Today we’re diving into Cruel Intentions (1999), the teen remake of Dangerous Liaisons where rich French sociopaths are reimagined as extremely horny Manhattan step-siblings. Katherine and Sebastian pass the time manipulating classmates, wrecking reputations, and placing elaborate sex bets that would make the high school headmaster clutch his pearls. What follows is a glossy parade of betrayal, broken hearts, and moral rot served with peak ’90s fashion, prestige casting, and a movie that’s way too chill about homophobia, sexual assault, deciding who's redeemable, and who gets Sebastian's car.

The film stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillipe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair, Joshua Jackson, Christine Baranski, Sean Patrick Thomas, and Swoosie Kurtz, and has a run time of 1hr and 37 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Erin Maxwell & Kristina “Krissie” Rettig

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song & intro video by: Spooky Dan

Today, we’re talking about Richard Curtis’ 2003 Christmas classic Love Actually. This ensemble film shows nine interconnected stories of love’s various forms. From the unrequited love of Sarah for Carl or Mark for Juliet; to the meet-cutes of PM David and Natalie or John and Judy; to the tales of love betrayed like with Karen and Harry, the film explores how love is not only all around, but also playful, funny, longing, and heartbreaking. And it all takes place in the 3 weeks leading up to Christmas, which makes this an instant Christmas classic, even though it may be implying that it’s totally okay to tell your direct reports to shag the hot designer in the office.

The film has a stacked cast that includes: Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Laura Linney, Liam Neeson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln, Kiera Knightley, Martin Freeman, Chiwetel Ejiafor, and many others, and has a run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Erin Maxwell & Kristina “Krissie” Rettig

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song & intro video by: Spooky Dan

And today, take a little trip with me. Once upon a time, there was a man, and that man drew a mouse, and from that mouse grew an empire. In that empire was a whole slew of princesses that were appropriated from different cultures, who are all public domain and free to use. Yay! We love a happy story. In the beginning, these princesses were very simple. They were just young little girls who needed a man to save them, and that was very simple. But then, as audiences kind of evolved, so did the princesses, and a new generation of princesses came forth, ones that were resourceful and intelligent and yet still had to get married at the end of the movie. Recently, these princesses have come under fire because, well, even though Disney princesses have evolved dramatically over the years, there's still quite a few issues with them. There's some issues with how they act. There's some issues with how they grow as people. And there are some major issues with Pocahontas.

So today we're going to tackle the so-called princess problem.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

This week on Cinematix Problematix, we’re heading back to Faber College for John Landis' 1978 film Animal House, the movie that helped define frat-boy culture, brought John Belushi out of late-night and into cinemas, introduced toga parties into society, and is absolutely a minefield of 1970s “yikes.” And yes, we still kind of love it. Blame nostalgia. Or the soundtrack. Or the fact that the 1970s were lawless times.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Erin Maxwell & Kristina “Krissie” Rettig

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

Today, we’re talking about the 1993 Joel Schumacher film Falling Down. It follows a down-on-his luck man named William Foster (aka D-FENS) over the course of a 24 hour period on a hot day in 1990’s Los Angeles. Sitting in traffic, surrounded by a cacophonous crescendo of standard LA traffic stimuli, he abandons his car in the middle of the freeway, and sets off on a cross-city trek from East LA to Venice. Along the way, he takes out all of his pent-up resentments on a murderer’s row of LA archetypes that include: a Korean shopowner, hostile Latino gang members, homeless people, fast food workers, construction workers, a neo-nazi who owns a gun shop, and - my favorite - his ex wife (who has a restraining order against him).

Join us to discuss how this film is still relevant today, as well as to revel in how disturbed Erin was watching it.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

This week on Cinematix Problematix, we’re dissecting Robert Altman's 1970 war satire MASH*, the Vietnam-era movie that pretended to be about Korea so the studio wouldn’t panic. Join us as well to deconstruct this Robert Altman classic that has recently come under fire do to, well, a lot of things. Mostly having to do with Hot Lips.

This film sports an incredible ensemble cast of Donald Sutherland (Hawkeye Pierce), Elliot Gould (Trapper John McIntyre), Robert Duvall (Major Frank Burns), Tom Skerritt (Duke Forrest), Sally Kellerman (Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan), and many others. This film has a run time of 1 hr and 56 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Erin Maxwell & Kristina “Krissie” Rettig

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

This week on Cinematix Problematix, we’re cracking open the Disney vault — the part they pretend doesn’t exist — to revisit the 1946 film Song of the South, a movie so controversial that even Disney+ is like, “Yeah, we’re good.” Join us as we eviscerate this Disney "classic," a movie that has the chutzpah to not only be racist, but boring.

The film stars Ruth Warrick as Sally, Hattie McDaniel as Aunt Tempy, Bobby Discoll as lil’ Johnny, and Luanna Patton as Ginny, and the film has a brisk runtime of 1 hour and 34 minutes, and is still way too long.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

This week on Cinematix Problematix, we tackle Gone With the Wind: Hollywood’s glamorous love letter to the Confederacy, complete with plantation nostalgia, enslaved people who “love” their captors, and a heroine who treats the Civil War like an inconvenient garden party. Scarlett O’Hara shines as a heroine who can charm her way out of starvation, while the film clings to a fantasy where slavery was mild inconvenience to a few people and that the Civil War was for States Rights.. It’s epic, it’s iconic, and it’s a three-hour denial of history wrapped in great costumes and moral rot. Please enjoy.

This film stars Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Hattie MacDaniel, Olivia de Havilland, Butterfly McQueen, and Leslie Howard, and has an epic-worthy runtime of 3 hrs 58 minutes.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan