Ep 66 - The Day of the Beast (El Dia de la Bestia)
The Generation Splice
Our final episode for spooky season. And it’s technically a Christmas/New Years movie! This time head across the Atlantic to talk about Alex de la Iglesia’s THE DAY OF THE BEAST (aka EL DIA DE LA BESTIA). This is one of Raphael’s all-time favorite movies, so to hear that Raquel really enjoyed was a treat. This horror-comedy (or is a comedy-horror?) gets downright heretical at times with it’s flippant disdain for the Catholic Church. Both Raquel and Raphael break down some of the cultural nuances that frame the film so people can appreciate why this was such a gigantically popular –...
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Ep 65 - Pet Sematary
The Generation Splice
Do you wanna be buried in a PET SEMATARY? Well, it’s time to relive the movie again, as we cover it for this week’s episode. Off the bat Raquel and Raphael have Ramones talk. Raquel philosophizes on Joey Ramone’s lyrics, and Raphael goes on about one of his favorite bands. Here’s a movie that seems like a bad execution of a good story. The acting is goofy, the accents are awful, yet somehow the whole thing is incredibly endearing and entertaining. Raquel is interested in seeing how a female director like Mary Lambert would have a different take on the horror genre,...
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Ep 64 - Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The Generation Splice
Its October and we all know what that means… HORROR MOVIES ARE BACK BAYBEEE. We’re kicking off this month with a stone cold classic, DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978… duh). Raquel admits that she finally appreciate horror movies now, and gets down with this one – it probably helps that her maiden name is Romero. Did Old George hit peak zombie metaphor with this one? Malls are the sources of late 20th century consumptionism, and zombies, well, all they do is exist to consume! Raquel discusses her first encounters with malls back in the early 1970s and Raphael loves how Tom...
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Ep 63 - Isn't It Romantic
The Generation Splice
Its a rom-com kinda day with a conversation about ISN’T IT ROMANTIC. A lot of intro talk is spent on nostalgia and remakes, so it’s perfect to get into talking about this meta film that is a pastiche homage to the classic rom-coms of the 80s-00s. Raquel loves being able to catch the hyper specific references to particular films, while Raphael, admittedly not too well versed in the genre, enjoys how it plays with the broad tropes of the style. ISN’T IT ROMANTIC manages to do something that so many genre meta films doesn’t really pull off which is it manages to actually be the...
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Ep 62 - Robocop
The Generation Splice
This episode we look at the Cool Copaganda dystopian classic ROBOCOP. But first Raquel worries about the future of Stephen King movies after FIRESTARTER tanks at the box office and Raphael has to assure her that Stephen’s career will be just fine even if they stop releasing adaptations of his stuff (which they never will). This is a 1st watch for Raquel, who actually thought it was an Arnold Schwarzeneggar movie all these years. How relevant is this movie today? Is it too stuck in the 1980s? Raphael breaks down modern policing and its problems and how ROBOCOP actually was a...
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Ep 61 - Pee Wee's Big Adventure
The Generation Splice
This week we enter the wild reality of Pee Wee Herman and PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. Raphael was the perfect age to get obsessed with Pee Wee while Raquel was the perfect age to have to deal with kids’ obsession with Pee Wee at school. This was basically a first time watch for her and she absolutely fell in love with it! Tim Burton comes flying out the gate with this first feature length film, managing to take a cool, hip off-off-Broadway stage show and somehow make it palatable to all of America. Is this actually a children’s movie? Or is it just a movie that can appeal to children...
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Ep 60 - The Apartment
The Generation Splice
Here’s one from the vault! A late Mother’s Day episode all about one of Raquel’s favorites, THE APARTMENT. Raphael realizes that they actually hadn’t ever seen this film all the way through before. This was chosen by Raquel specifically to see if Raphael thought it held up – and they both agree that it still feels shockingly modern. Considering how the subject matter of THE APARTMENT seems frank today, it must have been shockingly risque back in 1960. Everything from the lighting, to the makeup, it all makes this film feel almost like a movie out of time. The topic of consent in sex...
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Ep 59 - Being John Malkovich
The Generation Splice
After a long hiatus were back! We’ve been sitting on some old recordings, but since they’re fresh to you all we’re putting them out! This episode we follow up on EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE with another classic film of alternate realities, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. But before we get into that Raquel asks Raphael to explain the Marvel movie phenomenon to her, so Raphael travels back to his comic book store employee days to explain all the comic adaptations because somehow, in the year 2022 Raquel has never heard the term “MCU” before. God bless her. But when it comes...
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Ep 58 - Everything Everywhere All At Once
The Generation Splice
This week Raphael surprises Raquel by showing up at her house and taking her to see EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, a movie she had never heard of until about an hour before she saw it. Raphael was stoked because of the stacked lineup of actors, especially because both he and Raquel are big James Hong fans. Raquel felt a little overwhelmed by the manic pacing of the film but loved the throughline of the immigrant family story. Raphael is forced to talk about the profundity of a movie featuring butt plugs with their mother. Raphael compares this to the films of Charlie Kaufman while Raquel...
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Ep 57 - Sound of Metal
The Generation Splice
First things first, Raquel finally has a new house! Still, she had to run to the neighbors’ for wifi like some kind of millennial or zoomer. But she pulls it off and we talk her pick for this week, SOUND OF METAL – a movie that’s already in her top 25 films of all time. She recounts her decades of working with people with hearing impairments to laud the films portrayal of those with these types of issues. Both Raphael and Raquel love that the story isn't melodramatic or cliché. Raphael gets really defensive about people insulting metalheads. Raquel is enamored with the film’s love...
info_outlineThis week we talk about the greatest film about corrupt mid-20th century L.A. municipal politics & public utilities, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? This is Raquel’s 1st watch since taking Raphael to see in the theatre when he was 6. Raquel gets nostalgic for the cartoons of her youth. The use of cartoons as stand-ins for minorities is absolutely clever. Unsurprisingly, Raquel finds Roger incredibly annoying but love Jessica’s composite of classic Hollywood glamor girls. This films manages to entertain both kids & adults in a way that no other “kids movie” has ever done before, or since. Is this too risque for kids now? Have the cultural shifts in parenting lead to a deeper infantilization of children, & even adolescents? Raquel reminds us that the Warner Bros/Disney beef of gritty, adult DCEU vs funny, family oriented MCU extends all the way back to violent Looney Tunes vs soft Disney cartoons 70 years ago. Why doesnt WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? get the credit it deserves for basically single-handedly saving Disney?
The Generation Splice is film podcast where retired psychologist Dr. Raquel Martinez, a Baby Boomer through & through, & her son Raphael Jose Martinez, a cranky millennial punk rocker/film writer, discuss various films through the lens of their generation & personal experiences. Every week one host picks a movie to dissect & see if they can splice together the generation gap via their love of film.
Feel free to write to us! Give us some film suggestions at the[email protected] or @gensplicepod on Twitter.
Raphael is on Twitter at @citycelluloid. You can find his film writing at cinefile.info and film-cred.com