Info

Alcohollywood

Every week, join Clint and Jared (and selected guest panelists) as they discuss, disseminate and make drinking rules for films both good and bad. Sit down with each film's signature cocktail and enjoy!
RSS Feed Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
Alcohollywood
2018
December
November
October
September
August
July
May
April
March
February


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2015
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2014
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2013
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2012
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2011
December
November
October


Categories

All Episodes
Archives
Categories
Now displaying: October, 2018
Oct 31, 2018

Happy Alcohol-loween! We close out our Seven Deadly Sins edition of Horror Octorbor by going old-school for Wrath - the vengeance-filled slasher Friday the 13th!

Sure, this is the one that doesn't have Jason in it - see our Freddy vs. Jason episode for our thoughts on the hockey-mashed butcher - but Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) still has some bloody fates in store for the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake.  From Kevin Bacon's horny teen to, well, the less-famous fodder around him, Sean S. Cunningham's inaugural effort in the long running franchise serves up plenty of arrow piercings, machete decapitations, and more. 

But is it enough? Can we go back to a franchise almost forty years old and see the strengths of a straightforward slasher that was innovative at the time? Or do the kills and stripped-down simplicity seem quaint in today's world of horror pastiches and self-aware tropes? Let's find out - check out our podcast and drinking game!

Thanks to our sponsor Overcast as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)

Oct 30, 2018

While dysfunctional family dramas are arguably a dime a dozen, Elizabeth Chomko's Chicago-centric debut What They Had stands out substantially from the pack. A touching, heartfelt tale of a woman (Hilary Swank) who returns home to help her brother (Michael Shannon) and father (Robert Forster) care for her Alzheimer's-afflicted mother (Blythe Danner), What They Had is refreshingly nuanced, filled with strong, witty dialogue and incredible performances from its lead cast.

While at the Chicago International Film Festival, we sat down with Chomko for a roundtable discussion (along with Pat McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com and Al and Linda Lerner of MoviesandShakers.com) - with Forster popping in as a late-interview surprise. Check out our roundtable, along with that wonderful cameo, in our podcast below.

Thanks to our sponsor Overcast as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)

Oct 29, 2018

The world of contemporary art is a wild, wild thing - millionaires bidding incredible amounts of money to collect works from modern artists based on reputation, potential future valuation, or even (on occasion) the actual aesthetic value of the piece. In his upcoming HBO documentary The Price of Everything, filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn (My Architect) takes an in-depth look at this strange mix of art and commerce, getting unfettered access to art collectors and the artists who themselves toe a precarious line between artistic statement and financial solvency. 

We were lucky enough to sit down with Kahn himself to talk about the film, these issues, and the value of artistic merit in an increasingly commodified art world. Check out our podcast minisode featuring the interview here, and read the edited transcript below. 

Thanks to our sponsor Overcast as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)

Oct 24, 2018

Horror Octorbor keeps a-chuggin' along this month, as we continue to break down the seven deadly sins! This week, we take a look at Envy in the context of 1992's erotic psychological thriller Single White Female!

In the vein of other 90s domestic horror films like The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Unlawful Entry, Single White Female explores the kind of dangers that could happen even in the safety of your home. Here, that's manifested in Hedy (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the mousy new roommate of recently-separated fashion designer Allie (Bridget Fonda). The more time Hedy spends with Allie, though, the more she affects Allie's speech, mannerisms and appearance - right down to making moves on her estranged husband Sam (Steven Weber). 

Does she want to be like Allie? Does she want to become Allie? The answers are surprisingly grotesque, and more than a little complicated - rooted in some clumsy, but well-intentioned, queer subtexts and a couple of deliciously arch performances from Fonda and Leigh, directed with a certain lurid sensibility by Barbet Schroeder.

Check out what we thought about this ominous tale of female sexuality and psychological desire, along with our custom drinking game!

(Thanks to our sponsor Overcast as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!) 

DRINKING RULES FOR SINGLE WHITE FEMALE:

  1. Any time you see a red flag (Hedy adopts another Allie-ism)
  2. Every time you see a scene outside the apartment
  3. Whenever you see nudity (this is an *erotic* thriller, after all)

FINISH YOUR DRINK WHEN:

Hedy looks into a mirror and says, "I love myself like this."

Join us next week as we conclude our Seven Deadly Sins edition of Horror Octorbor with Greed - best personified by Michael Mann's bat-nuts crazy 1983 film The Keep!

Oct 15, 2018

Beautiful Boy is the latest brick in Amazon Studios' foundation of establishing itself as the new Miramax - the home of middlebrow American indies featuring sad white people going about their lives. Sometimes they're great, like Jim Jarmusch's Paterson; other times, well, it's Woody Allen's latest thing or Life ItselfBeautiful Boy is closer to the Paterson end of the spectrum, a handsomely-made actors' showcase telling the real-life story of David (Steve Carell) and Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet), a father and son dealing with the latter's addiction to hard drugs, including crystal meth. 

