In this first of (at least) two discussions revolving around David Lynch, the gents focus on the director's underrated 1997 film Lost Highway. But first! A brief encore discussion the postpunk band Silkworm and the new article on this at PopMatters.

A&E discuss John Potash's 2019 documentary "Drugs as Weapons Against Us" as a way into a conversation about the intelligence community's overt interest in the drug trade-as-social-control. Also discussed: Tupac, Bob Marley, Henry Rollins, Dylan, Nirvana.

The gents reexamine Danish director Mads Brügger's 2019 film Cold Case Hammarskjöld in an effort to learn less about the United Nations than the Washington Consensus.

Here we go: A&E chat Stanley Kubrick's 1980 gem The Shining, wondering how it was that Kubrick saw into our unconscious. Again.

Richard Donner's The Goonies (1985). Quite possibly the strangest film of the 1980s, not so much because of the explicit treasure-hunting content of this "kids" movie so much as the subtext: child exploitation and neoliberal capitalism.

Reconsidering Ben Stiller's sleeper 2007 film Tropic Thunder, which, like the band formerly known as Viet Cong, does anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism better than old man Norm Chomley himself.

A&E note the passing of Jean-Luc Godard by revisiting his legacy generally, focusing on his 1963 film Contempt. Along the way we chat indie punkers Silkworm, the genius of Jack Palance, and the the future of film in the West.

A&E chat Alex Lee Moyer's compelling and nuanced Alex's War (2022), which survey's the career of Alex Jones from his youth in Austin, Texas, to his international fame.

A&E chat Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 masterpiece Stalker, the film that set modern science fiction on its trajectory, from Blade Runner and The Thing to Children of Men and Annihilation.

Pistol whipped

With friend of the pod Joe back for more abuse, yr hosts chat Matt Reeves's three hour incel turf war docu-drama, The Batman, wondering why it is Americans aren't allowed to make or see good movies anymore.

Here we go: aliens, conspiracies, the nature of consciousness, and the deep state. With the Steven M. Greer doc "Unacknowledged" as our launch pad, A&E take on each of these topics in turn, if for no other reason than to wax poetic on #Clutch.

A&E read the Ukraine-Russia war through the Laibach documentary film Predictions of Fire in an effort to come to grips with the fact that too many predictions seem to be actualizing. The end is nigh or something.

Ukraine vs The Card Counter

Reconsidering Martin Scorsese's 2006 film The Departed, A&E chat Boston, Catholicism, ideology, James Joyce, the Irish and, finally, if Mark Wahlberg's Dignam is right about the Irish and psychoanalysis.

Sympathy for The Devils

The lads double-down on Jay Baruchel's Goon franchise to chat transcendence, baton passing, and how the only way out of our predicament may require plunging ourselves down to the cold cold bottom of this dirty old town.

The bros share their experience of hockey as an idea and a source of harassment and/or transcendence via discussions of the Jay Baruchel film "Goon" and the Netflix documentary on the Danbury, Connecticut, minor league squad the Trashers.

Doon

A&E chat the new Todd Haynes film The Velvet Underground and explore why it was that Bob Dylan temporarily quit the game. Spoiler alert: not a motorcycle accident.