Twin Features

In this episode our Twin Feature is Bottle Rocket (1996) & The Mastermind (2025), as we try to define the ‘Post-Heist’ Film. In a literal sense: films that mainly take place after a heist. From a genre perspective: films that deconstruct the typical conventions of a heist movie, with characters less charismatically suave as they are idle, adrift in the socio-economic and political landscape th...

In this episode our focus is on Slasher Movies?... and our Twin Feature is Predator (1996) & No Country for Old Men (2007), as we discuss what defines a Slasher Movie, and how the typical codes and conventions of the sub-genre can transcend the overarching horror genre and be applied to action movies and thrillers in freshly effective ways. Sources: Hayward, S. (2006), Cinema Studies: Key Conc...

In this episode our focus is on Heroes & Villains and our Twin Feature is Happy Gilmore (1996) & The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007). When thinking of classic character types, there is a good chance the hero and the villain are the first that come to mind. Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader, Batman & The Joker, Chief Martin Brody & The Shark who terrorised Amity Island. In...

In this episode our focus is on Voyeurism and our Twin Feature is Wings of Desire (1987) & Under the Skin (2013). These films take place predominantly from the perspective of otherworldly beings, inconspicuously observing everyday lives in order to understand the human condition. Both take quite a left-field approach to the traditional notion of voyeurism and more specifically the 'gaze', subv...

In this episode our focus is on Stardom, and our Twin Feature is The Third Man (1949) & Pale Rider (1985). With Orson Welles in The Third Man and Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider, both films use their stars presence (or a notable lack of it) in similar ways. Two titans of cinema, Welles and Eastwood loom over these films, both as their characters within the story, and in the wider context of the f...