There’ll always be something compelling about men on the run across the Southwest landscape. And Flashpoint adds an extra dose of Texas by leaning into local lore.
It could be so cheap too because it's a static catalogue that doesn't need to be updated. I bet a lot of weirdos like you and me would pay $3.99 a month for something like that!
Yeah, I've found some on YouTube for free, but they always look like garbage. (Which I guess is how they looked on a TV in the 20th century. 😂 But still!)
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a couple years. It’s not super hard to make with the technology available now. There are a lot of crime movies in the public domain to start with and a lot more are very reasonable with on a few thousand subs to off-set the fees and hosting. This is a dream of mine. To run a small, genre specific streamer where one could host online movie nights.
Tubi is the best. But it’s owned by Fox they have bottomless resources but their structure is best.
Shudder was hugely successful for horror
But there is a new one called Mometu which is an interesting new one that is as supported free. They seem to be building their catalogue with cheap and public domain stuff. An interesting one to see as an example.
Cheers, Jeremy! I've only recently begun to really think about the intersection between geopolitics and dramaturgy that cinema seems to have free real estate over, and this cracked that neural pathway wide open.
I'll be writing about Flashpoint myself relatively soon I think, but the gist of what grabbed me about it was how deeply it understands the role that murder, subordination, and nobodyhood all play in the American establishment. And as I'm writing this, what I also find fascinating is the specific set of narrative advantages afforded to stories with low-spec genre engines; I think they optimize for readings like ours.
I think you're absolutely right that genre films are given a narrative license to explore rich thematic territory below the surface. A few years ago I taught a class about how genre films (specifically horror and sci-fi) at their finest have always been reflections of our sociopolitical climate.
I think crime films could easily be a syllabus of their own. They inherently beg one question in particular: What was happening at the time that would drive someone to commit a crime? With that in mind, I do wish Flashpoint would've dug a bit deeper into the threat of technology as a replacement for human labor, but it's still there!
110%; I think too though that low-spec element (i.e. your crime and action thrillers) can specialize that advantage in a manner that's distinct from high-spec stuff like sci-fi and fantasy (horror is its own gigaplayground imo). With the latter, the thematic richness mostly begins in the imagination, but with the former, there's more of an inclination to source a larger portion of that richness from the harder geopolitical implications of the world (obviously it's not a zero-sum game, but even so); I find that fascinating.
Sidebar (but also not): You should absolutely check out B. J. Novak's crime comedy Vengeance if you haven't already; one of my favourite films of 2022 and one I think ties into this conversation tremendously.
I don’t recall what led me to watch this a decade ago, but I remember being shocked by how good it was for a forgotten HBO original movie. An all-time stinker of a title song, though.
I prefer to remember Kris Kristofferson for his stellar work as a country singer and songwriter, but his acting career was very substantial by musician's standards...
I didn't realize until recently how vast his filmography is. In the past couple years, I've seen Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, and now this. He was pretty good! (I don't love his A Star is Born, though.)
I've never seen the film and don't even recall its release but I remember seeing the Tangerine Dream soundtrack album clogging up the cut-out bins of record stores for ages. While I confess some of their records are guilty pleasures of mine most of their soundtrack work was copy-paste stuff that hasn't aged well and who the hell thought a synth band was appropriate for a southwestern crime thriller?
I also feel that any Texas crime movie with Kris Kristofferson thread has to include a reference to "Lonestar," so....
“(We need a streaming service for old TV movies.)”
Ain’t it the truth!
It could be so cheap too because it's a static catalogue that doesn't need to be updated. I bet a lot of weirdos like you and me would pay $3.99 a month for something like that!
I'd sign up so fast. That kind of stuff does show up on Tubi and whatnot occasionally, but I'd really like to have all of that stuff in one place.
Yeah, I've found some on YouTube for free, but they always look like garbage. (Which I guess is how they looked on a TV in the 20th century. 😂 But still!)
