The Twin Geeks

Welcome to Halloween H2OKComputer, in our annual gathering where we celebrate A. The Great Halloween Franchise and B. Radiohead's discography. In this spirited autumnal delight, Calvin & Jesse uncover the 20-year-anniversary film, Halloween H20, analyzing the shifting cultural design of horror in the post-Scream late-'90s, as we dig deep into our trick-or-treat bag of watched horror films for the month of October, and generally chat up waves and shifts in the genre, and examine the last year of horror releases. Happy Halloween from your friends and ghostly foes at The Twin Geeks.

The podcast you like is going to come back in style.Friend of the show Warren Cantrell — of Scene-Stealers & The Playlist — joins The Twin Geeks for an in-person recording on This Is Spinal Tap & Friendship. A landmark classic for mockumentary and satire filmmaking, This Is Spinal Tap is being reissued this July and receiving a sequel within the year. Friendship, the new cringe-comedy from A24, finds internet-famous Tim Robinson sharpening his blades of hyper-specific comedy, while wrapping up the humor he is known for in a more auteur-driven debut by filmmaker Andrew DeYoung.Between these films, we examine the themes of male friendship, what men experienced in the more collectivist group-focused culture of the past and what men now face with modern isolationism, when they turn inward, and realize they still need someone in their circle. Both films are about folks who are holding onto their old ideals for how to get by, ones that no longer serve them, as society and the culture passes them by, and clinging onto old ideas about who they can be. These disparate comedies find intersection in their dry resonance and outward commentary about what it means to exist as a person living outside the mores of social norms, who really just want to be loved and accepted for who they see themselves as, something nobody else can really see about them.Read Calvin's review of Friendship on The Twin Geeks & Warren's review on The Playlist.

Felicia Maroni (Seeing Faces in Movies) joins the show to discuss the first half of John Cassavetes' filmography: Shadows (1958); Too Late Blues (1961); A Child is Waiting (1963); Faces (1968); Husbands (1970); and Minnie & Moskowicz (1971). When we talk about John Cassavetes, we're talking about the history of American independent movies, from what preceded and influenced the movement, to how the format adapted and was deeply influenced by the style of indie auteurs like Cassavetes. By studying this filmmaking tradition, we can give shape to a whole world of cinema crafted outside the system and trace every step of contemporary productions back to their root source. By working outside the system and against the market, Cassavetes created a new system and a new market. We explore the eccentricities of this improvisational and naturalistic filmmaker who changed movies forever, one Opening Night, one Face, one Husband, one Chinese Bookie, and one Woman Under the Influence at a time. Stay tuned as Felicia will return for the second half of our series, and some of the most influential indie films of all time, next month.

Your Christmas friends Calvin & Perla (follow on LB: pxcaballero) discuss cinema's weightiest Christmas film, Todd Haynes' exceptional Carol (2015). How do we perceive each other, Carol asks, at a perfect remove, characters stand back and observe one another. They take each other in. There is a boldness to let the movie happen, to always place the camera in the right place, having all the costumes right, having the right script, the right actors, the right everything, that goes right all the time. This is an intoxicating holiday concoction where characters hold their spaces on-screen, spaces that are of themselves and for each other. Always watching, standing in the back, perceiving, as we perceive them. Then it all comes together and is simply one of the greatest statements in romantic filmmaking. Carol is the best gift movies have given us for holidays and now we play it back for you. We wish all of our friends a safe and happy holiday season full of good movies and good cheer. Come for the holiday cheer and stay for the in-depth Carol discussion, starting at 41:43.

