The Letterboxd Show 2.10: Justin LaLiberty
[clip of SexWorld plays]
I go to X-rated movies.
I mean—triple-X-rated movies.
Lisa, you’ve come a long way to spend the weekend here. Sex World can help you. But only if you tell me what will make this weekend wipe out all the past bad times you’ve had. Trust me.
[clip of SexWorld ends]
[The Letterboxd Show theme music Vampiros Dancoteque by Moniker fades in, plays alone, fades down]
SLIM Welcome to Gemma are ed by a Letterboxd friend for a chat about their four favorite films. That is the four films you choose as your favorites on your Letterboxd profile. As you listen along, we’ll have links in the episode notes to the movies, lists and people we talk about. So there’s no excuse not to add these films to your watchlists. Today, our guest is one member of an esteemed curation that has spent the past few months bringing absolute filth to Letterboxd. He is a projectionist film programmer, obsessive cinephile and an archivist at Vinegar Syndrome. He is Justin LaLiberty.
GEMMA Justin’s Letterboxd handle is J—the letter J—SexWorld. Which brings us straight to it. At Letterboxd we’ve just turned on the ability to opt in to see adult content. 1,500 X-rated titles that haven’t previously been available for various reasons. But due to very classy lobbying by folks such as yourself, Justin, we are finally plugging holes left, right and center. How does it feel?
JUSTIN It feels good. I guess—to plug holes. [Gemma laughs] But yeah, it’s been a long road. So I think everybody who’s been involved is very relieved to have it be real. And it’s also humbling just to kind of see people using it, you know, like going on, g on now and maybe temporarily forgetting that it’s real and then seeing people logging and reviewing and conversations happening is really rewarding.
SLIM Can I just point out too real quick? The amount of puns in that announcement post, that I presume were added by Gemma, were off the charts. We hit like a pun record, I think, in that post. It was amazing, by the way.
GEMMA Thank you very much. I mean, it’s not hard. And that’s obviously the first thing that’s—[Slim laughs]
SLIM Already she already did another one!
GEMMA Ohhh! [Slim laughs] And obviously, and we can see that on our socials, it’s the first place that people go. But as you say, Justin, what’s probably quite gratifying, I’m trying to avoid puns now. [Gemma laughs] It’s quite hard. As to move beyond the, you know, witty one liners that that came flooding in this week. And look at the, I guess, the deeper reviews that are coming out about what these films mean. And I know that we’re going to talk about your four favorites in a minute. But you also mentioned that you wanted to talk about a film from the ’70s called A Woman’s Torment which Vinegar Syndrome restored and brought back to life. So why do you want to start there?
JUSTIN Well, I guess there’s a number of reasons. But the easy answer is that through this launch, I did curate a list of 30 films from genre film directors that also worked in adult cinema. And A Woman’s Torment, it’s hard to say that movies erotic. [Justin laughs] It’s erotic in that there is sex in it, but it is not erotic in that it is like a sexy movie. It is a very like frank study of human people doing potentially inhuman things. And it’s dark.
GEMMA We should back it up a little and talk about who is the woman and why is she tormented? For those listening who haven’t ever come across this film.
JUSTIN I mean, I’m not good at synopsis, I kind of hate the exercise of synopsis. [Slim laughs] Just a fair warning.
GEMMA I can have a crack at it!
JUSTIN You should have a crack because I’m really bad at it.
GEMMA So there’s a woman called Karen and she’s living in a beach house that she’s also maybe running, renting rooms to people—I don’t know. I think has a flashback near the beginning that alludes to a potentially traumatic relationship or relationships, ways that she has been treated by men in the past. Which has led to some mental health problems where she just disassociates or associates sex with violence. Meanwhile, across town, there’s her sister, and her sister’s bestie and their husbands having various varieties of sex whilst also having a lot of conversations about what they’re going to do with Karen. Which I think boils down to having her committed at some point. And I think for me, that was—I don’t know if Roberta meant it as humorous. But there’s a lot of comedy in there kind of juxtaposition of scenes like, there’s a scene where they’re all drinking and standing around a piano singing Roll Out the Barrel and it keeps cutting back to Karen at the beach house, committing post-coital a violent murder on one of her victims. And yeah, it’s wild. I love it. That’s the exploitation factor, I guess.
JUSTIN Yeah. I mean, it’s a hard movie to summarize, because so much of it is also internalized. You know, you’re watching, it’s almost like, you know, I think the obvious sort of comparisons outside of the the adult world are like A Woman’s Torment is, it’s one of the only ones at least that I’ve seen, that is explicit in nature. Whereas usually, these are films that are, you know, are made by studios, or they were made by even independent distributors. But they were typically, you know, maybe R-rated at worst. So it’s rare to kind of see something that’s dealing with this type of internal dialogue and mental illness and then have it also have these, you know, graphic sex scenes. But I think that it works as well, if not better without them, is a testament to Roberta Findlay as a filmmaker.
