Film Trace

In the fourth episode of our Future Wars cycle, we explore two late 90s classic, The Matrix (1999) and Starship Trooper (1997).

Special Guest: Evan Crean, film critic and co-host of the great Spoilerpiece Theatre podcast.

In the third episode of our Future Wars cycle, we discuss Spielberg's bad guy alien film, War of The Worlds along side the bleak and desolate Cormac …

In the second episode of our Future Wars cycle, we discuss with George Miller's gonzo-apocalypto in Mad Max: Fury Road alongside the low budget middle-brow of The Purge.

Special Guest: Tommy Thevenet from the fantastic …

In the first episode of our Future Wars cycle, we discuss the new Gareth Edwards sci-fi epic, The Creator, and Denis Villeneuve's recent attempt of adapting Dune onto film.

Our Future Wars cycle is focused on how the …

In the final episode of our Set in the 1950s cycle, we cover two classics, Cool Hand Luke and Rebel Without a Cause.

We have come to the end of our …

In the sixth episode of our Set in the 1950s cycle, we discuss Peter Bogdanovich's coming of age story, The Last Picture Show (1971), along with the Lenny Bruce bio pic, Lenny, directed by theater great Bob Fosse.

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In the fifth episode of our Set in the 1950s cycle, we discuss the 1980s hidden gem Desert Hearts and the highly lauded Diner.

Special Guest: Friend …

In the fourth episode of our Set in the 1950s cycle, we cover the 1990s neo-noir LA Confidential along side the coming of age tale in This Boy's Life.

We dive into two different worlds of the 1950s: the glam and seedy …

In the third episode of our Set in the 1950s cycle, we compare two hommages to the post war decade: Todd Haynes' Far from Heaven and Frank Darabont's The Majestic.

Special guests: Brian Eggert from Deep Focus Reviews, …

In the second episode of our cycle Set in the 1950s, we look at two auteurs who swing for the fences with Terrence Malick's Tree of Life (2011) and …

In the first episode of our new cycle Set in the 1950s, we take a look at Wes Anderson's new film, Asteroid City (2023).

Both Chris and I are devout Wes Anderson fans, and covering Asteroid City was really the impetus …

The sixth and finale film in our Stranger Than Fiction cycle is Richard Brooks' true crime magnum opus, In Cold Blood (1967).

Often overlooked by the …

The fifth film in our Stranger Than Fiction cycle is Sidney Lumet's provocative bank heister, Dog Day Afternoon (1975).

Special Guest: Good friend of the show and dedicated film nerd, Riley.

Dog Day Afternoon is …

The fourth film in our Stranger Than Fiction cycle is David Cronenberg's deep trip twin thriller, Dead Ringers (1988).

Special Guest: Rob from the awesome Smoke & Mirrors Podcast

David Cronenberg was evicted from his …

The third film in our Stranger Than Fiction cycle is Terry Gilliam's visual extravaganza, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).

Special Guest: The …

The second film in our Stranger Than Fiction cycle is Nicolas Winding Refn's left field take on bio pics, 2008's Bronson.

Special Guest: Katey …

The first film in our new Stranger Than Fiction cycle is Elizabeth Bank's gonzo misfire, Cocaine Bear (2023).

Elizabeth Banks is an almost household …

The sixth and final film in our Risqué Romance cycle is Luca Guadagnino's meatlovers romance, Bones and All (2022).

Coming off his break out art-house …

We decided to do an end of the year show for 2022. Life has been hectic so we haven't been able to post on our normal schedule, and we have a longer …

The fifth film in our Risqué Romance cycle is Ang Lee's western romance, Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Special Guest: Amanda Jane Stern - writer, actor, and producer from New York City. She wrote, produced, and starred in …

The fourth film in our Risqué Romance cycle is Lana and Lily Wachowski's debut film, Bound (1996).

Like the Wachowskis' more successful and canonical …

The third film in our Risqué Romance cycle is the small yet delightful, Valley Girl (1983).

Valley Girl, the paradigm of an indie film, transcended …

The second film in our Risqué Romance cycle is Terrence Malick's debut film, Badlands (1973)

Loosely based on the real-life murdering spree committed by Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate in the late 1950s, …

The first film in our Risqué Romance cycle is Stanley Kubrick's infamous Lolita (1962).

We start out this new season by tiptoeing through the …

The sixth and final film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Seijun Suzuki's masterpiece, Branded to Kill (1967)

When we decided to do Absurdist Action as the theme of this cycle, we both struggled to find a starting point. …

The fifth film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Michael Cimino's wonderful debut, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

Special Guest: Daniel Malone from the …

The fourth film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Walter Hill's buddy cop paradigm, 48 Hours.

Special Guest: Ryan Hendricks, friend of the show and …

The third film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Michael Bay's debut, the paradigm of absurd action movies, Bad Boys.

Special Guest: Harry Mackin from the fantastic Trylove Podcast.

Bayhem has its own origin story. Shot …

The second film in our Absurdist Action cycle is Edgar Wright's iconic action comedy, Hot Fuzz.

