Hit Factory

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Sam Raimi's new film Send Help is in theaters, so we decided to look back at the director's undersung maximalist Western pastiche The Quick and the Dead. A Raimi Movie™ through and through, the film pays loving homage to revisionist entries in the western canon like Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter, but also sacrifices some of the thematic potential of the genre's Golden Era in favor of shoot-em-up schlock and a thoroughly fun time with a knockout cast of established and up-and-coming greats including Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, and a fresh-faced Leonardo DiCaprio.

We begin with a discussion of the Western, its persistence and malleability as genre, and where Raimi's vision falls in the lineage of America's mythmaking. Then, we examine the political limitations of The Quick and the Dead, its topicality as a piece of pop filmmaking, and its reduction of symbolism to mere signifier. Finally, we discuss Sharon Stone as actor and producer, and how the film offers her an oppotunity to explore a character that runs counter to the archetypal femme fatale roles she had made her career playing thus far.

Elsewhere, we briefly discuss another great 00s thriller in our ongoing watch project - David Twohy's A Perfect Getaway and share some thoughts on the new Isaac Chotiner interview with The Quick and the Dead and Melania DP Dante Spinotti.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

Get access to this entire episode as well as all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
Something new for our faithful Patrons - A conversation about all the movies, new and old, that we've been enjoying this month not covered elsewhere on the show. We hope you enjoy!
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Our Theme Song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

WTO/99 is a new, immersive archival documentary that depicts the four-day clash between the then-emerging World Trade Organization (WTO) and the 40,000+ people who took to the streets of Seattle in 1999 to protest the WTO Conference and the WTO’s impact on human rights, labor, and the future effects of continued globalization.
Aaron sat down with WTO/99 director/co-editor Ian Bell and producer/co-editor Alex Megaro to discuss the film's bracing depiction of the WTO protests, their prevailing ramifications in the 2020s, and whether the event's radicalizing groundswell is replicable in today's polarized political reality.
WTO/99 has its Bay Area debut at The Roxie next Wednesday 1/28/26. Find tickets HERE.
WTO/99 returns to the Bay Area Tuesday 2/24/28 at The New Parkway. Find tickets HERE.

Find more upcoming screenings of WTO/99.
Watch the trailer for WTO/99.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

This week, we're discussing the winner of our latest Patreon poll, Senegalese auteur Djibril Diop Mambéty's Hyenas. Adapting Swiss-German playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 satirical tragicomedy The Visit and transposing its story onto post-colonial Senegal, the film tells the story of Dramaan Drameh, a grocer in the poor town of Colobane, whose life is upended when a former flame, Linguère Ramatou, returns to the town after decades. Having amassed a large fortune in the intervening years, Ramatou makes the township a disquieting offer - she will bestow her fortune onto Colobane in exchange for the murder of Drameh as revenge for abandoning her following a pregnancy during their brief love affair. Gorgeously-lensed, blackly satirical, and ultimately tragic, Hyenas imbues its tense tale of vengenace and greed with resonances examining Senagal's (and the greater continet of Africa's) subjugation under western capitalism in the post-colonial period.
We begin with a discussion of Senegal's cinema, its anti-colonial dimensions, and how the rhythms of Mambéty's film antagonize western modes of narrative and filmmaking. Then, we examine the film's exploration of the corrupting nature of capital, and how forces like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank acted as coercive mechanisms for privatization and neoliberal policy in Africa and throughout the developing world. Finally, we discuss the film's sexual politics, where we feel its metaphors break down in its exploration of the character of Ramatou, and where fidelity to source material occasionally muddles the film's incisive colonial critique.
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.

The party is nearing its end, the food has been consumed, and now it's time to pour yourself a rich, spicy, herbaceous(?) after-dinner drink to aid in the digestion of all your elsewhere and elsewhile 2025 year-end content...
It's the Hit Factory 2025 Digestif: A rundown of some of our favorite un-discussed films of the past year as well as some brilliant new-to-us discoveries...A low-stakes sporting event becomes a metaphor for the cinematic experience. A high school becomes a microcosm of our technofascist panopticon. A mother at the end of her rope. An artist at the end of his prime. These and more are explored within. So pull up a stool, grab yourself a glass, and kick back one more before we call it a night.
 
Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.
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Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.