Tag Archives: David Cronenberg

Trouble Every Day + A Dangerous Method

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Alice Thirteen

Artsy smuthouse. French people create trouble, every day. Looking at Trouble Every Day as a French extreme film. No one trusts Vincent Gallo, even if his character deserves it. Some kind of plot is derailed by sexy times. When the erotic meets splat. Is there a supernatural element? Blood and body parts. How the new French extreme uses violence in a way other horror films do not. Where A Dangerous Method sits in the David Cronenberg lineup. A film about Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud is really about their ideas more than about the men themselves. Ok, actually this film is all about Keira Knightley. A psychotic performance in an arc worthy of give Keira Knightley an auteur label. Continue reading →

Dead Ringers + Bad Biology

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Alice Thirteen

A completely serious look at two unsexy films about sex. Or sex-parts, at least. LuFae Suicide makes things feel like home again. Dead Ringers sets the level for subtle right at the title. Jeffrey Irons, alone with you. Love, drugs, and sex. Partner sharing somehow makes things whole again. Obsession, however far away. What’s the best one you’ve ever seen? Can’t spoil whatever words you say. Twenty four minutes later and clean again. The basket case. Frank Henelotter makes the audience feel young again. A single level of tact, however long it stays. Promising the best. Bad Biology feels like being free again. The producer’s end credits rap song. …howeverfaraway I will alway love you. Continue reading →

Maps to the Stars + Peeping Tom

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Alice Thirteen

The perils of human watching. Alice Thirteen is directing a new film. Finding the funding for your movie. David Cronenberg returns with Maps to the Stars. Actors who go for it without fear. Maps to the Stars is not a satire of Los Angeles. What makes LA tick? Determining the motivation of a crazy person. Or maybe she’s not crazy. No, she’s crazy either way. The curious case of LA’s medium income in a large number of neighborhoods. Voyeurism, or: Everything is a slasher film. The Alec Baldwin in the room. Peeping Tom, career destroyer. The impression of a pornographer. Continue reading →

The Mist + The Dead Zone

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Alice Thirteen

Stephen King vs the the visionary director. Two notable pin points in an ongoing discussion on auteurist director vs famous writer. Alice talks about the end of production on Director’s Cut (and the wrap party!) Working with Lin Shaye and Gilbert Gottfried. Thomas Jane strikes back! The gut punch that is The Mist. Expanding on John Carpenter’s The Thing. What the film says about religion probably isn’t what you expect it to say about religion. Martin Sheen plays the president in The Dead Zone, what more do you need? The irony in the final conclusion. Continue reading →

Cosmopolis + Holy Motors

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Alice Thirteen

Character arcs despite their narratives! Narratives as complications of vignettes! Robert Pattinson, the obvious choice for David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis. Pop fiction fans read cerebral novels and everyone wins. Following a movie with indecipherable dialogue. The relationship to Videodrome. When master lose grip. Economies collapse, characters collapse. The currency of dogecoin, er, rats. Economics and philosophy, with your host Paul Giamatti. Crypto-currency and Snapchat. What is to be gained through watching Holy Motors? Big questions, out of the gate. Monsieur Oscar is losing the fire. Drifting into the abstract. Trying on masks, metaphorically. Trying to pin down the jobs and tasks of characters in Holy Motors. Continue reading →

The Brood + Xtro

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Alice Thirteen

Creepy monster science fiction. What lurks on Channel X? David Cronenberg’s early film The Brood. Psychoplasmatics. Where’s the scam? How Cronenberg creeps differently in The Brood. Another pause to consider body horror. Motherly themes. A creative and fitting take on the hero test. The thing is Xtro is funky scary. What else is Xtro up to? A collection of memorable what-the-fuck television moments. A world without that protagonist! Pre-internet viral speculation (ask your friends about that one). Other installments of the Xtro franchise. Yes, franchise. A past Double Feature connection. Continue reading →

Sneakers + eXistenZ

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Alice Thirteen

Hacking and the spy genre. The influence of the film known as Sneakers. What Sneakers should be known for vs what it’s actually known for. Tron, Wargames, and the introduction of the home arcade. Life in the valley. Palo Alto and sound. Guess who’s coming to dinner! David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, Ben Kingsley, and…Stephen Tobolowsky? Anagrams and the polygraph. Dan Ackroyd Unplugged on UFOs. A guide to eXistenZ. A new classic has been uncovered! If David Cronenberg design electronics. Questioning reality as par for the course. Red herrings and other causes for suspicion. Jude Law under David Cronenberg (although not literally). Willem Dafoe, born to Gas. Naked Lunch 2: The Popular Videodrome. Double Feature tumbles down the meta rabbit hole. Continue reading →

