Author Archives: Eric Thirteen

Sound of Metal + Jacob’s Ladder

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Sound of Metal + Jacob’s Ladder

Addiction to normalcy. Moving demanding conversation: the style of the Sound of Metal debut could mark the return of the film festival style release (even if there was no festival). An entire way of life is threatened, and with it goes the sense of normalcy. The denial phase. How drug addition is the unspoken experience looming over Sound of Metal. Avant-garde music is the perfect choice for the film. The pain of audio in a visual-heavy medium. Manipulating language to keep the audience alienated. The notable consciousness-threatening first hour of Jacob’s Ladder. Michael believes the audience’s entire relationship with the film’s madness can be pinpointed to a single critical scene. What was happening in horror when Jacob’s Ladder came out and how it may have secretly helped pay the way for the new tone of the 90s. Continue reading →

The Lure + The Untamed

Posted on May 6, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
The Lure + The Untamed

Art-smut! Tentacles and sea-foam reign as Double Feature continues to live deliciously. The Lure find another coming of age use for genre metaphor. What are the rules of the world in The Lure and more importantly, to what ends are they used? Eric makes a stretch for trans-themes and honestly give it a go. What the ending of The Lure could me for audiences and also teenage girls. The Untamed from the tentacle’s perspective. Who are the players and how are their stories intermingled? Homophobia, repression, guilt and shame. No one shame this tentacle though, it’s doing its best. Character mysteries once the plot is settled. Continue reading →

Booksmart + Moonlight

Posted on April 29, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Booksmart + Moonlight

Mainstream films with the stomach for sexuality identity discourse. Booksmart makes an appeal to both blockbuster and niche audiences. Rewatchability – how editing and pace and reward an audiences many times over. Challenging the far too common trope of sexual identity and experimentation in the college years. Other ways Booksmart pushes narrative to be just a bit more sophisticated. Moonlight is a surprising breakthrough. Why Moonlight should garner attention even before any discussion on its themes or narrative. Picasso’s Bull. Dissecting the relatability of a film you don’t see yourself in. Double minorities and the fracturing of networks of support. Continue reading →

Memories of Murder + The House That Jack Built

Posted on April 25, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Memories of Murder + The House That Jack Built

Punishing cinema gets criminal. Memories of a Murder subvert the ringer trope. What makes this Bong Joon-ho film truly upsetting. South Korean cinema creeps up on Double Feature in a retrospective of the films covered so far. The unrated cut of The House That Jack Built and the MPAA fuckery that caused it. A report from the sold-out one-night-only showing of Lars von Trier’s uncut killing spree. Art is Murder. No, you’re thinking of The Smith’s song. Getting away without rolling the eyes. How The House That Jack Built provokes in new ways. The stories about Lars and how they feed into the controversial film. Always remember: fuck Hulu. Continue reading →

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 →