School of Movies

-Ali-

[School of Movies 2021]

This is our 700th Podcast. I began in April of 2007, and through four generations of my show, myself and then Sharon have covered a hell of a lot of media. Fittingly, this episode is one of the very greatest. 

On the twentieth anniversary of the 2001 Michael-Mann-directed biopic of maybe the greatest sportsman who ever lived, we finally go up against Ali in the ring. It's not just a fantastic film, this account of the real life events that took place between his fight with Sonny Liston in 1964 spanning all the way to the Rumble in the Jungle with Foreman in Zaire, '74 changed the way I saw the world.

It did so, decades ago, drawing my attention sharply to the African-American experience, and the injustices it exposes in the heart of America. This informed upon the way I think, the way I speak, and it has definitely informed on how I write. It's also the performance of Will Smith's life (in case you needed any more excuses to track it down). Sharon and I move through the events, people and decisions that effected this flawed, infuriating, dazzling, inspiring man, and how he reacted to them, in a manner that transcended the limitations heaped upon him. 

The two accompanying films we also suggest as further viewing afterwards are 'The Greatest' (1977) and 'When We Were Kings' (1996).

The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert

[School of Movies 2021]

This is a commissioned show by Kevin Veighy, who specifically wanted to make a kind gesture towards his friends and all of our listeners in the LGBTQ community. And what began as a desire to extend a sympathetic hand turned into something rather special, and a landmark episode.

I haven't been entirely sure about this movie for several years. I know I loved it when I saw it in the 90s (make sure you listen to the end for my story on that), but I also know that there are troublesome elements that are less cool by the standards of the 2020s.

Fortunately, we had the extremely enthusiastic Victoria Grieve, who always makes our show better, and provided a hell of a lot of perspective on the trans narrative.

I am not the least bit sorry for all of my attempts at the Australian accent! I regret nothing!

Stonespring Maidens is now available to buy from Amazon in paperback.

Guest:

Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch 

Bill & Ted Face the Music

[School of Movies 2021]

The trilogy of Time, Space and The Afterlife culminates in the best one yet. And while we've had loads of folks express delight with the first two episodes as they grew in complexity, this one is really special.

There's a sizzling energy to our discussions as things get very meta and concerned with generational responsibility, and the music that flows throughout is some of my favourite editing in a long career of talking about movies, games, books and TV.

I would say you must see this film to avoid us spoiling it, but it can't be spoiled. I would then say you must see this movie, because you should.   

Tweet us @SchoolofMovies

Guests:

Rachel Schenk @IAMRachelQuirky from Screen Snark and

Scott Thomas @OGScottieT from And the Winner Is

BOTH also from The Infinity Podcast

Jesse Ferguson @TheDapperDM

from the Recorded Tomorrow Podcast

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

[School of Movies 2021]

We got some real love for our Excellent Adventure show. It seems like you folks were responding to the pure joy threaded throughout, so let's see what we can do for the black sheep of the B&T Trilogy. This sequel turned up just two years after the first, having been hastily greenlit when executives got dollar signs in their eyes and saw franchise potential.

The writers began with a re-tread of the original, where the duo went through great works of literature and dragged out the characters for yet another school report. Then when they got to Moses and company from religious texts, it was decided this should get more metaphysical. So it became "Bill & Ted Go to Hell" and the rest of the film was written around how that could have happened. Who killed them? Why a pair of evil, robot doubles from the future! 

It did not delight audiences. But as we delve deeper than even Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson could have predicted we would like to present to you, some of the reasons why this movie is actually not Bogus at all.

Tweet us @SchoolofMovies with what you think about Station. 

Guests:

Rachel Schenk @IAMRachelQuirky 

from Screen Snark and

Scott Thomas @OGScottieT 

from And the Winner Is

BOTH also from The Infinity Podcast 

Jesse Ferguson @TheDapperDM 

from the Recorded Tomorrow Podcast

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

[School of Movies 2021]

We begin a trilogy of shows taking us through time, space and the afterlife that begins here with this abidingly enjoyable romp through history, pilfering various key figures to make the deadline on a school report.

We talk about how the time travel seems utterly nonsensical at first, but actually remains consistent and makes an internally logical sense within the adventure itself. And also how Bill & Ted, with their affable approach to life often touch on a profound wisdom by accident.

We also hear from a couple of air-guitarists who have travelled right the way through delusion to emerge the other side as rock gods, before going back in.

Our guest for all three shows is Jesse Ferguson of the Recorded Tomorrow podcast, which is all about time travel. You might want to go back to Episode 6 and start with paradoxes, because I'm on that one. Jesse's co-host, Jonathan also joins us for this first outing.

