Shows
TryloveEpisode 335: STAR WARS (1977) with Abbie Phelps and Natalie MarlinThe fact that STAR WARS is so much more than a movie makes it a little tough to talk about as, like, just a movie. But with Natalie and Abbie, we’re actually strapped in for the best discussion of STAR WARS on the internet.
In this wide-ranging discussion, we touch on the balance of intentionality and blind ambition on the part of George Lucas, STAR WARS as a corrective to the New Hollywood wave, and of course, dive into a lot of little STAR WARS trivia, ephemera, and plain useless knowledge. Like I said: best on th...2025-06-172h 27
TryloveEpisode 333: OUTLAND (1981) with Kelly KrantzWhether you think it’s an ALIEN (1979) ripoff, a HIGH NOON (1952) pastiche, or a pretty fun action flick, you’re probably right about OUTLAND! In a rare turn, Kelly’s back in the guest chair for a movie she’d never seen before. Does she like what she finds? Do we? Do you? Did anybody?
In this episode, we’re talking exploding heads, screenwriting 101, the two halves of OUTLAND, ridiculous German names, and miniature sets so good you forgive a lot of nonsense just to see more of them.
Find Kelly…
On Twitter at @kransekage_
...2025-06-031h 51
TryloveEpisode 332: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) with Bob BuelThis episode is… ALIVE!!!
With Bob Buel, creator and host of 99 Questions (and first-time Trylove guest), we’re getting (re)animated about Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder’s timeless blend of piss-taking, homage-paying parody in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. It’s a great discussion where people who’ve seen it dozens of times (Bob) help explain what makes it sticky, while new-ish-comers (Jason, Cody) look at it with fresh, doting eyes.
Worlds collide! Sparks fly! Trenchant Weird Al references abound! The word “horny” is said five times (which is fewer than you might think given this group of people and...2025-05-271h 59
TryloveEpisode 331: THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973) with Matt ClarkPeter Yates’s Robert Mitchum vehicle THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE is an unglamorous picture of a rough way of life and the rough people who live it (on both sides of the law).
With friend of the show and noted crime (movie) enthusiast Matt Clark, we pull back the grimy edges of this unromantic “anti-thriller” to expose the fragile, human narrative at its core — brought to life in part by the cantankerous Peter Boyle, who also lends his name to the trivia segment that closes the episode.
Find Matt…
At Kino Ventura, a blog about...2025-05-201h 36
TryloveEpisode 330: THE HEARTBREAK KID (1972) with Natalie MarlinToo funny to be drama and too dark to be comedy, Elaine May’s THE HEARTBREAK KID is instead a vehicle for comedic disgust — something all too rare in the New Hollywood era 1970s into which it was born. Charles Grodin is Lenny, running out on his somewhat annoying wife Lila (Jeanette Berlin) for the exciting unknown of Kelly (Cybill Shepherd). The premise is straightforward, but the way it plays out is anything but.
In this episode, Natalie Marlin joins to talk about the movie’s unique proto-cringe comedic language, how it leverages its actors in their time...2025-05-131h 45
TryloveEpisode 328: DEMOLITION MAN (1993) with Dan NaganWith Dan Nagan (@aDapperDanMan)!
Mellow greetings! DEMOLITION MAN, Marco Brambilla’s only major motion picture credit is a bit of a chimera, both a fun action movie and a sort of sardonic parody of the genre. Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes are literal relics in a world gone soft: Snipes is there to terrorize it with old-fashioned chaos, and Stallone is there to rein him in with… old-fashioned machismo. It’s kind of Verhoeven-lite (or maybe even post-Verhoeven) in its jeering disdain for politics, its attempt at centrist polemics, and who it blames for the decline of Americ...2025-04-291h 42
TryloveEpisode 327: PASSENGER 57 (1992)Wesley Snipes got his big action break in Kevin Hooks’ PASSENGER 57, an airplane heist movie about a security specialist and recent widower pulled back into the job to thwart an international terrorist’s airborne escape plan. Snipes seems really comfortable as not-Bruce Willis, punching and kicking his way through bad guys in the clouds and on the ground alike.
In this episode, we chat about Snipes’s performance, the blackness of his unwilling hero John Cutter, the cast (including Michael Horse, Elizabeth Hurley, and Bruce Payne) and how nice it is when a movie clearly knows its lane.2025-04-221h 10
TryloveEpisode 326: TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING! JULIE NEWMAR (1995) with Matt YostTO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING! JULIE NEWMAR is remembered as the first depiction of drag queens as non-gag main characters in a major Hollywood production. Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze), Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes), and Chi Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) are California-bound New York drag queens who find themselves sidetracked in a rural Midwestern(?) town. They find some of the locals intolerant, some just ignorant, and some in desperate need of a makeover.
It’s not really what movies from the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s have led you to expect: While there’s some friction, it’s not a...2025-04-151h 41
TryloveEpisode 324: THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007) with Natalie MarlinWith Natalie Marlin!
Just like the earth he exploits, there’s something roiling under the surface of the wheel-and-dealing Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis): A devilish, almost cartoonishly villainous veneer conceals a deep self-hatred. And like all good capitalists, he uses it to fuel the next great pain he can inflict on the people and world around him, from the local preacher of a podunk town to his specious, long-lost brother to his own adopted son.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD kicked off a hell of a run for Paul Thomas Anderson, so for our last episode on...2025-04-012h 00
TryloveEpisode 323: PHANTOM THREAD (2017) with Abbie PhelpsReynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Alma Elson (Vicky Krieps) are caught in a cycle: Reynolds’s obsession with his dressmaking craft and his deceased mother send him dithering between immense sweetness and crass irritability, with Alma often on the receiving end of both his affection and his aloofness. But while Alma’s not the first to suffer Reynolds’s mercurial temperament, she’s the first who seems ready to do something about it.
We’ve welcomed returning guest Abbie Phelps to pull at the stitches of PHANTOM THREAD! It got its flowers when it was released to critical a...2025-03-251h 36
TryloveEpisode 320: BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) with Blake HesterWith Blake Hester!
Paul Thomas Anderson’s retrospective dramatization of the ‘70s porn industry isn’t exactly rosy, but it’s certainly not dour, either. It’s kind of situated between those poles, balancing hangout vibes and deeply depressing shit to keep it right where you want a movie to be — tragic, fun, and eminently watchable.
Find Blake…
At https://blakehester.rocks/
On Bluesky at @metallicaisrad.bsky.social
In the pages of “The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom”, the crowdfunded tome he’s writing about the peripheral-based music video game gen...2025-03-041h 42
TryloveEpisode 315: MOULIN ROUGE! (2001) with Abbie PhelpsWith Abbie Phelps!
Baz Luhrmann’s musical mashup is a ravishing, jarring, occasionally annoying wakeup call to the modern movie musical. How did we get from the freneticism of MOULIN ROUGE! — one shot per second, Ewan McGregor as a twee poet musician with a flair for the burlesque, Nicole Kidman as a diseased courtesan overperforming horniness, John Leguizamo as a little person with a lisp — to something like THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (2017) or WICKED (2024)?
Abbie is one of MOULIN ROUGE!’s biggest fans, so who better to help us answer those critical questions? Along the way, we discu...2025-01-281h 53
TryloveEpisode 311: The 2024 Golden Barry Awards𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟…
Time for us to rank, rate, and re-evaluate the films we saw at the Trylon in 2024, as well as the episodes we made about them!
