Shows
DOLLY BACKBest of 2023 - DOLLY BACK'S END OF YEAR!Another year, another list! Dolly Back looks back on one of the most remarkable years in recent film exhibition. In a year marked by rare crossover appeal, audience rejection of tentpole films, important conversations regarding labour, and film projection on a glorious scale, your hosts dive into the films that powered their imaginations! Please enjoy another massive (and please make use of our timestamps) and easy listen, and make sure to listen to the very end for a special announcement!3:30 - 11:23 Honourable Mentions11:24 - 20:18 10th20:19 - 29:26 9th29:26 - 41:05 8th41:05...2024-01-141h 51
DOLLY BACKSounds of Silence - M (1931)Was the introduction of sound to cinema a crime? If so, Fritz Lang commits in the first-degree in his seminal thriller/drama M! Crossing paths with the radio medium and the crumbling Weimar Republic, M's soundscape is rich with texture and subtle connotation, though what strikes your hosts the most is Lang's deployment of silence. Join them as they hunt for an answer in the midst of German political cacophony as they discuss this classic's immaculate cinematography, genealogical relation to other films, and dissect Arnheim's thoughts on a pure cinema!Michael P. Ryan's Article - Fritz Lang's...2023-12-1150 min
DOLLY BACKAge Without Chivalry - UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (2018)It's been a long, winding journey for Dolly Back to arrive at David Robert Mitchell's Los Angeles, putting their cinematic sleuthing skills to the ultimate test. In a film rife with prospective black boxes, hidden bunkers, secret treasures, your hosts contemplate the nature of structuring mystery in film narrative, making sense of Sam's journey into the Angeleno underworld as so many have before him. Drop by your hosts' case board as they dissect the libidinal core of the Neo-noir, our fascination with intrigue, and the vibrant cinematography of this modern cult classic!Ethan Warren's Piece - Only...2023-11-2057 min
DOLLY BACKThe New Standard - BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974)At the tail-end of October and beginning of November, Dolly Back could not find a better opportunity to spotlight this middle child of wintery weather. Bob Clark's 1974 slasher is near and dear to the hearts of Torontonian horror lovers, and a striking standard for all of its ilk yet to arrive. Offering a strikingly progressive perspective compared to the misogyny of its successors, your hosts dive into cult fascination with Black Christmas, such as its deployment of the Final Girl, odd setting, and bone-chilling camerawork in a dissection of one of the most important slashers ever made!...2023-11-1053 min
DOLLY BACKRight of the Hungry - THE HOST (2006)Dolly Back is sick with excitement at presenting its latest episode on Bong Joon-Ho's The Host (2006). Perhaps the most eminently celebrated South Korean director of his generation, Bong is at his pulpiest and most elemental in this monster movie, directly challenging American intervention in Korean affairs with a riff on the real-life dumping of formaldehyde into the Han River. Monsters wear many faces - illness, misinformation, and sometimes an unholy kaiju engaging in Korean tradition in its own right. Join your hosts as they discuss Bong's refined storytelling techniques, the film's mythological potency, Korean civic rituals, and...2023-10-3055 min
DOLLY BACKLast Stitch Effort - EVIL DEAD 1 & 2GROOVY! Dolly Back couldn't be happier to tackle Sam Raimi's love letter to the horror genre, the Evil Dead franchise! The rare film trilogy that can elicit both intense laughter and abject terror within the same scene, is equal parts George Romero and Jacques Lacan, has curiously insisted upon the structure of its first film for its "re-quel". In celebration of one of genre filmmaking's finest balancing acts, join your hosts on a trip to Raimi's cabin in the woods in discussion of linearity, suture, and the glory of practical effects!Professor Jeffrey Weinstock's Paper...2023-10-161h 04
DOLLY BACKStar-Spangled Sunsets - BADLANDS (1973)The beginning of Terence Malick's feature filmmaking career begins with neither a bang nor a whimper - but the ambivalent hum of 60s American suburbia. As real-world crime and Hollywood myths of the era coalesce, the filmmaker embarks upon an odyssey through a country in desperate search of new icons, spanning the bygone Western past of the nation with the schoolyard romances of the day. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek dazzle in one of the quietest and lovelorn romances in Hollywood history, indelibly expressive on top of Malick's foreboding landscapes by his long lenses and abstract approach to storytelling. J...2023-10-0657 min
DOLLY BACKBetween The Future And A Hard Place - SORCEROR (1977)William Friedkin lays it all on the line in this 1977 thriller, shaking his fist at the sky and the precarious times of an increasingly globalized and tragically nuclear world. Assembling a ragtag group of all nationalities on every level of production, the odyssey of four damned workers journeying to a pillar of flame with even more nitroglycerin stands as one of the tensest narratives put to film, plagued by issues as soon as the crew set foot in the jungle. Join your hosts as they discuss its charged structure, authorial importance, the moral questions of filming in such locales...2023-09-1657 min
DOLLY BACKA New World Every Day - THE WORLD (2004)Few filmmakers handle liminal spaces so casually and comfortably as Jia Zhangke... To the point where you could say he has a sort of home court advantage. Join your hosts this week as they explore the muddy digital textures, surreal animation, and concrete simulacra of Zhangke's THE WORLD. Amid the artifice of Beijing's World Park, we discover how Zhangke's various romances and tragedies coalesce into an elegy for all of those who may have been forgotten during his nation's drastic change at the turn of the century.2023-08-181h 01
DOLLY BACKRight for the Jugular - KING OF NEW YORK (1990)Now it’s his turn - Abel Ferrara blazes onto the streets of New York with this gothic and visceral crime epic! Aiming to offer a more precise look at the cultural fabric of NYC while reflecting upon a post-Reagan America, the film is host to explosive performances from Christopher Walken, Laurence Fishbourne, and David Caruso, each manically reaching for some ephemeral goal. Join your hosts as they discuss its shadowy heritage, direct commentary, and commitment to artifice!Gavin Smith’s Interview with Abel Ferrara in Film Comment - Moon in the Gutter2023-08-1553 min
DOLLY BACKWe Wanna Rob! - THE BLING RING (2013)In a move of unappreciated genius a decade ago, Sofia Coppola swiftly turned her viewfinder to the beginning of the social media age and the unwitting victims falling into its web. In a period piece 3 years removed from its real-life events, The Bling Ring is an all-too voyeuristic and charming encapsulation of how rapidly our culture processes and produces information, everywhere from the styles we hunger for, the idols we worship, to the lives we sacrifice at their altar. Join your hosts as they explore its daring cinematography, naturalized performance, tongue-in-cheek approach to biography, and its metafictional sleight of...2023-08-0755 min
DOLLY BACKThe Sky Is Not The Same - PERSEPOLIS (2007)How would you describe home? Your answer can stem anywhere from a simple one-word response to describing an experience beyond words. Marjane Satrapi's imaginative and harrowing Persepolis (2007) runs across this spectrum in one of the most distinct autobiographical accounts of the century. A chronicle that covers the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the Iran-Iraq War, and Satrapi's life story, this politically astute text breaks past the medium specific boundaries of its source material, with an emphasis on montage, genealogical relation to other film aesthetics, and animation that your hosts couldn't be more excited to dive into! CBC Radio I...2023-07-2856 min
DOLLY BACKAny% 1:48 (No Items) [WR] - 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)In the shadow of Y2K, a new champion has risen - John Singleton's 2 Fast 2 Furious stands as the long-running franchises most streamlined and personal chapters! One of two films not to include Vin Diesel, the Californian native recruits Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson on a Miami Vice whirlwind, laying the groundwork for Fast's connection to contemporary hip hop, vigilantism, and high tech fascination. Your hosts additionally opt to explore another medium's obsession with speed, and how it orients our understanding of space, time, and the almighty dollar. This is one ride you don't want an ejecto...2023-07-1452 min
DOLLY BACKOur Chances at Immortality - IN A LONELY PLACE (1950)Armed with the shadows of post-war America and perhaps its greatest star in Humphrey Bogart, director Nicholas Ray chronicles the unraveling of "movie magic" and romance in his 1950 tour-de-force! It may not join the ranks of the polychromous widescreen tragedies he carved his name in cinema history with, but its aesthetic calling cards only serve to strengthen its exploration of the male psyche, our participation in the moral occult, and the small distances between fact and fiction. Join your hosts as they return from hiatus (we're so back Dollybros!), and investigate the cinematographic excellence, narrative structure, and immortal performances...2023-07-0752 min
DOLLY BACKWatching the Watchman - DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975)New York is about to explode! Sidney Lumet's tense filmmaking spills onto the streets as the century's most pivotal confrontations with American authority are still in the rearview mirror. Making the most of its real-life subject material, the documentary-like approach to tracking Al Pacino's Sonny Wortzik and his every move makes for one of the most thrilling and *sweatiest* heist films ever made. Sonny becomes a searing light - a media sensation walking a tightrope between financial freedom and queer condemnation. Once his sexuality is brought into the public sphere, the film provides a look at incarceration of all...2023-06-0258 min
DOLLY BACKRandom Access Reveries - PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974)Conjuring synthetic sound and Faustian fury, Brian De Palma's adaptation PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE is one of cinema's most striking keystones, both as a cult object as well as an inspirational force of nature. As William Finley's Winslow Leach's appearance and creative sincerity are contorted into Expressionist angles by Paul Williams' Swan, their battle illustrates the recapitulation of myth across all mediums, the folly of eternal life in whatever form we can conceive it, and of course, artistic integrity! In discussion of its explosively referential cinematography, incisive character work, dazzling soundtrack, and postmodern trappings, this is a palooza of...2023-05-2556 min
DOLLY BACKDo As You Like! - SHIN GODZILLA (2016)Dolly Back learns to live with Godzilla, as they take on Hideaki Anno's striking SHIN GODZILLA, equal parts brilliant political drama and show-stopping kaiju film! An excellent case study in where American and Japanese filmmakers and audiences diverge in their evaluation of a global icon, this outing boasts perhaps the most existentially terrifying creature design of the decade, and some of the most biting commentary of the Shinzo Abe administration amidst national tumult. Join your hosts as they dive into the storied history of Godzilla, Anno's utilitarian approach of digital tools, and quietly muse on the transcendence of mankind...2023-05-1057 min
DOLLY BACKSo They Say - THE MEETINGS OF ANNA (1978)Silence speaks volumes - a principle that Chantal Akerman exercises to the fullest in her profoundly lonely and austere masterclass, LES RENDEZ-VOUS D'ANNA! As a filmmaker promotes her film across the European continent, her fleeting conversations become quiet ambushes on finding home and hearth. Often tuned out by her conversational partners, Anna is also trapped by the film's immaculate framing, brilliantly suffocated by the symmetry and stasis of Akerman's camera. Join your hosts on their proverbial train ride, journeying to destinations such as Akerman's personal style, command of duration, the precise "drama" of its montage, and personal musings on...2023-05-0354 min
