Author Archives: Eric Thirteen

Chelsea Girls + Bad Girls Go to Hell

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Chelsea Girls + Bad Girls Go to Hell

Sex and sexploitation. Artfuck films ask the world to rethink their preconceptions on cinema and smut. Chelsea Girls provides a deep dive into Andy Warhol. What is actually on the screen during the runtime of Chelsea Girls? Why is it there? What does it mean? How Any Warhol films were made. What Any wanted as an artist. The Factory and factory films. Bad Girls Go to Hell causes Eric to take a pause on sexploitation. Exploitation films as a Chicago-based phenomenon. In an era where audiences and consumers are more conscious of their choices than ever, what is the value of programing Bad Girls Go to Hell? Asking hard questions about what audiences give a spotlight to. A new Woody Allen documentary series provides a brutal point of comparison. Continue reading →

The Martian + Fermat’s Room

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
The Martian + Fermat’s Room

Rooting for smart people to solve the room. Matt Damon is making it work on Mars. Building a narrative feature film with a protagonist who has no one to interact with. Charm and charisma is apparently how you avoid 90 minutes of talking to plants. The power of great people doing their best work. Plant-based devastation. Solving Fermat’s Room before grandma’s Facebook feed does it for you. A broader conversation about the solvable bottle movie. Contained puzzle thriller role-call. Triangles not included. Circle and the race to strip down the escape room. Continue reading →

Set it Off + Sugar and Spice

Posted on April 3, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Set it Off + Sugar and Spice

Two fills that could nearly get away with the same synopsis. Another music video director turned feature storyteller. Queen Latifah proves to be an amazing on-screen force. Character-drive heisting. Remembering back to the good times. The one scene in Set It Off that should be on every goddamn list. Sugar and Spice is a whiplash change in tone. Speaking to the American Dream. How Sugar & Spice calls out the capitalistic fantasy that is America. Middle class revolt. Eric changes sides on the video-store-guy trope. Continue reading →

Tales from Earthsea + Corpse Bride

Posted on March 25, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Tales from Earthsea + Corpse Bride

This stop on the Studio Ghibli meets stop motion adventure takes the infamous final act turn. Two of the most divisive movies in their series. The burden of expectations. First, Tales from Earthsea takes a popular fantasy series of fiction and distills it down until its basic elements before distilling further until it’s not really distilling so much as just creating something entirely different with the same character names. Goro Miyazaki handles the expectations of the family name. Then, Tim Burton fans recon with the lightning in a bottle of previous stop motion films bearing his name. An honest look at Corpse Bride as the show attempts to view it with fresh eyes. Continue reading →

Knives Out + 8 Women

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Knives Out + 8 Women

Agatha Crispies. A little bit of “if you like American movie, try foreign movie”. Knives Out + 8 Women. First, Kate Hagen brings attention to an alarming trend that’s causing films to be completely lost to new audiences. Knives Out as a very unlikely blockbuster. Making bold choices in a broad movie. Eight Women, also known in as Huit Femmes, was doing Knives Out before Knives Out was doing it. The bizarre comedy in the music and editing of eight women. Continue reading →

Pieta + Blue My Mind

Posted on March 11, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Pieta + Blue My Mind

Mysterious family lineages lead to some nightmarish happenings. Pieta is an intense film even before the legacy of the director. How pieta manages to be about not only interpersonal conflict but also class warfare. Blue My Mind becomes a conduit for a larger conversation on genre-lite coming of age films. Is it better to dance around the much desired genre elements or lean in at risk of under-delivering? Why coming of age and fantasy go so well together. In a special Double Feature emergency: something alarming is happening to the films you love (and the future films you might). Kate Hagen wrote about it in her article Continue reading →

Dig! + Killing Bono

Posted on March 4, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Dig! + Killing Bono

Truth and fiction are blurred in a look at why some bands make it and some don’t. Dig! as a documentary everyone who cares about art should see (whether they like music or not). Oh hey wait, it’s THAT band. When someone gets several once in a lifetime shots at fame (and throws them away every time). Paul Hewson and the boys. Trying to make it in music when the other band from your small town is U2. That’s Killing Bono for you. Two films compare two bands side to side for a total of four musical acts – three that people have heard of, and one that had a film written about then. Very, very bizarre musical math. Continue reading →

Destroyer + You Were Never Really Here

Posted on February 25, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Destroyer + You Were Never Really Here

Two emotionally damaged people go on the warpath. Creating a pitch for Destroyer. The marketing and presentation of Destroyer – which buttons to push? Not the first Karyn Kusama for Double Feature. Taboo sexual encounters for the record books. Elevated police procedurals, a twist on structure, and a different kind of Los Angeles. You Were Never Really Here gets another half-hearted pitch in an attempt to lure out it’s themes. Bizarre structure strikes again. You Were Never Really Here as a picture of toxic masculinity. Continue reading →

Killapalooza 40: Maniac Cop

Posted on February 18, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Killapalooza 40: Maniac Cop

Maniac Cop films 1-3. A look at the entire Maniac Cop franchise, William Lustig, Larry Cohen, and Robert Z’Dar’s Maniac Cop! Trying to talk about killer cops after the popular conscious has realized that cops are a self-sorted bunch of killers. Can a killer cop franchise still be fun while we’re recognizing with ACAB? Surprisingly yes, and it might be thanks to the extra layer the conversation has added to otherwise deliciously-fluffy films of 80s VHS violence. The cop, the fire suit, and the ongoing attempt to find plot. Double Feature continues to write loglines, and for the first time, maybe the first loglines a film has ever had written. Continue reading →

Elle + The Piano Teacher

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Elle + The Piano Teacher

Psychosexual arthouse films are not for everyone. Actually, it could be argued that they’re not for anyone. This is not the most important conversation in cinema – it’s what people who see too many weird movies discuss in the safety of arthouses. However, after nearly a year of arthouses being closed around the country (and everyone having seen too many weird movies at home), the arthouse is very much missed. This episode examines two films of Isabelle Huppert, giving space to these very provocative conversations spurned by the films of directors Paul Verhoeven and Michael Haneke. Is it for everyone? No. Is it for anyone? That remains to be seen. Are there merit to these films? Absolutely. Double Feature gives fair warning, then breaks down Elle and The Piano Teacher. Continue reading →