A Reel Education

Having just watched Yojimbo, it is time for us to watch the same movie made by another director.  The style of Sergio Leone is vastly different from that of Akira Kurosawa but he brings his own flair to the story of one man trying to clean out a crooked town in A Fistful of Dollars!  Instead of Toshiro Mifune, our protagonist is played by Clint Eastwood.  We compare and contrast the directors and actors who brought this story to life twice.

For our next episode, we are going to watch the same story again! This time, the results are not quite so impressive.  We’ll be watching The Warrior and the Sorceress!

The post Episode 55 – A Fistful of Dollars appeared first on A Reel Education.

We are embarking on a three movie exploration of the same story! First up is a return to the great Akira Kurosawa.  His film, Yojimbo, borrows heavily from American Westerns and American film noir.  But it has a badass samurai twist courtesy of Toshiro Mifune.  We enjoy this relatively light offering from the Japanese master filmmaker as a prelude to exploring the work of another, quite different master.

Next up, we’ll be watching A Fistful of Dollars!

The post Episode 54 – Yojimbo appeared first on A Reel Education.

Since there was only one other Quentin Tarantino film unseen by Jena, we knew we had to get to it as quickly as possible.  After showing her Jackie Brown a month ago, we took a look at Django Unchained for this episode.  Tarantino does another pastiche of Westerns, Blaxploitation and, because it is Tarantino, a little bit of almost everything else.  We hope you enjoy our conversation!

Our next movie will be a return to the world of Akira Kurosawa – Yojimbo!

The post Episode 53 – Django Unchained appeared first on A Reel Education.

Having just watched Jackie Brown, we decided it was time to introduce Jena to the Blaxploitation sub-genre with another Pam Greer classic – Foxy Brown!  Greer rocks a 70’s wardrobe in this film about revenge, revenge, and more revenge.  If anyone can get revenge, it would be Pam Greer.  We share some information about Blaxploitation films and spend a lot of time appreciating Pam Greer.  Because you really need to appreciate Pam Greer.

Our next movie will be the only other Tarantino film Jena hasn’t seen – Django Unchained!

The post Episode 52 – Foxy Brown appeared first on A Reel Education.

After much searching, we managed to find a Quentin Tarantino film that Jena hadn’t see yet!  That’s a lie.  It didn’t take that much searching at all.  We sat Jena down in front of Jackie Brown so she could enjoy a film that is not quite as obviously a Tarantino film than all of his other films.  Following the film, we had an in-depth discussion about Tarantino through the lens of a rather atypical work.  We also talked about some of his favorite actors and some of the actors who have enjoyed career revivals as a result of working with him.

In something of a natural progression, our next podcast will be about Foxy Brown!

The post Episode 51 – Jackie Brown appeared first on A Reel Education.

Our latest episode is so big, we couldn’t do it with just three hosts!  For our viewing of Godzilla, we brought in Matt Kessen, who is an expert on all things Godzilla.  We watched a man in a suit rampage through Tokyo and it was awesome!  We talk about the cultural impact of the film, the political undertones of the film, and we even fill Jena in about the super dumb shit they did in the American remakes.

Our next episode will be…something.  We haven’t figured it out yet.  You’ll be surprised!!!!

The post Episode 50 – Godzilla appeared first on A Reel Education.

This week’s episode is all about an under appreciated gem from 2014 – Edge of Tomorrow. The film is an extremely creative action movie that has the added benefit of being the perfect Tom Cruise movie for people who hate Tom Cruise!  Is the film the perfect combination of Groundhog Day and Aliens?  In all fairness, it doesn’t have a lot of competition.  If you really want to blow your mind, try to figure out all the possible things that could happen after the conclusion of the film!

Next up, we shall tackle the original Godzilla!

The post Episode 49 – Edge of Tomorrow appeared first on A Reel Education.

For this episode, we return to the lovely Trylon Microcinema in Minneapolis to enjoy Orson Wells’ curious film noir, The Lady from Shanghai.  The film stars Wells and his then wife Rita Hayworth, who makes her first appearance on our podcast.  Melissa is the only member of our team who has seen the film before so both Tim and Jena have a chance to react to all sorts of weirdness that arises when an auteur has his vision compromised by studio interference.  On the other hand, maybe some of that interference wasn’t such a bad thing…

Our next episode will jump forward a few years as we watch Edge of Tomorrow!

The post Episode 48 – The Lady From Shanghai appeared first on A Reel Education.

Our exploration of the unreliable narrator brings us to the film that is, quite literally, all about unreliable narration.  Rashomon is the film that introduced the world to Akira Kurosawa and is easily one of the most influential films ever made.  It is also ever so much shorter than The Seven Samurai.  So that’s a bonus.  Enjoy the special musical interlude Tim selected because he couldn’t find an mp3 of the music online.

Our next episode will be recorded live at the Trylon theater.  We’ll be watching The Lady from Shanghai!

The post Episode 47 – Rashomon appeared first on A Reel Education.

For today’s episode, we explore the concept of the unreliable narrator as we watch The Usual Suspects.  Kevin Spacey won an Oscar for his portrayal of Verbal Kint (or did he???) in this twisty crime drama that managed to keep most audiences guessing even after the credits rolled.  We tried to decide how much of the movie actually happened as we saw but can you ever really know?

For our next episode, we will watch the seminal film about unreliable narrators, Rashomon!

The post Episode 46 – The Usual Suspects appeared first on A Reel Education.