School of Movies

Candymen

[School of Movies 2021]

This show is about both the 1992 original, based on the short story "The Forbidden" by Clive Barker and directed by Bernard Rose, AND the 2021 film directed by Nia DaCosta which shares the name but is in fact both a remake and an in-world sequel. 

We decided to gate off all discussion of the new film for the second half of this show, so you can listen to the first half without fear of learning too much. However, both are now available for rental and we would sincerely suggest you watch the pair in release order (ignoring the straight-to-video grade sequels "Farewell to the Flesh" (1995) and "Day of the Dead" (1999).

What started out quite troublesome with a mixed message and a powerful yet clumsy execution has now been sharpened to a razor edge of social satire and brooding, urban horror, rightfully reclaimed. And to make this one even spicier, we attempted not to speak His name even once, lest we inadvertently summon Him.

...Listen if you dare, to hear if we made it all the way through the show.

01. Candyman (1992) 00h 02m

02. Candyman (2021) 01h 18m

Guests:

From Sequentially Yours  Kaoru Negisa  @Moonpanther22

and Debbie Morse  @bastet8300

What If? (Season 1)

[School of Everything Else 2021]

For the first time ever, a direct MCU production really threw me. We've had underachieving films in the past, like the listless Thor: The Dark World, the dramatically unexplorative Ant-Man and The Wasp and starting out with a really serious challenge for our flawed hero before dropping the PTSD ball in the third act with Iron Man 3.

Thanos was troublingly handled in Infinity War and a year of imbecilic agreement in the myopic viewpoints of a sympathetically-cast abuser only made that worse. WandaVision, Falcon and Loki all had their missed marks in otherwise solid packages.

But this one was wildly uneven. It had two episodes I actively despise, a couple I absolutely adore and a bunch of fluff in the middle. And so that we end on a high note we will be scaling the Marvel mountain in that order.

Guests:

Greg Downing of Through the Wind Door @MightyGregDoge

Austin Wilden from our Discord @WC_WIT

No Time to Die

[School of Movies 2021]

We hadn't planned on doing this one so early, but by the time I walked out of the cinema I wanted to finish off the quintet with the same flourish and passion as this film does. It impressed the hell out of me, and then did the same for Sharon. And when we began recording neither of us knew what the other thought, which creates an unusual frisson.

No spoilers in these notes. But I honestly suggest you see the film before listening. One of our listeners has never seen ANY Bond movies, so to her I suggested Casino Royale or Skyfall as a stand-alone first experience, as all five in a row is a big ask especially with the wildly varying tones across the fifteen-year board.

I am also re-releasing the 2015 shows on Skyfall and Spectre on the main feed, so that all these soldiers are lined up in a row. I'm already being told on social media "I have to say I hated it" which makes me sad on several levels. To me, while the length and pacing are uneven, much like the overall series, this is a triumph. 

Spectre

[School of Movies 2015]

NOTE: This is a remastered episode, re-released for 2021. Unlike Skyfall, where I made a handful of tweaks, this one received a heavy edit. Almost an HOUR of the original show was devoted to speculation on what Sony/MGM/EON/Danjaq would do with the *next* Bond film. At the time Daniel Craig seemed to have had enough, and it was very much a possibility that Spectre would be his last outing. Ergo pretty much everything we said is now irrelevant. So I streamlined the conversation to be only about the film itself, and added a lot more of Thomas Newman's excellent score. If you really want the uncut show you can find it in the School of Movies Archive podcast feed. 

This is a supremely divisive movie. On the one hand some folks hail it as a fantastic instalment of the long-running series, proof that 007 is still flying high. On the other, it has been decried as evidence of the exact opposite, seemingly underlining and exemplifying everything that was broken about Bond back in the past when we had little else in the way of action movies to choose from.

Guest:

Gary Blower of GamerBurst

Skyfall

[School of Movies 2015]

NOTE: This is a remastered episode, re-released for 2021. It's a little tighter, less waffle, more music. 

The Craig era, previously discussed back in 2011 gets the royal treatment and we talk Sam Mendez, Roger Deakins, Thomas Newman, Javier Bardem, Ben Wishaw, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Her Majesty, Queen Dench. 

Skyfall stands as a divisive, yet extremely high-quality instalment in the long-running series, with small-scale, personal stakes and a narrative that reflects the very concept of Bond singing for its supper. 

