fille de joie

     This week- four films about full service sex workers and how dominant social groups view them, from the dawn of the 20th century to Nazi era Germany to modern day Atlanta and Mashhad. 

     A new girl joins an upscale maison close, regulated and licensed legal brothels in France from 1804 to 1946, where a horrific event happened the year before. As she learns the workings of her new environment and gets used to the daily mundanities of their highly restricted and controlled lives. At the same time, the building's landlord is threatening to try and cash in on the house's popularity by skyrocketing the rent far beyond what the madam can afford. Bertand Bonello's fifth feature shows off his highly stylized approach and complex visual storytelling coming into full maturity, House of Tolerance (aka House of Pleasures, orig French title L'Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close)
     On the eve of World War II, an ambitious SS commandant devices a plan to use a group of highly trained and loyal young women as informants stationed in a popular brothel that is frequented by both ranking Nazis and international dignitaries. The plan is a huge success but it takes a heavy toll, both emotionally and physically, on the women and the commandant becomes obsessed with one of his spies. Tinto Brass's erotic war drama inspired by an actual event, Salon Kitty.
     A female Tehran-based journalist arrives in Mashhad to track down a serial killer who targets local sex workers and believes he is cleansing the city for the eight Shia Imam. She is blocked at every step by all men in authority that she encounters and beings to consider taking far riskier and increasingly dangerous methods. After his arrest, the public rally around him and his crimes. Ali Abbasi's film about a monster that isn't just a single man but a serial killer society living off deep-rooted misogyny and the complexities for anyone trying to push back, Holy Spider.
     Exploring the lives of four Black trans women sex workers, Daniella Carter, Dominique Silver, Koko Da Doll, and Liyah Mitchell, in New York and Georgia through unfiltered interviews and reenactments. The first feature from D. Smith, best know for her singer-songwriter work with a who's who of Rap, R&B, and Pop musicians in the 2000s, Kokomo City.

     All that and Tyler has the best week he's had so far on the podcast. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 453- fille de joie

Poly Wants A Sacrifice

     This week- two films about alternative family structures.

     One night Veronica meets Abel, a freelance music journalist, at a concert and sparks fly. That same night she meets Zed, a drummer, and sparks fly. She begins dating both men and eventually brings them together in a polyamorous cohabitation. Despite some simmering tension between Zed and Abel, Veronica is mostly content with her life... until she meets successful up and coming director Mike, a recently single serial monogamist, and learns she is pregnant. Will Veronica choose her nontraditional love or throw it all aside for security and tradition? A modernist take on screwball romantic comedy from Greg Araki, one of the indie auteurs of the New Queer Cinema movement, Splendor.
     Sarah Jane is an orphan hired to do live-in secretarial work for a reclusive author of works on the paranormal and occult. His latest work eerily reflects her recurring nightmares about a bloody ritual to summon the cult's demonic master. Trying to settle into her new situation in a new town, she keeps meeting unsettling people and situations. Soon she enlists the help of the local vicar to figure out what is going on. Widely regarded as the turning point for the low budget cult filmmaker whose five decade career spanned every genre with a prolific output, Michael J. Murphy's Moonchild.
     All that and Dave gets weird, Kevin champions to overlooked, Craig gets jealous of recording software, and Tyler keeps sweating in... anticipation... Join us, won't you?
   Episode 452- Poly Wants A Sacrifice

Grime Guy

     This week- two movies about new families and arguable amounts of crime.

     Just as Charlie Babbitt, a grey-market collectible car dealer, hits a snag in his biggest deal, he learns about his estranged father's death. After looking into the will, Charlie finds he has an extremely regimented, autistic savant, older brother, Raymond, living in an institution. Charlie takes Raymond out of his daily routine and demanding half the estate for his return. Will Charlie get what he feels is rightfully his? Will the brothers find a way to connect and communicate? The film that introduced autism spectrum disorder to the public at large, coinciding with more broadly defined diagnosis criteria in the DSM-III-R, published the same year- Rain Man.
     Aurora lives with in terror that the monster under her bed will eat her parents. Desperate for help, she follows her neighbor, a hit man, across the hall and believes sees him kill a dragon. Knowing the only monsters are people and that her parents hat to have been killed accidentally by his enemies, the neighbor tries to protect the girl and save himself. Will Aurora find safety from both human and inhuman monsters? Will the neighbor realize that sometimes monsters are under your bed? Long time television auteur Bryan Fuller makes a stylish and imaginative feature debut- Dust Bunny.
     Meanwhile Dave gets MSTie eyed, Tyler finds more things to love, and a plot begins that will leave them looking back and wondering if their lives derailing were just the twisted hand of fate or the machinations of KEVIN! Join us, won't you?
   Episode 451- Grime Guy

Stay Gold

     This week- two movies about relationships... with ourselves and with others. 

     Nicky, a small time gangster, stole from his boss. With nowhere else to go, he calls his old friend Mikey, also employed by the same local crime boss. Together the two drift through the city at night with a hitman not far behind. An anxiety inducing melodrama about male friendship and cruelty driven masculinity, with a pair of staggeringly brilliant performances, a sharply witty script and equally edged direction from Elaine May- Mikey and Nicky.
     An intersex sex worker goes on the run after a mobster dies in his company. On the way he takes a hard look at his life, relationships, challenges with his own identity, and if any of it is what he wants. An incredible script, written by lead River Gallo, driving a bus full of strong performances and stylishly assured direction in a film that that deserves far more eyeballs than it has received so far- Ponyboi.
     All that and Kevin feels feeling inside, Dave suffers in more ways than one, and Tyler guzzles the sweet sweet wine of victory. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 450- Stay Gold

A Good Day to Nakadai Hard

     This week a four film tribute to an actor whose career spanned seven decades, the legendary Tatsuya Nakadai.

     A penniless samurai leaves his wife for improved social status and the daughter of wealthy family. A young woodcutter, taking refuge from a blizzard, confronts a yuki-onna. A blind musician performs for a dead Emperor, who plans to keep him playing in his ghostly court forever. A lord sees a face he doesn't know reflected back in his cup of tea and soon is visited by their ghostly and murderous attendants. Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful films of all time and based on the legends collected by Yakumo Koizumi, whose work gave Western audiences their first look into Japanese culture- Kwaidan.
     An amoral master swordsman, with a habit of random street murders, has to leave his home after killing an opponent after a duel and takes his opponent's wife with him. Two years later, in Edo, he has joined a secret assassin squad to support the shogunate and his past begins to catch up with him. The first in a planned trilogy, never completed due to the amounts of violence in the first film, based on one of the longest books ever written over 41 volumes and published over 28 years, The Sword of Doom.
     Masagoro Kiryuin, a contradictor gang-boss who sees himself as a chivalric protector, adopts a daughter. Matsue is smart, has a thirst for knowledge, and struggles against the boundaries society has set for her. A yakuza melodrama that covers several decades of their lives- Onimasa (aka Kiryûin Hanako no shôgai).
     2,217 British and Australian prisoners of war had been forced to work on the Burma railway and build a bridge. Now they are being taken to Japan to fill in the increasing manpower shortage. Stuffed into the hold of a hell ship, without enough air, water, or food, it seems unlikely the majority will survive to their destination. Or will they all die at the hands of patrolling American submarines? Not a sequel to the similarly titled classic, Return from the River Kwai. 
All that and Kevin might never Returnal from his current obsession, Craig shares a pain Tyler knows well, and Dave might be napping in his chair. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 449- A Good Day to Nakadai Hard

SPOILER THINGS

     This week we arrive late as a party and finally close the on Hawkins Lab Sourcebook Unusual Contrivances Adventure Inverted Corporeal Supplement 5e.

     Anna rolls a nat20 saving throw, Kevin rethinks his Orc Wizard, Tyler misuses his Seduce Everything strategy, Dave gets his hand stuck in the dice tower... again... and the dice finally put an end to the tyrannical plans of the Illithid. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 448- SPOILER THINGS

Haunt Me Amadeus

     This week- two films about men with great destines.

     After attempting suicide, former court composer of Joseph II, Antonio Salieri confesses to having murdered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 49 years earlier, learning that Mozart was a childishly obscene reprobate with divine musical inspiration lead Salieri to renounce God and swear to take his revenge by destroying Mozart. Another masterwork by one of cinema's patron saints of nonconformity, Miloš Forman, with a screenplay by Peter Shaffer, based on his Tony Award winning play, and driven by one of the greatest villain performances ever put to film, Amadeus.
     In 2005, a seemingly random mass stabbing left two people dead and one injured before the assailant jumped off a cliff; his body was never found. Three years later, found footage horror filmmaker Koji Shiraishi sets out to make a documentary about the aftermath and interviews the survivors. Shohei Eno, whose wounds are in the shape of a strange symbol, claims that he is grateful and ever since has witnessed miracles nearly everyday. Before long, Eno begins to hint at another act of extreme violence will be happening soon and insists  Shiraishi has a part to play in it. A found footage by the director who literally wrote the Textbook of Fake Documentaries and made two of the first J-Horrors to breakout internationally, Koji Shiraishi's woefully overlooked Occult.
     All that and Dave describes his loungewear, Tyler suffers in Indiana, and Kevin makes friends with the little guy from Asobi. Join us, won't you?
   Episode 447- Haunt Me Amadeus