The Stacks

Episode 85 - Fucking Åmål + Alien: Covenant

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. discuss the 1997 Swedish coming-of-age LGBT romance Fucking Åmål (directed by Lukas Moodysson, discussion running to 1:28:46) and the most recent entry in the Alien franchise, 2017's Alien: Covenant (directed by Ridley Scott, discussion continuing to 2:47:59), as usual concluding with a run-through of all the other boutique blu-ray stuff we've watched this week and decision-making on what we'll cover next week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

Episode 84 - Rope + Trainspotting

This week on The Stacks, we're continuing our coverage of classic Alfred Hitchcock with his ambitious 1948 film Rope, loosely based on the Leopold & Loeb true crime case (0:00-1:40:33), followed by Danny Boyle's landmark 1996 film about heroin addicts in Scotland, Trainspotting (1:40:33-3:10:35), and concluding as always with The Watched Stacks, discussing additional movies watched this week and deciding what to cover next.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

Episode 83 - Black Sabbath + Freeway

This week on The Stacks, we're talking some fundamental stylish horror with 1963's Black Sabbath, directed by Mario Bava (discussion running to 1:33:45), followed by the 1996 black comedy / crime thriller Freeway, directed by Matthew Bright (discussion continuing to 2:32:25), as always concluding with some talk about other movies we've watched this week and decisions on what we'll cover next week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

Episode 82 - Stroszek + Prometheus

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. make a foray into the filmography of Werner Herzog with 1977's melancholy masterpiece Stroszek (discussion running to 1:20:27), followed by Ridley Scott's unfairly maligned 2012 quasi-prequel to Alien, Prometheus (discussion continuing to 3:06:46), which we come to praise, not to bury.

Apologies for some audio issues in the first fifteen minutes and dropouts during the Watched Stacks discussion of part three, they did not make themselves known until the edit.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

Episode 81 - The Godfather + Quai des Orfevres

This week on The Stacks, continuing our January resolutions month, Shana and j. go long on Francis Ford Coppolla's 1971 landmark The Godfather (discussion running to 2:14:46), followed by Henri-George Clouzot's also classic but very different 1947 crime film Quai des Orfevres (discussion continuing to 3:35:21), concluding as usual with some capsule reviews of other films we've watched in the past week and decisions on what we'll be covering next week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

Episode 80 - F for Fake + The Mephisto Waltz

This week in The Stacks, we're discussing Orson Welles' essay film on forgery and expertise, F for Fake (1973, discussion running to 1:36:55), followed by the early Satansploitation oddity The Mephisto Waltz (1971, directed by Paul Wendkos, discussion continuing to 2:59:31), followed as always by discussion of other movies we've watched during the week, and decisions on what we'll be covering next.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

Episode 79 - Shogun’s Shadow + Black Christmas

We kick off 2023's Resolutions Month in The Stacks with the high-octane 1989 jidaigeki Shogun's Shadow (directed by Yasuo Furuhata, discussion running to 1:12:53), followed by the original slasher, 1974's Black Christmas (directed by Bob Clark, discussion continuing to 2:47:37), as always concluding with discussion of various other movies watched in the previous week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

Episode 78 - Female Convict Scorpion: Beast Stable + The Siege of Firebase Gloria

For our last recording of 2022, we discuss the third in the Female Convict Scorpion series, 1973's Beast Stable (directed by Shunya Ito, discussion going to 1:12:31), followed by a dip into some Australian Namsploitation with Brian Trenchard-Smith's The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989, discussion continuing to 2:29:59), as always concluding with some short reviews of other stuff watched this week and decisions on what we're covering next to ring in the new year.

The live list of The Stacks can be found online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

Episode 77 - Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 + Santo vs Dr Death

A merry Christmas from The Stacks, as we discuss the heavily meme-ified Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987, edited/directed by Lee Henry, discussion running to 1:23:33), as well as our first dip into the lucha libre genre, with 1971's Santo vs Dr. Death (directed by Rafael Romero Marchent, discussion continuing to 2:43:59), followed as always with discussion of other films we've watched this week and our decisions on what to cover next week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

Episode 76 - Deranged + Another Day, Another Man

This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. talk about the 1974 Canuxploitation horror Deranged (directed by Alan Ormsby and Jeff Gillen, discussion running to 1:14:42), followed by our first dip into the Doris Wishman oeuvre with her 1966 clip-show movie Another Day, Another Man (discussion continuing to 2:16:30), concluding as always with discussion of additional movies watched this week, and our choices of what to cover next week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/