DOLLY BACKThe Way It Happens - LOST HIGHWAY (1997)Call us, listener. Dolly Back feels positively electric about finally visiting the world of David Lynch, in his 1997 neo-noir Lost Highway! A product of pure, postmodern pulp, it also samples as a brilliant encapsulation of the end of the 20th century, where digital continues to intercede between spectators and their perception of reality, Americana undergoes a tragic metamorphosis, and time is thrown to the wind! Join your hosts on their getaway as they discuss the spatial politics of Robert Blake's Strange Man, the delightfully bifurcated narrative, and the all-too-real foundations of its storyline...Call us, listener.2023-04-2659 min
DOLLY BACKBuyer Beware... - JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 (2017)SOOOOMEBODY PLEASE… GET THIS MAN… A GUN! In what will certainly go down as one of the alltime great action franchises, your hosts track the impossible rise and delightful highs of the John Wick franchise, dialing in especially to Chapter 2. An entry which catapults the underworld mythology and tragic qualities of its humble predecessor, Chad Stahelski points his viewfinder at the proverbial action cinema mirror, borrowing from the masters he worked under, seminal action filmmakers, and effortlessly carving out a new raison d’être for an iconic character once destined for the bargain bin. Be seeing you, listene...2023-04-2058 min
DOLLY BACKOh Brother, What Art Thou? - MIKEY AND NICKY (1976)Starting off their second season, Dolly Back wrestles with a filmic friendship that couldn’t be further from their own partnership, yet profoundly truthful in its own right. Elaine May’s 1976 crepuscular drama sees Peter Falk’s Mikey and John Cassavetes’ Nicky darting around the alleys and diners of Philadelphia, quietly in search of that fabled brotherly love. As their bond threatens to unravel in evaluation of life, loves, and ill-gotten gains, May’s deployment of improv techniques, theater background, and daring lighting approach creates an atmosphere that undeniably shook up your hosts, who are in equal parts delighted and mystif...2023-04-1050 min
DOLLY BACKPrint the Legend! - THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962)Marking one year of releases from yours truly, Dolly Back celebrates by gazing into the sunsetting Western, epitomized by John Ford's incredible The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance! A master who has grown weary of desert plains and gunplay - and making films at all! - leaps back into the saddle to write a eulogy for the mythology he and the medium helped edify in the American consciousness. A lawyer, a gunslinger, and an outlaw walk into a bar... and democracy erupts! In examination of its uniquely theatrical cinematography, brilliant blocking, and poetic narrative, your hosts cap off their...2023-04-0356 min
DOLLY BACKIn Digital Amber Clad - CRANK (2006)The year is 2006 - YouTube still has training wheels on, the Xbox 360 and PS3 are about to throw down, and digital filmmaking is ready to explode! In a year full of exciting experimentation from auteurs such as David Lynch and Michael Mann, directors Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine are the first to mix all these postmodern moments in an exciting cocktail, and a bonafide VEHICLE for Jason Statham! As his Chev Chellios tears apart downtown Los Angeles to avoid death-by-poison, your hosts dive into this unique moment in history for the digital, Taylor/Neveldine's virtuoso camera set-ups, and the...2023-03-2751 min
DOLLY BACKBetween Love and a Hard Place - DIL SE (1998)CW: Sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised.For every happy wanderer and stranger, there remains a distance. In Mani Ratnam’s 1998 romance/political thriller, Bollywood tropes and the mythology of its star are flipped on their head in service of a harrowing national allegory, questioning how the idealized unions of Indian cinema could lead to reconciliation. In a film that evokes a postmodernist idea of multiple Indias, pan-Indian identity and Arabic poetry, as well as the relationship between colonizer and colonized, this packed episode marks Dolly Back’s first foray into Bollywood cinema, and we couldn’t be mor...2023-03-2057 min
DOLLY BACKThe Fog of Faith - NOSTALGHIA (1983)Brotherly love, national values, and home - time has a funny way of sweeping them all away without discrimination. In an act of preserving fire, Andrei Tarkovsky's 1983 religious drama questions the ethics of returning to the past and bearing silent witness to the future, as collapses reality and surreality, man and woman, sane and insane, mortal and myth into spiritual equilibrium. By blurring these boundaries, what occurs in this late but absolutely seminal work is a striking dialogue on slippage between nation states, as well as the inherent untranslatability of art. Embark upon a journey through the mist with...2023-02-2858 min
DOLLY BACKThe Capturing Of Heaven - PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997)Death haunts every corner of this sprawling, environmental epic from Studio Ghibli. Whether it is the exploration of its eponymous revenge spirit, nature's ability to survive through all adversity, or a protagonist marked from death, every aspect of Hayao Miyazaki and crew's filmmaking rises to meet fate, be it real-life climate calamity or our own struggle to live in harmony with the world. Join your hosts as they aim to capture a piece of this uncompromising masterclass, from the fidelity of its animation, attention to gender roles, and "nihilistic" sense of time, in a much more philosophical episode than...2023-02-2157 min
DOLLY BACKDouble or Nothing! - LOVE AND BASKETBALL (2000)Happy Valentine's Day listeners - to celebrate, your hosts dive into one of the most kinetic and tender love stories put to film, in Gina Prince-Bythewood's debut Love and Basketball! Doubling as star athletes and conflicted lovers, Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps deftly explore the grief of professional failure, the loss of the family unit, the forfeiture of one's dreams - and never letting their love for each other die out through it all. Check up as we dribble through this film's magnificent lighting, novel narrative structure, and unabashed love for portraying black success in every department. As the...2023-02-1458 min