The Barrys can be a pretty grueling tradition — hours spent re-litigating discussions we’ve already had about movies we’ve already talked about — but who are we kidding, we love going back to the well. Sit back, relax, cue up “Stacy’s Mom,” and sink into the 2024 Golden Barrys to commemorate The Year of the Riddle of Steel! (That’ll make sense when you listen to the episode.)
**References: **
Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices!
Check the...2024-12-314h 30
TryloveEpisode 310: AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON (1962) with Kris MontelloWith returning guest Kris Montello, Programming Director for the Asian-American International Film Festival and programmer for the Slamdance Film Festival!
Yasujirō Ozu didn’t intend for AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON (1962) to be his final film, but it feels like it. Chishū Ryū is Shuhei Hirayama, an aging salaryman, widower, and father who’s slowly coming to grips with the realities of growing older — primarily the fact that his only daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita) is spending the best years of her life making dinner and cleaning house for him. Over conversations, reunions, baseball games, and too many drinks, Shuhei’s friends...2024-12-242h 15
TryloveEpisode 307: AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000)Bret Easton Ellis’s original novel featured vivid descriptions of depraved acts, but Mary Harron’s film adaptation of AMERICAN PSYCHO has a slithering unctuousness all its own. Christian Bale is Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street VP by day and a murderer at large by night. Problem is, those two things don't stay separate for long.
Despite the heft of its subject matter and the “unfilmability” of its source material, its 2000 release garnered critical acclaim rivaled only by its cultural divisiveness: Women’s advocacy groups took particular umbrage with the film’s portrayal of extreme violence against women.
2024-12-031h 34
TryloveEpisode 301: BARBARIAN (2022) with Dan NaganWith returning guest Dan Nagan!
A double-booked Airbnb in a rundown Detroit neighborhood is much, much more than it seems. It’s better as a surprise, so we won’t spoil anything with this description, but you should know BARBARIAN is ultimately a story about control: Over narratives, land, culture, and personhood itself.
**References: **
“Trailers from Heaven: How Barbarian’s Advance Publicity Made a Good Film Better” by Jay Ditzer for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
“Gender Bias and the Horror Film That Was Eaten by Disney: Zach Cregger’s Barbarian” by Penny Folger for Perisphere, the T...2024-10-222h 32
TryloveEpisode 300: KILLER BEAN FOREVER (2008)KILLER BEAN FOREVER is an independently created animated feature about Killer Bean, a vigilante anthropomorphized coffee bean with a chip on his shoulder and a bitter rivalry with the troublesome gangs of Beantown. Claiming inspiration from classic action cinema, particularly the work of gun fu genre pioneer John Woo, the idiosyncratic KILLER BEAN FOREVER became a cult hit some 10 years after its original release, racking up dozens of millions of YouTube views.
As we embark on another 100 episodes, we decided to take an episode to cover a movie that we’re fairly completely certain will never play at...2024-10-151h 52
TryloveEpisode 298: THE TRAIN (1964) with Abbie PhelpsWith special guest Abbie Phelps (@GoodHunterAbbie)!
THE TRAIN is a fantastic Burt Lancaster vehicle, a showcase for supporting performers Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau, and, in a career dotted with bangers, one of director John Frankenheimer’s finest.
With the Nazi occupation of France coming to an end, railway supervisor Paul Labiche (Lancaster) is tasked by Colonel Von Waldheim (Scofield) with escorting a steam locomotive out of the country carrying a cache of priceless French paintings. Realizing their importance to French cultural identity, the French Resistance lobbies Labiche to delay the train as it makes it...2024-10-011h 46
TryloveEpisode 296: SECONDS (1966) with Natalie MarlinWith returning guest Natalie Marlin!
SECONDS is a 1966 film directed by John Frankenheimer from the original novel by David Ely. Past-his-prime New York banker Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) elects to undergo a procedure to give himself a new face and a new life.
The Company, the shady organization that offers this service, completely reconstructs Arthur, altering every detail of his identity (his face, his body, his voice, his backstory) to build Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson) — a handsome bachelor who lives on the beach in Malibu. But the change isn’t all it’s cracked up to be...2024-09-171h 54
TryloveEpisode 294: GOODFELLAS (1990) with Dan NaganWith Danny “Bagadonuts” Nagan, a real-life good fella and cohost of the Everything We Learned podcast!
I mean, it’s GOODFELLAS. If you haven’t seen it, you kinda already have. But you should absolutely still see it (take it from Jason).
Despite his status as an Irish-Italian-American, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) is a fish IN water among the most powerful mafia family of Brooklyn. From middle school, Henry fast ingratiates himself with aspiring made man Tommy (Joe Pesci), fellow mixed-blood gangster Jimmy (Robert De Niro), and local capo Paulie (Paul Sorvino), eventually earning enough clout to...2024-09-032h 32
TryloveEpisode 293: PLAY IT AS IT LAYS (1972) with Kelly KrantzWith Trylonteer and Perkins superfan Kelly Krantz (@kransekage_)!
PLAY IT AS IT LAYS is a 1972 drama film directed by Frank Perry from a novel and screenplay by Joan Didion. The movie stars Tuesday Weld as Maria Wyeth, a depressed actress stuck in an unhappy separated marriage with director Carter Lang (played by Adam Roarke), and Anthony Perkins as BZ, a gay movie producer and friend of Maria’s who’s also unhappily married as cover for his homosexuality to a woman named Helene (played by Tammy Grimes).
Maria and Carter have decided to institutionalize their daug...2024-08-271h 39
TryloveEpisode 291: SAILOR SUIT AND MACHINE GUN (1981) with Blake HesterWith special guest Blake Hester!
When a secretive businessman passes away before he can be crowned chairman of a local yakuza family, his daughter — a precocious, disaffected schoolgirl — is suddenly thrust into the role. Surprised by her coronation but determined to restore the group’s good name, Izumi (Hiroko Yakushimaru) reluctantly assumes control of the once-great Medaka Family to close the power vacuum and fend off power plays from other local gangs with one thing in their sights: A missing bindle of heroin worth millions last held by Izumi’s father.
At first blush, Shinji Sōmai’s...2024-08-131h 15
TryloveEpisode 288: ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2017) with Benjamin SavardYou’ve never seen a zombie movie like Shinichirou Ueda’s cult hit ONE CUT OF THE DEAD. It’s best if I don’t type anything more about it here, actually, just in case you haven’t seen it. (Little peek behind the curtain in keeping with the theme of the movie: It’s also because your editor is typing this on his lunch hour at his day job.) Suffice to say it’s one of the most clever takes on the genre we’ve seen, and a fun, heartwarming tale on its own.
Regardless, returning guest Benjamin S...2024-07-161h 45
TryloveEpisode 287: NOSTALGHIA (1983) with Natalie MarlinImpenetrable musing or Tarkovsky’s best? NOSTALGHIA is one of the Russian director’s most personal, maybe his single most personal, but that’s not the only lens (or even the most interesting one) to look at it through. In this discussion of her first and only Tarkovsky (so far), Natalie joins to help us see this one more clearly through a new lens!
