The 1942 film RAZA is a Spanish propaganda film written by THE Fascist Supreme himself Francisco Franco, showcasing the rise of Spain's Nationalist Movement through the eyes of a single family. RAZA checks all the boxes of fascist propaganda: an obsession with a "noble death" in the name of empire, ahistorical interpretations of rival political mov…

We start a three episode series discussing movies that depict the Spanish Civil War and Francisco Franco's fascist rule in Spain. First up is Guillermo Del Toro's 2006 fantasy Pan's Labyrinth. Discussion includes: Recent watches: Wolf Man (2025), Heart Eyes (2025), Presence (2024), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), Let's Start a Cult (2024), and The Ta…

For our fiftieth episode, we welcomed burlesque and sideshow performer extraordinaire Indie Sinclair to discuss THE cult film of all cult films: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. We discuss the film's lasting legacy and the community its builr over the last fifty years. Discussion also includes: This year's Oscar nominations; The passing of David Lync…

In our first episode of 2025, we discuss the Godfather of Filth John Waters and his rollicking 1988 film about integration in Baltimore: Hairspray. Discussion also includes: Other recent watches: NOSFERATU (Robert Eggers), THE LAST SHOWGIRL (Gia Coppola), FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! (Russ Meyer), and ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (Don Siegel); Farm labor …

It's the end of the year, so it's our end of the year wrap-up special! Hal and Craig discuss their favorite new movies of 2024, as well as some of their favorite first time watches! Discussion also includes: A new entry in Hal's favorite sub-genre: NUN movies! Kendrick Lamar's new album "GNX"; Shotime's excellent series Yellowjackets; Quentin Taran…

We did one of Craig's favorite kind of episodes: making Hal watch a terrible conservative movie! This time, we watched Sean McNamara's 2024 film, and shameless hagiography, REAGAN. Discussion also includes: Recent watches: CONCLAVE (2024), HERETIC (2024), ANORA (2024), KAMIKAZE HEARTS (1986), ALTERED STATES (1980), and THE NIGHT PORTER (1975) Matt …

Spooky season concludes with Nia DaCosta's 2021 sequel Candyman. We discuss America's legacy of violence against black bodies and the undue burden put on black artists to represent black pain "the right way". Discussions also include: Our two-year pod-iversary. Hal's book club reading of D.H. Lawrence's WOMEN IN LOVE; Craig saw Damien Leone's Chris…

We had a delay recording our next episode. So in lieu of a new episode (coming soon, but after the election...), here's Hal encouraging you to VOTE YES ON 4 for REPRODUCTIVE JUSTIVE in Florida. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/desantis-administration-florida-amendment-4-abortion https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/art…

Spooky season continues and Hal and Craig watched Wes Craven's 1991 horror-comedy The People Under the Stairs. We discuss how the economic policies of Ronald Reagan (and his putrid Wormtongue Milton Friedman) led to our current housing crisis. Discussion also includes: Our favorite Wes Craven films; The bombing of the Al-Aqsa hospital in Gaza and P…

We start spooky season by discussing Brian Yuzna's 1989 body-horror satire SOCIETY. We use this film (where a man's face emerges from his own butthole) to have a serious discussion about Reaganomics and how America subsidizes the rich at the expense of the poor. Discussion also includes: Our other recent watches: The Substance, Rebel Ridge, Blink T…

For the final episode in our series on Fascism and Italian Filmmakers, we watched Pier Paolo Pasolini's controversial 1975 film SALO, OR 120 DAYS OF SODOM, and discuss the depravity of 1940s fascist Italy. (TW: this film, and our discussion of it, features graphic depictions of sexual assault and human degradation). Discussion also includes: How do…

It's the second episode in our series about fascism and Italian filmmakers. This time, we watched Bernardo Bertolucci's THE CONFORMIST. We discussed the fascist desire for "normalcy" and the fascist's urge to supress their sexuality. Discussion also includes: Tallahassee Film Fest; Ecuadorian AG attempts to blame leftists for a cartel assassination…

