The Generation Splice 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 – both by audiences and critics – in Spain. You’ve got anti-fascist rhetoric, goofy TV psychics, heavy metal, and an overall vibe of “What if Mel Brooks made THE OMEN.” If you’re already a fan of the film, then you’ll dig the conversation, and if you’ve never heard of it before, well, this is the perfect primer for THE DAY OF THE BEAST, the films of Alex de la Iglesia, and contemporary Spanish cinema as a whole.

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, specifically on Stephen King. Raphael loves how this movie doesn’t ask the well worn “how far would you go to protect your family” but instead, “what would you do after you’ve failed to do that?” Would this movie been better if George A. Romero had directed as originally planned? Would PET SEMATARY be an A24 movie if it were to be produced for the first time now? All these questions, plus Raquel shares her personal “pet sematary” moment of guilt of being a parent to a kid (read: Raphael) who got injured.
 
Raquel shares her personal “pet sematary” moment of guilt of being a parent to a kid (read: Raphael) who got injured.
 
The Generation Splice is a film podcast where retired psychologist Dr. Raquel Martinez, a baby boomer through & through, & her son, Raphael Jose Martinez, a cranky millennial film writer & programmer, discuss various films through the lens of their generation & personal experiences.
 
Every other 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 generationsplice@gmail.com
 
Raphael is on Twitter and Letterboxd at @citycelluloid & you can find their film writing at cinefile.info & film-cred.com

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 Savini changed the horror game with his shockingly realistic (for the time) special effects and makeup.
 
This podcast will turn Raquel into a genre film freak eventually!
 
The Generation Splice is a film podcast where retired psychologist Dr. Raquel Martinez, a baby boomer through & through, & her son, Raphael Jose Martinez, a cranky millennial film writer & programmer, discuss various films through the lens of their generation & personal experiences.
 
Every other 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 generationsplice@gmail.com
 
Raphael is on Twitter and Letterboxd at @citycelluloid & you can find their film writing at cinefile.info & film-cred.com

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 thing that it is skewering while still managing to skewer it. Is this the SCREAM of rom-coms??
 
Raquel also weighs in as a doctor of psychology on the topic of the effects of movies like rom-coms on self-image. A fun, light conversation about a fun, light movie!
 
 
The Generation Splice is a 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 thegenerationsplice@gmail.com or @gensplicepod on Twitter.
 
Raphael is on Twitter and Letterboxd at @citycelluloid. You can find his film writing at cinefile.info and film-cred.com
 

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 depressingly prescient film in that regard. There a whole lot of talk about the privitization of the public sector in modern times and how ROBOCOP follows a trend of films that warned us about the problems of that. Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s outsider eye on American culture seems to be a perfect blend of cynicism and comedy. Its crazy how much this film feels like a proto-24 hour news cycle TV channel.
 
This movie is far smarter than it needed to be, and you’ll be too after listening to this episode!
 
The Generation Splice is a 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 thegenerationsplice@gmail.com or @gensplicepod on Twitter.
 
Raphael is on Twitter and Letterboxd at @citycelluloid. You can find his film writing at cinefile.info and film-cred.com
 

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 because of Pee Wee’s child-like innocence? Ironically Raphael was traumatized as a child by the Large Marge scene, while Raquel thinks it’s perfect for kids because it’s full of teachable moments. We talk Paul Reuben’s adult theatre scandal and how unfair it really was. It also turns out that Raquel is closest Elfman-head!
 
The Generation Splice is a 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 thegenerationsplice@gmail.com or @gensplicepod on Twitter.
 
Raphael is on Twitter and Letterboxd at @citycelluloid. You can find his film writing at cinefile.info and film-cred.com