DOLLY BACKEternal Cycles of Change - TRON: LEGACY (2010)Every end is a new beginning, and what Kevin Flynn refers to as biodigital jazz, your hosts view as a deeply spiritual, meditative encounter with the digital and non real. Helmed by Joseph Kosinski, an architecture student now responsible for one of the most slickly directed and highest grossing actioners of all time, had his roots in a similarly precise big swing that resurrects a past icon onscreen. In spite of its lack of commercial inertia, Legacy has since become an enduring film for many of its fans, a stunning display for its cutting-edge soundtrack and CGI, and a...2023-02-061h 08
DOLLY BACKLet It Snow - LADY VENGEANCE (2005)Tofu, cake, snow, celluloid - Park Chan Wook’s 2005 slow burn thriller walks a retributive path towards a philosophy of purity. Geum-Ja, recently freed from a prison sentence for a crime she was wrongfully accused of, cultivates an intricate debt of human relationships that culminate in one of the most gruesome and casually cruel murders in the director’s career. Anchored by a female perspective, the middle child of his Revenge Trilogy casts angels, children, blunderbusses, and dogs in a symphony of match cuts, fades, superimpositions, and other flourishes which cement Park as a superlative storyteller as he mines the...2023-01-3055 min
DOLLY BACKHues of Home - MISSISSIPPI MASALA (1991)"Racism, or tradition as they call it nowadays, gets passed down like recipes" jokes Denzel Washington's Demetrius as he strolls down the beach with Sarita Choudhury's Mina, the two lovers opting to spice up the formula in their subversive but tender relationship. In a story that travels from Uganda to Jackson, Mississippi, a soundtrack that bounces between world and soul, and a perspective that alternates between old and young, Mira Nair deftly evaluates how shared cultural experiences can be our great uniter and divider with precise color timing, passionate performances, and refreshingly candid representation of family dynamics. Join your...2023-01-2357 min
DOLLY BACKIt Happens Everyday... - THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)In the rainy and smokey environs of the moral detective and noir's favorite stomping grounds, we tell ourselves it's a dog-eat-dog world. "What went wrong?" is one of the questions Robert Altman expertly poses in his 1973 mystery, where Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe (in an all-time performance from Elliot Gould) finds himself increasingly at odds with a corrupt and sun soaked Los Angeles. Celebrating the film's 50th anniversary, your hosts eagerly explore one of the most important links in this genre's storied timeline, in exploration of Altman's eclectic film language, Leigh Brackett's fascinating departure from Marlowes of old, and lasting...2023-01-1655 min
DOLLY BACKBest of 2022 - DOLLY BACK'S END OF YEAR!As we start off the new year, Dolly Back takes some time to reflect on the one that just passed us by. In a year that marked a return to widespread exhibition across the world, mass love letters to the movies, and the beginning of this podcast, your hosts are incredibly excited to spotlight some of their favorite releases of the year! In an episode where they share notes on what inspired them, which episodes helped boost their appreciation, and the ever-evolving cinematic experience, enjoy this gargantuan (and please make use of our timestamps) and easy listen. 5:50...2023-01-091h 55
DOLLY BACKThe First Stone - THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (1988)What better way to close out the calendar year than a tip of the hat to one of the medium's most critical artists - meditating on one of the most critical icons in our cultural consciousness? In The Last Temptation of Christ, Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader interrogate the dual nature of Jesus, the man and the messiah, and the tribulations that torture him on the path to his destiny. Importing some New Wave flavor and dare we say transcendental tendencies into the desert landscapes of Morocco, this controversial but incredibly candid portrait now stands as some of their...2022-12-2354 min
DOLLY BACKThe Second Password - EYES WIDE SHUT (1999)With jingle bells ringing and snowflakes falling, Stanley Kubrick gleefully frames the most wonderful time of the year as its most impotent. In Eyes Wide Shut, which his collaborators describe him as claiming as his most significant contribution to the art of cinema, the legendary director's swan song forces a wedge between one of Tinseltown's biggest marriages - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Titanic movie stars in their own right, both of them provide a deeply vulnerable exploration of marital infidelity as they navigate the precise and ever-artificial labyrinth of Kubrick's creative process, both on and off set. In...2022-12-141h 02
DOLLY BACKFrom Suckers to Birdmen - CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (2002)"I guess the rest of us really are just suckers" becomes a mantra for Leonardo DiCaprio's Frank Abagnale Jr, a pilot, doctor, lawyer, cheque expert - and conman! In this ultimate fake-it-'til-you-make-it story, Steven Spielberg takes a telephoto lens to family discord, juvenile criminality, and 1960s America, elements which have recurred throughout his filmography and rings even truer on the heels of his 2022 biopic The Fabelmans. Don't catch yourself staring at the pinstripes too much, as your hosts revel in Janusz Kaminski's warm, to-lit cinematography, the cocksure myth making of Spielberg and his subject, and the construction of Americana s...2022-12-0759 min
DOLLY BACKI See, Therefore I Am - PERFECT BLUE (1997)CONTENT WARNINGThis episode contains discussion of intense sexual violence with regards to some of the film's scenes - a brief warning will also play before this episode's plot summary. Listener discretion is advised. If you have any feedback for our handling of sensitive subject matter, please let us know on any of our socials or email.Closing off Dolly Back's Noirvember is Satoshi Kon's masterful Perfect Blue (1997), an animated thriller that deals with existentialism, digital lifestyles, pop commercialism and everything in between! When Mima first enters the acting world in the Double...2022-11-3056 min
