Tossed Caesar Salad

     This week... a heaping helping of dramas about how the working class really should finally rise up.

     When Ani, a savvy young Brighton Beach stripper, meets Vanya, the son of disturbingly wealthy Russian oligarchs, they form a nontraditional* relationship. Before long, Vanya is faced with having to go back home to Russia and confesses his love to Ani and desire to marry her for a green card. When Vanya's parents learn of his nuptials, the honeymoon phase comes to a crashing end. The latest feature from Sean Baker, a moving and deeply political work, Anora.
     Set in an alternative reality, New Rome is a dystopian nightmare of corruption and neglect. Fortunately, a visionary architect, who also happens to be part of the wealthiest and most powerful family in the city, has a plan for a utopian future development. Unfortunately, his brilliance is countered at every step by the governmental powers that be and those jealous of his natural brilliance. Heavily referencing Roman history and written like something out of the Ayn Rand school of inane bullshit comes what is likely the final feature** from a legendary director of the 1970s, a brain dead rim job about how artists are fucking magic and above your morality or some bullshit, Megalopolis. 
     All that and Dave completely dissociates to the point of never being whole again, Craig rages into an embolism, Kevin takes a long hard look at his life choices, and Tyler is very sticky for some reason.

*Nontraditional in the way that we are, socially, just not ready to discussion the greater transitional history and reality of most relationships.
** We very much hope is the last, at any rate.

    Join us, won't you?

  Episode 394- Tossed Caesar Salad

Driving Ms. Sadie

    This week- two deep friendships inspired by unusual circumstances.

     While digging through yard sales to give her yellow dull room a nice home feel, Jane buys an ancient thermos, that will make a lovely vase, from Sadie. When her perfectly clipped flowers are still too tall for the thermal vase, Jane fines ten thousand dollars in old bills inside. When her attempt to return the cash is rebuffed, Jane makes it her mission to befriend the obviously lonely elderly woman as another way to repay her debt. There's also some porn, a jealous roommate, COD playing, and high drama around a small dog named... Starlet.

     Toby has an advanced bio-mechanical device implanted in his chest. This device makes him faster and stronger than is humanly possibly. Not wanting it, he flees Hong Kong with the intention of selling the device to a company in sunny California. Unfortunately, assassins are hot on his trail. Malik is a down on his luck, having recently been tossed from his home for another man. When Tody has no choice but to take Malik hostage, the duo embark on a road trip full of odd characters and high octane fistfights. Will Toby reach his destination before being dispatched by a hillbilly commando team or biomechanical assassin 2.0? Will Malik realize that he deserves better and settle down in a small motel somewhere between LA and San Francisco? Why is this film called... Drive.
     All that and a twin in wicker, multiple noirs in fog, and old faves returned. Join us, won't you?

  Episode 282- Driving Ms. Sadie

Tangentially Xmas

    This week we bring 2021 to a close with a three pack of movies that are firmly winter holiday adjacent. 

     Christmas Eve 1918, a lawyer comes to visit Mrs. Allen and her three children. He brings an amazing offer that will get them out of not their squalid apartment and give them a chance to improve their lives greatly. That is, if they don't mind a few ghosts. Before they can say some cockney rhyming slang two of the kids are off on a time leaping adventure that will change their lives forever. Just don't think of The Amazing Mr. Blunden and his paradoxes.
     After a month as classifieds editor at the Los Angeles Eye and finding that she has been sleeping with the wrong reporter to get a career boost, wannabe reporter Kim takes matters into her own hands and, without editorial sanction, begins to look into a woman's strange death by spontaneous human combustion. At her very first stop, she becomes the target of a coven of lesbian witches. Crammed full of ideas cut from a previous feature, cult hero Brian Yuzna brings a tale that appropriately hates everyone but loves giant cockroaches. Who will survive Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation?
     Three odysseys across LA. Sean Baker's raw and up close ground level view of a distinctive and specific sex-trade subculture. Anchored by three phenomenal central performances and filmed with bleeding edge technique and stuffed with style, Tangerine.
     All that and Kevin get serenaded, Dave wonders if Killer Santa was inside him all alone, and Tyler learns the true meaning of Life Day. Join us, won't you?

Episode 237- Tangentially Xmas