You are now listening to the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast network.

Hello, welcome back to Punk Vacation Unofficial Vinegar Syndrome Podcast.

We are at episode twenty four, which actually works out perfectly because this is also celebrating one year of doing the podcast, so I am very happy to be doing this with Celeste.

And before I give the official intro and everything, Celeste, thanks for going on this journey with me.

Thank you.

I think it's appropriate that the year anniversary is the one that I get to be on the whole episode, So that's yeah.

I wrote this script a year ago saying that I'm using the podcast to find the joy in unfettered creativity, originally setting out to make a podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere and during any time.

I feel like that still generally holds true despite all of the ups and downs of Vinegar Syndrome the last year.

I think that that's an excellent mission statement, and I think that it is just as appropriate today as it was when you started.

Okay, thanks, Yeah, I feel like it's the same way, you know, because there's I'm looking at the stack of you know, movies like the Golden Child in Dirty Work and Stuff, which are amazing releases of these movies.

You know, Jade really like the premier release of these movies.

I guess it's still for the most part, there's some element of kind of unhinged or unfettered creativity in these movies.

There's something that's kind of binding them all together, even if they're you know, Hollywood movies.

Yeah, I think they're kind of maybe not as much as The Golden Child.

I don't know much about it.

I know that Paramount put it out themselves in a pretty fancy edition, so maybe that's like our one exception, but I feel like these are still like misfit studio titles, like ones that maybe other people wouldn't care as much about, or have a bad reputation or a maligned reputation, or you know, I just don't know that anyone else would have put the amount of work into Dirty Work, you know.

And that's one thing I have to like that Oscar worked on that one, and like you can feel the love in that.

It's such a good release.

Yeah, yeah, that's what I've heard.

I don't have it myself, but it's been one of the more consistently praised releases of the year sort of slipcase artwork aside.

Yeah, I think if you it's funny.

I think if you, if you take it as a historical document of like New York comedy in the nineties, it captures everything, like it has people that were SNL writers for thirty years.

It has you know, comedy directors, it has comedy right, a ton of comedy writers, actors, most of the living cast from the movie.

It's just a it's a really cool document of comedy, which which I've enjoyed going through.

But anyways, how has this been for you?

Because you've been on almost from the beginning.

I mean I think, yeah, I was pretty close, so I think you did like two episodes before I was like, hey, we're not doing the adult titles.

What's going on there?

Yeah?

Yeah, how's this your for you?

It's been a lot of fun.

You know.

I sort of said this at the beginning, but it holds true that I really liked doing my Vinegar Syndrome segment on my channel, but it took like all of my time and effort and it wasn't sustainable and I couldn't do it anymore.

So to do these releases where I still get a kind of monthly slate of things to look forward to.

And I feel like this is probably not actually true, but it kind of feels like I'm the only person doing this, like actually like watching these movies and giving them the amount of time and consideration at this kind of consistency at least maybe I mean, I'm sure there are people doing it, but it's like the entire slate every month, like actually going through all the features and trying to give a thoughtful analysis of them.

It kind of feels like Vinegar Syndrome is blown up and now this is like the more underrated thing that they're doing, and it was sort of like overlooked and unloved sort of thing.

And that's kind of where I gravitate in anything, you know, I kind of want to see what are people not paying attention to?

What can I kind of shine a light on, What do I think is interesting that's not getting the credit that it deserves and I and it's not.

I don't think it's because vinegar Syndrome values these films less, but they're also like there's less supplements on them, and there's less you know, as much as I defend these movies, there's less to talk about in terms of like plot and themes than like a non pornographic movie, So it's easier on me, like workload wise, while still being a very fulfilling thing and a cool thing that I get to highlight.

And Yeah, I feel I feel, I feel good about having created a little corner of degeneracy over here.

I love your segment, and I think, you know, I've heard I've had multiple people reach out and I think I've passed along most of this to you, but I've had multiple people reach out and just say that you are one of the few that is consistently doing like a respectful and thoughtful perspective on these you know, Golden age pornographic films, and they really appreciate that.

Yeah, because there's a super rich history in all this as well beyond the movies, right mm hm.

So I love this segment, And I was actually reflecting on this a little bit as I was thinking about the fact we've been doing this for a year.

You know, I think we're kind of kindred spirits in a way, because am I correct that you came to exploitation and genre films through art House?

Is that right?

Yes?

Yes, Criterion.

The Criterion channel was my gateway into like actually liking movies.

Yeah, and that's exactly the same for me and so we I think we share a similar journey in a lot of ways.

I think approach like looking at these movies with a curious eye in the same way.

Yeah.

So I'm very happy to be doing this with you.

Yeah, me too.

I think it's a it's a good match as well.

And I really appreciate you all the work and money you've put into this and everything and getting to be a part of it has been a lot of fun.

Yes, If Neger syndrome, here's the money part and wants to send me free releases, I'm wide open to that, but still happy to be a subscriber for now.

Although they didn't send me the July titles.

I got everything else except for subscriber titles, So I need to fix that.

But I know that there.

I know that's just one email.

We'll fix it.

I'm not worried about it.

Yeah, but yeah, I you know, I don't know.

I'm not gonna do like a big you know, Q and a with you around what needs to be better different or anything this year.

I think for me, I'm happy with the way the first year went.

The episode.

The listens keep growing for the most part with each episode, and especially I think oddly enough, I think people seem to love the longer episodes, which is an interesting like, I wasn't expecting that the ones that are simple, straightforward interviews with like behind the scenes features producers or just quick hour long episodes tend to produce quite a bit lower listens.

That is interesting.

Yeah, and like the mega marathons are like one and a half times as high.

Huh, So it's nothing insignificant.

So I don't know what that means.

I don't know if I have the energy to edit and record three hour episodes twice a month.

Yeah, but we may just have spikes and that's okay.

Yeah, people can have a Lord of the Rings extended cut episode as a treat once in.

A while, you know, exactly.

But yeah, no, I you know, for whatever reason, I guess, well, I guess because you're not a subscriber, so you don't get the titles.

But anytime you want to jump onto the main discussion, you're obviously very welcome, and I just I'm very happy you're choosing to do this, So I can't wait to hear them Millie title.

And you know, it's funny you say you talk about the plot and stuff, because I generally would agree with you and the titles I've seen, But then every once in a while you get something like Naked cam as Stranger.

Yeah, and I feel like that movie could be spoken about in the same like that could easily be a Criterion movie.

Almost.

I feel like, yeah, I'm gonna have a hot take on that one.

But I didn't like it.

But that's my that's my hot take that we'll get to in this segment later.

But I don't know.

I was expecting something different, I think, and it just it got on my nerves, to be honest with you.

But a lot of those other titles I would I would agree with that.

My Corruption is a really good one, Blonde Ambition is a really good one.

This is not a Malisne title, but Thundercrack is one that if Criterion put it out, I don't think they're brave enough, but I would be so stoked to help that.

I had just been waiting for them to put out water Power.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what maybe they did in the Realm of the Senses, So maybe I'm not giving them enough credit.

Maybe they'd be cool enough.

I don't know.

So there's definitely people that are.

There's a movie on the tight Criterion channel right now that's called The Tit in the Milk or The Tit in the Moon.

It's an art house movie, Tit in the Moon.

Yeah, but it's just about lactation.

Right on.

So it's like a visitor que double feature type.

The channel definitely has more maybe leeway is the right word to uh get more out there like they did.

I watched I was introduced to Herschel, Gordon Lewis, and Doris Wishman through the Criterion Channel, So I feel like the channel gives the brand a bit of a permission structure to branch out a little bit from I don't know, the tour driven art house whatever.

Well, on that topic, before we jump into August, a quick shout out to Sam Degan's podcast Arrols, and she specifically has an episode with Let's see which what's the title?

Yeah, Clyde Fowley and I think you get it.

You get it.

That's a that's a great episode.

It's episode nine of her podcast, but you get a nice glimpse into people that are kind of behind the scenes there, which is which is great as well.

Yeah, that is really cool.

The episode I did with her, which is episode two, is still a very strong candidate for my favorite thing I've ever done well.

I would strongly encourage people to listen to that.

I love I love the discussion y'all got into there.

Yeah, me too.

I've been trying to get back on because she's like the coolest person, but I know she's really busy.

Sam Degan is the coolest person.

Shout out to Sam.

Yeah.

We yeah, I mean, I guess you know.

We kind of mentioned at the beginning thirty work celebration of New York.

I feel like, in a funny way, the August releases are sort of a celebration of New York as well.

I don't know if it's intentional, Like I don't I can't imagine they think about it in that way.

But Sergeant Kabuki Man and Larry Fessenden are you know, trauma and then Larry Festenden with Glass Side Picks are both strong, strong New York kind of presence.

And then I don't know about play Room.

I think that's more of a Hollywood title.

So maybe that's where it ends.

But yeah, I was interested to see they you know, they a lot of the partner labels focus on New York are or at least are based in New York.

And then its like they're putting out more and more stuff from Trauma and festened In and it seems like they're really promoting the New York film scene, which is kind of interesting because there's a lot of great stuff from there.

They are East Coast based, so I guess that makes sense.

It is there is a proximity there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I'm sure once you know somebody, you kind of you know other people and there's a natural connection there.

But have you what's your take on trauma?

Like are you have you seen much?

Yeah?

Hm hmm.

That's it just a loaded question.

There's like classic trauma, and there's contemporary trauma, and then there's trauma the brand the like sort of online presence, and there's sort of politics and everything.

You know, that's true.

Let's not that that's their weakest point.

I disagree.

I think they're I think they're cool.

I think they're out here gunning for left wing values, social justice, propping up women filmmakers and exploitation.

Uh.

Lloyd Kaufman is a good follow on social media.

He posts good stuff, I think, so I'm I'm a fan of them on that front.

I'm a fan of a lot of their classic titles.

I think the only contemporary one I watched is called what's it called?

I think it's called Honor Killing.

Okay.

It's a rape and revenge film, I believe, directed by a woman of Middle Eastern descent, and Asquala Grind did a song for the soundtrack, which is how it got on my radar.

And despite the objective coolness of everything that I just said, it was one of the worst films I've ever seen.

So I was kind of like, maybe that's where they lose me, is their contemporary stuff.

But you know, Toxic Avenger is a classic.

Toxic Avenger two is also a classic.

I really like Bloodsucking Freaks, even though they don't even like that movie Rabbit Granny's Mother's Day.

I mean, they've got some bangers.

Yeah.

Have you seen Tromeo and Juliet?

By chance?

I have not.

Okay, that was the first that was my introduction to Trouma was through Tromeo and Juliet, And it's a very right forward retelling of Romeo and Juliet, but with like Lloyd Kaufman's you know I Yeah, And there's a scene in it where this guy gets his head bashed in, and right before he gets his head bashed in, it cuts to I think it's a watermelon with a smiley face on it as the special effects, and I was like, Okay, I'm in love.

I was like, I need to see more from Yeah is doing this because it's amazing.

Yeah, there's I was just gonna say, oh, yeah, are director du Joor James Gunn got his start there too, and now he's making, in my opinion, the best superhero films, and Superman is like one of my favorite films of the year so far.

So like they're producing quality talent in some in some ways, right.

No, there's real filmmakers there for sure, and they get a reputation for I think they're almost like you know, Roger Corman in a way, right because they have a four right, Like it has to have this much nudity and I said, this much weird content and like, but I mean they're they're out there making really I don't know, like there's a bunch of good filmmakers there.

Yeah, yeah, no, I totally agree.

I'm glad James Gunn is getting his chance he's doing.

I think he agree with you.

Like his take in Marvel is some of the most unique stuff that they made.

The Suicide Squad movie he did was about one hundred times better than the first.

It's incredible.

Like when that, I couldn't believe how good it was.

When I watch that movie, I was like, that might be thet it might still be the best like live action superhero film I've ever seen.

I couldn't believe how much I loved it.

And then I felt exactly the same way watching Superman.

I was like, this dude's just got it.

He's got the juice.

I don't know, he understands what makes these movies work exactly.

Yeah, yeah, he gets the heart of it.

And I cried.

And I'm a little embarrassed about this, but I cried during Guardians three.

I haven't seen the second or the third one, but I'll one up you a little bit and I'll tell you that I cried three times watching Superman in a theater, So there's no need to be embarrassed.

That's awesome, thank you.

But yeah, like he has a heart and like his movie is work because he has a heart in them.

Yeah, and I think he deeply has it, like a strong empathy, like he comes from a place of empathy.

Yeah, and I think it.

I cannot wait to see Superman.

I've tried a few different times and the schedule didn't work out for some reason.

But I can't wait to see it because the people that I respect all have a similar reaction to you.

Yeah, it's I think it's out of IMAX theaters at this point, but there's no shifting aspect ratio, so you're not going to miss too much seeing it in a regular theater.

But I do think you should see it in a theater if you get a chance.

Cool.

Yeah, but I mean there is you know.

One of the other classic movies from Trauma is actually directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hurts, and it's a sort of throwback to their love of martial arts and action but done on a trauma scale.

And it's called Sergeant Kabuki Man NYPD.

And this was release number five oh eight.

Now they're up to five oh eight.

So have you seen Kabuki Man yet?

I will just say from the jump I've seen none of these, so okay, these that should be definitely a good guest.

I should have lots of insightful things to say.

No, no, no, it's okay.

The uh the Kabooki Man is silly for sure, and it's you know, it's like a comedy, but I love it, like this is one of the early ones that I saw because it's like when you first start getting into trauma.

Well, I shouldn't say when I first started getting into trauma.

It was because the Blockbuster Video that I worked at was an independent franchise and the store manager was a trauma freak.

So I actually built a trauma section in the store, which is extremes yeah, extremely rare for a Blockbuster video, and he would just like recommence them.

So he recommended Tromeo and Juliet, and then it was like class of Newcomb High, and then it was obviously you know, Toxi, and then it was Sojian Kabuki Man was like right behind.

And so it was kind of in that honeymoon period where I was just discovering all this low budget filmmaking, and then Lloyd Kauffin was doing a tour of the US at that time promoting a book he wrote about producing independent cinema.

So like, I got his signature and I got to meet him right around this time, and he was super nice.

It's just like everything was kind of like it was a very sentimental time for me of you know, learning to love these crazy movies.

So it's tied up into that.

I have no idea if it's a good movie or not, but I love it and like, I will defend this movie.

Interestingly enough, this has two cuts of the movie, yeah, and the PG thirteen cut, and the Refuse Films release of Sergeant Kabuki Man has a different cut, so it has a third cut, which was putting it putting it into a wide screen.

It was a fairly recent i think, in the last ten years.

Interesting and the Refuse film's release has way more special features.

It's kind of shocking how many special features they have, like interviews and is.

That a newer or older release?

No?

So okay, okay, Refuse, So we got another we got another fuck?

What am I?

What is the word?

Cannibal and musical situation going on here a little bit?

Yeah, because so film I like amazing.

Yeah, that's one of the best probably in their catalog, but so Refuse Films is putting out a trauma line.

I forget what trauma archive is what it's called, So they're gonna have a lot of overlap, I think.

But Refuse is region B Vinegar Syndrome is Region A, right, that's like the if you're not region free, then there's no choice like you do Vinegar Syndrome.

I'm just calling out the difference in case people are debating between the two.

The one thing I will say on Cannibal and I think I have no idea about this one, but on Cannibal, the transfer was better on the Vinegar Syndrome release in the sense of like the restoration and stuff.

So yeah, it looks like this.

I'm looking at the Refuse one now and it looks like it's blu ray only, so that might just be a deal breaker in and up itself.

I also like the outer slip case for Vinegar Syndrome better, but this standard edition artwork I think is really cool on the Refuse version.

Yeah, they they're getting the same artists to work on all the cover art for Refuse.

I fucking love that artist, Like, it's so cool.

It's that yellow and black and white, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's sick.

I love that, all right, But I agree the box for Sergeant Kabuki Man is awesome for the VS release and.

