Film School

Experience and success can be a double-edged sword. How often does a writer or filmmaker we know and love that's soooo good at what they do . . . seem like they start to phone it in, or lose their way? How often do we see the same thing in our own work? So, what's the antidote? How do we stay sharp? Both long-term and day to day? We discuss!

The death of a character can be one of the most powerful experiences a story has to offer. When done right, it makes us feel and think about real life, and the people we've lost, the experiences we share. It helps us feel things that otherwise can often be so hard to feel. So . . . how do we do that right? How DO we tell a good death? What makes the best ones work so well? We dig in.

Cut it loose! You're wasting your time. The project you're working isn't going anywhere, no matter how hard you try. So just let it go. At least for now. Take a break. But . . . is that just 'object syndrome?' Is this just resistance pushing back super hard because you're close to a breakthrough? If you're a creative, you've likely hit this point before, if not many times. So . . . what is the right thing to do? Is there a wrong thing to do? From two people going through this right now: it's not an easy answer. We discuss!

You're stuck. You can't go anywhere for a while . . . what movies are you taking with you into quarantine or onto that deserted island? What movies do you find yourself turning to pass the time? As we all struggled to cope with the isolation of COVID-19, movies are some of our best friends. We dive in this week on what movies WE'RE watching, and we hope you share with us what YOU'RE watching!

We're all gonna kick the bucket some day . . . what do we want to leave behind? What do we want to be our legacy? What we will be known for? Josh and Ira tackle this deep cut today in a very personal episode. How do YOU want to be remembered?

To the fires of Mount Doom! JRR Tolkien and Peter Jackson's masterwork comes to a spectacular conclusion in the final installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Frodo and Sam must muster the strength to destroy the one ring, and Aragorn must stop running from his destiny to become the King he's meant to be. Doesn't get any bigger than this one; it's the Return of the King this week!

The entire world is grappling with the novel corona virus COVID-19 right now; a truly global crisis that none of us have any control over, particularly at the individual level. So . . . when presented with situations like these where major life-shifting events are taking place that we have no power to stop or control . . . how do we handle the stress, fear and anxiety that come along with that? How do we remain productive, or function? Josh and Ira talk about their own personal coping strategies this week on the cutting room floor!

Peter Jackson's epic live-action Lord of the Rings continues in grand fashion. