Commentary Track: Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Explicit content warning

10/04/24 • 129 min

It's our 100th episode and to celebrate we're doing something a little different. This is a syncable commentary of one of the films that inspired this podcast - Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You (2018).

Sync up this episode with the film to watch along and hang out with us while we geek out over this brilliant directorial debut and biting social satire.

Sync up this episode with the film to watch along and hang out with us while we geek out over this brilliant directorial debut and biting social satire.

Previous Episode

The Paranoid Lens: Warren Beatty vs Chuck Norris in 1970's Political Thrillers

American cinema of the 1970's is generally known as the golden age of the paranoid thirller. Specifically, the paranoid political thriller. The genearl idealism of the 1960's was met with increasing cynicism by the 1970's, but do these films actually go for the politics of the era or are they just dealing with vibes?

In this episode, we focus on two films of the era; The Parallax View (1974) and Good Guys Wear Black (1978). Is it possible that an early Chuck Norris film has more to say about American politics than a Warren Beatty film that was made during the Watergate hearings?

We also briefly discuss a number of other films from the era, just to see if they're providing vibes or real content. Films discussed include; The Day of the Jackel (1973), The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973) [see our previous episode], Marathon Man (1976), All the President's Men (1976), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Domino Principle (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), and Cutters Way (1981).

This era also saw a proliferation of Biker films after the box office success of Easy Rider (1969). Two that we discuss because of their Vietnam War connection are The Losers (1970) and Brotherhood of Death (1976).

We also discuss two European examples just to see how the comparison works; Revolver (1973) and The Assassination (1972).

Next Episode

Our Primordial Past: Folk Horror in Penda's Fen (1974) & La Llorona (2019)

October has arrived and as we are wont to do here at The Politics of Cinema, we are diving into an approiate theme within the horror genre to celebrate. In the past we've looked at; Fascism in Green Room (2015), Humans Hunting Humans, Art House Horror, and the career of George Romero. This year we are heading into the thick of the woods to explore Folk Horror.

We discuss a few classics of the genre, such as Witchfinder General (1968), The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), The Wicker Man (1973), and Ganja & Hess (1973). We also connect the themes in those early films to those explored in modern folk horror like The Witch (2015), It Follows (2014), Hereditary (2018), and Midsommar (2019)—before Isaac reins us in so we don't include every single horror film in this genre.

Our main focus is also on one classic and one modern example: Penda's Fen (1974) and La Llorona (2019). These two striking examples of folk horror delve into the complexities of identity, history, and the landscapes that shape us. In Penda's Fen, we find a pagan anarchist manifesto within a coming-of-age story set in rural 1970s England. With La Llorona, we see how the ghosts of the past exact revenge on the Guatemalan General who orchestrated an Indigenous genocide. Both films yield surprisingly upbeat results within their narratives—at least to us.

If folk horror piques your interest, we would also highly recommend watching Keir-La Janisse's documentary, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021).