Junk Filter

Veteran political columnist Jeb Lund ( @mobute ) returns to the podcast to dissect  Ella McCay , the baffling film that marks James L. Brooks’ return to the director’s chair after 15 years. Set in 2008, the film stars Emma Mackey (no relation) as an idealistic young lieutenant-governor vaulted by circumstance into the governor’s seat, only to be immediately dragged down by a political scandal invo...

Access this entire 161-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus episodes, including the entire Prefab Sprout series) by becoming a Junk Filter patron! https://www.patreon.com/posts/230-prefab-with-154429820 On the fifth episode of the Junk Filter miniseries exploring the work of the cult UK band Prefab Sprout, Jared Bailey, the cohost of the Southern Accents pod, returns from Columbia, South C...

CW: Spoilers for The Secret Agent. Writer and podcaster Gus Lanzetta joins us from São Paulo for a deep dive into two recent works of the great Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho. We explore how the northeastern coastal town of Recife serves as a lifelong muse for the director, starting with his 2023 personal "audio-visual essay," Pictures of Ghosts , which maps the fading movie pa...

Access this entire 115 minute episode (and additional monthly bonus episodes, including the entire Prefab Sprout series) by becoming a Junk Filter patron! https://www.patreon.com/posts/228-prefab-songs-151720106 In the fourth episode of the Junk Filter miniseries exploring the work of the UK band Prefab Sprout, I’m joined by Patrick Svensson, a library worker in Seattle, for a track-by-track discu...

The film writer Brian Abrams returns to discuss Predator 2 (1990), directed by Stephen Hopkins. The sequel swaps Arnold Schwarzenegger for Danny Glover and transplants the action to a sweltering, near-future Los Angeles in 1997, where climate collapse and gang warfare create the ideal hunting ground for an extraterrestrial predator on safari. Often dismissed as a crass, hyper-violent downgrade fro...

Access this supersized 148 minute episode (and additional monthly bonus episodes, including the continuing Prefab Sprout series) by becoming a Junk Filter patron! Only $5 (USD) a month! https://www.patreon.com/posts/226-prefab-from-145775014 In part three of the podcast’s series exploring the work of the extraordinary UK band Prefab Sprout, I am joined by Atlanta-based critic and theatre scholar B...

Access this entire 115 minute episode (and additional monthly bonus episodes) by becoming a Junk Filter patron! https://www.patreon.com/posts/225-prefab-steve-144565815 On the second episode of our Prefab Sprout series, I am joined by Vanity Fair staff writer Erin Vanderhoof for a detailed discussion of the band’s second album, Steve McQueen. Released in 1985, Steve McQueen was produced by a fan o...

Access this entire 71 minute episode (and additional monthly bonus episodes) by becoming a Junk Filter patron! https://www.patreon.com/posts/224-brian-de-hi-144418287 The actor and writer Mike Mekus returns to the show from Brooklyn to discuss Brian De Palma’s third feature, the vicious satire  Hi, Mom!  (1970). The film features a breakout performance by Robert De Niro as a young man back from Vi...

The film writers Robert Rubsam and Corey Atad join the show for a discussion of two apocalyptic nuclear thrillers, Sidney Lumet’s Fail-Safe (1964) and Kathryn Bigelow’s brand new Netflix production A House of Dynamite . Both Dr. Strangelove and Fail-Safe were released by Columbia Pictures within months of each other in 1964 (as the result of a lawsuit stemming from the respective novels the films...

Will Sloan returns to the pod to discuss his new monograph Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA , which provides fresh insight on the legendary “bad” director by considering his entire body of work. For this episode we focus on the final frontier for Ed Wood fans, the pornographic films and books he produced in the twilight of his life. We discuss in detail 4 of his XXX features: Take It Out in Trade (1...

Access this entire 109-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.patreon.com/posts/221-prefab-swoon-141013448 Writer, filmmaker and co-host of the Box Office GROSS podcast Rob Stammitti joins me from Pittsb...