References:
Watch NOSTALGHIA on the Internet Archive
“The Thematic Use Of Fire and Water In Andrei Tarkovsky’s Films” by Lars Johnson for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
“Whatever You Need Most” by Timothy Zila for...2024-07-091h 54
TryloveTrylove Episode 286: REMEMBER MY NAME (1978) with Kelly KrantzGeraldine Chaplin (Charlie’s daughter), Anthony Perkins, and Berry Berenson (Perkins’s wife) star in a taut, almost-revenge tale directed by frequent Robert Altman collaborator Alan Rudolph — REMEMBER MY NAME is a classic example of a cult classic. We couldn’t be happier to welcome Kelly Krantz (@kransekage_) back to chat about one of her favorite performer’s best performances!
Stacked with contemporary actors (Chaplin, Perkins), now-famous names (Alfre Woodard, Dennis Franz, Jeff Goldblum), and a soundtrack by resurgent blues artist Alberta Hunter, REMEMBER MY NAME would have all the pieces of a ‘70s stunner — but for the distinct t...2024-07-021h 18
TryloveEpisode 284: THE PLAYER (1992) with Benjamin SavardWith returning guest, master’s degree holder, and Trylon volunteer Benjamin Savard (@ItBenjaminScott)!
After POPEYE (1980) squashed the ‘80s for director Robert Altman, he came back with a wry, cynical film adaptation of Michael Tolkin’s 1988 novel, “The Player”. In the resulting movie of the same name, Tim Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a bigshot Hollywood producer whose decency streak is lined with writers whose ideas prides himself on turning into box office hits without compromising their artistic integrity. A series of threatening postcards from a disgruntled reject sends Mill into a tailspin, testing the limits of his paranoia, calling in...2024-06-181h 33
TryloveEpisode 283: TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) with Abbie PhelpsWith Abbie Phelps (@goodhunterabbie)!
Orson Welles’s final Hollywood film has it all: A complicated production history, a contentious editing lifecycle, and a ‘true-to-vision’ recut that followed the original release by some 40 years. It’s a story about Hank Quinlan (played by Welles), a dyed-in-the-wool noir detective who’ll do anything to exact his version of justice, and Ramon Miguel Vargas (confusingly played by a very white Charlton Heston), a Mexican detective set on rooting out Quinlan’s years of abusing authority. Janet Leigh as Susie, Vargas’s American wife, goes from standing up against the notorious cartel family...2024-06-111h 42
TryloveEpisode 282: LA CASA LOBO (THE WOLF HOUSE) (2018) with Finn OdumWith Finn Odum (@Finnematic)!
LA CASA LOBO (THE WOLF HOUSE) is a harrowing journey through violent change. The leader of a cult spins a cautionary fairy tale to indoctrinate followers, telling the story of Maria, a girl who finds herself locked in an abandoned house in the woods after narrowly avoiding the jaws of an overbearing wolf outside. Afraid to return to her isolated community, Maria comes to depend on the wolf’s protection and insulation from malicious forces both within the house and outside its shifting walls.
Created by Chilean artists Joaquín Cociña an...2024-06-041h 44
TryloveEpisode 280: ZARDOZ (1974) with Natalie MarlinWith Natalie Marlin!
Whatever you know about ZARDOZ — it’s by the guy who made DELIVERANCE (1972), it’s a weird meme, Charlotte Rampling’s instant pregnancy, Sean Connery’s nutsling — we promise you, it’s just the beginning. A critically divisive movie that’s garnered a cult following in the five decades since its release, it’s certainly earned that reputation.
It’s a movie where philosophical mishmash rubs shoulders with overt sexual politics and more dick jokes than you can shake a dick at. But when you step back, it’s got way more going under the hood...2024-05-212h 08
TryloveEpisode 279: THE NIGHT PORTER (1974) with Kelly KrantzWith Kelly Krantz!
Liliana Cavani’s psychological, post-Holocaust perverted thriller went down as one of the most controversial movies of all time. In a concentration camp during World War II, concentration camp officer Max (Dirk Bogarde) and his prisoner victim Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) form a sadomasochistic relationship. Their relationship is colored as much by their shared depravity as by Max’s evil humanity and Lucia’s shame over her burgeoning desire.
Pretty inflammatory stuff! Hence the reputation. But we’re not convinced it’s the irresponsible exploitation film it’s been remembered as. On this episode, we...2024-05-141h 19
TryloveEpisode 278: NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)NORTH BY NORTHWEST is a hinky Hitchcock tale of mistaken identity, assumed identity, shifting truths, and a man with a huge butt chin using a SpongeBob-comically-small razor. Cary Grant stars as an ad man who gets caught up in a Cold War game of cat-and-mouse (he’s the mouse) opposite double agent Eva Marie Saint, Broadly European Bad Guy James Mason, and the FBI/CIA/NSA/WTFE as the other players stringing him along (they’re the cats).
A certain amount of NORTH BY NORTHWEST is best appreciated in context of Hitchcock’s previous films. After all, screen...2024-05-071h 34
TryloveEpisode 275: SAMURAI REINCARNATION (1981) with Kris Montello and Blake HesterFeaturing filmmaker/programmer Kris Montello and Something Rotten host Blake Hester!
SAMURAI REINCARNATION is a 1981 samurai fantasy action film written and directed by Kinji Fukasaku. Shiro Amakusa (Kenji Sawada) is the sole survivor of a massacre of Japanese Christians during the Shimabara Rebellion. Witnessing the devastation, Shiro renounces the Christian God and vows vengeance on the Tokugawa regime that perpetrated the massacre. Now in league with Satan, Shiro gains the power to resurrect the dead and assembles a team of the aggrieved undead to execute his plans, including disgraced samurai wife Gracia Hokusawa (Akiko Kano), the lustful...2024-04-161h 28
TryloveEpisode 268: DROP DEAD GORGEOUS (1999) with Drew TenenbaumWith special guest and Minnesotan Drew Tenenbaum (@AshCoolBro)!
A threshing accident, exploding parade floats and trailers – contestants and participants in the Sarah Rose Cosmetics American Teen Princess Pageant meet untimely ends in a series of suspicious incidents in Mount Rose, Minnesota. In this episode (comprising exclusively Minnesota-born speakers), we discuss the class politics at play in the movie, its turn with the mockumentary format, how many of its jokes actually land, and the shared satirical nostalgia we feel for the uniquely “Minnesota-ness” of DROP DEAD GORGEOUS.
Find Drew…
On Twitter at @AshCoolBro
Making music mashups...2024-03-051h 45
TryloveEpisode 267: LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018) with Natalie MarlinWith special guest Natalie Marlin (@NataliesNotInIt)!
Bi Gan’s lovelorn neo-noir follows Luo (Huang Jue) as he pursues Wan (Tang Wei), the woman he fell in love with years before. Luo weaves in and out of half-recalled memories to trace Wan’s whereabouts, only brushing shoulders with reality as he dodges his own past in pursuit of the fading memory of love through decades of lost time.
Famous for its non-linear structure, ethereal pacing, and the 59-minute long-take dream sequence that closes the film, LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT uniquely mixes the concrete drive of emo...2024-02-272h 03
TryloveEpisode 265: BLOW OUT (1981)The truth behind the assassination at the center of Brian De Palma’s political paranoia thriller BLOW OUT isn’t really the point. It’s more about the ways in which fact comes to be distorted through many lenses, each built on relative understandings of the core event itself.
When he happens to catch the sound of a politician’s murder on tape while scouting new SFX for a movie, sound designer Jack (John Travolta) is driven to piece together the truth. But with only the audible half of the story, he needs the help of Sally (Nancy Al...2024-02-131h 56
TryloveEpisode 263: BURST CITY (1982) with Blake HesterWith returning guest Blake Hester!
