This week, Darren Aronofsky aficionado (and regular guest) Derek Jarvis returns to help us unpack the psychedelic, time-hopping spiritual masterpiece The Fountain, starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz as two lovers navigating the mysteries of the Tree of Life across three different time periods. The results are beautiful, deeply engrossing, and well worth a watch along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
Related Links
The Loose Canon Podcast - Podcast home of listener Caroline Fulford!
(Thanks to our sponsor Cards Against Humanity as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
"Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink. I drink to thee." - Juliet, Act 4, Scene 3
It's that lovin' time of year, listeners, and this time around we're celebrating Valentine's Day with Baz Luhrmann's flashy modern retelling of William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes! Shannon of the Stage of Fools podcast and Mercy Street Theatre's Julia Rohed accompany us as we talk about Shakespearean language, unconventional film adaptations of the Bard, and Romeo and Juliet's utter lack of peripheral vision. Listen anon with thine custom cocktail and drinking game!
(Thanks to our sponsor Cards Against Humanity as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
Alcohollywood is back for 2017, and we've brought Consequence of Sound's Blake Goble out to sea to talk about Kathryn Bigelow's 2002 sub drama K-19: The Widowmaker, starring a wery Russian Harrison Ford and a not-so-wery Russian Liam Neeson as competing captains on a radioactive Russian sub at the height of the Cold War. Take a listen and enjoy our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(Thanks to our sponsor Cards Against Humanity as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
Happy holidays, listeners! For our Christmas episode this year, Shannon Campe of the Stage of Fools podcast joins us once again to dig into the 90s cult Christmas classic Home Alone, starring Macauley Culkin and directed by Chris Columbus!
(Thanks to our sponsor Cards Against Humanity as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
Related Links:
Buy Alonso Duralde's book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas!
This week, we rock out with returning guest, Consequence of Sound's Nick Freed, to talk about the psychedelic 1975 rock opera Tommy! The product of Pete Townshend's musical genius, Ken Russell's frenetic direction, and (presumably) a whoollle lotta drugs, Tommy tells the tale of a 'deaf, dumb and blind kid' in post-WWII Britain who endures abuse and torment before finding his calling as a pinball wizard and leading a spiritual movement. The songs are crazy, the design is goofy, and we just couldn't get enough of it. Check out our episode along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
(Thanks to our sponsor Second City as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
This week, returning guest Derek Jarvis stops by as we break down the acerbic wit and tough-guy moralism of Martin McDonagh’s black crime comedy In Bruges! After a botched hit, the twitchy Ray (Colin Farrell) is sent to the medieval Belgian hamlet of Bruges with his partner Ken (Brendan Gleeson) by their inscrutable, temperamental boss Harry Waters (Ralph Fiennes). While there, they take in the sights, clash with the local populace, and occasionally gain an insight or two about the human condition. Of course, all this is set to a flurry of creative profanity, Gothic architecture, and the deeply, darkly human characters you can expect from an acclaimed playwright like McDonagh. Check out our discussion along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
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Website: http://www.alcohollywood.com
(Thanks to our sponsor Emporium Chicago as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
Related Links:
The Nerdwriter’s excellent video essay on In Bruges, “Morality In Dialogue”
Our friends at Spirits Podcast!
THIS EPISODE’S DRINK: Fucky Charms
An ode to the high saturation of profanity, as well as the film’s Irish pedigree and Belgian setting, we mixed Irish whiskey, orahovac green walnut liqueur, and walnut milk to craft an elegantly creamy cocktail befitting a sleepy stay in the oldest medieval town left standing.
3oz Irish whiskey
3oz walnut milk*
2oz Badel Orahovac fruit liqueur
Dash, Belgian chocolate bitters
Combine ingredients in a rocks glass with large cold ice cubes, Stir to combine.
*To make the walnut milk, just soak a bunch of shelled walnuts in water overnight, then blend until it forms a thick white puree. Strain the bits out with a fine seive or cheesecloth and there’s your walnut milk!
RULES:
1) Drink every time someone drops an f-bomb (PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY)
2) Drink any time a new major location in Bruges is shown
3) Drink whenever the characters drink
FINISH YOUR DRINK WHEN:
Harry shouts, “Don’t be stupid, this is the shootout!”
Join us next week as we follow our mission from God with the Chicago classic The Blues Brothers!
Dragon Month (heretofore referred to as Here May Be Dragons, since it’s just a more awesome name) chugs along with returning guest Betsy Stone and 1996’s CGI-Sean-Connery vehicle Dragonheart! When an asshole king (David Thewlis) terrorizes the land, it’s up to a roguish dragonslayer (Dennis Quaid) and his snarky dragon pal (Connery) to save the day. Sub-PlayStation One CGI and semi-modernized Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves antics abound, which we break down for you along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
(Thanks to our sponsor Iron Galaxy as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
This week on Alcohollywood, Blake Goble of Consequence of Sound joins us to pay homage to Prince in the wake of his tragic passing with his flawed-but-singular 1984 opus Purple Rain! Telling the tale of young Prince (played here, oddly, by late-twenties Prince already in his sexual-dandy outfits) and his struggle to get to the top of the Minneapolis music scene, Purple Rain is chock full of Prince’s thumping soundtrack, incredible concert sequences, and…some pretty unfortunate acting and a threadbare narrative connecting everything together. In spite of all that, it remains a wonderful testament to the genius of Prince’s persona – put on your raspberry beret and lace cravat and take a listen, along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(Thanks to our sponsor Cards Against Humanity as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
This week, James Thompson (of Geekspotting and the new Meanwhile... Podcast) joins us to take on Constantine, the comic-book adaptation of DC's Hellblazer! Transplanting the British supernatural private eye to LA, and turning him from an acerbic Sting lookalike to dour Keanu Reeves, the film nonetheless gives us oodles of visual style, androgynous Tilda Swinton angels, and a veritable bevy of Catholic creepy-crawlies. Thrill as we discuss Shia Labeouf's stammering (or lack thereof), the fact that Keanu has a vaguely Christian gadget for everything, and more - along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
(Thanks to our sponsor Iron Galaxy as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
This week on the podcast, Chicago actor and friend of the show Tom McGrath (@TCMcG) joins us to pay tribute to the late, great Alan Rickman with the 1999 sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest! A pitch-perfect parody/celebration of Star Trek and science fiction fandom that's way better than it has any right to be, Rickman's Spock-like Dr. Lazarus is just one great piece in this hilarious cult puzzle. Along the way, we give our drinking rules, show you the recipe for our custom cocktail (see below), and fill the air with Alan Rickman and Mathezar impressions. By Grabthar's hammer, what an episode!
(Thanks to our sponsor Field Notes as a proud part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
This week on Alcohollywood, we switch gears with Grant from Chip & Ironicus (specifically Chipod Ironicast) to talk the crazy 2009 anime racing flick Redline! Unlike the last anime we watched (Satoshi Kon’s Paprika) Redline‘s uniquely concerned with the fast and the furious – fluid racing animation, a crazy anime story, broad alien characters and all of the jiggling robot boobs a 14-year-old weeaboo could ever hope for. It’s not subtle, and it might not even be good in the conventional sense, but it’s certainly not ordinary. Take a listen and check out our custom cocktail and drinking game!
(Thanks to our sponsors Basecamp as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
Happy New Year, listeners! Since it's 2016, we thought we'd kick things off with John Hughes' cult comedy classic Sixteen Candles - you know, the one with all the racism and implicit date rape?
Returning guest Julia joins us to take on yet another John Hughes movie and yet another high school flick (both subgroups of film that Jared has historically hated). Will he be turned around by the charmingly self-centered travails of sexually frustrated teen Sam (Molly Ringwald), insecure predator The Geek (Anthony Michael Hall), and the "handsome but totally willing to let his girlfriend have blackout drunk sex with a stranger so he can go off and chase another girl" Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling)? We'll give you a hint: a few fun sight gags aside, this film does not age well in 2016. Still, take a listen along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules as we look at this comedy classic both in and out of its very specific cultural context!
(Thanks to our sponsor Brewpass as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
NOTE: Technical difficulties meant that this episode ended up being recorded on laptop sound as opposed to our fancy equipment. It’s still listenable, but not up to our usual high standards. Thanks for your patience, and everything will be kosher next episode!
