DOLLY BACK

Was the introduction of sound to cinema a crime? If so, Fritz Lang commits in the first-degree in his seminal thriller/drama M! Crossing paths with the radio medium and the crumbling Weimar Republic, M's soundscape is rich with texture and subtle connotation, though what strikes your hosts the most is Lang's deployment of silence. Join them as they hunt for an answer in the midst of German political cacophony as they discuss this classic's immaculate cinematography, genealogical relation to other films, and dissect Arnheim's thoughts on a pure cinema!

Michael P. Ryan's Article - Fritz Lang's Radio Aesthetic: M. Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

It's been a long, winding journey for Dolly Back to arrive at David Robert Mitchell's Los Angeles, putting their cinematic sleuthing skills to the ultimate test. In a film rife with prospective black boxes, hidden bunkers, secret treasures, your hosts contemplate the nature of structuring mystery in film narrative, making sense of Sam's journey into the Angeleno underworld as so many have before him. Drop by your hosts' case board as they dissect the libidinal core of the Neo-noir, our fascination with intrigue, and the vibrant cinematography of this modern cult classic!

Ethan Warren's Piece - Only I Know the Secrets: Breaking Down Under the Silver Lake

At the tail-end of October and beginning of November, Dolly Back could not find a better opportunity to spotlight this middle child of wintery weather. Bob Clark's 1974 slasher is near and dear to the hearts of Torontonian horror lovers, and a striking standard for all of its ilk yet to arrive. Offering a strikingly progressive perspective compared to the misogyny of its successors, your hosts dive into cult fascination with Black Christmas, such as its deployment of the Final Girl, odd setting, and bone-chilling camerawork in a dissection of one of the most important slashers ever made!

Sartaj Singh's Piece on Horror Obsessive - Final Girls: Jess Bradford From Black Christmas (1974)

Dolly Back is sick with excitement at presenting its latest episode on Bong Joon-Ho's The Host (2006). Perhaps the most eminently celebrated South Korean director of his generation, Bong is at his pulpiest and most elemental in this monster movie, directly challenging American intervention in Korean affairs with a riff on the real-life dumping of formaldehyde into the Han River. Monsters wear many faces - illness, misinformation, and sometimes an unholy kaiju engaging in Korean tradition in its own right. Join your hosts as they discuss Bong's refined storytelling techniques, the film's mythological potency, Korean civic rituals, and everything in between!

Shahim Sheikh's High on Films Essay - Neocolonial Anxieties in Bong Joon-ho’s ‘The Host’ (2006)

GROOVY! Dolly Back couldn't be happier to tackle Sam Raimi's love letter to the horror genre, the Evil Dead franchise! The rare film trilogy that can elicit both intense laughter and abject terror within the same scene, is equal parts George Romero and Jacques Lacan, has curiously insisted upon the structure of its first film for its "re-quel". In celebration of one of genre filmmaking's finest balancing acts, join your hosts on a trip to Raimi's cabin in the woods in discussion of linearity, suture, and the glory of practical effects!

Professor Jeffrey Weinstock's Paper -  Postmodernism with Sam Raimi (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Theory and Love Evil Dead).

The beginning of Terence Malick's feature filmmaking career begins with neither a bang nor a whimper - but the ambivalent hum of 60s American suburbia. As real-world crime and Hollywood myths of the era coalesce, the filmmaker embarks upon an odyssey through a country in desperate search of new icons, spanning the bygone Western past of the nation with the  schoolyard romances of the day. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek dazzle in one of the quietest and lovelorn romances in Hollywood history, indelibly expressive on top of Malick's foreboding landscapes by his long lenses and abstract approach to storytelling. Join your hosts on their date with destiny as they discuss this neo-noir's delightful structure, ecological commentary, and metafictional leanings!

Gabriella Blasi's Article - The Orchid in the Land of Garbage: An Ecocritique of Terrence Malick's Film Badlands (1973) 

William Friedkin lays it all on the line in this 1977 thriller, shaking his fist at the sky and the precarious times of an increasingly globalized and tragically nuclear world. Assembling a ragtag group of all nationalities on every level of production, the odyssey of four damned workers journeying to a pillar of flame with even more nitroglycerin stands as one of the tensest narratives put to film, plagued by issues as soon as the crew set foot in the jungle. Join your hosts as they discuss its charged structure, authorial importance, the moral questions of filming in such locales, and its lush cinematography, in tribute to one of the medium's absolute masters.

Travis Woods' Bright Wall/Dark Room Article - No Way To Managua: Bridging the Forces of Fate and Identity in William Friedkin’s Sorcerer

Few filmmakers handle liminal spaces so casually and comfortably as Jia Zhangke... To the point where you could say he has a sort of home court advantage. Join your hosts this week as they explore the muddy digital textures, surreal animation, and concrete simulacra of Zhangke's THE WORLD. Amid the artifice of Beijing's World Park, we discover how Zhangke's various romances and tragedies coalesce into an elegy for all of those who may have been forgotten during his nation's drastic change at the turn of the century.

Now it’s his turn - Abel Ferrara blazes onto the streets of New York with this gothic and visceral crime epic! Aiming to offer a more precise look at the cultural fabric of NYC while reflecting upon a post-Reagan America, the film is host to explosive performances from Christopher Walken, Laurence Fishbourne, and David Caruso, each manically reaching for some ephemeral goal. Join your hosts as they discuss its shadowy heritage, direct commentary, and commitment to artifice!

Gavin Smith’s Interview with Abel Ferrara in Film Comment - Moon in the Gutter

In a move of unappreciated genius a decade ago, Sofia Coppola swiftly turned her viewfinder to the beginning of the social media age and the unwitting victims falling into its web. In a period piece 3 years removed from its real-life events, The Bling Ring is an all-too voyeuristic and charming encapsulation of how rapidly our culture processes and produces information, everywhere from the styles we hunger for, the idols we worship, to the lives we sacrifice at their altar. Join your hosts as they explore its daring cinematography, naturalized performance, tongue-in-cheek approach to biography, and its metafictional sleight of hand!

Katie Tobin’s LittleWhiteLies Article - In defense of The Bling Ring

Nancy Jo Sales’ Vanity Fair Article - The Suspects Wore Loubotins

How would you describe home? Your answer can stem anywhere from a simple one-word response to describing an experience beyond words. Marjane Satrapi's imaginative and harrowing Persepolis (2007) runs across this spectrum in one of the most distinct autobiographical accounts of the century. A chronicle that covers the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the Iran-Iraq War, and Satrapi's life story, this politically astute text breaks past the medium specific boundaries of its source material, with an emphasis on montage, genealogical relation to other film aesthetics, and animation that your hosts couldn't be more excited to dive into! 

