Back & to the Left

or

There Are No Cats in America

Hello from Iowa. God, it's cold here. In between door knockings, we've been taking very necessary breaks. During one, we saw the most important film of the year.

You've seen the polls, I'm sure. We still need help out here in Sioux City and across the state. Come if you can.

Be a hero. Be mine.

or Thinking About Digging my Own Grave to Get a Jump on Things

Remember Toy Story 4? How about Ad Astra?

Back and to the Left remembers, we think. The vision dims.

Wow, what a garbage year, team. But we're back, and to the left, and we won't ever leave you again, until we leave you again.

Or, Lord Death Man, I'm Back on my Bullshit

Whoof. Snyder's gonna kill us. Here it is, the most Batman Batman movie of all time: The Dark Knight Returns. The most faithful adaptation of a Batman comic and maybe the most faithful adaptation of Frank Miller of all time. Not a compliment.

Listen as John tries not to gush over his favorite comic character: The Batman (Bats, if you're nasty). And listen on as John struggles to square his love for Batman with a a writer and work that hates him.

Listen on and on as Greg nearly ODs of pure uncut fascist ideology and explain how making cartoons for adults is mistake.

A batarang can't fly without a right wing, and maybe that's for the best.

Team, enjoy.

Or No Dome for Old Men

Whoa and wow, a lot to unpack with this one. Listen in as John and Greg contend with the abundance of plenty, pleasure, ideology and protein from the sea all crammed into almost two hours of the awful and awesome.

Why does this movie endure? Is it anti-communist or anti-authoritarian? Is it good? Are you, too, startled?

All these questions and more will be asked if not answered. Pretty proud of this one, team. Enjoy.

Or Hackers of the World Unite

What if I told you "What if I told you" isn't a line from The Matrix?

Anyway. John's rant about burning 30s Hamburg to the ground took the pod to a dark place. So, to lighten the mood, we're talking about killing cops and how The Matrix may be the last of its kind when it comes to portrayals of violence against the state.

There's a lot here, and we barely scratch the surface, but look forward to a conversation about the machines as liberalism /capitalism perfected, questions about where are the bad noodles in the Matrix and a peek into how the Hell MRAs could see themselves as the heroes.

Or Boys Keep Swinging

Deep cut today, team. It's 1993's "Swing Kids."

What's the hip new craze taking over 1939's Hamburg? It's Nazis and they're here to rid the Reich of Swing.

On this ep, we ask important questions like, "Why is Kenneth Branagh always a Nazi?" "Where is the resistance?" and "can a mixtape save your soul?"

Watch Christian Bale deliver the dead-eyed psychopathic performance you've come to know and love and maybe explain in the comments why Hamburg shouldn't have been burned to the ground.

This one gets dark. Enjoy.

Or The Pelican Too Long

Possibly Alan J. Pakula's swan song. But then, he did squeeze in "The Devil's Own."

It's "The Pelican Brief." What if capital didn't control the Court ever since the Lochner Era? What if some invisible oil man just started clipping Supreme Court Justices in order to get his way? What if only the CIA could save us?

Well, here it is. Hoo boy, what a show. Making some changes, real improvements, to your regular programming here. If you're looking for the definitive take on the bullshit the Highest Court in the Land is built on, this is it team.

Enjoy.

Or, Let's Get This Red

A crackling potboiler, or a dull lifeless artifact from an obsolete age?

Turns out it's both!

What if all we could hope for is that the Cold War go on forever? What if we released a film about it after the Berlin Wall had already come down? Well, here's the "Hunt for Red October" where Our Hero Marko Ramius decides the only way to keep the "peace" is to give the US Navy one more silent submarine.

Prepare for a deeper dive *snort* into the Clancy/Ryanverse with more jargon than you want, and less 'Be Glorious, our free Motherland' than you deserve.

Good to know it's not just gamers bitching about their ping.

Enjoy!

Or "The Mook Who Sat By The Door"

What can be said about Jack Ryan that hasn't been said by the four actors that came before John Krasinski? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Not even an empty suit, empty t-shirt Jack Ryan, head of TFAD and the last of the guys to know what the CIA actually does, struggles to make droning and torture tasteful.

Why would someone abandon Wall Street for being too immoral for the CIA? Who the fuck knows?

What kind of person thinks the CIA cares about refugees, or law and justice, or-I don't know-human trafficking? Jack Ryan, that's who.

If you think magic drones with rape-seeking Hellfire missiles are a part of American smart power, than Amazon's Jack Ryan is for you.

Oof. Great ep, terrible, terrible show. Holy shit.

Or Why Don't They Make the Whole Plane Out of Dieter?

Remember when that asshole John McCain died, back in August?

Now you do.

In the spirit of kicking men when they're down, and speaking ill of the dead, Back and to the Left looks at another US Navy pilot: Dieter Dengler.

Together, John and Greg with the help of Werner Herzog, learn what it takes to survive, what's inescapable and how to barbecue on the move.

Please enjoy team, this was a great movie.