Jacob Geller and Blake Hester are joined by Haley MacLean to discuss the second half of Remedy's 2001 game, Max Payne. Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today and find the premium feed at https://nebula.tv/somethingrotten/ Send thoughts and questions about this series to somethingrottenpodcast@gmail.com Follow Haley on Twitter: https:/…

With Kelly Krantz! Liliana Cavani’s psychological, post-Holocaust perverted thriller went down as one of the most controversial movies of all time. In a concentration camp during World War II, concentration camp officer Max (Dirk Bogarde) and his prisoner victim Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) form a sadomasochistic relationship. Their relationship is c…

Jacob Geller and Blake Hester are joined by Leo Vader to discuss the first half of Remedy's 2001 game, Max Payne. This episode discusses plot events through the mission "The Baseball Bat." Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today and find the premium feed at https://nebula.tv/somethingrotten/ Send thoughts and questions about this serie…

NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a hinky Hitchcock tale of mistaken identity, assumed identity, shifting truths, and a man with a huge butt chin using a SpongeBob-comically-small razor. Cary Grant stars as an ad man who gets caught up in a Cold War game of cat-and-mouse (he’s the mouse) opposite double agent Eva Marie Saint, Broadly European Bad Guy James Mas…

LEGEND is a 1985 fantasy film directed by Ridley Scott and written by William Hjortsberg. It stars Tom Cruise in one of his first leading roles as Jack, a pure-hearted forest-dweller who is in love with Princess Lily (played by Mia Sara). Hoping to show her something beautiful, Jack introduces Lily to two majestic unicorns that live in a remote par…

This week I'm joined by the talented LESLY JULIEN who returns to the the show to chat about the second issue of his fantastic Barbarian turned Wizard book SAVAGE WIZARD! Back SAVAGE WIZARD here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leswrite/savage-wizard-1-2Follow Lesly Here:Twitter: https://twitter.com/LesWriteInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/…

THE BEASTMASTER is a 1982 fantasy action movie directed by Don Coscarelli (best known for the PHANTASM films #TheBallIsBack). Marc Singer stars as Dar, rightful heir to the throne of Aruk and prophesied slayer of the evil priest Maax (Rip Torn). Born with the power to speak to animals, Marc befriends a number of mammals on his journey to reclaim th…

Featuring filmmaker/programmer Kris Montello and Something Rotten host Blake Hester! SAMURAI REINCARNATION is a 1981 samurai fantasy action film written and directed by Kinji Fukasaku. Shiro Amakusa (Kenji Sawada) is the sole survivor of a massacre of Japanese Christians during the Shimabara Rebellion. Witnessing the devastation, Shiro renounces th…

Jacob Geller and Blake Hester answer listener questions and receive fascinating feedback about Disco Elysium. Assume full spoilers! MERCH: https://somethingrotten.bigcartel.com/ Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today and find the premium feed at https://nebula.tv/somethingrotten/ Send thoughts and questions about this series to someth…

This week I am joined by writers and creators of the new Image Comic's series THE CABINET, David Ebeltoft and Jordan Hart! Awesome dudes who can write one hell of a book! Check it! Additionally I check out some great coffee from RUSTY DOG COFFEE, great new LP's by AMARANTHE and LODESTAR, and a fun new comics series by Alex Osbourne and Hugio A.R.T.…

Noted Arnie fan Celia Mattison is back to discuss the swords and sorcery classic!John Milius’s CONAN THE BARBARIAN adaptation limits its view of the character to his pursuit of vengeance and conquest. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a rich, pagan paean to one’s drive for self-determination! On this episode, we talk about what rocks in Arnold Schwarz…

Jacob Geller and Blake Hester are joined by writer Renata Price to finish ZA/UM's 2019 game, Disco Elysium. This episode discusses everything in the game post-shootout, and contains spoilers for the entire story. PRE-ORDER JACOB'S BOOK: https://www.lostincult.co.uk/howagamelives Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today and find the prem…

Two years before ALIEN (1979), Ridley Scott packed a bunch of audacious ideas about empire, masculinity, and class into his feature debut: THE DUELLISTS. Rival officers in Napoleonic France, Gabriel Feraud (Harvey Keitel) and Armond d’Hubert (Keith Carradine) are thrown into a mythical, divinely comic cycle of nearly deadly clashes after d’Hubert i…

Jacob Geller and Blake Hester are joined by writers Maddi Chilton and Josh Calixto to play through the third section of ZA/UM's 2019 game, Disco Elysium. This episode discusses day 4 up through the confrontation in the courtyard. PRE-ORDER JACOB'S BOOK: https://www.lostincult.co.uk/howagamelives Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today …

There wasn’t anything quite like Michael Roemer’s NOTHING BUT A MAN before it, and there arguably hasn’t been anything quite like it since. All the same, it’s often cited as “ahead of its time” – a critical, realistic look, almost documentary in nature, at the life of a black American man in the middle stages of the Civil Rights Movement. Duff Ande…

Jacob Geller and Blake Hester are joined by YouTube essayist Leadhead to play through the second section of ZA/UM's 2019 game, Disco Elysium. This episode discusses days 2 and 3 of the game. PRE-ORDER JACOB'S BOOK: https://www.lostincult.co.uk/howagamelives Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today and find the premium feed at https://ne…

Sweet, heartwarming, funny, and deeply weird, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH plays to its creator duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s strengths: swift writing, a flair for the dramatic, and deeply affecting images. David Niven stars as the should-be-late British RAF Squadron Leader Peter Carter, who falls in love with American soldier June (Kim…

