A Simple Plan + Logan Lucky

Posted on December 12, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
A Simple Plan + Logan Lucky

Crime without gloss. Looking into the heist with A Simple Plan and Logan Lucky. Join the Patreon and suggest some films, maybe have Eric read your name every show. Uncut Gems is notably not part of the Double Feature. Temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Education vs riches. Money doesn’t matter. Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan is full of extremely elaborate plans. Different decades’ notions of how well dumb people can commit crimes. Soderbergh returns to Double Feature with Logan Lucky. The mystery of Rebecca Blunt, who may or may not exist, but definitely got Soderbergh to come out of retirement to direct. CSI KFC. Odd, great performances. Smart films about dumb people. Eric’s crisis about dumb people being wildly successful. When a lack of inhibition helps you get ahead.

The Big Sick + The Lovely Bones

Posted on December 5, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
The Big Sick + The Lovely Bones

Supporting casts rally around center stage when these films’ lead characters check out of planet Earth. Smash that Describe. John is writing the show descriptions now. (Hi.) Eric re-crosses the pond. The Double Feature Host Bubble and questions of pairing. The Big Sick’s dramatization of the main character’s real life. Secrets, social discomfort, relationships, and support. Arranged marriages, without and with vetting. Chicago menu spoilers. Moving from the audience-based soft focus to camera-based soft focus. The Lovely Bones costuming may be slightly over the top. Looking like a cartoon of a pedophile lets you have a more interesting acting performance. Peter Jackson’s filmmaking trajectory. Creating a grandiose world out of a small event. Giving the victim a voice. What makes a film hard to revisit? Killers are not fucking interesting. Brian Eno is, though.

The Beyond + Three Colors White

Posted on November 28, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
The Beyond + Three Colors White

Spiritual trilogies meet again when Double Feature digs deeper on a new pair of filmmakers. Eric’s crossed the pond and is on a tin can for the first time since Double Feature: The Early Years. Part two of the two parallel trilogy adventure of Year 12. Gracious gratuity in The Beyond. The Gates of Hell cinematic universe that never was. People forgot the lessons of the spider scene. Greatest Hits of gore shots. Also probably a story. Types of deaths in horror. Atmosphere. Kieślowski’s Three Colors: White. The French flag and revenge. Or equality. Heavily underappreciated, superb art, for art’s sake. An unconventional interpretation of equality. Solondz with less cum. Having a less personal story allows for more comedy.

Border + The Princess Bride

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
Border + The Princess Bride

Border is a fucking perfect film. Double Feature is still not a review show. Double Feature is like a telethon, complete with commemorative plates. Michael on deciding on his favorite film of the year. Film that does more than it has to. Keeping the audience actively assembling, but not confused. Show up, watch Border. Michael’s favorite Cary Elwes films. The Princess Bride is very watchable. Films that hide everything vs nothing. Michael fails to bring up The Congress. Using a framing device to cut to the second tape of Titanic. Never let Michael edit for you. Pathsploitation.

Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure + Pauly Shore is Dead

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure + Pauly Shore is Dead

A moment in California surfer youth unexpectedly captures the imagination and attention of a nation. One film seizes it with the success of a franchise, the other can’t hold on no matter how many films are made. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a shaggy dog film. A mall culture time capsule. Actively resisting following any of the interesting threads. British police call boxes and American phone booths are nothing alike. Eric and Michael have seen Pauly Shore is Dead. NüMetal accidentally suiting a film perfectly. Fred Durst is directing films, but not this one. A retrospective that wasn’t ready to be told. VJs as an early example of people who obtained inexplicable fame. The artistic significance of a film that takes a peek inside Pauly Shore’s mind.

American Buffalo + The Company Men

Posted on November 7, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
American Buffalo + The Company Men

Taking another step toward understand writing and cinematography! Listening for David Mamet in America Buffalo and looking for Roger Deakins in The Company Men. Michael is proud of his experiment this year. Watching film without worrying what’s going on. You still can’t watch Double Feature. Unless you join the Patreon. American Buffalo is almost a bottle movie, almost written just for Alec Baldwin. Filling in a minimalist film with strong writing. Fucking yourself on a nickel deal. Disenfranchised white collar white men in The Company Men. Ben Affleck as a sad banker who likes boats. A film from the narrow window of time when rich white men weren’t largely hated. Sympathetic visual storytelling. Shooting for dramatic performances versus maximizing comedy.

Bride of Frankenstein + The Haunting

Posted on October 31, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
Bride of Frankenstein + The Haunting

Celebrating Halloween with classic horror films, The Bride of Frankenstein and The Haunting. Grand elaborate production versus innovative film techniques. Eric and Michael are still here to highlight the good in cinema. The Bride of Frankenstein gives you more to chew on than you’d expect. When you saw this for the show, you should have seen the 4K restoration. “We belong dead.” Leaving the audience wanting more Bride. The 1963 The Haunting, not one of the others. The many films and franchises that borrowed from The Haunting. Eric gives Michael a sleepy nap time. Dr. Sleep had a prequel. Surprisingly great camera techniques. Michael can’t stop insulting Podmanity, but join the Patreon anyway.

When a Stranger Calls Back + Prom Night 2

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
When a Stranger Calls Back + Prom Night 2

Sort of made for TV movie day! Two films that are not what they seem. Director Fred Walton returns to Double Feature in When a Stranger Calls Back. Ventriloquist horror. Ideas so stupid they’re amazing. Voice throwing and camouflage. The strangeness of suspension of disbelief. An accidental 2010s horror film made in the early ’90s. Way too good for TV. Prom Night 2: Where’s the Colon? Terminator and The Prophecy ruined sequels being on Double Feature. Double Feature makes up facts. Making a film into a sequel after the fact. No one’s seen Psycho 6. The numbers game of film titling. Subject matter expertise. Horror zeitgeist and genre awareness.

Tickled + Graphic Sexual Horror

Posted on October 17, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
Tickled + Graphic Sexual Horror

Warning – Double Feature assumes you just watched these two films. This is not a conversation to provide an introduction to these movies. This episode digs into the most difficult questions posed by two disturbing documentaries. It’s up to an individual audience member to decide if they wish to watch the films, but it’s certainly a bad idea to listen to this episode without having seen them. With that in mind, taking two films of an increasingly extreme subject matter at face value. Having a conversation films ask you to have. When there’s no hope of going back. Using BDSM to trick people into doing farm work (and other low key crimes against humanity). Continue reading →

This Must Be the Place + Get Carter

Posted on October 10, 2019 by Eric Thirteen
This Must Be the Place + Get Carter

The reckoning. A giant assault of Massive Attack returns to Double Feature with This Must Be The Place and the original Get Carter. Eric tries and fails to not talk about Robert Smith. Using a real-life icon as visual shorthand. Killing Nazis was once normal, then weird, then less weird. Succeeding despite fulfillment. A movie about the character after their interesting story is over. Going back to killing work with Get Carter. The things you learn about Get Carter from Hollywood parties. The lack of violence in a 70s film. Not being able to kill your way to an answer. Watching pornographic films projecting in people’s homes. The Get Carter score and trip-hop. Not wasting time when you plan to kill someone. The inconsistent feel of vigilante justice in cinema. Michael does not advocate killing people, then throws a state execution grenade. Enjoy.