Hit Factory

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Montreal-based film programmer, writer, and critic Justine Peres Smith joins us to discuss Catherine Breillat's 1999 film 'Romance'. It's a fascinating film that challenges patriarchal views of intimacy and desire, exploring the interiority of one woman's sexuality with a bracing level of nuance and honesty. We discuss the film's graphic depictions of (purportedly unsimulated) sexual encounters an...

Cenephile and severe weather head @MatineeMode joins us to discuss 'Twister', one of the biggest hits of 1996. It's a film that takes several well-worn, sometimes quaint, and seemingly disparate cinematic tropes and combines them into a transcendent and irreplicable experience. We discuss the rise and fall of filmmaker Jan de Bont, from his time as one of Paul Verhoeven and John McTiernan's key co...

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Journalist and writer Séamus Malekafzali joins us to discuss the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle 'Eraser'. It's an above average & satisfyingly self-aware film that represents the waning impact of a once-dependable action formula. We discuss the film's gleeful subversions of action movie tropes and the ways it challenges Arnold's well-cultivated action hero status, the star's late-90s twili...

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Matt Belenky returns for another Carlee-less episode to discuss Steven Soderbergh's technical tour-de-force 'The Limey'. It's both a whip-smart, crackling crime film showcasing Steven Soderbergh at the height of his power and a mesmerizing, patiently observed rumination on memory, loss, and legacy. We discuss the metatextual significance of leads Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda as mutual elegies for...

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.

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.

Hit Factory's heroic duo take on Johnnie To's 1993 Honk Kong action spectacular, 'The Heroic Trio'. It's a super hero origin story featuring three of Hong Kong cinema's most remarkable leading women - Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh, & Maggie Cheung - and a wellspring of imagination & style unrivaled by western action movies of the era. We discuss the dynamic burst of imagination at the center of...

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Returning guests Kurt Schiller and Chris Woodward join us to discuss James Bond's first foray into a post-Cold War world, 'GoldenEye' featuring two notable "firsts": Pierce Brosnan's debut as the international super spy and the first Bond film helmed by director Martin Campbell (who would return to update Bond again for a post-9/11 audience with 'Casino Royale'). We discuss the troubled history of...

We venture into the near future of 1999 to take a look at the VR cyberpunk action spectacular 'Virtuosity' starring Denzel Washington and a then-unknown Russell Crowe in what Carlee argues is his best performance (with a few asterisks). We discuss the film's early arrival at the forefront of virtual reality stories that would become a lynchpin of late 90s science-fiction cinema, its impressive mix...

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Actor Ethan Embry joins us to discuss 'Boyz N The Hood', John Singleton's sharply observed coming-of-age story that explores Black life in South Central Los Angeles with all its rich contours intact. We have a wide-ranging conversation in which we discuss the film as one of the earliest mainstream successes of Black stories in Hollywood, the media controversies surrounding its theatrical release,...

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Chicago-based critic and author of the new book "Talk 90s with Me: 23 Unpredictable Conversations with Stars of an Unforgettable Decade" Matt Pais joins us to discuss the kids cult classic 'Heavyweights'. After a conversation about Matt's new book, we talk through the film's empathetic and nuanced portrayal of fatness (notably featuring an ensemble of actors of size), its place within the canon of...

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Journalist at KQED San Francisco Carly Severn joins us to discuss the 1997 thriller THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE. It's a film that is equal parts Faustian parable and John Grisham legal kitsch and features a scene-chewing Al Pacino as the titular prince of darkness. We praise the film's singular cast (including the aforementioned Pacino, Keanu Reeves in 90s accent mode, and an extremely commited Charlize...

Film critic Bilge Ebiri (Vulture, New York Magazine) joins us to discuss David Fincher's oft-diminished 1997 thriller, 'The Game'. It's a fascinating, intricate follow-up to the hit 'Se7en' that showcases Fincher at his most technically adept and stepping outside of his thematic comfort zone for the first time. We discuss the star power of Michael Douglas and why he is the perfect match for the mo...

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Los Angeles-based literary manager and producer Jarrod Murray joins the crew of the USS Hit Factory to discuss 'Under Siege', the 1992 action thriller starring Steven Seagal. We discuss the exemplary direction of journeyman Andrew Davis who would go on a year later to make his opus, 'The Fugitive', praise the transcendent performance of Tommy Lee Jones as the madcap leader of a group of nuclear te...

Critic, writer, and film historian Nora MacIntyre joins Aaron to discuss John Waters's 1994 satire 'Serial Mom' starring Kathleen Turner as the titular murderous matriarch. Topics include Waters's exploitation origins and the film's ties to splatter maven Herschell Gordon Lewis, the movie's brilliant send-up of the capitalist patriarchal structures of modernity, and the immediate prescience of the...

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.

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.