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Cinema Beef Podcast : Love Under The Influence (Pretty Poison/Natural Born Killers)

April 10, 2026·1 hr 34 min·7 clips

Jeffrey slams Natural Born Killers as a cartoonish, ham-fisted social commentary with no nuance, preferring grounded '90s films like Seven.

1. The Cinema Beef Podcast reviews two films connected by the theme of criminal lovers: Pretty Poison (1968) and Natural Born Killers (1994). 2. Hosts Gary Hill, Susanne, and Jeffrey X. Martin co-host; Jeffrey is identified as the person who loves Natural Born Killers 'with the passion of a thousand suns,' a claim the episode largely subverts. 3. The episode's core question is whether either film succeeds as social commentary on manipulation, media, and violence, or whether both are undermined by their respective execution problems. 4. Pretty Poison (1968) is directed by Noel Black and written by Stephen Geller and Lorenzo Semple Jr., co-creator of the 1960s Batman TV series. 5. The film stars Anthony Perkins as Dennis Pitt, a mentally disturbed young man who tells high schooler Sue Ann Stepanek (Tuesday Weld) that he is a CIA operative. 6. Susanne argues the film's manipulation is fully transparent from the start and Sue Ann's methods — batting her eyes to escape blame for a night watchman's murder — never surprise the audience. 7. Jeffrey argues casting Perkins immediately after Psycho was a structural error, because audiences could not separate Dennis Pitt from Norman Bates, collapsing the story's central ambiguity. 8. Jeffrey frames Sue Ann as 'the 60s version of Tracy Flick' — a ruthless valedictorian who steers Dennis into crime before letting him take the fall. 9. Jeffrey's counter-reading of the film is that sue ann's more extreme mental illness effectively healed Dennis: 'she chose to go to prison just to get away from Sue Ann, and believe me, I can empathize with that.' 10. All three hosts agree Beverly Garland as Sue Ann's mother Mrs. Stepanek is the film's only reliably rational character and the parole officer is the closest thing to a moral anchor. 11. The hosts compare Pretty Poison unfavorably to Kitten with a Whip (Ann-Margaret), which Gary argues handled the smoldering-temptress archetype with greater self-assurance. 12. Natural Born Killers (1994) is directed by Oliver Stone from a story by Quentin Tarantino, with additional writing credits to David Veloz and Richard Rotkowski. 13. The film stars Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as Mickey and Mallory Knox, with Robert Downey Jr. as Australian crime-reality host Wayne Gale and Tommy Lee Jones as warden Dwight McCluskey. 14. Jeffrey objects to every stylistic choice in Natural Born Killers: the color shifts, black-and-white sequences, sitcom-flashback framing, and wall projections amount to what he calls 'technicolor daycare.' 15. Jeffrey argues all supporting characters are cartoonishly exaggerated villains designed to make Mickey and Mallory look sympathetic despite leaving over 50 bodies across the desert. 16. Jeffrey describes Robert Downey Jr.'s Australian accent as 'the second worst affected accent by an actor, topped only by Jodie Foster's constant Elvis impersonation during Silence of the Lambs.' 17. Jeffrey's central thesis is that Natural Born Killers is a stylistic anomaly for the 1990s because 'the decade demanded authenticity,' and Seven and The Crow are more representative touchstones. 18. Gary and Susanne are more measured, with Gary noting the soundtrack is 'better than the movie' and Susanne deferring to Jeffrey's critique as the definitive take. 19. Fans of 1960s and 1990s crime and exploitation cinema who enjoy strong opinions delivered with comedic asides will find this episode entertaining. 20. Listeners seeking deep plot analysis or historical context for either film will find the discussion driven more by personal reaction than formal criticism.

As heard by us

A loose, profanity-forward hangout that keeps circling the film's nastier details.

Pretty Poison plays like a stack of bad choices, and the hosts do not soften that. They keep coming back to the age-gap discomfort, the stolen gun, the hidden body, and the nagging sense that the heroine may not be fully trustworthy. Mrs.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a nasty love-story double feature, start here tonight.

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