CBC Radio Interview - Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi finds passion and humour in times of unrest

Joseph Darda's Article - GRAPHIC ETHICS: THEORIZING THE FACE IN MARJANE SATRAPI'S "PERSEPOLIS"

In the shadow of Y2K, a new champion has risen - John Singleton's 2 Fast 2 Furious stands as the long-running franchises most streamlined and personal chapters! One of two films not to include Vin Diesel, the Californian native recruits Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson on a Miami Vice whirlwind, laying the groundwork for Fast's connection to contemporary hip hop, vigilantism, and high tech fascination. Your hosts additionally opt to explore another medium's obsession with speed, and how it orients our understanding of space, time, and the almighty dollar. This is one ride you don't want an ejecto seato for, dear listeners!

Johnathan Hay's Article - Fully Optimized: The (Post)human Art of Speedrunning

Armed with the shadows of post-war America and perhaps its greatest star in Humphrey Bogart, director Nicholas Ray chronicles the unraveling of "movie magic" and romance in his 1950 tour-de-force! It may not join the ranks of the polychromous widescreen tragedies he carved his name in cinema history with, but its aesthetic calling cards only serve to strengthen its exploration of the male psyche, our participation in the moral occult, and the small distances between fact and fiction. Join your hosts as they return from hiatus (we're so back Dollybros!), and investigate the cinematographic excellence, narrative structure, and immortal performances of Hollywood's yesteryear in this week's episode!

When In Disgrace With Fortune and Men's Eyes: Close-Up on Nicholas Ray's "In a Lonely Place" - Sherry Johnson's Article on MUBI

The Uneasy Allegiances of Nicholas Ray’s ‘In a Lonely Place’ - Jeremy Carr's Essay on Vague Visages

New York is about to explode! Sidney Lumet's tense filmmaking spills onto the streets as the century's most pivotal confrontations with American authority are still in the rearview mirror. Making the most of its real-life subject material, the documentary-like approach to tracking Al Pacino's Sonny Wortzik and his every move makes for one of the most thrilling and *sweatiest* heist films ever made. Sonny becomes a searing light - a media sensation walking a tightrope between financial freedom and queer condemnation. Once his sexuality is brought into the public sphere, the film provides a look at incarceration of all kinds, replete with an earnest and incredibly prescient look at trans identity, as well as the double-edged sword we call privacy. Your hosts stake out this classic's propulsive cinematography, proximity to biopolitics, and brilliant performances, all while meditating on the film tragically serving as a brutal indictment to this day.

Melissa Hardie's Article on Modernism/Modernity - The Ante-Closet: Figurability, Sexual Modernity, and Dog Day Afternoon

P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore's 1972 Article on LIFE - The Boys

Conjuring synthetic sound and Faustian fury, Brian De Palma's adaptation PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE is one of cinema's most striking keystones, both as a cult object as well as an inspirational force of nature. As William Finley's Winslow Leach's appearance and creative sincerity are contorted into Expressionist angles by Paul Williams' Swan, their battle illustrates the recapitulation of myth across all mediums, the folly of eternal life in whatever form we can conceive it, and of course, artistic integrity! In discussion of its explosively referential cinematography, incisive character work, dazzling soundtrack, and postmodern trappings, this is a palooza of a Dolly Back episode - and we would not have it any other way!

Susan Sontag's Essay - Notes on "Camp"

Sarah Welch-Larson's Article on BrightWallDarkRoom - He Sold His Soul For Rock And Roll

Dolly Back learns to live with Godzilla, as they take on Hideaki Anno's striking SHIN GODZILLA, equal parts brilliant political drama and show-stopping kaiju film! An excellent case study in where American and Japanese filmmakers and audiences diverge in their evaluation of a global icon, this outing boasts perhaps the most existentially terrifying creature design of the decade, and some of the most biting commentary of the Shinzo Abe administration amidst national tumult. Join your hosts as they dive into the storied history of Godzilla, Anno's utilitarian approach of digital tools, and quietly muse on the transcendence of mankind. Standard stakes for this phenomenal genre!

Brian Hioe's Article - SHIN GODZILLA: Specters of Fukushima, Hiroshima, and Article 9

Silence speaks volumes - a principle that Chantal Akerman exercises to the fullest in her profoundly lonely and austere masterclass, LES RENDEZ-VOUS D'ANNA! As a filmmaker promotes her film across the European continent, her fleeting conversations become quiet ambushes on finding home and hearth. Often tuned out by her conversational partners, Anna is also trapped by the film's immaculate framing, brilliantly suffocated by the symmetry and stasis of Akerman's camera. Join your hosts on their proverbial train ride, journeying to destinations such as Akerman's personal style, command of duration, the precise "drama" of its montage, and personal musings on human relationships and communication. In one of your hosts favorite movies in pod history, we can't wait to have this conversation with you!

Artforum's IN HER OWN TIME: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHANTAL AKERMAN

Brandon Kaufman's Piece from MUBI - Missing Links: The Silences of Chantal Akerman

Gus Edgar Chan's Article from Little White Lies - Why Les Rendez-vous d’Anna is one of the great films about loneliness

Call us, listener. Dolly Back feels positively electric about finally visiting the world of David Lynch, in his 1997 neo-noir Lost Highway! A product of pure, postmodern pulp, it also samples as a brilliant encapsulation of the end of the 20th century, where digital continues to intercede between spectators and their perception of reality, Americana undergoes a tragic metamorphosis, and time is thrown to the wind! Join your hosts on their getaway as they discuss the spatial politics of Robert Blake's Strange Man, the delightfully bifurcated narrative, and the all-too-real foundations of its storyline...

Call us, listener.

René Thoreau Bruckner's Article - Why Did You Have to Turn on The Machine?

SOOOOMEBODY PLEASE… GET THIS MAN… A GUN! In what will certainly go down as one of the alltime great action franchises, your hosts track the impossible rise and delightful highs of the John Wick franchise, dialing in especially to Chapter 2. An entry which catapults the underworld mythology and tragic qualities of its humble predecessor, Chad Stahelski points his viewfinder at the proverbial action cinema mirror, borrowing from the masters he worked under, seminal action filmmakers, and effortlessly carving out a new raison d’être for an iconic character once destined for the bargain bin. Be seeing you, listener…

Douglas Laman’s Feature - How John Wick Went From a Low-Budget Action Movie to a Mega-Franchise

Starting off their second season, Dolly Back wrestles with a filmic friendship that couldn’t be further from their own partnership, yet profoundly truthful in its own right. Elaine May’s 1976 crepuscular drama sees Peter Falk’s Mikey and John Cassavetes’ Nicky darting around the alleys and diners of Philadelphia, quietly in search of that fabled brotherly love. As their bond threatens to unravel in evaluation of life, loves, and ill-gotten gains, May’s deployment of improv techniques, theater background, and daring lighting approach creates an atmosphere that undeniably shook up your hosts, who are in equal parts delighted and mystified by this one of a kind film! In discussion of its infamous studio politics, opaque cinematography, and deeply vulnerable performances, we invite you in!

