F This Movie!

FTM 837: MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Wed, 9 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Patrick and Rosalie got no strings.

Download this episode here.

Listen to F This Movie! on Apple Podcasts.

Also discussed this episode: The Sweet Smell of Success (1957), The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), Kansas City (1996), King Creole (1958), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), Gilda (1946), Videoheaven (2026), Buddy (2026), The Sun Never Sets (2026)

Fifty Before ’50: Four by Méliès

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Tue, 8 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by JB

A few (extremely) short subjects for a boring Tuesday morning.

George Méliès is, by popular acclaim, the father of fantastic cinema. Born to a wealthy family in 1861, he eschewed his family’s boot business for a life in the theater. He invented dozens of illusions for the Theater Robert-Houdin in Paris, named for the French magician who would later supply young American Eric Weiss with his “nom de magic.” Méliès eventually bought the theater.

In 1895, he attended the Lumiere Brothers’ first public film exhibition. The Lumieres refused to sell Méliès a camera and projector, so Méliès travelled to London and persuaded Robert Paul to sell him the equipment he needed. The theater Robert-Houdin soon started showing short film programs between magic acts; most of the films directed by Méliès himself. Méliès was prolific: he made 78 short films in 1896 and 52 in 1897. He continued to make films until 1912 when a bad confluence of events essentially ended his film career.

Today, only about 200 of 500 Méliès's films still exist. Méliès destroyed most of his original negatives, thinking them worthless; the French army confiscated many of his prints during WWI; and the delicate nitrate film was subject to deterioration and fire. The majority of Méliès’ films that were preserved can be found at the Library of Congress. Méliès’ brother Gaston submitted paper prints of each frame of the “Star Films” in order to preserve copyright when he set up an American branch in 1902.

Gugusse and the Automaton (1897)

This one is the star of the show. Long thought lost forever, it resurfaced just this April and was restored by the Library of Congress. Besides being a hoot, it is the first example of a robot on film in cinema history. NOTE: Many is the day I wish I had a big sledgehammer like the one Méliès wields in the film.

Four Troublesome Heads (1898)

Yes, it seems at times that Méliès was in love with the head, specifically his own. In this film and in others like 1901’s The Man with the Rubber Head, the chief action of the film revolves around magic with the director’s own noggin. Strange.

NOTE: I love how the background music here is played on a banjo, as Méliès himself is shown playing/wielding a banjo here when his strange quartet starts singing.

The Mermaid (1904)

More magic shows. My one quibble with Méliès is that, although his films got longer and more elaborate, he never really progressed as a filmmaker. The camera is always in the fifth-row center; he is always simply duplicating the theatrical experience. He never tires of making objects and people disappear and change into other people and objects, as in a magic show. Still, its impressive that his audience never tired of these “old tricks” for some fifteen years. NOTE: The mermaid presented here longs to be part of your world.

Satan in Prison (1907)

Not the most entertaining of Méliès’ trick films, but this one rounds out our program simply because of its odd title. NOTE: That is not the actual Satan in the film. It is an actor. Enjoy.

Happy Labor Day!

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Mon, 7 Sep 2026 02:00:00 -0500

Weekend Open Thread

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Sat, 5 Sep 2026 02:00:00 -0500

Review: ONSLAUGHT

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Fri, 4 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Rob DiCristino

In which Adam Wingard gets back to basics.

You know what? Let’s just cut to the chase on this one: Onslaught is not a very good film. It’s a crass, empty, and juvenile actioner, a reheated John Carpenter riff that sorely lacks the gritty authenticity and cynical defiance of Carpenter masterpieces like The Thing, They Live, and Assault on Precinct 13. Unlike those films, Onslaught is forced and overeager, bending over backward to be transgressive in a laughable, 2010 sort of way. Co-written with longtime partner Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard’s first independent effort since 2014 is an impotent temper tantrum from a filmmaker venting his frustration over the decade he’s spent trapped in the IP hellscape of Godzilla vs. Kong (a vibrant franchise with a real impact on pop culture; surely you have a number of favorite scenes from those memorable films!). And I sympathize, Mr. Wingard. I really do. After the critical success of The Guest and the commercial breakthrough of You’re Next, I’d have taken the big sack of money, too! But by returning to his genre roots, Wingard proves that money might not buy creative happiness.

But hang on. We’ll get there. Onslaught is the story of retired Army sniper Celeste (Adria Arjona), whose post-traumatic stress disorder has destroyed her marriage (to Jacob Scipo’s Griffin), made her a stranger to her young daughter (Blake Kennedy as Daisy), and doomed her to ownership of a run-down trailer park on the desert outskirts of a mysterious military facility. When a work emergency forces Griffin to leave Daisy with Celeste unexpectedly — interrupting an afternoon of target practice that Sarah Connor would find excessive — the struggling veteran must put on a brave face and play the part of “Mommy.” Meanwhile, in the aforementioned mysterious military facility, a trio of hulking, undead supersoldiers engineered by a third-generation Nazi scientist (Dan Stevens in elderly makeup as Dr. Kammler) and his wife (Thundering Badass Rebecca Hall as Frau Kammler) have murdered their caretakers and escaped. Guess where they’re heading? No, really. Guess. I’m going to give you three guesses. Remember, Celeste’s a sniper, and this movie is called Onslaught.

You get it. Gaudy, brainless, and deeply uninspired, Onslaught is the kind of back-to-basics passion project that recalls Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit, and Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy. Here’s how it works: Fed up with the machinations of major studio filmmaking — machinations that led to either commercial embarrassment or critical dismissal (and occasionally both) — an artist attempts to reassert their street cred with a project that recreates the circumstances of their original success. In this case, Wingard trades the bottomless pocketbook of Warner Brothers for the bespoke chinos of A24 and films a screenplay so low-concept that it appears almost foolproof. How could Wingard possibly fumble a gory siege thriller, especially one that boasts supporting roles from genre luminaries like The Terminator’s Michael Biehn (as Dr. Kammler’s government handler) and Die Hard’s Reginald VelJohnson (as Celeste’s irascible neighbor, Josiah). Guts? Guns? Gore? Some leather fetish bondage porn for good measure? Is this not the definition of cinema?

Perhaps it is. And perhaps I should cut Wingard some slack for at least trying to layer in the occasional theme — the big chunguses are all vets whose trauma drove them to violence; they represent who Celeste might become if she doesn’t check her anger and rediscover her humanity before it’s too late — but those half-hearted attempts are so clumsy and underdeveloped that it might have been better if he hadn’t bothered with them at all. He might not also have bothered with an entirely unnecessary subplot involving Cyrus (Drew Starkey), a Molly-loving special agent charged with mopping up the bloody messes that the big chunguses — led by UFC’s Alex Pereira as “The Butcher” — leave in their wake. He’s in an entirely different movie about a speed-addicted failson with a fauxhawk who makes no tangible contribution to anything we care even the slightest bit about. His screen time comes at the expense of meaningful development for Celeste and Daisy, neither of whom grow or change in any way whatsoever. But hey, at least that one guy got his leg sawed off!

I’m probably being too hard on Adam Wingard and Onslaught, which is ultimately a perfectly serviceable and good-looking ode to one of our great directors — the interstitial titles use the Carpenter Font, just in case you weren’t sure — anchored by an effective performance from Adria Arjona. It features enough gnarly kills to hit your #ScaryMovieMonth rotation this year, and one imagines that the experience of making something this down-and-dirty after two CGI blockbusters about a gorilla must have reinvigorated Wingard’s love for his craft — he’s notably not attached to 2027’s Godzilla x Kong: Supernova — and reminded him that good art is born of adversity. With that said, I hope Onslaught’s piss-poor screenplay and lack of any real dramatic propulsion also reminded him that just because a film is “simple” doesn’t mean it’s “easy.” Halloween is simple. That’s what makes it brilliant. The Fog is simple. That’s what makes it brilliant. Big Trouble in Little China is…well, fairly convoluted, actually, but you understand what I’m trying to say.

Onslaught hits U.S. theaters on Friday, September 4th.

Friday Night Double Features Vol. 70

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Thu, 3 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Adam Riske and Patrick Bromley

Ten new double features to watch while you drink your Pumpkin Spice Matchas.

Double Feature 1:

Adam: #1: Midnight Run (1988)
Patrick: #2: Meet the Parents (2000)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: Showtime, Dirty Grandpa, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
Patrick: Theme: Funny De Niro

Patrick: I went obvious for our first Cinemarink double this month. Midnight Run is a pretty unassailable classic and I didn’t want to be too cutesy with the pairing. I know the trailers are a shit show but I stand by this double, having revisited Meet the Parents during FTMF 2000 month and finding it better and funnier than I remember it being and featuring a super locked-in De Niro performance. It’s become shorthand for a kind of mainstream, corporate bullshit comedy over the last 25 years – the DVD owned by the person who only owns this and The Hangover – but I liked it more than I thought I did.

Adam: That’s great. I wish they stayed with just the original. I’m not a fan of the sequels, although I like Ariana Grande so I’m looking forward to the new one a little more than I should. I’m always fascinated by Funny De Niro because he’s either totally locked in like in Meet the Parents or I’d even argue Dirty Grandpa (which is a bad, bad, bad movie) but other times at sea (have you seen The Comedian?). There’s very little in-between.

Double Feature 2:

Patrick: #1: Rhinestone (1984)
Adam: #2: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: 9 to 5, Steel Magnolias, Straight Talk, “Islands in the Stream” Live Performance Video
Adam: Theme: Dolly Parton Tribute

Adam: I considered the idea of doing a joint Dolly Parton-Tim Curry tribute here (note: Curry passed away after I initially chose these pairings but before this column ran), but they each deserve their own and we can do a proper Tim Curry themed one in the future. Why are so many cool celebrities dying? Anyways, this is probably my double feature pick of the month because I’ve always liked Dolly Parton from afar but haven’t really dived deep into her work, musically or cinematically. I think the only movie of hers I’ve seen is Steel Magnolias, but that’s too sad to program here so I just had it as a trailer. This double will give me an excuse to finally catch up with a couple of her classics (Is Rhinestone a classic? I know it’s often discussed but as a guilty pleasure). I had to throw in her and Kenny Rogers “Islands in the Stream” into the night’s programming too because it’s a great song written by my boys The Bee Gees. P.S. I paired Rhinestone with The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas because she sings in both!

Patrick: I wanted to say that both of these movies rule but that’s probably not true even though I love Rhinestone. Best Little Whorehouse is legit great and she’s incredible in it so I’m glad you picked another musical, especially one that pairs her opposite a male co-star who a) is a symbol of onscreen masculinity at the time and b) has to sing. These movies pair so well. I should have more shame about my affection for Rhinestone but I refuse because Dolly Parton is so great in it and even Stallone’s best efforts to ruin it are unsuccessful. Losing her and Tim Curry in the same two-day span is unthinkable. All I can think to do to honor their memories is to watch their movies.

Double Feature 3:
Adam: #1: The Driver (1978)
Patrick: #2: Hickey & Boggs (1972)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: The Getaway, Hard Times, The Warriors
Patrick: Theme: Early Walter Hill

Patrick: I’ve kind of wanted to re-run all the Walter Hills lately so this might be the kick in the dick I need to do it. I know I mixed movies that he wrote with movies he directed but I wanted to focus on some of his lesser-known early work. Have you seen Hickey & Boggs? I know it has Bill Cosby in it, which is unfortunate in 2026, but it rules. Great buddy cop stuff. I decided to go with that over The Warriors because I assume that’s a movie everyone has seen even though I could literally watch it anytime. The Driver is so amazing, too. I never count Walter Hill among my guys because I don’t feel masculine enough to do that (same reason I don’t count John Carpenter) but he’s kind of one of my guys.

Adam: No, I’m pretty lacking in my early Walter Hill watches, too. I haven’t seen anything before The Warriors. Laughing at you saying you don’t feel masculine enough to consider Walter Hill as one of your guys. I kind of have the same thing too but maybe didn’t realize it. I like a lot of Walter Hill movies I’ve seen but it’s never occurred to me to be more than a tourist in his filmography. I’d never be so bold to claim residency. In any event, I’m looking forward to watching more unseen Walter Hills!

Double Feature 4:

Patrick: #1: Back to School (1986)
Adam: #2: Summer School (1987)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: Better Off Dead, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Adam: Theme: Classroom Hijinks

Adam: There’s something a little extra fun about programming ‘80s comedy double features. I haven’t seen all of Back to School (I remember diving board stuff from when I watched it on cable as a kid but that’s it) so I’m looking forward to finally seeing the whole thing. I paired it with Summer School, which I watched ALL THE TIME on cable in the late ‘80s. I think it’s one of my first experiences seeing something with horror elements with that Chainsaw & Dave sequence. I’m surprised that part never scared me. I was intrigued. Summer School is gateway horror is what I’m trying to say.

Patrick: If I didn’t already want to do the Dolly double this would for sure be my pick of the month. I love a Classroom Hijinks comedy, and even if I don’t love Back to School (the fact that it was one of highest-grossing movies of its year will forever confound me the same way the success of Crocodile Dundee confounds me) I find it incredibly watchable. Here’s why this is a sneaky brilliant double: I have been listening to nothing but Oingo Boingo lately and programmed Back to School because it’s an early Danny Elfman score (and Boingo performs live). Guess what else is an early Danny Elfman score? Summer School! Very well done, Adam! Also, Summer School is total gateway horror. Rick Baker did the effects! I was obsessed with that scene when I was 10. I would just watch that part over and over again. It’s one of my favorite ‘80s comedies.

Double Feature 5:
Adam: #1: Made (2001)
Patrick: #2: Ticker (2001)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: Soul Survivors, Novocaine, ‘R Xmas
Patrick: Theme: 2001 Artisan

Patrick: I always associate Artisan Entertainment with shitty DVDs but they had some good movies too. Made is one of them. Ticker isn’t, but it’s an Albert Pyun starring Steven Seagal, Tom Sizemore, Jaime Pressly, Ice-T, and Kevin Gage. How can we not see it on the big screen at the Cinemarink? It’s one of the most Us movies ever made.

Adam: This is in the running for our FNDF episode in November because I feel like rewatching Made (the Casino to Swingers’ Goodfellas), and the cast of Ticker is insane, and I must see this unseen Pyun! Plus, we haven’t done our Ice-T episode of the year. This is lining up like the Da Vinci Code or something.

Double Feature 6:

Patrick: #1: They Live (1988)
Adam: #2: Society (1989)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: The Stepford Wives (1975), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Stuff
Adam: Theme: Conform or Else

Adam: This theme is on the nose. I mean, sure, but it doesn’t excite me. I dunno. The pairing is good, though. They Live is the ultimate conformity horror movie, and I think Society would be a fun movie on the back leg of a double feature with it since it ends so crazy. I love that conformity horror makes everyone in the audience align to it but then immediately un-radicalize most of them the moment they leave the theater. Maybe I’m just speaking for myself.

Patrick: LOL you’re totally right. We’ll get all mad and worked up and then leave and go get Taco Bell and forget all of our righteous rage. Society is a great pick to play on the back end of this double because it offers a totally different flavor of horror.

Double Feature 7:
Adam: #1: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)
Patrick: #2: Seekers of Infinite Love (2026)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: North Hollywood, Multiple episodes of Hacks
Patrick: Theme: OMG Marry Me Hannah Einbinder

Patrick: I never watched Hacks but then I saw Teenage Sex and Death (currently my favorite movie of the year) and immediately fell madly in love with Hannah Einbinder. We have since watched all of Hacks. This double is a cheat because she only stars in one other movie and it hasn’t come out yet but we will cheat and play it at the LC. Maybe she will show up and be my friend.

Adam: I’m excited to see Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and see how I fare in Einbinder Crushing (which could’ve been the name of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode). You and I usually have a lot of crossovers in our top 10 lists each year and not much crossover outside of the top 10, so if you say it’s your current favorite movie of the year then it shoots up my must-see list. Plus, I really liked I Saw the TV Glow, so I really want to see the follow-up by Jane Schoenbrun.

Double Feature 8:

Patrick: #1: Pale Rider (1985)
Adam: #2: Cocoon (1985)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: The Goonies, St. Elmo's Fire, Perfect, Lifeforce, Music Video block - “Everything She Wants” (Wham!), “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” (Tears for Fears), “Heaven” (Bryan Adams)
Adam: Theme: June 1985

Adam: I sort of selfishly put this together as an excuse to watch two ‘80s movies I’ve never seen but have always been on my radar. Hell, I’ve even seen Cocoon 2 (which I remember nothing about) but not the original. I’ve been meaning to see Pale Rider, but I get decision fatigue every time I try to figure out which unseen Clint Western I should watch next (e.g. Pale Rider, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Hang ‘Em High). This should be a really fun, time capsule kind of night between the features and trailer block.

Patrick: As much as I’m allergic to naked nostalgia this night sounds AMAZING and I’m all in just for the trailer block if nothing else. I’m not the biggest Cocoon guy but maybe it will hit differently now that I’m probably the age of all the old people in the movie. You can’t really go wrong with any of those Clint Westerns, but you should watch them in this order: Josey Whales, Pale Rider, then Hang ‘Em High is if you have time and get to it but there’s no rush.

Double Feature 9:

Adam: #1: Eddie (1996)
Patrick: #2: The Associate (1996)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: Call Me Claus, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Fatal Beauty
Patrick: Theme: She’s Making the Decisions Now

Patrick: This one is for my friend Adam because it’s his new favorite subgenre. I’d probably want to watch Fatal Beauty the most of all of these but The Associate clearly pairs best with Eddie because it came out the same year and because she’s making the decisions now.

Adam: If you would’ve asked me at the beginning of the summer if I’d 100 percent sit down for a 1996 Whoopi Goldberg double feature, I would’ve said no but after her making the decisions now became one of our (and Rob’s) running jokes of the summer, it makes me want watch all (scratch that…one) varietals of Whoopi. I’ve seen Eddie but not for a very long time (and it might be fun to check out following the Knicks’ recent championship) and I’m currently in the mood to watch The Associate, which has never happened before. This is an interesting feeling that I’m feeling. All because of an offhand joke I made out of nowhere.

Double Feature 10:

Patrick: #1: I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009)
Adam: #2: Scream IV (2011)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: A Bug's Life, Remember the Titans, Ice Princess, Heroes Pilot Episode, Music Videos - “Telescope” and “I Still Believe”
Adam: Theme: Hayden Panettiere Tribute

Adam: I didn’t keep up with Hayden Panettiere’s career much in recent years, but I remember her being a natural in early roles like Remember the Titans and on Heroes (I didn’t continue past the first season). And of course, she’s a spark plug in Scream VI and Scream IV, especially, which is why I wanted to pair it with I Love You, Beth Cooper (which I haven’t seen despite it having local ties and directed by my boy Chris Columbus). I’m glad we got to do a tribute night to Panettiere, but I wish we didn’t have to under these circumstances. This is a case where I didn’t appreciate someone’s work enough until they were gone and that sucks.

Patrick: It’s all so sad. I just rewatched I Love You Beth Cooper and it’s much more of a Paul Rust vehicle than a Hayden Panettiere one. She’s just saddled with “generic dream girl,” which she does well. I am excited for you to check off an unseen Columbus, though. She pops way more in Scream IV, so that’s a great call. I wish she had been in more movies and that she had an easier life. Now I’m sad. Time to put on Summer School again.

FTM 836: F THIS SUMMER (2026)

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Wed, 2 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Patrick, JB, Rob, and Adam Riske talk about a good summer at the movies.

Download this episode here.

Listen to F This Movie! on Apple Podcasts.

Fifty Before '50: THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Tue, 1 Sep 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by JB

Film critic Dave Kehr labeled it, “the film you cannot show without apology,” and it sometimes seems that modern film history just wants us to forget all about it.

For the first few years of my teaching career in the mid-1980s, I screened D.W. Griffith’s seminal tale of the Deep South and the Confederacy, The Birth of a Nation, in my Film Studies class because I wanted my students to see firsthand where most film grammar had come from. I remember screening The Birth of a Nation one August day when the temperature in my unairconditioned classroom rose to 102 degrees. Clearly, this violated the “cruel and unusual punishment” clause in our Constitution. Maybe I was engaging in “method teaching,” trying to capture for my students the oppressive heat of a real Carolina plantation.

Between the film’s cumbersome length and its reprehensible, racist message, I soon found other ways to teach the same material.

THE PLOT IN BRIEF: Part One: The War Phil Stoneman (Elmer Clifton) visits family friends The Camerons in South Carolina and falls in love with their daughter Margaret (Miriam Cooper). Phil shows Margaret’s brother Ben (Henry Walthall) a picture of his sister Elsie (Lillian Gish). Ben is instantly smitten. Unfortunately, all of this love business must take a back seat to the Civil War, which inconveniently starts during Phil’s visit. Both young men enlist in their respective armies. Both men see their younger brothers killed in combat.