Yeah, and then sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

The the Refuse one, it looks like it's the director's cut.

It's exactly the same, but it's just in a different aspect ratio.

So there's three cuts of it.

And then yeah, there's a ship ton of features on here.

A lot of them are pretty short.

But so I don't know, if you're like a real Kabuki Man head, I guess you should probably get both.

Yeah, yeah, I don't think it could go wrong either way.

No, And I think what I love about the VS one is that they're they're making it like a proper hard slipcase release, so like they're putting a lot of love into it, so it's gonna be like a nice beautiful package on your shelf.

I'm in love with this artwork that insected for the for the for the Hard Case.

I think it's really striking.

Oh, it's so good.

If I had to pick, i'd picked this one.

I think, Yeah, it's really good.

And they also have a book which I love they put together me too.

They'll forever be my biggest pet peeve that they are limited edition only, but I know they're great.

Yeah.

Interestingly enough, the booklet for a New leaf Is, which is a cinematograph title that just came out, has a poster in it, which is I think the first time that that I've seen a poster in a cinematograph one.

It's like folded up inside the booklet there.

But anyways, I digress.

Speaking of Cinematograph, they had a hell on Merch drop this fun Jesus.

Yeah, We'll get to that in just a second, because I don't even like every single month is basically like the Cinematograph Merch Show.

Yeah, which I don't mean to sound at in a negative way.

I guess I guess it's selling if they keep putting it out, but yeah, yeah, we'll get to that in just a sec.

But yeah, like the Cinematic Void podcast is great, and so I'm excited to hear them do a commentary on the this on this release for the VS one.

They're They're pretty funny and their takes are usually well thought up, so I'm excited to hear them talk about a trauma film.

Yeah, but I mean, like you said, if you're I guess, if you're really crazy about it, you could get both releases.

But if you don't have a region free player, this is the only region A release anyways.

And it's clear there's still a lot of love.

It's like both both releases look great.

Yeah, I'm looking at it again actually, and I think the number of features are pretty comparable.

I'm looking at a lot of bullet points here.

No, no, for sure they're not.

They didn't skimp on this at all.

And the people at VIS like all love trauma.

Well a lot of them love trauma, I know.

So you're going to put a lot of love into this.

So that's five oh a going into five o nine is so the if I was going to sell you on Larry Feston.

Have you seen anything by him?

Or I don't know anything about him and I haven't seen anything now.

So he's most famous probably like history is probably going to remember him as the mentor for Ty West, which is not fair to Larry Festenden, but just like that's that's when people talk about him.

If you want like a like a cocktail party kind of like stat about him, you know, like Ty West exists because of Larry Fessenden and whether or not that's good or bad, like that's you know whatever, that's a mentor a mentee that got pretty famous.

But he's been making independent movies in New York forever and I guess forty years and the thing that he does.

So they're going back and releasing his movies shot on film, because I think he had a series where he was doing shot on video, but this is like his very first shot on film release, and it looks like They're going to be doing more of his stuff, which I'm excited about.

But he loves to mess with classic horror.

So No Telling is his first movie that was shot on film, and it's a retelling of Frankenstein.

And then Habit is like a vampire story, and he puts them in modern day modern in this case meaning the eighties.

I guess I think these are both in the eighties.

Oh, okay, nineties, so early nineties, so it's New York in the nineties.

What would a Frankenstein's story look like?

What would a vampire story look like?

And I think he's an underrated storyteller, Like he's a good world builder.

I love his stuff.

He's kind of like I think he's as created his Scooter McCrae, although until I die, like I'm going to defend Scooter is probably the most pure filmmaker that of like he should be up in the upper echelon of echelon of filmmakers that's discussed and is just the way he's able to pull a story out and make it real on no budget.

Yeah, sixteen tons is not a film that I particularly liked, but it is one that is fairly singular and that I think about a lot, and that is really impressive, right, like the resources that were available, you.

Know, Yeah, and ten thousand dollars.

Can you imagine like anybody making a movie like that.

Yeah, And so I wouldn't say fastened In is there in terms of world building, but he is.

I do think he's an underrated storyteller.

I really like his movies, and he has a very firm grasp on like how to make a movie and what people want from a movie.

And I think he's fascinating to listen to because he's kind of like a professor almost in the way that he you know, he has this encyclopedic knowledge of cinema and he's got a very clear vision of what he's trying to do.

But he's also funny and kind of humble.

So anyways, a huge fan of Larry Festenden.

I'm looking at the Shout Factory release that they did of his because I know they did a collection and I think I thought it was more extensive than this, and it's out of print now, but it has four films on it, the first two being No Telling and Habit.

So if I had to venture a yes, I would say that VS is probably going to do a second double feature in four K of When to Go in the Last Winter, assuming that those are shot on film, which I don't.

Yeah, yeah, yeah they are.

They are cool there there is a very very high percentage chance that those are the next two coming in.

But yeah, I think like he's I'm just going back really quick, because he did.

He started with No Telling, Yeah, and then have It and then Whin to Go and then the Last Winter.

What was the other one that you said was in that set from was it Fear Itself?

It?

Nope, it was just those works.

Oh it is the Last Winter?

Okay, Yeah, and then he didn't make another movie again for a few years.

I think it was called Beneath and then Depraved that I haven't seen Depraved yet, but he's unfortunately he doesn't get funding as much as I feel like he should.

But that's like the core, that's like the crux of his career that kind of put him on the map.

Wind it goes the first movie I saw from him, and it's like a sort of a Bigfoot style, like monster kind of movie.

Yeah.

Anyways, Yeah, but I'm super excited about this.

I know some people are like, if if there's a gripe about Vinegar Syndrome this year, it's that they're doing a lot of studio titles or releases of movies that have already been put out through someone like Shot.

Yeah, so I guess that's not helpful in their reputation.

And that's.

Yeah.

It sometimes it feels egregious.

But like if the Shout Factory set is out of print and you're gonna upgrade it, sure, you know.

That's exactly what I was gonna say.

I mean, it's the four K print Shout Factories sucks.

Like sorry if I like, I'm so pissed at them right now because you know, you know, they just bought out, so I'm gonna rant for like thirty seconds.

You know.

They just bought out that whole catalog of titles from Hong Kong, right, and they're releasing them.

The first five movies were the Jet Lee Collection, and they're like Hong Kong line, right, And it just I got it in because I was out of town for two weeks.

I just got in, opened up the package.

I was so excited I got this in and it just looks cheap.

Yeah, Like they for whatever reason, you know, like there's a like a lot of labels will have a like a stamp that they put on the spine.

It's like their signature and there it's like a their's is like an HK with a three quarters kind of loop around it and then a number underneath.

So it's like HK one, HK two, And for whatever reason, they changing the color behind the symbol on each one.

So like it just it just doesn't look good and it just and the whole set looks cheap.

They have like this kind of cheap looking gold bar at the top.

I'm just pissed at them right now.

So I'm I will say Shot Factory, I think, generally speaking, does a really good job on their transfers and does a pretty good job on their special features, but their packaging certainly looks cheap, and their artwork I don't mean to throw shade at any particular artist, but whoever is the art director there has the exact opposite tastes me because I swear everything they put out and like, that's the worst possible thing I could think of for this.

Like I was looking at that Larry Festing collection.

I'm like, literally I thought his movies were trashy because the artwork is so bad.

Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They it's like they, I don't know, it's like they have a staff artist that just puts this stuff in Microsoft paint or something, you know, quickly, we don't know, do something together.

Their steel books are like I'm actually shocked that people seek those out, but you know whatever, I just think they got to step it up in the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty five, where a nice package is sort of the main thing for a lot of people.

You know.

Yeah, you know what though, Like it's funny because I mean I keep buying their shit right well.

Because the titles are good, I know, you know, It's like and that's what really matters.

You know, but also also Arrow licensed that whole collection, I believe for Region B, so if you just wanted to wait like a year, you could get nicer versions of all of this stuff.

I am tracking the Arrow to sell out because I will Arrows the opposite.

Like, even though I think their covers a lot of times are more simple than Vinegar Syndrome, Like they don't put quite the same effort, they still look good.