BURST CITY is arguably more of a cultural document than a movie with a plot and a story. It consists largely of musical setpieces by the Japanese punk groups of its time, with plot threads (vengeful bikers, nuclear infrastructure, etc.) being more hinted at than shown. In this episode, Blake joins us to talk about BURST CITY's content, context, and creation.
Find Blake…
On Trylove episodes about POSSESSION (1981) and PULSE (2001)
At Game Informer
On Something Rotten, the podcast he co-hosts about nihilism in video games
On Twitter at @metallicaisrad
On...2024-01-301h 35
TryloveEpisode 259: The 2023 Golden Barry AwardsDozens of movies. Hundreds of hours of talking. Fifteen categories. No ties. The Golden Barrys return. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: A song I don’t want to name in case some algorithmic corpo-cop somewhere decides to victimize me and my little unpaid podcast. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 259: The 2023 Golden Barry Awards 6:59 - The episode actually starts 11:52 - Jason’s personal favorites of 2...2024-01-044h 19TryloveEpisode 256: THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973) with Finn OdumWith returning guest and Perisphere senior editor Finn Odum! Alejandro Jodorowsky’s best-known film, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, is a psychedelic hero’s journey from rags to riches, from shit to gold, and from iniquity to enlightenment. It follows “The Thief” as he gives up his search for material wealth to join a cast of sinful sages on their way up the titular mountain and, hopefully, beyond the boundaries of human mortality. Its provocative antics and theatrics have made it a staple of arthouse cinema, and its never-ending jabs at every corner of taboo give it a provenance few other movies have sha...2023-12-141h 11TryloveEpisode 249: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) with WomenWith Maddy Sheehy, Emma Youndtsmith, Abbie Phelps, and Natalie Marlin!
How did YOU come across THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s found footage horror film kicked off a genre before the turn of the millennium, and it still holds a freaky deaky power over audiences today. Four voices are distinctly absent from this episode of Trylove, but the four who’ve replaced them have a lot to say about its provenance, use of negative space, and missing baddie.
Find Maddy…
On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/corndogmaddy/
On Instagram at http...2023-10-261h 22TryloveEpisode 248: THE VANISHING (1988)Who would you be if not for destiny? What kind of person are you holding yourself back from becoming? George Sluizer’s psychological thriller is best known for its morbidity and shock ending, but on this episode of Trylove, we focus on the stuff in the middle. At its heart, THE VANISHING is two parallel tales of men driven to pursue a new version of themselves: An aggrieved ex-husband and a sociopath who takes a leap into the unthinkable. Watch THE VANISHING on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6BTffFzrHc Get tickets to “The Nightmarish Nineties” (October 2023 at the Tr...2023-10-181h 07TryloveEpisode 244: THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS (1974) with Seth ZarateWith returning guest Seth Zarate! Listening note: This episode sounds different from our usual productions. Cody, Seth, and Jason were all in a room together, while Aaron joined remotely. Jason had precious little editing time. Our apologies for any disruptions. One of Peter Weir’s earliest feature length films, THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS bears some of his hallmarks (genre-mixing, dualities, subcultures, cars cresting hills menacingly) and also some surreal, batshit filmmaking in the same conversation as MAD MAX (1979) (obviously) and DEATH RACE 2000 (1975) and PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974) – and also the movies of the Coen Brothers? Check it out! Find Seth...2023-09-211h 08TryloveEpisode 243: THE PLUMBER (1979)Content warning: This episode contains references to sexual violence as discussed in THE PLUMBER. Peter Weir’s 1979 made-for-TV 16mm creeper is a short parable about two people from the same part of the world but two different parts of society (a lower-middle-class plumber and a member of the liberal intellectual elite) becoming the worst versions of themselves to survive the other. Max is the itinerant tradesman making frequent uninvited appearances at the home of Jill, an anthropologist without a job. A combative, highly suggestive relationship forms between the two: Jill dreads Max’s very presence, especially while her husband Brian is a...2023-09-121h 38TryloveEpisode 239: MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001) with Natalie MarlinFeaturing Natalie Marlin (https://twitter.com/NataliesNotInIt)! Even though MILLENNIUM MAMBO shows us a vivid portrait of Vicky, a woman struggling with personal change at the dawn of the millennium, it’s arguably not REALLY about that. It’s almost more about her relationship to herself – rather, to the version of herself who makes those choices – as narrated by Vicky 10 years in the future. Vicky’s hushed voiceover and swallowed admissions build a narrative of her recursive patterns in 2001: Her tumultuous relationship with the manipulative Hao Hao, her would-be partnership with kindhearted criminal Jack, her run-ins with the Taipei nightclub scene, and...2023-08-171h 19TryloveEpisode 234: THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951) with Finn OdumWith returning guest and Perisphere senior editor Finn Odum! THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD might be the precursor to John Carpenter’s THE THING (1982), but the creature feature uses its tale of a plant-based alien invader to a vastly different end. Instead of honing in on the slow creep of bellicose masculinity, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD instead takes the opportunity to pound its chest at the Communist threat Capitalist America had come to fear during the Red Scare and continue to fight during the Cold War. With Finn, we talk about the movie’s tendency to Other, its reliance on m...2023-07-131h 24TryloveEpisode 230: THE DOOM GENERATION (1995) with Kelly KrantzWith special guest Kelly Krantz (https://twitter.com/kransekage_)! You may love THE DOOM GENERATION for its gonzo mix of sexploitation, comic violence, overacting, and non-comic violence, or you may hate it for… exactly the same reasons! Director Gregg Araki says he makes films “for” queer folks – and in this episode, we dig into what that means for a movie where people are getting their limbs blown off, their convenience stores robbed, and worse. Find Kelly… - On Twitter at https://twitter.com/kransekage_ - On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/luckyhoss/ - On Trylove episodes about WINGS OF DESIRE (1987), ARREBATO...2023-06-151h 26TryloveEpisode 228: THE GETAWAY (1972)Content warning: Depictions of domestic violence and suicide. THE GETAWAY follows a pretty conventional structure. Depending on how you look at it, that might flatten it a little bit or it might make its jagged edges a little more interesting! Either way, it’s worth examining as Sam Peckinpah’s most commercially successful movie – and another weird example of his incisive take on toxic masculinity as told through the conceit of a high-stakes heist. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at htt...2023-06-021h 36TryloveEpisode 220: WATERSHIP DOWN (1978) with Emma YoundtsmithSpecial guest Emma Youndtsmith joins Trylove for the first time to discuss a classic of ‘70s animated adaptations! WATERSHIP DOWN has a reputation for ruining childhoods, with gruesome imagery and dark implications about the systems of power in the natural world. You could read it as a post-WWII allegory, as a broader indictment of fascist hegemony, or just as a journey of self-discovery. But with Emma, we tried to go further than the striking violence for which it’s remembered to pull out some new insights: Why the book might be sadder than the movie, what it’s saying about the na...2023-03-301h 27TryloveEpisode 219: YI YI (2000) with Aaron GrossmanIn YI YI, the sudden illness of the matriarch in a three-generation household sends the lives of its inhabitants spiraling. In the emotional chaos, NJ, his wife Min Min, his daughter Ting Ting, and his son Yang Yang find themselves reckoning with the end of a generation and at the crossroads of many versions of themselves. In our discussion of director Edward Yang’s final film, we discuss the big ideas he hints at in everyday scenes: generational baggage and a struggle to move forward; the struggle to maintain identity amid changing circumstances; and the inability to control the wo...2023-03-232h 00TryloveEpisode 