Hit Factory

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We're joined by film writer and filmmaker Jonah Koslofsky to go long on the 1997 neo-noir mindbender Lost Highway, a turning point in the career of David Lynch which would lay the stylistic groundwork that would come to define his output through the next 20+ years. We discuss the filmmaker's singular (and unexpectedly humanist) aesthetic, the futile endeavor of talking about David Lynch literally,...

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We're guestless first the first time in a while to discuss Wes Anderson's feature directorial debut, 'Bottle Rocket'. We detail the film's turbulent origins from a 16mm short film that played Sundance to a DOA box office dud, praise the breakout performances from fledgling stars Owen & Luke Wilson, and position the movie adjacent to other 90s indie breakouts about the listlessness of youth at...

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What's your favorite scary movie? Culture writer Lindsay Lee Wallace joins us to revisit Wes Craven's slasher-reinvention "SCREAM" as it nears its 25th anniversary. We discuss the film's sensational cast of rising stars, its brilliant subversion of well-worn (and fundamentally conservative) slasher tropes, and the distinctively personal meditation on grief and loss that elevate the film beyond its...

We recently joined our friends Forrest Miller and J. Andrew World on their livestream podcast Movie Night Extravaganza to revisit the 'The Blair Witch Project'.  In this audio of our livestream episode, we watch extensive media and interviews released near the film's 1999 Sundance and theatrical premieres, and expand upon some key points from our original 2020 episode, including the film's legacy...

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. . . . For the month of October, we are donating all of our Patreon proceeds to the UAWD Reform fund for John Deere workers on strike. Please also consider donating to the fund directly. John Deere workers are already being arrested, going without health ins...

Mattie Lewis is a St. Louis-based writer and co-host of The PodHand - a podcast delving into Kentaro Miura's Berserk, dark fantasy, horror and all things grimdark. She joins us to discuss a singular work in the sci-fi/horror canon, Paul W.S. Anderson's 'Event Horizon'. We chart the film's troubled production history, extol the virtues of Anderson's workmanlike approach to his craft, and explain wh...

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SCOTTEMBER concludes with Tony's brilliant naval submarine action thriller 'Crimson Tide' featuring near-best performances from two titanic actors: Gene Hackman & Denzel Washington. Film writer Zach Vasquez returns to discuss the real-world geopolitics that inform the film's ideology, the script's racial undertones (and how much we might have Tarantino to thank), and why this might be our favo...

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Writer and podcaster Gus Lanzetta joins us to discuss Tony Scott's prophetic surveillance technothriller 'Enemy of the State', starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman. We talk the who's-who ensemble of young 90s up and comers (including Jack Black, Jason Lee, and Seth Green), explore the film's libertarian-leaning (and liberal-indicting) perspective on national security, and make the case for Tony as...

For $5/month, Hit Factory Patrons have exclusive access to every episode of SCOTTEMBER, along with our back catalog of premium episodes and bonus content.

We kick off SCOTTEMBER with "the 'Chinatown' of racecar movies," and one of Tony's first films of the 1990s, 'Days of Thunder'. Taylor Grimes returns for his hat trick as we talk about the persistent popularity of NASCAR, Cole Trickle as a continuation of Tom Cruise's career-long delineation of the meritocratic mindset, and relish Robert Duvall dirty-talking a chassis. We also begin to sketch our...

Culture writer Owen Morawitz joins us to discuss Roland Emmerich's galaxy-hopping 1994 sci-fi action blockbuster 'Stargate'. With the help of the well-studied Owen, we unpack the film's open-ended  (sometimes shallow) mythology, examine 'Stargate' as a Gulf War parable, and briefly discuss the ongoing challenges of separating the art from the artist. Readings: Variety: 'Stargate Turns 25: How Rola...

Sarah Jaffe is a reporting fellow at Type Media Center and the author of 'Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone' . She joins us in our den-of-slack to discuss 'Reality Bites' directed by Ben Stiller and starring some of your all-time 90s faves Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, and Stiller himself. Topics include the flatt...

Film writer Kyle Turner joins us to discuss Peter Jackson's horror-fantasy thriller 'Heavenly Creatures', the movie that introduced the world to Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. We discuss the film's bridging of Jackson's early horror experiments and his later fantasy epics, explore the colonial dynamics personified by the relationship at the center of its narrative, and canonize the film in the...

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"Who's ever written the great work about the immense effort required not to create?" Robert Raymond of Upstream Podcast joins us to discuss Richard Linklater's breakout indie hit 'Slacker'. We go long on the film's radically impressionistic narrative form, the tepid nature of modern political cinema, and slacker culture's demise at the hands of the neoliberal project. Consider supporting the podca...

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Film writer Zach Vasquez joins Hit Factory to discuss the David Mamet-penned wilderness survival thriller 'The Edge' starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin. Topics include the film's relationship to classic mythology, the frustrating politics of one of America's great storytellers, and praise for the exemplary performance of Bart the Bear. Consider supporting the podcast by becoming a Hit Facto...

Toronto-based writer, filmmaker, and host of Junk Filter podcast Jesse Hawken joins us to discuss Curtis Hanson's thrilling 1997 crime epic "L.A. Confidential". We go long on the near-flawless narrative and aesthetic choices of the film's creators, its complex indictment of modern policing, and the complicated politics of the story's original architect, novelist James Ellroy. We also make the case...

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