Yeah, all right, and.

They use j cars, which I hate.

But anyway, we're on a tangent.

It's okay.

The yeah excited about Larry Fessenden.

I don't mind.

I don't I'm with you.

I don't mind the re release of the Shout Factory set, And I'm happy anytime something goes off of the eBay, you know, crazy resent market.

Yeah, I saw the set.

The other set is on Amazon for like one hundred and forty five dollars used, So I mean.

There's a joke there's somewhere about how VS is basically charging that for a new release, but I won't make that joke.

Well, I'm looking at the price for fifty six, so with volume two, that's going to end up what one hundred and ten so you know, thirty dollars off, you get an upgrade and a nicer package.

Exactly.

All right, that's five h nine.

It's two movies and five on nine.

And then there's a fourth movie coming out this month as part of the mainline, which is a movie called Playroom.

I saw it as Schizo, but it's a movie called Playroom, and it's by a guy named Manny Coto who has been around.

He's a very prolific TV writer and director.

He like a Star Trek writer Dexter's one more interesting show, but he's He's just somebody who's been around Hollywood forever.

Hasn't directed a lot of movies like feature film films, but this is one that he did that I've actually been meaning to see for a long time.

You know, we were talking before we recorded about watching one movie before we joined, and I was trying to find this so I could watch it because this has been on my radar for a while.

So I am actually pretty excited about this one.

Yeah, and now you get to see it in nice, cleaned up quality, yes, stand in four K.

I know it's nice that they were able to probably get the inter negative from the studio.

I'm imagining.

Yep, yep, it looks like we have somebody who was in the black Room previous VS release that I enjoyed and Happy Gilmore.

Yeah, so that's quite the filmography.

You know, you would recognize Christopher McDonald.

Do you know who that is by name?

Uh no, let me google him.

He's the guy that punches Bob Barker or Adam Sandler or whatever.

I've actually never seen Happy Gilmore.

Yes, I do recognize this person's face.

So yeah, he typically plays like the douchey villain, and the interesting thing about this performance is he's so VS actually did this twice this month, once with Playroom and then once with one of the cinematograph titles.

We'll get to in a second, but they had Patrick Warburton in a more leading role as opposed to like a straight comedy kind of role, and then this one where Christopher McDonald is.

He's either like a cheesy dad or a douchey villain, and it's interesting to see him in more of like a horror type unhinged lead role and he's supposed to kill it in this.

I'm very, very interested in finally getting a chance to watch this and Vincent Skiavelli is just a great face, Like he's just got a great act character actor face.

So anyways, Yeah, I don't have too much to say about this one.

The features are relatively light on this, but I'm imagining a lot of the effort went into restoration and actually like putting out the release.

So I don't mind because this one is fined.

I mean there's still ninety minutes of special features on here, so that's more than the feature length runtime.

That's a good perspective.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, but this and I'm excited about it, like this is when I've very much been wanting to see and I think it I don't think this has ever been even on DVD if I'm remembering right, Like, I think this is one of those VHS titles that kind of got lost.

Nice.

Well, there you go, here's your VS.

Bread and butter.

For the the people who want the classic shit.

You can order this totally.

I was actually going to say that, like, you know, I think if this is one of those months where I feel like it should satiate a lot of the old school like classic VS.

Fans, because it's like trauma and then festened in.

I guess you could argue that it's a re release, but still Trauma festened in and then Schiitzo, which is a pretty fantastic slate.

Yeah, all right, So moving on to some of the like not mainline titles, the what's it called their sub labels.

I'm a little confused.

You know.

VSU is typically the one that they put kids movies in, but this time VSA has one.

I guess it's not technically a family movie.

It's got some a little bit edgier content in it, but it's more towards a family film than a typical hard cutting like VS action movie.

But it's called Robo Warriors I have.

Yeah, I saw this movie what year to come out?

Ninety six?

Okay, so I must have seen it in high school then I remember it though.

It's it's a pretty deep cut, so I'm impressed.

It looks like it's a lot two and eighty nine views on a letterbox.

Yeah.

I think I saw this because I was living in Indonesia at the time, and this is a movie that was big in the Philippines, so it must have made it over there somewhere.

But it's like this weird mix of futuristic martial arts robots, like, it's kind of all over the place, which makes it really fun to.

Watch part of a quadrillogy.

It would seem maybe they got the rest of them, hope me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't know that.

Actually.

So you're saying this is there's four of.

These according to the letterbox.

Yeah.

PG.

Thirteen four point seven on IMDb.

So you know you got a winner there.

Yeah, exactly, that's right in the stunt spot for moving.

But yeah, I don't know, I have no idea how this is going to age.

Like the last Oh sorry, I'm just looking at the IMDb page and I was like, that's gotta make sense that you saw you said in the Philippines.

Right, well, I was in Indonesia, but it's.

Like, right now, oh, Indonesia.

It was shot in the Philippines.

Yeah, yeah, yeah this.

I think this movie is pretty big in the Philippines in that time because it was shot there and stuff.

Anyways, and it's characters that were designed by Stuart Gordon.

I'm a huge fan of Stuart Gordon.

Yeah, so, I don't know.

Thank you also wrote it.

Oh awesome, I'm intrigued.

I like this artwork.

Hold on, I'm sure he's listed as a writer because I don't know that he actually wrote the screen.

I think he's listed as a writer because he came up with the idea.

It doesn't it doesn't matter, but I think it was written.

But yeah, this is Michael Michael Berlin.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Walter Shaw does the commentary, or at least he moderates it, and he is one of the goats.

So I don't know.

I'm intrigued by this release.

I think the best thing about Walter Shaw is the points that he makes, like the way that he phrases things.

He reminds me of like a classic journalist, you know, like the like the old school journalists that were like literary first.

I take a lot of pride in my writing and my articulation, but he constructs sentences where I read them and I'm like, I should probably.

Just stop exactly, yeah, exactly, and seemingly off the top of his head like he's just seems to be a born writer.

So yep, yep, yep, yep.

I can't wait for this to see if it holds up.

If nothing else, Although I'm a little bit it's a little bit weird as a vs A release, but I think I've given up trying to to place the sub labels too much.

You got you just gotta trust the process exactly.

The VSL title for this month fit.

It seems to fit right in Speaking of like sub labels, this one just screams VSL to me.

It's like a it's a classic kind of horror film.

I think it's from the Yeah sixty six.

It's a movie that was released on TV, or at least played mostly on TV.

I don't remember if the original release was TV, but it got famous for uh for playing on TV.

And it's got a lot of classic character actors from horror in it.

I haven't seen it, but it's it's one that I would expect, like sort of expect VSL to put out like this one just kind of makes sense to me when I saw it.

Yeah, mid sixties sort of b feature with an incredible back artwork on the slip cover.

Yes, and it has maybe one of the more bizarre taglines I think I've ever seen.

It says we have reserved your coffin.

If you d D while watching, then you might ask what does d D mean?

And then has it has a thing on the bottom, But so it has the little asterisk so that I forget, well, you call that lot of legend or something and it says d D drop dead.

That's so much more complicated than it needed to be.

And yeah, this one feels like a a William Castle released, like it feels like it should be William Castle.

The William Castle of Ewell.

Yeah, exactly, super excited about this.

And I honestly don't know much about the commentary from Bill and Ashley's Terror Theater, so that may be a podcast I have to check out.

But Jonathan Rigby is an amazing historian, so I know at least that piece will be nice, will be good.

The let's see, let's do distrip picks before we get into cinematograph, so we won't cover this too much because you'll be going into more depth probably in a month or two.

But this one is a series of movies from something weird.

Cat themed, it would see, and I'm excited about this.

The Fat Black Pussy Cat.

Yep and Confessions of a Psycho Cat yep yep sounds like something that I could have written about my own cats.

I'm trying to find the connection to William Lestig in this because Bill Stick has an interview on this, which I'm super intrigued at.

M It's possible it was just released on forty second Street or something, because he's a bit of a historian, so maybe that's why they pulled him in.

Mm hmm, yeah, maybe.