SLIM Yeah, I was gonna say in my review, I pointed out how this felt like—A Woman’s Torment was my first foray into any of the movies that are available in the sorted lists that you and the team have created, which are amazing. So I have friends that collect Vinegar Syndrome Blu-rays, and I knew that some of these movies were adult films. But up until this release from Letterboxd, I wasn’t aware of the historical context and the impact of these with cinephile. So I had like, zero clue. So how do you as someone who is well aware of these movies, and as a curator, how do you go about educating people and explaining to people that like, you know, this isn’t the kind of film that you rent at a video store at like one AM necessarily like wine thirty. These are movies that have like a cultural resonance for movie lovers. How do you go about doing that in a way that kind of connects with people?
JUSTIN I think this is a start. You know, I think the Letterboxd forum is a major step forward. You know, when you look at, like, kind of how we discuss film or interact with film in like a contemporary way and in a social media landscape, Letterboxd is—I mean, that’s, you know, I feel like I’m an ad for Letterboxd. [Gemma & Slim laugh]
GEMMA It’s fine, so is this podcast. It’s all good.
SLIM Check’s in the mail.
JUSTIN It’s like that’s it! You know, there’s no like—I guess you could say, you know, there’s IMDb. But they got rid of their forums. And like, you know, there’s not really another avenue that’s similar. And there’s like a real currency to it. And there’s a currency to kind of having these avenues of like, you know, I guess “sophisticated” in quotation marks, you know, places to discuss film. Because Letterboxd isn’t necessarily a pretentious forum. It can be, but I mean, that’s all about who you bring to the table, and how you kind of interact on that level. But it’s a popular space, it has a high hip base. And it, you know, goes from everything from like the most important cinema of record, you know, from the 1890s, the 1920s, ’30s, whatever, and then up until now. So it’s this wide breadth of cinema. And then in that wide breadth of cinema, you’re missing these films that mattered. And I think going and saying, “hey, we recognize that these should have been included and now they are’ people are going to pay attention to that.” They’re going to go, oh, maybe I should look at this list and see what these films are. And, you know, maybe there’s some that they’re going to look at on there and go, this is not what I’m looking for, you know, maybe they’re not looking for the Opening of Misty Beethoven. And there’s different degrees. And you know, that’s kind of what we brought to the list. It was never just one of the top twenty adult movies ever made on an artistic merit basis. And to me there’s no way to do that. Like you can’t build any type of film canon. If you look at like the Sight and Sound list or something and say this is the end-all-be-all of what cinema has to offer, people are gonna feel alienated. And you have to bring that same kind of curation to adult cinema too. Because it’s not all going to be ‘what are the greatest films ever made?’ Some of it is what are some of the most popular films ever made? Or what are some guilty pleasures? I mean, I hate the term guilty pleasures. But you know, what are some adult films that are just like, ridiculously fun to watch with your friends at midnight. Because this doesn’t have to just be something that’s educational. And there is part of that, you know, there is historical relevance, there is potential for sex education in some of these. There’s, you know, potential for raising awareness of marginalized voices. There’s all these like important boxes to check. But at the end of the day, there also is entertainment. And some of these movies are fun. And maybe you would gain something from watching them at a party. Or, you know, getting your local theater to program them. Or something like that that brings them more to the forefront and it’s not just people sitting at home with a notebook going ‘I’ve seen this film now, I’ve seen Deep Throat now. It’s important in film history.’ Which is great. You know, that is something that we want, but we also want them to just be fun.
SLIM We will come back to sex soon. But we have to dig into your four favorites. Showdown in Little Tokyo is our first.
GEMMA Let’s go!
SLIM Tagline for this movie. ONE’S A WARRIOR. ONE’S A WISE GUY. THEY’RE TWO L.A. COPS GOING AFTER A GANG OF DRUG LORDS. FEET FIRST. [Gemma laughs] 1991 with these two. My first note about this movie—is Dolph Lundgren one of the most underrated action star of our time?
JUSTIN Yeah, I would say so.
SLIM I mean, it’s disgusting that he doesn’t get the respect that he deserves. [Gemma laughs] Do you the first time you saw Showdown in Little Tokyo? What was that experience like?
[music from Showdown in Little Tokyo plays]
JUSTIN I was I think—it was when it came out, around when it came out. So I think I was six. I was like six years old.
SLIM Oh my god. [Slim & Gemma laugh]
JUSTIN I mean, I grew up with this stuff. I mean, that’s why Showdown in Little Tokyo is definitely the movie in this list that we’re going to talk about that I’ve seen the most times in my life just growing up with it.
GEMMA I love how diligently you have logged it on Letterboxd by the way. And I suspect that it’s not every time you’ve seen it in the past five years.
JUSTIN No, just since using Letterboxd I guess. [Gemma laughs] Yeah, I’ve seen it quite a few times and it’s easy to do that because it’s only 79 minutes long.
SLIM Magic number.
GEMMA That was my review. Perfect runtime. Oh my god. [Slim laughs] There is nothing else this film needs, right? Except maybe just another shot of Dolph’s ass but apart from that—I love where this lands on Letterboxd. I mean, it turns up in lists like Showdown in Little Tokyo that just really speaks to you?
JUSTIN I mean, all of it is excessive. You know, there’s the scene where they have the sushi on the naked lady and Brandon Lee, just as all of a sudden, like, I guess I’ll eat fish. [Gemma & Slim laugh] I don’t eat raw fish. And then as soon as it’s on a naked woman, he’s like, I guess I’ll eat that. I mean, there’s the severed head scene is ridiculous.
