SEASON 3, EPISODE 21, RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR - The Gross Yet Compelling 80s Italo- Trash Masterpiece!

SEASON 3, EPISODE 23, MY DINNER WITH ANDRE: A SURREAL CONVERSATION COME TO LIFE!

This week on The Rad Revival House, we take a visit to the surrealistically simplistic world of Louis Malle’s MY DINNER WITH ANDRE! Returning to the RRH is frequent Special Guest Lecturer, Frank Mandosa of the great cinematic podcast, Reels of Cinema. Together, Frank and our host, Professor Cesare Augusto, analyze this deceptively simple, yet brilliant film from 1981.  On the surface, MY DINNER WITH ANDRE appears experimental. Its premise, a rather bizarre one: two old friends (Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, portraying artistic versions of their real selves), meet for dinner, and chat. And chat they do, for two hours. But these are no ordinary men. These two men are artists: Wally is an actor, and Andre is a playwright. Wally dreads seeing his old friend after years apart. And Andre has supposedly undergone a midlife crisis. They reunite at a fancy Manhattan restaurant, and what follows is a discussion for the ages. Andre reveals during his midlife crisis, he visited the world, met with strange characters, performed in strange rituals in different countries, and found decidedly new looks on reality, which he is more than happy to reveal to his old friend Wally. Wally, on the other hand, is relatively content on his simple life as a New York actor, and is stunned by his friend’s revelations. Shot in the low budget of $450,000, MY DINNER WITH ANDRE looks sparse and may look dull to the untrained eye. But what the film may lack in action, exaggeration, or rapid pace, it makes up with great acting, interesting dialogue, sharp wit, and Malle’s tight direction. Both Shawn and Gregory light the screen with their individual enthusiasms for their topics, enhancing the film with their emotional convictions towards their beliefs. The film looks like a play, shot in only one major setting, and zeroing in on the tiny cast’s dynamite performances. Anyone interested in creating intelligent, character-rich material should explore MY DINNER WITH ANDRE immediately!

SEASON 2, EPISODE 20, SLEEPING BEAUTY - The Gothic Animated Disney Animated Masterpiece!

Presenting a special two-fer of firsts at the Rad Revival House! We’re reviewing our first ANIMATED feature, as well as our first DISNEY film, with 1959’s SLEEPING BEAUTY! Aurora, a beautiful young princess, finds herself cursed by an alluring but evil fairy named Maleficent, who, after being slighted by the girl’s royal parents, hexes Aurora to prick her finger and fall into a deep sleep by her 16th birthday. Looking to offset the curse, three good magical fairies ally with a handsome young princess to break Maleficent’s deadly presence and save Aurora from certain doom. Making her first appearance as an RRH Special Guest Lecturer is Addyson Young, Programing Specialist at Bethlehem, PA’s own ArtsQuest, who provides strong insight into SLEEPING BEAUTY. Both Augusto and host Professor Cesare Augusto delves into SLEEPING BEAUTY’s charming soundtrack, elegantly drawn animation, and of course, the mesmerizingly frightening presence of chief antagonist Maleficent. Is Maleficent the scariest, most terrifying villain in all of Disney animation? Both Addyson and Cesare unanimously agree!

SEASON 3, EPISODE 22, HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL: TV's Knight in Western Armor!

The Rad Revival House returns to television with a look at 4 great episodes of the Western hit show, HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL! Our host, Professor Cesare Augusto, deep-dives in his favorite TV Western of all time. He reveals what makes this show so interesting, and how he first discovered it from, all things, STAND BY ME, his favorite film of all time, where the picture’s 4 young protagonists sing the show’s theme song on their way to see the dead body of Ray Brower!  HAVE GUN-WILL TRAVEL the show is unique purely from its main protagonist, the gentleman soldier of fortune Paladin (played by, as coined by great crime writer George Pelecanos: “proto-badass” Richard Boone). Cesare explores what makes Paladin so cool: as a frontier mercenary, Paladin is motivated by two things, money, and justice. While Paladin does enjoy the finer things in life (including living in relative luxury in a swanky San Francisco hotel), our hero is also driven by a strong personal code of honor, a sense of righteousness he uses to dispense justice to ordinary folks in the West who need it the most. The show is greatly bolstered by star Richard Boone’s tough-guy demeanor, sharp sense of fashion, and intense, brooding acting skill! As part of his deep dive, Cesare reviews 4 of his favorite episodes of HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL that he feels deserves to be analyzed and be viewed by serious aspiring Western writers: * THE MANHUNTER * NO VISITORS * FIRST, CATCH A TIGER * GENESIS

SEASON 3, EPISODE 21, RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR - The Gross Yet Compelling 80s Italo- Trash Masterpiece!

The Rad Revival House explores the gruesome sub-genre of Italian Sci-Fi Exploitation cinema with the bonkers 1984 picture, RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR!Appearing for the first time on our show as Special Guest Lecturer is Sam Panico of the cool AF cult film website B&S About Movies. Along with our host, Professor Cesare Augusto, Sam offers his enthusiastic insight about RATS and its bizarre take on the post-apocalyptic sub-genre of Science Fiction. After a nuclear war devastates the world, the human race has been split into two: the surface world, and the subterranean world. Making their way through the barren surface world is a diverse gang of misfit bikers, scavengers grabbing everything they can get to survive and enjoying themselves, too. They stumble upon a deserted research facility that is grotesquely infested with hordes upon hordes of disgusting, diseased-filled rats! One by one, the bikers are killed by the genetically-enhanced vermin, until a small few are left to fight for their survival. Cesare and Sam discuss the nasty yet surprisingly compelling production within RATS, how director Bruno Mattei was able to masterfully create a grim atmosphere despite a low budget, and how the picture’s special effects are effectively performed WITHOUT the use of slick special effects. RATS, as Sam said, is a strong example of how filmmakers can excel at being weird and being memorable, without having otherwise prolifically artistic visions in mind!

SEASON 3, EPISODE 20, YI YI - The Taiwanese Epic of Normal Life

The Rad Revival House ventures back to Asia with a look at the quiet, poignant character study YI YI, directed by Taiwanese film icon Edward Yang. Returning to the RRH is Special Guest Lecturer Sam Levy, co-host of the YouTube-based podcast “Informed Nostalgia.” Labeled by our host, Professor Cesare Augusto, as the go-to American guy for great Asian cinema, Sam originally recommended YI YI to us as essential viewing, and rightfully so!  YI YI explores the lives of a seemingly-ordinary family in Taipei: a workaholic father, a melancholic teenaged daughter, and a precocious schoolaged boy. But the film is anything but ordinary. The themes of remorse, regret, lost loves, the beginning of life, and life’s end with death are deeply explored in this picture. YI YI alternately explores the perspectives of the characters, shifting from one’s feelings towards their situations to another, shifting sometimes agonizingly slowly, but with great, delicate care, a cinematic signature of the director, Edward Yang. Cesare and Sam analyze the film’s quiet approach, how its somewhat sluggish pace may turn off mainstream viewers, but with enough patience from the audience, the film will win over many thanks to its very relatable worldly themes, despite taking place in Taiwan. Plus, our reviewers also embrace the film’s capture of an Asian family and how its more serious and realistic turn could help defeat standard cinematic cultural stereotypes of “Martial Arts” and allow for a greater, reflective look at regular Asians!