Nathan Rabin's Essay - Mikey and Nicky: Difficult Men

Marking one year of releases from yours truly, Dolly Back celebrates by gazing into the sunsetting Western, epitomized by John Ford's incredible The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance! A master who has grown weary of desert plains and gunplay - and making films at all! - leaps back into the saddle to write a eulogy for the mythology he and the medium helped edify in the American consciousness. A lawyer, a gunslinger, and an outlaw walk into a bar... and democracy erupts! In examination of its uniquely theatrical cinematography, brilliant blocking, and poetic narrative, your hosts cap off their first season with facts and legend in equal measure!

David Bordwell's Article for Film Comment - THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE

The year is 2006 - YouTube still has training wheels on, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are about to throw down, and digital filmmaking is ready to explode! In a year full of exciting experimentation from auteurs such as David Lynch and Michael Mann, directors Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine are the first to mix all these postmodern moments in an exciting cocktail, and a bonafide VEHICLE for Jason Statham! As his Chev Chellios tears apart downtown Los Angeles to avoid death-by-poison, your hosts dive into this unique moment in history for the digital, Taylor/Neveldine's virtuoso camera set-ups, and the evolution of perspective. What if the medium is no longer mere message, nor even massage - what if it were mirage? Our high-octane musings aside, enjoy this rapid-fire crash course on this delightfully confident, late aughts piece of action filmmaking!

Lorrie Palmer's Essay - "Cranked" Masculinity: Hypermediation in Digital Action Cinema

CW: Sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised.

For every happy wanderer and stranger, there remains a distance. In Mani Ratnam’s 1998 romance/political thriller, Bollywood tropes and the mythology of its star are flipped on their head in service of a harrowing national allegory, questioning how the idealized unions of Indian cinema could lead to reconciliation. In a film that evokes a postmodernist idea of multiple Indias, pan-Indian identity and Arabic poetry, as well as the relationship between colonizer and colonized, this packed episode marks Dolly Back’s first foray into Bollywood cinema, and we couldn’t be more excited to take this train to one of the industry’s prescient classics, especially as Shah Rukh Khan’s star continues to shine.

Nandini Balial's Feature - Visual Jazz: Celebrating the Sights and Sounds of Dil Se

Brotherly love, national values, and home - time has a funny way of sweeping them all away without discrimination. In an act of preserving fire, Andrei Tarkovsky's 1983 religious drama questions the ethics of returning to the past and bearing silent witness to the future, as collapses reality and surreality, man and woman, sane and insane, mortal and myth into spiritual equilibrium. By blurring these boundaries, what occurs in this late but absolutely seminal work is a striking dialogue on slippage between nation states, as well as the inherent untranslatability of art. Embark upon a journey through the mist with your hosts as they say their piece on separating art from artists, the power of autobiography, the chambering of time within celluloid, and the proximity of mankind to God!

Étienne Balibar's Article - "What is a border?"

Death haunts every corner of this sprawling, environmental epic from Studio Ghibli. Whether it is the exploration of its eponymous revenge spirit, nature's ability to survive through all adversity, or a protagonist marked from death, every aspect of Hayao Miyazaki and crew's filmmaking rises to meet fate, be it real-life climate calamity or our own struggle to live in harmony with the world. Join your hosts as they aim to capture a piece of this uncompromising masterclass, from the fidelity of its animation, attention to gender roles, and "nihilistic" sense of time, in a much more philosophical episode than usual! Much like its gorgeously animated and nuanced deities - Princess Mononoke will certainly endure for generations to come.

Kristen L. Abbey's Article - "See with Eyes Unclouded": Mononoke-hime as the Tragedy of Modernity

Happy Valentine's Day listeners - to celebrate, your hosts dive into one of the most kinetic and tender love stories put to film, in Gina Prince-Bythewood's debut Love and Basketball! Doubling as star athletes and conflicted lovers, Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps deftly explore the grief of professional failure, the loss of the family unit, the forfeiture of one's dreams - and never letting their love for each other die out through it all. Check up as we dribble through this film's magnificent lighting, novel narrative structure, and unabashed love for portraying black success in every department. As the ball rolls around the rim, stay tuned for an inspired Billy Beane moment as your hosts get off a thesis on sports films everywhere!

Roxane Gay's Essay - Love and Basketball: For Your Heart

Every end is a new beginning, and what Kevin Flynn refers to as biodigital jazz, your hosts view as a deeply spiritual, meditative encounter with the digital and non real. Helmed by Joseph Kosinski, an architecture student now responsible for one of the most slickly directed and highest grossing actioners of all time, had his roots in a similarly precise big swing that resurrects a past icon onscreen. In spite of its lack of commercial inertia, Legacy has since become an enduring film for many of its fans, a stunning display for its cutting-edge soundtrack and CGI, and a film on the vanguard of our increasing proximity to digital filmmaking. As your hosts peek through the aperture, join them on ribbons of light as they extol the virtues of uncanny valley, the religious notions of removal and reconstitution, and postmodernist tension in one of the great father-son tales ever spun. It's an episode of infinite possibility!

Tofu, cake, snow, celluloid - Park Chan Wook’s 2005 slow burn thriller walks a retributive path towards a philosophy of purity. Geum-Ja, recently freed from a prison sentence for a crime she was wrongfully accused of, cultivates an intricate debt of human relationships that culminate in one of the most gruesome and casually cruel murders in the director’s career. Anchored by a female perspective, the middle child of his Revenge Trilogy casts angels, children, blunderbusses, and dogs in a symphony of match cuts, fades, superimpositions, and other flourishes which cement Park as a superlative storyteller as he mines the contradictions of the human soul. Join your hosts as they discuss all the above, and dabble in some philosophical debate on time’s arrow - live white, dear listeners! Live white!

Steve Choe's Article - "Love Your Enemies: Revenge and Forgiveness in Films by Park Chan Wook"

"Racism, or tradition as they call it nowadays, gets passed down like recipes" jokes Denzel Washington's Demetrius as he strolls down the beach with Sarita Choudhury's Mina, the two lovers opting to spice up the formula in their subversive but tender relationship. In a story that travels from Uganda to Jackson, Mississippi, a soundtrack that bounces between world and soul, and a perspective that alternates between old and young, Mira Nair deftly evaluates how shared cultural experiences can be our great uniter and divider with precise color timing, passionate performances, and refreshingly candid representation of family dynamics. Join your hosts as they take in Nair's immaculately crafted golden hour in discussion of all the above, as they tip their hat to one of the pod's most research intensive directors yet!

