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Super in-depth analysis of movies (and occasionally TV, and video games). Hosted by veteran podcasters Alex & Sharon Shaw with different guests for round-table chats every week.
Episodes
Friday Apr 08, 2016
Friday Apr 08, 2016
[School of Movies 2016]
00.00.30: First Impressions
00.40.00: A More Positive Response
00.56.00: The Main Event
Friday Mar 11, 2016
Friday Mar 11, 2016
[School of Movies 2016]
In the run-up to Batman V Superman, let's take a dive into the mind of director Zack Snyder. Let's look at how he sees the world, how he sees the human psyche and how he sees women.
Prepare for a furious battle of wills as Alex goes in guns blazing to take apart a film he never wants to talk about again, and Lorin Grieve of A Year of Steam defends the movie he loves. Sharon lies somewhere in the middle, but there's a hell of a lot about this that bothers her too. Get some interpretations that the filmmakers definitely didn't consider, and learn how very vague their feelings are on what this story is actually about. Is this a determined feminist text or something far more clumsy and unintentional? The evidence gets presented in and epic disassembling that hopefully will leave your minds clearer.
Guest:
Victoria Grieve @VixenVVitch
Monday Dec 21, 2015
Monday Dec 21, 2015
[School of Movies 2015]
Part 1: A film so important and so passionately adored by us that we needed two shows and two groups of guests to fully cover, welcome to part 1 of our Force Awakens show. With us for this first outing in which we discuss Rey, Finn, Ren, Han, Huxx, Snoke and the hugely positive side of this effectively being a retelling of the events of A New Hope.
Part 2: The second installment in our epic Force Awakens show brings in three new voices and a Star Destroyer-full of speculation. We move onto the characters we have not yet covered, as well as talking details and theorizing wildly about later movies in this series as well as talking about how the landscape of Star Wars in cinema has now changed forever.
Wednesday Jun 10, 2015
Wednesday Jun 10, 2015
[Digital Drift 2015]
We had planned to release The Lost World this week but Mad Max: Fury Road appeared out of nowhere and turned out to be rather special. So we broke suddenly, veered off the road, picked up a couple of passengers and thundered into an epic analysis review.
We begin with a 45 minute discussion of the original Mad Max trilogy, all of which contain elements that found their way into this new incarnation. You can listen to that without spoiling the new movie, but then go see it and come back for the next act.
I lay down my thoughts on the meta-story that developed upon its release, specifically it’s detractors and the symbolism that layers on as a result. After that we talk long and hard about every aspect of this astonishing and deeply surprising new blockbuster. Surprising both in how the story develops and its sheer quality and fulfilled ambition. This is a film we want absolutely everyone to see.
If you love these shows support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/alexandershaw
Guests:
Joshua Garrity of Cane and Rinse
James Perkins of The Digital Fix
Saturday Jan 24, 2015
Saturday Jan 24, 2015
[School of Movies 2016]
We're back on the Disney shows with Daniel Floyd, this time on the cusp of the 90s renaissance. This episode delves lightly into two of the last examples of their Dog/Cat/Mouse fetishism that defined the post-Walt wilderness years.
The Great Mouse Detective, originally named Basil of Baker Street (from the novel) is Sherlock Holmes with rodents. Oliver is the Twisty Dickens tale with a cat and a bunch of dogs in a painfully late 80s New York, presided over by prostitute-hating mayor Rudy Giuliani. We never see him in the film, but he's there all the same, along with his derision for people of colour and the impoverished, which fits rather well into the Victorian principles of the source novel.
This show was actually recorded several years ago and I apologise for my frequent interruptions of Dan and Sharon. I knew better than that back then and I have no excuse. I'll simply try my level best to let them speak without butting in as we record the next Disney shows.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Friday Jan 23, 2015
Friday Jan 23, 2015
[School of Movies 2016]
Continuing our Disney podcasts with Daniel Floyd of Extra Histories, this one covers the fifteen year period between 1970 and 1985.