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a couple years. It’s not super hard to make with the technology available now. There are a lot of crime movies in the public domain to start with and a lot more are very reasonable with on a few thousand subs to off-set the fees and hosting. This is a dream of mine. To run a small, genre specific streamer where one could host online movie nights.
Tubi is the best. But it’s owned by Fox they have bottomless resources but their structure is best.
Shudder was hugely successful for horror
But there is a new one called Mometu which is an interesting new one that is as supported free. They seem to be building their catalogue with cheap and public domain stuff. An interesting one to see as an example.
Never heard of Mometu but I'm all about a new free-with-ads streaming service. Tubi really is the gold standard though.
Mometu is super new. Small library but it does a good job. Mostly I like checking out to see how people do these services.
Tubi is my favorite by far. One of my movies is still on it. But it had both of mine at one point. My movies do best on Tubi. It’s a great service.
Oh snap! What are the titles? I'll add them to my list.
That sounds awesome! Do it! There's probably more good public domain stuff than I realize.
Cheers, Jeremy! I've only recently begun to really think about the intersection between geopolitics and dramaturgy that cinema seems to have free real estate over, and this cracked that neural pathway wide open.
I'll be writing about Flashpoint myself relatively soon I think, but the gist of what grabbed me about it was how deeply it understands the role that murder, subordination, and nobodyhood all play in the American establishment. And as I'm writing this, what I also find fascinating is the specific set of narrative advantages afforded to stories with low-spec genre engines; I think they optimize for readings like ours.
I think you're absolutely right that genre films are given a narrative license to explore rich thematic territory below the surface. A few years ago I taught a class about how genre films (specifically horror and sci-fi) at their finest have always been reflections of our sociopolitical climate.
I think crime films could easily be a syllabus of their own. They inherently beg one question in particular: What was happening at the time that would drive someone to commit a crime? With that in mind, I do wish Flashpoint would've dug a bit deeper into the threat of technology as a replacement for human labor, but it's still there!
110%; I think too though that low-spec element (i.e. your crime and action thrillers) can specialize that advantage in a manner that's distinct from high-spec stuff like sci-fi and fantasy (horror is its own gigaplayground imo). With the latter, the thematic richness mostly begins in the imagination, but with the former, there's more of an inclination to source a larger portion of that richness from the harder geopolitical implications of the world (obviously it's not a zero-sum game, but even so); I find that fascinating.
Sidebar (but also not): You should absolutely check out B. J. Novak's crime comedy Vengeance if you haven't already; one of my favourite films of 2022 and one I think ties into this conversation tremendously.
That's a really astute observation. Makes me wanna watch more crime thrillers. (Which I already always wanna watch.)
I've been meaning to see Vengeance! Maybe I'll do a podcaster double feature with that and Undertone...
Damn I thought this was about Flashdance. Boy was I surprised.
Jkjk lol
Good stuff as usual!
Next subscriber request! It’s TERRIBLE. Hell I’ll subscribe on a second account for you to watch it lol
I've always meant to watch more Adrian Lyne films, so why not start there!
Do it!!!
Ha, well, I'd have to watch it first... 😉
I don’t recall what led me to watch this a decade ago, but I remember being shocked by how good it was for a forgotten HBO original movie. An all-time stinker of a title song, though.
Oh yeah, I have a soft spot for songs written specifically for film credits, but this one's pretty forgettable. Super fun movie though!
I prefer to remember Kris Kristofferson for his stellar work as a country singer and songwriter, but his acting career was very substantial by musician's standards...
I didn't realize until recently how vast his filmography is. In the past couple years, I've seen Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, and now this. He was pretty good! (I don't love his A Star is Born, though.)
I've never seen the film and don't even recall its release but I remember seeing the Tangerine Dream soundtrack album clogging up the cut-out bins of record stores for ages. While I confess some of their records are guilty pleasures of mine most of their soundtrack work was copy-paste stuff that hasn't aged well and who the hell thought a synth band was appropriate for a southwestern crime thriller?
I also feel that any Texas crime movie with Kris Kristofferson thread has to include a reference to "Lonestar," so....