Ben Cameron leads the final charge at the Siege of Petersburg and acquires the nickname "the Little Colonel." Ben is wounded, captured, and taken to a Union military hospital in Washington, D.C. There, he learns that he will be hanged. Ben’s mother (Josephine Crowell) arranges a meeting with President Abraham Lincoln (Joseph Henabery) and pleads for her son’s life. Lincoln pardons Ben, but is soon assassinated at Ford’s Theater. Phil and Elsie Stoneman are in the audience that night and witness the horrible event. In the wake of Lincoln’s death, Elsie’s father, US Representative Austin Stoneman (Ralph Lewis) and other radical Republicans vow to punish the South.

Part Two: Reconstruction
Stoneman and his mixed-race assistant Silas Lynch (George Siegmann), travel to South Carolina to observe Reconstruction. Lynch is elected lieutenant governor, newly freed blacks stuff the ballot box, and white people are denied the right to vote. The South Carolina legislature is now mostly black. Of course, none of this ever happened, although Austin Stoneman is loosely based on Thaddeus Stevens.

Ben fights back by forming the Klan. Yes, THAT Klan. Elsie breaks up with him. Ben’s sister, Flora Cameron (Mae Marsh) is followed by Gus (Walter Long), a newly freed slave. Gus asks Flora to marry him. Frightened, she runs into the woods and winds up on a high, dangerous outcropping. Flora tells Gus not to come any closer. Gus comes closer; Flora leaps to her death. While hiding out in a saloon, Gus starts shooting people. The Klan hunts down Gus, tries him, finds him guilty, kills him, and delivers his corpse to Silas Lynch's house. Of course, none of this ever happened.

After discovering Gus's murder, Lynch orders a crackdown on the Klan. He also secures the passing of legislation allowing mixed race marriages. Flora’s father, Dr. Cameron, is arrested for possessing a Klan uniform. Phil Stoneman and some of the doctor’s faithful black servants spring him from jail. The group escapes with Cameron’s daughter and Phil’s intended, Margaret. Their wagon breaks down, and they find a small cabin in the woods in which to hide. Two former Union soldiers agree to hide them. Of course, none of this ever happened. The point of the narrative seems to be that the North and South needed to take up arms against invading hordes of newly-free renegade Negroes. This is not history; it’s a racist’s paranoid fantasy.

Elsie, learning of Dr. Cameron's arrest, visits Lynch to plead for his life. Lynch tries to force Elsie to marry him. Stoneman reveals himself a hypocrite when he becomes infuriated that the mixed-race Lynch means to marry his daughter. Elsie gets the attention of undercover Klansman spies and cries out for help. When the news reaches Ben, he goes to rescue Elsie. The Klan gather with Ben leading them. They ride triumphantly into town and take control of it. Lynch is captured. Meanwhile, a crazed, black militia attacks the cabin in the woods where the Camerons are hiding. The clansmen save them. The Klan force the freed slaves to give up their arms. Margaret Cameron marries Phil Stoneman, and Elsie Stoneman marries Ben Cameron. Of course, none of this ever happened. Because the film contains reenactments of real, historical events (The Civil War, Lincoln’s assassination) did Griffith’s first audiences assume the rest was true too?

Jane Addams, American social reformer and the founder of Hull House, was among the first to see the film and voiced her immediate reaction in an interview published by the New York Post on March 13, 1915, just ten days after the film was released. "One of the most unfortunate things about this film is that it appeals to race prejudice upon the basis of conditions of half a century ago, which have nothing to do with the facts we have to consider today. Even then it does not tell the whole truth. It is claimed that the play is historical, but history is easy to misuse.”

A few cursory words about the artistry of The Birth of a Nation: the man who virtually invented "movie grammar" was a virulent racist. Griffith and Thomas Dixon (who wrote the book The Clansmen, upon which the film is based) present a history that is so grotesquely wrong and simplistic, it could be an ugly cartoon. We know that this is not history, we know that it is not the truth, we know it is the worst kind of propaganda... and yet Griffith’s skill with the nascent tools of filmmaking sweeps us along and the film continually whispers for us to “just go with our emotions.”

Because Griffith was such a genius at directing actors, framing shots, planning out sequences, and editing them for maximum effect, the finished film is a strange amalgam of beautiful technique and reprehensible intent. The film is historic in other ways as well. It’s the first American feature film to run over 12 reels, it was shown in legitimate theaters with a top price of $2.50 (back when the average movie admission was fifteen cents), it was the first American film to arrive at theaters with a printed score the orchestra was expected to play, and it was the highest grossing American film of all time until Gone with The Wind was released in 1939. The film’s release also revived the Ku Klux Klan in the South. They used the film as a recruiting tool.

Why has the film simply not been buried somewhere and forgotten? That’s a legitimate question. In “The Worst Thing About Birth of a Nation Is How Good It Is,” published in The New Yorker in 2013, Richard Brody argues, “The merits of its grand and enduring aesthetic make it impossible to ignore and, despite its disgusting content, also make it hard not to love. And it’s that very conflict that renders the film all the more despicable, the experience of the film more of a torment [....]

“Throughout the film, Griffith’s pro-Confederacy feelings are grossly apparent; yet his depiction of events—his representation of reality as he understands it—involves the inclusion of much that departs from his intentions. The very essence of his realism is open frames, complex staging, and multiple planes of action, all of which suggest far more than Griffith’s [reprehensible title cards] and his stunted politics would themselves allow. For instance, a scene of slave-owners and their Northern guests amiably passing by cotton fields while slaves toil in the background presents, as if in a documentary, the obvious connection between the white Southerners’ gracious ways and the hard, enforced work of slaves that makes it possible.”

Roger Ebert weighed in on the film in his book The Great Movies II, writing, “Certainly, The Birth of a Nation (1915) presents a challenge for modern audiences. Unaccustomed to silent films and uninterested in film history, they find it quaint and not to their taste. Those evolved enough to understand what they are looking at find the early wartime scenes brilliant, but cringe during the postwar and Reconstruction scenes, which are racist in the ham-handed way of an old minstrel show or a vile comic pamphlet [....] The Birth of a Nation is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Triumph of the Will, it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil."

For many years, I attended a delightful little movie convention called WonderFest over Memorial Day Weekend in Louisville, Kentucky. I started out driving there, but eventually discovered that flying was cheaper—the hotel even ran a free shuttle to and from the airport, so I never had to rent a car.

Then, in 2014, two things happened. I discovered that D.W. Griffith was buried in a public cemetery in Louisville, then friend of the site Heath Holland decided to join me and drive up to WonderFest from Alabama. I now had access to an automobile! Heath was nice enough to drive me to the cemetery. (I remember him saying he would “love to take me to the cemetery” again in a few years. Oh, Heath!) We visited Griffith’s grave. It is impressive. Kentucky has placed a historical marker between it and the street, explaining who Griffith was to the uninitiated.

I have visited D.W. Griffith’s grave. I felt like I was making a pilgrimage of sorts. I hope that does not make me racist. Can we ever truly separate the art from the artist? Is it conditional and, if so, what are those conditions? I recognize that as a motion picture pioneer, Griffith had no peer. But as a man, Griffith was a confused, bigoted, boorish dolt. The Birth of a Nation teaches us that two things can be true at the same time.

Thrill Seeker: CONSENTING ADULTS

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Sonia Mansfield

And this is why you shouldn’t make friends with your neighbors.

Consenting Adults
Starring Kevin Kline, Kevin Spacey, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Rebecca Miller
Written by Matthew Chapman
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Rated R for sex, violence, and coveting thy neighbor’s wife

Welcome to Thrill Seeker, in which I watch thrillers from the '80s and '90s. This month, I watched 1992’s Consenting Adults, starring Kevin Kline, Kevin Spacey, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Rebecca Miller.

Thanks to the success of Fatal Attraction, movie studios were cranking out [insert thing] from hell movies. The mistress from hell. The roommate from hell. The nanny from hell. The son from hell. The client from hell. The tenant from hell. Consenting Adults is the neighbors from hell movie.

Of course, I ran to the theater to see this movie. I thought it was ridiculous then, and I think it’s even more ridiculous now. Also, this movie was four years out from Kevin Kline’s Oscar-winning performance in A Fish Called Wanda, and — I think because of the mustache — I couldn’t get Otto out of my mind. I kept waiting for him to yell, “ASSHOLE” every time he was driving a car.

Don't call him stupid

Also, I was like, “Whoa, this is a January Man reunion. I’m in.” After the one-two punch of The January Man and The Abyss, I always liked Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. I have no reason to write about The Abyss, so I’ll just mention now that I put that movie in the category of “accidentally romantic.” I also put Poltergeist in that category.

So anyway, then there’s Kevin Spacey. Sigh. In 1992, I had no idea who Kevin Spacey was, but a few weeks later I saw Glengarry Glen Ross, and that’s when I realized that I was going to be seeing more of him. He was so good at playing creeps. He was one of my favorites for a while, until I realized that he wasn’t just playing a creep in the movies.

And hey, Rebecca Miller is there, too.

OK, let’s run through the plot, no spoilers.

The plot: Richard Parker (Kline) and his wife Priscilla (Mastrantonio) have been married for 14 years and work together as commercial jingle writers. They make a good living. They’ve got a nice, big house in the suburbs, and a sweet, young daughter who is never around because she goes to a school for musically gifted children. Is that important to the plot? Not at all. I guess they tell us that so we won’t wonder, “Where’s their kid?” all the time.

Richard and Priscilla meet their new neighbors, Eddy (Spacey with blond hair, so weird) and Kay Otis (Miller, also with blond hair, but not weird). They have dinner and drinks, and they get to know each other. Eddy works in finance and quickly bonds with Priscilla over investment talk. Kay is a talented singer, and she joins Richard at the piano. Richard is obviously super attracted to Kay even though his wife is Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. It makes no sense.

The couples hit it off, and they start to go on double dates and weekend getaways. Richard and Eddy start confiding in each other, and Richard reveals that their family has some debt. Eddy offers to help them out. Richard probably thinks Eddy will give him investment advice. Instead, Eddy throws himself in front of Richard’s car, fakes an injury, and then splits the settlement money with them so they can pay off their debts. What’s a little fraud between friends, am I right?

Apparently, this isn’t a red flag at all. They all go to a bar together, and Richard convinces the band to let Kay sing. Does this happen a lot in real life? Audience members just ask a band if someone else can sing, and the band’s like, “Ummm, it’s just my job to perform, but sure, go for it.” The way that Richard looks at Kay, it’s so obvious that he wants to fuck her, and Eddy calls him out on it. Luckily for Richard, Eddy also reveals that he wants to fuck Priscilla. Whew. It was about to get awkward.

Eddy’s like, “Yo, wouldn’t it be cool if we swapped wives, but didn’t tell the wives? We just sneak into each other’s bedrooms in the middle of the night and try to fuck each other’s wives while they’re sleeping without their consent? That would be so fun, right?”

Richard’s all, “Umm, nah. The movie’s called Consenting Adults, and there’s no consent in your plan.”