Mira Nair by Ameena Meer for BOMB Magazine

In the rainy and smokey environs of the moral detective and noir's favorite stomping grounds, we tell ourselves it's a dog-eat-dog world. "What went wrong?" is one of the questions Robert Altman expertly poses in his 1973 mystery, where Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe (in an all-time performance from Elliot Gould) finds himself increasingly at odds with a corrupt and sun soaked Los Angeles. Celebrating the film's 50th anniversary, your hosts eagerly explore one of the most important links in this genre's storied timeline, in exploration of Altman's eclectic film language, Leigh Brackett's fascinating departure from Marlowes of old, and lasting influence despite its slow start.

But after all... it happens everyday...

Pauline Kael's 1973 Review of The Long Goodbye

Richard K. Ferncase's Article - Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye: Marlowe in the Me Decade

As we start off the new year, Dolly Back takes some time to reflect on the one that just passed us by. In a year that marked a return to widespread exhibition across the world, mass love letters to the movies, and the beginning of this podcast, your hosts are incredibly excited to spotlight some of their favorite releases of the year! In an episode where they share notes on what inspired them, which episodes helped boost their appreciation, and the ever-evolving cinematic experience, enjoy this gargantuan (and please make use of our timestamps) and easy listen. 

5:50 - 13:11 Honourable Mentions

13:12 - 22:22 10th

22:23 - 34:29 9th

34:30 - 44:00 8th

44:01 - 51:16 7th

51:17 - 61:20 6th

61:21 - 70:23 5th

70:24 - 81:54 4th

81:55 - 91:17 3rd

91:18 - 101:59 2nd

102:00 - 112:38 1st

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR LISTENERS, COLLABORATORS, AND SUPPORTERS - NONE OF THIS IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOU!

What better way to close out the calendar year than a tip of the hat to one of the medium's most critical artists - meditating on one of the most critical icons in our cultural consciousness? In The Last Temptation of Christ, Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader interrogate the dual nature of Jesus, the man and the messiah, and the tribulations that torture him on the path to his destiny. Importing some New Wave flavor and dare we say transcendental tendencies into the desert landscapes of Morocco, this controversial but incredibly candid portrait now stands as some of their most harrowing work to date, spearheaded by the spellbinding humility of Willem Dafoe's performance. Join your hosts on their own proverbial fork in the road, as the nature of faith, humanist compositions, and mysterious signifiers of this masterclass both amaze and confound!

Dolly Back wishes you and your loved ones a happy holiday season, dear listener!

David Ehrenstein's Criterion Essay - The Last Temptation of Christ: Passion Project

Roger Ebert's Review - A New Testament story in an Old Testament land

With jingle bells ringing and snowflakes falling, Stanley Kubrick gleefully frames the most wonderful time of the year as its most impotent. In Eyes Wide Shut, which his collaborators describe him as claiming as his most significant contribution to the art of cinema, the legendary director's swan song forces a wedge between one of Tinseltown's biggest marriages - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Titanic movie stars in their own right, both of them provide a deeply vulnerable exploration of marital infidelity as they navigate the precise and ever-artificial labyrinth of Kubrick's creative process, both on and off set. In celebration of what the famed director means both to the medium and to the pod as well, this episode goes even further into an auteurist discussion than past episodes, as they disentangle its focused cinematography, layered performances, and to what degree this film acts a skeleton key to the rest of the man's oeuvre!

Adam Nayman and Manuela Lazic's Ringer Conversation - Make the Case: ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Is Actually a Comedy, and the Best Film of 1999

"I guess the rest of us really are just suckers" becomes a mantra for Leonardo DiCaprio's Frank Abagnale Jr,  a pilot, doctor, lawyer, cheque expert - and conman! In this ultimate fake-it-'til-you-make-it story, Steven Spielberg takes a telephoto lens to family discord, juvenile criminality, and 1960s America, elements which have recurred throughout his filmography and rings even truer on the heels of his 2022 biopicThe Fabelmans. Don't catch yourself staring at the pinstripes too much, as your hosts revel in Janusz Kaminski's warm, to-lit cinematography, the cocksure myth making of Spielberg and his subject, and the construction of Americana so ephemeral it can hardly be said to have existed at all...

Fernando F. Croce's Article on ReverseShot - My Son The Birdman

CONTENT WARNING

This episode contains discussion of intense sexual violence with regards to some of the film's scenes - a brief warning will also play before this episode's plot summary. Listener discretion is advised. If you have any feedback for our handling of sensitive subject matter, please let us know on any of our socials or email.

Closing off Dolly Back's Noirvember is Satoshi Kon's masterful Perfect Blue (1997), an animated thriller that deals with existentialism, digital lifestyles, pop commercialism and everything in between! When Mima first enters the acting world in the Double Bind TV show, mysterious fans accuse her of abdicating her pop idol responsibilities and call her a traitor, and fidelity becomes the question at the center of her mind from then on. Is she being faithful to herself? Is her reality faithful to her memory? Is Mima, the actor, the pop idol, the fully realized person, faithful to reality? Even the film's closing line winks at the audience in light of the seemingly impossible answers these questions have - join your hosts this week as they dive into the powerful flourishes of the film's animated medium, metacritical tendencies, and prescient character 25 years on!

Susan Napier's Essay - “Excuse Me, Who Are You?”: Performance, the Gaze, and the Female in the Works of Kon Satoshi (Accessible via your institution log-in)

Take heart dear old men and women, as Dolly Back takes a Noirvember sabbatical in post-war Vienna in Carol Reed's timeless The Third Man (1949)! As Joseph Cotton's Holly Martins watches water diluted by penicillin, fact by fiction, light with shadow, the city's underworld threatens to erupt as if it were a powder keg once again. Flanked by Alida Valli's resolute Anna Schmidt and Orson Welles' wicked Harry Lime, this acting triumvirate produce one of the most integral noir films ever made, delightfully providing genre thrills in its strong aesthetic convictions, be they zither scores or massive shadows, or throwing them askew in a film that loves to challenge its viewer's perception. Doubling as both crash course and our salute to Reed's seminal work, dear listener, we hope you enjoy this blast from the past!

