Trylove

Claire Denis’s moving, poetic portrait of repression in the armed forces might be one of the best movies of all time. In the French Foreign Legion, there are beautiful, elegant young men; there’s their goblinish commander; and there’s nowhere else to go for any of them. The group’s leader, Galoup (Denis Lavant), is hopelessly in thrall to his own superior, Forestier (Michel Subor) — so when young newcomer Sentain (Grégoire Colin) starts to court attention from Forestier, Galoup resorts to subterfuge and abuse of authority to keep Sentain in line with the rest of his section. A masterpiece of visual storytelling and queer cinema, BEAU TRAVAIL is a sordid story of jealousy, externalized repression, and the struggle to find oneself beneath layers of oneself. References: “All Our Trashcans Within: Tears and Other Feelings in Claire Denis’s Beau Travail” by Ben Tuthill for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “Solar Citalopram: Beau Travail, Ken, and Burning Isolation” by Finn Odum for Perisphere, the Trylon blog Claire Denis and Barry Jenkins on Beau Travail “Desire is violence”: Claire Denis on Beau Travail | Sight and Sound Denis Lavant on BEAU TRAVAIL - The Criterion Channel Reebok or Nike : r/funny Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #LaSauvagerieetBeautédeClaireDenis #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 325: BEAU TRAVAIL (1999) 2:29 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 4:02 - People who are what (or are in places where) they shouldn’t be 18:47 - Counterpoint of image and story, visual and narrative 27:54 - Beautiful boys, colonialism, homoeroticism, and heteronormativity 35:07 - Galoup’s attempt to externalize his hatred of expression 47:48 - The all-timer ending scene 56:20 - The Junk Drawer 1:01:33 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1999 1:03:29 - Cody’s Noteys: The House of Champions: 1999 (deciding the best movie from 1999)

With Natalie Marlin! Just like the earth he exploits, there’s something roiling under the surface of the wheel-and-dealing Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis): A devilish, almost cartoonishly villainous veneer conceals a deep self-hatred. And like all good capitalists, he uses it to fuel the next great pain he can inflict on the people and world around him, from the local preacher of a podunk town to his specious, long-lost brother to his own adopted son. THERE WILL BE BLOOD kicked off a hell of a run for Paul Thomas Anderson, so for our last episode on his films, we’re happily welcoming Natalie back to the mic for a bit of show-and-tell on when this movie entered our lives, the impact of seeing it as a teen film lover in the mid-aughts, and the crusty layers it reveals more than a decade later. Plus, why THERE WILL BE BLOOD would be a great 4DX movie, the inevitable porn parody jokes, and say doesn’t Jason’s moustache look a little familiar now? Find Natalie… On Twitter and Bluesky at @NataliesNotInIt On Letterboxd at @framingthepic In the byline for Noise Music, a forthcoming entry in Genre: A 33 ⅓ Series book about the noise genre and its influences on and intersections with culture On Trylove Episode 162: THE THIRD MAN (1949), Episode 182: CHESS OF THE WIND (1979), Episode 197: RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985), Episode 210: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015), Episode 239: MILLENNIUM MAMBO (2001), Episode 249: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018), ZARDOZ (1974), NOSTALGHIA (1987), SECONDS (1966) References: “Death Grips’ ‘The Powers That B’ Turns 10” by Natalie Marlin for Stereogum “Unsex Me Here” by Aurora Mattia at Night Boat Books, for which Trylove guest Abbie Phelps did design and layout work Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #TheMasterworksofPaulThomasAnderson #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "Proven Lands" by Jonny Greenwood from the THERE WILL BE BLOOD soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 324: THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007) 3:47 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 5:39 - Our histories with this movie (or lack thereof) 21:51 - Daniel Plainview, the cartoon villain afraid of his own insides 28:30 - Daniel Plainview, the cartoon villain afraid of his own insides 43:02 - How Daniel reflects the fragile human systems of the era 49:23 - The performative relationships Daniel has with H.W. (and everyone) 54:52 - Eli Sunday and the fraught relationship between organized faith and capital 1:03:30 - “Pathetic” depictions of violence 1:14:13 - The language of Jonny Greenwood’s score 1:20:36 - The Junk Drawer 1:27:04 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 2007 1:33:15 - Cody’s Noteys: When Will There Be Blood? (trivia about when blood first appears in the runtime of various films)

Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Alma Elson (Vicky Krieps) are caught in a cycle: Reynolds’s obsession with his dressmaking craft and his deceased mother send him dithering between immense sweetness and crass irritability, with Alma often on the receiving end of both his affection and his aloofness. But while Alma’s not the first to suffer Reynolds’s mercurial temperament, she’s the first who seems ready to do something about it. We’ve welcomed returning guest Abbie Phelps to pull at the stitches of PHANTOM THREAD! It got its flowers when it was released to critical acclaim, dozens of nominations, and plenty of industry awards, but we’re taking advantage of nearly a decade of discussion around it to see if we can’t provide some more depth to the discussion around Paul Thomas Anderson’s period drama. In this episode, we discover how the power dynamic of PHANTOM THREAD’s central relationship isn’t as one-sided as you might first assume; prod at the psychological forces that have taken root in the aging craftsman Woodcock; and consider just how seriously we should take that ending! Find Abbie… On Bluesky On Letterboxd On Trylove episodes about DRIVE ANGRY (2011), WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005), THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), TOUCH OF EVIL (1958), THE TRAIN (1964), MOULIN ROUGE! (2001) References: “Psychoanalyze Me, Mommy: Making Sense of the Mother Role in Phantom Thread” by Sophie Durbin for Perisphere, the Trylon blog Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #TheMasterworksofPaulThomasAnderson #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "House of Woodcock" by Jonny Greenwood from the PHANTOM THREAD soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 323: PHANTOM THREAD (with Abbie Phelps) 2:51 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 4:02 - Our collective mileage with PHANTOM THREAD and Paul Thomas Anderson 14:19 - Constructing Reynolds and Alma, two ridiculous people 20:25 - Mapping PHANTOM THREAD against PTA's history of bonkers characters 27:53 - Are we on board with Reynolds's and Alma's quests for self-actualization? 37:06 - Influences from Gothic literature (among other places) (or guy who’s recently into the Bronte sisters: “Getting a lot of Bronte vibes from this”) 47:11 - How Cyril fits into the film's power structures 57:20 - "Jonny Greenwood is that bitch": how PHANTOM THREAD sounds and looks 1:04:53 - The Junk Drawer 1:14:23 - To All the Loves We've Tried Before: 2017 1:17:39 - Cody's Noteys: PTA ETA (guessing the runtime of various Paul Thomas Anderson films)

After making a movie that actually got a Best Picture nomination, Paul Thomas Anderson wrote and directed another that famously didn’t: THE MASTER, a psychological examination of postwar trauma and peacetime opportunism. In this episode, we try to go past the easy read of THE MASTER as simple corollary for cult dynamics, heap an appropriate amount of praise on Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, cast a suspicious glance in Joaquin Phoenix’s direction, and press a button that says “PIG FUCK” more than a few times. References: “The Many Singular Faces of The Master” by Ryan Sanderson for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “Schrödinger’s Cat Walks Into a Bar…” by Nazeeh Alghazawneh for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “An In-Depth Look At Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master' Religious Cult Screenplay” at The Playlist (February 17, 2010) Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #TheMasterworksofPaulThomasAnderson #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "On A Slow Boat to China" by Frank Loesser as performed by Peggy Lee and Bing Crosby. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 322: THE MASTER (2012) 5:25 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 8:20 - Contemporary takes on THE MASTER 20:49 - Why “it’s a movie about Scientology” feels old hat 25:10 - Freddie, Dodd, and what makes The Cause so appealing to wealthy white Americans in 1950 39:15 - Contradictions 57:21 - Peggy Dodd (or Paul Thomas Anderson’s use of gender here) 1:12:34 - The Junk Drawer 1:23:26 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 2012 1:29:05 - Cody’s Noteys: All Calm Guess Spanned Works In (shared cast & crew trivia for THE MASTER and other movies)

Three podcasters watched a movie and recorded their conversation about it afterward… and I would like to think this was only a matter of chance. Our Paul Thomas Anderson series keeps a-rollin’ with MAGNOLIA, his “blank check” movie after the success of BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997). The intention was to make something he’d never get the chance to make again — something big and strange and audacious. Is the resulting three-hour opus a work of idiosyncratic genius? Or was this one of those times PTA just got a bit big for his britches? References: “Music as a Balm: My Appreciation for Magnolia’s Mid-Film Sing-Along” by David Potvin for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “WTF Frogs!? You know what? Sure. Why not? Why Magnolia So Fully Captures the Ennui of the End of the 20th Century” by Allison Vincent for Perisphere, the Trylon blog Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #TheMasterworksofPaulThomasAnderson #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Wise Up” by Aimee Mann as performed in MAGNOLIA.