But Eddy doesn’t take no for an answer. He brings it up repeatedly and aggressively. He’s relentless. He basically peer pressures Richard into adultery that is also sexual assault.

So, late one night, after their victims wives are asleep, Richard and Eddy meet in front of their houses, exchange knowing looks, and sneak into each other’s homes and beds.

How did it go? Well, does this newspaper ad that Priscilla is reading the next day give you a hint?

There's a sale at Penney's!

And here’s where my plot summary ends, thrill seekers. Just know there’s a murder, more singing, and a Forest Whitaker sighting.

Is it a thrill? Not at all. It’s hard to believe Alan J. Pakula directed this. He directed one of the ultimate President from hell movies, All the President’s Men. He was more successful mining infidelity and paranoia in Presumed Innocent two years earlier.

Richard is such a dolt that I couldn’t muster up any sympathy for him. Eddy is so clearly a creep from the moment he appears that you can’t believe that someone smart like Priscilla wouldn’t see through him immediately. And hey, Kay is also there.

There are so many plot holes: “That wouldn’t happen.” “Whhhhy?” “Nobody does that.” “Do apes read philosophy?” (Yes, they just don’t understand it.)

No one behaves like an actual human. They’re just doing and saying the things they need to do to move the story to the next unsurprising twist. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but it’s basically “Having neighbors is the problem,” which is so stupid it made me wonder if the movie is supposed to be a comedy.

Rating: 2 out of 5 bunnies in a boiling pot

Weekend Open Thread

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 02:00:00 -0500

Review: COYOTE VS. ACME

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by JB

This is such a special film.

One of the happiest pieces of film-related news this year was the announcement that Ketchup Entertainment had bought the film Coyote vs. Acme from Warner Bros. and was going to give it a proper release in theaters. This followed Ketchup’s great success rescuing The Day the Earth Blew Up from streaming obscurity in 2024. The latest Looney Tunes feature film opens in honest-to-goodness theaters today. Don’t miss it.

THE PLOT IN BRIEF: After years of purchasing ACME products and having these wildly defective gee-gaws malfunction, causing him grave injury, Wile E. Coyote decides to sue the company for damages. He hires “billboard law firm” Avery, Jones, and Maltese to plead his case in court. Kevin Avery (Will Forte) would rather settle the case quickly for a quick payout. He hasn’t been in a courtroom in years. ACME also would rather settle quickly and quietly. What is ACME hiding?

Based on a very funny New Yorker piece by Ian Frazier that was later published as a book, Coyote vs. Acme starts with a strong premise. It is not merely an extended Road Runner cartoon, though it contains many gags based on the Coyote’s crazy obsession with making that zooming bird his dinner. Screenwriter Samy Burch does a great job handling a potential story problem: how to make the scheming and single-minded Coyote a sympathetic protagonist? Kudos also for working out how to center a feature film on a main character who never speaks.

As the new film reminds us, some of the sight gags in the original Chuck Jones shorts were worthy of Buster Keaton—if Keaton operated in a universe where gravity could be paused for the sake of a joke. I've always loved how these cartoons played with physics, motion, perspective, spatial relationships, and utter silliness.

One of my favorite jokes in the film is Forte’s TV lawyer pitch. (These types of commercials are ubiquitous where I live in California, where fender benders are apparently big business.) “Have you ever set a big stack of TNT on the road, hoping to blow up your nemesis, but the detonator itself explodes? Have you ever pulled the ripcord of your parachute, and only a bunch of silverware comes out? IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT!”

How ironic that this cartoon tale of corporate malfeasance would become a metaphor for itself when mega-corporation Warner Bros. refused to release it, choosing to write it off as a loss rather than, you know, MAKING PEOPLE HAPPY WITH A FUN MOVIE.

The current owners of Warner Bros. have proven themselves to be inadequate cultural stewards by taking this special little Valentine to the studio’s rich cartoon history and shelving it indefinitely... for A TAX WRITE-OFF. Assholes. Clowns. Criminals.

After Ketchup Entertainment bought the rights to the finished film, they began running trailers for Coyote Vs. Acme... on April 15th, Tax Day. The teaser featured Wile E. Coyote hanging in the air before holding up a sign reading "Happy Tax Day" on one side and "Check Your Write-Offs" on the other, then falling to his doom.

The film's marketing geniuses leaned into the tax write-off controversy, using ACME Corporation as a placeholder for Warner Bros., such as with the slogan "The Movie ACME Doesn't Want You to See.” The trailer was watched 25.6 million times within its first 24 hours, which set the record for most views for an independent family film. Take that, you soulless bureaucrats!

I feel that owning a film studio or a film library means something more than owning a fucking factory that churns out baked beans. Carl Laemmle understood that. So did Jack Warner. So did Louis B. Mayer. So did Walt Disney. The short sightedness of the current crop of studio heads is depressing. I may never stop throwing up. As Mr. Bernstein says in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, “There’s no trick to making a lot of money... if all you want is to make a lot of money."

As this YouTube video, “How Warner Bros. Killed a $17 Billion Cartoon Empire” from just last month explains by laying out the history of the studio for the last 35 years, Warner Bros. has criminally mismanaged this asset since the first Space Jam. Cartoon Brew, quoted in the piece, put it succinctly: “Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslaz is continuing his systematic crusade to dismantle WB’s animation legacy and he’s doing it with the kind of thoroughness that borders on obsession.”

Much like 2024’s The Day the Earth Blew Up, Coyote vs. Acme has everything a Looney Tunes fan would desire in a modern version of the classic cartoons. The characters all stay true to form, there is an abundance of inspired sight gags, and there are scads of cameos from Looney Tunes characters both famous and obscure. I don’t want to spoil the joy of recognition, but I have a special feeling for any film that features shout-outs to Peter Lorre, Yosemite Sam, and Yertle the Turtle.

This weekend, or in the days ahead, let’s all plan to see this special little film in a theater. This will be the equivalent of buying boxes and boxes of TNT from a company OTHER THAN ACME and shoving them up Warner Bros.’ collective keister. And when we put down our money at the box office, nothing will go wrong with the Detonator of Taste and Discretion and Comeuppance... We will teach the Brothers Warner a lesson about the importance of our cartoon heritage... and things blowing up REAL good.

Especially the comically-labeled sticks of metaphoric TNT stuffed inside their capacious, metaphoric assholes.

Boom!

Review: THE DOG STARS

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Rob DiCristino

The dog dies. I’m just telling you right away.

No one makes major motion pictures quite like Sir Ridley Scott. He wouldn’t let them. If they tried, he’d get very angry and throw things. There would be cigar fires and racial slurs. But that’s just Ridley being Ridley. That’s why we love him! The legendary English auteur is one of our last cinematic stalwarts, an old-school craftsman who wholeheartedly refuses to adapt to these changing times. No matter their genre or budget, Ridley Scott’s films are bold and exuberant; even scripts that would be understated dramas in the hands of other filmmakers become colorful romps when brought to life by Ragin’ Ridley. Is this kind of maximalism always the right approach? I don’t know, friend; do you like listening to Oscar-winning actors adopt preposterous Italian accents? Haven’t you ever wanted to see Ray Liotta eat his own brains? Wouldn’t it be cool if a robot Michael Fassbender made out with another, identical robot Michael Fassbender? Subtlety is for cowards. Ridley Scott’s films are rarely perfect, but no one would dare accuse them of being predictable.

So I’ll admit to being surprised to hear that Ridley’s next project after the ostentatious Gladiator II — you do remember the ostentatious Gladiator II, don’t you? — would be The Dog Stars, an adaptation of Peter Heller’s 2012 post-apocalyptic novel of the same name. It’s not that I didn’t think Ridley Scott could stage a sleepy post-apocalypse; it’s just that the story of a taciturn mechanic (Jacob Elordi as Hig) wandering the ruins of Denver with his trusty canine companion felt a tad mundane for a guy who typically deals in more overstated — more “destiny has brought me this lambchop”-type — dramaturgy. Nevertheless, the first hour of The Dog Stars introduces us to Hig’s broken world, a rusty stretch of mountain valley he shares with ex-Marine Bangley (Josh Brolin). Their home is a fortified airstrip, and Hig passes the time between recon flights searching the ruins of downtown and bringing supplies to a Mennonite camp led by Aaron (Benedict Wong). His mind often drifts to his late wife (Sai Bennett), who was taken by the virus that destroyed the world.

It’s a peaceful enough way to survive, but when a band of raiders invades the airstrip and kills his beloved pooch, Jasper — I already told you the dog doesn’t make it; don’t yell at me — Hig decides to get busy living or get busy dying. He sets out west in search of a promised land where humans are able to rise above their baser survival instincts and live together in harmony. He soon stumbles upon Pops (Guy Pearce) and his daughter, Cima (Margaret Qualley), a pair of farmers whose early suspicions eventually give way to exactly the sort of trust and cooperation Hig had in mind. For a while, it seems like The Dog Stars will be the story of a man who refuses to give into the cynicism and xenophobia that keeps the militant Bangley camped alone behind his barricades. Hig and the widowed Cima fall for each other quickly — Pops makes a valiant effort to referee, but no loving father would deny his daughter a roll in the hay with Jacob Elordi — and he starts to seriously consider the possibility of a better world born out of the ashes of the one that we once destroyed.

And while Ridley Scott succeeds in presenting that destroyed world with an authentic grime and grittiness that other filmmakers would outsource to CGI — including the kind of breathtaking airplane photography we rarely get these days unless Tom Cruise is hanging off the damn wings — The Dog Stars takes a series of dramatic second-half turns that confuse and complicate its narrative so severely that it never quite recovers. What begins as a quiet cousin to The Last of Us or Station Eleven goes full Bong Joon Ho in a sequence featuring Allison Janney as a Stepford-esque cult leader, and a nighttime raid on Bangley’s compound by a group of migrant-coded “roaches” muddles any messages Mark L. Smith’s screenplay might be trying to communicate about the power of charity and empathy. Those could very well be passages straight from Heller’s novel, for all I know, but a filmmaker as talented as Ridley Scott should be better at spinning his tonal plates, and there’s a real shoulder-shrugging quality to the way they all come crashing to the ground.

That’s not to say there isn’t some fun to be had in The Dog Stars: Jacob Elordi has more than proven his ability to carry a picture at this point in his career, and he has an easy, lived-in chemistry with Margaret Qualley that presents a thoughtful picture of finding new love in the wake of grief and loss. Guy Pearce and Josh Brolin are leaning into their gruff, grey-bearded elder statesmen stages with delightful enthusiasm — a shot of a half-naked Brolin near the end gives the film its one and only genuine comedy beat — and even though Scott denies us a needed meeting between these two cantankerous codgers, their mere presence lends The Dog Stars the gravitas it desperately requires in its weaker, duller moments. Still, it’s hard not to wonder at Ridley Scott’s 2020s decline — the underrated Last Duel aside — and question whether he’d be better off burning out than fading away. Scott’s the kind of guy who will die making movies, and I’ll be there for every one of them. But a few more like The Dog Stars, and it’s going to get hard to convince anyone to join me.