212: LOOPER (2012) with Seth ZarateThe Man Hunos Bruno, our resident Bruce Willis authority, Seth Zarate (https://twitter.com/snzarate) is back and talking to his younger self on Trylove! LOOPER put Rian Johnson on the big-budget map and earned him the director’s seat on a fuckin’ STAR WARS movie. It’s the movie that tried to convince us Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt could feasibly look like the same person with varying degrees of success. It’s also packed to the gills with moral inquiries into the mutability of self, musings on the origin of male pain, the responsibility of men to correct their ow...2023-03-021h 44TryloveEpisode 216: CHAN IS MISSING (1982)Jo and Steve need their $4,000 back from their cab licensing go-between. What they get instead is a tour through San Francisco’s Chinatown, with stops at some of its most charismatic and enigmatic Chinese-American residents. Each person they meet holds up a kaleidoscope to the Chinese-American experience, muddying their picture of Chan and of their very culture. - “Chan is Missing: Reflecting on an Unsolved Mystery” by Andrea Bruiser on Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/2023/02/17/chan-is-missing-reflecting-on-an-unsolved-mystery/ - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: WAYNE WANG (Oct. 2008) on Jesther Entertainment: http://jestherent.blogspot.com/2008/10/interview-wayne-wang.html Follow us on Twitter at https...2023-03-021h 26TryloveEpisode 215: REVOLVER (1973) with Kelly KrantzA kidnapping, a political murder, a prison break – it was supposed to be simple. Prison warden Vito barters with the mob to exchange his stolen wife for Milo, a low-level thug locked up in Vito’s prison. Vito’s decision to keep Milo until the handoff proves wise: Not only is the mob in no hurry to let loose ends stay loose, but Vito begins to develop a certain consideration for Milo during their time on the lam. Find Kelly… - On Twitter at https://twitter.com/kransekage_ - On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/luckyhoss/ - On Trylove episodes...2023-02-261h 25TryloveEpisode 213: EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014) with Dan NaganWelcome Dan Nagan of Everything We Learned (https://twitter.com/adapperdanman/) back to the program! Is there virtue in repetition? In EDGE OF TOMORROW, there’s a certain indignity to it – Tom Cruise’s Bill Cage dies repeatedly and violently in an inter-species war in search of a secret that could tip the scales in humanity’s favor. But in reliving a single failed decisive battle every day (thanks to a time-resetting superpower he honestly fell ass-first into), Cage’s challenge is less in losing the war and more in the threat of becoming numb to the horrors of armed combat – i...2023-02-091h 57TryloveEpisode 210: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015) with Natalie MarlinFeaturing Natalie Marlin (https://twitter.com/NataliesNotInIt)! For some, MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was an amusement. For others, it shattered growing cynicism. It’s an epic in the classic sense, thrilling and regaling with focused sights and sounds and craft so impactful it seems like wizardry. At the same time, it’s a bountiful narrative that works with the barest materials – neologisms, post-consumer weaponry, and roving bands of apocalyptic automobiles abound – to tell a rich story of redemption, reclamation, hope, and escape. “The Art of the Car Crash: Mad Max: Fury Road” by Trylon volunteer and Trylove guest Finn Odum: https...2023-01-261h 49TryloveEpisode 209: WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005) with Abbie PhelpsFeaturing Abbie Phelps (https://twitter.com/goodhunterabbie)! Steven Spielberg’s update of H.G. Wells’s genre classic crumbles Tom Cruise, America’s perfect leading man, into a pool of tears and paranoia. It’s a choice consistent with the narrative of the overall movie, a metaphor for the naked, scared soul of imperialism – an unmasking of the patriotism-cum-xenophobia that shepherded thousands of young Americans to die for national wealth in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Find Abbie… On Twitter at https://twitter.com/goodhunterabbie On Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goodhunterabbie/ On Trylove Episode 184: DRIVE ANGRY (2011) Follow us on Twitter a...2023-01-191h 23TryloveEpisode 208: PULSE (2001) with Blake HesterFeaturing Blake Hester (https://twitter.com/metallicaisrad)! PULSE is probably a pretty good movie! The boys think I would’ve given it a single thumbs up and made puns about the title instead of having genuine thoughts and insightful feelings about it. They’re probably right. I’m on vacation. Find Blake… At https://www.gameinformer.com/user/blake-hester At https://twitter.com/metallicaisrad At https://letterboxd.com/blakedtfp/ On Trylove Episode 153: POSSESSION (1981) Shout-out to MN’s own Video Universe (1986-2023): - https://www.videouniversemn.com/ - https://racketmn.com/video-universe-one-of-the-last-rental-stores-in-america-is-closing/ Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email...2023-01-111h 24TryloveEpisode 205: SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941)Dedicated to the “mountebanks” and “clowns” who produced lighthearted escapist fare during World War II, SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS was director Preston Sturges’s attempt to make the fun of that genre the message of his own entry. Elitist film director John Sullivan seeks authenticity in his own high-minded cinema, insisting on ‘earning’ the right to make ‘true’ stories of the downtrodden by living in the gutters, shelters, and train cars of the western United States. Instead, he always finds himself rejected by the world of the impoverished. It’s a bit tourism and a bit colonizing and it all ends with a hopeful sm...2022-12-221h 42TryloveEpisode 204: IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) with Seth ZarateReturning guest Seth Zarate grabs his trumpet to blow down the Walls of Jericho! It’s the movie that came up with the thing where a lady hitchhikes by showing a bit of her bare leg instead of pointing out her thumb! IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT is also a funny early romantic comedy that, in lieu of a balance between “rom” and “com,” often leans into its uncomfortable scenarios without giving the audience a clear indication of how they’re supposed to feel about its antics. Find Seth: - On Twitter at https://twitter.com/snzarate - On Letterboxd at https://lett...2022-12-141h 07TryloveEpisode 201: THE LAST DRAGON (1985)Listening note: Zencastr fucked up Harry’s track at the start of Cody’s Noteys. It was a fun round, so I elected to keep the episode going and truncate Harry’s track where I could. Sorry for the poor listening experience. Produced by Motown founder Berry Gordy, THE LAST DRAGON is a genre mashup of kung fu, blaxploitation, and comedy that clings to its Hero’s Journey trappings only long enough to get a great joke or scene out of it. Leroy seeks the Final Level – a mystical unknowing of the self – while beset by the baddest martial artists in Harlem an...2022-11-231h 16TryloveEpisode 200: Oops! All NoteysHere we are, old friends. 200 published episodes of our podcast. Thank you so much for listening to even one episode! We get so much out of doing this podcast, discussing movies, learning about our friends, and meeting new people while we’re at it. To celebrate, we each came up with a different Trylove-themed game with which to challenge the others. That’s right: It’s an all-killer, no-filler episode exclusively dedicated to Noteys. Each competition highlights each Boy’s strengths and weaknesses – with startling, climactic results you won’t want to miss. Fuck you, James Woods. Follow us on Twitter at h...2022-11-171h 36TryloveEpisode 198: ROADGAMES (1981)Content warning: Discussions of sexual violence. ROADGAMES is about an American man hauling meat through the Australian outback who REAR WINDOW (1954)s himself into believing he’s seen evidence of a murder. It’s also about the feeling of coming back to a community after identifying yourself against it for so long. It’s a bit goofy, a bit spooky, sometimes pretty trippy, and often a lot of fun. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org...2022-11-031h 22TryloveEpisode 190: FOREVER A WOMAN (1955) (aka THE ETERNAL BREASTS)Falling in the middle of actress-turned-director Kinuyo Tanaka’s directing work, FOREVER A WOMAN (titled in Japanese as THE ETERNAL BREASTS) is an unflinching portrait of a woman seeking to define herself against the assumptions the world makes about her. After divorcing her unfaithful husband, Fumiko is diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer on the cusp of a lucrative poetry career. The people who remain, or become, part of her life – and her willingness to accept their perceptions of her – help define the remainder of her tragically short life. THE PRECISE COMPOSITIONS OF KINUYO TANAKA (Sept 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon...2022-09-061h 27TryloveEpisode 189: MANDY (2018) with Dan NaganFeaturing guest Dan Nagan of Everything We Learned (https://twitter.com/adapperdanman)! Red and Mandy live in remote, mountainous California. Jeremiah Sand wants Mandy for his own. When he finally gets her and finds out he can’t earn her love, fealty, or fear, he burns her alive in front of her beloved. Red, newly given to the righteous, hellacious power of grief, embarks on a bloodbath rampage to exact vengeance on Sand, his followers, and the tripping, genetically modified sadomasochist biker gang that made Red’s pain possible. For being a relatively new film, MANDY has already left its mark...2022-08-311h 43TryloveEpisode 180: THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (2003) with Sarah HuiskenWith returning guest Sarah Huisken of the Cult Film Collective! THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE is plot-light but craft-heavy. Its French style takes inspiration from many eras and regions of animation to build a descriptive, sometimes unsettlingly detailed picture of a fictional city and its unique inhabitants. With Sarah, we pull apart what exactly the movie is doing with its technical achievements, share our favorite bits of character-building animation, and discuss mixing discrete styles and conventions to make something that feels new. Links: - Find your local abortion fund at https://abortionfunds.org/funds/ - Find the Cult Film Collective and...2022-06-291h 38TryloveEpisode 175: CHERRY FALLS (2000) with Audrey CallerstromContent warning: Discussions of sexual assault and domestic abuse. Featuring special guest Audrey Callerstrom (https://twitter.com/schmaudrey)! CHERRY FALLS exists in the “sardonic horror-comedy” genre, but even at that, it’s somewhat more pessimistic than its contemporaries. A brutal serial murderer targets virgins with no clear motive, and the implications ripple throughout the East Coast town they’re terrorizing. As the mystery unfolds, it becomes clear that nobody’s really safe from the buried horrors of the previous generation – not students, not parents, and definitely not Brittany Murphy’s toes. Links: - Audrey’s writing at MovieJawn: https://www.moviejawn.co...2022-05-261h 24TryloveEpisode 173: GODZILLA (1954)The original GODZILLA is a lot more up-front about its mission statement than later entries would lead you to believe. It was concepted and written as a metaphor for Japan’s traumatic response to nuclear tragedy and fear of another, but it’s remembered more for its genre-defining special effects. But with a focus on a melodramatic love triangle and humans who can’t decide if they’re heroes or horrors, the most frightening thing about GODZILLA is its premonition that the threat of more Hiroshimas would fester and grow for generations. Links: An examination of Akira Ifukube’s iconic GODZILLA t...2022-05-121h 21TryloveEpisode 170: THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS (1972)Bob Rafelson’s third film, THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS, plays out differently than you may think. For the most part, it moves like series of disconnected examples, testing characters like David (Jack Nicholson) and Sally (Ellen Burstyn) as Jason (Bruce Dern), David’s brother, leads them on a doomed plot through post-settling, pre-gambling Atlantic City to get rich quick by buying an island off the coast of Hawaii. David seems to know it’s a farce, like everything Jason’s tried for 30 years; Sally’s given herself completely to Jason; and Jessica – Sally’s stepdaughter – falls prey to Jason’s charming, schemi...2022-04-211h 19TryloveEpisode 157: PURPLE NOON (1960)Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel, “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” PURPLE NOON conducts itself naturally as it winds along the Italian coastline and within the exploits of the titular Tom Ripley, a low-class jack-of-all-trades tasked with fetching the tactless dauphin Mr. Philippe Greenleaf. Greenleaf, made from money he didn’t earn, has the life Tom wants. Not just the money: The existence. The status. The stature. The lack of burden. The life. Tom’s plot to assume and absorb Greenleaf’s very being starts with murder and only gets more sordid from there. In this episode, we discuss how Tom’s own aspirati...2022-01-271h 21
TryloveEpisode 154: LAURA (1944)Released the same year as the better-remembered DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), LAURA is an evocative noir that both plays in and interrogates the femme fatale trope so crucial to the genre. In death, Laura Hunt is remembered by the people in her life as kind, beautiful, generous, powerful – just about everything a lover (or a friend, a fraud, or a cop) could ask for. But when the truth comes out, the audience is left to determine how much of the myth is really true, and what elements of Laura’s life are being hijacked to serve someone else’s narrative. In this episod...2022-01-141h 38
TryloveEpisode 152: The 2021 𝓖𝓸𝓵𝓭𝓮𝓷 𝓑𝓪𝓻𝓻𝔂 AwardsIt’s the most highly anticipated event in podcasting. The most prestigious ceremony in the history of film. The most sought-after award by creators and contributors alike. The 𝒢𝑜𝓁𝒹𝑒𝓃 𝐵𝒶𝓇𝓇𝓎. Enjoy our sometimes enlightening, sometimes bloody, sometimes annoying, always fun discourse as we recap the movies, makers, planners, back-row back-chat, and on-mic discussions from The Year That Was 2021 At The Trylon! No, we can’t just talk about them, because we have to pretend everything is a contest. It’s just the vibe. Seriously, if you sit all the way through this, you deserve something cool. Maybe DM us at @trylovepodcast? Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tr...2021-12-313h 41TryloveEpisode 147: THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER (1974)A man raised in isolation is dumped in Nuremberg in 1828, where he’s abused, abandoned, denigrated, show-ponied, and forgotten before being murdered. From the true story of Kaspar Hauser, Herzog coaxes larger statements about the validity of the basic human experience outside the constructs of ‘civilization’ and ‘society,’ as well as the myriad ways the world fails people on the margins. In the final episode of our series on early Herzog, we talk about the sympathy with which the film views its subject, the secret to the movie’s title, the cultural implications of its treatment of language, and the real-lif...2021-12-041h 32TryloveEpisode 114: MONEYBALL (2011) (Non-’Lon BoysPick #3/5)The Trylon’s playing movies we already recorded on earlier in the pandemic, so we’ve changed the rules for a short Non-’Lon Series on movies we HAVEN’T seen and may never see at the Trylon! Sports correspondent Cody chose MONEYBALL (2011), a baseball-centric movie that fits so well in his wheelhouse, it’s a wonder we haven’t talked about it until now. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss the movie’s unique focus on the system of baseball as well as the game; the staid status quo of pre-Moneyball baseball; and what exactly an “anti-sports” sports movie looks...2021-04-131h 35
TryloveEpisode 100: A GOOFY MOVIE (1995) Table Read [feat. Guests of Trylove Past]We actually did it. For our 100th episode, we’re very lucky to be joined by six close friends and returning guests for a dramatic table read of the script of A GOOFY MOVIE (1995) written by Jymn Magon, Chris Matheson, and Brian Pimental. Thanks to Jenny Ackerson, Eric Leith, Charlie Mackin, Kyle Olson, Matt Yost, and Seth Zarate! Also, Aaron got Jim Cummings (Pete) and Rob Paulsen (P.J.) to wish us a happy 100th, which is the coolest thing that’s ever happened. Thanks to all our listeners, guests, friends, and supporters for justifying 100 episodes of Trylove! 0:45 - Introducing the...2021-01-051h 28
