I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: From the wrong side of the tracks

Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.

Straight from Little Rock, this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees has Julie talk about what she had instead of Disney princesses: Marilyn Monroe’s Lorelei and Jane Russell’s Dorothy.

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A Damn Fine Espresso: July 2025

Our Lost Summer started with an episode in honour of David Lynch, the artist and director who’s been an inspiration to us here at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture. After last month’s espresso episode, in which Sam and Matt talked about the extended deleted scenes that were released for Lynch’s Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, we’re now continuing our tribute to the man with a stealth Second Chances episode: Alan, a big fan of Lynch, has nonetheless bounced off the director’s Wild at Heart (1990), while Sam has been a fan from the beginning, so the two of them have revisited the film. Has time changed Alan’s assessment? Have Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern and a fantastic supporting cast ranging from Diane Ladd and Willem Dafoe to Harry Dean Stanton and a bunch of familiar faces from Twin Peaks, WA won him over – or, indeed, Sam’s enthusiasm for this pulpy pop thriller that nods more than just once or twice in the direction of camp classic The Wizard of Oz?

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Mad Howling in the Red Dark

If you are ready for an agonisingly slow descent into hell, then Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy is the film for you. There are many reasons to instinctively refrain from watching it in the first place: yet another Nicholas Cage over-the-top performance; outrageous violence and buckets of blood; killer demons on motorcycles. What’s more, the film might change from one viewing to the next, but for me, it worked because I was in the right kind of mood, and that might prove crucial with movies like this. And I never watched a chainsaw duel I didn’t like. Continue reading