Guests:

Gary Blower of GamerBurst

James Batchelor of Bond and Beyond

Alex Boucher of Bond and Beyond

Quantum of Solace

[School of Movies 2021]

As I say at the end of this episode, there's a reason why going back to cover these first two Daniel Craig Bonds has been so rich and gratifying for us. Back then they were building a character. Since then, to a degree with Skyfall and definitely with Spectre it has been a case of nudging that more textured character into a comforting template with certain accoutrements that the specific actor brought with him.  And to a degree that has meant stripping away some of that texture.

Quantum of Solace has always been maligned. This episode focuses on both its all-too-often unappreciated strengths as well as the weaknesses that throw up a barrier between film and audience and actually prevent many of the stronger blows from landing. 

We hope by the end you'll have a good enough set of reasons to go back and reassess. 

Casino Royale

[School of Movies 2021]

To coincide with the long-awaited release of No Time to Die we decided to go back to the beginning of Daniel Craig's career as 007. A decade ago I covered the first 22 Bond movies with James Batchelor and Gary Blower, over three mammoth episodes, covering each era. That took us all the way up to Quantum of Solace. 

But Sharon wasn't on those, episodes and we only had so much time to cover each movie. Plus I'd like to think we've gotten better over the years. So this one is all about the 2006 debut movie, which remains our favourite of the series for reasons we will definitely be elaborating upon. Next week, since we've already covered Skyfall and Spectre together, back in 2015 we will be talking about the much-maligned sequel, Quantum of Solace.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

[School of Movies 2021]

One of the first huge blockbuster movies made by a western studio with a largely eastern cast, this one really underlines my abiding contention that "Superhero" is not a genre, and neither, as it turns out is "Martial Arts". Would we say Boogie Nights was a "Sex Movie?". Genre is an increasingly blurry construct to help marketers and those who want to know what to watch. 

Luckily for us all though this particular Martial Arts Superhero movie is fantastic. Once again, we urge everyone to be as safe as possible and not take risks. But even if you aren't able to see this in the cinema, you have something special to look forward to on your TV screen in the near future, and while we discuss what happens we can't really spoil the movie for you. It's too rich and nourishing for that. 

Guests:

Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse

Jesse Ferguson @TheDapperDM

from the Recorded Tomorrow Podcast

Castlevania (The Video Games)

[School of Everything Else 2021]

An iconic series of games that has run since 1986 but never really resonated with mass audiences the way that Mario and Sonic did. These are the tales of vampire hunters and the creatures of the night that stand between them and (usually) Dracula. 

They have gone through many phases, and we cover each of them here in this mammoth, epic and thoroughly comprehensive show. First there are the side-scrolling whip-and-jump titles from the NES onwards through the SNES and Mega Drive, followed by their reinvention as both 3D action games, and (more significantly for video gaming history) as metroidvanias (a term that had to be invented to best describe them).

We take you through the rocky territory of Lords of Shadow and the triumphant return as "Bloodstained" as publisher Konami ran the official license into the ground with pachinko machines. We even touch on the strange and elusive mobile games. 

This show will tell you which of the 30+ titles are really worth sinking time into and why. And the whole thing is soaked in atmosphere and a dark, Gothic smorgasbord of classic music. 

Guests:

Jason "Chewie" Slate @TheManaPool

Alexa Vargas @Plutoburns whose YouTube channel is here

Batman: The Animated Series

[School of Everything Else 2021]

One of the greatest, most influential TV shows of all time. We watched the whole thing on blu ray, and not only does it hold up, it still surpasses most Batman media. Oftentimes lynchpins like this are hyped and oversaturated to the point where they can hardly live up to the cultural expectations, but this one really does.

The first season was a HUGE run of 65 episodes which spanned a year from September '92 to '93. The second season was a more conservative 20, which went from May '94 to September '95. By this point it was time for Superman to get his own show (encapsulating the classic character rather than subverting him) which we will hopefully be covering soon. 

There were a series of movies released on TV and VHS (as well as a brief, invisible theatrical release for Mask of the Phantasm, which we covered all the way back in 2012. And then 24 episodes of The New Batman Adventures switched up the art style and went from September '97 to January '99. It's the finer points and highlights of these three seasons that we focus on in this mammoth show. 

Guests:

Toby Jungius @TJungius of Through the Wind Door

Kevin Veighey @GoldenTalesGeek whose Let's Plays on YouTube can be found here