TryloveThe 2020 𝓖𝓸𝓵𝓭𝓮𝓷 𝓑𝓪𝓻𝓻𝔂 AwardsThis is it. The definitive ranking of all things Trylon, all things 2020. Join us as we throw down to pare down another year of movies, podcasting, and noteys. It all ends here. 20:51 - Best “Trylove in the Time of Corona” Episode 34:30 - Trylon Event We’re Saddest About Missing 45:13 - Best Trylon Dry Run 1:04:18 - The Rashominies Award for the Movie Most Egregiously Longer Than RASHOMON (1950) 1:09:33 - Best Score 1:19:11 - Trylon Movie We're Saddest About Not Recording On 1:30:00 - Best Film Series at the Trylon 1:46:09 - Best Director 1:49:00 - Best Trylove Guest 1:55:29 - Favorite Trylove Episode 2:03:22 - Best Cody's Notey (Cody R...2020-12-292h 59TryloveEpisode 96: DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) [feat. Jenny Ackerson & Griffin Fillipitch]Featuring special guests Jenny Ackerson and Griffin Fillipitch! Floriography holds that honeysuckle connotes everlasting devotion. How fitting, then, that Henry Neff never notices the honeysuckle (or love, or deception) until it’s too late. Actually, by the time anyone realizes what’s right in front of them in Billy Wilder’s seminal noir DOUBLE INDEMNITY, things are out of their hands. If only they’d stop their double-crossing, their murdering, and their murdering, maybe things would be a little more straight down the line… baby. Listen to Griffin's podcast, Anytime Minutes, on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anytime-mi...2020-12-081h 39TryloveEpisode 83: THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957)For better and worse, Ingmar Bergman's 1957 historical fantasy epic THE SEVENTH SEAL has quite a reputation. Since establishing his career as one of the preeminent auteurs of his time, Bergman's spiritually-charged tale of a crusader confronting his mortality as he journeys home across plague-stricken Europe has been both celebrated and dismissed as intellectual, philosophical, austere, and unapproachable. But how does the film's reputation stack up to the actual experience of watching it – especially in the midst of a plague of our own? On today's episode, SEVENTH SEAL newbies Jason and Harry join crusading veteran Cody to discuss the masterful – and ofte...2020-09-081h 11TryloveEpisode 82: SON OF THE WHITE MARE (1981) [feat. Sarah Seember Huisken]Featuring special guest Sarah Seember Huisken – Minneapolis storyboard artist, and 25% of the Cult Film Collective! There’s so much to love, to be joyful about, in SON OF THE WHITE MARE, including its recent long-awaited 4K restoration. Transplanting traditional Hungarian folklore for a 1981 audience in the name of nomadic peoples, this immaculately animated film communicates much more than its experimental trappings. Rather than play a straight fairytale, SON OF THE WHITE MARE dodges the audience’s firm grasp of form with nearly every scene change, reflecting the convulsive Hungarian social state (its original release was sandwiched between a 1956 revolt and the co...2020-08-311h 47TryloveEpisode 81: A FISH CALLED WANDA (1988)Through the not-so-straight-laced English mouthpieces of A FISH CALLED WANDA, you’re meant to feel the profound repression of being British – akin to being dead, as John Cleese's Archie Leach says – and then laugh at the morbidity of it all with the help of often morally objectionable humor. A jewel heist gone wrong at the last minute leaves American and British double-crossers spiraling, connecting, clashing, and wondering what you have to do in this life to make people trust you. Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-H...2020-08-251h 12TryloveEpisode 80: THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951) [feat. Matt Clark]Featuring special guest and heist film aficionado Matt Clark (@TheMplsMatt)! This Ealing train keeps a-rolling with another comedy of errors! Alec Guinness (again?) is Dutch, a bean-counter who’s protected government gold for 20 years, quietly plotting ways to rip them off in a big way. His plan accelerates beyond sustainability when he meets Al, an artist-turned-tchotchke maker with dreams of pursuing his passion instead of stuffing tourists’ suitcases. What separates THE LAVENDER HILL MOB from the other films we’ve covered is its willingness to show us the solidarity shared between two (and then among four) criminals aspiring toward a better...2020-08-181h 18TryloveEpisode 79: THE LADYKILLERS (1955)A comedy classic or a flat farce? THE LADYKILLERS is pretty Ealing through and through, and it opts for a directness and simplicity that can come off as uninspired instead of prototypical – Alec Guinness aside. It’s probably the most approachable of the Ealing films we’ve covered so far, but is it one of the better? The boys are split as a Classic Grossman Ranking Mandate rears its ugly head! Stick around for the inaugural edition of Trylibs! Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smo...2020-08-111h 14TryloveEpisode 78: PASSPORT TO PIMLICO (1949) [feat. Jason Statham]Featuring special guest and Hollywood film star Jason Statham! Jason Statham (UK actor, former model, husband of Rosie Huntington-Whitely, and star of the later films in CRANK (2006), SNATCH (2000), THE TRANSPORTER (2002), the blockbuster Fast & Furious franchise), and more joins us to talk, appropriately, about a deeply British film! Without a stronger commitment to its premise (a Central London neighborhood grapples with its sudden independence from the British government that landlocks it), PASSPORT TO PIMLICO takes its central conceit a little too lightly to be a truly interesting critique, so in the absence of a grander message, we started to read...2020-08-041h 04
TryloveEpisode 77: KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949)CW: A racial slur appears several times toward the end of this film. We talk about that. Over the course of a darkly comic scenario that veers between dry and madcap, KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS takes jabs at the aristocracy through the eyes of one who would be them, resulting in some fun dissonance between medium and message. In it, Alec Guinness is poisoned, Alec Guinness is incinerated, Alec Guinness is shot, Alec Guinness is crushed, Alec Guinness is drowned, Alec Guinness is exploded, and Alec Guinness dies of a stroke. In real life, Alec Guinness died once of liver...2020-07-271h 14TryloveEpisode 76: AFTER HOURS (1985)CW: Discussions of suicide and sexual assault as plot elements. A wacky entry in the "just tryin' to get home" genre, Martin Scorsese's post-THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST kickstarter couldn't be more indispensable. Both pointed critique of Reagan-era exceptionalism and pastiche of 20 years of Hollywood preceding its release, AFTER HOURS pits Griffin Dunne's entitled yuppie against a single night with the inhabitants of SoHo – a people and place he'd rather ignore – while he waits for the haven of his corporate word processor gig. Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Them...2020-07-211h 15TryloveEpisode 75: THE JUNIPER TREE (1990)A not-so-traditional tale of witchcraft, the search for belonging, and how goddamn hard it can be to find. Buy tickets for Trylon Cinema showings at www.trylon.org/. Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music from "THE JUNIPER TREE".2020-07-141h 15TryloveEpisode 74: THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971)Content warning: Discussions of onscreen depictions of animal abuse. THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN scraps a lot of classic tension-building elements in favor of a painstakingly detailed, process-focused look at how scientists, citizens, and the American government would respond to a viral outbreak with global lethal potential. It ends up feeling a bit clinical, sure, but there's a charming dedication to its obsessions, especially when they're broken up by some interesting formal innovations that keep it from dragging too much (despite being almost TOO close an adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel). Buy tickets for Trylon Cinema showings at https://www.trylon...2020-07-071h 09TryloveEpisode 73: ATTACK THE BLOCK (2011) [feat. John Moret]Featuring special guest and Trylon film programmer John Moret! Film discussion begins at 13:26. The Trylon's first in-theater showing since March, Joe Cornish's sci-fi/horror/comedy/commentary mashup directorial debut ATTACK THE BLOCK touches on just enough 2020-adjacent themes (Black oppression, social confinement, the dangers of the outside world, the villainous police state) to make it a super-fitting complementary piece for the world the theater is reopening into. It's also just fun enough to help you accept Cornish's on-the-nose writing without letting it steal the focus. Before we get down to business, John walks us through the Trylon's reopening strategy, how...2020-06-3048 minTrylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 12: A COLT IS MY PASSPORT (1967)When hitmen Kamimura and Shun are made pawns in yakuza territorial pissings, they've got to rely on each other and a band of bargefolk to make it out alive. Part spaghetti western, part yakuza film, part spy fiction, and part drama, A COLT IS MY PASSPORT forces its audience to see much of its worthwhile cast through its protagonist's eyes (for better or worse). Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "A Colt is My Passport" by Harumi...2020-06-231h 13
Trylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 11: LA HAINE (1995) [feat. Grant Zoch]Featuring special guest Grant Zoch (Slimethug on Letterboxd)!