Paul Schrader's Notes on Film Noir

Let it be known that Dolly Back never misfiles ANYTHING! Your hosts are joined by the fantastic Morgan Beck, a fellow film and literary scholar, with a particular interest in disentangling  “bad” art, and the master; Nicolas Cage. Back in the land of bloodsucking parasites, your hosts go to their “C” files and discuss Cage, Cult, and Camp in this unique horror/romance/black comedy marriage - here’s an episode that we hope has you yelling “I’M A VAMPIRE” down the streets as soon as possible!

Susan Sontag’s Piece - Notes on Camp

Richard Brody’s Article - What Kills Good Movies (It’s Not Bad Reviews)

It’s not easy facing up when your whole world is Black - there could not be a more fitting surname and indeed director for Dolly Back to ring in their Noirvember! Shane Black’s 2016 neo-noir and buddy cop extravaganza The Nice Guys remains one of the film world’s most treasured sleeper hits, inspiring debate on the future of film exhibition and providing a potential template for the loveably sleazy filmmakers sure to follow in the footsteps of this dynamite script! Its self-deprecating and glitzy facade resists a noir reading as much as its weary characters, conspiracies, and ultraviolence inspire one, becoming a fascinating exercise in how we root 21st century aesthetic sensibilities in this vaunted cinematic mode - in a 70s period piece no less! Make a toast to the Birds and the Bees alike, and join your hosts on their private investigation of a post-Nixon America, Gosling and Crowe’s electric comic chops, and salute to one of action cinema’s wiliest auteurs!

Joe Lynch's Article on Talkhouse - The Nice Guys and the Genius of Shane Black’s Lowlife Goons

Nerdwriter's Video Essay - Movie Violence Done Right

In this 80s horror extravaganza, only one rule is true - opposites attract. Whether they’re the sun and moon, science and religion, matter and antimatter, an ancient secret under a decrepit Los Angeles church threatens to swallow all of reality, and our understanding of time and space itself! Channeling his inner Michael Jackson, John Carpenter takes a look at *man* in the mirror - gleefully capturing the event horizon of our relationship with faith from its figurative accretion disc. In a film that examines the terror inherent to discovery and the reevaluation of pre-established truths, this horror icons reexamines the hallmarks of his own oeuvre, and your hosts could not be more excited to close Dolly Back’s Halloween by adding what flourishes they can to the enduring legacy of this brilliant chapter!

Fredric Jameson's Article in Science Fiction Studies - Progress versus Utopia; Or, Can We Imagine the Future?

John Carpenter Interview by Craig Jenkins on Vulture (Free for a limited time as of October 31st - check it out while you can!)

Have no fear for your light switches - that's just the stark and shadowy world of German Expressionism! Dolly Back switches gears and tackles a canonical behemoth in F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), now a centennial (and indeed timeless) tale of pestilence and the power of love. Famously part of scholar Siegfried Kracaeur's overview of Germany's film culture reflecting the anxeties of their political climate, its titular vampire is an outlier in its own genre and representation of Stoker's character. 100 years on the story continues to resonate, particularly with a polysemous icon whose interpretations can vary from the triumphant vanquishing of the tyrant to an exceedingly harmful instance of Other-ing. In the pod's oldest and first silent film exercise, your hosts dive into a filmmaking mode that still offers us a perfect crash course in mood and allegory, while also parsing the responsibilities of framing a movie monster.

J. Hoberman's Article on Tablet Magazine - The Twinned Evils of 'Nosferatu'

Siegfried Kracaeur's Book - From Caligari to Hitler (Chapter 6: Procession of Tyrants, p77-87)

Nosferatu (1922) on YouTube

Watch out listener, this episode might chew you up! Dolly Back takes on Julia Ducournau's directorial debut Raw, revolving around the coming-of-age of a young veterinarian student developing new appetites. As your hosts get a taste of what this course has to offer, they explore Ducournau's many cinematic influences, incredible command of lighting and montage, and set the film against the recent debate around "elevated horror". In the blood-slicked, sanitized world of Ducournau, bodies undergo constant metamorphosis, and your hosts check between the sutures as she dissects the way exchange value, initiation, biopolitics, and sisterhood all intersect in spectacular fashion!

Laura Mulvey's Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Sandeep Sreelakha's Essay - Julia's Fascination With The Human Body and Cannibalism

Orla Smith's Essay - Sisterhood is the saviour in Julia Ducournau's humanist Raw"

Dream much, listener? Joining Dolly Back this week on a filmmaker and film near and dear to our hearts is Anna Swanson, a film critic and senior contributor to FilmSchoolRejects, and fellow Manniac on the director's neon-soaked and transcendent Manhunter (1986)! In the earliest adaptation of Thomas Harris' novels, the film would overcome its initial reception and commercial prospects to become an enduring classic among crime fans, replete with synth rock needle drops and an all too real deep-dive into the world of criminals, professionals, and voyeurs. As Will Graham, Hannibal Lecktor, and Francis Dollarhyde are left adrift amongst the red sands and blue skies of the Red Dragon, witness their thorough profile of perhaps the most mythic and romantically Expressionist work of this hallowed filmmaker's career - IT'S JUST YOU AND ME NOW, SPORT!

Anna Swanson's FilmSchoolRejects Author Page

Davey Davis' Article on Bright Wall/Dark Room - Manhunting

Rob Hunter's Article on FilmSchoolRejects - 31 Things We Learned from Michael Mann's 'Manhunter' Commentary

Ryan Lambie's Interview with Brian Cox on Manhunter, Michael Mann, and Brett Ratner on Den of Geek

Ben Simington's Article on MUBI - Close-Up on Michael Mann's "Manhunter"

Ringing in the scariest month of the year, Dolly Back is mesmerized by Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure, a 1997 detective thriller that is equal parts horrific and incisive. As a gruesome crime wave sweeps Chiba, Detective Takabe joins forces with the psychologist Sakuma to uncover the mysteries behind the distinct X pattern slashed into their neck and the amnesiac wanderer cropping up at crime scenes. What ensues is a prognosis on polite society, entangling memory, sound, national history, and the apparatus itself as Kurosawa probes the transference of myths and morbidity in a Japan about to enter the next millennium, all of which your hosts are eager to tackle this week! As the podcast embarks on a journey of delightfully scarier fare than usual for October,  make sure to pay close attention to their voices as they kick off...

Anton Bitel's Review - "Discover the hypnotic mystery of this nihilistic thriller"

In the worlds of Alan J. Pakula, one thing is paramount - trust no one. Your hosts are happy to make an exception to that rule this week as they are joined by Saffron Maeve, a fellow UofT student, a writer with featured publications across sites such as ScreenSlate and MUBI, and most recently, the recipient of the Canadian Cinema Scope Reader's Choice Award! Much like Warren Beatty's shaggy-haired Frady, this episode follows their investigative odyssey jumping everywhere from its brilliant noir underpinnings, to brief physics and American history lessons, and even a brief sojourn in the realm of video games! There's something about this film that makes it just as potent today as it was 50 years ago - and true to the podcast's namesake, join us as we occupy another viewpoint in our own parallax view!

