A Reel Education

This week’s episode explores the only horror film to win an Oscar for best picture, The Silence of the Lambs!  It took some work to find someone who hadn’t seen the film but Chelsea Okey was good enough to join us even though she really doesn’t like horror.  We spend a lot of time talking about the acting work of Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, which is superb.  But we also look at how well constructed this film is as a thriller and we observe that perhaps we should not have recorded the podcast in a basement for this particular episode.

For our next podcast, we’ll follow Jodie Foster to Taxi Driver!

The post Episode 75 – The Silence of the Lambs appeared first on A Reel Education.

This week’s episode features another guest host from our sister podcast: A Reel Education – Noir.  Alee Elingsburg joins us to talk about The Lion in Winter, a classic historical drama about a fictional Christmas Henry II spent with his family.  It is full of political machinations, scenery chewing dialogue, and a very youthful Timothy Dalton & Anthony Hopkins.  Katherine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole are the stars who drive this whole acting train and they do a darn fine job.  We hope you enjoy the movie as much as we did!

Our next move will follow Hopkins to the peak of his career as we watch The Silence of the Lambs!

The post Episode 74 – The Lion in Winter appeared first on A Reel Education.

We are sad to say goodbye to Jena as a regular co-host and movie non-expert but that means we will have rotating cast of non-experts instead!  This episode, Tonya Wershow from our sister podcast, A Reel Education: Noir, joins us for Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2.  The movie is surreal and collapses in on itself like a black hole and it is all pretty brilliant.  At least we thought so.  We also thought the cinematography was lush and amazing.  Definitely worth a viewing although it will probably take more than one to see everything that is going on.

Our next movie will be The Lion in Winter!

The post Episode 73 – 8 1/2 appeared first on A Reel Education.

We remain in the jungle for a third straight episode as we watch King Kong!  We begin in an actual jungle and then transition to a concrete one!  Given the time period, we are treated to more racism and sexism but also a monster movie that will, from that point on, be the movie against which all other giant monster movies will be measured.  Including the remakes of this film.  You owe it to yourself to start with the original.  We make sure to provide constant musical tribute to special effects wizard Willis O’Brien.

Next up, we are watching 8 1/2!

The post Episode 72 – King Kong appeared first on A Reel Education.

This episode, we return to the jungle with a look back at the quintessential Tarzan film – Tarzan the Ape Man! Featuring Johnny Weismuller and his abs (also Maureen O’Sullivan), the film is basically about Africa killing all sorts of African American extras while most of the white people survive.  There are lions and elephants and hippos and crocodiles (even though they are alligators) and more!  Enjoy this classic trip down movie racism lane!*

Next up, we’ll be watching the original King Kong!

*Note: The book is EVEN MORE racist!

The post Episode 71 – Tarzan appeared first on A Reel Education.

We continue down the Werner Herzog rabbit hole this week to watch Fitzcarraldo!  A movie that was years in the making, this is one of those films where the story of the making of the movie is possibly more interesting than the film itself.  Don’t let that statement fool you, though, the movie is a spectacular journey into the Amazon jungle and one man’s madness.  Or, if you include Werner Herzog, possibly two men.  If you want to move a boat over a mountain, sometimes you have to make a movie.

Our next film will keep us in the jungle as we watch Tarzan the Ape Man!

The post Episode 70 – Fitzcarraldo appeared first on A Reel Education.

It is time to dive into the works of Werner Herzog with the documentary film Grizzly Man!  Herzog tells the story of naturalist Timothy Treadwell who researched grizzly bears up until one of them decided he looked like a tasty morsel.  Using mostly Treadwell’s old footage, the film is less about his death than it is about the effect his obsession had on himself and those around him.  Pat Wick joins us as stunt Jena even though she has seen the film and Tim has not!

Since we watched one film by Herzog, how about another?  Our next film will be Fitzcarraldo!

The post Episode 69 – Grizzly Man appeared first on A Reel Education.

After watching Spotlight on our last episode, we decided to take a look at another “Newspaper Journalist Thriller” so we watched All the President’s Men!  The film stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as the reporters who broke the Watergate story.  If you aren’t familiar with Watergate, it is the scandal that ensured every succeeding scandal ended in the word “gate.”  This film is a true classic about two guys digging until they finally found the truth.  Definitely worth the watch!

Our next film will be Grizzly Man!

The post Episode 68 – All the President’s Men appeared first on A Reel Education.

As has become an annual tradition, we are watching this year’s Best Picture Oscar winner.  For 2016, most people assumed the award would go to Revenant.  However, Oscar voters surprised everyone by selecting Spotlight instead.  The film is representative of a dying genre as newspaper journalism is a dying medium.  Fine performances anchor this movie that is disturbing not so much because of how the story is told but because so much of the story is true.

Our next film will be All the President’s Men!

The post Episode 67 – Spotlight appeared first on A Reel Education.

We take a trip down Western lane with the John Wayne/John Ford classic, Stagecoach!  This film basically made a superstar out of Wayne and defined the western genre for the next several decades.  It features Ford’s favorite location – monument valley – as well as his favorite actor.  In addition to Wayne, the movie also stars a lot of very well known character actors including Andy Devine and John Carradine.  Interesting trivia: Wayne was not the first billed actor in this film.  That was Claire Trevor!

Our next movie will be the 2016 Best Picture winner, Spotlight!

The post Episode 66 – Stagecoach appeared first on A Reel Education.