With both these releases we will be analyzing how frameworks provided by genre can be used in very different ways to explore identity and queerness - and how both horror and the coming of age genre has historically been well placed to do so. With this we will be looking at the lycanthropic cult classic of CanCon horror Ginger Snaps (2000) while also touching on Julia Ducournau’s full throttle cvntfest Titane (2021). The generic framework of Celine Sciamma’s genderqueer coming of age masterpiece Tomboy (2011) will also get the full BooF treatment.

We will be asking what insights we can gain from this and other tales of amour fou. Where does it fit in the canon of romance-gone-wrong horror films. Do these films have more to tell us about the manifold manic female love interests on screen, or perhaps more about the often divorced men who direct them.

With this in mind we will be exploring Cronenberg and Zulawski's divorce horrors the Brood (1979) and Possession (1981). With these, plus Kim Ki Young's the Housemaid (1960), we will explore how the genre has more broadly been used as a vehicle to explore relationships breaking down and breaking up. On top of that we will be assessing the obvious imprint of Possession and Pulse (2001) on Inde Navarrette's powerhouse performance.

Oscar has been a stalwart in the New York independent film circuit, working as a producer on some of the definitive independent films of the last fifteen years, such as Frances Ha (2012), Good Time (2017), Uncut Gems (2019) and Funny Pages (2022). With Our Hero, Balthazar he has carried the torch in creating another darkly comic and original work, punctuated with the anxious aesthetic of his peers.

The debut charts a wealthy teenager who tries to gain his crush's attention by posting videos pleading for stricter gun laws. As an online troll begins mocking his videos, he becomes convinced the troll is a mass shooter, and travels to Texas to confront him. Balancing a sardonic tone with radical sincerity, the film chronicles the corrosive experience of coming of age in the digital economy.

We will be discussing the films manifold influences such as Larry Clark's Bully (2001), Gregg Araki's the Doom Generation (1995) and Olivier Assayas's Cold Water (1994), as well as our chat with Oscar which focuses on challenging central characters, guerilla marketing strategies and shitting your pants.

With Boots Riley filtering the colonial world of high fashion through his surrealist, marxist-motivated lens in I Love Boosters, and the Devil Wears Prada 2 waging war on the technologization of fashion, journalism and the soul, we decided to ask - has Dadaism been sewn deeply into their filmic outfits? Does… the Devil Wear Dada?

In short - probably not. But as a pair of technophobic luddites we decided it would be good to look at how the legacy of Dada and AI anxiety lives in the seams of some cult-favourite films. With this in mind we decided to dizzy ourselves with Alejandro Jodorowski’s spiritually surreal The Holy Mountain (1973), before endorsing the technophobia inherent in Mick Jackson’s anti-war dirge Threads (1984). As well as this we will be looking at two of 1995’s cyberpunk selections in Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days and Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell.

Music from potential candidates for psyop summer 2026 in Angine de Poitrine, TAGABOW and more.

We decided to review the film (without spoilers), and then look past the aggressive marketing strategies and ask what compels the edgelord writer/director to tell these stories. Perhaps it has something to do with an essay published by the director on an age gap relationship from his past. Perhaps not, all will be revealed.

We will be taking the non-rom-coms story of secrecy and using it, as always, to look back and around the world at other films which have likewise explored the secrets and lies of it’s central characters.

We will also be looking at Michael Haneke’s classic psychosexual drama The Piano Teacher (2001), Asghar Farhadi’s divorce drama A Separation (2011), Todd Hayne’s May December (2023), and Denis Villeneuve's Incendies (2010). Music from PJ Harvey, Mess Esque, Jason Molina and more.

Who are they? What do they want? Why are they so good at writing and subsequently adapting things? We will be looking at other works written by young women and adapted for the silver screen. We will be deep diving into Emerald Fennels bastardized Brontë, then Marjane Satrafi’s Persepolis (2007) and Clio Barnard’s harrowing documentary The Arbor (2010). As well as this we will be asking if Catherine Hardwicke’s dual adaptations Thirteen (2003) and Twilight (2007) deserve critical reevaluation. Other chat includes Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006) and Andrea Dunbar/Alan Clarke's Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1987).

Music from Aphex Twin, Parastoo Ahmadi, Big Star and more.