Hit Factory

Writer, editor and podcaster Edward Ongweso Jr. returns to the show to kick off Denzember, a monthlong celebration of our greatest living actor, with a conversation about Spike Lee's seminal 1992 biopic 'Malcolm X'. It stands as one of Lee's most triumphant achievements and one of Denzel Washington's very best performances as one of the most significant figures of 20th century America. We discuss...

An introduction to our monthlong celebration of our greatest living actor, Denzel Washington. Get access to all forthcoming Denzember episodes as well as our entire back catalog and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. . . . . Our Denzember theme song is "FUNK" by OPPO.

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Creator of the "eventually, forever" newsletter and film twitter heavy Adam Sullivan joins us to discuss the brilliant Hayao Miyazaki and his 1992 film 'Porco Rosso'. Initially conceived as a short film exclusively for in-flight guests of Japan Airlines, th...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. We contracted the services of Jake Serwin, co-host of America's premier Clint Eastwood podcast Pod Casty For Me, to take on a pair of films about a professional assassin having a crisis of conscience after botching his most recent job. First up, we talk The...

Journalist and writer Séamus Malekafzali returns to the program for a lengthy conversation about Martin Scorsese's 1995 crime epic 'Casino'. Initially viewed by critics and audiences as a retread of Scorsese's masterful crime saga 'Goodfellas', the film has since been reevaluated as a masterpiece in its own right - one enriched by the director's late period films and preoccupations. We discuss the...

Chicago-based academic and horror obsessive Peter Raleigh joins to discuss reliable journeyman director Peter Hyams and his 1997 creature feature, 'The Relic'. Maligned critically and a failure at the box office upon its initial release, the film has endured as an example of the tactile, sturdy genre work of the 90s with capable hands on both sides of the camera, including brilliant creature desig...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Loose film critic and host of Marvelous! Or, the Death of Cinema podcast Nicole Veneto joins from Boston to discuss Alex Winter and Tom Stern's irreverent, gag-filled 1993 monster comedy 'Freaked'. The film is a genuine cult classic that was greelit, follow...

Vancouver-based filmmaker, educator, and podcaster Devan Scott joins to discuss Street Fighter: The Movie, based on the hugely popular Capcom video game franchise. Dismissed by both critics and fans of the game at the time of its release as a disaster, the film has since found a small but vocal faction of champions nearly 30 years later. We discuss the film as an example of what Devan calls "The A...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Artist and podcaster Kayte Terry joins from Philadelphia to discuss David Lynch's 1990 Palme d'Or winner 'Wild at Heart' starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern as starcrossed lovers on the run in an oddball road movie that showcases the director at his most e...

This week we're joined by our good friends Ian Rhine and Jake Serwin of the teriffic Clint Eastwood podcast Pod Casty For Me to discuss the Italian director Nanni Moretti and his 1993 personal essay/anthology film 'Caro Diario', awarded Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 when Clint served as the Jury President. We discuss Moretti as subject within his own films, and how his arch and...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Another solo episode this week as we discuss Michael Mann's thriller 'The Insider', based on the true story of whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and his explosive 1996 interview with 60 Minutes that exposed secrets about the tobacco industry and their complicity...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. We're solo for the first time in a while to talk about the romantic comedy '10 Things I Hate About You', a take on William Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' updated for the 1990s and set at a Pacific Northwest high school that looks an awful lot like...

Musician and film writer Soraya Sebghati joins from Los Angeles to venture into the lurid, strange world of...Toronto, ON, Canada and its mesmerizing underbelly of desire, longing, and grief in Atom Egoyan's 1994 breakout feature, 'Exotica'. We discuss Atom Egoyan as director - his keen sense for the uncanny amongst the mundane, and the ways 'Exotica' plays with artificiality, performance, and fac...

New York-based musician and America's Sweetheart Nick Miller joins to discuss the underseen 150-minute Extended Cut of Tom Hanks's directorial debut, 'That Thing You Do!'. It's a meandering, expansive version of the film that takes the original cut's effervescent (if slight) shot of pop nostalgia and, at its best, aims for comparisons to great surveyors of cinematic Americana like Robert Altman &a...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Friend of show Comrade Yui returns to discuss John Carpenter's 'Escape From L.A.', his raucous and acidic sequel to 1981's 'Escape From New York'. Derided by both audiences and critics, we offer a defense of the film as a vital work of Carpenter's late peri...

Fiction writer and editor A.A. de Levine joins to discuss Mary Harron's debut feature, 'I Shot Andy Warhol', featuring a seismic performace from Lili Taylor as the infamous feminist writer Valerie Solanas as well as Jared Harris as the late pop artist, and a moving turn from Stephen Dorff as trans icon Candy Darling. The film is a fascinating, frightening view into the life and experiences of Sola...

Film writer, editor, and podcaster Jake Tropila joins from Los Angeles to discuss the Coen Brothers' 1998 comedy 'The Big Lebowski', starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Though middlingly received both critically and commercially upon release, the film has gone on to become a genuine cult classic, launching a cottage industry of fan screenings, conventio...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Los Angeles-based literary manager Jarrod Murray returns to the show to discuss Robert Redford's 'Quiz Show', a true story of the massive 1950s scandal that revealed to the American public for the first time that the burgeoning television industry and the l...

New York-based film writer Jason Miller joins to discuss the strange, beautiful cinematic worlds of the unsung Alan Rudolph and his 1992 film 'Equinox' starring Matthew Modine as identical twin brothers separated at birth. We begin with a discussion of Rudolph's career, beginning as an assistant director to the great Robert Altman before branching out and producing some of the most compellingly id...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Writer and professional shit-talker Nadine Smith joins to discuss the mesmerizing wuxia masterpiece 'Green Snake'. We explain the storied career of the film's remarkable director Tsui Hark, often referred to in the west as "the Spielberg of Hong Kong". Then...

Jesse Hawken, host of Junk Filter Podcast, returns to the show to discuss 'Primal Fear'. The film is a taut piece of middlebrow entertainment which offers maximum reward as a cable classic. We discuss the film's two standout performances - one from aging handsome guy Richard Gere as a hotshot attorney looking for his next big break, the other from then-newcomer Edward Norton who took audiences by...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. San Francisco-based Drafthouse programmer Jake Isgar stops by to discuss 'Dick Tracy', Warren Beatty's dazzling passion project released during a brief, bygone moment in big-budget filmmaking when artistic liberty and studio buy-in were wed. We discuss the...

It's Hit Factory's third birthday, and you're invited to celebrate along with us! Join us as we count down our baker's Top Ten films from past episodes. Links To Episodes Mentioned Here: The Blair With Project Ravenous feat. Matt Monagle Lost Highway feat. Jonah Koslofsky Safe feat. Catherine Liu The Bridges of Madison County feat. Comrade Yui Close-Up feat. Roxana Hadadi The Game feat. Bilge Ebir...

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month. Returning Hit Factory favorites and fellow Neptune High Class on 1980 Sea Dogs Taylor Grimes and Hard Mike join for a testosterone-heavy conversation about Brian De Palma's 'Snake Eyes'. It's a throwback thriller that satisfies as both sleazy genre exercise...

Writer Maggie Serota joins to discuss the 1993 comedy 'So I Married An Axe Murderer', a movie that takes inspiration from classic screwball comedies, Hitchcock thrillers, and SNL-style sketch comedy in equal measure. We discuss the rise of the film's star, Mike Myers, a gifted comedic performer who dedicated much of his 90s output to an evolving pantheon characters, often involving elaborate makeu...