We begin a new three episode series on Italian filmmakers and their depictions of fascism. We start with Luchino Visconti's 1969 film THE DAMNED about an industrialist German family and the depravity they engage in as they navigate a working relationship with the ascendant Third Reich. Discussion also includes: Homosexuality during the rise of the …

For our final episode discussing films about Ernest "Che" Guevara, we watched Walter Salles 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries, an acount of Guevara's eye-opening journey through South America that inspired the revolutionary ideals Che would soon bring to all of Latin America. Also: Other recent watches: Love Lies Bleeding (2024), Dune II (2024), Bon…

Hal and Craig watched Steven Soderbergh's Che: Part Two (2008), chronicling Che Guevara's time fighting in the Bolivian Revolution and his eventual capture and execution. Discussion also includes: Craig's recent trip to Chicago (lots of Cubs and White Sox talk!); The Black Panther Cubs and Fred Hampton's legacy of community action; Hal's letterboxd…

Hal and Craig watch Steven Soderbergh's Che: Part One (2008), chronicling the life of Argentine Revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his time leading guerilla fighters in the Cuban Revolution. Discussions also include: Kendrick Lamar's Pop-Out Concert; Yorgos Lanthimos' new film KINDS OF KINDNESS; Paul Schrader and his sad, broken men; Hal break…

It's the final episode of our series The Reds, White, and Blue, looking at films about the red scare and a fear of a communist menace. This time, Hal & Craig watched Armando Iannucci's (Veep, In the Loop) satire "The Death of Stalin". We discuss Stalinism, how it diverges from Leninism, and whether or not the film is an effective satire. Discussion…

We continue our series on the Red Scare with Phillip Kaufman's 1978 adaptation of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" starring Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum. In our previous episode, we discussed the machinations of the Red Scare, and in this episode we talk about the paranoia and lives ruined in the wake of the Communist Panic. …

In this episode, Hal & Craig discuss John Frankenheimer's 1962 political thriller THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, and Janet Leigh and the cynical, political use of a vague Communist Menace. We discuss the history of the Red Scare, the legacy of McCarthyism, and the lives upended in its wake. Discus…

We welcome Daniel Harper and Jack Graham, co-hosts of the excellent anti-fascist podcast I Don't Speak German. We watched Spike Lee's incendiary 2018 thriller BlackKklansman. We discuss the history of the Ku Klux Klan, Hollywood's complicity in its rise, and Spike's reckoning with making a quasi pro-police film. Discussion also includes: David Duke…

Hal & Craig watched EARTH MAMA, the debut feature from writer-director Savanah Leaf. Discussions include The United States history of using Child Protective Services to police low-income and black Americans The OSCARS (we talk OPPENHEIMER, Lily Gladstone vs. Emma Stone, and Jonathan Glazer) We celebrate Hal's birthday by discussin their favorite di…

Hal & Craig watched John Sayles 1987 film Matewan. The film, starring Chris Cooper and James Earl Jones, tells the true story of the fight between West Virginia coal miners and union busters whose tactics grow increasingly more violent. Discussions also include: Aaron Bushnell and his remarkable protest against Palestinian genocide; Hal's new obses…

Hal and Craig discuss high-risk activism and the 2022 thriller How to Blow Up a Pipeline (dir. Daniel Goldhaber). We also discuss: The end of the Vince McMahon era of professional wrestling; The Insane Clown Posse (WHOOP! WHOOP!) and their fight against the FBI; The misogyny of the police, as seen in Netflix's AMERICAN NIGHTMARE; Jonathan Glazer's …

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss Steven Soderbergh's Traffic and its perspective on the War on Drugs, as well as our favorite Soderbergh films. Discussion also includes: The new king of hip-hop: Ben Shapiro; Craig accidentally watched a Christian horror movie; Steven Soderbergh at the forefront of new cinematic techniques; Movies with large e…

We wrap up our series on the films of S. Craig Zahler with perhaps is least palatable film DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE. In the 2018 crime thriller, Zahler focuses his increasingly fascistic lense on the issue of........police brutality (oof!). Starring Mel Gibson (double-oof!) and Vince Vaughn, Zahler's brand of gritty celluloid violence goes full-mask…