Our friend Caless (BlackNerdMagic) joins us for a momentous entry in online cinema discourse: Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972). We explore the rich themes of the flagship mob text, everything from the use of light and darkness to the film's systemic exploration of what draws its characters into lives of crime, and never lets go. One of the most storied movies ever made, we explore the dense text of the film, the context of its release, and how Coppola has shaped the future of crime cinema.A production of The Twin Geeks | Join our Discord

The night the Kentucky Gentleman came home! Our friend Jesse returns for our yearly tradition of exploiting the Halloween franchise for content. At this point, the series has received a genre-defining first film, a normal slasher sequel, a strange outlier sequel, a comeback movie, and now, a normal sequel to a comeback movie. That's how it goes with horror franchises, as we discuss exactly what has changed and what each change in the journey of the Halloween franchise means, as well as the many types of Halloween fans all these different entries have created, and the unique story of an unlicensed novelization that cause a stir on social media (you can find a free PDF here). We tie up the messy loose ends, find the fun and funny moments that nearly save the unquestionably middling movie, and as per our usual routine, find some time to review some Radiohead-adjacent material. Our first ever show was about a Halloween movie and this is one of our favorite series to put out into the world. Thank you so much for listening and please have yourself a safe and spooky Halloween.A production of The Twin Geeks | Join our Discord

Familycast resumes as Ezra joins the show to talk about her favorite things: Bluey, Nintendo Live, her cat, and everything else a six-year-old cares about. Thing about Bluey is that it's endlessly sweet, full of life lessons, beautiful character moments, and like Fast and Furious, it's about family. Likewise, Nintendo is for families, and we discuss our venture into the inaugural US edition of Nintendo Live at PAX West 2023. We also talk about other videogames, as Ezra endures a couple of minutes of Starfield talk, explains her love for the brilliantly creative Chicory, our discovery of a new local arcade,and more! This one is for the whole family.A production of The Twin Geeks | Join our Discord

Welcome Jack Davenport to the show as he sits in for our long overdue retrospective of Guy Maddin's poem of home, My Winnipeg. Famed The Twin Geeks composer, co-founder, and the ACK of The Stacks, excellent musician 10secondbeats on Spotify, and popular Letterboxd member, Jack wears many hats, and puts on another one, analyzing a great work of docufiction, for our latest program. My Winnipeg does not have many / any other films that are exactly like it. It is most like a silent film, despite the constant narrative that drives the story. It moves in poetic arcs through understanding spaces and places and what it means to the people who have lived there, finding that rare bottled-up filmmaking energy that seems to sprout out of Winnipeg very naturally. It's a fun and full show, as we offer our personal reflections on Guy Maddin's own personal reflections of where he's from. Won't you join us?A production of The Twin Geeks | Join our Discord

Matt Farley (of Motern Media notoriety — see: Local Legends (2013) & Magic Spot (2022)) joins the show to discuss Richard Linklater's seminal 2016 hangout movie Everybody Wants Some!! We discuss the great and varied career of Linklater and his unmatched ability to find the in-between moments of life while also allowing the audience to live with his characters for a while. You can catch up with all of Matt Farley's movies on our podcast dedicated to his filmography, Don't Let the Moterncast Get You.A production of The Twin Geeks | Join our Discord

Watching classic films on nitrate is one of the rarest opportunities in filmgoing and our friend Matt has attended an entire festival that works in this old tradition. Every time a nitrate picture is shown, the film degrades, and so herein presents a unique opportunity, to see these physical copies as they are now, how they will only be this once. A range of classic films is explored, centering on festival headliner Black Narcissus. We also explore the context and performance of the nitrate prints for The Third Man (1949), The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair (1939), Duel in the Sun (1947), and several other special selections.A production of The Twin Geeks | Join our Discord

Good for Health. Bad for Education. The Twin Geeks Editor Vaughn Swearingen joins the show to discuss Akira (1988) and why it has earned and maintained its title as The Definitive Anime. We use Akira as a launching point to discuss our month of Ani-May watches, our history with the medium, and the plethora of other great content that also deserves broad and international audiences.A production of The Twin Geeks | Join our Discord

If it's a podcast ya want, yer in one. Aaron White of Feelin' Film joins the show to discuss the spirited Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. From top-to-bottom, we trace the lineage of the Disneyland ride that inspired the franchise, the great Gore Verbinski action vehicles that defined the movies, those other two entries, and even a rarely-covered short film. Within our discourse, we discover a great love for the nautical adventuring series and lament the end of a certain kind of blockbuster that seemingly ended right after Verbinski's run and how the newer films also reflect a new reality.A production of The Twin Geeks | Join our Discord