The Spooky Stacks, Shana and j. talk about David Fincher's 1995 highly influential serial killer mystery Se7en (going to 1:25:22), followed by David Cronenberg's squicky 1975 high-rise body horror film Shivers (aka They Came From Within!, discussing running to 2:40:41), concluding as always with discussion of the various other horror movies watched during the Halloween challenge this...

As we begin this year's Spooky Stacks, Shana and j. begin with Hitchock's 1943 serial killer mystery Shadow of a Doubt (discussion going to 1:47:54), followed by Jack Bender's notorious 1991 video nasty (despite being quite tame altogether) Child's Play 3 (continuing to 3:02:27), as always followed by discussion of various other movies recently watched. The Spooky Stacks are online at https://lett...

This week, as Shana and j. head on into the spooky season, we start off with Paul Schrader's 1986 impressionist true crime film Patty Hearst (discussion running to 1:20:49), followed by Stanley Kubrick's psychedelic 1968 rogue AI epic 2001: A Space Odyssey (continuing to 2:56:17). October is horror month and that means all selections are from The Spooky Stacks: https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/t...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. delve into modern nunsploitation with Paul Verhoeven's 2021 film Benedetta (discussion going to 1:46:49), followed by the 1988 French surreal coming-of-age crime drama Sound and Fury (directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau, discussion continuing to 3:14:25), followed as usual with some discussion of other movies we've watched this past week and decision on what we'r...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. return to our very gradual coverage of the Zatoichi series with part three, 1963's New Tale of Zatoichi (directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, discussion running to 1:07:58), then get very meta with Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994, discussion continuing to 3:05:19), concluding as always with some discussion of other movies we've watched in the past week and decisions on...

Shana and j. go extra long this week, starting with the follow-up to The Wild Boys, Bertrand Mandico's 2021 lesbian sci-fi acid western After Blue (aka Dirty Paradise, discussion running to 1:43:26), followed by Stanley Kubrick's legendary 1960 sword and sandal epic Spartacus (carrying on to 4:01:53!), concluding as always with discussion of other films we've watched during the week and decision-m...

This week in The Stacks, Shana and j. talk swingin' malltopia masterpiece Logan's Run (1976, directed by Michael Anderson, discussion running to 1:31:24), followed by the German thriller Out of Order (1984, directed by Carl Schenkel, discussion continuing to around 2:35:35, with maybe a little bit of puppet erotica talk in there too), concluding as always with additional capsule reviews and decisi...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. continue the All the Haunts Be Ours folk horror box with 1970's Witchhammer (directed by Otakar Vávra, discussion continuing to 1:21:14), followed by the 2015 Hungarian romantic black comedy Liza the Fox-Fairy (directed by Károly Ujj Mészáros, discussion running to 2:29:20), then of course we make our decisions on what to cover next week. The live list of The...

This week, Shana and j. talk about Park Chan-Wook's excellent 2000 political drama of soldiers in the DMZ between North and South Korea, JSA (discussion going until 1:12:29), followed by Leslie H. Martinson's delightful 1966 Batman feature film, based on the classic TV series (discussion continuing to 2:47:18), as always concluding with some discussion of the other stuff we've watched that week an...

This week, Shana and j. talk about the third film in the Yokai Monsters series, Along With Ghosts (1969, directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda & Yoshiyuki Kuroda, discussing running to 57:13), which has surprisingly few yokai as it turns out, followed by 2011's surreal regional horror pastiche The Oregonian (directed by Calvin Lee Reeder, discussion continuing to 2:07:17), then of course some mini reviews...

This week, Shana and j. talk about the 1994 Coen Brothers' Preston Sturges tribute film, The Hudsucker Proxy (discussion running to 1:13:47) and dive into some full-scale Bayhem with the 2022 Michael Bay flick Ambulance (discussion continuing to 2:48:50), of course followed by brief capsule reviews of some additional movies we've watched in the previous week and decisions on what to cover next wee...

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. are talking some metaphorical deadly angels. First up is the Italian western I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death, the second in the Sartana series (1969, directed by Giuliano Carnimeo, discussion continuing to 1:23:26). After that, we have such a delightful conversation about Luis Buñuel's surrealist satire The Exterminating Angel (1962) that we simply can't sto...

It's car week on The Stacks, as Shana and j. discuss the 1962 Yasuzo Masumura corporate noir Black Test Car, about bitter competition in the postwar Japanese auto manufacturing business (discussion running to 1:10:33), followed by the 1978 goofy car chase action comedy Stingray, directed by Richard Taylor (discussion continuing to 2:27:26), and then some talk about The Unbearable Weight of Massive...