This week I have returning guests HEATHER ANTOS (Editor-IDW, MARVEL) and MICHELE ABOUNADER (Sharp Wit and the Company of Women, The Color Of Always) jump on to discuss the LGBTQIA+ Charity Comic Anthology, WHEN I WAS YOUNG (all profits going to the Trevor Project), as well as the landscape of crowdfunding, trying to bully Michele into making a news…

Jacob Geller and Blake Hester are joined by YouTube essayist Razbuten to play through the first section of ZA/UM's 2019 game, Disco Elysium. This episode discusses the first in-game day of the game. PRE-ORDER JACOB'S BOOK: https://www.lostincult.co.uk/howagamelives Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today and find the premium feed at ht…

Five nuns. One Briton man-whore. A harem-turned-convent high in the Himalayas. Fellas – what could go wrong??? In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s BLACK NARCISSUS, an adaptation of Rumer Godden’s 1947 novel, external conditions reveal internal torment: Altitude, wind, and culture clashes in the hilltop former harem of Mopu help expose the re…

With special guest Bret Berg (Theatrical Sales Director at the American Genre Film Archive and Creator/VJ at the Museum of Home Video)! Bret Berg created the Museum of Home Video, a weekly stream comprising archival footage like commercials, TV shows, movies, and more, all edited for the quickest-hit emotional impact possible. Before he hosted two …

With special guest and Minnesotan Drew Tenenbaum (@AshCoolBro)! A threshing accident, exploding parade floats and trailers – contestants and participants in the Sarah Rose Cosmetics American Teen Princess Pageant meet untimely ends in a series of suspicious incidents in Mount Rose, Minnesota. In this episode (comprising exclusively Minnesota-born s…

This week I am joined by modern master Phil Hester (The Wretch, The Anchor, Mythic, Green Arrow, Irredeemable Ant-Man)! We chat about original art collecting, Industrial Metal, the indie boom of the 80's, why the industry should listen to Phil about new artists, questions from social media, and much more! Also, I finally get back to some intros and…

With special guest Natalie Marlin (@NataliesNotInIt)! Bi Gan’s lovelorn neo-noir follows Luo (Huang Jue) as he pursues Wan (Tang Wei), the woman he fell in love with years before. Luo weaves in and out of half-recalled memories to trace Wan’s whereabouts, only brushing shoulders with reality as he dodges his own past in pursuit of the fading memory…

Based on Charles Willeford’s noir novel, George Armitage’s MIAMI BLUES is ‘supposed’ to be about the escapades of Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward), a jaded, toothless Miami cop. Instead, it’s about Frederick J. Frenger Jr. (Alec Baldwin), a sociopathic, interloping hustler. Junior’s ongoing seduction of young prostitute Susie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) provide…

Dave Jordan returns to the podcast to chat about his awesome pedal company, NON-HUMAN AUDIO, and we go in about his journey to making pedals, why having lots of guitars is cool, some questions from social media and a whole bunch more!Follow Dave Here:https://www.nonhumanaudio.com/Twitter:⁠⁠https://twitter.com/thatdavejordanInstagram:⁠⁠https://insta…

Jacob Geller and Blake Hester answer listener questions and receive fascinating feedback about Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2. Assume full spoilers! Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today and find the premium feed at https://nebula.tv/somethingrotten/ Send thoughts and questions about this series to somethingrottenpodcast@gmail.com Follow J…

The truth behind the assassination at the center of Brian De Palma’s political paranoia thriller BLOW OUT isn’t really the point. It’s more about the ways in which fact comes to be distorted through many lenses, each built on relative understandings of the core event itself. When he happens to catch the sound of a politician’s murder on tape while …

In Béla Tarr’s dour, slow drama WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES, an aimless people’s anger and malaise is leveraged to violent ends by figures of power. A desolate town bristles when a traveling circus comes through with a stuffed whale as its centerpiece. Uncertain of its meaning, the townspeople respond with disbelief and skepticism as they suffer through…

Jacob Geller and Blake Hester are joined by former Kotaku journalist and current Double Fine community manager Harper Jay to play through the final third of Konami's 2001 title, Metal Gear Solid 2. This episode plays from after the sniping section with Emma all the way to the finale. Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today and find the…

With returning guest Blake Hester! BURST CITY is arguably more of a cultural document than a movie with a plot and a story. It consists largely of musical setpieces by the Japanese punk groups of its time, with plot threads (vengeful bikers, nuclear infrastructure, etc.) being more hinted at than shown. In this episode, Blake joins us to talk about…

This week I am joined by Writer SCOTT BRYAN WILSON (TRVE KVLT, PENNYWORTH, KILL MORE)! Join us as we chat about Dungeon Synth, making comics, Scott's work and approach to his new book KILL MORE, and a bunch more!Follow Scott Here:www.scottbryanwilson.comTwitter:⁠https://twitter.com/scottbrwilsonInstagram:⁠https://instagram.com/scottbrwilsonCOMICS-C…

Jacob Geller and Blake Hester are joined by YouTuber ThorHighHeels to play through the middle third of Konami's 2001 title, Metal Gear Solid 2. This episode plays up through the sniping section with Emma. Something Rotten is better on Nebula – sign up today and find the premium feed at https://nebula.tv/somethingrotten/ Send thoughts and questions …