Saffron Maeve's Article - "Trust No One: The Lingering Paranoia of The Parallax View"

Saffron's Website - Selected Writing (Stay tuned for her writing on Jerzy Skolimowski's EO (2022) when it premieres at NYFF in two weeks!)

Saffron's Twitter

Diagram of the Parallax Effect

Between Warholian pop art and Diego Velasquez, Jean Luc-Godard searches for a joie de vivre in perhaps his most astonishingly eye-popping and impressionist work. As iconic screen couple Jean Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina hit the roads of Europe, this hallowed director and his characters make peace with their demons on love, life, and literature, breaking down screen barriers and the form's enduring practices along their way!

This episode is in tribute to Jean-Luc Godard, a master and shepherd of the form who  challenged himself and his audiences to never settle for the sandbox presented to them.

Richard Brody's Essay - Pierrot le fou: Self-Portrait in a Shattered Lens

As they brave the always-dangerous waters of Wong Kar-Wai's melancholy, Dolly Back is joined by Hannah Fleisch, a UofT graduate student with an extensive knowledge of world cinemas! Whether it's a sob at the end of the world or a family photograph at the center of yours, this famed Hong Kong filmmaker turns his viewfinder to every nook and cranny that conceals a piece of home - everywhere from a loved one and they food they make for us, all the way down to the ways we throw ourselves into work on the opposite side of the world. As Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung desperately attempt to repair a failing relationship and its many artifacts, so too do the filmmakers reach across time and space for a city on the precipice of change, thriving in the cracks of the film's editing and the numerous echoes across cultures that populate its text. It takes two to tango dear listener, and we invite you to join us on our journey into the politics of immigrant and diaspora cinemas, queer filmmaking, and how WKW's singular style brings them together into one heartbreaking experience!

Hugo Córdova Quero's Article - "Queer(N)Asian Im/Migrants’ Connectedness: An Inter-Contextual Decolonial Reading of Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together"

Svetlana Boym's Article - "Nostalgia"

BOMB Magazine Interview - "Wong Kar-Wai by Han Ong"

Enter Bayhem - a world of impulses and entropy that has perhaps never been as potent and singular as it was in Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)! To your hosts, it is a miracle this film exists - even moreso that it sustained commercial success in spite of its WGA strike affected script, IP origins, and near-total departure from its predecessor's setting. As Optimus Prime and Megatron dip their feet into the sense impressions of Operation Desert Storm, this episode examines its impossible assembly, jarring reliance on analog filmmaking, and this film's unholy pact with producer Steven Spielberg's coming-of-age films of old. Although we don't quite have a Linkin Park needle drop - DOLLY BACK, TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT!

Roger Ebert's Article - "The Fall of the Revengers"

In an odyssey into Douglas Sirk's black-and-white, melodramatic masterclass, Dolly Back is joined by Ryan Akler-Bishop, a UofT graduate student and film writer, on its 25th episode! Revolving around a toymaker who grows emotionally neglected by his family and reconnects with a coworker from his past, this German director explores the human condition through a focus on the American family, and as argued by Laura Mulvey, the moral contradictions inherent to melodrama. A swan song to one of cinema's most enduring onscreen couples, Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, your hosts parse Sirk's strong command of mise-en-scène, intertextuality, and lighting, all of the critical embers that spark this doomed romance.

Laura Mulvey's Notes on Sirk and Melodrama

Ryan Akler-Bishop's Publication - Fluidity and Repression: The Ambiguity of Queerness in Giallo

"If it bleeds, we can kill it" - this immortal affirmation of an unknowable foe's mortality uttered by Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch, embodies not only the ethos of John McTiernan's classic sci-fi actioner, but indeed all the body builders who went on to fight the many villains who personified a post-Cold War America on the silver screen. In the depths of a Central American jungle, espionage quickly evolves into asymmetrical warfare, and true to its name, the Predator upsets the military food chain in every environment it enters, whether it's the site of colonial proxy wars or even a modern day Los Angeles as represented in one of its many sequels. Join your hosts as they investigate the muddy hunting grounds of a classic movie monster who hunted other monsters, parsing exactly how its design, mise-en-scene, and tongue-in-cheek approach to its genre trappings that all make the Predator such an enduring and adaptable icon!

Drew Ayers' Article - Bodies, Bullets, and Bad Guys: Elements of the Hardbody Film

An examination of a dolce vitalosing its vigor, Michelangelo Antonioni's efforts in this 1961 neorealist effort turns its viewfinder towards Italy's alienated upper class. Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, and Monica Vitti form one of cinema's most formidable acting trios as they meander through the claustrophobic downtowns and dysphoric  villas of Milan; much as their passions threaten to burst from their sublimated seams, the film's form is an equal masterclass in inviting viewer interpretation through its deep space compositions and tragic dialogue. Join your hosts on their trip to Italy's concrete jungle, as they grapple with the ambiguity raised by the film's cinematography, restrained performances, and adventurous use of neorealist style!

Kevin Catalano's Article - "Antonioni the Architect: ARNHEIM, SPACE, AND THE POST-WAR WORLDS OF LA NOTTE AND L’ECLISSE"

Real life doesn't fit into little boxes that were drawn for it - and surely, the ambitions of this week's high concept exploration of the superhero by M. Night Shyamalan can hardly fit into this episode.  In Unbreakable, Bruce Willis' David Dunn learns he is nigh-invincible following a deadly train crash, as Samuel L. Jackson's enigmatic Elijah Price observes his progress and guides him to use his gifts in the service of others. Speaking 22 years after the release of a film that was very much on the vanguard of comic book properties in studio filmmaking, this episode conducts a retrospective analysis of this film's metafictional aesthetics, Shyamalan narrative toolbox, and the budding "rivalry" between mediums - comic books and film!

Denis Mellier's Article - "World Building and Metafiction in Contemporary Comic Books Metalepsis and Figurative Process of Graphic Fiction"

It's groovy being insane- surely the modus operandi of Paul Thomas Anderson's hippie noir vision in 2014's INHERENT VICE, an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's eponymous novel. A renaissance detective's odyssey through Los Angeles high life and cults reveals fissures in his own recollection of an ephemeral ex-girlfriend, aided in no small part by the filmmakers' intertextual connectivity, needle drops, and highly calculated camera work. Join your hosts as they knock down the proverbial door on this delightfully grainy and psychedelic jigsaw puzzle, in an investigation on perhaps the most thorny text of one of the best storytellers working today!