CW: Spoilers for 28 Days Later and discussions of disturbing subject matter. Jacob Dallas and Lenore Olson of the literary podcast The Socialist Shelf join me from Atlanta for a discussion of Danny Boyle’s  28 Years Later . Set a couple of decades after the UK was consumed by the Rage Virus of the first film and is now a nation isolated from the rest of the world,  28 Years Later  takes place on a...

CW: Spoilers for Eddington and discussions of cinematic violence and sexual abuse. The film writer Del Winters joins me from Philadelphia for a deep dive into Ari Aster’s contemporary Neo-Western/Comedy/Horror hybrid Eddington , starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone. Set in a fictional small town in New Mexico during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Eddington depicts a show...

Access this entire 84-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://www.patreon.com/posts/218-fantastic-136977726 My first twin guests for the show, the film writers Adam and Liam Quane, join the podcast from the Live...

This episode contains spoilers for Superman . The film writer Jessica Ritchey returns for a look at James Gunn’s hard reset of the DC cinematic universe starting with his new  Superman , starring David Corenswet as the Last Son of Krypton, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. After a decade of Henry Cavill’s Übermensch Superman, Gunn has returned to the original ide...

The veteran boom operator for film and television Sean Armstrong returns to the show for a deep dive into Joseph Kosinski’s new big budget sports drama F1®: The Movie starring Brad Pitt as former racing prodigy Sonny Hayes who returns to the Formula One circuit decades later at the behest of his old friend, APXGP team owner Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) to provide mentorship to his hot-headed yo...

In this Junk Filter sequel to our discussion of season 1 of Tony Gilroy’s Star Wars: Andor streaming series, the writers Roxana Hadadi and Corey Atad return to assess the second and final season, which compresses the four years leading up to the start of Rogue One into four sets of three-episode arcs. On this episode we discuss the program’s political content and Gilroy’s refusal to play Culture W...

The film writer Meg Shields returns to the podcast from Vancouver for a show to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Tobe Hooper’s schlock sci-fi horror masterpiece, Lifeforce . Cannon Films’ big swing for the fences, Lifeforce had an astronomical budget for the time, with huge practical sets, hundreds of extras and innovative special effects from the great John Dykstra including massive miniature...

The film writers Brian Abrams and Will Sloan return to the podcast for a salute to one of our favourite screen presences, the great American character actor Joe Don Baker, who passed away this month at the age of 89.  We discuss the full arc of Joe Don’s career, thrust into leading man status in the early seventies playing Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser who waged war against the Dixie Mob in 1973...

Access this entire 90-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.patreon.com/posts/212-accountant-2-128936873 The comedy writer Ursula Lawrence returns to the podcast from Madison Wisconsin for a sequel to our Junk...

CW: This episode contains discussions of alcoholism and cinematic violence including animal cruelty. The writer, comedian and musician Patrick Marlborough returns to the podcast from Perth, WA to discuss Wake in Fright (1971), the landmark Australian film by the late Canadian director Ted Kotcheff.  One of only two films to be shown twice in the history of the Cannes Film Festival, and influential...

The writer and podcaster Will Sloan returns for a show about Robert De Niro’s latest film, Barry Levinson’s The Alto Knights , where he plays two parts on screen, the mob boss Frank Costello and his hotheaded rival Vito Genovese, and their decades-long struggle for control of the New York mafia. The Alto Knights was the pet project of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who brought this expen...

Access this entire 92-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/posts/209-beekeeper-126797811 The writer and friend of the pod Adam Jackson returns for a look at the new dynamic duo of American action cinem...

To mark the passing of the great Gene Hackman, the writer and critic Sean T. Collins and the cartoonist and graphic novelist Julia Gfrörer are my special guests for a deep dive into one of our favourite films, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation  (1974). The Conversation  was groundbreaking in terms of film editing; when Coppola was pulled away to direct The Godfather Part II , editor Walter M...

Access this entire 87-minute episode (and additional monthly bonus shows) by becoming a Junk Filter patron for only $5.00 (US) a month! Over 30% of episodes are exclusively available to patrons of the show. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.patreon.com/posts/207-john-ford-124925337 The writer and film programmer Chris Cassingham returns to the podcast from Milwaukee to discuss one of John Ford’...