Yeah.

I was reading a little bit about this, and I'm a little bit confused because it's saying that these were films that were recut later to add more salacious stuff to be to keep up with the market trends and censorship laws and stuff like that.

So I don't know if that means that there was an original cut on here that does not have that stuff that's also included, because then there's also alternate cuts, original versions and stuff.

I don't know.

I'm a little bit confused, but I imagine it will make sense when I actually start watching it, or it won't or it won't Yeah, why not?

But I want to see of these two, I'm more excited going in.

I'm more excited about Fat Black Pussycat title number one.

But also it was I guess when it came out it was a flop, so they re edited it into proto slasher movies.

The way they're describing it with nudity and several slice and dice killings.

So that's sold me on wanting to see what they did with it.

Okay, yeah, so it has both versions of that, and then I guess only the one version of Confessions of a Psycho Cat.

Yeah, okay, but both movies seem to have been transformed, so yeah, we'll have to see if they I guess you're saying they have both versions of the second one, which is good.

But yeah.

Anyways, Yeah, now on the artwork, They've got my colors, which I appreciate, but I'm actually not a super big fan of this artwork.

I wish the cat artwork was on the front.

The problem is the prison bars look like they were added in like an eighties game, the video game, like it's a cheap.

Edition that they don't even reach all the way.

I don't know, there's something we were going on.

Here, Yeah, which is unfortunate because on the back they have the Pussycat art which is great.

Yeah, you're right, the slipcover artwork is better than the slipcase like on both of them anyway.

Yep.

So I think I feel like people kind of generally are distribted picks fans or not.

Yeah, I don't know that there's too much selling that needs to happen.

But yeah, you're either into this or you're not.

I feel like this is niche even for them.

I feel like like the hardcore stuff has more of an audience than this.

They're certainly interesting.

I don't always like them, but they're they're curios for sure, if you're not outright good.

Like the Flush Trilogy is one of my favorite releases.

Yeah, that's a really good segment.

Is great.

People need to I need to link that as you mention it, because I was.

It was fun to hear you talk about this.

But that's the district BIX title.

So that leaves fourteen cinematograph titles this month.

I'm gonna go out of order.

Oh no, no, no, no, that's that's this works out well.

So the Woman Chasers First, which is now released twenty two And I'm interested in this one only because it's described as a very like pitch black comedy starring Patrick Warburton as a shady used car salesman, and it's supposed to be in the vein of like the Player from Robert Altman or Barton Fink, and both those movies are great, and so if it's anywhere close to any one of those, I probably am one of the few.

But I still think Barton Fink is the best movie from the Coen Brothers.

I actually I haven't seen it.

I've seen many of their films, but on that one.

Yeah, they just really win for it.

Like it goes like there's a scene where John Goodman is walking through hell and it's all just internal metaphor for like the pain of being a writer and trying to make it in Hollywood.

But the way they do it, I just I don't know.

I think it's the most perfect scripts I've ever read anyways, So if there's any relation at all to the player, which is great where Barton Fink I'm in And I think Patrick Warburton probably is used poorly a lot of times.

Like I think he's probably better than he's used a lot of times because he always plays like the big, dumb jock kind of guy.

He's type cast that way.

But I'd be curious to see him in a real acting role.

Yeah, I don't know anything about this movie or this director, and I've actually I'm not the way I'm about to phrase it seems like I'm opposed to it.

I've just never really watched Seinfeld, so I'm not like a Seinfeld fan.

But it is a movie about a guy making a movie, which is like crack for this community, right, and the screen wraps are really gorgeous, So I would like to at least see this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, But why do you say Seinfild because of Patrick Warburton?

I think so it says that that's where he's from.

Okay, fair enough.

I don't know if that's literally how little I know about it, Like.

I see what you're saying.

Yeah, I haven't seen Seinfeld either, so well, I've seen like a season and I didn't like it.

But I've been told you, yeah.

I didn't really like it either.

I feel like that's a real hot take.

I thought it was fine, and I am actually a pretty big sitcom person, so I don't know.

It's probably something I need to give another But.

Well, apparently once it gets to season three, it transforms into the best thing on television.

Once you put in what twelve hours, it'll get there.

Yeah yeah, yeah, what was the one?

There is one though that I have to admit.

I gave it a chance, and I'm glad I did.

Oh it's not important.

There is one though, that won me over.

So I'm a little bit more forgiving for things that take time to warm up, yeah than I was previously.

But anyways, the one that I'm most excited about.

So there every once in a while, as much as it's easy to joke about Cinematograph releasing too many movies and all the merch stuff that we'll talk about in just a second, every once in a while they put out a movie.

I'm just like, God, damn it, I want it so bad.

They did it again.

So I love Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula.

I should.

Your Blood for Jacula is like your icon on your Patreon.

I think it's wait to have a Patreon.

When you subscribe to mine.

That's what showed up.

I think, oh oh.

Oh, okay, okay, yeah, that wouldn't surprise me.

But like, I love the movies that I've seen from Andy Warhol's factory, and Paul Morrissey seems to have an amazing sense of putting surrealist humor into what would otherwise be pretty straightforward movies.

And so I have not seen Mixed Blood neither, which is Cinematograph title twenty three.

But given the fact that it's directed by Paul Morrissey and has some standard you know, Warhole Factory superstars like Geraldine Smith, who was in at least Flesher Frankenstein, if not I can't remember about Dracula.

But it also is the beginning of John Lebizamo, which is interesting.

But yeah, like, I cannot wait to see this.

The sentence that hooked me was it's a characteristically grimy descent into urban malaise that is often by moments of gallows humor.

I was like, done, yep, because that's what any anything.

I'm a sucker for New York City stuff, and like I think, uh, Paul Morrissey is actually a really great bridge for the sort of connection that we were describing earlier in terms of like he's an art guy who makes exploitation movies.

True, Yeah, that's wonderful.

That's a great point.

So if you're like needing to bridge that gap, that's probably a good place to start.

Yeah, that's a great point because like Flesh for Frankenstein, I don't know which one you like better, But I.

Still haven't seen Blood for Dracula, but I love I love Left for Frankenstein.

I thought it was great.

It's just so bizarre some of the some of the writing in it.

I'm like, holy shit it Yeah.

Yeah, anyways, I love his stuff a lot and shout out to a friend.

If you're not listening to Unsung Horruse podcast, you should.

Yes, I'm Erica second.

Yes, Erica Schultz has an essay in this which I'm very very happy to hear.

She's getting more work and she's she's the best.

Yeah, she is really like her research is on uh paralleled.

Yeah, it's it's really good and uh, I had the great because she's like, it's like a really fun thing for me when I can find a movie with a child kill in it that she hasn't found yet and I can send it to her.

And I think that my favorite instance of that was when I was sort of tricked into seeing Thunderbolts in the theater because people assured me that it was good.

Spoiler alert it wasn't.

But there's a dead kid in that movie.

And I sent it to her.

She was like, you gotta be kidding me.

I kind of watch this ship.

That's amazing, and actually, I'm just surprised that you were to find a movie she hasn't seen.

It's been a couple of times.

That's crazy, let alone a dead kid movie.

I just am surprised there a movie she hasn't seen at this point.

Yeah, mm hmm.

Yeah.

I've been pushing her to try to write a second edition of her of her book because apparently there's enough movies to make a second volume, which is crazy.

Yeah, you know, as a quick aside, I saw one of the most fucked up kid movies I've ever seen.

Okay, so you know Limberto Baba, right, sure, yea.

His very first movie that he made on the phone is called macab Have you seen this?

So the plot I just watched it last night.

The plot of this movie is a woman is I guess, She's having an affair with a guy named Fred, who becomes important to the plot.

That name becomes important to the plot, and she gets a phone call that her son was drowned, and while she's driving home in a panic to figure out what was going on, her lover gets impaled by a steel rebar and dies in the car.

Okay, And you've come to find out that the kids in this movie are like just extremely evil.

And it's a true story that was based in New Orleans.

That sounds like fun.

It was a wild time, and I would try to encourage people to watch mccop.