On this week's episode, we're switching up the format and doing a 2023 Review Show! Hal and Craig list their favorite films and performances of 2023. As well as discussions about their favorite first time watches (of non-2023 films) and favorite non-film media of 2023. And we discuss the not-so-good of 2023 and break down some of our least favorite…

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss colonialism by way of Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, an innovative film that delves into Algeria's National Liberation Front and their bloody battles against French colonizers in the 1950s. Discussions also include: New movie roundup: MAY DECEMBER, SATAN WANTS YOU, and EILEEN; How French coloni…

We continue our series examining the films of S. Craig Zahler and their increasingly bizarre depiction of a violent, conservative "uptopia/dystopia". This week we watched BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99, Zahler's attempt at a prison exploitation flick starring Vince Vaughn, Don Johnson, and Udo Kier. Also: We celebrate the death of Henry Kissinger, one of h…

We're talking labor unions! Hal and Craig watched Barbara Kopple's HARLAN COUNTY, USA, the ground-breaking 1976 documentary chronicling the struggles of coal mine workers in Harlan County, Kentucky as they fight against coal barons, police, and scabs in an effort to join the United Mine Workers of America. Discussions also include: Abortion rights …

We celebrate our 1 year pod-iversary by beginning a new series of conservative films, specifically the violent fantasies of S. Craig Zahler. We begin with Zahler's directorial debut Bone Tomahawk, a western-horror starring Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Matthew Fox, and Patrick Wilson. Zahler has a stylish eye and works well in genre conventions, b…

Hal & Craig discuss Bill Gunn's 1973 film Ganja & Hess and how its the perfect allegory for the nightmarish world wrought by post-colonialism. In addition, we discuss how the film was nearly lost to the sands of time and Sam Waymon's (who also stars in the film) incredible, haunting score. Also: Craig watched some bad Frankenstein adaptations; Hal'…

Spooky season continues with Bernard Rose's 1992 film Candyman. There's a lot to discuss! Hal and Craig break down how Candyman inverts the racist trope of the "savage brute". In addition, we look at Candyman's deft analysis of Chicago's Cabrini Green housing projects and how Candyman himself is a creation of White America whose pain tends to rever…

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss the sequel to Wes Craven's seminal horror classic. Hal takes Craig to school, dissecting this often-overlooked (and underrated) horror sequel and how it has become a classic in queer cinema for its often obvious (but sometimes quite subtle) metaphors to queer identity and escaping the closet in 1980s America. …

In this episode, Hal & Craig discuss Michael Bay's 2013 film Pain & Gain and its interpretation of how Reagan's American Exceptionalism of the 1980s led to rampant consumerism. This tangent-heavy episode also includes discussions of: The passing of WWE Superstar Bray Wyatt; The escalating violence and hostility towards the Cop City protestors in At…

In this episode, Hal and Craig welcome guest David Bax, of the long-running film podcast Battleship Pretension (www.battleshippretension.com), to discuss Agnès Varda's 1977 film exploring explicit and implicit themes of Marxist feminism. Discussions also include: Craig got sick and watched the TWISTED METAL show; The recent military coup in Niger; …

We finish off our triptych of latter-year Clint Eastwood films with THE MULE about an old man who gets mixed up with the Cartel, but in a cool old man way. Discussion also includes: Prano Bailey-Bond's 2021 film CENSOR; Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Josie Riesman; The documentary TAKE CARE OF MAYA; and Again we discuss wh…

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss the 2006 film BAMAKO, wherein the people of Bamako, Mali hold a trial to convict the IMF and World Bank of holding Africa hostage under the false promises of neo-liberalism and structural adjustment. Discussions also include: Catching up on the movies and TV we've been watching, including All Quiet on the West…

Hal and Craig return to watching some latter-career Clint Eastwood films, this time it's Clint's 2008 film GRAN TORINO, a movie made for old white people to feel okay about being racist! Fun? Discussion also includes: The new season of Black Mirror; Clive Barker's Faustian novel THE DAMNATION GAME; The best airplane movies; An update on the Tampa 5…

