Dead Format

Tim and Ben are back this week with friend of the show Kyle as we talk James Gunn's equally fun and revolting 2006 debut "Slither". We talk the rise and fall and rise of Gunn, Troma getting banned from Youtube, blue Michael Rooker, comic books, body horror, Lovecraft and so much more as we finally get to have some fun this season. Also discussed: Clay Dream, Capturing Bigfoot, Coherence, Climax, Pandorum, Spawn, Rosemary's Baby and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. We will be back next week talking about Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman's 2011 "Catfish" follow-up "Paranormal Activity 3". Thanks as always to Disco and Eric and follow Kyle on Letterboxed "Pootie_The_Tang". Bluesky: DeadFormatPod Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod

The boys continue reaping what they sow this season as we dive into Beth de de Araújo 2022 debut "Soft & Quiet". We get into how good both the script and direction are, how realistic the evil at the heart of this is, the insane degree of technical difficulty and mostly wince at how nerve shredding and painful this whole experience winds up being. For Ben's money at least this is one of the most impressive debuts of the decade so far and hopefully you will check this one out. Also discussed: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Running Man, The Blob, Mortal Kombat 2, The Poughkeepsie Tapes PLUS Tim's spoiler free first impressions of "You Can See Everything". We will be back next week finally having a bit of fun for a change as we talk James Gunn's downright disgusting horror comedy cult classic "Slither".    Thanks as always to Disco and Eric. Bluesky: DeadFormatPod Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod

The boys return this week to try to say anything at all about the mind numbing 1990 proto legacy sequel to "Chinatown", Jack Nicholson's "The Two Jakes". We talk Nicholson the GOAT, Polanski, Robert Evans, cocaine, playing mobile games to avoid paying attention, a legendary tale of development hell and largely try to answer the twin questions of "why the hell make this movie in the first place?" and "damn, remember how good Chinatown is?" PLUS Ben sings some Pavement for you folks. Also discussed: Land of the Dead, The Hidden, Silent Hill: Townfall, Hellraiser, Unfriended and Sideways. We will be back next talking about Beth de Araújo's social horror, home invasion nightmare "Soft & Quiet".  Thanks as always to Disco and Eric. Bluesky: DeadFormatPod Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod

Prodigal podcasting brother Erik rejoins us this week to celebrate the 10th birthday of the insanely influential Adam Curtis video essay "HyperNormalisation". Like the movie this conversation is freewheeling, tangent filled and generally all over the place as we try to tease out what this movie actually has to say a decade later while mostly respecting the hell out of how it formally goes about saying it. Also discussed: Day of the Dead, Violent Cop, Control: Resonant, the Hellraiser game, Steel Magnolias, Panic Room, Late Night with the Devil and another round of Tim's book corner. We will be back next week facing our fear together as we watch the Jack Nicholson directed, 1990 sequel to "Chinatown", "The Two Jakes".    Thanks as always to Disco and Eric. Bluesky: DeadFormatPod Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod

Ben and Tim conclude our summer block with Paul Schrader and his beautiful, heartbreaking story of accountability and redemption "The Card Counter". We get into Paul posting, Global War on Terror, torture, PTSD, poker vs blackjack and so much more. This ended up being one of the realer episodes of DF to date and hope you enjoy listening as much as we did talking about this stone cold masterpiece. Also discussed: Verity, Digger (light spoilers), Dawn of the Dead, The Green Mile, A History of Violence, Control: Resonant plus book corner with Tim! We will be back next week kicking off our fall programming block as we celebrate the 10 year birthday of Adam Curtis' dazzling, extremely frustrating big budget video essay "HyperNormalisation".   Thanks to Disco and Eric as always. Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod Bluesky: DeadFormatPod  

The boys are back this week with good friend of the show Aaron to talk about David Fincher's Facebook focused character study "The Social Network". We get into big tech, Trent, Zuckerberg, intellectual property, impressive adaptations, all of the insanely good performances, how well even the 'victims' of the movie are still doing today, how this diagnosis an entire generation of tech misanthrope and give Aaron Sorkin a lot more credit than he typically gets from critics these days. Also discussed: The Unit, Lioness and by extension even MORE Taylor Sheridan talk, Band of Brothers, Nightcrawler, Primetime, a grab bag of X-Men movies and at last The Bone Collector. Join us again next week as we conclude our summer programming block by talking about Paul Schrader's 2021 film "The Card Counter".     Thanks to Eric and Disco as always! Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod Bluesky: DeadFormatPod 

The boys are back in the Bayou this week to talk about the utterly demented yet oddly heartfelt Werner Herzog crime thriller addiction parable "Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans". We get into the many careers of Herzog, learning about art house cinema as teens in the early 00s, properly harnassing Nicolas Cage, post Katrina NOLA, getting sober, smoking crack and how much this movie actually has to say despite saying it in the most psychotic way possible. Also discussed: Resident Evil, 9/11/2001, Less Than Zero, Dune, The Shining, American Psycho, Chronovisor, Justice League PLUS Ben has also now seen "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma" and if you were mad at Tim over his review then you really won't want to miss this! We will be back next week talking about with our final Massachusetts of the series, David Fincher's masterpiece "The Social Network".  Thanks to Disco and Eric as always. Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod Bluesky: DeadFormatPod  

Ben and Tim are joined this week by Charles Austin (Trouble in River City, Episode 1) to talk about our boy Soderbergh and his 2009 bonkers biopic "The Informant!". We talk about the real Mark Whitacre & what a cool insane liar he was, Kurt Eichenwald's tentacles, how Tim microtargeted this episode for Charles, James Bond music, living with bipolar disorder, casting stand up comedians and how to get away with stealing nearly $10 million by being able to accurately gauge how much BS people are willing to take from you. Also discussed: Vampire Hunter D, Genocidal Organ, Boiler Room and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. We will be back next week finally talking Werner Herzog's deranged, post Katrina fever dream "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans". Thanks to Disco and Eric as always. Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod Bluesky: DeadFormatPod  

Friend of the show Jonah ships back up to Boston with the boys to discuss Ben Affleck's 2010 Heat tribute "The Town". We talk about the many ups and downs of Ben's career, mean Jon Hamm, FBI crime statistics, why no one robs banks anymore, all of the great performances outside of Ben Affleck and of course we remember some guys from the 2010 Red Sox. Also discussed: The Rules of Attraction, Star Wars: Zero Company, Charlie Victor Romeo, Spy x Family and new movie check-ins as we talk both Onslaught and I Want Your Sex. All that plus, we tease the theme for our fall programming block! We will be back next week with one of the gods of podcasting, Charles Austin to talk about Steven Soderbergh's wild 2009 white collar fraud black comedy The Informant! Thanks as always to Disco and Eric. Bluesky: DeadFormatPod Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod

Ben and Tim are joined by Hesse Deni (Trouble in River City, Seeking Derangements, Movie Mindset) to talk about Neil Jordan's 1994 classic "Interview with the Vampire". We talk about Jordan's catalog, Kristin Dunst's goat tier performance, Tom Cruise as irl Lestat, Anne Rice's zesty vampires changing the world and so much more. Also discussed: Tony, Pennies from Heaven, Alex Garland's Elden Ring, Decline Comedy, The Shards and OJ: Made in America. Come back next week when friend of the show Jonah joins us to talk about Ben Affleck's 2010 townie bank heist thriller "The Town". Thanks as always to Disco and Eric. Bluesky: DeadFormatPod Letterboxed: DeadFormatPod