Hit Factory

Guelwaar

We inaugurate (and conclude) our coverage of Senegalese master Ousmane Sembène with a discussion of his 1992 feature Guelwaar, the late filmmaker's only work of the decade. In essence a minor comedy of errors revolving around the misplaced body of a departed community leader and political agitator, Guelwaar transforms several times over into a profound and mo...

BONUS: Eddington

More new movie talk as we take on the most divisive film of the summer, Ari Aster's COVID-era neo-western Eddington.

More new movie talk as we take on the most divisive film of the summer, Ari Aster's COVID-era neo-western Eddington. The film follows Joaquin Phoenix as Joe Cross, the sheriff of Eddington, NM who - frustrated by the state's mask mandates in early ...

The Addiction feat. Peter Raleigh

Writer, academic, and prestigious poster Peter Raleigh earns his hat trick, returning to the Factory Floor to discuss Abel Ferrara's philosophical vampire film The Addiction. Shot in stark, vivid black & white cinematography and featuring a breathtaking lead performance by the great Lili Taylor, the film explores vampirism as a natural extension of the maladies of ...

Jackie Brown feat. Jourdain Searles

We welcome the esteemed critic, journalist, and podcaster Jourdain Searles to the show to discuss Quentin Tarantino's seminal third feature Jackie Brown, an adaptation of the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch that also serves as Tarantino's love letter to Blaxploitation cinema and one of its defining stars, Pam Grier.

We begin with a discussion of Blaxploi...

Little Buddha feat. Bilge Ebiri

Vulture and New York Magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri returns to discuss Bernardo Bertolucci's stunning mood piece Little Buddha, a rich and evocative story of an American family who travel to Bhutan after learning their son may be the reincarnation of the spiritual leader of a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks. The film also chronicles chapters in the life of Siddartha ...

BONUS: 28 Years Later

We're back with more Danny Boyle coverage, this time discussing his latest film 28 Years Later, the long-awaited sequel to Boyle's own 28 Days Later (as well as its sequel 28 Weeks Later) that bracingly rejects the template set by both its predecessors and the broader scope of modern blockbusters to deliver a visceral, formally daring, and narratively...

Shallow Grave feat. Brandon Streussnig

Film journalist and friend of the show Brandon Streussnig returns to discuss Danny Boyle's debut film Shallow Grave, a British riff on the 90s neo-noir template, self-described by Boyle and his collaborators as their take on the Coen's Blood Simple. The film chronicles a trifecta of beautiful, sociopathic yuppies sharing an Edinburgh flat (Kerry Fox, Christoph...

Rosewood (+ Sinners)

We went exceptionally long on the late John Singleton’s undersung period western Rosewood, a film (and filmmaker) whose fingerprints are all over Ryan Coogler’s recent box office sensation, Sinners. Rosewood tells the story of an independent Black township in Florida and the barbaric racial violence it faced in 1923, incited by a white woman’s false accusation o...

Hands on a Hardbody

We stayed up for three consecutive days without sleep and kept at least one hand on a microphone at all times in order to test our mettle and discuss S.R. Bindler's 1997 "gawkumentary" Hands on a Hardbody, a story of 23 contenstants in Longview, Texas squaring off in a competition of stamina to win a Nissan hardbody truck. Over the course of three days, Bindler and his...

The Virgin Suicides

We got our hands on Sofia Coppola's diary and read it to try and make sense of her dreamy, quietly devastating debut The Virgin Suicides. Adapted from the Jeffrey Eugenides novel of the same name, Coppola's film tells the story of the five Lisbon sisters as seen through the eyes of the boys they charm and perplex in equal measure. Adopting the male gaze as a means of d...

U.S. Go Home

We finally bring the brilliant, indelible work of Claire Denis to the pod with a discussion of her 1994 TV movie U.S. Go Home. Produced as part of the anthology series Tous les garcons et les filles de leur age… alongside work from other French visionaries like Chantal Akerman, Olivier Assayas and André Téchiné, Denis' film is an elliptical, compassionate...

BONUS: The Shrouds

David Cronenberg returns to the big screen this week with The Shrouds, perhaps his most autobiographical film to date. The film involves grieving tech entrepreneur Karsh (played brilliantly by Vincent Cassel) who has developed the means to surveil the dead in their tombs, including his recently deceased wife. After a series of grave defacements in the cemetery plot he ...

BONUS: Forever Roxie feat. Henry S. Rosenthal

The Roxie Theater, a San Francisco landmark in the Mission District, is one of the oldest continuously operated cinemas in the United States, with its history tracing back to the early 1900s.

Recently, The Roxie kicked off the public phase of their fundraising campaing, Forever Roxie, in order to purchase their buidling, ...

A Confucian Confusion

We inaugurate the brilliant Taiwanese master Edward Yang with a conversation about his transcendent 1994 social satire A Confucian Confusion. Following up his staggering masterwork A Brighter Summer Day, Yang turned his attention to Taipei in the 1990s at the height of its rapid evolution into a port city of global capital and the effects this shift had on the...

Bound feat. Xuanlin Tham

Xuanlin Tham, author of the new book Revolutionary Desires: The Political Power of the Sex Scene returns to the show to discuss the Wachowskis' debut feature - the sharp, sexy sapphic neo-noir Bound. Emboldened by brilliant performances from its two leads Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, the film is both an assured and nimble stylistic calling card for th...

BONUS: A.I. Goes Hollywood feat. A.S. Hamrah

Film critic and author A.S. Hamrah joins for a conversation on his recent Fast Company piece "Hollywood’s obsession with AI-enabled ‘perfection’ is making movies less human", which details some alarming (and frankly, depressing) recent use cases of A.I. in both studio...

Dark Angel: The Ascent feat. Comrade Yui

Returning friend of the show Comrade Yui swings by to discuss the 1994 Full Moon direct-to-video masterwork Dark Angel: The Ascent. The story follows the exploits of a bored, beautiful young demon Veronica Iscariot (Angela Featherstone) as she defies the orders of her parents and the rules of hell to visit Earth and walk among the humans. It's not long before she reali...

BONUS: Babygirl

We're back talking about the recently-released Babygirl, directed by Dutch actor-turned-director Halina Reijn. Despite some initial apprehensions based on the discourse and reviews from trusted sources, we both found the film to be a stylish, funny, and intelligent examination of desire, kink, and the ways that the patriarchy suppresses and rejects expressions of femal...

Affliction feat. Hard Mike & Syd Bricks

Fan favorite Hard Mike returns to the show alongside newcomer Syd Bricks to discuss Paul Schrader's Affliction, one of the filmmaker's most well-observed explorations of addiction and the generational cycles of suffering that manifest as a result of leaving personal trauma and pain unresolved. The film follows Nick Nolte's Wade Whitehouse, an alcohlic, washed-up cop in...

Cliffhanger feat. Eamon Tracy

Film critic Eamon Tracy returns to the show to discuss Renny Harlin's mountain-bound Die Hard riff Cliffhanger starring Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, and Michael Rooker. A taut, well-staged action thriller that served as a revitalization effort for Stallone's leading man bonafides in the early 90s after a rough patch of box office and critical bombs, the film ...

Hit Factory's In/Out List 2025

It's a New Year and we don't feel any different!

In typical Hit Factory fashion, the simple task of creating an "In/Out" list for 2025 became a discussion about the infantilization of culture, embracing cinephilia beyond marketing cycles, and how the current state of art reflects an empire in decline. If you've ever wanted to hear a movie podcast tell you that you "have an ethical and spi...

The Long Day Closes feat. Rob Rubsam

Brooklyn-based writer and editor Robert Rubsam joins to discuss the work of Terence of Davies and his 1992 masterwork, The Long Day Closes. An impressionistic evocation of memory and sensation, the film is the culmination of Davies' early autobiographical period, exploring the roughly 5 year period between when the filmmaker's abusive father died and when he began his ...

The Match Factory Girl

We discuss the winner of our latest Patreon poll: Aki Kaurismäki's The Match Factory Girl, the story of a young working class woman, Iris, looking for love and a sense of belonging in industrialized Helsinki. The final installment of Kaurismäki's 'Proletariat Trilogy', the film resembles that of a fable that takes an unexpected and comically violent turn as Iris seek...

Pick Next Week's Patreon Title!

Hello Hit Factory Patrons,

It's time once again to help us decide which film we'll be covering for next week's Patreon-exclusive episode.

We've selected a few nominees off the beaten path and hope you're feeling adventurous enough to join us in watching and discussing.

Producer's Note: We are currently running a parallel poll in the Hit Factory Discord. Members are welc...