Episodes
Thursday Jul 16, 2020
IDMB Episode 196 - Black Christmas (1974)
Thursday Jul 16, 2020
Thursday Jul 16, 2020
Black Christmas has earned its reputation as a seminal horror film, with Bob Clark's directorial choices and effective subversion of the Christmas holiday season establishing its influence for decades to come (especially in 2020, when this reviewer will be heavily inspired by I'll Be Gone in the Dark)
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
Tuesday Jul 07, 2020
David Bax remains the only I Do Movies Badly guest to actively pitch me topics and thus, he returns for the second time in three months to discuss some Canuxploitation films - or, less fun, "tax shelter films" - in which our neighbors of the Great White North used tax laws to create genre films that were precursors to American genre films in more ways than one. There is, of course, some talk about the impending NHL playoffs and why they're a stupid idea, wading into the waters of questioning if Hamilton is a "movie" or not, and, obviously, the recommendations: Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974), George Mihalka's My Bloody Valentine (1981), and Mark L. Lester's Class of 1984 (1982).
Thursday Jul 02, 2020
IDMB Episode 194 - The Endless
Thursday Jul 02, 2020
Thursday Jul 02, 2020
Benson and Moorhead revisit the world that they established in Resolution with The Endless allowing them to explore more of the "what" of the entity controlling peoples' fates, but still neglecting to answer the "why" or "how."
Friday Jun 26, 2020
IDMB Episode 193 - Resolution
Friday Jun 26, 2020
Friday Jun 26, 2020
Who'd have thought that it was a review from IMDb cluing me into how Resolution, a film that I initially wrote off as "two guys who did the best they could with what they had," was actually a meta parody of tired horror tropes that leaned into its budget restrictions rather than tried to work around them?
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
IDMB Episode 192 - Spring
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
Tuesday Jun 16, 2020
Benson and Moorhead's Spring is a marvelous exploration of suspense over surprise, focusing on two closed off characters whose world views of objectification stem from their vulnerabilities and fears of loss (even if its female lead is far more interesting than its male lead).
Tuesday Jun 09, 2020
Tuesday Jun 09, 2020
It only made sense to bring in the first pair of guests in IDMB history to converse about the first directing pair being covered in IDMB history! Jerry Smith and Mike Snoonian of The Pod and the Pendulum podcast join to discuss the films of indie genre pair, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. The boys first all check in to see how everyone is holding up and taking care of themselves as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on and protestors continue to demand police accountability and racial justice. Jerry and Mike talk about their personal creative journeys and how they joined together for The Pod and the Pendulum, they catch listeners up on the Cinestate fallout, and humorously relay the story of how $60 were mysteriously donated to Jerry one day out of the blue.
The two explain their deep love for the low-budget filmmaking duo who build genre elements around ultimately hopeful stories of love and relationships and gush about their three recommendations: Spring (2014), Resolution (2012), and The Endless (2017).
Horror fandom is a passion that is not bound by race, gender, sex, or orientation. If you want to support the diverse voices of genre fans check out these other websites and podcasts:
Faculty of Horror
Spinsters of Horror
Good Mourning, Nancy
The Grave Girls Podcast
Kill By Kill
Scaretroducing
Horror Movie Survival Guide
The Losers Club
Halloweenies
Gayly Dreadful
Horror Virgin
Thursday May 28, 2020
IDMB Episode 190 - Lone Star
Thursday May 28, 2020
Thursday May 28, 2020
Lone Star is, for better and for worse, an efficient encapsulation of the two things that make John Sayles films well, John Sayles films: his earnest filmmaking and his egalitarianism towards his characters.
Wednesday May 20, 2020
IDMB Episode 189 - Eight Men Out
Wednesday May 20, 2020
Wednesday May 20, 2020
Eight Men Out is a pretty faithful and earnest retelling of the 1919 "Black Sox" Scandal...to the film's detriment. More concerned with compiling a mostly historically accurate checklist of what transpired, perhaps Sayles' script would have been better served by another director who could have helped stoke the film's emotional core.
Tuesday May 12, 2020
IDMB Episode 188 - The Brother From Another Planet
Tuesday May 12, 2020
Tuesday May 12, 2020
The protagonist in The Brother From Another Planet doesn't speak one word throughout the entire film, but allows the people that he meets and the neighborhood in which he meets them to tell us a more realistic picture of what it's like to be an immigrant assimilating into a city with a troubling history of racism.
Tuesday May 05, 2020
IDMB Episode 187 - Introduction to John Sayles (featuring James McCormick)
Tuesday May 05, 2020
Tuesday May 05, 2020
He was tutored by Roger Corman like Coppola, Scorsese, and Dante. He's worked with actors like Chris Cooper, Matthew McConaughey, David Strathairn, and Angela Bassett. He's done script doctering on notable films like Apollo 13 and Mimic. He's received 2 Oscar nominations for screenwriting. He's John Sayles and, despite his prolific career, nobody talks about him. James McCormick of The Cast of Cthulhu returns to I Do Movies Badly to discuss the career of a writer/director who came up with the New Hollywood crowd, but neither hit the mainstream like Spielberg nor faded away like Rafaelson. The output of the man from Schenectady ranges from "low key" science-fiction to working class dramas and includes the three films James recommends: Brother From Another Planet (1984), Eight Men Out (1988), and Lone Star (1993).