Speed Racer

This week, we don't step behind the mic to be an audio driver... we do it because we're driven, as we go under the hood with the Wachowski sisters' much-maligned avant garde anticapitalist art film (for kids!), the 2008 anime adaptation Speed Racer, written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, and starring Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox, Roger Allam, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benno Fürmann and Richard Roundtree. Turned loose on kid-friendly fare after R-rated successes, the Wachowskis served up a visionary piece of art about what it means to be an artist, and the struggle to create under capitalism. A box office flop upon its release, it's gained a cult following in the years since, and count Justin as a Day 1 believer as he saw it twice in IMAX and all of its technicolor splendor has likely been imprinted on his eyelids ever since. It's a contentious pick to close out Masterpiece Month, a nomination for canon consideration so audacious that it just may test the limits of the very friendship undergirding this podcast. But fret not! Beyond hearing a nerdy boy yap about his nerdy interest for an impossibly long time, we also mark the midway point of the year by revealing our Top 5 films of 2024 thus far. If you'd like to watch Speed Racer before listening to this episode, it is sadly unavailable to stream in both the US and Canada at the time of publication. But you should see it. It's great. (Can you guess which one of us writes this stuff?) Other works discussed in this episode include Twisters, Civil War, Hit Man, Late Night with the Devil, Longlegs, Devil, Love Lies Bleeding, Dune: Part Two, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Challengers, Speed, Midnight Run, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Lisa Frankenstein, National Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man's Chest, The Matrix, V For Vendetta, Pacific Rim, Cars, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Yellowjackets, Nope, Alita: Battle Angel, and Gran Turismo, among countless others. We'll be back next week to kick off another themeless month of madness on the show, as we're following Masterpiece Month by purposefully steering the ship directly into an iceberg and watching the movie that killed Hayden Christensen's leading man career. Yes, it's another box office dud from the summer of 2008: Doug Liman's Jumper, which sadly just like Speed Racer is not currently available to stream. Until then, we'll see you at the movies!!