Did you watch via some kind of Blu ray release or just films?

Yeah, I don't know if there's a I don't know if it has a region a release, but or if it's streaming hopefully it's easy to find.

But highly highly recommend my cop because it's just it's everything that people that would be listening to a show like this would love.

It's just batch's just streaming on two b.

Uh perfect and it.

Has an eight out of ten from our friend.

Okay, that's good that she's seen.

It has two kid deaths, so it's like it's double it's two for the price of one.

Slight spoiler, okay, So that is it.

From the mainline titles and these sub labels for the month.

I don't really want to spend a ton of time talking about the merch, mostly just because I don't typically buy merch.

Yeah in general, like not even vs merch, Like I just don't go to the merch page of places much.

But yeah, there's a lot.

There are eight pieces of cinematograph merch, which feels a little excessive, But you know what if people are buying it and artists are getting paid and Justin's having a good time playing in the sandbox, like go hard, you know.

I have to say that that black Oh I just saw the back.

Darn.

I don't like the back.

But the front of that black cinematograph shirt, which is the white font, is pretty.

It is classy looking.

I'm not sure what's on the back here.

I think it's cool, honestly, but I would like to know what it is.

First.

I think it's a reference to Care's the cinema, but oh, he's kind here's the cinematograph.

That's cheesy, okay, Yeah, anyways, Uh, there's a lot of merch so if you're a fan of movie themed socks or water bottles or koosies or.

I'm a big fan of socks, but I'm not going to get these because I don't like the colors, which is unfortunate.

But I do like this sticker with the skull guy on it.

I think that's cool.

I'll probably get that.

Yeah that's pretty badass.

Yeah that is pretty badass.

But yeah, that's it.

I mean, I know that you're going to talk about some of the titles.

Do you know what month are you covering?

From the Malasi inside?

Is it like February, March?

I think it's May.

Oh you're already up to.

May because they up to June.

So I have the July titles in hand, and then I got to order the August ones, and then yeah, I think we're at May.

Well, let's spend two minutes just going through the Malousine titles from August as far as release goes, since since we're here.

So they have a water bottle that they put out, and they have outside of destrib picks, which we've already spoken about, they have two right, Babylon Pink and then the triple Feature.

Yep.

I don't know anything about these, but let's see.

I guess the first one is Nazi shit because I see that going on, which is interesting.

The Babylonland, Prisoner of Paradise.

Oh you're there, okay, Prisoner of Paradise.

Oh yeah, yeah, there's a swastika.

Oh quick, quick, tingent.

So maybe you already knew this, but I didn't realize that the swastika was a very important symbol in Buddhism.

Yeah, and maybe I feel like I should have known that, but it is all over Bali.

I was just in Bali, which is a.

Boot yeah, and I was like, what the fucking Yeah.

I think the first time I saw that, I was in like seventh grade in a museum and they had a big thing, a big tapestry with a giant Swaska and me and like the whole class were like whoa.

The guy was like no, no, no, no no.

So yeah, they're different, they're oriented differently.

But yeah, anyways, so Prisoner of Paradise is okay.

Yep.

It looks like these are all directed by Bob Chin, which is interesting because the one that I'm about to review is also a Bob Chin triple feature, the Hot and Saucy Pizza Girls release, So he does a good stuff.

So I'm looking forward to this.

Okay, and Hot and Saucy Pizza Girls is funny, right, it's a.

It's really good.

It's a fun one, okay.

All right.

Well, oh and then Babylon Pink is Cecil Howard.

Cecil Howard and Ron Sullivan.

So that's then we got Vanessa del Rio and Samantha Fox Andrew Gina Spelvin, so we got a lot of Golden Age royalty all over this thing.

So this three time award winning masterpiece at Last comes to Blu Ray, Holy cow, a lot.

Of features on here.

That's a lot.

Oh and ROBERTA.

Finley shot it.

Hell yeah, oh look good?

Yeah exactly.

I'm a little bit confused on one thing, like, based on the description, this feels like it should be one of the beautiful Mali scene boxes, Like have you figured out what goes on?

No?

I haven't, But I think that Command Cinema, Yes, Command Senna is Cecil Howard's label specifically.

So that's why.

Okay, so I think that's just going to be all his stuff and stuff that he produced.

I mean, maybe they could have worked an agreement to get that the big chunky edition, but I don't know.

No, I mean maybe it seems like it's going to be a wonderful release of it.

Anyways, it's not really that big of a deal.

But yeah, okay, cool.

Well yeah, so let's thank you so much for making time to come on.

And did you want to do partner labels real quick?

Oh shit, we don't have to go through all of them, but I did watch two of them, and then there's some other ones that look pretty interesting.

I would like to Okay, I'll take a pause and I will not do that, So okay, So the only thing left to do would be to talk about some of the partner label stuff for the month.

Let's see, they have five, ten, fifteen, thanks, hundred six hundred.

Yeah, it looks like eighteen this month or seventeen or eighteen, which is a step down for them.

Yeah, slackering.

But which ones jump out for you?

There's a few that I'll talk about, But are there any here that I'm about for you?

Aside from the ones that I watched, which I'll say for the end.

I think we had three where the slipcover sold out, So that would be the Fright Night documentary, which makes sense as people love that shit, the Canalog release, which is really interesting.

I don't know why this one took off, but it did.

And then the Connie release frees Me, which is actually the one I wanted to watch the most but I couldn't find it anywhere.

So you know, the school do some stuff is selling out.

Yeah, it's cool that Connie has two releases this month.

Big fan of that.

I think the one other than that that intrigues me the most.

Well, there's two Becare's Winter Kept Us Warm, which I think was described as the first queer film to be screened at CAN.

Yes, the first LGBT film ever to screen at the Can Film Festival.

So that's really cool.

And then this Saturn's Core release.

I don't even know how you pronounced this, but it'll look it's insane and the features are equally insane.

I'm really intrigued by that.

Yeah, you covered the ones that I was going to cover.

The only thing is there's so there's a film about aging.

I think this is a Chinese movie.

Korean excuse me, there's a film about aging Korean couples or an aging Korean couple called My Love Don't Cross That River, which, interestingly enough, I remember hearing about this when it came out.

It is the most successful or one of the most successful Korean box office movies of all time in Korean.

Interesting, okay, And yeah it looks real fucking sad.

Yeah that's a problem.

It's short, but yeah, I think it's sweet as well, Like I don't think it's I'm sure it has a lot of but I think it's sweet and kind of funny as well.

I really like this slipcover.

Slip cover is beautiful.

I think that that screams Elizabeth you yeah, yeah, so I love her art.

Did I know?

Surely you know this by now, but you know that Ryan has that design that he puts out and I have that arrow video like segment in there, and it has Michael Kaji on it.

She designed that art for that section.

Nice.

I reached out to her because I love her art so much.

Hell yeah.

So anyways, but I feel like Korea has been They're well beyond proving that the filmmakers there can tell some amazing stories.

And the fact that this is the most successful film of all time in Korea, it makes me very interested in seeing it.

Yeah.

And then the other one that I probably won't buy right away, but I'm interested in seeing because I've heard about this before is Pell the Conqueror.

This is an older one.

It has Max fun see how when he's already aging a bit.

But it's I think it's a pretty sad like brutal story, like a what's that one that Italian movie Life is beautiful?

Right?

I think it has like those type of vibes a little bit, although not as funny like it's more of a drama.

So Yeah, we've got a story about impoverished immigrants and it's one hundred and fifty minutes long, so that should be a rip roaring good time.

Yeah, in the current year.

Yeah exactly.

I think it's a try before you buy for me, but I do want to see it.

I mean, at one hundred and fifty minutes, you might as well.

If you're going to be spending time, you might as well make a good quality right, well, I mean, when are you gonna watch that again?

You know?

Yeah exactly.

And then I am a fan of whatever vh H fest puts out.

I just I love their curation.

So I have not seen any of their movies ever, but I do want to call out permanent damage, which.

Is you haven't watched any of them yet?

No, no, no, sorry.

What I mean is I've never seen them before.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's kind of their thing.

Yeah, they find they really dig deep, Yes exactly.

