Hit Factory

• Dark Angel: The Ascent feat. Comrade Yui

  Returning friend of the show Comrade Yui swings by to discuss the 1994 Full Moon direct-to-video masterwork Dark Angel: The Ascent. The story follows the exploits of a bored, beautiful young demon Veronica Iscariot (Angela Featherstone) as she defies the orders of her parents and the rules of hell to visit Earth and walk among the humans. It's not long before she realizes that humanity has forsaken its God-given gifts and descended into all manners of evil, which must be brutally punished. Written by Freeway director Matthew Bright and directed by Linda Hassani (her sole feature directorial effort), the film defies all expectations of the DTV format with an unusually rich premise, emotional depth, and style to spare.We begin with a discussion of the film's unique theology, offering a vision of Heaven and Hell working in concert to do the bidding of the Almighty. Then, we explore how Bright's script searingly antagonizes many of society's ills, especially those germane and topical to the mid-90s - anti-welfare rhetoric, police brutality, antisexualism. Then, we uncover the film's depthful look at the notion of fallenness, and how its characters perceive of complacency and disregard for evil as tantamount to evil itself.   Follow Comrade Yui on Twitter.Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

  --------  

  1:44:45
• BONUS: Babygirl *TEASER*

  Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.We're back talking about the recently-released Babygirl, directed by Dutch actor-turned-director Halina Reijn. Despite some initial apprehensions based on the discourse and reviews from trusted sources, we both found the film to be a stylish, funny, and intelligent examination of desire, kink, and the ways that the patriarchy suppresses and rejects expressions of female pleasure that are incongruent with the capitalist guardrails of our culture.We begin by discussing the film's nimble balancing of aesthetic impulses which heighten the proceeding's with a sense of hyperreality without sacrificing the story's emotional core. Then, we praise the magnetic work of Nicole Kidman, and the nuances of her performance and character: a high-powered woman caught in the ideological trap of patriarchy that grants her material success while demanding that she stifle her corporeal desires, judging them as aberrant, even wicked. Finally, we explore the film's thoughtful approach to the nature of sexuality and erotic experience, finding compelling layers of meaning and understanding often missing from today's films.Read Justine Peres Smith on Babygirl for Cult MTL.Read Jourdain Searles on Babygirl for the Los Angeles Review of Books.Pre-Order Xuanlin Tham's Revolutionary Desires from 404Ink.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

  --------  

  15:52
• Affliction feat. Hard Mike & Syd Bricks

  Fan favorite Hard Mike returns to the show alongside newcomer Syd Bricks to discuss Paul Schrader's Affliction, one of the filmmaker's most well-observed explorations of addiction and the generational cycles of suffering that manifest as a result of leaving personal trauma and pain unresolved. The film follows Nick Nolte's Wade Whitehouse, an alcohlic, washed-up cop in a small New Hampshire town whose maladies put him at odds with his community as he circles the drain, falling deeper into his own delusions of murder, conspiracy, and betrayal. The film also stars a monstrous James Coburn as the Whitehouse patriarch, in a role that would earn him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Together, we discuss our personal experiences with alcoholism and why the film is one of the very best about the subject in its dizzying, unmooring evocation of being caught in the chaos of addiction, both as the afflicted and as someone who loves them. Then we discuss the film's novel use of the neo-noir format as a subversive element of narrative to capture us in the dragnet of delusion meticulously architected by the film's unreliable protagonist. Finally, we praise the exemplary work of the film's cast, especially Nolte and Coburn, and how their screen personas function perfectly as characters filled with unmanageable woe, malice, and hurt. Follow Hard Mike on Twitter. Follow Syd Bricks on Twitter. Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

  --------  

  1:36:49
• Cliffhanger feat. Eamon Tracy *TEASER*

  Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.Film critic Eamon Tracy returns to the show to discuss Renny Harlin's mountain-bound Die Hard riff Cliffhanger starring Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, and Michael Rooker. A taut, well-staged action thriller that served as a revitalization effort for Stallone's leading man bonafides in the early 90s after a rough patch of box office and critical bombs, the film sports a refreshingly lean premise and a host of jaw-dropping setpieces that were rewarded with a massive $255 million worldwide box office haul and a quietly outsized influence on the past three decades of action cinema.We begin with a discussion of Stallone and how the film makes use of both the actor's surprising capacity for subtlety in performance as well as his much more conspicuous and impressive physique. Then, we pull apart the film's broadly apolitical plot mechanics, including the intricate ways the script navigates around giving John Lithgow's Eric Qualen an explicitly partisan or geopolitical motive. Finally, we talk broadly about the sport of mountain climbing, the colonial ideology perpetuated by notions of conquering forbidding terrain, and the ways that indigenous communities are seeking to problematize imperialist narratives and perspectives within arenas of outdoor sport and recreation.Read Eamon's recent reviews for Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain and Seijun Suzuki's Underworld Beauty at Irish Film Critic.Follow Eamon Tracy on Twitter.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish

  --------  

  13:29
• Hit Factory's In/Out List 2025 *TEASER*

  Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.It's a New Year and we don't feel any different!In typical Hit Factory fashion, the simple task of creating an "In/Out" list for 2025 became a discussion about the infantilization of culture, embracing cinephilia beyond marketing cycles, and how the current state of art reflects an empire in decline. If you've ever wanted to hear a movie podcast tell you that you "have an ethical and spiritual imperative to seek out better films...you're in the right place!Other topics include the reign of filmmaker Alan Rudolph, how autonomous vehicles are definitely surveiling you, whether Doechii will be at the Met Gala, and our eager anticipation of Den of Thieves 2: Pantera.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish. 

  --------  

  14:06

More Arts podcasts

Trending Arts podcasts

About Hit Factory