Focusing on three rabblerousing friends living in the Parisian suburbs under a police state, LA HAINE is a film that makes abstract concepts – racial tension, toxic masculinity – concrete through its characters. It skirts coming off as “capital ‘I’ important” by grounding so many of its big topics in its characters’ very real-feeling, human reactions to them. It’s an absolute gut-punch of a movie whose resonance is only deepened today by the increasing oppression of the ubiquitous, publicly funded malignancy that composes the American police force on marginalized communities across the country.
Follow Grant on...2020-06-1600 minTrylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 10: SHOGUN ASSASSIN (1980) [feat. Matt Clark]Featuring special guest Matt Clark (@themplsmatt)! Though it might not reach the dramatic highs of the movies it's comprised of, SHOGUN ASSASSIN is an interesting artifact of film localization that manages to be super fun (not to mention influential). We finally enlisted Matt Clark to help us unpack the special 36 Chambers screening we caught in quarantine, which featured live commentary from RZA of Wu-Tang Clan and Dan Halsted of the Hollywood Theater. Follow Matt on Twitter at @themplsmatt and Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/mplsmatt/ ! Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get...2020-06-091h 28Trylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 9: REBELS OF THE NEON GOD (1992) [feat. Jenny Ackerson]Featuring special guest Jenny Ackerson (@AckersonJenny)! Tsai Ming-liang's debut is much more than most summaries can tell you. Less a coming-of-age morality play amid 1990s Taipei than a tale about the downward emotional spiral of youth, REBELS OF THE NEON GOD is a work fueled by empathy and the struggle to find oneself amid urban decay, social prescriptivism, and expectations of mythological proportions. Follow Jenny at @AckersonJenny on Twitter and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/jennyack/ ! Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking"...2020-05-261h 35Trylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 8: CABARET (1972) [feat. Matt Yost]Featuring special guest Matt Yost (@mattyost_)! It could be said that as an adaptation of an adaptation, Bob Fosse's CABARET has an audience of an audience, too: working as critique by paralleling the rise of Naziism with bourgeois escapism in Weimer-era Berlin, it implicates both its characters and world. To what end, though? Is it didactic or just descriptive? Follow Matt Yost on Twitter and Letterboxd @mattyost_! "CABARET and antifascist aesthetics" by Steven Belletto: https://ldr.lafayette.edu/concern/publications/0c483j76f Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch...2020-05-201h 20
Trylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 7: Bong Joon-ho at the Walker [feat. Charlie Mackin]Featuring special guest Charlie Mackin (@charliemander13)! After winning four Oscars for PARASITE (2019), South Korean director Bong Joon-ho finished a short press run, boarded a plane, landed in Minneapolis, and headed to the Walker Art Center for a talk with film critic Scott Foundas. To hear Bong speak so candidly about his films, philosophy, and collaborators in Minneapolis was a completely surreal event – and, of course, we were all there for it. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @charliemander13! Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PS...2020-05-1244 min
Trylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 6: 12 MONKEYS (1995) [feat. Seth Zarate]Featuring special guest Seth Zarate (@snzarate)! Forget Bruno – it's the return of the man we're calling our Bruce Willis expert, Seth Zarate, for a peek at Terry Gilliam's slightly madcap time-traveling paranoia piece 12 MONKEYS (1995). Inspired directly by the 1962 experimental short film LA JETÉE, Gilliam's vision of the future is one marred by human failure – both to protect the world from a devastating virus and to adapt to the aftermath – and told through the eyes of the man meant to fix it. Follow Seth on Twitter at @snzarate! Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to...2020-05-051h 25Trylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 5: TOTAL RECALL (1990) [feat. Logan Lafferty]Featuring special guest Logan Lafferty (@mrleviathan)! In a clever marriage of narrative and form, the pieces of TOTAL RECALL (1990) don't all add up at first. Each question about its world, plot, and sweeping class themes seems to beg a little more explanation – just enough to maintain intrigue without leaving the audience behind. It's classic Verhoeven, classic Arnie, classic Ironside, classic Stone, and Logan's seen it something like 20 times. For a reason, we hope. Follow Logan on Twitter at @mrleviathan! Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No...2020-04-281h 31Trylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 4: HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND (1986)In honor of Nobuhiko Obayashi's passing on April 10, we're discussing HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND (1986), the director's summery teen romance that does what all good teen movies do: it makes you want to trek the Japanese countryside on a Kawasaki motorcycle. Less outrageous but no less pointed than Obayashi's seminal HAUSU (1977), HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND is still a showcase for the director's playful awareness of audience and how to surmount the limitations of cinema. Only Obayashi could make a movie about falling for someone so deeply that the differences between seasons, between selves, between fantasy and reality, cease to matter – and th...2020-04-201h 28Trylove'Trylove in the Time of Corona' Episode 3: INSIDE MAN (2006)Though not immediately recognizable as a Spike Lee film, INSIDE MAN (2006) still engages with some of the issues the director is known for tackling, including systemic racism, racial interiority, and the faith placed in American law enforcement. A bank robbery ostensibly gone wrong reveals a dark truth at the heart of the heist that leads the audience, if not the characters, to question the legacy of capital when we deploy military force to protect it. Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Twitter and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by...2020-04-131h 22Trylove‘Trylove in the Time of Corona’ Episode 2: CONTAGION (2011) [feat. Kyle Olson]Featuring special guest Kyle Olson! To take your mind off of all the depressing news, we bring you the kind of uplifting content that only we can: an in-depth look at Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film CONTAGION. Back when it was first released, the film was known for its uncompromising, cold realism. How does the film hold up in 2020? Does the ensemble cast help take away from that feeling? Is watching this movie, right now, really a smart thing to do in any way? Recommended media: - SHIN GODZILLA (2016) - 28 DAYS LATER (2002) - TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) Follow us at @trylovepodcast on Tw...2020-04-071h 19