Mike joins Jim Laczkowski of The Director's Club alongside the great writer, commentator, and historian Heather Drain to dig into the work of one of cinema's most singular visionaries.
The conversation centers on two landmark films — The Holy Mountain and Santa Sangre — though Jodo's broader filmography weaves its way throughout. Jodorowsky has something in common with filmmakers like PT Anderson, David Lynch, and Sam Raimi: he treats cinema like a playground of the subconscious, an empty canvas reflecting an uncompromising reality that is equal parts bleak and beautiful.
The first hour focuses on The Holy Mountain, while the second jumps into Santa Sangre and much more. There are laughs, fireworks, acid trips, and digressions galore — all in the spirit of a true artist who has likely changed lives, befuddled others, and created remarkable work that is entirely his own. No timestamps necessary for this one. Be sure to also seek out another Jodorowsky masterpiece, El Topo.
Sci-Fi July dives deep into the sublime with Upstream Color (2013), Shane Carruth’s mesmerizing meditation on identity, connection, and control.
Co-hosts Ben Buckingham and Jim Laczkowski join Mike to untangle the film’s elliptical narrative, which follows a woman who is drugged, robbed, and psychically linked to a pig as part of a surreal cycle of manipulation and rebirth. A bold, enigmatic follow-up to Primer, Carruth’s film is an audiovisual trance, blurring the line between organism and environment, memory and self. We explore the film’s layered metaphors, sound design, and experimental structure — and maybe, just maybe, crack its code.
Special Guest: Lisa Gottlieb Guest Co-Hosts: Rahne Alexander, Jim Laczkowski
Directed by Lisa Gottlieb, Just One of the Guys (1985) stars Joyce Hyser as Terry Griffith, a reporter for her school paper who feels she’s being discriminated against by her teacher when it comes to a potential summer internship at the Sun-Tribune. In order to prove that she has what it takes she goes undercover as a teenage boy.
#Czechtember2018 concludes with a look at Václav Vorlícek's Who Wants to Kill Jessie? (1966). Co-written by Vorlicek and Milos Macourek, the film concerns a couple, Ruzenka and and Jindrich Beránek. Ruzenka (Dana Medrická) is a prestigious scientist who has discovered how to manipulate dreams -- though there are some unexpected consequences. Meanwhile, Jindrich (Jirí Sovák) makes his own discovery as he reads a comic series about Jessie (Olga Schoberová) and her anti-gravitational gloves, just the thing to help him out at his job.
Special Guest: Barney Cohen Guest Co-Hosts: Jim Laczkowski, Kat Ellinger
On this Shocktober special, Kat Ellinger of the Daughters of Darkness podcast and Jim Laczkowski of the Directors Club podcast (among others) join Mike to discuss the 1986 horror comedy from director William Fruet, Killer Party in which a trio of young women (Elaine Wilkes, Joanna Johnson, Alicia Fleer) rush a sorority with horrific results including hazing, murder, and demonic possession.
Writer Barney Cohen talks about Killer Party, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, and the unmade Spiderman film.
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