This week, Dusty Wilson of Mercy Street Theatre Company joins us in our much-needed respite from critically-acclaimed dramas and spooky foreign films to kick back with the schlocky Arnold Schwarzenegger flick The Running Man! The Running Man beats Battle Royale and The Hunger Games to the "game shows are like bloodsports, and we're obsessed with the media!" dystopic yarn, as Arnie's Ben Richards must navigate a hellish game show where harsh traps and over-the-top 'stalkers' seek to kill him with all manner of kitschy weapons. A silly, campy mish-mash that feels like Total Recall slammed in a blender with some Zubas, a copy of Buns of Steel, and some old episodes of Family Feud, this movie is as straight-out dumb as it is charming. Check it out along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(Thanks to our sponsor Makespace as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
Ka-STANG! This week, fellow A Talking Cast!?!/The ‘Cast Next Door podcastress Shannon Campe joins us for another expedition into 90s/2000s kid cinema with Frankie Muniz’s Big Fat Liar! Muniz plays Jason Shepherd, a pathological liar whose short story assignment for class is stolen from unscrupulous, half-goatee-d Hollywood producer Paul Giamatti to make into his next hit film. With the help of Vaguely Funny Girl Character Amanda Bynes, Jason flies off to Hollywood to plan his revenge. Take a listen as we ask the big questions: Is this Paul Giamatti’s superhero origin story? Why does Jason not want any money for credit for his story? How do you pronounce Muniz? Find the answers to these questions and more, along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(Thanks to our sponsor Jackbox Games as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
This week, Theo joins us once more to talk Lisztomania, the off-the-wall glam rock biopic of famed German composer Franz Liszt, played by The Who's Roger Daltrey! Lisztomania plays up the pseudohistorical tale of "history's first rock star" in typical 70s camp fashion. Get ready for giant fake dicks, robes made of piano keys, and Richard Wagner as Zombie Rock Hitler being defeated by the power of love; we sure weren't. Take a listen and check out our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(Thanks to this episode’s sponsor Emporium Arcade Bar as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
This week on Alcohollywood, we invite returning guest David Rheinstrom (of Twenty Questions Tuesday and Our Fair City fame) for one last job before he departs Chicago for the wide world of San Francisco – the “Recobbled Cut” of the infamous animated labor of love The Thief and the Cobbler! Who Framed Roger Rabbit’s Oscar-winning animator Richard Williams’ magnum opus is an elegantly drawn piece of cinema that follows the titular double-act as they attempt to retrieve the Three Golden Balls from the evil Vizier (Vincent Price), while winning the heart of Princess Yum-Yum in the process. Its thirty-year production history led Williams’ vision to be ultimately unfinished, but the Recobbled Cut by fan and animator Garret Gilchrist (link to the full film below) is an admirable effort to get as much of William’s intended film up on the screen. Check out our reaction to the film, along with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
Related Links:
The Recobbled Cut on Youtube
Persistence of Vision, the Documentary on the Making Of The Thief and the Cobbler
Tickets for Our Fair City: Human Resources (still running until the 13th, if you’re in Chicago! See Clint and Jared in a live radio play!)
(This episode is sponsored by Field Notes as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
This week, our friend Betsy joins us to talk one of the more baffling nostalgia-fueled cultural phenomena of the 90s - Space Jam! Based on the best-sneaker-selling Super Bowl commercial, Space Jam contrives a situation in which Michael Jordan ("playing" himself) joins Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes for a high-stakes game of basketball against the Monstars, in order to keep them from being kidnapped and made into amusement park attractions. (Apparently the screenwriters of this film had never been to a Six Flags; it already happened.)
Along the way, we ask the important questions: What is Lola Bunny doing here, and why does she get five minutes of screentime? Is the film a hidden exploration of Michael Jordan's personal demons and his temporary retirement from basketball? Why is this movie about cartoon basketball called Space Jam?! Listen to find our answers and more, including our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(Special thanks to our sponsor Basecamp, a proud member of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)
Related Links:
The Space Jam website (which is still up!)
Amazon page for Chuck Amuck, the Chuck Jones memoir referenced in the episode
Happy birthday, America! To celebrate our nation’s birthday (and recent events have made us pretty proud to be an American), the Daves from the Blurry Photos Podcast join us to talk about the 2004 Nic Cage movie National Treasure. Part Indiana Jones movie, part Pirates of the Caribbean, part social studies filler movie, National Treasure follows adventurer Ben Franklin Gates (Cage) and his trusty crew as they work to stop evil Englishman Sean Bean from stealing the Declaration of Independence by… stealing the Declaration of Independence?
Along the way, we ask all manner of questions, including: Did George Washington have to campaign for the presidency? How distrustful are we of people without American accents? Does Ben Gates think about all the historical artifacts he destroys along the way to the treasure he doesn’t even really want? Find out these answers and more, along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(This episode is sponsored by Iron Galaxy as part of the Chicago Podcast Cooperative!)
This week on Alcohollywood, we make a double feature of “shitty 90s comedies Clint watched too often as a kid” by following Good Burger with the lamentable John Leguizamo vehicle The Pest! Guest (and author of You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me) Nathan Rabin joins us as we witness the irredeemably-shrill Pestario Vargas (Leguizamo) vamp, titter, and offend his way through a Most Dangerous Game-like scenario involving Jeffrey Jones as a Nazi human hunter.
Along the way, Pest manages to reference every 50s or 60s movie and TV figure the presumed kid audience of the film would not get, as well as scores of 1940s-era racial stereotypes so pernicious they almost become anti-humor. Listen to us shake our collective heads at this baffling piece of cinema, along with our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
(Special thanks to this episode's sponsor Jackbox, as part of the Chicago Podcast Cooperative!)
CAN YOU DIG IT, listeners? This week, returning guest Julia of Mercy Street Theatre Company bops with us as we watch Walter Hill’s 1979 cult gang thriller The Warriors! A pulpy, disco-tinged Greek epic about a beleaguered street gang from Coney Island lost on the wrong side of town after being framed for killing a prominent gang leader, the movie’s long on style and short on complexity.