Special Guest: Max Covil, Rotten Tomato Approved Film Critic from the great It's the Pictures podcast and newsletter.

If …

A New Cycle Begins! The first film in our Absurdist Action cycle is the rock 'em sock 'em 2022 release, Bullet Train.

The action comedy is a delicate …

The sixth and last film in our Existential Thriller cycle is Alfred Hitchcock's farewell to London, the macabre and dissociated Frenzy.

Upon release, Frenzy was widely seen as a return to form for Hitchcock, but it has …

The fifth film in our Existential Thriller cycle is William Friedkin's grim and precise Sorcerer (1977).

Released in the shadow of Star Wars and Friedkin's own masterpiece, The Exorcist, this bizarre down-and-out …

The fourth film in our Existential Thriller cycle is Neil Jordan's infamous 1992 political enigma, The Crying Game (1992).

A film's notoriety can …

The third film in our new Existential Thrillers cycle is David Fincher's Norcal mindbender, The Game (1997)

David Fincher is one the most powerful and …

The second film in our new Existential Thrillers cycle is Tony Gilroy's aughtie classic, Michael Clayton (2007).

On paper, Michael Clayton probably seems like a taut legal thriller played to the middle-aged set, a John …

The first film in our new Existential Thrillers cycle is Alex Garland's bizarre and bold Men (2022).

Alex Garland has quietly made himself into one of …

The sixth and final film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is the landmark exploitation film, The Last House on the Left (1972). 

Made off the proceeds …

The fifth film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is 1982's mashup of George Romero and Stephen King, Creepshow.

Creepshow is an anthology horror film …

The fourth film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is 1992's gonzo horror splatterfest Dead Alive aka Braindead

Dead Alive is a shocking film for a variety of reasons, but perhaps most astonishing is that it came from the …

The third film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is 2002's zombie renaissance 28 Days Later

28 Days Later reanimated the zombie subgenre of horror, which had been left for dead and maligned where it always had been. Yes, …

The second film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is the 2012 postmodern bonanza The Cabin in the Woods.
What happens when the Post-Scream style of ironic horror goes past the event horizon? The infamous Joss Whedon teamed …

We are back! We are doing something different this season of Film Trace. Instead of covering new and old films at random, we are choosing a theme for …

A Wes Anderson double-header to close out Season 5 of Film Trace. Chris and I return to our roots as teenage film nerds. Wes Anderson was our first …

At the height of Jim Carrey's fame in the mid 1990s, this bizarre pitch-black comedy was released as a summer blockbuster. The Cable Guy is a …

As the box office finally begins to be resuscitated, albeit largely with the help of the comic book movie crowd, straight-to-streaming films now seem to either cater to cinematic schlock addicts or art film dorks, and …

Let's get bummed. Back in 2006, the USA was deep in the 2nd term of George Bush II, aka the idiot king, and his 2nd Iraq war was raging. As a leftist, it felt like a total nightmare, but Alfonso Cuarón heard our cries. …

Is nostalgia poison? It felt nearly impossible to avoid cynicism while watching this new Home Alone film, the 6th film in the series unceremoniously shipped off to Disney Plus. The critical response has been …

Put on your finest linen sports coat and/or effortless flowy sundress. Pack a handkerchief as well. This week we tackle the moistest noir seared onto film, 1981's Body Heat. We take exotic thrillers for granted now, but …

When Paranormal Activity came out in 2007, old school ads showing actual audience members jumping in their seats in night-vision green theaters gave …

Juno landed like an atom bomb. Diablo Cody's zeitgeist script mixed with the chemistry of Elliot Page and Micheal Cera became a cultural phenomenon …

Where did it all go wrong? The Halloween films have been an uneven mess since John Carpenter forsook his creation back in the 1980s. Much like the Nightmare on Elm Street series, nothing quite touches the original. …

Dust off that clear plastic case to find a BASF video on the inside with the handwritten title "Toy Soldiers" on the spine. It is hard to trace the …

The pandemic film has mostly become a term of derision. Filmmakers rushed to stay busy as the entire industry shut down, and we were subject to …

In October 2001, only a month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a bizarro coming-of-age film was dumped in 58 theaters to die. Donnie Darko's trailer prominently featured a plane engine falling from the sky into a …

Great art can often seem to appear out of nowhere. It can also be hidden in genre and forms that don't always carry the clout of prestige. A trilogy of straight-to-streaming slasher films is not exactly where a film …

Did we just cancel John Landis? Of course not, how could we! It's the 40th anniversary of his groundbreaking horror classic, An American Werewolf in …

What are we to do with Steven Soderbergh? His prolific cinematic output is matched only by his recalcitrant refusal to stay in a single lane, style, …

I'm with Cancer. That was the original name of this cancer comedy that somehow got produced in the early 2010s. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen …

James Wan just wanted to make a fun haunted house movie when he accidentally launched a 2 billion dollar cinematic universe with The Conjuring in the …

One Fine Day is a time machine back to the 1990s Rom-Com boom. It was a simpler time: you got ink on your hands while reading the newspaper, people talked into large grey bricks called cell phones, and all women, …