Bellflower + Crash

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Alice Thirteen

The indie circuit show. Michael’s favorite spoiler from Bellflower. Oscilloscope Films. Adam Yauch. Purchase your own Bellflower car. The truth about the director/camera relationship. The SI-2k Evan Glodell built his custom DIY camera on top of. Mumblecore and back yard films. A generation of young filmmakers. What are we doing with our lives? Subjective armageddon. Bring your own apocalypse. David Cronenberg’s Crash. Cronenberg’s version of an adaptation. James Spader sex. Similarities in leads. Coming into our reality. A series of questions no one wants to ask. Dark sexuality, fun time sexuality, and sex in Crash. Contrasting the sex in Crash with it’s treatment in Bound. What does Cronenberg think about his audience? Passing up the acknowledgment of the outside world. Continue reading →

Videodrome + Amazon Women on the Moon

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Alice Thirteen

A 2:00am channel surfing double feature. Alice’s unbelievable secret confession. Scan lines, static, and vertical sync: the awful look of the footage found in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. Betamax looks as bad as vinyl sounds. James Woods hasn’t always been there. Max Renn is the sponge for crazy. Debbie Harry is a hot trap. The emotional rescue show. Is violent fiction actually an outlet for frustration and homicidal tendencies? The old age of mystery television, before the internet. Technology to sync older CRT displays so they don’t flicker in your movie. Insert the tape! Amazon Women on the Moon – a place to go for the lost experience of channel surfing. Film critics, life critics. Overlapping sketches. Short and punchy. Amazon Women on the Moon and The Twilight Zone. Planned Parenthood. Continue reading →

A History of Violence + Out of the Past

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Alice Thirteen

Men with questionable pasts. Coffee and Pie. Multiple interpretations of the title. Joey and Tom. The longer a film is great, the harder you expect it to fail. Edie Stall is making it happen. The action and brutality in A History of Violence, and how it stands out against other movies. Breaking the tension. Techniques, old and new, of David Cronenberg. High shots and other camera work. How Cronenberg uses the rule of thirds. Using prolonged violence to create tensions. William Hurt shows off. An extended conversation about sex. A movie for pacifists! Out of the Past and old school Double Feature. Different types of noir fans. Storytelling. Jane Greer as Kathie Moffat. The 80s noir remakes. Jane Greer as Rose Mcgowan. Double crosses and ultimate fatales! The convoluted plots of film noir. Historical context for the crazy. Continue reading →

The Trial + Naked Lunch

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Alice Thirteen

A Franz Kafka and William S Burroughs double feature. The double feature itself is Kafkaesque. Orson Well’s The Trial. Spoken word credits! Kafka and grammar. Bleak, hopeless, confusing and everyone hates you. There are no breaks in surrealism! Before the law. Deciphering the indecipherable. Using Atlas Shrugged to wrap your head around the most complicated parables and paradoxes. Kafka’s appeal to minimalism. Children at play. The advocate. Camera work and lighting! The Metamorphosis. William S Burroughs and Naked Lunch. The film vs the book. Real life tales. An autobiography by someone else. Mugwump reveal. A proof of the effect of depth of field. Another method of shooting car scenes. Real life 1950s. Body horror on a switch. Continue reading →

Altered States + The Fly

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Alice Thirteen

Mad scientists! Dubious science. What’s a spoiler? https://bing.com/images?q=ken+russell is what you need to know. Trying to figure out Ken Russell’s Altered States from 1980. Behind the scenes at Double Feature. Michael doesn’t know what to do! William Hurt. Blair Brown. Actors who could be your mom, naked when they were younger. LSD. Timothy Leary. John C. Lilly. What was the point of the LSD deprivation experiments? The longest WTF scene yet. Be afraid, be very afraid. David Cronenberg is Jeff Goldblum as The Fly! 1986 and the relationship between man and machine. Body horror – what is it, what is it used for? The fly as a metaphor for aging. The mental and physical transformation. Films without mercy. Continue reading →

Scanners + Eastern Promises

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Alice Thirteen

Two incredible David Cronenberg films. Scanners and the old stuff. Eastern Promises and the new stuff. A bit about Mr. Cronenberg before talking films. Body horror. Sexuality. Medicine, drugs and psychology. Being dropped into a world with no guide. Writing and shooting Scanners. Revisiting Thalidomide. Alice rejects reality. Icons of the film. How the most memorable shot is done. Funny or serious? Mindbeams. When you can’t top it, do something else! The most self-less people Double Feature has ever looked at. How people should talk in every movie. Mob bosses should stop crying. Viggo Mortensen is naked and awesome. The tattoos. Continue reading →