Have You Seen This?

Tim and Jen host the freakiest guest they know, the lovable Bitter Karella of Midnight Pals fame, to chat about one of the freakiest movies she knows, Dr. Caligari!Screen Anarchy has a wonderful gallery of Caligari director Stephen Sayadian’s work,going all the way back to his earliest days as an editorial illustrator. Included are some reminisces about Dr. Caligari!Read a 2024 interview with Caligari co-writer Jerry Stahl, in which he speaks candidly about sobriety and being an artist in a world ruled by money. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim and Jen host the freakiest guest they know, the lovable Bitter Karella of Midnight Pals fame, to chat about one of the freakiest movies she knows, Dr. Caligari!Screen Anarchy has a wonderful gallery of Caligari director Stephen Sayadian’s work,going all the way back to his earliest days as an editorial illustrator. Included are some reminisces about Dr. Caligari!Read a 2024 interview with Caligari co-writer Jerry Stahl, in which he speaks candidly about sobriety and being an artist in a world ruled by money. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim and Jen experience a stodgy treatment of Hollywood avarice, The Oscar.Friend of the show Josh Olson does indeed appreciate the corniness of this movie— so much so that you can hear him join comedian Patton Oswalt and filmmaker Erik Nelson for the audio commentary on the Kino Lorber blu-ray!If you’re dying to read an academic paper on The Oscar, have at it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen and Tim unearth a cursed relic: the television show cancelled before the final credits even rolled, Turn On!Thank you, SoapsNThings on YouTube, for archiving so many episodes of Peyton Place.The offensive Aussie show Jen alluded to that also got cancelled during the first episode was "Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos." You can see the singular episode at the Internet Archive!Finally, Gershon Kingsley's "Popcorn" is kind of a bop. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim and Jen ride along with a taciturn Ryan O'Neal for Walter Hill's sinuous neo-noir, The Driver!Walter Hill spoke with Deadline in 2024 about his influences, Tony Scott's idiot brother, and of course, westerns.Hill also talked about the controversy surrounding The Warriors in an interview for Esquire:I think the reason why there were some violent incidents is really very simple: The movie was very popular with the street gangs, especially young men, a lot of whom had very strong feelings about each other. And suddenly they all went to the movies together! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen and Tim examine some D-tier David Mamet: the by-the-numbers heist flick, uh, Heist.Chris Person of the worker-owned tech news site Aftermath dug up the previously unavailable special Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants in pristine broadcast resolution and made it available to the world once again. Read an interview with Person about the process and the importance of archiving conducted by David J. Roth and Dan McQuade of Defector, and watch the special at the Internet Archive. Fun fact: David Mamet directed the special!Person also wrote a rundown of the cutting edge of analog media archiving (as of mid-2024, anyway) that is extremely worth your time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim and Jen suffer through a patchwork spy pastiche, Casino Royale.Errata: Jen attributed the anecdote about producer Charles K. Feldman removing the pay-offs to the jokes in the script to Joe McGrath, but it actually came from another director credited on the film, Val Guest.Speaking of, you can look through some of superagent-turned-producer Feldman's personal papers courtesy of AFI.Robert Von Dassanowsky's critical essay on Casino Royale just might be the final word on the film:"Casino Royale’s relationship to Bond is only emblematic; it is a prismatic translation of Fleming’s milieu, not a linear adaptation. And it remains, even today, a wry and provocative sociopolitical satire. The often criticized inconsistencies of the film’s multiple James Bonds, including the banal 007 of Terence Cooper, brought in to cover Sellers’s unfinished characterization, intentionally work to confuse the issue of Bond, to overwork the paradigm until it has no value. As Walter Benjamin in his influential essay “Art in the Age

Jen sends thousands of robots to compel Tim to discuss a film "suggested by" Isaac Asimov's writings, I, Robot!The creepshot photographer Jen couldn't remember the name of was Miroslav Tichý. You can see many of his surreptitious and admittedly beautiful works at ArtNet.Speaking of Czech artists, we neglected to mention that Alex Proyas is currently working on an adaptation of Karel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R. ("Rossum's Universal Robots"). This play, of course, is the one that brought the word "robot" to the English-speaking world.If you love arid Will Smith blockbusters as much as Tim does (lol j/k), check out our episode on Wild Wild West! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim can barely hold back his excitement about a movie that (kind of) has Cynthia Rothrock in it: Prince of the Sun!View the (kind of) English dub of the film at the Internet Archive.Jen forgot that her Letterboxd list was called "Anti-Girlboss Movies," and any movie starring Mai certainly qualifies for it. (Protip: there's also a list of every single movie we've talked about on the show, and sometimes it'll give you a little hint as to what's coming up next!) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen invites comedian Kath Barbadoro to enjoy Psycho Kickboxer, the martial arts schlock movie that put Virginia Beach on the map!*Hear more of Kath on the Lie, Cheat, & Steal and What a Time to Be Alive podcasts. She also riffs movies with Master Pancake Theater! Look for them on Twitch.When in Virginia Beach, visit the Hot Tuna, as seen in Psycho Kickboxer!Read Daisy Thursday's Sex Change USA: Transgender Life in the Supermarket Tabloid at the Shapeless Press website.*I assume. I've never been. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A mysterious stranger returns to the show to evaluate a weak Disney stab at a dark sci-fi blockbuster: The Black Hole!Zencastr gives you flawless audio, crystal-clear video, and effortless editing. Spend less time juggling tools, more time making great slo— uhh, content!The Hollywood Reporter looked back on the production of The Black Hole in 2019,including interviews with Joseph Bottoms, director Gary Nelson, and Robert Forster.Wayne Barlowe's Hell is so fucking cool that even James Cameron, Clive Barker, and Guillermo del Toro have raved about it. See it at the artist's website. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen welcomes Jesse Hawken of the venerable Junk Filter podcast to help her detox from the bad trip that is Otto Preminger's Skidoo!See Preminger host his own trailer for Bunny Lake is Missing, and you better not show up late or he'll open up a can of Vienna-sausage-in-chicken-broth whoop-ass on you.Preminger and singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson appeared on the August 30th, 1968 episode of Playboy After Dark to promote, quixotically, their latest film. Nilsson seems to know what's up, triggering Preminger's always-present wrath.Skidoo screenwriter (yes, they had one!) Doran William Cannon wrote a piece for the New York Times in 1971 about the painful experience of writing Brewster McCloud for Robert Altman. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen welcomes musician and poster par excellence Patrick Cosmos to chat about a fun little movie with tongue firmly in cheek, Blood Diner!Find Patrick at veryimportant.lawyer on Bandcamp and Bluesky, and get his Tonal Rotors album at Big Sleep Records.Sadly, Carl Crew's California Institute of Abnormalarts is no more. Read an archived article from LA Bizarro about the venue.Keyboardist Don Preston just wrapped up a tour at age 91! Read an interview with him at It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen blasts off with Bitter Karella in search of the meaning of an artifact from 2011: the motion-capture kid's flick Mars Needs Moms.We glibly refer to the film as "one of the biggest box office bombs of all time," as well as THE biggest, but narrowing down the actual Failure of All Failures is tough. Wikipedia has an unranked list of box office disasters.Bitter Karella guested on the show for three episodes on music producer and grotesque sex criminal Jonathan King. If you're interested in true outsider art and also have a strong stomach, check them out!Vile PervertThe Truth Awakens (Vile Pervert Redux)Vile Pervert: The Sequels Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen and Tim suffer through an ill-starred attempt at an international caper, Shanghai Surprise!Podcast like a pro with Zencastr!Life With My Sister Madonna is a delightfully juicy read penned by her late brother, Christopher Ciccone. (And of course she's hairy, she's Italian!)Madonna has denied that Sean Penn physically abused her during their relationship, but rumors still abound regarding an alleged domestic abuse incident in December 1988. The LA Sheriffs have since purged the report from their records, unfortunately.Listen to George Harrison's excellent solo album Cloud Nine, which contains some reworked material from the Shanghai Surprise soundtrack.For more of us roasting Madonna's atrocious acting, check out our episode on Body of Evidence! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim and Jen welcome living legend Hollywood Steve Huey to discuss a Quaalude overdose of a film, FM from 1978!The core creators of Yacht Rock (both series and genre classification) host the delightful Yacht or Nyacht podcast, in which they rate the yachtiness of user-submitted songs. Highly recommended!See Bob Odenkirk narrate the story of Disco Demolition Night on Drunk History.The venerable British news magazine show World in Action took a look at American radio all the way back in 1971, and even included an interview with celebrated chronicler of the working class Studs Turkel! The theme song to this show goes hard as FUCK, incidentally. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen and Tim wicky-wicky-watch a mostly loathed tentpole film from 1999, The Giant Mechanical Spider Invasion, aka Jon Peters' Wild Wild West (come on, it might as well have his name right above the title).We are sponsored by Zencastr, the best way to podcast!Mel Magazine has a retrospective article on the production of the film (good luck trying to read that link on mobile, though).We didn't get around to the original Jim West, Robert Conrad's reaction to the film— he wasn't wholly negative but he wasn't exactly thrilled, either. Also, he dares you to knock this battery off his shoulder.For more on Barbra's ex, the Hollywood Reporter interviewed Jon Peters in 2024. Of course he's a Trump guy.Tip us on ko-fi! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tim and Jen spend a LOT of time picking over a mid-tier Ridley Scott-directed actioner: Black Rain from 1989!Errata: Jen says "Tanpei Monogatori" when she meant "Tantei Monogatari," the detective TV show starring Black Rain's antagonist, Yūsuku Matsuda. All those wasted years as a weeb and she still can't pronounce Japanese words properly. Sad!For a much clunkier (read: Cannon Films) take on East-meets-West culture clash, listen to our episode on Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects.The historical swordsman neither of your hosts could think of the name of is, of course, Miyamoto Musashi. The Historian's Hut has a nice compact rundown on his astonishing life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen welcomes show regular Bitter Karella and wild card Moodyferret to evangelize a Gore Verbinski flop that didn't deserve the massive shrug it got from the public: the 2016 psychological thriller A Cure For Wellness.Errata: we all say in the episode that this movie came out in 2016, but it actually arrived in theaters on February 17, 2017 before almost immediately disappearing. Oops! That said, the movie was originally slated for an October 2016 release, which seems to indicate that 20th Century Fox lost their nerve and dumped the film in Fuck-You February.Fox made a last-ditch effort to hype the film with this Super Bowl teaser, mimicking a pharma company ad. This is the one that Jen vaguely described in the episode.Every previous Bitter Karella appearance on the show may be found in our collection! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jen and Tim look back at an all-star polemic from 1990, The Earth Day Special, a plea on behalf of Mother Earth that made a powerful impression on a young Tim. Also, we better not catch you pouring any old house paint down the drain.Watch the special at the Internet Archive (and if so inclined, maybe throw them a small donation for collecting all that health data recently purged from US government websites).According to this recap from Living Life Fearless, soap actor and Teen Witch (1989) star Dan Gauthier played Bachelor #2 in the Dating Game segment. He is apparently uncredited in the special.Anarchist publication The Fifth Estate provides a leftist perspective on The Earth Day Special in a contemporaneous review, and they ain't wrong:But the same powers of manipulation continue to function: the chemical manufacturers will plant some trees, and even the “forest products” magnates will, as they generally do, plant some trees. George Bush has called for the planting of a billion trees—but none