GEMMA Oh my god.
JUSTIN Notoriously cut to avoid NC-17. So that was, you know, part of the runtime is because it was censored when it came out. And the Australian version is actually uncensored. So if you do want to see the uncut version, look at the Australian release. But yeah, I mean, the whole thing is, it’s ridiculous. One of my favorite things and you know, these body movies when they get kind of homoerotic.
[clip of Showdown in Little Tokyo plays]
MURATA Kenner. In case we get killed, I wanted to tell you—you have the biggest dick I’ve ever seen on a man.
KENNER Thanks.
[clip of Showdown in Little Tokyo ends]
JUSTIN There’s nothing else like it. [Slim & Gemma laugh] None of these other movies will go there. They always like hint at it but Showdown in Little Tokyo is just like, fuck it, you have the biggest dick I’ve ever seen.
GEMMA It’s interesting that you call out that line because as I was trawling through the Letterboxd reviews of this film, I noticed men after men, male reviewer after male reviewer calling issue with a line that comes just before that, which is when Tia and Dolph are having sex. And she says—because this is running thing about how he leaves her with a gun in his in his apartment. And then he says “shoot anything that moves.” And she says, “but what if I shoot you?” and he says “you won’t hear me come in.” Then later, they have sex. And she goes—
[clip of Showdown in Little Tokyo plays]
MINAKO That time—I heard you coming.
[clip of Showdown in Little Tokyo plays]
GEMMA That is a perfect line! That is bringing comedy into the bedroom, which you know, most human people do in their sex lives. But they don’t often do on screen. It’s always very serious. And then I just see all these dudes on Letterboxd going ’That was the worst line! That should have been cut from the film!’
SLIM My god.
GEMMA I’m like, I’m sorry, that was your problem with this movie? [Slim laughs] The one consensual sex scene, when she has a little joke at the end of it, was your problem? And none of the rest of the misogyny and racism bothered you at all?
SLIM These people need to watch some James Bond movies. I mean, if you think that line is bad, watch any of the 100 James Bond movies that exist today.
GEMMA Oh my god.
SLIM What is it about Dolph Lundgren? Because I think you previously had Universal Soldier III, in the Letterboxd favorites for a while. So like, there was a brief period, I was like, oh, man, I can’t wait to watch this. But it moved. And that’s okay. But what is it about Dolph, you think, that draws you to his films?
JUSTIN I mean, he’s just consistent. You know, and the one I had was, it was Universal Soldier: Regeneration. And I think Dolph’s like finally getting to really act. And he’s like a legitimately good actor. You know, he’s great in, you know, the Rocky movies. He’s really good when he’s doing any of that, but it’s nice seeing him just get to like flexes acting muscles. And for a while he was just, you know, sort of relegated to kind of like direct-to-video stuff. And there’s definitely some credibility there. I think a lot of that DTV stuff is really good. And he makes it work. But there’s something about him that just felt like he was kind of pushed to the side. You know, it was like, he wasn’t as bankable as Stallone or Schwarzenegger and it just felt like he kind of got, just got ignored.
GEMMA Do you think it’s because Hollywood was scared of his 160 IQ and his Master’s degree in chemical engineering?
JUSTIN He is probably the smartest guy in the room whenever he’s in a room. [Slim & Justin laugh] This is certainly true.
GEMMA I have recently become obsessed with Dolph on of having read Grace Jones’s recent memoir, which itself is a work of art, as she is. But I just love his whole journey to Hollywood via, you know, amazing grace. Which is that he was in Australia studying for the first part of this chemical engineering career that he never really went on to have. And needed some part time work as a student, was working as a bodyguard, ended up buddy guarding at a Grace Jones concert while she was on tour, ended up being her body man as she went around some nightclubs. And then of course, she just imported him to America with her, got him a bit part in A View to a Kill. Speaking of Bond movies. And it all just took off from there!
JUSTIN He does have a great Instagram and his cat is awesome. So find him on Instagram because he posts photos of his cat and it’s great.
GEMMA We were talking just before you came on, Justin. Slim and I were we’re talking about how imagine—okay, picture this—a movie that is Dolph Lundgren and Mads Mikkelsen partnering up late in life. Under the Tuscan Sun 2, but as Slim suggested, Tuscan is spelt with a 2 for the T. [Slim laughs] And it’s just— it’s just like soft-core buddy romance for ladies in the hot Tuscan sunshine. Is Hollywood listening?
SLIM Vinegar Syndrome, are you listening? Can we can we get an immediate 4K released in UHD of this movie please?
JUSTIN The disk would arrive sweating which is pretty gross. [Slim laughs]
SLIM Special yellow themed discs to match the Tuscan sun.
GEMMA Oh my god!
SLIM We need to drift into the next movie on Justin’s favs right now.
GEMMA Do we? I’m still thinking about the scene where they collect olives and press them into oil and then—[Slim laughs]
SLIM We’ll come back. We’ll check in on Gemma in a few minutes after the Under the 2uscan Sun 2 waves subside. But Bones? [music from Bones fades in]
JUSTIN I love it. Like unabashedly love it. I think, you know, when you get into 2000’s horror, 2000s wasn’t like, you know, it’s not the greatest decade for horror. And even if you look at like, you know, horror from 2001, you’re kind of looking at like what? Blacula. You know, it’s taking these blaxploitation tropes. And then it’s also taking like, tropes from Jolo. Like the whole thing is lit like it’s a Jolo movie. The blood is like, you know, melted crayons, it’s bright red. [Slim laughs]
SLIM It looks so—yeah—so retro in this movie.
