Episode 774: Cop (1988)

Episode 774: Cop (1988)

Noirvember closes with James B. Harris’s Cop (1988)—the first time James Ellroy’s feverish fiction hit the big screen. Mike teams with Andrew Nette and Rod Lott for a deep read of Harris’s adaptation, where James Woods’s unhinged Detective Lloyd Hopkins hunts a killer across eighteen years of buried violence.

The trio digs into Ellroy’s original novel Blood on the Moon and the wilder, abandoned incarnation that came before it—L.A. Death Trip, the unsold, manuscript that first birthed Hopkins. Using material from Ellroy’s own accounts and critical studies (including the brute-force early drafts, the rewrites demanded by Otto Penzler and Nat Sobel, and the shift to publishable structure), the conversation maps how a doomed finale turned into a tight serial-killer pursuit.

The episode also features a new interview with James B. Harris, who breaks down the challenges of translating Ellroy’s structure, keeping Hopkins’s mania intact, and staying faithful to the narrative rhythms of the novel. What emerges is a portrait of a filmmaker wrestling with source material born in chaos—reforged into the dark, abrasive thriller that helped spark decades of Ellroy adaptations.


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Special Report: The Vile (2025)

Special Report: The Vile (2025)

Mike welcomes Emirati filmmaker Majid Al Ansari to discuss The Vile (2025), his long-awaited return to the director’s chair after nearly a decade. Known as Hoba in Arabic, the film is a psychological ...

20 Sep 202527min

Episode 762: Lemonade Joe (1964)

Episode 762: Lemonade Joe (1964)

Czechtember gallops forward with Oldřich Lipský’s madcap musical parody Lemonade Joe (1964). Adapted from Jiří Brdečka’s novel and play, the film stars Karel Fiala as the squeaky-clean pitchman of Kol...

17 Sep 20252h 4min

Special Report: Linda Linda Linda (2005)

Special Report: Linda Linda Linda (2005)

Blue hearts, high school dreams, and one unforgettable rock anthem — we’re diving into Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda (2005). The film follows a group of teenage girls in a Japanese high schoo...

15 Sep 202521min

Episode 761: Pelísky (1999)

Episode 761: Pelísky (1999)

Czechtember 2025 kicks off with Cosy Dens (AKA Pelíšky), Jan Hřebejk’s bittersweet 1999 coming-of-age dramedy adapted from Petr Šabach’s novel Hovno Hoří (Shit on Fire). Written by Petr Jarchovský, th...

10 Sep 20251h 12min

Episode 760: Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)

Episode 760: Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)

Buonopalooza wraps up with Howard Morris’s caper comedy Who’s Minding the Mint? (1967). Jim Hutton stars as Harry Lucas, a hapless Treasury worker who accidentally swipes $50,000 and scrambles to repl...

3 Sep 20251h 27min

Special Report: Katharine Coldiron on Out There in the Dark

Special Report: Katharine Coldiron on Out There in the Dark

Mike talks with writer Katharine Coldiron about her new book, Out There in the Dark (Autofocus Books). Blending film criticism, memoir, fiction, and experimental forms, the collection uses movies as p...

29 Aug 202524min

Episode 759: Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Episode 759: Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Buonopalooza rolls on with Robert Aldrich’s Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). Following the massive success of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Aldrich re-teamed with Bette Davis for another Souther...

27 Aug 20251h 41min

Episode 758: The Strangler (1964)

Episode 758: The Strangler (1964)

Buonopalooza rages on with Victor Buono front and center in The Strangler (1964). One of his rare leading roles, Buono embodies Leo Kroll, a smothered man-child whose repressed rage against women spil...

20 Aug 20251h 26min

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