The Discourse Podcast: Takashi Miike’s ‘First Love’ and September’s Films

Welcome to another edition of The Discourse, the show where we discuss film news, reviews, and anything in the pop culture zeitgeist that we feel the need to weigh-in on.

After a brief paternity leave hiatus—and thank you all for your patience and to the teams behind The Fourth Wall and Be Reel for keeping the lights on while I was away—we are back at the same Bat-Time and same Bat-Channel with regular episodes. To kick things off, I’m joined again by Jenny Nulf (Austin Chronicle, Austin Asian American Film Festival) for a conversation about the films that might’ve gotten their own September episodes if life hadn’t gotten in the way.

READ MORE: The Discourse Podcast Talks ‘Crawl’ and the Best Animal Attack Films

Our primary review is dedicated to “First Love,” the latest film from Takashi Miike (“Audition,” “Ichi the Killer“) that played TIFF, Fantastic Fest, and is now making its way across the country in limited release. While neither of us thinks the film is the prolific director’s strongest effort, there’s still plenty here to enjoy. We also find time to discuss the programming at this year’s Fantastic Fest and share a few brief thoughts on “It: Chapter Two,” “Hustlers,” “Ad Astra,” “The Day Shall Come,” and “One Cut of the Dead.”

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