Guests:

Jesse Ferguson @TheDapperDM and

Jonathan H. Liu @jonathanhliu 

from the Recorded Tomorrow Podcast 

Wonder Woman 1984

[School of Movies 2021]

This follow-up to a fantastic debut in 2017 was long-awaited, much-anticipated and spent several years in production. At the end of a blockbuster-drought of a year, we were all looking forward to sinking back into the comfortable environs of an inspiring superhero story. Perhaps with some tactfully handled real-world symbolism in there, and a call to arms for women in particular.

Unfortunately, this thing is a HUGE mess. It makes so many baffling decisions that it was actually tricky to keep up with. By the time we'd finished reacting to one moment, another had flown by. So we're giving this one the all-clear for you to listen to, whether you've seen the movie or not. Because we CANNOT spoil it any more than Warner Bros. have done. 

The show ran long, so there is a 45-minute Cutting Class episode coming to Patreon with everything that didn't make the final cut. Because editing is important! 

Stonespring Maidens is now available to buy from Amazon in paperback.

Guests:

Hollywoo Actress  Maya Santandrea @Mayasantandrea

Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch 

Super 8

[School of Movies 2021]

We round off the year of Spielberg by going back to his roots as a filmmaker. And while this is a 2011 movie, directed by J.J. Abrams which Steve produced, I mean far more than  it simply evoking Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial.

There's more cinematic alchemy at play here than even we realised, when we took on this project, and we are very happy to share our findings with you all. Suffice to say this is Abrams' most personal movie, and it feels odd that it was largely dismissed and overlooked at release, despite its qualities, while the similarly flavoured (and also fantastic) Stranger Things became a global phenomenon five years later. And I go into the fundamental differences in creator backgrounds there.

This movie is fairly simple, and moves in broad strokes, but there are many subtleties and elements that it's easy to miss. We hope we can encourage you to open your eyes for a second look. 

Super Mario Bros.

[School of Movies 2021]

I've never known such a bad movie to be so loved, either secretly and shamefully, or boldly and unapologetically. If you're in either camp, lean into the second one. Firstly because why should you have guilty pleasures? Especially now. Unless you're eating mushrooms, growing to twice your size and jumping on the heads of those who call it garbage, you're not hurting anyone. Own that love. 

And secondly, knowing that some people who grew up with the disastrous first big budget attempt at adapting a major video game to the big screen and still care about it would bring some joy to the hearts of those who had to make the thing.

For this episode, where we focus on what went wrong behind the scenes, we brought in the Franchise Killer podcast, who take that same angle on their show, examining the movies that went wrong from a more explorative angle. It was fantastic having these folks on and I urge you lot to check out their show.

https://franchisekillerpod.podbean.com/

Guests:

From the Franchise Killer Podcast: @FK_Podcast

David Schmitzer

Irena Schmitzer

Rhys Paine

Cannon's Ninja Trilogy

[School of Movies 2020]

This show covers three movies: Enter the Ninja (1980) Revenge of the Ninja (1983) and Ninja III: The Domination (1984). They are hard to get hold of and almost entirely unconnected with each other, and they are violent, shoddy and absolutely hilarious.

The connection is Cannon films and wildly talented actor and martial artist Sho Kosugi, who is the villain in the first, the hero in the second and support in the third. And of course none of these characters are the same man. 

What we have here is an absolute treat; An enormous buffet, containing many surprisingly effective moments hidden among the weird and dangerous decisions made while filming all of them. No expense was spent, and no actor got through with their dignity fully intact.  

Guests:

Hollywoo Actress  Maya Santandrea @Mayasantandrea

From Sequentially Yours  Kaoru Negisa  @Moonpanther22

and Debbie Morse  @bastet8300

Ready Player One

[School of Movies 2020]

Way back at the end of 2019 (Remember when we could get right up in each other's faces?) we recorded this show with Victoria Grieve, expecting it to be a riotous session of taking the book and film to task. Things got more complicated than that, as it turns out Victoria really liked certain elements of Spielberg's adaptation (as did many viewers). And then one of the worst migraines I've ever had hit me about twenty minutes into recording.

We decided around that time to do a full-on Spielberg season and didn't realise how it would become the focal point of our 2020, so the raw footage of this one waited to find a final form that would be entertaining and informative and not just footage of me groaning from where I lay under the desk. The edit took several passes, new material and some clips from when We Hate Movies spanked the pants off this one. I'm really proud of the final show as it stands.

And if you LOVE the Ready Player One movie and want to hear more of the positive angle, this week's Patreon bonus Cutting Class episode will be a treat. 

Guests:

Victoria Luna B. Grieve:  @VixenVVitch