DOLLY BACKIn Their Shadows - THE THIRD MAN (1949)Take heart dear old men and women, as Dolly Back takes a Noirvember sabbatical in post-war Vienna in Carol Reed's timeless The Third Man (1949)! As Joseph Cotton's Holly Martins watches water diluted by penicillin, fact by fiction, light with shadow, the city's underworld threatens to erupt as if it were a powder keg once again. Flanked by Alida Valli's resolute Anna Schmidt and Orson Welles' wicked Harry Lime, this acting triumvirate produce one of the most integral noir films ever made, delightfully providing genre thrills in its strong aesthetic convictions, be they zither scores or massive shadows, or throwing...2022-11-2358 min
DOLLY BACKA Cage’s Match with Morgan Beck - VAMPIRE’S KISS (1988)Let it be known that Dolly Back never misfiles ANYTHING! Your hosts are joined by the fantastic Morgan Beck, a fellow film and literary scholar, with a particular interest in disentangling “bad” art, and the master; Nicolas Cage. Back in the land of bloodsucking parasites, your hosts go to their “C” files and discuss Cage, Cult, and Camp in this unique horror/romance/black comedy marriage - here’s an episode that we hope has you yelling “I’M A VAMPIRE” down the streets as soon as possible!Susan Sontag’s Piece - Notes on CampRichard Brody’s...2022-11-151h 15
DOLLY BACKBack to Black - THE NICE GUYS (2016)It’s not easy facing up when your whole world is Black - there could not be a more fitting surname and indeed director for Dolly Back to ring in their Noirvember! Shane Black’s 2016 neo-noir and buddy cop extravaganza The Nice Guys remains one of the film world’s most treasured sleeper hits, inspiring debate on the future of film exhibition and providing a potential template for the loveably sleazy filmmakers sure to follow in the footsteps of this dynamite script! Its self-deprecating and glitzy facade resists a noir reading as much as its weary characters, conspiracies, and ultrav...2022-11-091h 01
DOLLY BACKMirror Match - PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987)In this 80s horror extravaganza, only one rule is true - opposites attract. Whether they’re the sun and moon, science and religion, matter and antimatter, an ancient secret under a decrepit Los Angeles church threatens to swallow all of reality, and our understanding of time and space itself! Channeling his inner Michael Jackson, John Carpenter takes a look at *man* in the mirror - gleefully capturing the event horizon of our relationship with faith from its figurative accretion disc. In a film that examines the terror inherent to discovery and the reevaluation of pre-established truths, this horror icons re...2022-11-0157 min
DOLLY BACKThe Graveyard Shift - NOSFERATU (1922)Have no fear for your light switches - that's just the stark and shadowy world of German Expressionism! Dolly Back switches gears and tackles a canonical behemoth in F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), now a centennial (and indeed timeless) tale of pestilence and the power of love. Famously part of scholar Siegfried Kracaeur's overview of Germany's film culture reflecting the anxeties of their political climate, its titular vampire is an outlier in its own genre and representation of Stoker's character. 100 years on the story continues to resonate, particularly with a polysemous icon whose interpretations can vary from the triumphant vanquishing...2022-10-2656 min
DOLLY BACKOh No, Here She Comes! - RAW (2016)Watch out listener, this episode might chew you up! Dolly Back takes on Julia Ducournau's directorial debut Raw, revolving around the coming-of-age of a young veterinarian student developing new appetites. As your hosts get a taste of what this course has to offer, they explore Ducournau's many cinematic influences, incredible command of lighting and montage, and set the film against the recent debate around "elevated horror". In the blood-slicked, sanitized world of Ducournau, bodies undergo constant metamorphosis, and your hosts check between the sutures as she dissects the way exchange value, initiation, biopolitics, and sisterhood all intersect in spectacular...2022-10-1857 min
DOLLY BACKStanding In Awe with Anna Swanson - MANHUNTER (1986)Dream much, listener? Joining Dolly Back this week on a filmmaker and film near and dear to our hearts is Anna Swanson, a film critic and senior contributor to FilmSchoolRejects, and fellow Manniac on the director's neon-soaked and transcendent Manhunter (1986)! In the earliest adaptation of Thomas Harris' novels, the film would overcome its initial reception and commercial prospects to become an enduring classic among crime fans, replete with synth rock needle drops and an all too real deep-dive into the world of criminals, professionals, and voyeurs. As Will Graham, Hannibal Lecktor, and Francis Dollarhyde are left adrift amongst the...2022-10-111h 22
DOLLY BACKInfectious Enthusiasm - CURE (1997)Ringing in the scariest month of the year, Dolly Back is mesmerized by Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure, a 1997 detective thriller that is equal parts horrific and incisive. As a gruesome crime wave sweeps Chiba, Detective Takabe joins forces with the psychologist Sakuma to uncover the mysteries behind the distinct X pattern slashed into their neck and the amnesiac wanderer cropping up at crime scenes. What ensues is a prognosis on polite society, entangling memory, sound, national history, and the apparatus itself as Kurosawa probes the transference of myths and morbidity in a Japan about to enter the next millennium, all...2022-10-0458 min
DOLLY BACKPlaying All Angles with Saffron Maeve - THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974)In the worlds of Alan J. Pakula, one thing is paramount - trust no one. Your hosts are happy to make an exception to that rule this week as they are joined by Saffron Maeve, a fellow UofT student, a writer with featured publications across sites such as ScreenSlate and MUBI, and most recently, the recipient of the Canadian Cinema Scope Reader's Choice Award! Much like Warren Beatty's shaggy-haired Frady, this episode follows their investigative odyssey jumping everywhere from its brilliant noir underpinnings, to brief physics and American history lessons, and even a brief sojourn in the realm of...2022-09-261h 01
