Gartbage Film

Scary Summer, now known as Sunscream, continues with Jordan Peele's summer blockbuster spectacle creature feature: NOPE! It's a spoiler-full discussion about this high noon horror as we go super deep on creature design, its themes of exploitation and dehumanization, how NOPE rates as a western, and just how they made the sky look like that. Plus, Erin has a new segment drilling down into w...

Summer has arrived, a time of sunshine, vacations, and... horror culture!? That's right, it's Scary Summer on Gartbage! And to kick it off we're starting with Dario Argento's ode to colour, the original 1977 SUSPIRIA! Argento left the giallo behind for this supernatural tale, and we're here to discuss why that shift occurred, how he paid homage to his home-subgenre, and just ho...

We knew it would happen eventually: it's time to talk about the blue elephant in the room. It's our first episode on a Star Wars movie, it's RETURN OF THE JEDI! It's ROTJ's 40th anniversary and we've got it all: vaudeville C-3P0, previous script drafts, revising those drafts to shut down fan theories, our favourite little freaks, retcons, original endings, hedonism, bikinis...

Welcome to the jungle! It's very tense here! This week sees us stressed out in South America with a spoiler-filled discussion of William Friedkin's 1977 adventure thriller, SORCERER! One of the most cynical and nerve-wracking movies from the 70's, we're tapping into the source of that cynicism, just how much of this movie is based in reality, Tangerine Dream's killer soundtrack...

It's spring: flowers are blooming, love is in the air, and federal agents are after you. That's right, we're talking Soderbergh's OUT OF SIGHT! Hop in the trunk with us as we discuss the chemistry between Clooney and J-Lo, the enormous charisma of the supporting cast, and how freeze frames got us one of cinema's best title cards. And of course we're going deep on the trunk...

This week we're talking about savoury broth, mysterious strangers, and the power of food in society--it's satirist Juzo Itami's noodle western, TAMPOPO! It's a massive episode this week as we're discussing what makes this such a comfort favourite of many households, the immaculate costuming and food design, our favourite vignettes, and infamous egg swaps. No movie better examin...

Get over here for this week's episode: Paul W.S. Anderson's 90's techno music video, MORTAL KOMBAT from 1995! MORTAL KOMBAT was a favourite of Nick's growing up, and was recently Erin's first experience of anything Mortal Kombat. So come along as Nick has some embarrassing reminiscences, Erin decides what character she'd like to play as, and we gush over Christopher Lambert...

Thank you for making the Decision To Listen to today's episode on Park Chan-wook's black widow neo-noir, 2022's DECISION TO LEAVE! As this is the first time we've talked Park on the pod, we're covering his work in general, how important humour factors into his work, and where DECISION fits in. We get into the movie's structure, look, mystery, intimacy, and the colours blue...

It's our Valentine's Day episode! We're here to discuss growing up, young love, and Benjamin Britten: it's Wes Anderson's MOONRISE KINGDOM from 2012! Its rare for movies to take children's stories seriously, so we're talking about how it's accomplished here, how Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra mirrors the film's structure, and that it&#39...

We're back! After a much needed break, we've returned to talk about the best live-action Looney Tune movie, Joe Dante's meta-parody sequel GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH from 1990. Much like the space between this episode and the last, Gremlins 2 saw a long break after the original. We're here to talk about why that happened, how this is Joe Dante's most personal movie, and how rein...

Welcome to our 2nd holiday episode, and our final episode of 2022. We're ending the year with a stone-cold classic: Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT! We're getting to the bottom of how this film is both timely and timeless, what makes the depicted city-living loneliness feel so distinct and modern, and the magical balancing act of the happy/sad tone that makes every character endlessly rel...

The holidays are nigh upon us! We're kicking off our celebrations with Daryl Duke's 1978 Canuxploitation Christmas cat and mouse crime caper, THE SILENT PARTNER! If you only see one Canadian movie this year, make it this gem! We're going in depth on Elliott Gould's smarmy bank teller, Christopher Plummer's psychotic Santa, and Toronto in the 70's. Ever wondered what Canuxpl...

This week we're tackling grief, Chekhov, and driving tests: it's Ryusuke Hamaguchi's DRIVE MY CAR! Hamaguchi based his sprawling adaptation on the feeling rather than a literal portrayal of Murakami's writings, and we're discussing how he brought that to the screen. We're also touching on the performative artifice of car conversations, how language can sometimes be a barrie...