The Cornshucker is my favorite that I put out.

I fucking love that movie.

Unbelievable.

If that was somebody showed that to me and said it was an early David Lynch, I would completely believe them.

Yeah, it's wonderful.

So you've seen some of these, though, do you want to.

Talk about Yeah, I wanted to come a little bit prepared and not just kind of riff.

I did watch a couple of these.

I saw.

The first one I saw was I watched both of the IFC films releases, so I watched Breaking the Girls.

I wanted to watch this one, one because it was easily accessible to me, but two because it's directed by Jamie Babbott, who directed But I'm a Cheerleader, a certified queer classic and one of my personal favorites.

Okay, it's also written by the screenwriter for American Psycho.

So I'm like, this has to be at least interesting, right, It's fine.

It's not good.

The obvious straight up, it's not good.

It's not terrible.

Like people really don't like this movie.

And I was excited to come on here and be like, Nope, they're all wrong.

This is a banger.

But it's not that good.

It's like if Strangers on a Train.

It was a Lifetime movie about lesbians.

So there's your elevator pitch.

I guess if that sounds at all intriguing to you, it's probably worth a watch.

Oh and then like mixed, it's it's also like an erotic thriller.

So you know, let's say Strangers on a Train meets Wild Things as a lifetime movie, and that's what you get.

Okay, okay, it's similar to Wild Things and that the script isn't very good and there's like way too many twists and it's like just too much.

Yeah, it's it.

It looks kind of hideous, Like the aesthetic is not good.

It's very like early two thousands TV movie.

Like when I was watching it, I was like, what year is this?

Is this like ninety seven, maybe like two thousand and three, it's twenty twelve, which is insane.

It's insane.

It's that you know recent I don't know.

It's real trashy, like if that's what you're in the mood for.

If you're like I don't know, on a Gossip Girl binge and you're like I need more trash, like, you know what, this would be a good one.

So and there's a commentary with the director, I'd certainly be interested in hearing it.

But yeah, this is a curiosity for sure.

I don't love this slipcover.

I think the stand under art is probably better.

But that's my quick review on that not great, but it is a thing that exists, and I'm kind of glad that it does.

And the other one I watched is Young and Beautiful, which similarly has a confusing slipcovers to me, but I thought this was great.

Oh it's the same slipcover designer.

Hopefully she doesn't take my comments personally.

I actually like this one.

I just don't see how it connects with the film.

But this is about a It's a French movie, and it's like definitely a capital F French movie.

It's about a seventeen year old girl who becomes a full service sex worker and is kind of like living with her family and like hiding that and kind of I don't think I want to describe more than that, because I think the inciting incident as a happens pretty far into the movie.

But I actually do think that this is a really kind of non judgmental and interesting and very compassionate and well made, well written, well shot, well acted film about adolescent girls, and like the what it would be like, it does explore this concept in a way that I think is honest, but without like the characters in the film are judging her for it.

But I don't think the filmmaker is judging her for it.

It's interesting to see.

Well, maybe that's spoiler territories, so maybe I won't say anything about that.

But I like the interpersonal dynamics that this character has with her clients and with her family members, with her friends.

I just think it's really compelling and well put together, and I'll probably end up picking this up at some point.

There's a commentary from Alexandra Hillary Nicholas which I would love to hear her break this down one of the ghots.

Yep, absolutely, So that's an easy recommend for me.

You know, Actually you've sold me on getting this because I didn't realize that France Wilson directed this.

Have you seen some po No, I haven't.

I would highly highly recommend It's it.

I didn't realize France wils On had a thing for like slightly underage girls, So that's troubling.

You know what, Maybe we'll just leave that alone and not look too much into that one.

It's It's it's something's in the water in France.

I don't know what to tell you.

You like it, but but swimming Pool is probably one of the best.

Like Hitchcock's style, movies that was not even by Hitchcock.

It's just a tremendous thriller.

Yeah, and very well acted and beautifully shot.

Yeah, so he's a he's a very good filmmaker.

Actually, yeah, maybe he has a daughter and so he's just he's just using these films as exercises and empathy and he's not a weird creep.

I'm just gonna hope that that's what's happening.

We'll go with that.

Yeah, I don't know like the film itself, Like the one, at least the one that I watched, it didn't feel creepy or prurience really at all.

I mean it is, you know, there are it is a lot of sex in it, and it is pretty frank about the amount of nudity and stuff, But I don't think it is particularly titillating or erotic per se.

I think it's shot very neutrally.

I think that's a good summation of swimming pool as well.

Like it never looked, it never feels like he's lusting after this teenage girl just for the sake of it.

I don't know.

Dangerous territory, but.

The friends are not beating the allegations I'll just.

About they're embracing them.

Oh but yeah, cool, I'll pick this one up as well.

Actually I didn't realize he was directing it.

Although once you look at this the standard cover, it's all over if his name is all over it.

But well, c Leste, I think that is a wrap.

Thank you so much for joining this and here's to another good year.

Yeah.

Absolutely, thank you for having me both today and in general on this program, this radio program.

I appreciate it.

Of course.

Well, yeah, I guess I'll can't wait to hear what you say in fifteen Minutes with You, and yeah, talk.

Soon, talk soon.

Okay everyone, Hello, welcome back to Fifteen Minutes with You.

This is the segment where I review all of the new titles on the Maluscene site.

So we have three titles to go over today.

We're going to be going over the May titles.

They didn't put anything out for June, and I have the July titles, so I'll be doing that hopefully by the next episode, so then we'll be current.

Finally.

That'll be nice.

Okay, let's just kind of let me start with my hot take first.

So the first one is Naica came the stranger.

This is the E mail you scene proper title.

So the Maliu scene line itself has been a hit rate of about one hundred percent for me so far, and I kind of thought I would just collect the whole line, but this is their first miss for me, unfortunately, and I'll probably be selling this, so I guess I won't feel any pressure to keep a complete line if I'm getting rid of this one, right, So, I think that the backstory behind this is actually way more interesting than the movie itself.

It's essentially based off of and by the way, I'm getting most of this information, all of it actually from the audio commentary and the essay, both done by Ashley West.

We also report consistently my north Star in terms of information on this sort of thing.

But essentially this was based off of a book that was written at the height of like sort of pornographic novels being sort of popularized and taken seriously and what have you.

And there was an author who was like fucking not about it.

It was just like this shit sucks, I hate all of it.

It's time to expose you people for liking trash.

And he basically commissioned like fifteen of his favorite contemporary writers to produce a chapter based on like one shared premise, and he wanted it to be as bad as possible, and then he wanted to release it under a female pseudonym, and then I guess the idea would be that people would say it's good, and then he could be like, haha, Goshi dish.

That's what happened.

It was really popular and people liked it, and then you know, he was like, got you.

I was right, But then it didn't really I guess have the intended effect because there were many copycat novels, and Naked Came the Blank became a sort of formula for a winning dirty book, right or a popular dirty book.

And the guy even wrote a book about his experience doing this, so you know, it was a hoax where I guess everybody got to profit and coast off of this, right, And then of course the film adaptation was inevitable.

It's apparently not super close to the book, but yeah, I don't know.

It's a pretty standard premise where this woman finds out that her husband is cheating and so she goes on a shooting spree of her own.

That's kind of it.

Yeah, I watched this with a friend of mine.

We've watched these types of movies before, and I was like, ooh, I'm excited about this one edition to be a really good one.

This is Radley Metzker's is a Melu scene release.

Like all signs are porting to this one being a fucking banger, right, Have you watched it?

And I just I just didn't like it.

I didn't think it was very good.

I just got to be honest about that, Like, I think it's interesting.

I think it does interesting.

I think it takes big swings.

There's two scenes of particular that are noteworthy.

I think there's one where a London style double decker bus is driving around Manhattan and there's like a sex scene on the top floor level of that bus and they you know, they really shot that driving around to the ship, so that's a cool scene.

And then there's one where there's a whole section that is shot like a silent film, complete with title cards and everything else.

So but I don't know, I just I gotta be honest to the I think the script is bad like that.