JUSTIN It doesn’t fit like any of what you know studios were doing for horror movies, which is why this is weird that it came out of a major studio. Which, again, speaks to how bankable Snoop Dogg was at the time, because without Snoop Dogg, this movie wouldn’t exist. Even that poster taglines hilarious, it’s like ‘Unleash the Dogg’. D-O-G-G. [Slim laughs] So it’s one of those things where it’s like this movie was definitely made around Snoop Dogg being who he was. And it feels like it was just plucked from the ’70s and put on screens in the 2000s. And it works. I think it’s a miracle that it works. But I think that’s also a testament to how gifted Ernest Dickerson is as a filmmaker, and he’s incredibly underrated.
SLIM Yeah, yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I was watching it. I was actually pretty surprised that I enjoyed it so much. You’re exactly right about the era of like forgotten films. Thir13en Ghosts, I think I recently watched and I had a miserable time watching that. But this was fun! I love the backstory of the characters, you know from the 70s and then them getting older and having kids and having the backstory come back and really just unravel. But I was just so pleasantly surprised watching this. Gemma, what did you think?
GEMMA I loved how long this ghost took to awaken. [Slim laughs] Ghosts don’t normally take this long to awaken, right?! From the depths of the underworld. But it took Snoop pretty much the entire movie to pull himself back together. I did not love the maggots.
SLIM Gross.
GEMMA I had a recent holiday house experience involving temperatures that got too hot and a rubbish bag that had been left on the floor and woke up the next morning and the entire floor was moving.
SLIM Disgusting.
GEMMA Wow! So this should have come with a goddamn trigger warning for maggots. But I have to say if anyone’s listening, I was a little bit disappointed to log on to Letterboxd and search ‘maggots in movies’ and there are no lists. And like, we’ve got The Lost Boys. There’s a lot of maggots and movies.
SLIM How about the house? The building that these kids buy in the middle of this town, dirty as hell.
JUSTIN I mean, I think the fun thing about the building is you know this is totally like a dark horse narrative about gentrification., You know, and Ernest Dickerson kind of did this with pretty much all of his features, especially his theatrical features, where he’s bringing a lot into it that, you know, you’re not necessarily seeing in other genre movies of the time. Like most studio horror movies, especially studio horror movies from the 2000s aren’t dealing with like corrupt cops, gentrification, you know, drug use that’s kind of running rampant and communities that are underprivileged. And I think that says a lot about who he is as a person and the kind of films he wants to make. So yeah, I think that the house, you know, most haunted house movies, the house is incredibly important. But I think this one in particular, it has a lot more to say than just being, you know, a force for horror.
GEMMA Yeah, it sits in a Letterboxd list called Jungle Cruise, starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson. [Slim laughs] So he’s come a long way.
SLIM Dwayne, DJ, are you listening? We’re ready for a Bones spiritual successor starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson.
GEMMA Oh my god!
SLIM Before we leave Bones, you talked briefly about Ernest Dickerson, and I think some of his other movies are among your favorites. And that might not pop to mind, that director, for a lot of our listeners, but what is it about Ernest films that resonate with you so deeply and become some of your favorites to rewatch?
JUSTIN I just think he approaches genre in a way that’s different from other people. Like, you know, you have Bones. And that’s one of the best ’90s horror movies, like, full stop. And people know it as a Tales from the Crypt movie, but nobody really talks about it isn’t Ernest Dickerson movie. And that movie is fully his. Like it feels like an Ernest Dickerson movie, but it will always be branded as a Tales from the Crypt movie.
GEMMA One of my favorite things about Lettterboxd is when you can go to a movie page, like Never Die Alone and see, oh, it’s got a 2.8 rating. Do I bother? Search by friends, and then I find that all the people I know and love on Letterboxd basically give it a four and a half to five. And because, you know, people like me who are all about those Dutch angles. It’s just that way that we don’t have to write things off straightaway. If you’re following the right people. And obviously I am.
SLIM 100% agree.
GEMMA I would like to move on to your next favorite film, by way of remarking that this is a bringing together of two very important lists on Letterboxd. The first list is by you, Justin. It’s called Breathless, starring Richard Gere and Valérie Kaprisky.
SLIM It’s like the meme from Breathless. [music from Breathless fades in]
JUSTIN Well, I mean, it’s Breathless is that when I was a film programmer, I played this movie on Valentine’s Day. And the only people in the theater were myself and a soul, elderly lady.
GEMMA You’ve been together ever since! [Gemma laughs]
JUSTIN My wife was not there. Nobody wants to watch it! So I ended up, I watched this whole movie, I got a 35mm print. It looked amazing. We’re in a 200-something-person theater, just the two of us. I’m all the way up in the front. She’s all the way in the back. We watched the whole thing. And then, you know, it’s Valentine’s Day. We get out. It’s like 11:30 at night, and we’re the only two people and we just like talk about Breathless and that’s it.