DOLLY BACKLovers in Waiting - PIERROT LE FOU (1965)Between Warholian pop art and Diego Velasquez, Jean Luc-Godard searches for a joie de vivre in perhaps his most astonishingly eye-popping and impressionist work. As iconic screen couple Jean Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina hit the roads of Europe, this hallowed director and his characters make peace with their demons on love, life, and literature, breaking down screen barriers and the form's enduring practices along their way! This episode is in tribute to Jean-Luc Godard, a master and shepherd of the form who challenged himself and his audiences to never settle for the sandbox presented to them.2022-09-2052 min
DOLLY BACKIt Takes Blues To Tango with Hannah Fleisch - HAPPY TOGETHER (1997)As they brave the always-dangerous waters of Wong Kar-Wai's melancholy, Dolly Back is joined by Hannah Fleisch, a UofT graduate student with an extensive knowledge of world cinemas! Whether it's a sob at the end of the world or a family photograph at the center of yours, this famed Hong Kong filmmaker turns his viewfinder to every nook and cranny that conceals a piece of home - everywhere from a loved one and they food they make for us, all the way down to the ways we throw ourselves into work on the opposite side of the world. As...2022-09-061h 10
DOLLY BACKFuel The Jet - TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)Enter Bayhem - a world of impulses and entropy that has perhaps never been as potent and singular as it was in Michael Bay's TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)! To your hosts, it is a miracle this film exists - even moreso that it sustained commercial success in spite of its WGA strike affected script, IP origins, and near-total departure from its predecessor's setting. As Optimus Prime and Megatron dip their feet into the sense impressions of Operation Desert Storm, this episode examines its impossible assembly, jarring reliance on analog filmmaking, and this film's unholy pact with producer Steven...2022-08-3056 min
DOLLY BACKMirrors To The Wall with Ryan Akler-Bishop - THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956)In an odyssey into Douglas Sirk's black-and-white, melodramatic masterclass, Dolly Back is joined by Ryan Akler-Bishop, a UofT graduate student and film writer, on its 25th episode! Revolving around a toymaker who grows emotionally neglected by his family and reconnects with a coworker from his past, this German director explores the human condition through a focus on the American family, and as argued by Laura Mulvey, the moral contradictions inherent to melodrama. A swan song to one of cinema's most enduring onscreen couples, Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, your hosts parse Sirk's strong command of mise-en-scène, intertextuality, and l...2022-08-231h 15
DOLLY BACKHardbodies and Hunters - PREDATOR (1987)"If it bleeds, we can kill it" - this immortal affirmation of an unknowable foe's mortality uttered by Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch, embodies not only the ethos of John McTiernan's classic sci-fi actioner, but indeed all the body builders who went on to fight the many villains who personified a post-Cold War America on the silver screen. In the depths of a Central American jungle, espionage quickly evolves into asymmetrical warfare, and true to its name, the Predator upsets the military food chain in every environment it enters, whether it's the site of colonial proxy wars or even a modern...2022-08-1653 min
DOLLY BACKIllusions of Grandeur - LA NOTTE (1961)An examination of a dolce vita losing its vigor, Michelangelo Antonioni's efforts in this 1961 neorealist effort turns its viewfinder towards Italy's alienated upper class. Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, and Monica Vitti form one of cinema's most formidable acting trios as they meander through the claustrophobic downtowns and dysphoric villas of Milan; much as their passions threaten to burst from their sublimated seams, the film's form is an equal masterclass in inviting viewer interpretation through its deep space compositions and tragic dialogue. Join your hosts on their trip to Italy's concrete jungle, as they grapple with the ambiguity raised by t...2022-08-0955 min
DOLLY BACKSame Curve, Opposite Ends - UNBREAKABLE (2000)Real life doesn't fit into little boxes that were drawn for it - and surely, the ambitions of this week's high concept exploration of the superhero by M. Night Shyamalan can hardly fit into this episode. In Unbreakable, Bruce Willis' David Dunn learns he is nigh-invincible following a deadly train crash, as Samuel L. Jackson's enigmatic Elijah Price observes his progress and guides him to use his gifts in the service of others. Speaking 22 years after the release of a film that was very much on the vanguard of comic book properties in studio filmmaking, this episode conducts a r...2022-08-0254 min
DOLLY BACKNirvana Nor Nostalgia - INHERENT VICE (2014)It's groovy being insane - surely the modus operandi of Paul Thomas Anderson's hippie noir vision in 2014's INHERENT VICE, an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's eponymous novel. A renaissance detective's odyssey through Los Angeles high life and cults reveals fissures in his own recollection of an ephemeral ex-girlfriend, aided in no small part by the filmmakers' intertextual connectivity, needle drops, and highly calculated camera work. Join your hosts as they knock down the proverbial door on this delightfully grainy and psychedelic jigsaw puzzle, in an investigation on perhaps the most thorny text of one of the best...2022-07-2558 min
DOLLY BACKStaring Into The Sun - MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS (1985)The lows of solipsism and the highs of stargazing - director Paul Schrader and Yukio Mishima indulge in both as they search for the purest forms of their respective disciplines. In this fierce 1985 biopic, Schrader marries his subject's facts and fictions, words and worlds, arts and actions, in order to resolve not only the dilemmas that plagued the late author and nationalist, but his own reach towards transcendental style in film. Join your hosts as they take to the atmosphere in a much more aesthetically inclined episode than usual, in an attempt to disentangle the contradictions put in play...2022-07-1954 min
