We interrupt your regularly scheduled podcast to hash out our Bugonia feelings - does Yorgos Lanthimos strike a chord with his sci-fi class war extremity, or do these provocations ring hollow? Topics include: Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, Stanley Kubrick and Rian Johnson, and the nature of meaning in the universe.

Next week: The Conformist (1970) by Bernardo Bertolucci

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

This week we tackle another “reclaimed” classic, actress Barbara Loden’s sole feature-length directing effort, the spare character study Wanda. Should we be wary, like Paul Schrader suggested after the 2022 BFI Sight and Sound List was published, of the new canonizing of just this sort of previously unsung film? To find the answer, we go deep on Loden’s aesthetic choices, and the themes to be teased out of both the images and the narrative of this american ghost story.

Next week: The Conformist (1970) by Bernardo Bertolucci

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

King Hu stood at a crossroads early in his career, just before the release of 1967’s Dragon Inn. He had left Hong Kong and the film industry he had just begun to break into, following his mentor Li Han-Hsiang to Taiwan at a time when there was no taiwanese film industry. To make matters worse, Li’s epic gamble Beauty of Beauties had just flopped, casting the entire future of their independent enterprise into doubt. Against all odds, Dragon Inn was a smash success, and set the template for King’s fantastical high-flying martial arts films to follow. On this episode we discuss his direct follow-up, a film that threatens to bend the genre beyond its breaking point, and we interrogate what works and what doesn’t about one of the most ambitious chinese films to date.

0:00 - J Brooks recaps the 60’s in film

3:30 - A Touch of Zen discussion

59:12 - Zach shares his top 5 albums to check out from 1970

Next week: Wanda (1970) by Barbara Loden

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

What does it mean to be an artist in a fascist country? Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio appears to be less about revolutionary politics and more about the universal experience of two generations of a family struggling to relate. The politics are timely, but is there something untoward about an overtly political film, especially in the Trump era, that wants to frontline its emotional family drama and sideline, or altogether avoid, a tangible call to action? We put our heads together to examine the role of film in politics, and what One Battle After Another has to say about idealism, political unrest, and America’s #1 weirdo, Sean Penn.

Next week: A Touch of Zen (1970) by King Hu

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Do yourself a favor, and watch this Toshio Matsumoto film. It’s made by a playful and original filmmaker, whom was almost certainly versed in the work of Godard, Resnais, and every other new wave voice in that moment, but whom brought his own eye and his own inventions to film and made something totally new. It stars strikingly beautiful trans and queer actors that you’d otherwise never see on film, whom perform in daring roles with aplomb, and get to speak for themselves in documentary interludes. And it captures a world in flux, when a booming postwar Japan is seeing young people stand up and rebel against all of society’s traditions. In this episode, we discuss the film’s legacy, the Oedipus myth, and our own experiences navigating gender.

Next up: One Battle After Another (2025) by Paul Thomas Anderson

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

A new generation of cinephilic filmmakers have arrived on the scene in the US; raised on Hitchcock and Godard, these youngsters know what makes a film feel exciting, and they know how to get their kicks in real life too: with drugs and women. But, as we examine on this episode, Easy Rider is not just a hangout film. Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson are out to explore why they’ve hit the road and why this generation is so rebellious, and that means examining both the country and themselves. Throw in some gorgeous photography and an innovative rock and roll soundtrack, and you’ve got the formula for one of the biggest box office hits of 1969.

Next up: Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) by Toshio Matsumoto, and then, One Battle After Another (2025) by Paul Thomas Anderson

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Jean-Pierre Melville’s look back at the perilous times of France’s occupation during WWII arrived while the French were trying to look forward; protests and workers’ strikes throughout ‘68 had attempted to spur change in de Gaulle’s government, and that man, who had made a political career of his role in the campaign to free France from nazi occupation, was the last person that young audiences wanted to see celebrated. Army of Shadows was a box office failure as a result, but more recent reevaluations have heralded the film as one of Melville’s best. We examine how the genre filmmaker confronted the audience with impossible questions and avoided propagandistic pitfalls, and we lose our minds over some of the more shocking scenes in cinema history.

And at the end (51:33), Zach shares his top 5 albums to check out from the year 1969!

Next week: Easy Rider (1969) by Dennis Hopper

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Pier Paolo Pasolini described his 1968 film with young star Terence Stamp as the story of when “a young man, maybe god, maybe the devil, that is to say, authenticity, visits this bourgeois family,” and the aftermath that follows. It’s a boldly provocative work from a gay catholic marxist that never failed to speak his mind, even when it meant defying those whom might otherwise identify with him. It’s also a work that skirts many lines: comic and tragic, flippant and earnest, indulgent and austere. We had to break down the film character by character, and get at the heart of Pasolini’s persona, to decide how we feel about the one and only Teorema!

Next week: Army of Shadows (1969) by Jean-Pierre Melville

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy