Stand-up comedian Brian Posehn's résumé is bursting with roles on influential shows like Mr. Show, Seinfeld and Reno 911! And he's no stranger to Adult Swim either, turning in tour-de-force performances as the Wisdom Cube in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Gibbons on Tom Goes To The Mayor, and Dethklok's second manager in Metalocalypse. Earlier this year he released his second live album, Fart And Wiener Jokes. Posehn took a break from talking incessantly about his love for metal music by instead waxing about his love of metal movies.

Currently checked out: Until The Light Takes Us

It's a documentary about black metal.

Oh, that makes sense.

[Laughs.] Yes, it does make sense. I haven't seen this yet. I had it in my hand at Amoeba [Records] the other day and I went, "You know what? I'm gonna wait." It's on its way here right now. It's about Norwegian black metal and all the guys in the '90s that kind of killed each other and all the suicide and church burnings. It'll be nice. [Laughs.] I'll sit down with the wife, have a nice meal, and watch black metal guys kill each other.

“I'll sit down with the wife, have a nice meal, and watch black metal guys kill each other.”

What's a good meal pairing with a movie like that?

Oh, I'll eat my friend's brain. I don't know. [Laughs.] I think one of the guys in one of these bands actually ate his friend.

Why?  

Because he's super black metal. If you're that black metal, you gotta eat your buddy.

Obviously some of what these guys do is way too extreme, but is there anything you've heard they've done that's just too offensive to even imagine a human being doing?

Yes! I've always been weird about that stuff. I was a Christian kid, so when people take that stuff seriously and take Satan seriously, it's kinda hard for me to wrap my head around it. I've always kinda seen it as funny, even going back to Slayer and King Diamond and some of the other faux-Satanic more mainstream metal. That always struck me as funny, Slayer. I just find it a little silly, the whole Army Of Satan.

But [Norway in the '90s] was kinda the height of the craziness. There's been books written about it. A book I really liked but never finished, Lords Of Chaos, is about the same thing. It's just really interesting to me how out of hand it got over there at that point. Hopefully this documentary will be well made and have some things I haven't heard about it.

No. 2: The Filth And The Fury: A Sex Pistols Film

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It's the Sex Pistols documentary that Julien Temple did about 10 years ago. I saw it in the theater and really liked it and don't own it, but thought I might like seeing it again. I'm totally a punk guy. I did listen to a lot of punk as a kid. They're an interesting story. I remember it being a well made film.

“I'm totally a punk guy.”

For me, there were a lot better bands in punk rock and punk that just did it better but they're the most famous and their story is kinda crazy, how they were put together. They're basically a punk rock boy band and that's sorta interesting. There was this guy Malcolm McLaren just put these guys together all because of the look, more than anybody having any talent. That's just interesting to me.

I actually like Public Image Ltd and some of the stuff [John Lydon] did after the Sex Pistols. He was probably the most talented of the band. Well, maybe Steve Jones. Yeah, I don't know what those guys are up to now. It's sort of hard to still stay punk when you're in your 50's or 60's. Metal starts to get ridiculous when you get to be that old, too. When you're tucking in your black T-shirt it's like, "Ooh. Hey, old man."

What's more appropriate at that age?

I'd say still go untucked. You can still rock untucked shirts until you're in your 60's and 70's. When you start tucking in your shirts, you start giving in to your age.

“You can still rock untucked shirts until you're in your 60's and 70's. When you start tucking in your shirts, you start giving in to your age.”

No. 3: What We Do Is Secret [Rated R]

It's actually not a documentary. So far it looked like I was following a theme, but it is about music. It's about Darby Crash from The Germs. It's a movie that came out a couple years back and I remember it being one of those things I saw in an indie movie theater that it was coming out, and I never saw it. But it looks interesting so I'm gonna give it a shot.

This is one of these biopics, though, where they have actors re-enacting the real story, right?