Hal and Craig are flipping up the formula a bit for this one! Instead of looking at just one movie in this episode, we are looking at writer/director Adam McKay's informal "Liberal Savior" Trilogy: 2015's The Big Short, 2018's Vice, and 2021's Don't Look Up. Hal and Craig discuss McKay's evolution from slapstick absurdity to political satirist and …

In this episode, the first of a three-episode series examining the later career films of Clint Eastwood, Hal and Craig invite Thomas Greene to discuss Eastwood's 2014 jingoistic war film AMERICAN SNIPER. Discussions also include: Clint Eastwood's best performance ever: screaming at a chair at the 2012 RNC; Elon Musk going full mask-off; Craig conqu…

Hal and Craig welcome guest Kevin Cole aka The Primal Root—owner and proprietor of the oft-mentioned Cap City Video Lounge—to discuss John Carpenter’s 1988 anti-capitalism, sci-fi masterpiece THEY LIVE. Discussions also include: The petition to put access to safe abortions on the ballot in Florida; Our new(ly indicted) king: George Santos; What we’…

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss Oliver Stone’s 1986 Vietnam film PLATOON. Discussions also include: The colonial history of Vietnam; Steven Crowder’s very bad 2023; The brutality of SCREAM VI; and Ari Aster’s much anticipated new film BEAU IS AFRAID.

Hal and Craig reconvene to discuss TERROR ON THE PRAIRIE, the third and (so far) final narrative film produced by conservative darling and full-time adult man Ben Shapiro and his merry gang of bigots over at the Daily Wire. Discussions also include: Harlan Crow, Clarence Thomas' political sugar daddy with a weird Hitler obsession; The shootings of …

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss Sidney Lumet's 1975 crime caper DOG DAY AFTERNOON starring Al Pacino. Discussions also include: The cruelty of Ron DeSantis and his time overseeing Guantanamo Bay MLB superstar Randy Arozarena Our favorite John Cazale performances

In this episode, Hal and Craig discuss Luis Bunuel's 1962 The Exetermingating Angel, a biting satire of the wealthy elite. In addition, Hal and Craig discuss: Ron DeSantis' growing war on public education; How awesome the WWE is; Terry Gilliam's surrealist masterpiece Brazil; Daniel Day Lewis' son turned rapper (who is about to Gabe Day Lose It); A…

Hal and Craig discuss Robin Campillo’s BPM, an unflinching look at grassroots activism during the height of the AIDS epidemic, following members of Act Up Paris in the early 1990s as they plan direct action against the pharmaceutical companies and politicians who exacerbated the crisis. Other topics of conversation include: Our Top 5 Movies of 2022…

In this episode, Hal and Craig decided to watch a conservative film! We watched RUN HIDE FIGHT, the first narrative feature film distributed by Ben Shapiro (Conservative "intellect", W.A.P. Truther, and All-Star Moron) and his propaganda outfit The Daily Wire. We also discuss: The dubious production history of this stupid movie; How most of the Dai…

In this episode, Hal and Craig talk about Sean Baker’s 2017 film The Florida Project. Other topics include: Jerry Falwell and Jerry Falwell Jr. and their respective shitheadery Our Top 3 Willem Dafoe performances Elon Musk getting booed by Dave Chapelle Fans The Democrats, and Joe Biden specifically, betraying rail workers How the state perpetuates…

Hal and Craig discuss Spike Lee’s 2000 joint BAMBOOZLED, a satire that takes aim at the way the media uses black art, culture, and pain for profit. Other topics include: Our Top 3 Spike Lee films The long running Spike vs. Tarantino beef The right-wingers who encouraged the violence at Club Q MC Serch’s illustrious, bizarre career Thanks for listen…

Hal and Craig discuss Boots Riley's electric satire on capitalism and the exploitation of the working class. Other topics include: The beautiful films of Peter Greenaway; How the "Red Wave" of 2022 only hit Florida; Tessa Thompson's fantastic earrings; And we turn again to the National Review for dependably stupid film criticism! Thanks for listeni…