Welcome back Snyder? The last five years have been a rollercoaster for Zach Snyder. Batman vs Superman imploded within days of opening in 2016. The …

Shane Black was the wunderkind and whipping boy of screenwriting in the 1980s and 90s. His instant massive influence was only surpassed by his sudden fated fall. The scriptwriting maestro ran for the hills when his fame …

The domestic thriller makes a futile and flaccid comeback with this Casey Affleck helmed stalker gawker. In what amounts to a really expensive Lifetime movie, Every Breath You Take is a paint-by-numbers melodrama that …

We take the deep trip with Darren Aronofsky on his grief tour of conquistadors, neuroscience, and bubble spaceships. The Fountain is crazy. What started out as a 100 million Warner Bros production, got downsized to a 35 …

The Russo Brothers set fire to their MCU millions with a bombastic and experimental drug drama starring Spiderman himself, Tom Holland. Based on a …

Before Nolan became a film bro deity, he made a little neo-noir film about a guy who can't remember anything. Well, as Nolan would say, it's a lot …

Getaway to never never land with two 40-something Middle America chatty uppers called Barb and Star. Their final destination is the sunny and surreal …

Mann is born. James Caan cruises through the black mirror of Chicago's rain-soaked streets in Micheal Mann's masterful film debut, Thief. This 1980s …

Take a walk on the trite side with this 1990s LA Boir period-piece new to HBO Max, The Little Things. This bromidic concoction comes from the …

Plumbing the depths of our virile past, we uncover the distinct and indecipherable artifact of Swingers, a 90s hipster flick that Gen X refuses to disavow. Before Youtube and TikTok, the aimless youth took to indie …

We start Season 3 with the opening salvo of Promising Young Woman, a genre confection spiked with razors that rides the line between pitch-black …

Merry Christmas from Finland! Chris shares this wonderful little gem from the great north and the land of Soviet crushers. Rare Exports is clearly a …

Have you ever felt like a stranger inside of your own head? Brandon Cronenberg takes you on a dissociative bender in his second feature, Possessor. This cyber noir freak show is just as unsettling as the work of …

Get out your MAGA hat (made in China) and your Bernie 2016 organic cotton t-shirt (made in Vietnam), it's time for everyone's favorite middlebrow …

Let the Werewolf renaissance begin! Chris and Dan discuss the new "indie" horror film The Wolf of Snow Hollow from the director-writer-star, Jim …

Ian Mungall of the great CineSiblingsPod joins us to discuss the turn of the century maladapted-male classic, High Fidelity (2000). John Cusack plays a thirty-something music nerd who can't seem to find the right rhythm …

Special guest, good friend Molly, joins us for a deep dive into Aaron Sorkin's attempt at storming the bastille, The Trial of the Chicago 7 (or 8 or …

Chris and Dan along with special guest Evan from the great Spoilerpiece Theatre podcast discuss the finer points of 90s elevated schlock, Species. …

The Sandlerverse births another low-brow Netflix comedy that plays for background noise rather than laughs. Adam Sandler may be the most powerful …

Guests Mark and Brigitte from the Screen Time: A Quarantine Podcast join us for the second episode of season two where we dive into reclusive genius Micheal Cimino's bizarro attempt at a house invasion remake, Desperate …

Season 2 is here! Dan and Chris along with special guest Molly dissect the latest Oscar-bait offering from Netflix, The Devil All the Time.  With a …

Dan Gilroy's anti-capitalist polemic is one of the most beautiful and horrific films of the 2010s. Jake Gyllenhaal masterfully plays Lou, a lone wolf …

David Ayer returns to his old haunts in this 30 million dollar low-rent crime film about the LA gangland. The violence is constant and grotesque. The …

Robert Pattinson broods his way through Pre-9/11 New York City in this yappy genre gumbo: One part Nicholas Sparks, Two Parts 2005's Stay, Three …

Dave Franco attempts to escape his brother's shadow by commissioning a mumblecore horror flick called The Rental. Teaming with the mumbleking himself, Joe Swanberg, the two try to walk the impossible tight rope between …

A dream team creates a stoner comedy to cap off the golden age of improv. Odd man out David Gordan Greene helms the ship as Seth Rogen, James Franco, …

Kelly Reichardt's subversive western about two men and a prized cow. A novel is deftly cut down here to a seemingly small film with a massive …

A lost film from the dynamic duo of crazy man Nic Cage and blockbuster director Gore Verbinski. A rich man's failed attempt at remaking Sideways. In …

We are back with a new episode on Eurovision blah blah blah. The title is dumb, but is the movie? Yes, of course, but is it an enjoyable lark? We trace the life of this absurd film from conception (Will Ferrell said it …

Film Trace is a new podcast where we trace the life of a film from conception to production all the way to release and reception.

This week's episode is The Darkness, newly released on Netflix.

We cover how horror film …

Film Trace is a new podcast where we trace the life of film from conception to production all the way to release and reception. 

This week's episode is Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee's new film for Netflix.

We cover how the …