The Dog Stars hits U.S. theaters on Friday, August 28th.

FTM 835: END OF DAYS with Tyson Legg

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Celebrate Y2K with Patrick and Tyson Legg.

Download this episode here.

Listen to F This Movie! on Apple Podcasts.

Also discussed this episode: The Relic (1997), The Presidio (1988), The Star Chamber (1983), Narrow Margin (1990), Mother Mary (2026), The Death of Robin Hood (2026), The Toy (1982)

Fifty Before '50: THE GENERAL

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by JB

I will tell you the story of this remarkable film, the tale of “The Eleven Dips,” and much else besides.

Very few silent films are released on physical media these days. We should celebrate those golden oldies that do get a proper disc release. Even rarer is a silent film on 4K. When that happens, we should really throw a party. I am currently mixing drinks, blowing noisemakers, and throwing confetti over the release of Buster Keaton’s masterpiece, The General, on 4K Blu-ray.

THE PLOT IN BRIEF: Southern train engineer Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton) wants to join the Confederate cause in the Civil War. His girlfriend Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack) wants him to join up too. Army recruiters want him to remain a train engineer; they think he's more valuable to the South in that capacity. One day a group of Northern spies steal Johnnie’s beloved engine, “The General,” and drive it north. Keaton takes off after it; he too steals a train and the chase begins. Keaton follows them to a Northern army encampment, where he accidentally discovers that the Northern spies have kidnapped Annabelle to boot!

Johnnie not only regains his train, he overhears the North’s plans for battle. Keaton rushes back to the South to warn the Confederate troops, with the Union army chasing him the entire way. It's a perfect comic plot: we go North, we turn around, and we come back to the South. Everything the Northern spies inflict upon Buster on the way there, Buster does to them threefold on the journey back.

There is drive and genius on display in this film. When we see Buster Keaton doing things, he's REALLY doing them. Keaton and his production crew REALLY bought and restored two real Civil War-era (era) trains. Keaton REALLY taught himself to drive a real train. How did they stage the train crash scene? They bought a third real train and REALLY CRASHED THAT TRAIN.

SPOILER ALERT: When they drop the train in the river, that's a real bridge, too, and hundreds of local townspeople showed up to watch them film the scene. Keaton and company spent $42,000 on the most expensive single shot in silent film history—in 2016 dollars, that’s more than $592,000.

Keaton famously told his crew to make it “so authentic, it hurts.” For many people, The General is the Civil War brought to life on screen. The costumes look authentic, the sets look authentic, and as I mentioned earlier, they used a real Civil War locomotive and restored it to working order. The one thing you can always say about Buster Keaton is “The money is on the screen.”

Because I am 1) old and 2) a Buster Keaton junkie, I have QUITE a double-dipping story for my readers. When I was in grammar school, I used to check out 8mm films from my local public library with my widdle libwawy cawd. I consequently became acquainted with the late, lamented Blackhawk Films of Davenport, Iowa and later spent way too much of my allowance buying 8mm silent comedies that I would play on the little projector that Santa had brought me at Christmas. Let’s call that Dip #1.

DIP #2: When I graduated from college, the VHS boom was in full swing, and my local K-Mart offered a series of budget tapes of public-domain films called “Film Classics.” I bought another copy of Keaton’s The General on tape for the princely sum of $9.99.

DIP #3: A few years later, I became aware of a mail-order video store called Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee. They offered tapes of other silent films of questionable legality (like Keaton’s Sherlock Junior) at reasonable prices. (A few years ago, I was visiting my son in LA, and we drove past the actual Eddie Brandt building. Could they still be in business?)

DIP #4: Around about this time, a colleague at my high school thought I had too much money just lying around and introduced me to the wonders of a new format, laserdiscs, and a new company, Image Entertainment, which released most of Keaton’s work in the new, shiny format.

DIP#5: Those original Image Entertainment laserdiscs were quickly replaced by the greatly improved and more comprehensive Kino/Lorber Art of Buster Keaton laserdisc box sets.

DIPS 6 AND 7: Then DVD hit the market. The first thing DVDs did, for those of you who were not yet born, was to kill laserdiscs DEAD DEAD DEAD! (DVDs were much cheaper than laserdiscs.) The Kino/Lorber Buster Keaton DVD boxset became a must-buy. Why two dips? I was stupid enough to lend two discs from that box set to a ne’r-do-well student when he was out for a week. I was hoping he would watch the Keaton films he missed in class at home. I never saw those discs again. Because it made me sad to look at that expensive box set with two of its discs missing (and because I did not want to have to replace the ENTIRE impressive, expensive box set) I found a Japanese knock-off of questionable legality on eBay and bought it, just to replace the two missing discs.

DIP #8: Years passed, and Blu-ray discs were introduced, necessitating the purchase of Kino/Lorber’s 14 Blu-ray boxset Buster Keaton Collection.

DIP #9: A few years later, Kino/Lorber released improved transfers of some of the films in neat, double feature Blu-ray discs.

DIP #10: The rights to all the Keaton films passed from Kino/Lorber to Cohen Media Group in 2013, and CMG released new 4K scans of Keaton’s The General and Steamboat Bill Jr. on Blu-ray disc.

DIP #11: A few weeks ago, I was made aware that Eureka Entertainment was finally going to release The General in 4K as part of their BFI Masters of Cinema series. Guess who excitedly ordered the disc immediately? (Yes, it was me.) The new BFI disc has a nice selection of extras, including a new audio commentary by David Kalat. Previous discs offered several choices of score. I was glad that the new BFI disc features my favorite of all these scores, Carl Davis’s impressive orchestral score.

The new disc is stunning. It has better contrast and more fine detail than any previous version. The video essays included as supplements are informative and well produced. Orson Welles once hosted a public television program where he introduced classic films and his introduction to The General is included here. This new disc is a feast for the Keaton fan.

The best Keaton documentary ever made, Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow, is available on the YouTubes, all 153 minutes of it. It comes highly recommended:

While canoodling about on the Internet doing research for this column, I also discovered that the Peter Bogdanovich documentary, The Great Buster, is now available on Blu-ray disc. I also discovered that the magnificent Kevin Brownlow and David Gill silent film documentary, Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film, is also now available on the YouTube machine. Many years ago on this very website, I was bitching and moaning that after its original VHS and laserdisc releases, this amazing series went OOP for decades. You can access all 13 wonderful episodes here.

It makes me happy that after one hundred years, there is still a market for Buster Keaton films. Two weeks ago, the Aero Theater in Santa Monica screened Keaton’s Sherlock Junior, The Electric House, and The Scarecrow to a packed house. This Saturday, they will be showing The Boat and Steamboat Bill Jr. I just hope Keaton’s films never play the Sphere in Las Vegas, as that would obviously involve the producers of that sad, sappy tourist attraction dropping a train on their customers.

Ouch.

2K Replay: EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Adam Riske

Nominated for “Choice Movie Actress: Comedy” (Jessica Simpson) at the Teen Choice Awards. She lost to Sophia Bush in John Tucker Must Die.

• Best Scene/Moment: Any interaction between Dax Shepard and Efren Ramirez. They’re an underrated comedy team. “They should’ve been the next Farley and Spade.” – Adam Riske, F This Movie!

• Best Song: “Working in the Coal Mine” by Devo.

• Best Merch: A “Sean Whalen SIGNED Employee of the Month 8x10…” for $44.99. I like Sean Whalen (who I remember most from The People Under the Stairs) and he’s pretty funny in Employee of the Month, so why not get his autograph? This is a cool 8x10 with film strips on the top and bottom. I bet someone put those there with the exact purpose of another person looking at it and thinking “This is a cool 8x10 with film strips on the top and bottom.”

• Director Grade: Employee of the Month was directed by Greg Coolidge.
Great Movies: N/A
Good Movies: Employee of the Month
OK Movies: N/A
Bad Movies: N/A
Unseen By Me: The Turkey Bowl
Overall Grade: B+

• Double It with This 2006 Movie: Accepted

• Year 2006 Movies to Trailer Before Them: Clerks II, Grandma’s Boy, Idiocracy

• Ella McCay or Employee of the Month? Employee of the Month

• Mall Movie? 1000 percent. Workplace retail comedies couldn’t play anywhere else.

• Only in 2006: A movie led by Dane Cook-Jessica Simpson-Dax Shepard grossing $11.4M domestic during its opening weekend.

• Scene Stealer: Efren Ramirez.

• I Miss: Dane Cook popping up in movies. I know I know but hear me out…this, Dan in Real Life, and Mr. Brooks are all kinda good.

• I Don’t Miss: Jessica Simpson popping up in movies. She seems nice and she was funny as herself on Newlyweds (which I watched every episode of), but she is at sea playing a character. Not that her character in Employee of the Month is particularly deep, but still.

• 2006 Crush: Jessica Simpson.

• 2026 Crush: Comedy movies where the slacker knows all the angles.

• What I Thought in 2006: I went in expecting beyond nothing and came out being entertained and laughing a few times. I remember seeing Employee of the Month back-to-back with The Departed (which I saw second) and that’s the exact correct order and a perfect day at the movies.

• What I Think in 2026: G-D help me. I really like Employee of the Month. I watched it under the influence once (and talked about it on a Friday Night Double Features podcast episode with Patrick) and it really clicked for me. This time I watched it battling a cold on Dayquil and it was just as good if not better. It’s inexplicably 108 minutes long and it could have been longer. Not one of the best movies of 2006, but one of my favorites. It’s just a good hang.

Weekend Open Thread

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Sat, 22 Aug 2026 02:00:00 -0500

Review: MUTINY

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Rob DiCristino

You should have called it Boat, you COWARDS.

My father once told me that if I chose a job I loved, I wouldn’t work a day in my life. I’ve never forgiven him for lying to me like that, but I couldn’t help thinking about that advice during my screening of Mutiny, a streaming-ready Die Hard clone in which Jason Statham punches, stabs, and assault-rifles his way across a container ship full of faceless henchmen. If there’s one thing I know about Jason Statham — one thing his twenty-plus years on our silver screens has taught me — it’s that he absolutely loves killing people. Just adores it. He’s good at it, too! Remember when he decapitated Scott Adkins with a propeller blade? Remember when he cut off that guy’s hand and shot him with his own gun while it was still in that same hand? Or when he kicked that dude into a shark’s mouth? Oh! What about when he broke that guy’s neck as he was falling to his death from an airplane? That’s not soulless, workaday action hero stuff. That’s the kind of vocational enthusiasm reserved for those who have found their true calling. I want that. I do. I want what Jason Statham has!

