Crimson Peak + The Elephant Man

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Alice Thirteen
Crimson Peak + The Elephant Man

Four hundred episodes, one Elephant Man, and a Crimson Peak. One of those David Lynch episodes! Guillermo del Toro finally appears on Double Feature. The directors who forged your taste. Who is the true Guillermo del Toro? Crimson Peak as just the greatest. Is Crimson Peak a great example of the director’s work or some other odd thing? Finding love in a brand new thing. The ceremony of film. Death in cinema. Just how weird is The Elephant Man? How David Lynch is it? Are those things related? The time and place The Elephant Man came out.An extended sandwich metaphor. An unlikely recommendation. Joseph Merrick. Man’s inhumanity to man. No kidding class warfare. Don’t forget, food for thought: Frankenstein. Continue reading →

Melancholia + Persona

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Alice Thirteen
Melancholia + Persona

Considering identity and withdrawal. Finally, a trip through Melancholia in another chapter of Lars von Trier’s Depression Trilogy. Hopefully that one guy still listens. Sometimes the obvious metaphor is the right metaphor. Who’s the real victim of the swell party? What Melancholia shows regarding the cognitive divide between those with depression and those without depression. Different backgrounds create different knee-jerk reactions. Naked Kirsten Dunst wins everything. Keifer Sutherland jumps into a tree. The von Trier kinship. Persona as that one film that inspired all student films. Just how obscure is Ingmar Bergman? An early example of taking advantage of / completely subverting the media of film. Persona as described to another human – or attempted, anyways. Continue reading →

Big Bad Wolves + Prisoners

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Alice Thirteen
Big Bad Wolves + Prisoners

Taking the law into your own hands. Child abduction films. People may or may not listen to The Prodigy, but they totally should. Big Bad Wolves, from an unexpected place. Keeping up with the good old brutality. The jokes, they’re coming for you. Dark dark times, and things are only getting worse. The first films from the creators of Big Bad Wolves. Prisoners, a film that is really fucking good. Seriously, see Prisoners! Come on. A terrifying performance with interesting choices. Running those circles. The gift from an actor. Buy one Prisoners, get one Prisoners for free. Continue reading →

Eyes Without a Face + American Mary

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Alice Thirteen
Eyes Without a Face + American Mary

Surgery, both domestic and foreign. #babysfirstsoska! Where does Eyes Without a Face fit into the history of cinema, and how can you know? Looking to more recent films that drew inspiration. True horror, even today. Timeless effects techniques. Eyes Without a Face and identity. Why the filmmaker’s intent is valuable, even if you don’t care about the filmmakers intent. American Mary. A personal journey through The Soska Sisters. Twisted Twins and Katherine Isabelle. American Mary and attempting to steal from the Canadians. The rest of the Soska twins’ discography. Continue reading →

Phantom of the Paradise + Forbidden Zone

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Alice Thirteen
Phantom of the Paradise + Forbidden Zone

Some musical midnight movies that aren’t asking for approval. Another look at the Phantom of the Paradise. Returning to Chicago’s own Music Box Massacre. Death, Inc. A monster, a veiled threat and a whiney if not eclectic piano player. The Phantom of the Paradise’s iconography and depth as compared to Phantom of the Opera or Faust or other well-known works. Heading to the Forbidden Zone. Something something blackface! Richard Elfman hands down the Mystic Nights of Oingo Boingo. Danny Elfman borrows from his own Forbidden Zone pieces. The Oogie Boogie song originally appears in Forbidden Zone. Danny ELfman’s very first film score, sort of. Pseudo Satan, Oogie Boogie’s song and Dilbert Zone. The Freeway connection. The conspiracy of Forbidden Zone. Is Forbidden Zone satirical or just odd? Oh, also, the crowdfunding campaign for Forbidden Zone 2. Continue reading →

A Tale of Two Sisters + Calvaire

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Alice Thirteen
A Tale of Two Sisters + Calvaire

Surreal tales of fear from a place that you dare not spoil. Alice goes to Sundance with his films Director’s Cut and 31. New details about Rob Zombie’s 31. The infamy of A Tale of Two Sisters. Spoilers and jokes about spoilers. Deconstructing a unforeseen development in the plot. Korea reveals things. Name that film. No, please, name that film. The era of Japanese ghost stories or some such country. Calvaire, also known at The Ordeal. Michael forgets what the fuck is going on. Double features that accidentally work anyways. Horrible, terrible things and the wonderful people who love them. Listeners do the craziest things. Continue reading →

SLC Punk + The Fountainhead

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Alice Thirteen
SLC Punk + The Fountainhead

Rugged individuals resist society. The time and place of SLC Punk. Who to follow and how to follow them. Punks in Salt Lake City an Punks in the suburbs of Chicago. A young punk’s relationship with his parents. St. Charles Mall Goth. Selling out! Heroine Bob, heroine in general, and that awful social circle. SLC Punk as a companion to the film Mean Girls. How to pronounce Ayn Rand. the Ayn Rand controversy. Someone else’s problem. Comparing The Fountainhead to Atlas Shrugged. The pain and pleasure of long speeches regarding ideals. Books about architecture can be movies about architecture. Continue reading →

Clear and Present Danger + The Living Daylights

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Alice Thirteen
Clear and Present Danger + The Living Daylights

Coming back to new and old faces in the worlds of Jack Ryan and James Bond. What a raw show without notes is like. Still an analyst at heart! Answering the cliffhanger you forgot about from Jack Ryan’s last film, Patriot Games. Obtuse and lingering danger. Batman as Jack Ryan. Respect the oval office. Is this a win for the hero? A new James Bond and the missing James Bond. The awareness of The Living Daylights. 007 and the other double-0’s. Michael Koester says some ridiculous things and some profound things. Well, maybe just one profound thing. The debunked James Bond fan theory. A little more behind the curtain talk on Double Feature. Continue reading →

Citizenfour + Mysterious Skin

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Alice Thirteen
Citizenfour + Mysterious Skin

Coping with unbearable weight in both fact and fiction. Crime and awful. A newly discovered use of the great empathy machine. The privacy myth – it’s not what you think it is. Encrypt your business and fuck that Google! Avoiding services that steal your data as the center of their business model. The US government doesn’t realize Edward Snowden is a patriot. President Obama as a total jerk. Mysterious Skin may be the toughest film Double Feature has ever tried to cover. More pedophile jokes than you can shake a prison sentence at. Continue reading →

Romancing the Stone + Sorcerer

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Alice Thirteen
Romancing the Stone + Sorcerer

Smuggling-ish adventure thing! Romantic adventures. Wait, what? Robert Zemekis shocks many by making more than one kind of film. Well actually, look at all this stuff. Where Romancing the Stone falls in the Zemekis chronology. Kurt Russell wants to sell you a car. Get that stone! That time Danny DeVito didn’t play that guy from that one film that isn’t real anyways. Sorcerer as a maybe-remake of The Wages of Fear. Is Sorcerer a remake and why does that matter? The end of auteurism. A broader conversation about studios, money, directors and the death of art. Is the video market to blame, or did video invent cult? The answers to everything are yes and no, all the time.. Continue reading →