With Blake Hester! Paul Thomas Anderson’s retrospective dramatization of the ‘70s porn industry isn’t exactly rosy, but it’s certainly not dour, either. It’s kind of situated between those poles, balancing hangout vibes and deeply depressing shit to keep it right where you want a movie to be — tragic, fun, and eminently watchable. Find Blake… At https://blakehester.rocks/ On Bluesky at @metallicaisrad.bsky.social In the pages of “The Oral History of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Music Game Boom”, the crowdfunded tome he’s writing about the peripheral-based music video game genre On Something Rotten, the podcast he co-hosts about nihilism On Trylove episodes about POSSESSION (1981), PULSE (2001), BURST CITY (1982), SAMURAI REINCARNATION (1981), SAILOR SUIT AND MACHINE GUN (1981) On Letterboxd at @blakedtfp References: “Livin’ Thing: An Oral History of ‘Boogie Nights’” by Alex French and Howie Kahn for Grantland Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #TheMasterworksofPaulThomasAnderson #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro from BOOGIE NIGHTS. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 320: BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997) 6:03 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 7:55 - Where we’re coming at this movie from 15:55 - Precision 22:36 - Dread for the ‘80s 27:08 - Flexible people who have the space to become their “true” selves 34:41 - The 1980s and the artifice of the pornography industry 37:44 - Long tracking shots and a pivot to a bittersweet ending 1:01:40 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1997 1:05:38 - The Junk Drawer 1:17:10 - Cody's Noteys: Trylove Nose Best ("boogie" trivia)

THE LOST WEEKEND is a weird movie to talk about 80 years after it came out. It’s a drama directed by Billy Wilder about an alcoholic writer who keeps trying and failing to kick the habit, so you can see why you might have to give it a touch of grace for its various… depictions. In 1945, it was a beacon of empathy for the addict’s struggle, the first time an alcoholic was portrayed as more than an incompetent or a villain in a big-budget Hollywood movie. It even won Best Picture at the 18th Academy Awards! But how does it work in 2025? That’s just one topic of discussion as we dive into THE LOST WEEKEND, along with its side cast, its striking score, and what the hell a “gin and vermouth” is if not a martini. Plus, Cody has kidnapped The Weeknd and is leaving us THE SNOWMAN (2017)-like clues to find him before time runs out. References: “Bottomless” by Patrick Clifford for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “The Lost Weekend: An Act of Understanding” by Jackson Stern for Perisphere, the Trylon blog Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #DialMforMilland #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro: “The Walk” composed by Miklós Rózsa from the THE LOST WEEKEND soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 319: THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) 5:39 - The episode actually starts 8:50 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 10:08 - What worked and what didn't 19:10 - Aaron plays devil’s advocate because he liked it more than the rest of us 33:57 - The freaky hospital scene and Bim Nolan 36:27 - Can a movie have “too much sympathy” for its main character? 45:23 - Helen, Gloria, and characters who reflect Don back at himself 52:41 - How would you have preferred it end? 59:05 - The Junk Drawer 1:02:02 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1945 1:04:39 - Cody’s Noteys: The Lost Weeknd (The Weeknd has gone missing, and we have to follow Cody’s riddles to find him)