Director Felix van Groeningen (Broken Circle Breakdown) presents a handsomely tragic look at drug addiction, Nic's addiction coming in cycles of hope and despair while David tries desperately to save his son, before realizing that maybe that's not his job. While van Groeningen's direction is intriguing, structuring the film around elliptical flashbacks detailing the moments that punctuate Nic's relationship to drugs, the real meat and potatoes is seeing Carell and Chalamet's wounded, authentic performances. Carell's a master at this kind of anguished, darkly comic pathos by now - hell, he's about to do it again in Welcome to Marwen - but Chalamet continues to be one of cinema's greatest new discoveries. As Nic, he displays the kind of deeply felt pain and adolescent ennui of James Dean in his prime, his yearning eyes and squirming vulnerability as he runs through cycles of dependency and hope about drugs. It's not a perfect film by any means, and it certainly wastes fine actresses in Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan, but as a heartfelt two-hander about addiction, it's one to watch.

I actually got the chance to sit down with van Groeningen around the time of opening night for a roundtable discussion with fellow critics Leo Brady of AMovieGuy.com and Lee Shoquist of ChicagoFilm.com - together, we talked about everything from adapting a book from two memoirs and working with such esteemed actors at the top of their game. Take a listen to the On Tap podcast below. 

(Thanks to our sponsor Overcast as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)

Oct 14, 2018

Horror Octorbor keeps on chugging, as we keep exploring the seven deadly sins with our entry for Lust, Species!

This 1995 sexy-alien chiller (courtesy of Dante's Peak and The November Man's Roger Donaldson) features Ghosts of MarsNatasha Henstridge as Sil, a sultry alien-human hybrid from outer space who escapes Ben Kingsley's government facility to seek out a mate for her alien babies. In hot pursuit is a rag-tag team of scientists (Marg HelgenbergerAlfred Molina), an 'empath' (Forest Whitaker) and a smarmy guy with a gun (Michael Madsen), all with personalities as loud as their clothing.

Species is a hell of a 90s time capsule, from the bulky fashions to the ridiculous character names (Madsen's character is literally called Press Lennox), and the Showtime-ready alien sexuality that was the film's clear draw. The creature design is the most direct translation of Alien designer H.R. Giger's bonkers techno-sexual style, rendered with the expected dated CG and prosthetic effects. It's Andromeda Strain meets Emmanuelle, and we're here for every ridiculous minute.

Take a listen to our thoughts, and check out our drinking game for the film below!

(Thanks to our sponsor Cards Against Humanity, part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)

DRINKING RULES FOR SPECIES:

  1. Any time Sil changes clothes/outfits/appearance (special points for changing into her gross Giger form)
  2. Every time Forest Whitaker's empath Dan talks about 'feeling'
  3. Whenever you see nipples, male or female/human or alien

FINISH YOUR DRINK WHEN:

Press quips after saving Forest Whitaker's life, "I thought you'd drank your last Long Island Iced Tea there, Dan."

Join us next week as Horror Octorbor chugs along, exploring more of the seven deadly sins with the envy-fueled erotic thriller Single White Female!

Oct 11, 2018

Novelist, screenwriter and Pulitzer-nominated playwright Theresa Rebeck is a woman of many hats - the latest of which is the director of the independent ensemble comedy Trouble. A film with modest ambitions but no small amount of charm, its tale of a small-town sibling rivalry is bolstered by tremendous performances from a more-than-qualified cast (Anjelica Huston, Bill Pullman, David Morse, Julia Stiles, Brian D'arcy James, the list goes on). 

For this special minisode of the podcast, Clint sat down for a phone interview with Rebeck to talk about the prevailing themes of her works, working with such an overqualified cast, and the intimate appeal of rural America. Take a listen!

(Thanks to our sponsor Overcast, part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)

Oct 5, 2018

(CONTENT WARNING: use of the word 'gypsy'
We explain the full context of its usage in the episode, and its ubiquity in the film itself makes it relatively unavoidable as a term. However, we understand its seriousness as a pejorative to the Romani people, and apologize in advance for anyone who might be offended.)

Seven years in, and Alcohollywood is on its seventh Horror Octorbor! Some Kind of Goblin sets upon us a mission to explore films related to the seven deadly sins, so we're temporarily back to weekly episodes as we try to take this on!

For our first foray into sinful horror films, we dig into the sin of gluttony with 1996's Thinner, a goofy, more than a little racist bit of Stephen King schlock in which an unscrupulous, obese attorney (Robert John Burke) gets cursed by an elderly Romani (Michael Constantine) as punishment for running over his daughter. His curse? To grow "thinner" each day, no matter how much he eats, until his body consumes itself. 

It's a wackadoodle premise told with incredible relish by director Tom Holland (the original Fright Night), and the film's latter half is full of fun beats courtesy of Kari Wuhrer and Joe Mantegna. But all of its outsized pulp can't quite overcome its unsympathetic, ugly characters. And, well, the whole "gypsy curse" premise itself doesn't age well (much like the makeup, though it's not like horror master Rob Bottin could anticipate the coming of HD). 

Enjoy a heaping helping of our podcast, along with our drinking game for the film!

(Thanks to our sponsor Cards Against Humanity as part of the Chicago Podcast Coop!)

DRINKING RULES FOR THINNER:

  1. Any time you hear the word "gypsy"
  2. Every time Billy's appearance changes demonstrably (i.e. changes in the fat suit)
  3. Whenever a character eats

FINISH YOUR DRINK WHEN:

Tadzu Lempke tells Billy to "Die clean, white man from town! Die clean!"

Join us next week as we continue our exploration of the seven deadly sins, moving on to Lust with the sexy-alien movie Species!

1