November is at an end, so it's time to wrap up Noirvember up with a holiday-ish noir: Shane Black's THE NICE GUYS from 2016! Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are a perfect buddy comedy duo, so we're discussing how they fit into this movie's "pop-noir" sensilibilities, our favourite of Ryan Gosling's shrieks, fairy tale LA, and we do our best (and fail) not to bring up Kis...

For week three of Noirvember we're getting violent and stupid with the Joel and Ethan Coen's debut, the neo-noir BLOOD SIMPLE! We're discussing the noir pedigree from which this springs, the absurd lengths they went through to get this movie made, the Coen's use of point-of-view to tell their stories, and the cinematic powerhouse M Emmet Walsh. Next week we're rounding out our...

For the 2nd week of Noirvember, we're going back to basics: Billy Wilder's seminal noir thriller, Double Indemnity ! We're diving into the real-life inspiration for the story, Billy Wilder feuding with censors and seemingly all of Hollywood, and Barbara Stanwyck's wig. This movie distilled the emerging noir genre, so we're examining the trappings from femme fatales to cinematog...

Don your trenchcoats and cynical outlooks on life: it's Noirvember! To get started we're talking about a Nick favourite, Robert Altman's neo-noir from 1973, The Long Goodbye. We're swooning over Elliott Gould's portrayal as the world's coolest loser, Arnold Schwarzenegger's tiny moustache, John Williams' music (singular), and how this movie leverages its unique cine...

It's Halloween day and we're pivoting seasonally--it's Álex de la Iglesia's Spanish horror-Christmastime black comedy, The Day of the Beast from 1995! We're getting into the Halloween/Christmas horror subgenre, breaking down Beast 's unsubtle satire of Spanish Christmas lore, and decide the podcast's opinions on Satan and fascism (pro- and anti- respectively). Plus, Nic...

It's time to get very paranoid and very sleepy: it's the sci-fi horror remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1978! We're learning about director Philip Kaufman's filmmaking philosophy, how you bring a pod person to life and the act of doppelganging, and the inherent Canadian-ness of Donald Sutherland. Plus, find out how grudges from the original movie impacted the writing p...

This week we're shouting Pom! and running around decrepit infrastructure to discuss 2017's surprise hit, Shinichiro Ueda's One Cut of the Dead ! We always talk full spoilers on the pod, so if you have any interest in this movie it's best to go in knowing as little as possible! To that point, we're talking about why exactly this movie's best shrouded in mystery and what we l...

For episode 69 (yes, nice, very good) we're fighting the very idea of predestination with the year 2000's Final Destination . We're enjoying the gleeful portents-on-superstitions filmmaking style of the aughts, rank the extreme kills, and discuss the philosophical ramifications of Death as Evil Toilet Water. Plus, yet another exciting edition of Grab-oid Onto These Facts. Next week we&...

Welcome to Spooky Season! What better way to kick it off than with Alfred Hitchcock's classic proto-slasher, Psycho! If you're like Nick and somehow knew none of the plot of this movie, go watch it now! We're discussing how Hitchcock helped create spoiler culture's framework, how well the destabilizing story beats hold up, and, of course, perverts. Plus, the lowdown on what makes B...

Fall has arrived! To celebrate, we're covering a peak autumnal film: Rian Johnson's Knives Out ! What makes a good whodunnit? This week, we're trying to solve that very mystery. We're musing on timeless vs timely films, our no-spoiler thoughts on Glass Onion, and what spoilers mean for our enjoyment of stories in general. Plus, we're talking about who and what we want to see in...

We're in a very specific mood this week--one that has us watching Wong Kar-wai's period masterpiece, In the Mood For Love from 2000! We have a lot of thoughts on Wong's idiosyncratic/potentially infuriating approach to movie-making, reminisce on how this helped us survive early pandemic days, and we'd be remiss if we didn't take the opportunity to talk about how gorgeous Maggie...

We've got 7 years til 2029, so pass the time with us this week with Terminator 2: Judgement Day from 1991! For us, James Cameron was the master of movies we caught snippets of on cable over numerous sessions, so we spent our time talking about his career overall, whether we prefer T2's theatrical or director's cut, our love of Sarah Connor, and what Cameron really thinks about cops. Pl...