Adam Nayman's Book: "Paul Thomas Anderson's Masterworks". Link proceeds to TIFF's online shop, but available wherever books are sold! Support local bookstores whenever possible :)

The lows of solipsism and the highs of stargazing - director Paul Schrader and Yukio Mishima indulge in both as they search for the purest forms of their respective disciplines. In this fierce 1985 biopic, Schrader marries his subject's facts and fictions, words and worlds, arts and actions, in order to resolve not only the dilemmas that plagued the late author and nationalist, but his own reach towards transcendental style in film. Join your hosts as they take to the atmosphere in a much more aesthetically inclined episode than usual, in an attempt to disentangle the contradictions put in play by both authors, and just how long both spectator and auteur can pour themselves into the pursuit of such an unfathomable text before they burn up in the process.

Thomas Prasch's Article “'So I Found Another Form of Expression': Art and Life/Art in Life in Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters"

We live in a podcast world, and there are no hot takes at dusk! Dolly Back passes through a turnstile to discuss Christopher Nolan's 2020 action sci-fi TENET, a palindromic puzzle box that now stands as one of the celebrated director's most confounding and certainly one of the most thrilling studies of his favorite subject - time. As John David Washington's Protagonist embarks on a globe-trotting, self-fulfilling prophecy, your hosts dive into Ludwig Goransson's immaculate score, Nolan's narrative trickery, and naturally, the nature of free will itself. Join them on their journey as TENET cements its place as an anachronism of COVID-19 film exhibition!

Keith Phipps' Article "'Tenet' is Destined to Become a Cult Movie"

Ludwig Goransson's Score Breakdown on Rolling Stone

Nearly a decade before his eventual directorial debut, writer Charlie Kaufman made a name for himself with his idiosyncratic, if not absurd, handling of characters in a surreal setting. His foray into self-identity and psycho-analysis shines through the weird and unnerving performances from the likes of a pony-tail sporting John Cusack and coloured-contact-wearing Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich. Join your hosts Erich and Krishiv as they journey down the mysterious Malvochian-wormhole and try to see things through a kaleidoscope of intersecting perspectives and relationships.

Leign Monson's Article: The Gender Euphoria of Being John Malkovich

William Young's Article: Otherwise Than BEING JOHN MALKOVICH - Incarnating the Name of God

"There are people throwing the money, and people doing the dance," as Jennifer Lopez's Ramona opines in Lorene Scafaria's 2019 smash HUSTLERS, an ostentatious and blistering look into the camaraderie of four strippers pushing back against the pressures of Wall Street following the 2008 financial crisis. Dolly Back is joined by Margaret Pereira, whose scholarly work dives into how exchange value, thing power, and materialism's ties to the body are central players in this new economy, everywhere from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's iconic WAP music video to the jaw-dropping, Britney Spears-backed montages in Scafaria's latest outing! Join your hosts on what ranks among their most ambitious discussions for one of the podcast's most modern films to date - trust us when we say you've got to join the center ring or stand in the corner on this one!

Margaret's Golden Butts, Breasts, and Black Feminist New Materialism: WAP as an Articulation of the Commodity-Agent

Todd Banhazl on HUSTLERS' cinematography

Margaret's Twitter

As the era of athlete-turned-action star raged on with the likes of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Lundgren, and Van Damme all committed to their respective franchises and filmmakers, one lone American football star dared to  turn the spotlight from international talent to domestic.  Unfortunately, his efforts resulted in little except the efforts of your hosts trying to piece together its successes and downfalls. So bleach your mullets and cut off your t-shirts as Krishiv and Erich are joined this week by esteemed Toronto film critic and writer, Adam Nayman, to discuss the Craig R. Baxley directed, Brian Bosworth vehicle that is Stone Cold (1991). From its renegade cop protagonist to the always electric Lance Henrikson, Stone Coldmay not be the best or most memorable action thriller of the 90s, but it certainly has a case for one of the most interesting anomalies in the genre.

Adam Nayman on Twitter

As 1 million pounds of train barrels down Southern Pennsylvania, director Tony Scott captures tensions between man and machine, old and new, worker and corporation, with a stunning ferocity that cements his place as one of Hollywood’s greatest action auteurs. In this episode, Erich and Krishiv examine his roots in commercial filmmaking and the tendencies that define his adrenalized filmmaking using this uniquely mid-budget blue-collar thriller as a guidepost for modern production practices. If you’re prepared, hop on their cab as they chase after the elusive runaway train of B+ filmmaking and salute one of the best to ever do it.

Robert Arnett's Essay "Understanding Tony Scott: Authorship and Post-Classical Hollywood"

In the world of John Woo, to reload is to wave the white flag! Renegades and outcasts, both cop and criminal alike, shower each other in gunfire in this fiery tale of a Hong Kong on the brink of change in Hard Boiled (1992).Erich and Krishiv are joined by fellow UofT alumni and Hong Kong cinema aficionado, Thomas Chan, to discuss the filmmaker’s last hurrah for chivalry in his Hong Kong career before making the trip to Hollywood. Make a paper crane or get in your favorite convertible before tuning in as your hosts dive headfirst into the melodrama and action filmmaking that continues to reverberate on the global cinematic landscape to this day!

Philippa Gates' Article "The man's film: Woo and the Pleasures of Male Melodrama"

David Bordwell's "Planet Hong Kong" (Episode discusses Chapter 4's Enough To Make Strong Men Weep)

Thomas Chan's Letterboxd

Joining your hosts today is UofT student and cinephile, Joshua Edwards to discuss George Lucas’ STAR WARS - Episode II: Attack of the Clones! While there is hardly a shortage of prequel discourse online, Lucas’ visionary trilogy never fails to stimulate some sort of discussion over its varied themes and styles. From its use of genre allusion ranging from the jidai-geki, Douglas Sirk romances, and detective-noirs, as well pioneering a new style filmmaking, listen as Erich, Krishiv, and Josh dive into the digital dreamworld where fates intertwine and prophecies unfold.

Anne Lancashire's Essay: Attack of the Clones and the Politics of Star Wars

Follow Josh on Letterboxd

Josh's Star Wars Saga Review

Young men come from abroad or poached from their homes close by, swelter in the Djibouti sun, staring out at the ocean’s mirage. The same bodies that dance a choreographed routine in the desert also tire as they practice military drills. Largely considered her opus, Claire Denis’ Beau Travail (1999) loosely adapts  a tale of envy and wrath from Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd”, all the while weaving France’s colonial reputation from the 20th century. Join your hosts Krishiv and Erich as they serve the good cause and join the rhythm of the night, in consideration of the liminality, geopolitics, and subtext that dominate the film, and indeed this legendary filmmaker's career!

