Mellow, spoiler-heavy discussions exploring an absurd physical media collection
Episodes
Sunday Jul 09, 2023
Sunday Jul 09, 2023
This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. conclude our coverage of the Female Prisoner Scorpion series with its off-model fourth entry, Female Prisoner Scorpion #701's Grudge Song (1973, directed by Yasuharu Hasebe, discussion running to 1:09:55), then we take a deep dive into the first disc of Indicator's From Hollywood to Heaven: The Lost and Saved Films of the Ormonds box set, covering Untamed Mistress, Please Don't Touch Me, White Lightnin' Road and the TV UFO doc Edge of Tomorrow (conflicting info on release dates, all directed by Ron Ormond, 1:09:55-2:32:10), and concluding as usual with some shorter reviews of the other physical media we've watched this week, leading into our decisions for next week.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Sunday Jul 02, 2023
Sunday Jul 02, 2023
This week it's a folk horror double feature, with the first ever Soviet horror film, 1967's Viy (directed by Konstantin Ershov and Georgy Kropachyov, running 0:00-1:07:56) followed by the 1970 Spanish true crime-themed folk horror Forest of the Wolf (aka The Ancines Woods, directed by Pedro Olea, running 1:07:56-2:11:10), and as always we conclude with discussion of other physical media we've watched this week and decide what to cover next.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Sunday Jun 25, 2023
Sunday Jun 25, 2023
This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. continue covering the Zatoichi series with the fourth entry, 1963's Zatoichi the Fugitive (directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, running to 1:15:17), followed by Bo Widerberg's 1976 police procedural The Man on the Roof (1:15:17-2:06:50), concluding as always with discussion of the other physical media we've watched in the past week and decisions on what to cover next week.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Sunday Jun 18, 2023
Sunday Jun 18, 2023
This week, Shana and j. start off the third year of The Stacks with an in-depth look at a fundamental modern classic, the 1999 David Fincher action satire Fight Club (0:00-2:03:35), followed by discussion of Al Adamson's 1964-1971 feature(s) Psycho A-Go-Go / Fiend With the Electronic Brain / Blood of Ghastly Horror (2:03:35-3:00:21), concluding as always with discussion of other physical media we've watched in the previous week and decide on next week's picks.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Sunday Jun 11, 2023
Sunday Jun 11, 2023
This week, we celebrate 100 episodes of The Stacks with Brian De Palma's 1996 blockbuster Mission: Impossible (0:00-1:16:40) and the 1988 Albert Pyun / Cannon Films fairytale Alien From L.A. (1:16:41-2:23:22), concluding with a look back on the 100ish movies we've watched in the past year, in the Stacks Awards.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Sunday Jun 04, 2023
Sunday Jun 04, 2023
This week on The Stacks, we dig into some truly brain-fried regional horror with Tim Ritter's 1987 16mm slasher satire Killing Spree (0:00-1:19:02), followed by the Tulsi & Shyam Ramsey 1988 Bollywood horror blast Veerana (1:19:02-2:32:35), concluding as usual with discussion of all the other physical media we've watched in the past week and deciding what to cover next week.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Sunday May 28, 2023
Sunday May 28, 2023
This week on The Stacks, we're talking about John McNaughton's 1998 beer ad noir Wild Things (0:00-1:25:25) and Michael J. Murphy's strange no-budget 1985ish meta-slasher Bloodstream (1:25:26-2:23:45), followed by discussion of all the other physical media we've watched since last time.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Sunday May 21, 2023
Sunday May 21, 2023
This week on The Stacks, in a bit of a change of pace, we're covering a collection of short films for our first part, the Mondo Macabro / Altered Innocence joint release Apocalypse After, collecting surrealist shorts from Bertand Mandico (discussion running 0:00-2:27:31), followed by Joe Swanberg's 2011 mumblecore drama Silver Bullets (2:27:31-3:24:19), concluding as usual with capsule reviews of all the other physical media we watched in the previous week, feeding into our picks for next week's episode.
Apologies for the missed week, a hand injury made editing quite difficult.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Sunday May 07, 2023
Sunday May 07, 2023
This week on The Stacks, we're returning to Arrow's Shawscope Volume 1 with Lau Kar-leung's great 1978 kung fu comedy Dirty Ho (0:00-1:12:48), followed by the 1967 James Bond feature You Only Live Twice, directed by Lewis Gilbert (1:12:49-3:02:20), concluding as usual with discussion of the various other physical media we've watched this week and choosing our picks for next week.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Sunday Apr 30, 2023
Sunday Apr 30, 2023
This week on The Stacks we're watching a couple deep vibes blue-tinted films involving erotic longing and mortality. First, we continue with our ongoing coverage of the films of Shinya Tsukamoto with 2002's blue pink film A Snake of June (and fill in a gap with a brief discussion of his early short film The Adventure of Denchu-kozo) (0:00-1:29:41), followed by our first venture into the moody romantic midnight world of Jean Rollin, with 1997's Two Orphan Vampires (1:29:42-2:39:57), concluding with discussion of all the other physical media we've watched in the past week as we decide what to cover next.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/