Ludicrously Specific

One of the most celebrated films of all time joins one of the least celebrated films of all time. What of the many possible possibilities brings these two films together? Well, of the many options, there's the phrase "of the", but there's another connection between SPECTER OF THE ROSE and THE RULES OF THE GAME: their multi-hyphenated creators!

From Stephen King ripoffs and champagne-drinking birds to art documentaries and dueling werewolf flicks, from Peter Greenaway to Takashi Miike, from Jimmy Stewart to Gong Li, once again, it's a slice of something for everybody as we review another month of viewing in the Ludicrously Specific household! (Note: any resemblance to an actual household is purely coincidental.)

With the venerable institution Sight and Sound releasing not only its top 100 list but every last film that got a vote, we decided it was well past time to get classy and choose two feature films to watch. Short ones. Ones available on streaming services in New Zealand. And by female directors. 
And *that* is how you get Valerie Massadian's NANA and Doris Wishman's BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL discussed in tandem, for the first and last time ever, on the same podcast. 

An existential Bergman classic. A Bible epic. A no-budget creature feature. Can you guess who watched what? If so, you know us better than we know ourselves! Some left-field viewing choices this month also include the second movie we've covered called DETENTION, Ernest Borgnine on a bus, Peter Sellers on a rampage, and a bear ... ON COCAINE?!?!?

What do Road House and Raw Deal have in common? If you say that they're 80s action movies, you're clearly not talking about the same film noirs that we are! And that's just the beginning of a long web of commonalities these two crackers share. We've divided this one into non-spoiler and spoiler sections, so if you're curious but averse to having too much ruined, you can safely eject before we give away every last thing (and also, for some damn reason, Skeet spoils Woman on the Run). Until then: enjoy!

It sounded so simple. We thought we'd watch every feature-length version of CAPE FEAR that wasn't CAPE FEAR (1962). Obviously there was Martin Scorsese's CAPE FEAR (1991), and less obviously, FORCE OF EVIL (not the film noir, but something much stranger and made for television), but our holy grail - the Bollywood version - proved elusive, while another version that shan't be named here (let's just say the title has three x's in it) ... well, we're far from prudish, but we have our limits. But nonetheless, we did what we do, and get into a rather robust disagreement over which cape we fear the most. 

Supernatural film noir, topless tennis smuggled into a martial arts film, Uruguayan cinematheques, 70s car chases, Bette Davis, and Jeff Goldblum. Join us for another rambling celebration of what's passed through our eyeholes in the last month! 
(Also: WRECK, mentioned by Darren, is on TVNZ+ now. Call this a show note. Would you like show notes? Let us know!)

Throw a dart at Martin Scorsese's filmography and you could come up with a subset of films to discuss. But who throws a dart at the bloody Roger Corman-produced BOXCAR BERTHA and the prestigious Oscar-winning PG-rated THE AGE OF INNOCENCE? No points for realising the answer is us. Join us as we connect the dots on two of Scorsese's literary adaptations, and see who's team "rabblerousing Barbara Hershey" and who's team "internally tortured Daniel Day-Lewis". The answer may surprise you!

It's 2023, and we're changing things up. From now on, we'll have a ramble of films we've seen as a standalone episode at the start of the month, and a deep dive into two films midway through the month. At least, for as long as we can keep it up! From BLOOD GAMES to ROVER DANGERFIELD to DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, and some little sci-fi film called NOPE, get ready to ramble through a month's worth of watching with Darren, Doug and Steve. 

Are you ready for this year's Ludicrously Specific Christmas special? We certainly weren't, which is why we recorded this three days after Christmas. That's okay, because when it comes to seasonal topicality, the three films that we found to chat about make DIE HARD look like THE NATIVITY STORY. So after a pre-chat that lasts longer than that leftover holiday ham, join us as we discuss three of the most seasonally-adjacent films out there: THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, ROCKY IV: ROCKY VS DRAGO, and THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE.