Hit Factory

We're joined by hosts of 30 Years Later Podcast, Ricky Camilleri and Chris Chafin, to discuss Todd Solondz's grimly funny ensemble comedy 'Happiness'. We discuss the writer/director's singular talent for handling "sticky" subject matter and characters, the film's remarkably prescient and timely themes of emmiseration and depravity in modern American existence, and why current media discourse and t...

No new episode this week, so enjoy this unlocked Patreon epsiode... We explore a fascinating critical and commercial dud from the great William Friedkin: 1995's erotic thriller 'Jade'. Topics include the pitch perfect performance from Linda Fiorentino, the film's brilliant "bare essentials" approach to its genres, and its thematic relationship to a classic of the 70s neo-noir canon. We also talk s...

For the first time in Hit Factory history, we're recording from separate locales to discuss Terry Gilliam's 1991 fantasy drama 'The Fisher King'. We discuss the bevy of brilliant performances (including an Oscar-winning turn from the great Mercedes Ruehl), Gilliam's singular ability to effortlessly navigate his film's disparate tones, and the subversive empathy the film employs in its consideratio...

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Masters of the Middlebrow and hosts of Dadcore Cinema Club Podcast, Brandon & Charlie, join us to discuss the Space Race drama 'Apollo 13', a technically masterful ode to the patriotism & resolve of Cold War America released as Boomers were forced to reckon with the ideological drift of the 90s - Helmed by one of our most proficient journeyman, Ron Howard. The crew take to the LEM and avoi...

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**Our April Fools Episode** A special advance preview of Aaron & Carlee's new limited series, Secs, Guys, and Videotapes : an exploration of Steven Soderbergh's 1998 crime thriller 'Out Of Sight'...one second at a time. On this episode, the Hit Factory hosts are joined by Chris Woodward and Kurt Schiller of the excellent Parents Just Don't Understand Podcast to explore second number 63. It's a...

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Writer and filmmaker Jeremy Herbert joins us to discuss the fascinatingly flawed 1991 action thriller, 'Out For Justice' and its star Steven Seagal, a singularly minted Hollywood asshole. We examine the film's lofty ambitions to transcend the limitations of both its genre and star with weighty monologues and largely ornamental subplots and characters, explore the bizzare, brief rise of Seagal's st...

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University of Toronto PhD candidate and writer Alex Ross joins to discuss culture writer Chuck Klosterman's latest collection 'The Nineties'. The book is a confounding, myopic work that frequently reveals both the sociopolitical blind spots of its author & the greater failures of Gen X to understand the decade's ramifications. We talk through the frenzied, dizzying construction of the book aro...

We're joined by Shawn Glinis, co-host of Wiseman Podcast, to discuss a defining nonfiction film of the 1990s - 'Hoop Dreams'. The film is a singular and heartbreaking portrait of urban living, the education system, race & class that also succeeds as an incredibly gripping sports movie told through the journeys of its two subjects - Arthur Agee and William Gates. Topics include the film's litan...

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Writer Bill Ryan returns to talk about a pair of early masterpieces from Joel & Ethan Coen - 1990's 'Miller's Crossing' and their follow up, 'Barton Fink,' released the following year. We discuss both films' stacked rosters of scene stealing performers, a rare occurence of "coolness" in the Coens' ouevre, and extol the value of trusting an artist with exemplary instincts even when you're not q...

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Caroline Thompson of the excellent movie podcast How Have You Not Seen joins us to discuss 'But I'm A Cheerleader' starring Natasha Lyonne & Clea DuVall. We talk the film's evolution from critically maligned coming-of-age comedy to Queer Canon Classic™, its sly anti-capitalist undertones, and the brilliant effect of comically satirizing one of the least funny places imaginable. Follow Caroline...

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Culture writer Bailey Herdé joins us to discuss 'The Piano', Jane Campion's brilliant period drama about yearning, desire, & passion set against the lush yet foreboding New Zealand wilderness. We chat about the film's pair of (unusual, but well-deserved) Oscar-winning central performances, its potent examination of 19th century colonialism through its male characters, and praise Campion's late...

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On our first episode of the new year, Owen Morawitz returns to discuss the 1994 action-thriller 'No Escape', a film set on the maximum security island prison of Absolom in the dystopian future of 2022. We discuss a few standout performances from the top-tier cast (including a rarely seen action hero version of Ray Liotta & best in show Stuart Wilson as the villainous Marek), how the film refle...

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Writer and podcaster Aaron Thorpe joins us (for once) firmly in the 21st century to discuss the 'The Matrix Resurrections', the divisive latest entry in the franchise. We examine director Lana Wachowski's incisive commentary on the commodification of revolutionary ideas, her vision of a less overt- but more insidiously oppressive- system of control, and the ways in which the film challenges the ne...

Writer and lifelong pro wrestling fan Zach Vasquez returns to discuss the 1996 Hulk Hogan holiday dud 'Santa with Muscles', executive produced by The Wolf of Wall Street himself, Jordan Belfort. Along with the film, we discuss the fractious history of the WWE, modern challengers to the promotion's hegemonic superiority, and the life and crimes of the man behind Hulkamania, Terry Eugene Bollea. Fol...

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Kurt & Chris from Parents Just Don't Understand return to discuss the lean, mean and underseen 1997 thriller 'Breakdown' starring Kurt Russell, Kathleen Quinlan, and indelible character actor J.T. Walsh. We discuss the simple pleasures of discovering a great movie while watching cable TV, the film's economical mastery of multiple subgenres, and the 90s resurgence of hicksploitation cinema as m...