SLIM That’s amazing.
JUSTIN That’s the only other time I’ve watched Breathless with someone.
SLIM You mentioned the red. How about the shots of him in that car with just the red lighting behind him? That felt like I instantly got Quentin Tarantino vibes obviously, modern day movies. But man, what a great looking shot and theme to put in those driving scenes.
JUSTIN Yeah, it’s beautiful. And Tarantino is like a noted fan of it, too, which makes perfect sense. Because you can kind of pull different elements from it and it becomes True Romance script.
SLIM I grew up reading comic books and still read comic books. So the Silver Surfer stuff was like, knocked me out. I mean he explicitly quotes from several Silver Surfer comic books out loud and I was like whoa, what is going on here?! What year is this? We’re getting some comic book talk?
[clip of Breathless plays]
YOUNG KID Man, you like The Silver Surfer?
JESSE Yeah, I like the Surfman.
YOUNG KID I think he’s a jerk.
JESSE No! No, man, he’s a hero! He’s trying to save the world from Galactus. What’s wrong with that?
YOUNG KID He’s crazy! He could get away any time he wants. He’s got the power cosmic.
JESSE You know why he stays? He stays ’cause he likes it here on Earth. He wants to help the people out.
YOUNG KID Yeah, but they don’t want his help.
[clip of Breathless ends]
GEMMA Can I read this Letterboxd review from JosephKidney who writes ‘Jean Seberg yelling “New York Herald Tribune” = iconic. Richard Gere arguing with a literal child about the Silver Surfer = more iconic.’
JUSTIN I love it. You know, it’s it’s one of those things where, you know, we’re so steeped in kind of comic book stuff now that when we see it pop up an ’80s movie, it’s almost weird. And outside of, you know, I guess you have like—if we go back to Dolph Lundgren, he was the Punisher in 1989.
SLIM Yes! Yes!
JUSTIN But we also had like Larry Cohen’s, The Ambulance, which is a great movie from the ’80s. And like Stan Lee is in it and like Marvel Comics figures into it. But, you know, we forget that like Marvel wasn’t this force then. Like, putting the Silver Surfer as like a weird cultural touchstone in your movie was not like a cool thing to do. People were probably watching this being like, this is stupid. [Slim laugh] Like, you know, comic books are like for children. Like, this is weird. They weren’t this like, massive thing they are now. So when you go back to it, it’s pretty weird. Like, it doesn’t gel with like, whatever else you kind of see from that era. But I find it endearing. You know, I find it, it’s endearing. And then it’s also, it’s risky. You know, it’s nice to see that risk being taken where like Jim McBride is just like, I like the Silver Surfer. Like fuck it. I’m putting it in this movie. Like, I know I shouldn’t, but I’m going to do it. And I’m going to have these weird scenes where he’s like, narrating his life, like it’s a Silver Surfer comic.
GEMMA What is your relationship with the City of Los Angeles? Both personally and in film? And how does Breathless fit within their relationship?
JUSTIN I have a very minimal relationship with LA in my life. I’ve been there but I’ve never lived there. And most of my dealings with it are professional. [Justin laughs] It’s like phone calls to people in LA. But I mean, cinema wise, LA is, you know, it’s LA. Like, you can’t really escape it. And one of my favorite documentaries or essay films of all time is Breathless is really great, because it’s almost like a travelogue in LA. Like, you’re just kind of going all over the city. And it’s really stunning to see.
SLIM Yeah, before we get into your next movie, maybe one other note that I wanted to call out to, referencing the way this film exists. Jack wrote in the notes “this film’s existence is bananas to me.” [Slim & Gemma laugh] Jack who gets our fact every week. I think he’s right on there.
GEMMA Oh my god.
SLIM Shall we move into SexWorld?
JUSTIN Yes!
SLIM The fourth film in Justin’s Letterboxd favorites.
GEMMA Let’s get on the bus! [Slim laughs]
SLIM What a logo this movie has too. I mean, the logo that the sexual company has, amazing. So the tagline for SexWorld, Justin.
JUSTIN I mean, it has the best theme song ever made.
GEMMA Ever. 100%.
JUSTIN All you need to know about SexWorld is the theme song is the best thing you’ve ever heard.
[SexWorld theme song fades in]
GEMMA Let’s just pause a moment and listen to that.
[SexWorld theme song plays alone, fades out]
SLIM While I’m watching this movie, I googled for a boutique vinyl release of this movie and Vinegar Syndrome had put one out and it’s sold out. I was so pissed. [Slim laughs]
JUSTIN Yeah, we definitely put that out. It’s an important soundtrack.
GEMMA So what I love about this, is you’ve got—there’s no sex for a while—there’s a bunch of people on a bus and then is Wayne the tour guide, who is letting everyone know what they’re in for. So they’re on a journey to this destination, which is literally a building called SexWorld where you explain what your sex desires are. But what I love about it is that while you’re on the bus, heading towards the destination, you’re also getting the backstories of the people. So Wayne’s kind of asking the guests on the bus why are you coming here? And then you go into the backstory and you learn that there’s problems in the relationship or there’s some loneliness or this phone sex fantasy isn’t quite playing out how she’d like it to. And I love that there’s just a lot of fullness and sort of fulsomeness to the stories. But having said that, somebody on Letterboxd—Rob—wrote, ‘I wish they cut the sex and stuck to the story. Was genuinely interested in where the plot could go and then it finishes.’ And I’m like, Rob, it’s called SexWorld. [Slim laughs]
JUSTIN Well, good for Rob. He can get our release that has a softcore version and he won’t have to watch as much sex!