It was a dark and odd time for the once great animation studio. Their mentor and namesake had fallen and they were carrying on without him, or the acclaim that went with the bold and beautiful films of their golden years.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh theatrically released a package of three animated shorts. The Rescuers had a budget so low it barely had to sell any tickets to succeed commercially. The Fox and the Hound swung in the other direction, piling on the budget, only to receive middling critical and box-office response.
And as the company reformed in the early 1980s, having lost a dozen animators in a crippling walkout, the decision was made to throw untold amounts of money into a project that is now barely mentioned in the hallways of the House of Mouse, principally because the Black Cauldron only made half of that money back.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Thursday Jan 22, 2015
Thursday Jan 22, 2015
[School of Movies 2016]
Robin Hood (1973) is 83 minutes of amusing shenanigans. It's twee, minimally dramatic, fun and light with lovable simple characters. It did not restore Disney to the heights of Snow White and Cinderella popularity it had previously reached.
Originally we recorded a paltry ten minute chat about Disney's Robin Hood during our sessions with Daniel Floyd, because there really wasn't much to talk about aside from it being a pleasant experience. We decided to add to this with an in-depth discussion about the impact of this movie on a community that's been going far longer than any of us have been alive; the furries.
Since Sharon and I are not experts in this matter we brought in the ever-foxy Victoria Luna B. Grieve to explain how these folks tick in different ways, what media they love and some of the history, whilst dispelling a few prejudices along the way.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits
Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch
Wednesday Jan 21, 2015
Wednesday Jan 21, 2015
[School of Movies 2016]
The Disney shows return. Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits is back to talk us through the difficult 1960s period for Walt Disney Studios.
*101 Dalmatians
*The Sword in the Stone
*The Jungle Book
*The Aristocats
Animation was changing, cinema was being influenced by television and for some reason people really liked British writers. In this show we'll talk about where Disney went after their expensive Sleeping Beauty project failed to hit Snow White status, and the aftermath of Walt's passing.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Tuesday Jan 20, 2015
Tuesday Jan 20, 2015
[School of Movies 2015]
The much-needed success of Cinderella cemented Disney as more than just a one-hit wonder. Following this we delve into the absurd ramblings of Lewis Carol to talk about Alice in Wonderland. According to the Disney of the early 1950s royals will chase you down on black horses in the middle of the night, base the future of their family upon footwear, play croquet with live animals, hold complex legal disputes over jam tarts and cut your head off for the slightest offense. Either way don’t go anywhere near Buckingham palace.
Then we move onto the uncomfortably racist peter Pan, before Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty. These were the last gasps for ink and paint animation. If you look at the lustrous colours and brush strokes you will see a distinct difference from the more pencilled xerox process that ran from 101 Dalmatians all the way up to The Little Mermaid. It's a charming little story about a dog that gets ignored over a new baby and falls in with a vagrant, and a beautiful girl who sings to owls, says 18 lines and then falls asleep causing the social and economic upheaval of an entire kingdom. But delve deeper and the America portrayed in Lady is a very personal idealized one to Walt himself, and Sleeping Beauty was an immense risk tied up in the making of the parks that was one of the most successful movies of the year, yet still failed to meet its expectations.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus
Monday Jan 19, 2015
Monday Jan 19, 2015
The Disney series continues with two cute animal pictures with unfortunate mother figures. One gets locked up and deemed insane, the other gets shot dead by the most terrifying monster of all. Both of these moments have a profound effect on what we take away from the viewing experience.
The third sections covers the period between 1942 and 1949 when, due to World War II the studio held off on major animated features and instead focused on cheaply produced package films designed to foster relations with South America and keep their struggling animation house afloat.
It’s an odd bunch, comprising Saludos Amigos, The Three Cabelleros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time and The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr Toad. Virtually none of these are remembered or cherished and on listening to this episode you’ll understand why. Daniel Floyd shoulders the majority of the appraisal this time.
Guest:
Daniel Floyd of New Frame Plus