A touchstone of visual storytelling, an example of the power of short-form film, and an inspiration to surrealist storytellers like David Lynch, Maya Deren’s MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON pulls big philosophical questions out of simple materials. Through visual substitution, object manipulation, arrhythmic editing, and all sorts of narrative trickery, a surreal dream outlines one woman’s fruitless pursuit of ‘true’ identity and her struggle to self-define against the social roles bestowed upon her. At just 14 minutes long, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON rocks, no matter which way you watch it. Our recommendation? Turn off the sound, lean in, and pay close attention. References: Watch MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON with Teiji Ito’s score on the Internet Archive or Vimeo Find the music of Minneapolis “organic electronic” duo ten thousand lakes on Bandcamp “Oneiric Reflections and Rebirth of Femininity in Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) & At Land (1944)” by Olivia Fredrickson for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “ten thousand lakes and the Maya Deren Project: Creating Music for a Surrealist Masterpiece” by Malcolm Cooke for Perisphere, the Trylon blog Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #OtherProgramming #DCP Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro: “Schiele” by ten thousand lakes, which accompanied the Trylon’s screening of MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON in February 2025. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 318: MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943) 2:14 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 4:57 - Versions of this movie and how it changes based on what you watched 11:12 - Is there a consistent thread to grab here? Or is it free association? 26:19 - Subjectivity, objects that change upon perception, and identities that shift without your consent 37:18 - How much of it is “real”? How much is “a dream”? How much of that “matters”? 42:34 - The hooded figure, Maya Deren’s socialism, and violent revelations of the unconscious 45:56 - Form: Looping, duplication, space, and “emotive immediacy” 1:05:49 - The Junk Drawer 1:09:40 - To All the Loves We've Tried Before: 1943 1:10:35 - Cody’s Noteys: Truth or Deren (truth or dare but the dare triggers an open trivia question)

Paul Schrader’s directorial debut isn’t a tale of a fearless crew punching up at their company overlords and the corrupt union that’s supposed to protect them. Instead, it’s a tale of compromise. The kind you make, and the kind that gets made for you. The kind you desperately hope means something in the end, anyway. In this episode, we discuss the excellent casting; how it’s great that Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto kind of get to be in their own movies here; the forces that pit men who should stand in solidarity against one another; and how it’d be pretty cool to have a life where you work hard, clock out, hit the bar, and go bowling with your pals on the weekend. **References: ** “Long Nights, Impossible Odds, Keeping My Back To the Wall” by Lucas Hardwick for Perisphere, the Trylon blog “Blue Collar: A Rare, Authentic Working-Class Drama” by Ed Dykhuizen for Perisphere, the Trylon blog Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #CultFilmCollective #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro: “Hard Workin’ Man” composed by Jack Nitzsche with lyrics by Jack Nitzsche, Ry Cooder, and Paul Schrader and performed by Captain Beefheart from the BLUE COLLAR soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 137: BLUE COLLAR (1978) 4:59 - The episode actually starts 6:26 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 7:18 - Politics, smoothness, anger, performances, and Schrader 19:45 - The cast 27:08 - How the movie highlights weariness with comedy 42:10 - The virtue of a nuanceless movie 48:13 - The moment that suddenly pits Zeke, Jerry, and Smokey against each other 55:01 - What the movie does and doesn’t show us, and what that does for the feeling of the movie 1:04:32 - The Junk Drawer 1:10:01 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1978 1:11:36 - Cody’s Noteys: Boo, Call Her! (trivia for movies with impassioned speeches)

XANADU is a musical fantasy film released in 1980 directed by Robert Greenwald. It stars Olivia Newton-John as Kira, Michael Beck as Sonny Malone, and Gene Kelly as Danny McGuire. Sonny is an artist toiling away painting album covers for a living. Danny is a has-been song and dance man resigned to retirement after a career in construction. Kira is an immortal muse sent from a mythological plane to bring Sonny and Danny together so they can create a performing arts roller skating club called XANADU. XANADU sucks. Famously. It’s well understood to be one of the worst movies ever made. It helped invent the Golden Raspberry Awards. We don’t have much nice to say about it, either — we think it’s embarrassing at best. But we, the Xanadudes, down two hosts this week, still try to pull apart what does and doesn’t work and why in this strange misstep of a musical. **References: ** “The Tortured Muse Department: Xanadu” by John Costello for Perisphere, the Trylon blog Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices! Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog #MichaelBeck #35mm Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast, Bluesky at @trylovepodca.st, and email us at [email protected] to get in touch! Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro: “Whenever You're Away from Me” composed by John Farrar and performed by Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton-John from the XANADU soundtrack. Timestamps Coming soon! Maybe. I’m trying, okay?