Tanna + Beasts of the Southern Wild

Posted on November 23, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
Tanna + Beasts of the Southern Wild

Impending doom and the humans who shall not be oppressed by it. Martin Butler and Bentley Dean bring Tanna to cinema and maybe cinema to Tanna. Is it possible to tell if actors are good in a movie if you couldn’t imagine what they would be like otherwise? Certain destruction hangs over us all. An incredible use for film as an empathic tool – The Benh Zeitlin film Beasts of the Southern Wild explains with art what logic fails to. Why do humans cling to their homes when their homes are so clearly bound for destruction? One engineer who doesn’t actually understand how levees work. There’s basically no reason for anything and seriously what’s even the point. Also, love. Continue reading →

Falling Down + Man on Fire

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
Falling Down + Man on Fire

A 90s-industrial-fueled burn-it-all-down double feature. The carnage both finally clocking out and ending a hiatus to clock the fuck back in. Two action films that are more subtle than they really know what to do with. Is the lead of Falling Down an anti-hero? Does the film think he’s an anti-hero? And are those two questions necessarily linked? Falling Down is sampled throughout the 90s industrial album Millennium by Front Line Assembly. Break neck edits in a long form narrative. The symbolism, intentional or not, in Man on Fire. Who is the real man on fire? Ok, no one really asks that. How the 2004 film relates to the 90s industrial scene through Nine Inch Nails’s “Fixed” EP. The void in cinema left by Tony Scott’s suicide. Continue reading →

The Day Reagan Was Shot + In the Face of Evil

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
The Day Reagan Was Shot + In the Face of Evil

The second visit in a look at presidents and propaganda. The Day Reagan Was Shot, a film that says much about Ronald Reagan by knocking him the fuck out. Richard Dreyfuss as: some old white government type with lots of power and an overinflated sense of self-worth (to put it mildly). Audience demand facts. Fun fact: celebrity YouTuber Stephen Bannon once worked in the actual White House. An entire segment about Bannon that doesn’t make fun of how fucking poorly he dresses. Seriously, what a goddamn slob, doesn’t the White House have a bouncer? In the Face of Evil: Reagan’s War in Word and Deed: A bloated title from a bloated man. Bannon’s actual aims – what lurks under his racist Nazi skin suit. How the nupopulist movement is like some kind of cult (or one of the later Harry Potter books). Continue reading →

Jigsaw + Cult of Chucky

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
Jigsaw + Cult of Chucky

If it’s almost still October, it must almost still be Saw, again. Plus: Chucky, the unbeatable. First up, not everyone is Jigsaw. Tobin Bell and company walk the red carpet, but some one does not proceed to the latest Saw film. John Kramer is both dead and committing crimes, how can this be!? The Curse of the Chucky. Everyone is Charles Lee Ray. Not really but actually kind of or whatever. Finding a compelling story this late in a franchise. Don Mancini is just so so good. Where other franchise sell out, Child’s Play doubles down. Continue reading →

Killapalooza 33: Resident Evil

Posted on October 26, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
Killapalooza 33: Resident Evil

Resident Evil films 1-6. A lengthy analysis of an otherwise un-touched horror juggernaut. Power-couple Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich. Much like Resident Evil, people need to cherish the Michelle Rodriguezs they have. Resident Evil: Apocolypse, Extinction, Afterlive, Retribution, and The Final Chapter. Marilyn Manson writes some score, Charlie Clouser picks up where he left off, and A Perfect Circle somehow gets involved. Resident Evil has incredible icons. Some past-due respect for production and costume design. Six theatrical releases and more than 1.2 billion at the box office, and somehow ignored by genre fans. Continue reading →

The Purge 2: Anarchy + The Belko Experiment

Posted on October 21, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
The Purge 2: Anarchy + The Belko Experiment

Experiments in extreme survival. Alice has seen MAYHEM! Contrary to appearance, there is probably no office Battle Royale zeitgeist moment happening right now. Horror as a funhouse mirror to society. Being a genre fan in the wake of actual no-kidding US massacres. The little big film. People really really wanted The Purge to go outside for some reason. What is The Belko Experiment? The trolley problem. When most would save five lives instead of saving four, the concept of intervention creates a wrinkle. Raise your hand if you’ve seen Circle. Continue reading →

Don’t Breathe + The Good Neighbor

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
Don’t Breathe + The Good Neighbor

Suburban crime: breaking into the old man’s house edition. Crime on the victim’s turf. A secret basement double feature! The morality pendulum swings! When you get too close to the antagonist, horror happens. If you’re too far away from the antagonist, horror happens. Horror often creates a fantasy world where the audience can be threatened by forces they will never encounter in real life. These two movies show the horrors when those fantasy rules are assumed but do not apply. High concept horror. The most intense, what the fuck scene in the last year of horror. Candy corn lasts forever. Warning: do not put candy corn in your stomach as only bad will come of it. Continue reading →

It + Nosferatu the Vampyre

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
It + Nosferatu the Vampyre

Embracing the increasingly popular month-long October horror obsession. A celebration of classic remakes gone double classic. New Line Cinema releases IT, completing their rags to riches story with an incredible moment in the mainstream popularization of horror. Creating a new cult icon does not undo the original cult icon. It as a pop-culture carnivale ride. What’s good for the industry’s good for the genre. Looking back at the impossible creation of Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu. By vampire, they mean Dracula. Rats Rats Rats. Is Nosferatu the Vampyre more Nosferatu or more Bram Stoker’s Dracula? A return to the macabre. Announce Double Feature’s big 2017 surprise. Continue reading →

I’m a Cyborg But That’s Ok + Heartbeeps

Posted on September 28, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
I’m a Cyborg But That’s Ok + Heartbeeps

Love and Bots. Double Feature is about to release something HUGE – sign up on Patreon before the next episode and find out what. https://patreon.com/doublefeature Even more news? Alice Thirteen has a new film, DISPOSITION, and it’s playing all fifty states and around the world. Get notified when it plays near you at http://dispositionfilm.com. Finally, humans need ice cream. I’m a Cyborg But That’s Ok tackles care through mutual instability. The title hypothesizes a stance on fantasy vs delusion in recovery and coping. People don’t let people believe delusion. Also, separate topic, what the fuck is Heartbeeps? Stan Winston receives an award, Andy Kaufman gives a final performance, an this is the film that disappears into obscurity? The state of robotics in the 21st century and it’s impact on film. And on jokebots. Also important. Continue reading →

Buffalo 66 + Chinatown

Posted on September 27, 2017 by Alice Thirteen
Buffalo 66 + Chinatown

When sketchy individuals make great films – what is the moral imperative of an audience in reaction to the art of those alleged to have done wrong, both well after the film and on the set of the very art itself. Using these two films as a launching point for a conversation about “problematic artists,” it should be noted that these specific individuals may be complete innocent. But if they weren’t (and other artists aren’t), how far can art go to produce results? In Buffalo 66, controversial director Vincent Gallo is alleged to have abused Christina Ricci on set. Together they created something amazing, although it certainly has an unintentional factor to it. Should the film be boycotted? How should it be presented in the future? Does this all hang on the opinions of the person abused? A note about A Continue reading →