Actually, the cinematography and everything is fine, but I just found it to be kind of grading.

To be honest, there's this one character in particular that calls herself little Love Buddy and calls her lover Big Love Bunny, and they do it constantly, and it really gotten out my nerves.

Like halfway through the first and there's like three scenes of them doing this.

Yeah, it's rough.

I don't really remember what else bothered me about it, to be honest, but what else about it bothered me?

But like, I don't know, I just didn't get anything out of it.

I just didn't think it was very good.

And I've liked all of Radley Mesko's other films that I've seen so far, so it was really disappointing.

But this is not where I would recommend anyone start with this genre or this label or this director.

But I've heard nothing but good things about it from other people.

So I really am just on an island with this one.

And I'm not really sure what the disconnect is, but in any case, it is what.

It is.

Not my favorite, but what can you do?

The release itself is good, you know, as it usually is.

The booklet in particular is excellent, so I don't imagine, let me double check.

I mean, it's a liner note booklet, so you actually might get it with the with the standard edition, and so wow, okay, actually, you know what, the Stereoid edition is only five dollars cheaper.

I thought it'd be more than that with the amount of packaging.

That's all this thing.

I gotta say.

As good as the meal using packaging is in terms of its aesthetic, it's not particularly functional.

You have to get through like four layers to get to the actual disc.

But yeah, they're cool looking.

So I don't know, I guess let me know if anybody has a standard edition if it comes with the booklet, because that's really the reason to have this.

In my opinion, it's really just excellent.

Speaking of great booklets, next is a quality X release.

This is a Girl's Best Friend.

So this one actually has really beautiful slip cover artwork and I was just like looking at it before I watched it, and I was like, you know, I like, even if I don't really love this, I'm gonna keep this because this artwork is so good.

But I don't know, honestly, I watched it.

And here's another one that I just didn't super get into, Like I liked this one better, but I don't know, I just thought it was kind of born.

I didn't think there was much going on with it, and really the best thing about it is how it looks.

Also, it's highly incestuous, so there's that too.

That could either be a positive or negative depending on who you ask, But it is noteworthy.

But it looks gorgious, I'll say that.

Like it's shot in this really soft focus sort of lighting and colored raide and the cinematography it really is like highly professional and really beautiful.

The story is just kind of about a jewel heist sorted deal, but it's kind of hard to follow in my opinion, and like the sex scenes are kind of sloppily insertive, no pun intended, I don't know.

I didn't find the narrative to be very compelling or easy to follow.

And oh there's also God, I guess these releases are just doing things sexually that I find repulsive, So that actually does effect to my enjoinmas of the films.

Right, there's a scene where the guy is really into food and so they're like eating while they're having it's so gross to me, Like I think that I find it's so repulsive and it just it was really it went on for a while, and uh, they were.

Really utilizing it.

You know, they weren't like kind of Ooh, I'm really into food.

Let me put some whipped cream on your nipples, or like you know, let me let's do this like with food around or like you know, I'll just like eat and then we'll have sex.

It's like, no, no, this dude's fucking eating like in between, like he's he's like eating pussy and then he's eating food and then he's like making it.

It's just it's so gross to me.

But that's a personal thing.

I will say.

The audiocoms haary is fine.

I think you can probably skip it and instead just read the booklet because a lot of the audiocomms heary is repeated information from the booklet.

I mean, you know, the commentary is good too, and if you're really into this movie, you'll probably want to do both.

But Glynn Kenny is who does the audio commentary and the booklet, and he worked as a f paight on this film actually and what else.

Uh, Yeah, he's like a respected film critic.

He works for like the New York Times and shit, he said, I was in a Wikipedia article and he was doing this back in the day, which is pretty cool.

I think.

It's really good.

It's really well written, it's really funny, and it's insightful.

So I don't know, I don't not recommend this.

It just didn't do a ton for me.

And I'm probably gonna get.

Uh pass us on along as well, But I don't know.

I am looking at this artwork and it really is gorgeous.

It's just very classy looking, and it is kind of a classy affair, you know, as far as these things go.

Okay, And the last one is the Pikarava triple feature.

These are three features from director Bob Chin.

We've got Hot and Sauce and Pizza Girls, Hot Legs, and California Jigelow.

Let's start with the a feature and the clear winner here, Hot and Saucy Pizza Girls is a banger.

Essentially, this is a film about a pizza restaurant where the toppings that you order correlate to the sex acts that you want, and then the delivery girl shows up and you know, delivers your order essentially, right.

You can also order a sausage pizza and then you know one of the male staff will show ups.

That's fun, It's really fun.

It's it's very like narrative heavy, and like it does a good job in being funny and interesting and just a good time.

I think that this is a fun one to watch with friends, if you have friends that are cool like that.

I did watch this with a friend of mine and we had a lot of fun with it.

And actually at the end they I told them about the shirt that they printed this and they're like, kind of love that shirt.

So it might be passing along shirt at some point here.

But yeah, this one's a blast.

I really enjoy it.

It's also kind of just insane.

There is a character entitled the Chicken Rapist, and that's really all I'm going to say about that.

If that is enough to be like, Okay, I'm out with this, that's fair.

It is, in fact what it sounds like, Well, maybe I shouldn't say that.

He doesn't rape chickens.

Okay, it's a guy who's dressed like a chicken who is raping people and it is like played for laughs, So like, you know, that's not super great and that could be particularly upsetic for some people.

So I guess there's your tuder warning.

And like if that doesn't sound.

That sounds a bit tasteless to you then, you know, fair enough.

But I enjoyed this a lot, so I'm honestly surprised that this didn't get like a full treatment, like a full Malu scene release or like a like a four K Piterama thing.

But no, it's just it's tucked in a triple feature.

So it is what it is, Okay, hot lights.

This is pretty light on actual plot, but it's essentially about a uh business that is creating this like new type of like lingerie, like tights that you can kind of wear out in public, such that you could hike up your skirt and it would be fine.

I guess it's the idea.

You know, we're showing off the legs.

I guess it is the idea there.

And so it's just kind of like I guess, following along with the staff of this agency or whatever.

I said, Like there's not a lot going on plot wise, but man.

This one looks the best out of all of them.

Like the cinematography of this is stunning, like the uh lighting and the sets, the colors, it's just beautiful, and it's just like so it's just so fun to watch, even if nothing's really happening, you know.

So that's really all I have to say about that, Like, I just think it's great and it just it's a very easy watch.

It's I don't know a lot of craft going on here that I really appreciate.

And then the final one is California Jigelow.

I believe all of these, maybe not the second one.

I wasn't gonna say they all star John Holmes, but I think Hot Legs might not.

Okay, California Jiggelow, It's what it sounds like.

It's about a guy who is a jigglow and just goes to his various appointments.

There's some fun scenarios that play out here.

He's like a window cleaner at one point.

And you know, this is the one that I maybe likes the least out of the three of them, but it is still a fun watch.

And I think this might be the strongest triple feature of the Pikarama wads that I've watched so far.

So I really enjoyed this.

I think you should give it a go.

This is probably a pretty good starter pack for this sort of thing if you're looking for an entry way, as it were, I think it's worth it just for the first one.

Honestly, and you get three movies on this as usual.

There's no special features, but that's okay.

Again, I am a little surprised that Pizza Girls didn't get its own release with special features and everything.

But pick out a shirt so you know it's clearly love for this title.

Yeah, quick, antecdart.

This is my second time technically seeing this movie.

The first time I watched it was with somebody I was seeing at the time, and we started having sex like fifteen minutes into it, and so I was just kind of it was just kind of on and I was kind of taking it in very not focus, and for what I could see, I was like, that doesn't sailing much happens in this movie.

This is like kind of not that good.

So glad I was wrong watching it.

It actually is pretty plot heavy and a good time all around.

So okay, I'm looking at my timer and before editing, I've hit my fifteen minute mark.

So I'll just have to bid you all ado and see you on the next one.

On fifteen minutes with you.

That sounded really cheesy because it rhymed, but cheesy like pizza Okay, that's it, I'm done, thanks, so I'll see the next time.

Thank you for listening.

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