Girish Shambu's Essay: A Cinema of Sensation

In this week's episode, yours hosts turn to a seminal work in the noir tradition, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï (1967), in which a nocturnal hitman prowls  France's City of Lights in a desperate bid for survival against the forces that seek to erase his shadow. It is a notable intersection of world histories and mythologies, particularly that of the eponymous, Japanese samurai, whose code of honor preaches the importance of a stoicism akin to a tiger in a jungle. As Alain Delon's Jef Costello ricochets across the concrete trappings of Paris, Erich and Krishiv discuss the slick camera work, genre tendencies, and understated performances that imbue this outing with such singular character, while investigating its remarkable, postmodern place in film history. Join them as they put on their detective raincoats, channeling downtown city rhythms and jazz music in club halls all the while, and dive into the mystery!

David Thomson's Essay: Death in White Gloves

With an animated offering comparable to taking a draught of Frank Bean's "liquid gold" cider, Wes Anderson shows off his mise-en-scene mastery in 2009's Fantastic Mr. Fox. A tail about a retired thief who's Bean put through the trials of fatherhood, and grows so tired of his domesticated, Boggis surroundings that he is quickly forced to Bunce from farm-to-farm with a cavalry of critters in a fight for their survival. Join Erich and Krishiv as they dive into Anderson's fully articulated aesthetic, the production's indebtedness to the heist film, and the movie star ensemble's role in animated filmmaking - no promises that you won't find any extra puns throughout the episode for the occasion!

Erica Wagner's Essay: Fantastic Mr. Fox: Vulpine Nature

This week, Erich and Krishiv put their cards on the table in discussion over Steven Soderbergh’s masterpiece caper film, Ocean’s Eleven(2001). They discuss the vacuum left in the wake of the (arguably) disappearing myth of the movie star, in one of the century’s most stacked lineups. A picture that pays homage to heist films of yesteryear on vibrant celluloid, join them as they discuss a globalized, aesthetic paradigm where all parties - from directors to superstars to studios across the world - try to cash their chips in their windowless symposiums, be they cinemas or casinos. 

CONTENT WARNING

Violence, Suicide, Death

As if the negotiation of 'authorial intent' wasn't enough, this week Erich and Krishiv propose the reading of two auteurs through Werner Herzog's documentary Grizzly Man (2005). Following the summers Timothy Treadwell spent in the Alaskan wilderness until his death, Grizzly Man offers an interesting glimpse at the animal activist's life both through his own camcorder footage and Herzog's interpretation of it. The opinion that it's impossible for a documentary to be objective is an enduring one, and one that you'll hardly find your hosts disagreeing with, but what if the essence of the film was its own subjective core?

Ned Schantz' article "Melodramatic Reenactment and the Ghosts of Grizzly Man"from Criticism.

Hot off the heels of Tiger Woods' comeback at the Masters, and to push the podcast's understanding of auteur theory even further, hosts Erich and Krishiv turn to the cornerstone of Adam Sandler's filmography - the Dennis Dugan directed Happy Gilmore (1996)! Join them as they chart Sandman's eclectic Hero's Journey through the golf green and the Hollywood studio system, asking the burning questions on everyone's mind: does this would-be golfer stand as a bastion for the mid-budget comedy? Is there such a thing as the Happy Gilmore Cinematic Universe? Does film criticism revolve around Sabermetrics or the eye test!? 

Lotta pressure. Gotta rise above it.

Listen this week as your hosts Erich and Krishiv approach the work of a legendary filmmaker. While many may remember Akira Kurosawa for Ikiru(1952), Seven Samurai(1954), and Ran(1985), High and Low(1963) remains one of his best, and surely one of the greatest procedurals of all time. From its jaw-dropping black and white cinematography to Toshiro Mifune's commanding demeanor, High and Low's tense atmosphere unveils the ostensible highs and lows of Japanese society. It lingers in the shadows, basks in the sunlight, but ultimately settles in the murky grey area in between.

Geoffrey O'Brien's essay "High and Low: Between Heaven and Hell," for Criterion.

Cronenberg's knack for the intimate and the uncomfortable shines off newly waxed bodies in his 1996 film Crash.With an erotic vision of the machine-aged present, Crash follows various victims of car accidents as they indulge in their gas-guzzling and passionate desires, stalking each other on moonlit highways and retreating to the back seat. Join your hosts Krishiv and Erich as they talk about Marshall McLuhan, H.R. Giger, and our own dependence on the automobile.

"The Film Director as Philosopher: An Interview with David Cronenberg" from Cineaste, by Richard Porton

"Plight of the Crash Fest Mummies: David Cronenberg's Crash" from Cineaste, by Roy Grundmann

Before the time of eXistenZ (1999) and The Matrix(1999), Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days(1995) approached the techno-induced anxiety of moving into a new millennium. A cyber-noir induced daydream infused with social commentary which grounds it in the everyday, Strange Days acts as a significant entry into millennial cyberspace. Listen as Erich and Krishiv lurk the streets of Los Angeles and investigate what makes Strange Days so great.

Erich and Krishiv tackle one of the most monumental studio efforts of the 2000s with the Wachowski's Speed Racer.As a follow up to the immensely successful MatrixTrilogy, Speed Racer had a lot to live up to, and while initial reception was not too great, listen as your hosts trace the reason for its greatness. From its amazing visual style, endearing story of underdog talent raging against corporate Armageddon, and a genuine love for filmmaking, Speed Racerhas it all.

Cael Keegan's book, Lana and Lily Wachowski: Sensing Transgender, is available for purchase from the University of Illinois Press.

This week's episode lands in England where co-hosts Erich and Krishiv look into Guy Ritchie's sophomore film, Snatch(2000). Among Irish Travellers, underground boxers, and indecipherable Brad Pitt accents, Snatchdials in Ritchie's style to its purest form--making for 100 minutes of hilarity and tension. Join Erich and Krishiv as they talk about Ritchie's tendencies as an auteur, Snatch's success, and the late-great Dennis Farina.

Elvis Mitchell's Review "Man All They Wanted Was to Go Buy a Trailer" from The New York Times from January 19th, 2001:

In the inaugural episode of DOLLY BACK, Erich and Krishiv discuss Johnnie To's 2004 masterpiece, Throw Down. Following the intersecting lives of a former judo champion-turned-bar-owner, an up and coming judoka, and an aspiring pop star, Throw Down drenches the melodramatic struggles of regular people in the neon of Hong Kong. From style, to form, to themes, and much more, join the co-hosts as they investigate this early 21st century gem!

Sean Gilman's Essay - "Throw Down: Down but Not Out"