CinePhils

Existential themes in the Aliens films, questions of humanity, isolation, the Other, AIs and their natures, playing God, and meeting our gods. Special guest segment with Dr. Kim Baltzer-Jaray on gender in the Alien films

Viddying ultraviolence, free will, and behaviorism in the dystopian neoliberal state. And Beethoven, of course.

Madness, obsession, terrible cases of writer’s block, and other things philosophers go through.

Actually it is take 27, we’ve been away for too long. Nostalgia, simplicity, yearning, and a bit of humanity is the cure for cynicism. Also, well constructed cinematic, symmetrical camera work and such.

Rob and David hold forth on lyrical images, Sandler seriously acting, virtues of love in the spectrum, non-musical musicals, pudding and air miles, and having a love in your life that makes one stronger than anything you can imagine.

David and Rob discuss Scorsese’s hangups on women, fire, and dangerous things. Griffin Dunne’s problems selling his freak outs, alternate worlds when the bars close, Henry Miller and the problem with men in the 80s.

John Wayne vs. Robert DeNiro, on being awful and not knowing it, beautiful vistas, claustrophobic spaces, New York, incels, and the desaturated color of blood.

Rob and I forget the time and have a long, wide-ranging discussion of two Alex Cox films, one of which ended his Hollywood career, and the other of which is a great Mexican film albeit filmed by a Brit. Politics, ethics, cops, colonialism, and of course some philosophy too.

David and Rob discuss Colonialism, propaganda, Italian realism, and cinema verité. A bit of philosophy too.

Rob and David discuss legal epistemology, post-truth, Justice, and the unbearable whining of whistleblowers, all while surviving internet outages, failures to record, etc.

The social geography of class, police procedurals, and the cinematography of bottle episodes, inter alia.

Wherein Rob and David consider lone wolves, moral ambiguity, intellectual property, and Japanese westerns.

Rob and David consider fedoras, trench coats, and various cinematic tropes.

Samurais, bushido, caffeine, nicotine, Roshomon, Mahler, and a what we have here is a failure to communicate. Pretty much all of it here in one episode.

David and Rob ruminate about Hong Kong pre-turnover, love, grunge, cops, assassins, expired pineapples, and nostalgia for things one never had.

David and Rob consider ducts, dream states, corporate fascism, and the liberating power of imagination. Did we mention ducts?

Starkly different views on Stalker from our two hosts who muse about the metaphysics of The Zone, the Soviet state and its moodiness, and visceral responses to movies.

Lovecraftian horror, elder gods, ancient ones, and the metaphysics of fiction are among our topics. We also surmise that the Einstein-Rosenberg bridge is covered and wooden, and Stephen King is rightfully lambasted.

Rob and David riff on road movies, cosmopolitanism, the dangers of video and cheap images, and U2.

David and Rob take a trip into hyperspace, agree on William Hurt's carrying the film, explore the nature of reality, evolution, good and bad special effects, and Paddy Chayefsky's dialogue which is not exactly a Platonic ideal. 

Rob and David ponder identity, selves, replicants, and the Ubermensch while geeking out to their favorite sci-if masterpiece.

David and Rob discuss nihilism and gratuitous ingenue nudity in the neo-noir Night Moves, and the layered. brilliance and a God’s eye view in The Conversation.

David and Rob consider two interpretations of the film, Nietzschean vs. Sartrean. Is Mark Ruttland a hero or villain?

Rob and David talk about French existentialism and two works of brilliant but unfortunately and tragically not prolific director Henri-George Clouzot who defined the thriller genre for directors to come.

Rob and I finally manage to sound like we’re in the same room that isn’t being broadcast from Mars, audio-wise, more or less, and take on this fascinating end-of-an-era 70’s hidden gem.