SLIM Take that, Rob! I know you’re listening right now, Rob! [Gemma laughs] Yeah, when I was watching this, I love the setup of this on that bus. The backstory of those characters about why they’re going to SexWorld. And this might sound like a slight because I’m such an new entrant into this filmography but like this felt like a mainstream film that I’m used to watching. You know what I mean? And you talked about how the first movie we talked about felt like a movie that I would see on Shudder, this has that same vibe. Like, this is not what I was expecting, I guess I could say, in a little more clearer way.
JUSTIN Yeah, I mean, one of the things that, you know, I point to SexWorld for, and the reason I have it, you know, in my favorites right now, which was targeted to this conversation, is I think it’s the perfect gateway movie to like, what we’re doing. You know, A Woman’s Torment is a great movie, and it’s probably a perfect gateway to people who are like, more genre minded. But SexWorld is like, it’s relatively playful. It’s not too rough. Like, there’s some scenes that are like, a little bit rough, but they’re in the context of like, people’s fantasies. And, I mean, if you’re already reading 50 Shades of Grey or something, it doesn’t get any more, you know, kind of like bondage like that. [Slim & Justin laugh]
SLIM That’s a good point.
GEMMA No, no one’s getting tied up.
JUSTIN It’s a very tame movie, you know, for what it is. Like, you’re gonna see everything that you’re going to see in an adult film. But outside of that, it’s very good natured. You know, I think a lot of it’s relatable. I think it’s one of those adult films that you can watch and I think a lot of couples can kind of see like something of themselves in this movie. Because you’re just dealing with all these different people who have these different relationship struggles, or internal struggles and fantasies, either, you know, in tandem with another person or by themselves. And I think it’s a very relatable movie. And it’s also to its credit, a really beautifully looking movie. So it looks great. You know, it’s a ’70s movie that has sort of a sci-fi flair. It’s not a very sci-fi heavy movie, but it has a similar vibe to something like THX 1138. You know, these movies that have this kind of like sparse, but very identifiable sci-fi aesthetic, and I think SexWorld also has that. And then its use of color is gorgeous, which, I mean, in an advertising bid for Vinegar Syndrome, we did recently put this out on 4K UHD.
SLIM God bless.
JUSTIN Which is the first adult film to be released on the format. And it looks striking. I know I sent you a copy, Gemma.
GEMMA Yeah, the production design of this and, you know, and with a decent version to look at is just stunning. It’s absolutely stunning. I don’t know. Have you seen that film Pleasure? Did you see it at Sundance, it’s coming out I think later this year.
JUSTIN Yeah, I saw it.
GEMMA Yeah, it’s gonna be really interesting for film lovers who are also porn lovers to watch that film, you know, through the eyes of an actress in the 21st-century porn industry. But for me—ah, I just love the ’70s man. [Gemma laughs] I love the bush. I love the focus on the clitoris. I love the focus on pleasure rather than cum shots. I love the kind of lack of makeup and the realness. The sense that I don’t feel like there’s a lot of exploitation going on. I don’t feel nervous for the cast and it feels like people are in good hands. And I know that there is a lot of kink that is being made now, you know, plenty of feminist porn out there that also plays into that. But there’s something—I don’t know if it’s kosher to say—but there’s something that sort of feels relatively safe as a viewer.
JUSTIN Yeah, I can see that. I also think, you know, there’s a part of it that comes into play too, which I don’t think is talked about often with the ’70s, or even the ’80s titles, is these were all pretty much shot on 35mm film. Or maybe sometimes 16mm film. But with that, of course, you have different shooting ratios. And you know, your sex scenes aren’t a half hour long. They’re like, five minutes long. Which is probably more realistic for many people then, like, you know, these marathon sex scenes of like, 30 different positions that you see in contemporary adult films.
GEMMA You just let the digital role, yeah.
JUSTIN Yeah, it’s just like, they’re just going and it’s like every position under the sun and like, that’s it. But a lot of these films, and SexWorld included, it’s like, it just feels more organic. It feels like—
GEMMA It feels more attainable, frankly. Right? [Gemma & Justin laugh]
JUSTIN Yeah, exactly. It’s like you could leave the cinema in the ’70s and go, I can do that at home later. [Gemma laughs] But like, whatever now, it’s like, well they’re an athlete! I don’t know what they’re doing. [Slim & Gemma laugh]
GEMMA Just forget about it. Bring back bush. What do we need to know about some of the players in this film? I noticed that John Leslie is in it, he has a lot of credits.
JUSTIN Yeah, I mean, John Leslie is a huge star. I think the most interesting aspect star wise of this one is that Kay Parker, this is her first film. And she has a scene with Joey Silvera in it. And I mean, the two of them are great together. But he actually—that’s like the roughest scene in the film. And, you know, there’s an interview on the disk if you ever get it. You know, they talk about how like in the scene where he had to like hit her around, like he actually did hit her. And it was not, you know, it was like one of those things where it was like an accident.
