Season 1, Gen X — Episode 12 — The Chase (1994) + Detroit Rock City (1999) w/J.G Michael
Death is a PhotographShow Notes
This week, DPP is joined by prolific podcaster and Renaissance man J.G. Michael of Parallax Views [https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/] to discuss two underappreciated gems by director Adam Rifkin [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Rifkin]: The Chase (1994) and Detroit Rock City (1999).
Rifkin, who got his start in the world of wrestling (could there be a more Gen X origin story?), has produced an oeuvre defined by Hollywood's commercial needs. Yet, in between, family-friendly forgetables like 1997's Mouse Hunt and 2007's Underdog, Rifkin has directed films that speak to the zeitgeist.
The Chase is a knowing satire on the car-chase genre combined with a deconstruction of 24/7 news and 'infotainment.' Detroit Rock City, meanwhile, is that strange Gen-X beast - a 1970s nostalgia film (think Summer of Sam, Dazed and Confused, etc.) entirely centred around the band Kiss.
It's our contention that Rifkin may well be the Gen-X Robert Zemeckis — someone who understands the median tastes of a generation forgotten about by history, and too often Hollywood.
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After a year, your hosts are ready to wrap Gen X. Season One is at a close. What did we learn about the self-professedly forgotten generation? What has Banksy to do with the spirit of the age? And, most importantly we answer the question that started it all: how did the dirty girls end up in the K-Hive?
DPP is back, baby — and this time for an encore. Chase and Sam thought they'd round out the season — find a 'capstone', if you will — for the last year. That pediment takes the form of Chris Smith's fly-on-the-wall documentary American Movie (1999).
Fear the coming of the trilby. Yes, that's right — today, in the last episode of our first season, we're looking at Gen X accelerating towards middle age and a crash encounter with those coming up behind them: millennials.