We found quite a bit to talk about, from apocalypse theories to the unfortunate Director’s Cut. Throw on your tight blue jeans and brown leather vest, ‘cause we’re ready to play-ee-ay with our custom cocktail and drinking game!
Related Links:
Tickets for Edge Productions' revival of MacSith, beginning April 3rd at the Pendulum Space in Chicago!
This Week in Academia: "Film Chronicle: Trash and Poetry" by Vernon Young
The (Terrible) Intro to the Director's Cut ("Over Two Millenniums Ago...")
Great Scott! This week on Alcohollywood, Justin Gerber of Consequence of Sound and James Thompson of Geekspotting stop by to go back in time and learn the power of love with 1985’s Back to the Future! Bob Zemeckis' 80s sci-fi comedy classic sees slacker Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) jumping in a retrofitted DeLorean created by his creepily-close mad scientist friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and zipping back to 1985, contending with 50s nuclear family politics, the prospect of getting back to his own time, and making sure his parents fuck so they can make him.
For a movie that needs no introduction, we find a surprising amount to talk about, from the fanbase’s crazy conspiracy theories (9/11! Benghazi!) to the intriguing Reagan-era conservative links between Future and Forrest Gump and so much more. Flip on the flux capacitor to 1.21 jiggawatts, crank the engine up to 88 miles per hour, and check out our custom cocktail and drinking rules!
Related Links:
Kooky 9/11/JFK Back to the Future Video
The Power of Love Music Video
The Worlds of Back to the Future (a cool book of critical essays on the films, if you're into that sort of thing)
B To The F, a Tumblr deconstructing the novelization of the film
Konban wa, listeners! This week, Ele from Our Fair City and Wildclaw Theatre joins us to talk the Japanese cult film Battle Royale – the tale of a group of kids forced to participate in a punitive government program to punish bad students by making them fight to the death on a deserted island with random weapons. Of course, since the students have apparently not heard of this at all, what’s the point of Battle Royale if it doesn’t sufficiently scare people into doing better at school? Still, we have a lot of fun with it, involving discussions about Beat Takeshi’s sweet tooth, the importance of basketball, and so much more. Don’t forget to check out our custom cocktail and drinking game below!
(This episode is sponsored by Cards Against Humanity as part of the Chicago Podcast Cooperative.)
Erin go bragh, listeners! We’re gearing up for St. Patrick’s Day along with returning guest David Rheinstrom of Twenty Questions Tuesday (and Our Fair City) as we tackle the 1959 Disney film Darby O’Gill and the Little People! The third in our unintentional trio of Robert Stevenson Disney musicals after Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Darby follows the titular character (Albert Sharpe), an old coot living in a quaint Irish village who finds himself in a series of folksy shenanigans. Involved are his daughter Katie (Janet Munro), a young Dubliner (a young Sean Connery), and, of course, some leprechauns.
Join us as we fawn over Connery’s Bing Crosby-esque singing voice, and try to figure out just where those little leprechaun-sized horses come from! (Don’t forget to enjoy our custom cocktail and drinking rules as well.)
(This episode was sponsored by Basecamp, in conjunction with the Chicago Podcast Cooperative.)
Greetings, listeners! Sorry about the long wait, but this just means you’ll get two episodes this week! Ryan Bond of Our Fair City joins us to talk about 1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes, written by Chris Columbus and directed by Barry “Men in Black” Levinson. Taking a Muppet Babies approach to literature's greatest detective, the film follows tween Sherlock and Watson as they solve a supernatural mystery involving a mysterious Egyptian cult, as well as solving the mystery of their changing bodies and his newfound interest in girls.
Columbus’ footprints are all over this, as the movie plays out much like the first two Harry Potter movies (complete with a blonde bully for Sherlock). Still, we found it tremendously charming, and we’ve got some drinking rules and a custom cocktail to wash down all the adolescent intrigue!
This week on Alcohollywood, we (along with Jason Soto of Lair of the Unwanted) finally take on our first Tom Cruise movie with the Ridley Scott fantasy Legend! Right off the heels of Jared’s appearance on the Blade Runner episode of the Nerd Outcast Podcast, we take on another 1980s Ridley Scott movie featuring unicorns and inhuman creatures. This time, though, we get to see a young, buck-toothed Tom Cruise battle a devilish Tim Curry (as literally the Devil) for the soul of his princess lover Mia Sara.
Along the way, we get some imps, surprisingly modern goblin henchmen, and Frozen parallels, as we chat it up about our favorite movie Satans, find even more euphemistic uses for the word ‘magic,’ and so much more. Check out our custom cocktail and drinking game below, and be sure to listen to (and share) the episode!