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 →

Bullitt + The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
Bullitt + The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Double Feature takes a trip to San Francisco to welcome its newest resident. Two films taking place in the city by the bay. Taking on the plot of Bullitt instead of spending twenty minutes talking about the edit of that infamous chase scene. Flying over the SF hills. The bizarre people people Bullitt. What The Last Black Man in San Francisco says about the city. Gentrification as a universal human issue. The ever-changing face of the golden city. The Paris of the West! Fog City, Gay Mecca, The City that Knows How, seriously, how many more of these could one want? American cinema would have you believe all its citizens live on farms and honestly it’s garbage. Continue reading →

No Country for Old Men + Yellow Rose

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Eric Thirteen
No Country for Old Men + Yellow Rose

Double Feature says goodbye to Texas! Two films with differing takes on Texas. Keeping the film community together. No Country for Old Men and the ever changing world in which we live in. Yellow Rose is a very modern Austin. On the ground insight. Continue reading →