Michelle Pfeiffer in ‘Basic Instinct’ Would’ve Put Me in the Hospital Too
The best film stuff from the week of April 13-19
For many of us, quarantine has become a time to rewatch and relitigate old film favorites with people online. From day to day, you never know what actor, movie, or franchise is going to be trending on Twitter. And most pop-culture writers and publications out there seem to be following suit.
It was great week for 80s and 90s erotic thrillers at The Ringer. On Monday, Basic Instinct was the subject of the Rewatchables podcast. Watch the episode on YouTube to see Mallory Rubin make Bill Simmons turn purple as she breaks down the movie’s most famous sex scene (otherwise known as “the fuck of the century”) in excruciating detail. Also, Simmons says he’d still be in the hospital if Michelle Pfeiffer had played Catherine Tramell … as would I.
On The Big Picture podcast, Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, and New York Times critic Wesley Morris broke down the highs and lows of the erotic thriller genre while compiling a Top 10 list for all you horny quarantined peeps out there.
This was me when the episode began with a needle drop from the Body Double soundtrack:
Also at The Ringer, Manuela Lazic gave us a thoughtful look back at American Psycho, which turned 20 years old this week.
Priscilla Page wrote a great piece on The Hunt for Red October for her Patreon. Jack Ryan movies were never really my thing, but Page makes an infectious case for the movie as a riveting men-of-letters vs. men-of-action tale. Her uncanny ability to make you want to fall in love with every movie she loves is what makes Page one of my favorite film writers working today.
On the New Beverly theater’s Pure Cinema Podcast, Edgar Wright joined hosts Erlic Kane and Brian Saur to talk about his “100 Favorite Comedies” list on Letterboxd.
Speaking of the New Beverly, owner Quentin Tarantino contributed to the New Beverly blog this week with a review of blaxploitation classic The Mack. Tarantino’s reviews for the blog are more mini film-history lessons than straight reviews, with some rapid-fire insights and Hollywood memories thrown in for good measure. If you like the way Tarantino talks about movies, his reviews are fun reads.
Over at the A.V. Club, Tom Briehan dissected Beverly Hills Cop, the landmark 1984 action-comedy that kicked off the Eddie Murphy juggernaut in earnest. The piece is part of Briehan’s Popcorn Champs series, where he examines the highest grossing movie of every year since 1960. Back to the Future is up next.
For the New Yorker, Richard Brody wrote about a subject near and dear to my heart — missing movie theaters. More specifically, the piece is about the loss of great movie theater programming from repertory houses.
Finally, this hilarious, painful fuckup happened.