DOLLY BACKFor Posterity - TENET (2020)We live in a podcast world, and there are no hot takes at dusk! Dolly Back passes through a turnstile to discuss Christopher Nolan's 2020 action sci-fi TENET, a palindromic puzzle box that now stands as one of the celebrated director's most confounding and certainly one of the most thrilling studies of his favorite subject - time. As John David Washington's Protagonist embarks on a globe-trotting, self-fulfilling prophecy, your hosts dive into Ludwig Goransson's immaculate score, Nolan's narrative trickery, and naturally, the nature of free will itself. Join them on their journey as TENET cements its place as an anachronism...2022-07-111h 04
DOLLY BACKLimbos and Liminality - BEING JOHN MALKOVICH (1999)Nearly a decade before his eventual directorial debut, writer Charlie Kaufman made a name for himself with his idiosyncratic, if not absurd, handling of characters in a surreal setting. His foray into self-identity and psycho-analysis shines through the weird and unnerving performances from the likes of a pony-tail sporting John Cusack and coloured-contact-wearing Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich. Join your hosts Erich and Krishiv as they journey down the mysterious Malvochian-wormhole and try to see things through a kaleidoscope of intersecting perspectives and relationships.Leign Monson's Article: The Gender Euphoria of Being John Malkovich...2022-07-0551 min
DOLLY BACKCompassion Over Competition with Margaret Pereira - HUSTLERS (2019)"There are people throwing the money, and people doing the dance," as Jennifer Lopez's Ramona opines in Lorene Scafaria's 2019 smash HUSTLERS, an ostentatious and blistering look into the camaraderie of four strippers pushing back against the pressures of Wall Street following the 2008 financial crisis. Dolly Back is joined by Margaret Pereira, whose scholarly work dives into how exchange value, thing power, and materialism's ties to the body are central players in this new economy, everywhere from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's iconic WAP music video to the jaw-dropping, Britney Spears-backed montages in Scafaria's latest outing! Join your hosts...2022-06-271h 34
DOLLY BACKBecoming the Bulldozer with Adam Nayman - STONE COLD (1991)As the era of athlete-turned-action star raged on with the likes of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Lundgren, and Van Damme all committed to their respective franchises and filmmakers, one lone American football star dared to turn the spotlight from international talent to domestic. Unfortunately, his efforts resulted in little except the efforts of your hosts trying to piece together its successes and downfalls. So bleach your mullets and cut off your t-shirts as Krishiv and Erich are joined this week by esteemed Toronto film critic and writer, Adam Nayman, to discuss the Craig R. Baxley directed, Brian Bosworth vehicle that is St...2022-06-201h 21
DOLLY BACKGoing Full Throttle - UNSTOPPABLE (2010)As 1 million pounds of train barrels down Southern Pennsylvania, director Tony Scott captures tensions between man and machine, old and new, worker and corporation, with a stunning ferocity that cements his place as one of Hollywood’s greatest action auteurs. In this episode, Erich and Krishiv examine his roots in commercial filmmaking and the tendencies that define his adrenalized filmmaking using this uniquely mid-budget blue-collar thriller as a guidepost for modern production practices. If you’re prepared, hop on their cab as they chase after the elusive runaway train of B+ filmmaking and salute one of the best to ever...2022-06-1354 min
DOLLY BACKHong Kong Reloaded with Thomas Chan - HARD BOILED (1992)In the world of John Woo, to reload is to wave the white flag! Renegades and outcasts, both cop and criminal alike, shower each other in gunfire in this fiery tale of a Hong Kong on the brink of change in Hard Boiled (1992). Erich and Krishiv are joined by fellow UofT alumni and Hong Kong cinema aficionado, Thomas Chan, to discuss the filmmaker’s last hurrah for chivalry in his Hong Kong career before making the trip to Hollywood. Make a paper crane or get in your favorite convertible before tuning in as your hosts dive headfirst into the me...2022-05-301h 10
DOLLY BACKShroud Across The Stars with Josh Edwards - STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002)Joining your hosts today is UofT student and cinephile, Joshua Edwards to discuss George Lucas’ STAR WARS - Episode II: Attack of the Clones! While there is hardly a shortage of prequel discourse online, Lucas’ visionary trilogy never fails to stimulate some sort of discussion over its varied themes and styles. From its use of genre allusion ranging from the jidai-geki, Douglas Sirk romances, and detective-noirs, as well pioneering a new style filmmaking, listen as Erich, Krishiv, and Josh dive into the digital dreamworld where fates intertwine and prophecies unfold.Anne Lancashire's Essay: Attack of the Clones and t...2022-05-231h 14
DOLLY BACKServing The Good Cause - BEAU TRAVAIL (1999)Young men come from abroad or poached from their homes close by, swelter in the Djibouti sun, staring out at the ocean’s mirage. The same bodies that dance a choreographed routine in the desert also tire as they practice military drills. Largely considered her opus, Claire Denis’ Beau Travail (1999) loosely adapts a tale of envy and wrath from Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd”, all the while weaving France’s colonial reputation from the 20th century. Join your hosts Krishiv and Erich as they serve the good cause and join the rhythm of the night, in consideration of the liminality, g...2022-05-1653 min
DOLLY BACKBushido By Night - LE SAMOURAÏ (1967)In this week's episode, yours hosts turn to a seminal work in the noir tradition, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï (1967), in which a nocturnal hitman prowls France's City of Lights in a desperate bid for survival against the forces that seek to erase his shadow. It is a notable intersection of world histories and mythologies, particularly that of the eponymous, Japanese samurai, whose code of honor preaches the importance of a stoicism akin to a tiger in a jungle. As Alain Delon's Jef Costello ricochets across the concrete trappings of Paris, Erich and Krishiv discuss the slick camera work, genre te...2022-05-0954 min
