Paid in Puke S10E9: The Last Seduction

On season 10, episode 9 of Paid in Puke, we’re falling for John Dahl’s 1993 neo-noir The Last Seduction, starring Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, and Bill Pullman. Fiorentino commands the screen as a femme fatale who is as brilliant and sexy as she is cold, and calculating. She steals the whole pot from a joint drug deal devised with her husband (Pullman), and hides out in small town in upstate NY. There, she passes the time with a naive townie (Berg), who eventually proves himself to be useful in ways other than sex. Dahl directed this film as a black comedy, but the script is also extremely smart and tight, making it a standout of the 90’s neo-noir genre. 

We have a lot of fun dissecting Bridget’s schemes, appreciating her fashion and quick wit, marveling at the range of Bill Pullman, the ahead-of its time race and homophobia commentary (including a non-problematic trans character played by an actual trans woman!) and the surprising connections to Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar.

On the Lunchtime Poll, we reveal the aliases we would adopt if we were ever to go on the lam.

Listen to the episode!

Hammer to Nail: SIFF 2017 Wrap-Up

Better late than never!

The 2017 Seattle International Film Festival, which runs for 25 days every spring in the Emerald City, is four weeks of wall-to-wall, butt-numbing entertainment. This year’s festival took place May 18th to June 11th and featured 400 films from 80 countries. All told, there were 750 festival screenings and events, including 36 world premieres. That’s a lot of time spent in a dark theater. On the festival’s final day, the SIFF employees who introduced the screenings asked the audience how many of them had seen over 100 SIFF films this year. I was shocked when a couple of people actually raised their hands. Those folks averaged 4 films per day. My itinerary wasn’t quite as impressive, but I did manage to squeeze in 26 films, at an average of 1 per day. Hey, I had to see my kids some time.

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Special honored guests included Angelica Houston, who received an award for Outstanding Achievement in Acting; and the buttery-voiced cowboy Sam Elliott, who spent an afternoon reminiscing about his career and taking questions from an enthusiastic audience.

There were a lot of great films this year.

Read about them on Hammer to Nail!