School of Movies

Avengers: Endgame

[School of Movies 2019]

How could we possibly sum up this immensely important, densely packed three-hour odyssey that closes out eleven years and 22 movies worth of continuity?

The solution we came up with was a feat of organisation, collaboration and editing elegance that focuses on character arcs resolving and continuing with viewpoints from the biggest assembly of guests we have ever had in a single sitting.  Appropriate, wouldn't you say?

Plus a wildly speculative Patreon bonus show all about the plot mechanics and the future of the MCU. This is one of our very best. 

Guests

Brenden Agnew of Cinapse  @BLCAgnew 

Maya Santandrea of Hollywoo  @mayasantandrea 

Jesse Ferguson of Recorded Tomorrow @TheDapperDM 

Neil Taylor of TheKidDogg @KidDogg 

Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst @JeromeMci

Mackenzie Easton  @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod  

From Sequentially Yours  Kaoru Negisa  @Moonpanther22 

and Debbie Morse  @bastet8300 

"The Men by the Lake" written and read by Alasdair Stuart of Escapeartists.net @AlasdairStuart  

And we are @SchoolOfMovies 

Find our Patreon here:  https://www.patreon.com/alexandershaw where you can support our weekly shows and get access to all sorts of bonus goodies including an hour-long bonus episode on Endgame wherein we talk about time travel and where Marvel go from here. 

The New Century Multiverse podcast can be found here: http://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/

Venom

[School of Movies 2019]

Back when the movie launched in late 2018 I put together a 50-minute Quick Review for Patreon. It was so entertaining and full of detail that I've been meaning for a while to expand on it and bring that show to the main feed. So this is that, with 45 minutes of new material added, including Sharon's take on Venom, recorded in early 2019 and my reassessment of what worked about the film.

A space mission crashes back to Earth, bringing with it various gooey aliens of questionable morality. One crazed, underwritten billionaire seeks to create the perfect being by combining these aliens with hobos via symbiosis. And one jittery, journalistic loser represents a spanner in the works. Venom was poorly reviewed upon release, but audiences flocked to it nonetheless, generating an unlikely $855 million global box office. Part of this show is about examining why that might have been the case. 

Next Week: Avengers Endgame

Pet Sematary

[School of Movies 2019]

This is a rigorous dissection of the 1989 movie, the 2019 movie and the 1983 book. In many ways this is a sister show to our IT episodes. Stephen King done wrong three times, even by King himself. 

This doesn't just come down to me not liking the nasty tone of all three, there is a fundamental breach in the overarching philosophy of the author which renders this an aberration in his creative oeuvre. It's also dumb as hell and doesn't even follow its own internal logic, requiring characters to do moronic things just to reach the next rotten story-beat. 

Changes were made for the contemporary adaptation and there's a curious new set of possibilities... which are then blithely squandered in cheap, heartless and deeply unimaginative fashion. Yes, it's garbage, but the reason we made a whole show out of this is that it could have been so much more. 

The Mummy Returns

[School of Movies 2019]

Not long after the 1999 original hit theatres Universal were on the phone to director Stephen Sommers with a basic request; "We need another one". And another one they got. 

The creeping mystery and classical style of the first film was left in the sand and instead this is a rip-roaring race against time treasure hunt action spectacular. 

This time around we discuss the bonkers reasoning when it comes to putting souls into living bodies, Sommers' obvious adulation of Terminator 2 and how The Mummy series was kind of a prototype Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

And as a bonus, this episode includes my Quick Review of the 2017 movie "The Tom Cruise (Featuring a Female Mummy)" which was supposed to launch Universal's Dark Universe. Previously only available on Patreon, this sections starts at the 1h 23m mark. 

Guests:

James Batchelor  @James_Batchelor of Bond & Beyond

Brendan Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse  

Debbie Morse @bastet8300 of Sequentially Yours 

And we are @SchoolOfMovies

The Mummy

[School of Movies 2019]

The 1999 adventure has turned out to be one of our most eagerly-awaited podcasts.

This time we delve into costume and actions to get a bead on subtle character-building that isn't in the script. It's a triumph of set-design and music and pacy, memorable and surprisingly progressive filmmaking. 

We also go into its lengthy pre-production run and the string of very different director's visions for the Mummy project. Next week we talk The Mummy Returns (plus the best bits from my Quick Review of the 2017 Dark Universe initiator "The Tom Cruise".