But I digress. Directed by Frenchman Jean-Francois Richet, Statham’s latest justification for cinematic mayhem sees him playing Cole Reed, a former British special forces hero seeking vengeance for the murder of his beloved employer (Ramon Tikram as Tibu Campallo), a Thai shipping magnate whose empire has been co-opted by shady characters of mysterious origin. On the run from the authorities and desperate to find Tibu’s killer, Cole boards a company container ship and discovers a human trafficking ring supervised by Captain Madsen (Roland Møller). Along with third officer Angie Something (Annabelle Wallis) — an ex-Navy whitehat playing the Al Powell to Statham’s John McClane — Cole must free the people trapped on board, discover the truth about Tibu’s murder, and find innovative new methods of dismembering the two dozen human beings who will try to prevent him from doing those things. What do you think is going to happen? You know, if you had to guess? You think he kills them? Maybe with a fish hook or a spear gun? Or, I don’t know, a padlock?

I have fantastic news for you. He does all of those things and more. While it may lack the balls-to-the-wall depravity of Neveldine and Taylor’s Crank films or the scumbag elegance of Guy Ritchie’s symphonic Wrath of Man, Mutiny’s meat-and-potatoes streamlining of reliable action tropes means there’s very little bothersome plot or character to get in the way of Statham kicking a hunting knife through a mook’s cheek before stabbing him in the head. Some screenwriters would spring for a researcher to ensure that their depictions of maritime military action are as accurate as possible, but Lindsay Michel and J.P. Davis thought it wiser to invest that energy in things like headshots and axe murder, choosing to have Navy Captain Something or Other (Adrian Lester) and his crew of jackbooted beefcakes putz around and let the mayhem unfold unimpeded until the last possible second. This is all complimentary, by the way. Mutiny is exactly as brainless and irresponsible as it should be; it aspires to absolutely nothing and succeeds with flying colors.

After cutting his English-language teeth on underwhelming thrillers like Blood Father and the Assault on Precinct 13 remake, Jean-Francois Richet finally earned the Jaume Collet-Serra Award for Excellence in Distasteful Schlock — an award I just made up — with 2023’s unexpected delight, Plane. Richet brings that same combination of technical craftsmanship and reckless abandon to Mutiny, demonstrating many of the invisible and frankly underappreciated skills that journeymen action directors so often lack: His shootout scenes are geographically coherent — you usually understand who’s shooting at whom and from where — and his close-quarter fight scenes have a rawness that less confident directors working with less seasoned leading men might try to edit around. Again, there’s nothing in Mutiny that approaches the complete disregard for human dignity of the Crank films or even the roided-out explosa-palooza of the Expendables series, but Richet and his crew prove that staying inside the lines doesn’t make the final drawing any less colorful.

Will Mutiny ultimately stand out amongst the Beekeepers, Working Mans, Mechanics, Megs, and Shelters of Jason Statham’s filmography? Probably not! Does its open admission of theft from John McTiernan’s 1988 action masterpiece — one of Mutiny’s posters is a cheeky recreation of Die Hard’s famous one-sheet — give its utter unoriginality a pass? Absolutely not! Will someone have to convince me I’ve already seen this film when I go to watch it on Amazon Prime eight weeks from now? They absolutely will! But remember: At the end of the day, Mutiny isn’t really about me. It isn’t really about you. It isn’t really about heroism or justice. It isn’t really about the evil of human trafficking or the love between a fallen father figure and his heartbroken son. No, Mutiny is really about Jason Statham’s unquenchable thirst for R-rated bloodshed. The dude loves shooting people. Stabbing them. Using their bodies to break his fall from tall buildings. Kicking their disembodied heads into swimming pools. Statham chose a job he loved, and god bless him, he doesn’t work a day in his life.

Mutiny hits U.S. theaters on Friday, August 21st.

Full Moon Fever: BLOOD DOLLS

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Patrick Bromley

Water's wet. Women have secrets. Killer toys are in a Full Moon movie.

Even by the standards of Full Moon movies, 1999's Blood Dolls is fucking unhinged. Though the company has always been known for producing oddball cult and DTV exploitation movies, it's as if the makers of this one deliberately set out to be as weird and often offensive as possible -- button-pushing in a ways that are both earned and unearned. Released several years after the halcyon days of the Paramount distribution deal that afforded their productions higher budgets and better distribution, Blood Dolls feels like Full Moon's angry, shitty little edgelord cousin. That's also the best thing about it. The movie goes out of its way to be demented and mostly succeeds, as among the elements featured are a bad guy with a shrunken head, a female lead who's a dominatrix, a henchman in clown makeup, an all-woman band kept in a cage (called, appropriately, the Caged Babies) and forced to play rock songs every time they're electrocuted, and the bald guy (Nicholas Worth) from Darkman and Swamp Thing.

Written (under the name Robert Talbot) and directed by Charles Band, Blood Dolls tells the story of Virgil Travis (Jack Maturin), a small-headed psycho who lives in a mansion and performs experimental tortures on people to get back at the world for the experiments performed on him as a kid and the business associates who stabbed him in the back. Like Andre Toulon in Puppet Master, Travis has created little killer dolls to do his bidding: Sideshow, Pimp, and Ms. Fortune, at least two of which are like offensively racist. When he falls in with the dominatrix wife of one his enemies (Debra Mayer), Travis has to decide if it's true love with a kindred spirit or if she's just another businessperson out to get him.

At 85 minutes, Blood Dolls is one of the longest Full Moon movies ever made. Sometimes it feels like it. While there are a lot of offbeat and eccentric aspects to the film, much of the screenplay is handed over to corporate warfare -- people in rooms talking about business deals and backstabbing. It helps that some of those people have tiny heads or are dressed in leather underwear, but that doesn't make the dialogue or the plotting any more interesting. Though it supposedly had about a $1 million budget, it often feels cheap and chintzy in a way that's more like modern Full Moon, not the '90s heyday (which, to be fair, was over by the time Band made Blood Dolls). Gone is David Allen's incredible stop motion animation with the titular dolls, meaning we see move sometimes through robotics and sometimes via an offscreen hand jerking them around. It's a decent middle ground between the prime of Full Moon and what they would eventually become. Again, though, the Blood Dolls take a back seat to the human characters. It's no doubt for budgetary reasons but it leaves me feeling like they don't really need to be in the movie at all -- they're less the puppets from Puppet Master and more the Subspecies from Subspecies. My real Full Moon heads will know what that means.

Except for those times that the dolls feel somewhat done on the cheap -- it's not too often, truth be told -- the effects in Blood Dolls are pretty fun. Forced perspective is used to create the illusion of Virgil Travis's tiny head except for in scenes when he's shot alongside another actor, in which case Band relies on a little puppet head (dude loves puppets). There are only a few moments of bloodshed or gore, which I guess are handled well, but there probably needed to be either more of it or less. A bloodier movie would deliver what audiences want from Full Moon fare, while a tamer one probably could have gotten a PG-13 (though the sexuality and BDSM content probably wouldn't prevented that, so fuck me). I like that Blod Dolls doesn't just try to push the nudity or the violence, though, because as Full Moon has continued and the budgets have shrunk, Band seems to think those things are the way only to maintain the fanbase. I would argue that Full Moon fans aren't into these movies for nudity or gore. There are plenty of movies to watch if that what they're after. No, Full Moon fans remain loyal because of weird shit like Blood Dolls.

Band does a weird thing in Blood Dolls where he refuses to settle on an ending so he does two completely different ones and leaves them both in. The first finds Virgil taking off his mask and revealing his true face, which horrifies Moira; the Caged Babies are freed by the dolls and escape while everyone else in the house dies. In the second ending, Virgil reveals his face and Moira still wants to marry him, with the two plotting to take over the world together. It's like Clue but stupider and more nonsensical because the two endings are totally at odds with one another and there's no reason to have both. It's not even a William Castlesque gimmick where the viewer gets to "decide" the climax. It's just a movie with two endings. I supposed it adds more quirk to a movie already loaded with quirk -- even the alternate ending is introduced by clown-faced henchman speaking right to camera -- but, like too much of Blood Dolls, it just feels like an idea pulled out of a drawer instead of being of a piece with the rest of the film. Maybe I have to accept that it is of a piece, if the "piece" is a collection of eccentricities that add up to a movie.

Got a suggestion for a title you'd like to see covered in a future Full Moon Fever? Let us know in the comments below!

FTM 834: MONKEYBONE

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Patrick and Doug get Boned.

Download this episode here.

Listen to F This Movie! on Apple Podcasts.

Also discussed this episode: The Super Mario Brothers Galaxy (2026), Becoming Led Zeppelin (2025), Big Baby (2026), Busboys (2026), Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)

Fifty Before '50: THE WIZARD OF OZ (1910)

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by JB
No, not the 1925 version of the tale directed by and starring funnyman Larry Semon, the EARLIER version from 1910! Gather your donkeys and cows and come along.

As readers of this column can attest, I love what can only be called “the archeology of the cinema,” digging past all known artifacts to find the real history of film... buried under the floorboards of some outhouse in the south of France. Today, we turn our attention to a film adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that was made only ten years after the book was first published, making this film 116 years old. (Funny, it doesn’t look a day over 95.) To put all of this “math” in perspective, In 1910, when the film was made, "116 years ago" was 1794.

THE PLOT IN FULL: We start at Uncle Henry and Aunt Em’s farm, though neither of them are identified. Seemingly wild donkeys and cows are allowed to roam around freely and kick people in the ass. Dorothy and her two domesticated furry friends meet the Scarecrow, who in this version starts his life in Kansas. (As in every other version of the story, the Scarecrow here is awkward and hapless.) A tornado kicks up, and Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the donkey, and the cow take refuge behind it. The animals are either cowering in fear or playing “Hump the Haystack,” which was a popular Kansas parlor game during this decade. The cyclone itself is presented as a moving backdrop; the life-size spinning haystack seen here is still an impressive special effect. Even 116 years ago, filmmakers innately knew that practical effects were superior.

Unique to this version, the farm animals actually accompany Dorothy to the Land of Oz. The Wicked Witch here is named “Momba” for some reason. Her throne room, with its painted backdrop and dozens of costumed extras, resembles similar scenes in the work of George Méliès. (The Witch’s attendants do a delightful little dance, which takes up almost 1/12 of the film’s 13-minute running time.) The Wizard of Oz appears in Momba’s chamber and expresses his desire to be out from under her thumb and to return to his home in Omaha. Momba is not happy with this news.

