A Reel Education

This week’s episode dives headfirst into the world of Charles Chaplin as we enjoy one of his most iconic works – Modern Times.  We talk about making a “silent” film in sound era, Chaplin’s apparent death wish on roller skates and a great deal more!  Listen as we educate Jena on one of the three greatest comics of the silent film era!

Our next episode will be Double Indemnity, recorded live at Pepito’s Parkway Theatre on January 18th featuring Alex Wick as our stunt Jena!

The post Episode 15 – Modern Times appeared first on A Reel Education.

For our first episode of 2014, we watched the greatest movie ever made!  At least that is what the Sight & Sound 2012 poll says.  Hitchcock’s Vertigo was projected onto the big screen at the Parkway theatre and we enjoyed Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak in all their 35MM glory!  What did Jena think of Hitchcock’s most psychologically messed up masterpiece?  Listen to find out!

Join us on the 15th when we’ll be watching Charles Chaplin’s Modern Times!

The post Episode 14 – Vertigo appeared first on A Reel Education.

It being December and all, we decided to watch a holiday movie.  The only problem is the one type of movie Jena has watched is Christmas movies. That meant we had to go for a movie that had a rather loose relationship to the holiday.  We returned to the heady days of Eddie Murphy’s youth when his career still seemed to be going places to watch a movie about classism, racism and gorilla sex.  That’s right, we watched Trading Places!  And yes, we said gorilla sex.

Join us for our next episode on January 1st.  We’ll be watching and discussing Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo!

The post Episode 13 – Trading Places appeared first on A Reel Education.

Once again, we recorded live at Pepito’s Parkway Theatre in Minneapolis.  This time, we were joined by Matt Allex from the Horror Show Hot Dog.  We returned to the magical year of 1982 with Matt’s favorit movie: John Carpenter’s The Thing.  The print was absolutely phenomenal and the movie is one of the great horror films of all time.  We were joined by an enthusiastic audience for an ejoyable afternoon of death and nihilism.

Note: We had a few issues with the microphones when we were recording this episode so there are some lengthy silences.  Sorry about that!

Our next episode will be a very special Christmas episode where we watch just about the only Christmas movie Jena has never seen – Trading Places.

The post Episode 12 – John Carpenter’s The Thing appeared first on A Reel Education.

This week, we tackle Jaques Tati’s comedy Playtime.  In a unique twist, neither Tim nor Jena had seen the film.  It is also our first “foreign language” film although the fact the movie is French is hardly relevant as the dialogue is almost completely unnecessary. If you’ve never seen the movie and you have Hulu Plus, that would be a great way to check it out.  Even if you haven’t seen the film, you should totally listen to the episode as Playtime may be the most spoiler proof movie ever created.

Our next episode will be recorded live at the Parkway Theatre on Sunday, November 17th.  We’ll be watching John Carpenter’s The Thing with special guest host Matt Allex from Horror Show Hotdog!

The post Episode 11 – Playtime appeared first on A Reel Education.

This episode will air on the day after Halloween so we decided that it was time to show Jena a bizarre horror film starring Vicent Price.  Much like The Matrix, nobody can tell you what The Abominable Dr. Phibes is – you have to see it for yourself.  Jena was clearly still unsure what she’d seen when the movie was over and that reaction was just about perfect.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet – go ahead and listen to the episode.  We promised that there is no way to spoil the cinematic experience that is The Abominable Dr. Phibes!

Our next episode airs on the 15th of November and it will be about Jaques Tati’s Playtime!

The post Episode 10 – The Abominable Dr. Phibes appeared first on A Reel Education.

Once again, we were able to record an episode live at Pepito’s Parkway Theatre in Minneapolis.  This time, we watched the Alfred Hitchcock classic “Rear Window.”  Not only had Jena never seen this film before, it was her first Hitchcock film ever.  And she got to see it on the big screen!  The print was amazing and you should all feel really bad that you missed it.  However, you can console yourself by listening to this episode where we dump love all over the master and one of this best films.

Our next episode will air on November 1st and we’ll talk about “The Abominable Dr. Phibes.”

Our next live recording at Pepito’s will be on Sunday, November 17th.  We’ll be watching John Carpenter’s “The Thing!”

The post Episode 9 – Rear Window appeared first on A Reel Education.

For our newest episode, we enjoy the glorious duo of William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man. If you have never watched this booze soaked noir/comedy, you should definitely check it out and then listen to our podcast.  It is hard to deny this is one of the great treats of classic cinema.  And William Powell is an actor who definitely needs to be enjoyed as often as humanly possible.

And hey – on the podcast, Tim says that we’ll be doing our next recording live at the Parkway theatre on the 7th of October.  Then later, he says the 10th!  Which is it?????

It’s the 10th.  Thursday the 10th.  Mark your calendars!  We’ll be watching Rear Window!

The post Episode 8 – The Thin Man appeared first on A Reel Education.

We actually got to watch this week’s movie in a movie theatre!  Pepitos Parkway Theatre was kind enough to host a live recording of our podcast on Monday, September 9th.  A small but vocal group joined us to enjoy Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard and Cat in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s!”  We also had to ask the logical question: what the heck is with Mickey Rooney in this movie? And by that we mean: seriously – what the heck is with Mickey Rooney in this movie????

The post Episode 7 – Breakfast at Tiffany’s appeared first on A Reel Education.

Yes, we know that we really should have waited for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad until episode 7 but it didn’t happen that way.  Get over it.  We recorded this episode approximately one week after special effects Genius Ray Harryhausen passed away.  Jena, as usual, had absolutely no knowledge of the film or of Harryhausen.  This was a problem Tim and Melissa gleefully solved.  As a bonus, both Tim and Melissa have stories about actually meeting Ray Harryhausen!  Envy us!

The post Episode 6 – The 7th Voyage of Sinbad appeared first on A Reel Education.