Guests:

James Batchelor  @James_Batchelor of Bond & Beyond

Brendan Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse  

Debbie Morse @bastet8300 of Sequentially Yours 

And we are @SchoolOfMovies

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

[School of Movies 2019]

On paper this is a film we should absolutely love, based on a book we should also absolutely love. Average boy discovers a secret, secluded old mansion populated by strange children with special powers, looked after by an eccentric and magical woman, played by a fine actress and directed by a man known for his quirky outsider tales and memorable imagery. From a multi-part children's book series literally inspired by odd Victorian photographs!

And yet it was a strangely cold, disconnected, hollow experience filled with troubling and ultimately unexamined behaviour that makes the central character a different kind of villain to the grotesque child-eating monsters filling up the corners. 

This is a facsimile of a Guillermo del Toro version of X-Men Hogwarts, run through so many filters of nonsense and artifice that there's almost nothing genuinely effective left. What started out as a Quick Review ended up being edited three times into an exploration of our troubles with Tim Burton. 

Next Week: The Mummy!

Get Out

[School of Movies 2019]

With Jordan Peele's second film, Us tearing up cinemas right now we figured the time was exactly right to explore his densely symbolic, thrilling debut Get Out. This is a movie that does not pull its punches. It's kind of amazing that it exists at all, considering the deeply uncomfortable system-damning subtext. 

A young fellow named Chris journeys with his girlfriend to visit her parents, and there's some conflict. We can all agree on the universality of this premise, but Peele deftly takes the audience and puts them behind someone else's eyes to accomplish something truly unnerving. Definitely see the film before listening. 

And as with Captain Marvel's lineup of ladies, rather than being two white liberal podcasters churning out our reading from the outside we brought in guests of colour to lend some sharp perspective. 

Guests

Aquila Edwards @aquilaedwards

Eric Jones of Waxing Cinematic

Captain Marvel

[School of Movies 2019]

Maybe our most eagerly-awaited, long-time-coming Marvel's of all finally arrives. And to distinguish this show from a LOT of the lukewarm dude-filled discussion about this movie we have four brilliant ladies talking and smiling as much or as little as they like. 

We begin with my own list of every male hero in sci-fi, fantasy and superhero movies since the late 70s and an accompanying MUCH SHORTER list of female leads in the same space. After that I shut up as much as I can and let the women explore the themes, details and subtleties. 

For everyone who just found it okay, we're hoping we can give you a fresh perspective on a really impactful film for a lot of women. 

Guests:

Sharon Shaw @cai_boxer

Maya Santandrea @mayasantandrea

Mackenzie Easton: @KenziePhoenix

Debbie Morse @bastet8300

And we are @SchoolOfMovies

We Need to Talk About Fandom

[School of Movies 2019]

A long-planned show, following up on "Fan Response" in 2013 which can be found on the School of Everything Else Archive. Things were becoming problematic back then and now, six years later, matters are worse.

This is a show all about examining where we each stand in our fandoms and dispelling the binary, black and white "You are either with us or against us" mentality which has cultivated a climate of extreme feeling that we are bombarded with every day.  It's not about exclusion, it's about reclaiming nuance and being comfortable having mixed feelings.

Contents

0.02: The State of Fandom Now

0.23: The Colour Wheel

1.20: Outside Interference

1.28: Eight Fallacies

1.33: Mixed Feelings

1.36: The Code

1.48:  Working With The Code

1.59: Credits

2.03: What Can We Do?

Guests:

Lorin Grieve @XaviaShandi

Maya Santandrea @mayasantandrea

Kaoru Negisa @Moonpanther22

Debbie Morse @bastet8300

And we are @SchoolOfMovies

The Good Place

[School of Everything Else 2019]

One of the most compulsive and mind-expanding TV shows in recent years, The Good Place is an unfolding exploration of philosophy and morality which takes the brightly coloured appealing form of comedy frozen yogurt. 

If you've not seen it, the best summation is that a woman named Eleanor Shelstrop dies and is welcomed into heaven by a kindly angel-type named Michael, only to realise she shouldn't be there because she's a rotten, selfish wretch and Michael thinks she's a much better person also called Eleanor Shelstrop. Her attempts to not be found out and maybe slip through the net, aided by her soulmate, a nervous Professor of Moral Philosophy named Chidi are just the beginning of an afterlife adventure that questions human behaviour.

In this episode we cover the first three seasons, which are all currently available on Netflix. We have to go full-spoiler because so much keeps getting revealed every season that our discussion would be supremely limited otherwise. 

Next Week: Our long-promised episode on The Matrix is finally here, just in time for its 20th Anniversary.