There are only a handful of directors whose films feel like events. From the 90's class of directors, there's Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson. The latter Anderson's films have only grown in popularity and mainstream appeal. For better or worse, along with Tarantino, Wes Anderson has a built a brand around his name. In 2004,…

Danny Boyle and Leonardo DiCaprio head to Thailand to drink snake blood and cuck French guys in "The Beach." In 1996, Danny Boyle was riding the success of "Trainspotting" and American studios were lining up to give him a shot at the big leagues. In 1999, Boyle teamed with Fox and Leonardo DiCaprio for his first big post "Titanic" role to bring Ale…

James Gray has quietly made a name for himself as one of the most underrated modern filmmakers of the 21st century. From his 2000 breakout "The Yards" to last years "Armageddon Time," Gray's films have often been festival and critical darlings, but rarely had crossover appeal. After a 7 year hiatus, Gray reunited with Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlb…

Spike Lee tackles disco and serial killers in his 1999 flop “Summer of Sam.” 1999 was a landmark year for cinema with directors like Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Michael Mann and Martin Scorsese releasing new films. Often forgotten is Spike Lee’s kaleidoscopic vision of the Son of Sam’s 1977 summer…

In the mid-90s, Tim Burton and Steven Spielberg were two of the most beloved directors in Hollywood. Spielberg was coming off his first Oscar for "Schindler's List" while Burton was riding the hot streak of Batman movies, "Edward Scissorhands," "Beetlejuice" and the Oscar-winning "Ed Wood." Burton's luck ran out with his first critical and financia…

We're back in action with a pair of political thrillers starring heavyweight stars of the 90's! That's right, there was a time when Hollywood produced big budget thrillers for adults starring bonafide movie stars! First up, it's Alan J. Pakula's return to the paranoia thriller with 1993's "The Pelican Brief," starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washi…

Buckle your fucking seatbelts because it's time to go ballistic as Auteur Misfires enters the 90's. Kicking things off, it's Clint Eastwood's return to the podcast with one of his forgotten cop thrillers, "The Rookie" starring Eastwood, Charlie Sheen and Raul Julia. After that, we're headed into the Wooniverse with John Woo's second American featur…

We're kicking off month 3 of Auteur Misfires with a pair of 1986 coke-noirs from two of the most iconic directors of the 20th century. First up, it's Hal Ashby's unlikely swan song, "8 Million Ways to Die" starring Jeff Bridges, Rosanna Arquette and a ponytailed Andy Garcia in Scarface mode. After that, it's John Frankenheimer's adaptation of Elmor…

Just in time for the 4th of July, it's Alex Cox's radical, career-killing satire, "Walker." It's hard to imagine a more radical film being made in the studio system than Alex Cox's "Walker." Shot on location in Nicaragua with a predominately Nicaraguan crew, "Walker" was Cox's scathing satire on William Walker, the man who colonized and attempted t…

Ever listen to Simon & Garfunkel and wonder what Art Garfunkel's balls look like? Curious what an Austrian/Brooklyn accent would sound like? Then we have the perfect double feature for you. Like so many other directors in the first part of this series, Nicolas Roeg had an incredible run of films in the 1970's. From the critically acclaimed "Don't L…

It's rare that both the original and remake of a film are critically maligned, but that's exactly what happened to Lina Wertmüller's 1974 class satire "Swept Away." Wertmüller's 70's run with muse Giancarlo Giannini culminated in her becoming the first woman ever nominated for directing at the Academy Awards in 1977, but "Swept Away" was a rare cri…

On this week's double feature, we're taking on a pair of 1960's psychosexual thrillers featuring Elizabeth Taylor in the prime of her career. First up, it's the aforementioned "Reflections of a Golden Eye" featuring a pre-Godfather Marlo Brando as a repressed army captain who's being publicly cucked by his horny wife (Taylor) as he quietly longs fo…

In 1999, Time Magazine compiled a list of The 100 Worst Ideas of the 20th Century. "Ishtar" was on the list. So was Michael Cimino's career-derailing, studio-bankrupting "Heaven's Gate." Both films became synonymous with financial disasters. While Cimino continued to work, albeit not on the same scale as his previous features, Elaine May never dire…

Twenty-five years after Peter Bogdanovich's self-distributed critical failure "They All Laughed" was quietly released in a handful of theaters, Quentin Tarantino declared it one of his top ten favorite films of all time. Soon after, fellow 90's auteurs like Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach reclaimed it as one of Bogdanovich's very best. Today, it's b…

The Godfather. The Godfather Part II. The Conversation. Apocalypse Now. It's hard to think of a director with a better consecutive run than Francis Ford Coppola in the 70's. The winner of five Academy Awards and nominee of 7 more during the decade, Coppola was quickly being hailed as the greatest American filmmaker of his generation. Sure, the "Apo…

In 1976, Martin Scorsese could make what ever movie he wanted to. Riding the success of "Taxi Driver" and the four Oscar nominations it brought in the following year, Scorsese was given his first real blank check. In an effort to showcase his range before getting pigeonholed as the guy who makes gritty New York crime movies, Scorsese cashed in his …

The male and female gaze clash in this week's Gaslight/Gatekeep/Girlboss double feature as we look back on two critically trashed stories of female empowerment and revenge. Illustrator Ella Talkin returns to the podcast to break down the opposing visions of Annette Haywood-Carter's 1996 adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates's "Foxfire" and Zack Snyder's …

It's Rotten history on the podcast today as we go all the way back to 1969 and 1971 for the two oldest films ever covered on the podcast. Generally it's hard to find many Rotten films made before 1980, so we're lucky we were able to find the perfect pair of gaslighting thrillers from the New Hollywood era. First up, it's Robert Altman's sophomore f…

For our Gaslight/Gatekeep/Girlboss finale, we're paying tribute to our Rotten Queen Sandra Bullock and two of her most unhinged romantic comedies. First up it's the 90's sleepover cult favorite "Practical Magic" directed by Griffin Dunne (yes, that Griffin Dunnen), featuring Bullock and Nicole Kidman in purple shades as a pair of witchy sisters who…

Do you remember when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt spent their honeymoon making a movie about the disintegration of a married couple on the island of Malta? According to the movies box office and 35% score on Rotten Tomatoes, you probably don't. But in 2015, the couple formerly known as Brangelina quietly released the slow burn marital drama "By the…

"No more wire hangers!" "Tina! Bring me the ax." "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at the dirt." "She doesn't need an ambulance... She's drunk." Can a movie this quotable be that bad? In 1981, yes. Maybe. We're still not sure honestly. What we do know is that our deep dive on Frank Perry's infamous "Mommie Dearest" left us with a new appreciation for th…

Spike Lee is back on the podcast after a three year absence following our very first episode ever on his controversial satire "Bamboozled." Lee was riding a near-unanimous wave of critical praise in the early 90's following his mainstream breakthrough, "Do the Right Thing." But in 1996, Lee had his first real flop with the Suzan-Lori Parks penned c…

It’s a sleazy, neon/cum drenched double feature today on the podcast as we dive into a pair of darkly comedic thrillers set in two very different LA worlds. First up, it’s Ken Russell’s 1984 X-rated tale of sexual repression and desire in “Crimes of Passion,” starring Kathleen Turner as a fashion designer moonlighting as a sex worker by night and A…

Before the "Saw" franchise staked their claim to the Halloween release slot, Dark Castle was delivering its annual nu-metal take on classic horror movies. Ah yes, that blissful period in between the 90's slasher wave and the post-9/11 torture porn/J-horror remake craze. During that brief window, we got movies like "House on Haunted Hill" and "Ghost…

This week, we're reminding you that Jennifer Lawrence once starred in a failed franchise starter called "Red Sparrow" in which she plays an impoverished ballerina who is recruited to become a spy for the Russian government. But before that, we're taking you all back to the halcyon days of 1997 for one of Ridley Scott's rare box office misfires, "G.…

