Episode 74: Empire Records (1995)

Film chosen and introduced by Devlin

If nothing else, this episode showed me just what a true cult object this film is. Despite my esteemed co-hosts being roughly the same age as me, and us having a decent amount of overlap in our formative experiences and tastes, I was pretty shocked when not one of them had actually seen it. I guess I assumed that by now, there were very few undiscovered pockets of fandom that, thanks to the ubiquity of choice and the never-ending surfeit of nostalgia attached to every single piece of 80s and 90s media, that at least one of them would have either chanced upon this back in their teen years, or come across the annual blitz of Rex Manning Day social media that rolls around every April and decided to give this a glance.

I’m kinda glad they hadn’t though, I must admit. It’s rare to get to examine a formative, flawed but beloved film like this with a new audience – usually I’d either watch alone, or share the rare treat of a raucous, fan-fuelled screening at The Prince Charles. No spoilers to say that I still love this film, but I very much appreciated Gali, Patrick and Matt’s insights. Speaking of, please enjoy Matt’s always-tremendous playlists below!