Those things are always kinda—llike the Johnny Cash one, [Walk The Line], the story's always kinda the same: Here's this guy, he was really talented, but he was misunderstood, then he f***ed up and did drugs, and now he's dead. The end. But still, I still want to check it out.

I don't remember which one came first, the Ray biopic, but I saw that, and then I saw the Johnny Cash one around the same time. I went, "Gosh, these guys have the same movie." [Laughs.] And these guys were very different, but the story of them is no different at all. One guy's blind and one guy has a brother who died, but still. Pretty much the same.

No. 4: The Riverman

This I don't know anything about, but it came out in 2004. It's a creepy thriller with Cary Elwes, who, uh, when was the last time he was good? The Princess Bride? Still, I'm gonna give him another chance. He's in it, and it's a docudrama, so it's a fake documentary about a guy pursuing a real killer, the Green River Killer. But then he decides to enlist the aid of another serial killer to try to apprehend him. I'm sure things go south and get creepy.

Why? The police do that all the time, hire serial killers to hunt other serial killers.

Yeah, I think only in the cinema that happens. I don't know if that happens so much in real life. Don't do this. If you happen to be a criminal investigator watching a movie, watching thrillers at home, don't try this.

No. 5: Following [Rated R]

I know nothing about this, except that it's directed by Chris Nolan. I've never seen it, but it sounds interesting. He wrote it and directed it. Yeah, it's about a seedy young Brit who's obsessed with following people. "Harmlessly at first," which makes me think things go south for him, too.

Memento was awesome. I loved Memento. But this is prior to that. I've never seen it, but I'm gonna give it a shot. I'm sure it's not going to have the budget of Inception. It looks like it's his first thing. I have not heard of any of the people in this movie.

“I have not heard of any of the people in this movie.”

No. 6: Defendor

It was under my radar, I had heard about it just a little while ago, and I thought it was coming into theaters but apparently it's already on DVD. That's not how you spell "defender." This is another word entirely. This sounds good, though: "Despite lacking any actual superpowers, Arthur Poppington transforms himself into costumed vigilante 'Defendor.' But danger beckons when the hero tries to protect young prostitute Kat from an assailant." So I'm all on that. I'm in. I'm gonna check that out. And it's Woody Harrelson and Kat Dennings. This came out in 2009, and Woody Harrelson was kinda hot last year with Zombieland, but no one's even heard of it. I don't know why. I knew it was out because I was talking with someone at Comic-Con this year about Kick-Ass not being the huge hit that it shoulda been. I love that movie, it was one of my favorite movies of last year. There were a couple of other movies in the pipe, and I think when Kick-Ass failed, whoever was doing Defendor got scared and didn't even put it out. So it went straight to DVD. I know for a fact it was from last year. I think that's what it was, just Kick-Ass caused the studio to have cold feet.

Kick-Ass still seemed to catch on a little more than Mystery Men.

Yeah, I try not to think about Mystery Men too often. [Laughs.] I kinda blocked that out. That's hard to watch. It had a lot of people I really respected, and actually a friend or two, so that was kinda weird. That was sorta the last big thing Janeane Garofalo did. I don't know if that movie hurt her, but it certainly didn't hurt Ben Stiller. I don't know.

“Yeah, I try not to think about Mystery Men too often.”

No. 7: Louis C.K.: Hilarious

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I love Louis and that sitcom [Louie] is amazing. What I love about it is I think I might give it a higher score than you. If you think it's a 4, I might give it a 4.3 because being a comic, some of the stuff, like the heckler episode—that's the thing that most people haven't gone through, but I have. So I just connected with it on another level. He nailed how uncomfortable it can be and what goes through your head when somebody heckles you. It was a thing that I've never seen on TV or in a movie. Like, movies about stand-up generally suck. I actually liked Funny People a lot and worked on it a little. But Punchline is not about my life at all. Louis C.K.'s show is.

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