DOLLY BACKThe Auteur, The Farm, and the Cuss - FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009)With an animated offering comparable to taking a draught of Frank Bean's "liquid gold" cider, Wes Anderson shows off his mise-en-scene mastery in 2009's Fantastic Mr. Fox. A tail about a retired thief who's Bean put through the trials of fatherhood, and grows so tired of his domesticated, Boggis surroundings that he is quickly forced to Bunce from farm-to-farm with a cavalry of critters in a fight for their survival. Join Erich and Krishiv as they dive into Anderson's fully articulated aesthetic, the production's indebtedness to the heist film, and the movie star ensemble's role in animated filmmaking...2022-05-0251 min
DOLLY BACKRoyal Flushes and Dying Stars - OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001)This week, Erich and Krishiv put their cards on the table in discussion over Steven Soderbergh’s masterpiece caper film, Ocean’s Eleven (2001). They discuss the vacuum left in the wake of the (arguably) disappearing myth of the movie star, in one of the century’s most stacked lineups. A picture that pays homage to heist films of yesteryear on vibrant celluloid, join them as they discuss a globalized, aesthetic paradigm where all parties - from directors to superstars to studios across the world - try to cash their chips in their windowless symposiums, be they cinemas or casinos. 2022-04-261h 01
DOLLY BACKThe Indifference of Nature - GRIZZLY MAN (2005)CONTENT WARNINGViolence, Suicide, DeathAs if the negotiation of 'authorial intent' wasn't enough, this week Erich and Krishiv propose the reading of two auteurs through Werner Herzog's documentary Grizzly Man (2005). Following the summers Timothy Treadwell spent in the Alaskan wilderness until his death, Grizzly Man offers an interesting glimpse at the animal activist's life both through his own camcorder footage and Herzog's interpretation of it. The opinion that it's impossible for a documentary to be objective is an enduring one, and one that you'll hardly find your hosts disagreeing with, but what if the...2022-04-2058 min
DOLLY BACKEnter, Sandman - HAPPY GILMORE (1996)Hot off the heels of Tiger Woods' comeback at the Masters, and to push the podcast's understanding of auteur theory even further, hosts Erich and Krishiv turn to the cornerstone of Adam Sandler's filmography - the Dennis Dugan directed Happy Gilmore (1996)! Join them as they chart Sandman's eclectic Hero's Journey through the golf green and the Hollywood studio system, asking the burning questions on everyone's mind: does this would-be golfer stand as a bastion for the mid-budget comedy? Is there such a thing as the Happy Gilmore Cinematic Universe? Does film criticism revolve around Sabermetrics or the eye test!? 2022-04-1153 min
DOLLY BACKIt's Not So Black and White - HIGH AND LOW (1963)Listen this week as your hosts Erich and Krishiv approach the work of a legendary filmmaker. While many may remember Akira Kurosawa for Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954), and Ran (1985), High and Low (1963) remains one of his best, and surely one of the greatest procedurals of all time. From its jaw-dropping black and white cinematography to Toshiro Mifune's commanding demeanor, High and Low's tense atmosphere unveils the ostensible highs and lows of Japanese society. It lingers in the shadows, basks in the sunlight, but ultimately settles in the murky grey area in between.Geoffrey O'Brien's essay "High and Low...2022-03-2855 min
DOLLY BACKSex, Steel, and Stimulation - CRASH (1996)Cronenberg's knack for the intimate and the uncomfortable shines off newly waxed bodies in his 1996 film Crash. With an erotic vision of the machine-aged present, Crash follows various victims of car accidents as they indulge in their gas-guzzling and passionate desires, stalking each other on moonlit highways and retreating to the back seat. Join your hosts Krishiv and Erich as they talk about Marshall McLuhan, H.R. Giger, and our own dependence on the automobile. "The Film Director as Philosopher: An Interview with David Cronenberg" from Cineaste, by Richard Porton"Plight of the Crash Fest...2022-03-2254 min
DOLLY BACKAlways Jacked In - STRANGE DAYS (1995)Before the time of eXistenZ (1999) and The Matrix (1999), Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995) approached the techno-induced anxiety of moving into a new millennium. A cyber-noir induced daydream infused with social commentary which grounds it in the everyday, Strange Days acts as a significant entry into millennial cyberspace. Listen as Erich and Krishiv lurk the streets of Los Angeles and investigate what makes Strange Days so great.2022-03-181h 08
DOLLY BACKChasing Light Trails and Cool Beans - SPEED RACER (2008)Erich and Krishiv tackle one of the most monumental studio efforts of the 2000s with the Wachowski's Speed Racer. As a follow up to the immensely successful Matrix Trilogy, Speed Racer had a lot to live up to, and while initial reception was not too great, listen as your hosts trace the reason for its greatness. From its amazing visual style, endearing story of underdog talent raging against corporate Armageddon, and a genuine love for filmmaking, Speed Racer has it all.Cael Keegan's book, Lana and Lily Wachowski: Sensing Transgender, is available for purchase from the University of...2022-03-181h 10
DOLLY BACKFinding Method in the Madness - SNATCH (2000)This week's episode lands in England where co-hosts Erich and Krishiv look into Guy Ritchie's sophomore film, Snatch (2000). Among Irish Travellers, underground boxers, and indecipherable Brad Pitt accents, Snatch dials in Ritchie's style to its purest form--making for 100 minutes of hilarity and tension. Join Erich and Krishiv as they talk about Ritchie's tendencies as an auteur, Snatch's success, and the late-great Dennis Farina.Elvis Mitchell's Review "Man All They Wanted Was to Go Buy a Trailer" from The New York Times from January 19th, 2001:2022-03-151h 00
DOLLY BACKLearning to Get Back Up Again - THROW DOWN (2004)In the inaugural episode of DOLLY BACK, Erich and Krishiv discuss Johnnie To's 2004 masterpiece, Throw Down. Following the intersecting lives of a former judo champion-turned-bar-owner, an up and coming judoka, and an aspiring pop star, Throw Down drenches the melodramatic struggles of regular people in the neon of Hong Kong. From style, to form, to themes, and much more, join the co-hosts as they investigate this early 21st century gem!Sean Gilman's Essay - "Throw Down: Down but Not Out" 2022-03-151h 05