GEMMA I take it back about feeling safe. [Gemma laughs]
JUSTIN I mean, it was handled well. But it was one those things where just like people getting carried away. She did a lot of films after that. And I think this is her kind of star making turn and she’s great in it.
GEMMA There’s some weird race stuff going on in a couple of the storylines, though. What do you make about that?
JUSTIN Desiree West is great in it. But yeah, that storyline with the racist man who ends up with the black woman. That’s a pretty crazy sequence.
SLIM And also, to be fair, they had sex for over an hour if I’m judging the timestamp correctly in this movie. [Gemma & Justin laugh]
GEMMA The cutest scene was the one where he’s like, “Oh, I really think I have to go now. No—I really think I need to be going now.” Just over and over and over, until he finally—it’s cute. I can’t believe I’m saying SexWorld was cute. But I am. [Slim laughs]
SLIM We’ll get that as a quote on the rerelease for Vinegar Syndrome the next time.
JUSTIN I mean, it is like a really, it’s a sweet movie. Like, you know, when you kind of boil it down, it’s basically about people who feel like they’re missing something and their love lives and they go and try and find it with their partners. And then at the end, like people are fulfilled. Like it’s like a really kind of good natured story.
GEMMA Speaking of people who might feel like they’re missing something in their sex lives, Slim’s laughing because he knows what I’m going to say, because he can see the notes. [Slim laughs] We have the ability given you’re a patron member, Justin, to dig into your statistics a little bit. So this is a section of the podcast where we move past your four favorites. You don’t know what’s coming next, but we do.
SLIM Yes. And right now, you have David Cronenberg’s Crash fits perfectly into our conversation for this episode. And probably deserves maybe some prominence in people that are checking out these lists because this could be like another mainstream gateway for these types of movies, wouldn’t you say?
JUSTIN Yeah, I mean Crash when I came out. So I think I was eleven? [Slim laughs]
GEMMA Oh god.
JUSTIN So you look at your past, and you go, this is why I’m at where I’m at now.
SLIM I’m just like thinking my son is almost eleven and I’m like, I have hives thinking of him watching this movie. [Slim laughs]
JUSTIN I watched Crash on like a 35mm print at a theater in New York City without telling her what it was about. We’re still together.
SLIM Oh my god. What did she think?
GEMMA Oh my god. [Slim laughs]
JUSTIN So it didn’t go badly, but I don’t think she was super happy with me for that.
GEMMA This does not make it to our side project that we’re going to start soon, which is you know, the bad movie dates podcast. So that’s good. [Slim laughs]
JUSTIN The other funny story about Crash on Valentine’s Day. And it was released—it was the same week—
GEMMA With your old lady friend? Just you and her?
JUSTIN This was this was a very different result of a screening and this was the same week that a 50 Shades of Grey movie came out. I don’t which one.
GEMMA Oh my god.
JUSTIN It was the second or third one. And it was sold out, because it’s Valentine’s Day and everybody wanted to go see 50 Shades. so it was sold out and the only other thing that tickets were still left for was 50 Shades of Grey. [Slim laughs] I hope somebody like humped a scar. [Gemma laughs] If somebody’s scar got humped that night, I did my duty.
SLIM What’s a more recent mainstream studio backed American film that you could compare to Crash. Is there anything recently?
JUSTIN Not really. I mean, I think the last, you know, legitimately great studio funded erotic movie is 50 Shades of Grey, it’s terrible.
GEMMA Oh god, it’s definitely not. [Slim laughs]
JUSTIN In the Cut is really great. I think that’s the last like truly transgressive kind of studio erotic movie.
GEMMA And it bombed! It got an F score and everybody hated Meg Ryan for even daring to go there and it’s crazy. But, you know, I said it before and I’ll say it again. It is truly gratifying in ten years of Letterboxd to watch that histogram go up over time. It started as a 1.7 or 1.8 when Letterboxd was first around and we’re now edging closer to the five it deserves.
SLIM Is it really that high?!
GEMMA No. [Slim laughs] It is for me! [Gemma laughs]
SLIM I just got tricked so hard by Gemma.
GEMMA I mean, come on! Showdown in Little Tokyo isn’t high enough, right?
SLIM That’s true. That’s true. But we all still love it. The other section of this podcast, we talk about rated higher than average. Movies that you rate higher than the average. We already talked about a select few of them in your faves. And I spotlighted a few of these on the list, one of which has come up. I’ve lost count at this point. Babe: Pig in the City. I don’t know what is going on. How we haven’t pulled that average higher so that this doesn’t appear in this list anymore. We got to do some digging.
JUSTIN Who doesn’t like Babe: Pig in the City?
SLIM Animals. [Slim laughs]
JUSTIN Why? Well, animals would love it because it’s about animals. But it’s like a perfect movie.
GEMMA I was curious. I was just curious while we were chatting to figure out what it is that anyone who writes this less than a five struggles with. And so I’ve just found a recent review from Moria who watched it just, you know, a couple of months ago. ’The problem seems to be that Miller, George Miller, the director adds a tone of caterwauling slapstick, with loud and noisy scenes of Babe causing bikers and skaters to collapse into one another, running through the streets pursued by the Pitbull with a lawnmower attached to its tail, and especially the ludicrously over the top climax that involves, among other things, Magnus Urbanski riding an irregularly wheeled bicycle in a clown suit, and swinging around a ballroom on the chandelier and a pair of pants that inflate into a giant balloon. All the soft cuteness of the first film gets buried beneath the noisy chaos.’ I mean, Moria, come on. [Slim laughs]
JUSTIN How is that not a positive review? That’s like a glowing review.