Comedian and co-host of The Toni Awards, Samantha Prosser, joins us to unpack the discourse surrounding Andrew Dominik's polarizing adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' "Blonde." Starring Ana De Armas in an Oscar-nominated performance as Marilyn Monroe, "Blonde" has been stirring up controversy ever since its first trailer dropped last year featuring D…

2022 was a banner year for unexpected critical misfires. Critical darlings like David O'Russell, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sam Mendes, Noah Baumbach, and Darren Aronofsky saw their latest films either crash and burn on arrival or quickly disappear after a tepid response. It's hard to say which outcome is worse! But the movie that's endured the m…

On-set drama. Recasting. Divorce. COVID shutdowns. Bad accents. Spitgate. How do they shit??? These are just some of the many controversies that befell Olivia Wilde’s sophomore feature “Don’t Worry Darling.” Podcast regular Johnny Langan makes his triumphant return to the show to unpack the slew of DWD controversies and neverending plot holes. Is i…

In the mid-aughts, Tony Scott was written off by most film critics as a studio showman who valued style over substance. Ten years after his untimely death, Scott's legacy has been reclaimed by new generations of fans and critics as one of the most visionary filmmakers of his time. The 2000s were a transitional period for Scott as he evolved his tra…

Is there a more versatile, prolific American director working today than Steven Soderbergh? In 1989, Soderbergh became the youngest American director to ever screen a film in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and changed independent film forever with his provocative debut "sex, lies and videotape." Since then, Soderbergh has directed over 35 …

Art-House and Grindhouse join forces for part three of our Vulgar Vibes miniseries. Cinematographer Matthew Hayes joins the podcast this week to chop it up about a pair of ultra-violent meditations on masculinity and free will. First up, it's VOD maverick John Hyams's surrealist fourth entry in the Universal Soldier franchise with "Universal Soldie…

Filmmaker and musician William Breen returns to the podcast to unpack the hot mess that is Baz Luhrmann's maximalist take on "The Great Gatsby." Headlined by Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular Gatsby, Luhrmann's adaptation divided critics at its Cannes premiere 10 years ago, but went on to clean up at the box office and build a small but vocal cult f…

In 1994, Quentin Tarantino was on top of the film world. He had just won Cannes with "Pulp Fiction." He was riding the cult success of "Reservoir Dogs" and the Tony Scott-directed "True Romance." At the same time, Oscar-winning provocateur Oliver Stone desperately needed a hit after the box office failure of "Heaven and Earth." Months before "Pulp …

What makes a foundational movie experience? For critic and podcast regular Logan Kenny, it was seeing Joseph Kosinski's meditative tech opera "TRON: Legacy" in IMAX 3D when he was 9 years old. Logan returns to us for an episode discussing two Vulgar Maximalist cult classics that polarized anti-digital critics at the time of their releases over 10 y…

Vulgar Vibes continues this week with two cyberpunk thrillers from two world-renowned auteurs. First up, it's Abel Ferrara's feverish adaptation of William Gibson's "New Rose Hotel." Starring Willem Dafoe, Christopher Walken and Asia Argento, Ferrara's take on the short story was heavier on vibes than plot, centering much of the action around a pro…

In 2003, Vincent Gallo brought his second feature "The Brown Bunny" to the Cannes Film Festival. The rest is history. The so-called controversy surrounding Gallo's film became bigger than the film itself. It was called indulgent. Embarrassingly sincere. Most famously, in the words of Roger Ebert, it was "the worst film in the history of the Cannes …

Hell is what you make it. Or maybe it's just an alternate reality created by a prolific Lovecraftian author. For our penultimate installment in the Vulgar Horror series, we're taking listeners back to the mid-90's for a pair of unhinged bangers starring Sam Neill. First up, it's John Carpenter's meta take on a Stephen King-esque horror writer with …

Director Robert Zemeckis could have never predicted that his 1992 box office disappointment "Death Becomes Her" would endure 30 years later as an essential entry in the queer cult classic canon. Pitting Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn against one another as frenemies in a quest for eternal youth and casting Bruce Willis as the hapless alcoholic they'r…

We're kicking off our 3rd Annual Rotten Horrors™ with two podcast favorites! Writer and one of our in-house Queer Cinema commentators Kaycee Felton-Lui joins us for a look back at Tony Scott's feature debut "The Hunger," starring David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon. At the time of its release in 1983, Scott's debut was panned and writ…

When Sony gave Paul Verhoeven $100 million to adapt H.G. Wells' "The Invisible Man," they might not have been expecting a nihilistic, hard-R slasher, but that's what they got! Kevin Bacon underwent a notoriously grueling shoot with groundbreaking VFX to give what is still the most bleakly realistic depiction of the source material to date. Many dir…

Our five week descent into the grotesque madness of Vulgar Horror comes to an end today on the podcast. For our special Halloween send-off, we're finally diving into the 100% rotten career of musician, filmmaker and certified Wife Guy, Rob Zombie. Over the last 20 years, Zombie has amassed one of the most singular horror filmographies in the canon.…

When looking at the canon of "Vulgar Auteurism," you'll notice that most of the directors mentioned are... surprise... men! Specifically, white men. But because the very concept of "Vulgar Auteurism" is so loose and open to interpretation, we decided to dedicate the next month to female filmmakers that have, at one point or another, directed a crit…

For our second installment in the Vulgar Female Gaze miniseries, we're interrogating the often polarizing sub-genre of women doing crime. Writer Jaime Bolker joins us for a look back at two ripped from the headlines comedies: the 2001 cheerleaders turned bank robbers comedy "Sugar & Spice" and Sofia Coppola's pivot into the true crime genre with 20…

TW: This episode contains discussion of rape and sexual assault. Some filmmakers court controversy wherever they go, but few have been as polarizing as Catherine Breillat and Lena Dunham. For our third installment in the Rotten Female Gaze miniseries, we'll be dissecting two films from Breillat and Dunham that offered an uncompromising and often un…

For our final Vulgar Female Gaze installment, we're looking back at a pair of underseen 90s dark comedies. First up, it's photographer Cindy Sherman's first and only foray into directing with the 1997 horror comedy "Office Killer" starring Carol Kane, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Molly Ringwald. After that, we're switching gears for the late, great Adrie…

The American Western experienced a resurgence in the 90s after the critical and financial success of "Dances with Wolves" and "Unforgiven." At that time, Sam Raimi was more known for his groundbreaking work in horror, making him an unlikely choice to spearhead a Western revisionist action film with genre heavyweight Gene Hackman. But that was the o…

"For those that understand they're living the last days of the world, death acquires a different meaning. The extinction of all reality is a concept no resignation can encompass." This week's guest, Michael Aghajanian, has described Ridley Scott's 2013 bomb "The Counselor" as a "flagship Rotten Rewind movie." This is, after all, a movie that opens …

⁠SUBSCRIBE NOW⁠ for early access and exclusive bonus episodes at WWW.PATREON.COM/ROTTENREWIND Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke made six films together over the course of a decade. They also had a tumultuous romantic partnership that culminated in a 19 month trial where Locke developed breast cancer. Locke, an Academy Award nominated actress, turned …

Vulgar Neo-Noir continues this week with one of the most controversial and divisive films - and filmmakers - of their time. 1980s Hollywood was steeped in Orientalism, predominately seen in action films like "Flash Gordon" and "Big Trouble in Little China" and futuristic sci-fi landscapes like the iconic imagery of "Blade Runner." We're riding solo…

"You don't have to lick my ass. Just fuck me." It's hard to think of a better quote in the canon of genre master Brian De Palma. Today on the show, we finally get the opportunity to dive into one of our favorite directors' filmography by discussing two of De Palma's most divisive critical failures: the 1998 Nicolas Cage conspiracy thriller "Snake E…