Watch This With Rick Ramos

David Cronenberg's The Fly  In 1958 Director Kurt Neumann would direct a classic of the horror genre, the Vincent Price led, The Fly . A Horror Classic in the Mad Scientist genre, the film would be re-made (re-imagined?) almost three decades later, by the great Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg. Taking the basic idea of a science-fiction/mad scientist story, Cronenberg would expand and develop t...

Tom Holland's Child's Play In 1988 Director Tom Holland introduced movie audiences to Chucky, a Good Guy Doll who was meant to be Your Friend to the End .  Possibly the last time Horror films would create an icon, the evil and possessed Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif), would embody a strange late 80s Horror fiction that would draw on animatronic dolls that were popular at this time (Teddy Ruxpin an...

Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2  "After a Decade of Silence . . . The Buzz is Back"   And with that tagline audiences wer re-introduced to the Sawyer Family: The Cook, Chop-Top, and Leatherface. In 1986, Director Tobe Hooper would return to Texas for a sequel to - arguably - the greatest Horror film in the History of Cinema (respectfully acknowledging George A. Romero's Night of the Li...

Meir Zarchi's I Spit on Your Grave (AKA Day of the Woman )  In 1978 Meir Zarchi's  I Spit on Your Grave (originally titled Day of the Woman ) was released in theatres and would become infamous as one of the most polarizing and controversial films ever made. A rape and revenge picture following a young woman visiting the country to write her novel, the story quickly turns into one of sexual violenc...

Wes Craven's Last House on the Left This week we begin an examination of Violence in Cinema, but primarily Violence Directed Against Women in Cinema, beginning with a look at West Craven's 1972 Grindhouse "Classic" Last House on the Left. An infamous and controversial cult film, Craven's re-imagining and updating of Ingmar Bergman's 1960 Swedish Classic, The Virgin Spring , is not an easy viewing....

George Sluizer's The Vanishing Imagine Not Knowing. Imagine the struggle to move on if the person you love disappears from your life. In 1988 Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer would make one of the most subtle, tense, and troubling Thrillers cinema has known.  The Vanishing   (originally released with the Dutch title, Spoorloos) is the story of a couple whose lives are mysteriously and tragically upe...

John Alan Schwartz's Faces of Death Few films have live in the minds and memories of Gen X like 1978s Faces of Death . Presented as a documentary examining the fears, fascinations, and cult surrounding death and dying, John Alan Schwartz's film is a controversial and legendary exploitation classic. A film that was famously "Banned in 46 Countries" (a claim that is dubious, at best), Faces of Death...

Eric Steel's The Bridge  This week Mr. Chavez & I continue our dive into challenging films examining difficult subjects. In 2004 director Eric Steel and his crew focused his camera - day and night/7 days a week - on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Since it's opening in May of 1937, the bridge has been one of the most popular suicide sites in the world. Steel's film attempts to understand the s...

Robinson Devor's Zoo listener discretion advised Sometimes a documentary is simply facing an uphill, unwinnable, unsatisfying battle. Such is the case with Robinson Devor's 2007 investigation into the strange and perverted network of zoophiles ( those people sexually attracted to animals ). Chronicling the case of a Washinton State farm that hosted bestiality sessions, Zoo is a frustrating look in...

Kirby Dick's   SICK: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan - SuperMasochist  Listener Distrection Advised: There are a number of films that burrow into the hearts and minds of its viewers. In 1997 the Los Angeles poet, writer, performance artist, comic, and BDSM celebrity, Bob Flanagan would succumb - at the age of 43 - to cystic fibrosis (a disease that is comparable to drowning as one's lungs constan...

Nick Bromfield's Fetishes This week we dive into the world of High-End S&M/Bondage through the lens of provocateur director Nick Bromfield - Fetishes. A 1996 HBO documentary in the American Undercover series, Bromfield's camera walks into New York's exclusive, expensive, and fascinating world of dominatrixes, fantasy, race-play, whipping, humiliation, and dungeons. Lorded over by Mistress Raven an...

John Dahl's The Last Seduction Continuing with an idea that we started a few episodes back focusing on Lena Olin in Romeo is Bleeding , this week Mr. Chavez & I take a look at an overlooked neo-noir, erotic thriller from 1994 featuring a stand-out performance from Linda Fiorentino. Our basic idea is the difficulty of casting "dangerous and strong" female characters with intimidating and daring act...

J-P Valkeapää's Dogs Don't Wear Pants This week Mr. Chavez & I explore Finnish Cinema with a look at J-P Valkeapää's Dogs Don't Wear Pants. A brave and troubling look at emotional trauma, BDSM, and auto-ertotic asphyxiation, Valkeapää's 2019 erotic black comedy is an exploration of the erotic underground subculture of dominance and submission. There's a great deal to admire in this film including...

Peter Medak's Romeo is Bleeding  In the 1990s low-budget studio films on the periphery (in this case Polygram Filmed Entertainment) were being made with casts that - in some cases - would become mainstream stars throughtout the decade and the upcoming milennium.  1993s Peter Medak directed Romeo is Bleeding , is an under-watched, hidden gem with a cast that almost defines the 1990s - Gary Oldman,...

David Lynch's Wild at Heart  This week we return to a World of Dreams and the Land of Oz through the dark and chaotic eyes of David Lynch (January 20, 1946 - January 16, 2025). A Homage/Love Letter to the classic MGM masterpiece, Lynch's 1990 Wild at Heart is a pulsating cinematic shotgun blast. The story of young lovers breaking parole and crossing the country to find a future that is never clear...

Victor Fleming's (w/Directorial Contributions from George Cukor, Richard Thorpe, and King Vidor)  The Wizard of Oz A long time coming, this week's episode focuses on the 1939 MGM Technicolor Classic The Wizard of Oz . In the early days of the studio system, each studio focused on a specific genre, Metro Goldwyn Mayer was the home of the musical and The Wizard of Oz is one of the greatest, most rem...

Wolfgang Petersen's The Never Ending Story   This week we look into the cinematic psyche of Mr. Ibrahim Chavez. Our path is Wolfgang Petersen's 1984 Childrens' Dark Fantasy,  The Never Ending Story . A childrens' adventure/heroes journey of youth battling nihilism (in this case The Nothing ), bullies, parental loss, and the power of imagination, self-worth (self-belief), and self-realization. Poss...

John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China  When I first saw John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China , it was a Pan & Scan VHS copy from my local video store. I immediately fell in love with one of the strangest and most imaginative films of the 1980s. The fourth collaboration between Horror icon, John Carpenter, and Disney legend Kurt Russell (doing an over the top and ridiculous parody of...

James Mangold's Cop Land Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, and Sylvester Stallone in one of the most highly-anticipated films of the 1990s . . . Springing from the headlines of the 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s, and today, James Mangold's 1997 police corruption drama was released to critical acclaim and tepid box-office. In an era of 90s Independent filmmaking, focusing on newspaper/magazine headline...

Richard Linklater's Dazed & Confused (70s Soundtrack) This week Mr. Chavez & I return to Richard Linklater's 1993 "Hang-Out" Masterpiece,  Dazed & Confused , focusing on the importance and use of its soundtrack. Featuring Aerosmith, KISS, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, WAR, ZZ Top, Edgar Winter Group, and Deep Purple, among others, Linklater's "Cinematic Soundtrack" would establish nostalgia, youth, fr...

Andrew Dominik's Killing Them Softly It's becoming increasingly difficult to find straight-forward, honest, and personal stories at the movie theater. The low to medium budget films that populated the 1970s have cast a shadow that continues to excite and inspire modern audiences. In the wasteland of re-vamps, sequels, action and comic book dreg, a handful of pictures crawl out of the monotony. In...

Kevin Smith's Clerks The 1990s were a strange, wondrous, and hopeful decade for Cinema. Three decades later we look back on those mid 90s attitudes, trends, screams, and shouts. With the emergence of Sundance, The Weinsteins, and voices such as Tarantino, Fincher, Rodriguez, and others, Independent Cinema was flexing in a way that threatened the studios in much the same way the 70s thrilled, excit...

Richard Linklater's Dazed & Confused  On this week's episode we explore 1976 through the eyes of 1993, with Richard Linklater's slacker/high-school masterpiece, Dazed & Confused . Linklater's love letter to high school coming-of-age films is one of the stand-out productions of early 90s independent cinema; a film that blends aimless storytelling with a pounding and nostalgic 70s soundtrack, to rem...

Michael Mann's Heat   On this week's episode we celebrate our 600th episode with a look at one of the most important films of our generation, Michael Mann's Crime-Thriller, Heist Film, Masterpiece . . . the coming together of two of the greatest and most important actors of their generation, Al Pacino as Lieutenant Vincent Hannah and Robert DeNiro as Professional Criminal Neil McCauley in 1995s He...

Doug Liman's Go (1999) This week, we revisit an underseen/little-discussed comedy from 1999, Doug Liman's Go . In the 1990s cinema was overwhelmed by the influence, financial, and critical success of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction ; any number of copycats and knock-offs would flood theaters. Probably, the very best, would be Liman's three-story, intersecting narrative of young adults, struggling...