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PODCAST

Film Trace

We trace the Life of a Film from conception to production all the way to its release and reception. You know when you dive into a film"s wikipedia and imdb after watching it? Then the director"s page, then the actor"s page. Our show does that for you. We use our nerd superpowers to obsessively tell the story of a movie: how it came to be, how it played out, and what it means today. It is a crash course on a single film filled with primary documents, lovely asides, and frequent guest voices. It is an

tv & film film history

All Episodes

01:03:59

Branded to Kill (1967)

Film Trace ·

2022/10/02

The sixth and final film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Seijun Suzuki's masterpiece, Branded to Kill (1967)When we decided to do Absurdist Action as the theme of this cycle, we both struggled to find a starting point. Over-the-top action movies were the lingua franca of 1980s American cinema, and we had dozens of Reagan-era films to choose from as an origin. But as we tried to trace the theme back further, things became quite murky: Kung Fu, James Bond, Micheal Cimino, heist movies, cop movies,

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57:50

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Film Trace ·

2022/09/24

The fifth film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Michael Cimino's wonderful debut, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.Special Guest: Daniel Malone from the great ‘You Talkin’ to Me?’ film podcastMichael Cimino will forever be a mystery. He seemingly appeared out of nowhere with Thunderbolt and Lightfoot in 1974 after winning favor with Clint Eastwood by punching up the script for his Dirty Harry flick Magnum Force. Cimino followed up his debut with The Deer Hunter (1978), arguably a masterpiece. He then came

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01:02:29

48 Hours (1982)

Film Trace ·

2022/09/18

The fourth film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Walter Hill's buddy cop paradigm, 48 Hours.Special Guest: Ryan Hendricks, friend of the show and Hollyweird insiderThe buddy cop movie would not exist without 48 Hours. Ironically, the buddies involved aren't both cops. Third pick Eddie Murphy has his breakout role here playing a convict put on temporary release for forty-eight hours to help track down a cop killer. Nick Nolte is a grizzled detective tasked with wrangling Murphy as they criss-cross a

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01:07:23

Bad Boys (1995)

Film Trace ·

2022/09/10

The third film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Michael Bay's debut, the paradigm of absurd action movies, Bad Boys.Special Guest: Harry Mackin from the fantastic Trylove Podcast. Bayhem has its own origin story. Shot with a small budget and jerry-rigged script, Michael Bay exploded into the multiplex with this longshot buddy cop movie. Originally meant as a vehicle for SNL all-rounders, Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz, Bad Boys was saved by the snappy and kinetic duo of Martin Lawerence and Will Smith

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01:05:35

Hot Fuzz (2007)

Film Trace ·

2022/09/03

The second film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Edgar Wright's iconic action comedy, Hot Fuzz.Special Guest: Max Covil, Rotten Tomato Approved Film Critic from the great It's the Pictures podcast and newsletter.If Edgar Wright is an auteur, then Hot Fuzz could easily be his calling card. This hyper-rewatchable UK export plays dual roles as both a great action movie as well as a meticulous satire of action movies past. Here we get textbook Wright: ping pong dialogue, spastic quick cuts, bite-size

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57:24

Bullet Train (2022)

Film Trace ·

2022/08/27

A New Cycle Begins! The first film in our Absurdist Action cycle is the rock 'em sock 'em 2022 release, Bullet Train.The action comedy is a delicate balance. Too much comedy and the stakes feel too low. Too little and the tone becomes muddled. Bullet Train attempts to walk this fine line and stumbles into an abyss of tedium right from the start. Brad Pitt is a loosey-goosey hitman who is tasked with finding a briefcase amongst other assassins aboard a high-speed train in Japan. Former stuntman,

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01:00:03

Frenzy (1972)

Film Trace ·

2022/07/23

The sixth and last film in our Existential Thriller cycle is Alfred Hitchcock's farewell to London, the macabre and dissociated Frenzy.Upon release, Frenzy was widely seen as a return to form for Hitchcock, but it has developed a rather odd reputation since its release fifty years ago. This gritty serial killer romp through Covent Garden has been cited as a forerunner to the bleaker side of thrillers we have seen in spades over the last three decades. But as we unpeel the layers, a more insidious

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57:48

Sorcerer (1977)

Film Trace ·

2022/07/16

The fifth film in our Existential Thriller cycle is William Friedkin's grim and precise Sorcerer (1977).Released in the shadow of Star Wars and Friedkin's own masterpiece, The Exorcist, this bizarre down-and-out adventure film was a total financial failure. Critics didn't much like it either. But time has a funny way of shuffling the deck, and Sorcerer has found itself with a lucky draw. Film critics, nerds, and aficionados have reclaimed Sorcerer as a lost masterpiece. But some at Film Trace are

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01:14:29

The Crying Game (1992)

Film Trace ·

2022/07/09

The fourth film in our Existential Thriller cycle is Neil Jordan's infamous 1992 political enigma, The Crying Game (1992).A film's notoriety can easily mute or distort what is actually on the screen. The Crying Game is an interesting and rich movie that was unfortunately overwhelmed by its own infamy. The film's US distributor, Miramax, decided to start a sly whisper campaign to create controversy surrounding a plot twist in the film. The hush-hush angle worked wonders and the film became a smash

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01:02:29

The Game (1997)

Film Trace ·

2022/07/02

The third film in our new Existential Thrillers cycle is David Fincher's Norcal mindbender, The Game (1997)David Fincher is one the most powerful and popular auteurs working in film and tv today. We revisit what has strangely and wrongly become one of his minor works. Fincher teamed up with Micheal Douglas in the pre-Fight Club days to concoct this highly entertaining yet perplexing thriller. The audience is effectively thrust into the chaos unfolding around the protagonist as his palatial life

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01:02:20

Michael Clayton (2007)

Film Trace ·

2022/06/25

The second film in our new Existential Thrillers cycle is Tony Gilroy's aughtie classic, Michael Clayton (2007).On paper, Michael Clayton probably seems like a taut legal thriller played to the middle-aged set, a John Grisham movie with the latest A-Listers. Tony Gilroy chose a much different path by crafting a cerebral thriller infused with corporate nihilism and existential longing. Clooney plays Clayton as a formerly charming bagman who stayed too long at the party. He is stranded and saddled

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01:02:00

Men (2022)

Film Trace ·

2022/06/11

The first film in our new Existential Thrillers cycle is Alex Garland's bizarre and bold Men (2022).Alex Garland has quietly made himself into one of the more exciting filmmakers of the A24 set. The former novelist turned screenwriter turned auteur exploded onto the arthouse scene with his first film Ex Machina (2014). The success of that film led to his major studio debut Annihilation (2018). The spectacular failure of that film led him back to the indie world where we find him with Men. What

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01:01:07

The Last House on the Left (1972)

Film Trace ·

2022/05/21

The sixth and final film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is the landmark exploitation film, The Last House on the Left (1972).Made off the proceeds of a successful pornographic film, this genuinely gonzo horror film sparked the careers of two kings of horror, Wes Craven and Friday the 13th creator, Sean Cunningham. On the surface, this rape-revenge exploitation film plays it straight: shock, rape, murder, revenge. But beneath the schlock is an avant-garde rip current that is essentially a middle

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59:55

Creepshow (1982)

Film Trace ·

2022/05/02

The fifth film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is 1982's mashup of George Romero and Stephen King, Creepshow.Creepshow is an anthology horror film created as an hommage to the trashbin mid-century comic series, EC Comics. Romero and King grew up with EC Comics and its twisted tales of the macabre. Here the comic's ghastly ethos is distilled into five different segments starring big names of the time: Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Ted Danson, Leslie Nielson, and Stephen King himself. The film's

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01:02:21

Dead Alive (1992)

Film Trace ·

2022/04/21

The fourth film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is 1992's gonzo horror splatterfest Dead Alive aka Braindead Dead Alive is a shocking film for a variety of reasons, but perhaps most astonishing is that it came from the same man who helped create the most recognized and beloved films of the last 20 years. Peter Jackson became famous for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film series. They exist alongside the Star Wars and MCU films as some of the most popular global cinema ever made. But Jackson started

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58:28

28 Days Later (2002)

Film Trace ·

2022/04/10

The third film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is 2002's zombie renaissance 28 Days Later 28 Days Later reanimated the zombie subgenre of horror, which had been left for dead and maligned where it always had been. Yes, technically speaking, the infected in the film are not zombies. But they might as well be. Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake came a couple of years later in 2004 and helped pushed the zombie genre fully into the mainstream where it stayed for the next 18 years. The highly popular

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56:51

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Film Trace ·

2022/03/31

The second film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is the 2012 postmodern bonanza The Cabin in the Woods. What happens when the Post-Scream style of ironic horror goes past the event horizon? The infamous Joss Whedon teamed up with Drew Goddard to create this send-up of the horror genre. The Cabin in the Woods is in many ways the paradigm of self-aware horror. It doesn't really work unless you are a horror fan and you can easily translate the winks and homage. Unlike the straight parody of Scary Movie,

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57:21

Scream (2022)

Film Trace ·

2022/03/19

We are back! We are doing something different this season of Film Trace. Instead of covering new and old films at random, we are choosing a theme for each group of episodes. Our first theme is Self-Aware Horror. First up in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is Scream 5 aka Scream 2022. We are both huge Scream fans, so we felt like we had to do a deep dive on this requel. I hate that term, and we discuss why in this episode. What does it mean to make a love letter film? Are requels progressive or

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01:26:32

The French Dispatch (2021) and The Royal Tenenbaums...

Film Trace ·

2022/01/08

A Wes Anderson double-header to close out Season 5 of Film Trace. Chris and I return to our roots as teenage film nerds. Wes Anderson was our first love as budding cinephiles, and despite the tumultuous last 20 years (Darjeeling anyone), we still get a jolt of excitement with every new Anderson film. The French Dispatch is Anderson's first portmanteau film, and the results are whimsically mixed as expected. We also cover one of Wes's best films, The Royal Tenenbaums as it hits the 20-year mark. The

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01:10:28

The Cable Guy (1996)

Film Trace ·

2021/12/30

At the height of Jim Carrey's fame in the mid 1990s, this bizarre pitch-black comedy was released as a summer blockbuster. The Cable Guy is a historical and creative anomaly, especially for millenials old enough to have seen it in the theater. For the last twenty-five years, we have all been trying to piece together and understand the strange feelings this movie put inside of us. The genre here is a white-out blend of gross-out buddy comedy, media satire, and exrotic thriller. The Cable Guy is truly

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127 results

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