Glinda the Good Witch pops up, literally, to turn Toto, who the audience had not yet seen (Scene missing?) into an enormous feral cat to protect Dorothy in her travels. Dorothy and the Scarecrow also meet the Cowardly Lion in this scene. Between Toto the giant cat, the Cowardly Lion, and Dorothy’s two Kansas farm animals, the group begins to resemble a mobile petting zoo. (The Cowardly Lion “puts the moves” on Toto—that’s not in any other version!) Our heroes notice a proclamation from the Wizard of Oz tacked to a tree, stating that anyone who can do away with Momba can have his throne. This begs the question: where the hell is the Tin Man?

Our merry band meets the Tin Man next, oil him, and note that he has a huge nose resembling Pinocchio after a lying jag. The Tin Man plays a tune on his tin whistle; the Scarecrow and all of the animals dance. (There is an unusual amount of dancing in this, a silent film.) A flying lizard guards the house of Momba. Our heroes chance upon the house and are set-upon by the Witch and her minions, who are unidentified (but if you’ve read the books, you know them as the Winkies.) Dorothy ends up in the Witch’s house with a bucket of water... perhaps you can guess what happens next.

Dorothy and her pals travel to the Emerald City to claim the Wizard’s throne. It is decided that the Scarecrow shall serve as King. The Wizard is so happy to be free of all responsibility that he plays with his hat. He does some fair to middling magic tricks and takes off in a hot air balloon. He drops copious amounts of confetti on the cast from high in the sky. Camels parade through the Emerald City!

Dorothy never returns to Kansas.

FILM TRIVIA NOTE: Dorothy here is portrayed by a 9-year-old Bebe Daniels. During her 50-year Hollywood career, Daniels appeared in more than 250 films. She was Harold Lloyd’s leading lady in his popular “Lonesome Luke” shorts in the silent days. She was Ruth Wonderly in the 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon. She also appeared in 42nd Street, Rio Rita, Treachery on the High Seas, and dozens of dozens of other films.

Besides giving us a tantalizing glimpse into the stagecraft of this era, I love how the film never wastes our time and is a reasonable representation of its source novel. This charming little film reminds me, for all the world, of the Castle Films 8mm digest versions of movie classics that I enjoyed as a youth.

AN ANNOYING AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PAUSE: When I was but a lad, Castle Films used to sell 50-foot reels and 200-foot reels of Super 8mm film featuring “highlights” from famous films. I could only afford the dinky little 50-foot reels sold in the camera department at K-Mart, so I would buy these with my allowance or check them out of the library. These bite-sized morsels of Hollywood contained only “the good parts” of the film in question, usually the climax of and little else. I would watch the reels in my basement on my prized possession: a real, honest-to-goodness Super 8mm projector. I owned the 50-foot version of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, which condenses the 93-minute film down to a tidy three minutes.

A few boutique disc labels have started to include these Castle Films digests on their Special Edition Blu-ray discs. They are nostalgic fun. The 1910 version of The Wizard of Oz reminds me of a Castle Films abridgment—but if it were, it would be 32 seconds of a spinning haystack and little else.

Why should you watch this 116-year-old movie-or-remainder-of-a-movie? Because YOU CAN. You've got 13 minutes. This column can serve as your commentary track. So few early film artifacts remain that it is a miracle this version The Wizard of Oz even exists. Follow the yellow (grey, actually) brick road... into early film history.

2K Replay: MIAMI VICE

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Adam Riske

Nominated for “Best Film Editing” at the Satellite Awards. It lost to X-Men: The Last Stand.

• Best Scene/Moment (tie): This is tough because almost every scene rules. I guess I’ll go with any dialogue stretch where there’s a lot of jargon like “Go-Fast boats” or “We guarantee loads.” I could listen to these guys talk shop all day. Also, any scene in a speedboat.

• Best Song: “Numb/Encore” by Jay-Z and Linkin Park.

• Best Merch: A “Miami Vice television crime drama poster Large 27” wide by 18” high” for $14.99. I like this poster because it looks like something you’d have on your bedroom wall circa 1986.

• Director Grade: Miami Vice was directed by Michael Mann.
Great Movies: Thief, Heat, The Insider, Miami Vice
Good Movies: Manhunter, Collateral
OK Movies: Blackhat
Bad Movies: Ali, Public Enemies
Unseen By Me: The Keep, The Last of the Mohicans, Ferrari
Overall Grade: A-

• Double It with This 2006 Movie: The Departed

• Year 2006 Movies to Trailer Before Them: Casino Royale, Dreamgirls, Inside Man
• Ella McCay or Miami Vice? Miami Vice

• Mall Movie? Not right away because of the Michael Mann of it all, but it might’ve made its way to the mall before the end of its run in theaters.

• Only in 2006: A movie shot on high-definition digital video that looks good.

• Scene Stealer: John Ortiz.

• I Miss: Michael Mann movies shot on film. I read Heat 2 will be shot on film, which I hope is the case.

• I Don’t Miss: The director’s cut of Miami Vice. Changing the opening to this movie is sacrilegious. After sitting through that change, what’s the point of sitting through the rest? At least it’s not as bad as the various versions of Ali that Mann has made over the years, which I’m always convinced will fix my issues with the movie but instead makes the movie even worse every time.

• 2006 Crush: Gong Li.

• 2026 Crush: Naomie Harris.

• What I Thought in 2006: I had never seen the television show when I saw Miami Vice in theaters, so I was sort of thrown off by it. I was expecting Bad Boys, and this was way moodier and more dramatic. I didn’t dislike Miami Vice, and I felt like I needed to see it again but, yeah, I wasn’t ready for it either.

• What I Think in 2026: Nowadays, I love this movie. It just took me a couple of tries to get on its wavelength. I especially love the performances by Colin Farrell (who’s like all passion underneath a surface of stoic) and John Ortiz in a “Who’s that guy?” performance that led to a career of several other performances I’ve also enjoyed. Miami Vice gets better with every viewing. I love that it gives the audience credit for being smart and asking you as a viewer to catch up to it instead of appealing to the lowest common denominator.

Weekend Open Thread

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 02:00:00 -0500

My 2026 Flashback Weekend Recap

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Patrick Bromley

Another year at my favorite weekend of horror!

I love Flashback Weekend, Chicago's biggest and best horror convention held every summer in Rosemont, Illinois. Launched by married couple Mike and Mia Kerz 24 years ago, it hosts the biggest names in the genre as celebrity guests, plus panel discussions, live concerts, film screenings, after parties, and an annual costume contest (hosted by Svengoolie!) that's a highlight every year. It's three of my favorite days, surrounded by great people and great movies.

I've been attending Flashback for probably 15 years, first as a guest of my Horror BFF Heather Wixson, and then when she was no longer able to travel to come out and host around the time of COVID, I stepped in and have been acting as co-host for the last six years. Alongside my co-hosts and fellow Chicago critics Steve Prokopy (Third Coast Review) and Nick DiGilio (The Nick D Podcast), I've been hosting guest panels since 2021. This year's convention featured another banger lineup that included a massive Scream franchise reunion, plus roundups for Halloween II and Night of the Creeps, David Naughton, Megan Lawless, Dermot Mulroney, Spencer Charnas from Ice Nine Kills, Steven Weber, Henry Thomas, William Katt, Alan Howarth, and many more guests. Here's how the weekend went.

I had the very first panel on Friday, which was the first of many Scream reunions with Marley Shelton (Scream 4) and Roger L. Jackson, the voice of Ghostface. Both were super nice and forthcoming about their experiences on the franchise, with Marley Shelton (who, it should be said, touched my arm) telling a great story about being confused for an extra and Jackson bringing down the house doing multiple voices including Mojo Jojo from The Powerpuff Girls. I didn't get to ask as many questions about Planet Terror as I would have liked (which would have meant making the whole panel about Planet Terror), but things were off to a pretty good start. Nick D. hosted the Halloween II panel after that, featuring Dick Warlock and several of the actors who played the nurses in the sequel. Gloria Gifford got the best soundbite when she talked about her 48 Hrs. audition for Walter Hill.

After those two panels, Dann and Morgan Gire did the formal introduction ceremony and then Svengoolie took the stage for "Svengoolie Live," a late-night talk show-style interview show with guests David Naughton and David Arquette. No disrespect to the former, but Arquette was an amazing interview, telling wrestling stories (Sven is a big wrestling fan!) and killing with his reactions to getting bad reviews for Rocky Horror. Arquette comes off as exactly the person you think he is: silly, sweet, self-effacing. He got a big con bump for me.

I spent the rest of Friday buying too many movies in the dealer room (thanks to our friend Brian K. for the Vinegar Syndrome hookup!) and went to bed watching In the Mouth of Madness on my laptop so I'd be ready for the podcast with Adam. I did not dream about Sutter Cane. I dreamt about Marley Shelton touching my arm, a thing that happened.

Saturday was an early one, kicking off with Steve P. and author/filmmaker Jason Paul Collum talking about '80s horror and both the killer Santas from Silent Night, Deadly Night and Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 being interviewed by Nick. I got to speak with Scream 6's Tony Revolori and Scream 7's Celeste O'Connor next, and it was one of the most fun panels I did all weekend because they were both so friendly and funny. Neither one even knew that the other was in a Spider-Man movie until I pointed it out and their reactions to the realization was really great.

Next were panels with William Katt and Trick 'r Treat's Quinn Lord, followed by a live recording of The Nick D. Podcast with Nick DiGilio and Esmerelda Leon. This taping has become an annual tradition at Flashback, and Nick's guests this year were Night of the Creeps stars Jill Whitlow, Jason Lively, and Tom Atkins, who is almost 90 I think (?) and still a great interview and class act but who has become pretty hard of hearing, leading to the biggest laughs of the show when Lively was deliberately mis-translating all of the questions so Atkins could better hear them. Jason Lively is a trip. After the podcast, Nick made one of my lifelong dreams come true when he learned I had never met Svengoolie despite being a fan of him since watching him host monster movies in my bedroom as a little kid. Because he's a friend of Sven's (Svengoolie even wrote the forward to Nick's upcoming book 40 Years, 40 Horror Films), Nick brought me up to meet him and then made sure I was first in line to get a picture with the horror host. Truly one of the high points of my weekend. Thanks a million, Nick.

I got to host the final panel of the day with Spencer Charnas of Ice Nine Kills, a band I didn't know much about when I was supposed to the panel last year before Charnas had to cancel due to illness. I brushed up on them this year and have fallen in love with their two Silver Scream albums, which I've listened to pretty much nonstop since Flashback. I got to talk to Spencer about our love of horror movies, about writing and recording songs for Scream 7 and Terrifier 3, about making the leap to feature films, and a bunch of other stuff. He was super chill and nice and I hope he comes back someday because I'd like to do his panel again. Another big con bump.