This week, Shana and j. fill in a gap in our discussion of the films of Shinya Tsukamoto with 1990's oddball suburban 80s-American-horror-styled Hiruko the Goblin (discussion going to 1:14:00), followed by Daisuke Miyazaki's 2019 film of intense urban alienation, Videophobia (discussion continuing to 2:29:22), and then of course discussion of additional movies watched in the previous week and deci...

This week, Shana and j. are talking about two very different early 70s crime pictures, returning to the Female Prisoner Scorpion series with the fabulous, surreal second entry Jailhouse 41 (directed by Shunya Ito, 1972, discussion running to 1:11:50), followed by the twisty, oddly satirical Charles Bronson mafia conspiracy thriller The Stone Killer (directed by Michael Winner, 1973, discussion run...

Due to an unexpected schedule change, the regularly scheduled episode is postponed for one week. In the meantime, this week Shana and j. are discussing the genderfluid surrealist coming-of-age film Les Garçons Sauvages (The Wild Boys, 2017, directed by Bertrand Mandico). The live list of The Stacks as always can be found online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week in The Stacks, Shana and j. discuss Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1942 wartime espionage classic, Saboteur (going to 1:18:18), followed by Miguel Llansó's wild 2019 Afro-futurist romp Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway (continuing to 2:23:32), then on to our moves and picks for next time. The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week, Shana and j. talk about the influential 1966 Shaw Brothers / King Hu wuxia Come Drink With Me (discussion running to 1:14:41) and Graham Mason's affectionate 2020 pastiche of 70s TV mystery drama, Inspector Ike (discussion continuing to 2:30:37), followed as always by discussion of a bunch of other movies j. watched this week and decisions on what to cover next. The live list of The Sta...

This week, Shana and j. discuss the classic revenge western, Backlash (1956, directed by John Sturges, discussion going to 1:16:46) and the loopy creature feature Sting of Death (1966, directed by William Grefe, discussion going to 2:30:52), followed as always by our also watched this week, and picks for next week. The live list of The Stacks can be found online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/li...

For the 50th episode / 1 year anniversary extravaganza, Shana and j. discuss Andy Sidaris' best-known and best-loved picture, 1987's Hard Ticket to Hawaii (discussion running to 1:35:48) and the classic 1972 Barry Shear action/crime drama Across 110th Street (running to 2:37:05). In part 3 after choosing next week's films, we present our various awards for the 101 movies we've watched in our first...

On this week's episode, Shana and j. discuss a couple fun 80s pop-horror films, Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys (1987) and Mark Lester's Firestarter (1984), followed as always by discussion of other films watched and our picks for next week. Discussion of Lost Boys runs to 1:19:53 and Firestarter to 2:26:00. The live list of The Stacks can be found online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-...

This week, Shana and j. discuss the iconic Harold Lloyd silent era classic Safety Last! (1923, dirs. Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor) as well as the definitive summer blockbuster, 1975's Jaws (directed of course by Steven Spielberg). Discussion of the first film runs to 1:16:16 and the next to 2:26:41, followed by the usual discussion of additional films watched and deciding on what to watch next...

This week in The Stacks, Shana and j. discuss the 1969-shot, 1971-released Al Adamson exploitation picture The Female Bunch, featuring a very menacing Russ Tamblyn and a much less menacing Lon Chaney Jr. For our second feature, we talk about the intensely visual psychedelic medieval film The Green Knight (2021, directed by David Lowery). Discussion of The Female Bunch goes to 1:22:33, and The Gree...

It's western week on The Stacks, as we talk about the classic Clint Eastwood revisionist western High Plains Drifter (1973) and the hyper-kinetic, star-studded (and thoroughly underappreciated) Sam Raimi splatter-western The Quick and the Dead (1995). Discussion of High Plains Drifter runs to 1:22:35 and The Quick and the Dead to 2:27:03, followed as always by discussion of additional movies watch...

This week in The Stacks, it's Cher vs an Army of Darkness! Shana and j. discuss the classic 1987 Norman Jewison romantic comedy Moonstruck (running to ~1:22:05), featuring a formative Nicolas Cage performance, and the 1992 Sam Raimi action-horror-comedy Army of Darkness (running to 2:07:05). Stay tuned for the third section, where j. goes over a unified Crystal Lake series theory and we have some...