Jul 4, 2018
Just in time for the Fourth of July, Podcast Like It's 1999
brings you 1999's Most American film!
Phil Iscove, Kenny Neibart and TV Writer Jim Campolongo
(Station 19, White Collar) take a big, old Red, White and Blue dive
into the world of... snuff films? Wait, what? We're releasing the
snuff movie on Independence Day?
(Well, let's see if we can make this work using my
questionable understanding of the American Revolution almost
entirely gleaned from Lin-Manuel Miranda's
Hamilton..)
Nicolas Cage plays a private detective. He's kind of like
the... George Washington (?) of this movie.
He's tasked with helping an old lady (Martha Washington -- or
maybe she represents the Colonies themselves?) with figuring out
whether her husband (easy, King George III) had a young woman raped
and murdered on film (okay, the young woman represents the
collective victims of the Boston Massacre?!).
On Cage's journey (Washington's March from Newport to
Yorktown), he encounters many colorful characters (Rochambeau,
Lafayette, other Hamilton references) and finds one
odd fellow played by Joaquin Phoenix, willing to be his unlikely
Right-Hand Man (HAMILTON HIMSELF! THIS IS WORKING!!!).
Together they enter the dark, sordid world of underground
fringe porn and snuff film (New Jersey) where they find the man
responsible for the snuff film, Peter Stormare (General Howe).
Joaquin meets his untimely end (not gonna gloat or anything,
but...) and Cage, like Washington, wins the day, but loses a bit of
himself in the process.
Then he becomes President.