Erika and Rosie arrived just in time for the annual Sinister Visions costume contest, another annual highlight of Flashback. This year did not disappoint, from the woman who literally had to be ushered off stage because she wouldn't stop singing "The Phantom of the Opera" to the Cujo costume with the removable face to reveal the St. Bernard in his rabid form. The winner was a riff on Pennywise complete with impressive homemade (and expandable!) wings, but I really felt like the woman who dressed as the bathtub ghost -- complete with actual bathtub -- from the remake of Thir13en Ghosts should have taken top honors.

There were a couple of big events Saturday night, including the VIP reception for Ultimate Badge holders, a live concert featuring Alan Howard improvising new musical accompaniment to a screening of Halloween II, a premiere of Charles Band's new movie Robotica (which I did not see, Full Moon Fever be damned), and a Scream-themed Woodsboro dance party. Because we were beat, Erika, Rosie, and I Doordashed some Portillo's and ate in our hotel room before going to bed early. It was nice to be back with my family even if Charlie wasn't able to come this year.

The final day of Flashback kicked off with Steve P. interviewing Nick about his upcoming horror book, which was cool even if I wasn't invited (I am never invited). I got to do two back to back Scream panels, the first with Scream 7's Ghostface stuntman Jeremy Conner and one of that movie's red herrings, actor Kraig Dane, and the second with Scream star Joseph Whipp. I was nervous about the first panel seeing as neither guest speaks in the movie, but both were great conversationalists. I could have talked to Conner all day in particular because I'm fascinated by stunt people and the amazing work they do. Joseph Whipp hit the stage and started monologuing to the point that I wasn't sure I would even be able to ask a question, but I did finally get to ask him stuff about working with Wes Craven (on Wes's birthday!) in both Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street, his work on soaps, and, most importantly, his work in Death Spa. He was a great sport.

The rest of Sunday was all heavy hitters, too: Nick interviewed Dermot Mulroney and Steven Weber (naturally making time to fit in some Sour Grapes questions), Steve interviewed Henry Thomas, and then I got to end the day talking with Obsession star Megan Lawless. This was her first-ever convention appearance, thus making this her first-ever panel interview, which made me super nervous. She was, unsurprisingly, super nice and gracious and even hugged me afterwards (no big deal, Megan Lawless hugged me) before returning to her table where she had some of the longest lines of fans waiting to meet her of anyone at the convention all weekend. I went to thank her for the interview and she got to meet Rosie and even took a picture with her, which made my daughter's weekend (her goal was to meet Megan Lawless) because she's obsessed with Obsession these days.

After all of that, Flashback Weekend came to a close. There are so many people to thank for making it such a a special one! Thanks to the celebrity guests for being so generous with their time and talent and for all being so nice. Thanks to the amazing staff for being great and welcoming and pulling off an amazing show. Thanks to the Masters of Ceremonies Dann and Morgan Gire for all the cool videos you posted and for all the extra stuff you did all weekend long, even when some interview subjects were less hospitable. Thanks to Kat McGill for taking so many great pictures and for smiling in the front row of panels when I couldn't have been more nervous. Thanks to my Horror BFF Heather for first bringing me to Flashback all those years ago. Thanks to my co-hosts Nick and Steve for being so cool and keeping things running smoothly in the panel room. (Nick, thanks again for introducing me to Sven, and Steve, thanks for dinner!) Thanks to Shawn, a great sound man and super nice guy, plus all the AV folks for making sure everything looked and sounded good on stage. Thanks to all the wonderful people I got to meet over the weekend, whether it was because they had a nice word to say about an interview they saw me do or we just struck up a conversation about a t-shirt or a movie. Horror fans really are the best. Thanks to Mike and Adam Riske for hanging out. Thanks to Erika and Rosie (and Charlie in absentia) for the constant support and love.

Most of all, thanks to Mike and Mia Kerz for putting this weekend on every year and letting be a small part of their huge horror family. Every year, guest I speak with from the attendees to the celebrities comment on how much they loved the vibe of Flashback: how relaxed it is, how well run it is, how much it feels like a family. And it does! Mia and Mike have cultivated that feeling over two decades and it has trickled down to everyone else. I'm very fortunate to have been a tiny part of the best horror convention in Chicago.

To stay up to date on all things Flashback for next year, check out the con's official website www.flashbackweekend.com. Those of you who are still on Facebook should join the official Flashback Weekend Facebook group, which is a great horror community and where the Flashback attendees are posting photos with celebrities from the weekend.

Next year's Flashback has already been announced and it's in June instead of July. That means less waiting!

Thank you Danny Arroyo in the Flashback Facebook group for the use of some of your photos!

Reviews: TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA and THE END OF OAK STREET

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

by Rob DiCristno

A pair of weird ones for ya!

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Dir. Jane Schoenbrun)

“This part is transphobic,” explains Kris (Hannah Einbinder) as a scene unfolds in Camp Miasma, the ‘80s slasher film she’s watching with its final girl, actress Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson). “Shut up,” Billy responds. Billy isn’t being culturally insensitive, or anything; she’s just trying to get Kris out of her head. You see, the Sundance darling indie filmmaker is about to begin work on a Camp Miasma reboot, and Billy’s worried that Kris might not have a real appreciation for the series’ “flesh-and-fluids” appeal. Kris typically takes a reflexive, intellectual approach to her art — critics described her breakout film as “Psycho told from the perspective of the shower curtain” — but however much internet scholarship insists on examining the cinema of yesteryear through a modern lens, there’s something about Camp Miasma that resists post-#MeToo classification. For Billy — who’s spent years in reclusion at the very disused summer camp where the first Camp Miasma was shot — its true legacy lies in our baser instincts: the primal, guttural urges that often lack academic definition.

The third entry in what must now be dubbed a Horny Media Studies course from writer/director Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, I Saw the TV Glow), Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a sharp examination of our emotional, physical, and psychosexual relationship with the art we devour. Kris’ childhood obsession with the schlocky slasher — which spawned sequels, trading cards, action figures, and other ephemera lovingly displayed during the film’s opening credits — has made her the studio’s obvious choice to resurrect their zombie IP. But what begins as a meeting to secure a pity cameo for the aging Billy becomes an orgiastic interrogation of Kris’ repression as the boundaries between worlds — between performer and audience, film and reality — begin to blur. True to their Millennial roots and bold, unabashed sincerity, Schoenbrun has made another post-modern film that trades easy trope-spotting for messy emotional catharsis. This isn’t about how the movies are made; it’s about what the movies have made of us.

Easily Jane Schoenbrun’s most confident and accomplished work to date, Teenage Sex and Death is anchored by standout lead performances from Hacks’ Hannah Einbinder and genre legend Gillian Anderson. While Einbinder’s fearless turn will make her a formidable challenger to Inde Navarrette for 2026’s Scream Queen of the Year Award, it’s Anderson as the fabulous, Norma Desmond-esque Billy — “esque” doesn’t really cover it; Schoenbrun styles her as Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard and title-drops Wilder’s Hollywood noir masterpiece throughout — who helps Kris unpeel the deepest layers of this auto-referential onion. Schoenbrun brings their usual visual flair, populating a VHS world with candy-colored matte paintings and hyper-stylized, animated blood splatter, creating a paradoxical unreality that is as reassuring as it is unsettling. “If it gets too real, you can always turn it off,” reads Camp Miasma’s poster. Maybe that’s true. But if we’re already so far in, Schoenbrun seems to be asking, why in the hell would we ever want to leave?

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is in select U.S. theaters now.

The End of Oak Street (Dir. David Robert Mitchell)

Suburban Detroit, 1982: A solar flare has opened a rift in the space-time continuum and transported part of a peaceful neighborhood back to the Mesozoic Era (era). With their marriage already on the brink of collapse, Denise and Greg Platt (Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor) must now protect their teenage children (Maisy Stella and Christian Covery as Audrey and Brian) from terrifying prehistoric creatures and find a way back to their own time. Sounds great, right? “What if you woke up and there were dinosaurs in your backyard?” Sounds like a Joe Dante joint, or any one of a hundred other VHS classics from Amblin Entertainment! And it should. The fourth feature from writer/director David Robert Mitchell (It Follows, Under the Silver Lake), The End of Oak Street forgoes any convoluted explanations for its lofty premise — I can only hope that the One Night Only folks are taking notes opening weekend — and builds an exhilarating adventure out of the same family drama that made forebears like Gremlins and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial so timeless.

Or at least, that’s what I thought the film was doing at first. That’s what it seemed like it wanted to do. That’s what — according to most of the effusive early reaction blurbs from my esteemed colleagues in the critical community — it wants us all to think it is. And while there are certainly parts of the new Bad Robot actioner that feel like an earnest throwback to the Spielbergian cinema of the past, The End of Oak Street is such an awkward tonal disaster that it’s impossible to be entirely sure it isn’t actually taking the piss out of its audience. To wit: The first act of Mitchell’s screenplay is a milquetoast blend of expositional cliches and “aw-shucks” dialogue that set up a family dynamic straight out of the 1950s. Coupled with Michael Gioulakis’ ‘70s-style photography — widescreen composition, slow zooms, and the most comical overuse of split-diopters I’ve ever seen — we get the early impression that Oak Street has its tongue firmly in its cheek. Very well! I’m totally on board for a goofy send-up of B horror and sci-fi movies. I see what you’re doing, Mr. Mitchell!

But as Oak Street wore on, I began to wonder just how in on the joke it actually was. The characters’ actions are idiotic, sure, but that comes with the genre territory. Hathaway and McGregor play the histrionics straight — McGregor shouting “I read your book, Denise!” made me laugh harder than anything in Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie — but again, that’s how parody works. There are even bits of inappropriate humor, like when the Platts come across a pair of long-neck dinos fucking against their neighbor’s house. But then, hang on: A character is violently mauled to death in the next scene. That widescreen composition is creating moments of (supposedly) genuine tension. Wait. Why don’t the dinosaurs’ footsteps tremor like in Jurassic Park? Because this is a parody! But is it? Why is its climax so earnest? Is all the mean-spirited brutality part of the parody? Is the off-putting tone intentional? I don’t think so, and by the end of Oak Street, I still wasn’t sure if Mitchell was mocking Amblin or homaging it. Don’t let anyone fool you: I don’t think he knows, either.

The End of Oak Street hits U.S. theaters on Friday, August 14th.

FTM 833: TENET

fthismoviepodcast@gmail.com (fthismovie.com) — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Patrick and Rob live in a twilight world.

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Also discussed this episode: Blue Heron (2026), Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2003), Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026), Saccharine (2026), The Jar (1984), Blue Thunder (1983)