GEMMA Right?! That feels like a five star to me! I’m confused.
JUSTIN Yeah, that sounds great. I want to watch Babe: Pig in the City right when we finish.
SLIM Switching gears, I know that you had previously worked at a video store. At least for me, one of my dream jobs was just to run your own video store. If money was no object, I’d probably want to run a video store. Would you ever want to go back to doing that job?
JUSTIN I mean, I loved it. It’s one of my favorite jobs. But right now, I don’t want to be around anyone. [Slim laughs] Stay in my basement. Stay socially distanced, watch movies by myself. And it’s going to be great. I mean, it was it was the best job. You know, that was when I kind of look back at my jobs like I was projectionists, which was great and a film programmer. But being in a video store is the best because you’re just constantly like showing people new movies. So as a film programmer you can do that. But you’re only doing it like once at night. And in a video store, you’re doing it all day. Like all day people are coming and being like, what should I rent? And you’re just going this or this. I had Crash on my staff picks.
GEMMA Agh, amazing!
JUSTIN Maybe people didn’t like listening to me. [Slim laughs]
GEMMA You know, that’s another thing I love about Letterboxd. In a way, I mean, we can’t rent films to people, but we can do staff pics all day long. And every member of Letterboxd is a member of that video store staff. So it’s a beautiful thing. But I especially want to thank you, Justin, for your your work and care over the past few months on our—we just secretly, Slim doesn’t know this. But behind the scenes, we called it the Adult Task Force. When we went public with our new adult opt in feature, we were like eh, it’s funny behind the scenes, but when you just read it on paper, and you haven’t been involved with it, it sounds a bit heavy handed. So curatorial is what we’re calling it now. But what a wonderful group of people. I just want to cast my mind back to that one Zoom we had where we gathered everyone together from around the world. And it was just this incredible feeling of, you know, we don’t get to see a lot of humans day to day anyway at the moment. And then especially with something like Letterboxd, which is, you know, it’s an internet platform. We don’t have human interactions. And so to actually be able to pull together five Letterboxd of such esteem as yourself and Evan and Juan and Katie and the filmmaker Yang Gonzalez who’s just like, what a dream it has been to have him and the group. Yeah, it’s just been a good time. Thank you.
JUSTIN Yeah, thank you. I mean, I also want to make it known that I’m not the only force behind any of this, You know, it’s a massive group effort. So I hope that everybody gets due recognition.
GEMMA Actually, final question. I’ve just been noticing on our socials that it’s one thing to have added adult titles to Letterboxd. For many reasons, we’re not directing people from those titles—well JustWatch doesn’t show where those titles are immediately available. So for someone who’s diving in having listened to this and going, ‘mm A Woman’s Torment, sounds historically important, might want to watch it.’ I guess one of the best landing platforms to go to to find the kind of titles that are in your lists?
JUSTIN Well those two particularly can be bought on Blu-ray from us at VinegarSyndrome.com. But other than that, I mean if you want to rent stuff, Hot Movies, which just like it sounds. Hotmovies.com is a great resource. And then there’s Pink Label TV, which is also a great resource. There’s a lot of curation there. And then if for a lot of a gay titles, there’s TLA Gay so these are all online, VOD. You know, TLA Gay is actually subscription based. I think Pink Label might also be subscription based, and Hot Movies, you pay like it’s like VOD. But then there’s also other companies doing stuff like we’re doing like District Picks. They have a command video line, which is doing a lot of different things. And I have an essay that will be coming up which has some links in it for how to find titles.
GEMMA And then of course, if you want to see Richard Gere in and out of his tros, all you need is a US library card for Hoopla! Justin, thank you so much!
JUSTIN Thank you.
[The Letterboxd Show theme music Vampiros Dancoteque by Moniker plays alone, fades out]
SLIM Thanks so much for listening to Justin LaLiberty, for advancing the art of adult cinema and giving us an excuse to talk about Dolph Lundgren. And check out Justin’s essay on Letterboxd about the importance of preserving sex films on home video. He has included a bunch of resources for those of you planning your journeys into adult cinema. The link is in our episode notes.
GEMMA Speaking of links, you can follow Slim, Gemma—that’s me—and our Sophie Shin for the all new episode transcripts, and to you for listening.
SLIM The Letterboxd Show is a TAPEDECK production. If you are enjoying the show and have guest ideas, be sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
GEMMA And that’s the show. I’m off to make some crab cakes with sour cream—
[clip of Breathless plays]
JESSE In all the galaxies—in all the endless reaches of space—I have found no planet more blessed than this one. And yet it’s uncontrollable insanity, the human race seeks to destroy this shining jewel—this blessed sphere in which men call Earth. And trapped on this world of madness—stand I, Silver Surfer.
[clip of Breathless ends]
[TAPEDECK bumper plays] This is a TAPEDECK podcast.