After her father is killed for refusing to be extorted by the leaders of a human trafficking operation, Yan Ling (Anna May Wong) and Kim Lee (Phillip Ahn) jet across the islands of Puerto Rico on their way to the ringleader. When Anna May Wong starred in Robert Florey’s DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI, it was hailed as a milestone in Hollywood’s progress toward a more inclusive, diverse industry: An Asian-American actress commanded the screen in an exciting, globe-hopping adventure without being...

Don Hertzfeldt’s creative, experimental animation style is almost universally acclaimed. His early short works helped him bridge the gap (albeit accidentally) from festival darling into a filmmaker synonymous with pre-YouTube online video culture. His first feature film, IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY, tells the story of Bill, a man defined by his neurotic observations about the world around him. In part, IT’S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY is a parade of awkward interactions with strangers, bizarre family...

We’re no strangers to the work of Nobuhiko Obayashi. A visionary and an auteur, almost all of his work centers the human experience, especially through the media of film. Shared emotion, his filmography says, is the most important thing a human can feel. Can choose to feel. Based on a true story, BEIJING WATERMELON is no exception: Shunzo (Bengal), a humble grocer befriends the Chinese students living near his store, helping them adjust to Tokyo life. Though it comes at a personal cost to...

Something’s waiting in the woods! THE EVIL DEAD is a masterwork of budget filmmaking, and it kick-started a genre all its own. In this discussion, we look back at the movie as the origin of comedy-horror cinema, as a rebuke of classic Hollywood horror style, and as a damn fun crowd-pleaser. References: “Interview: A Grandmother on The Evil Dead” by Benjamin Jarman for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “Hey Bud, Let’s Make a Movie! — The Evil Dead as the Demonic Incarnation of the DIY Filmmaking...

With returning guest Dan Nagan! A double-booked Airbnb in a rundown Detroit neighborhood is much, much more than it seems. It’s better as a surprise, so we won’t spoil anything with this description, but you should know BARBARIAN is ultimately a story about control: Over narratives, land, culture, and personhood itself. **References: ** “Trailers from Heaven: How Barbarian’s Advance Publicity Made a Good Film Better” by Jay Ditzer for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “Gender Bias and the...

KILLER BEAN FOREVER is an independently created animated feature about Killer Bean, a vigilante anthropomorphized coffee bean with a chip on his shoulder and a bitter rivalry with the troublesome gangs of Beantown. Claiming inspiration from classic action cinema, particularly the work of gun fu genre pioneer John Woo, the idiosyncratic KILLER BEAN FOREVER became a cult hit some 10 years after its original release, racking up dozens of millions of YouTube views. As we embark on another 100...

It defined an entire era of filmmaking. It recontextualized the tropes and narratives that came before. It festoons college dorm rooms across the world. It played at the Trylon on a newly struck 35mm print in 2024. Quentin Tarantino’s sophomore feature PULP FICTION is still “that movie”, whatever that means. An all-star cast stretched across three interlocking stories shows people in a period of adaptation, transition, growth, and moving on — or not. In this episode, we discuss the...

With special guest Abbie Phelps (@GoodHunterAbbie)! THE TRAIN is a fantastic Burt Lancaster vehicle, a showcase for supporting performers Paul Scofield and Jeanne Moreau, and, in a career dotted with bangers, one of director John Frankenheimer’s finest. With the Nazi occupation of France coming to an end, railway supervisor Paul Labiche (Lancaster) is tasked by Colonel Von Waldheim (Scofield) with escorting a steam locomotive out of the country carrying a cache of priceless French...

Kokubu (Raizô Ichikawa), captain of his university's kendo team, is a mystery to those who know him: An ascetic dedicated to a point of obsession with the simplicity and beauty of the sword arts. Kagawa (Yūsuke Kawazu), a promising but arrogant kendo student, is attracted to Kokubu's devout leadership but kept at a distance by his standoffish nature. With the national championships fast approaching, the pair clash as Kokubu drives his students with increasingly rigorous training and Kagawa...

With returning guest Natalie Marlin! SECONDS is a 1966 film directed by John Frankenheimer from the original novel by David Ely. Past-his-prime New York banker Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) elects to undergo a procedure to give himself a new face and a new life. The Company, the shady organization that offers this service, completely reconstructs Arthur, altering every detail of his identity (his face, his body, his voice, his backstory) to build Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson) — a handsome...

KIRU (also known as DESTINY’S SON) is a 1962 samurai film directed by Kenji Misumi and written by Kaneto Shindo, based on a novel by Renzaburo Shibata. The film stars Raizo Ichikawa as Shingo, the secret son of an assassin executed for the crime of killing her lord’s concubine. Shingo learns of his true nature after a rival family massacres his adoptive father and sister for denying the secret of Shingo’s birth. After exacting revenge on the killers, Shingo visits his father, who was also...

With Danny “Bagadonuts” Nagan, a real-life good fella and cohost of the Everything We Learned podcast! I mean, it’s GOODFELLAS. If you haven’t seen it, you kinda already have. But you should absolutely still see it (take it from Jason). Despite his status as an Irish-Italian-American, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) is a fish IN water among the most powerful mafia family of Brooklyn. From middle school, Henry fast ingratiates himself with aspiring made man Tommy (Joe Pesci), fellow mixed-blood...

With Trylonteer and Perkins superfan Kelly Krantz (@kransekage_)! PLAY IT AS IT LAYS is a 1972 drama film directed by Frank Perry from a novel and screenplay by Joan Didion. The movie stars Tuesday Weld as Maria Wyeth, a depressed actress stuck in an unhappy separated marriage with director Carter Lang (played by Adam Roarke), and Anthony Perkins as BZ, a gay movie producer and friend of Maria’s who’s also unhappily married as cover for his homosexuality to a woman named Helene (played by...

20 years after the world’s last baby was born, revolutionary-turned-working stiff Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is content to coast until the end catches up to the world — until his former lover and the mother of his dead son Julian (Julianne Moore) wrangles him into a plan to escort expecting mother Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey) to safety. Remembered (and heavily cribbed) for its effective worldbuilding and the immediacy of its handheld long takes, Alfonso Cuarón’s post-apocalyptic tale feels...

With special guest Blake Hester! When a secretive businessman passes away before he can be crowned chairman of a local yakuza family, his daughter — a precocious, disaffected schoolgirl — is suddenly thrust into the role. Surprised by her coronation but determined to restore the group’s good name, Izumi (Hiroko Yakushimaru) reluctantly assumes control of the once-great Medaka Family to close the power vacuum and fend off power plays from other local gangs with one thing in their sights: A...

The Trylon turns 15 this year! That means it’s been five years since we first welcomed Trylon Film Programmer John “Mo’ Retta Blues” Moret to the podcast for a 10th anniversary interview. With five years of history to look back on and an extra-long, banger-laden Fall 2024 calendar to discuss, we sat down again with John in the hallowed lobby of the Trylon to get the full scoop. (And talk about video games, reminisce on the Trylon series we’ve loved, and FINALLY land on a suitable nickname...

In Jonathan Glazer’s BIRTH, one woman’s inability to move past the death of her husband brings only more tragedy to her life when she’s forced to confront a version of him she never knew. When a 10-year-old boy named Sean (Cameron Bright) claims to be the reincarnation of Anna (Nicole Kidman)’s husband of the same name, the soon-to-be-remarried widow slowly but surely finds herself falling in love with the man she thinks she sees inside — regardless of who he is on the outside. Kinda makes...

You’ve never seen a zombie movie like Shinichirou Ueda’s cult hit ONE CUT OF THE DEAD. It’s best if I don’t type anything more about it here, actually, just in case you haven’t seen it. (Little peek behind the curtain in keeping with the theme of the movie: It’s also because your editor is typing this on his lunch hour at his day job.) Suffice to say it’s one of the most clever takes on the genre we’ve seen, and a fun, heartwarming tale on its own. Regardless, returning guest Benjamin Savard...

Impenetrable musing or Tarkovsky’s best? NOSTALGHIA is one of the Russian director’s most personal, maybe his single most personal, but that’s not the only lens (or even the most interesting one) to look at it through. In this discussion of her first and only Tarkovsky (so far), Natalie joins to help us see this one more clearly through a new lens! References: Watch NOSTALGHIA on the Internet Archive “The Thematic Use Of Fire and Water In Andrei Tarkovsky’s Films” by Lars Johnson for...

Geraldine Chaplin (Charlie’s daughter), Anthony Perkins, and Berry Berenson (Perkins’s wife) star in a taut, almost-revenge tale directed by frequent Robert Altman collaborator Alan Rudolph — REMEMBER MY NAME is a classic example of a cult classic. We couldn’t be happier to welcome Kelly Krantz (@kransekage_) back to chat about one of her favorite performer’s best performances! Stacked with contemporary actors (Chaplin, Perkins), now-famous names (Alfre Woodard, Dennis Franz, Jeff Goldblum),...

Layers of social prestige have assigned Comtesse Louise de [name redacted] (Danielle Darrieux) a role that doesn’t accommodate her wider range of human desire. She knows that paying a debt by selling her diamond earrings, gifted by her husband General André de… (Charles Boyer), will offend the hierarchical foundations of her way of life — a life of privilege and excess — so instead of admitting folly, she lies. She didn’t sell them; she lost them. Thus starts a clear but ridiculous journey...

With returning guest, master’s degree holder, and Trylon volunteer Benjamin Savard (@ItBenjaminScott)! After POPEYE (1980) squashed the ‘80s for director Robert Altman, he came back with a wry, cynical film adaptation of Michael Tolkin’s 1988 novel, “The Player”. In the resulting movie of the same name, Tim Robbins plays Griffin Mill, a bigshot Hollywood producer whose decency streak is lined with writers whose ideas prides himself on turning into box office hits without compromising their...

With Abbie Phelps (@goodhunterabbie)! Orson Welles’s final Hollywood film has it all: A complicated production history, a contentious editing lifecycle, and a ‘true-to-vision’ recut that followed the original release by some 40 years. It’s a story about Hank Quinlan (played by Welles), a dyed-in-the-wool noir detective who’ll do anything to exact his version of justice, and Ramon Miguel Vargas (confusingly played by a very white Charlton Heston), a Mexican detective set on rooting out...

With Finn Odum (@Finnematic)! LA CASA LOBO (THE WOLF HOUSE) is a harrowing journey through violent change. The leader of a cult spins a cautionary fairy tale to indoctrinate followers, telling the story of Maria, a girl who finds herself locked in an abandoned house in the woods after narrowly avoiding the jaws of an overbearing wolf outside. Afraid to return to her isolated community, Maria comes to depend on the wolf’s protection and insulation from malicious forces both within the house...