176 Fantastic Planet

An animated French film from 1973, this week Matt and Mark review the cultish Fantastic Planet (aka The Savage Planet). A beautifully animated film, it questions humanity's preeminent position in the universe by depicting us as lesser things, specifically vermin. As the playthings and pests of greater aliens, humans (or Omes as depicted in the film) face a type of indifference which can only be described as cruelty. But just like the bugs or bacteria of our current Post-Halocene epoch, the worm eventually turns, and the meek inherit the Earth, or perhaps the Fantastic Planet.

Download: 176 Fantastic Planet 

175 Angel Heart

Mark continues taking listener requests. This week on the Cult we review the Mickey-in-his-prime Angel Heart, released in 1987. A neo-noir Southern Gothic of sorts, it follows the gumshoe detective formula until it doesn't. The end reveal, a function of the fantastic, is more style over substance. But for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to matter. Firing on all cylinders, Angel Heart is beautifully wrought film with a dose of Rourke authenticity that is hard to replicate. Hail Satan!

Download: 175 Angel Heart

174 2001: A Space Odyssey

Mopping up the Kubrik, Matt and Mark finally get around to reviewing the flawed masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. A film broken up into four vignettes, we go about reviewing it as such. Despite all the big themes of human evolution and questions of mankind's existential crisis in the universe, what 2001 gets right is humanity's relationship with the tools it has created, and how we are now at the whims of those tools, good, bad, and indifferent. So open up the pod bay doors and set the controls for the heart of the sun (cue Pink Floyd... now!).

Download: 174 2001 A Space Odyssey

173 Somewhere In Time

Matt and Mark attempt to break out of our cult film review comfort zone this week and review the 1980 sci-fi fantasy romance Somewhere In Time. Trying to go gynocentric, we fail at finding the appeal of this film as it would pertain to the ladies. Centered around a somewhat charmless 36 hour romance more typical of bodice-ripper fair, it becomes an exercise in forced gravitas, leaving the viewer little investment in its time-crossed lovers' tragedy.

Download: 173 Somewhere In Time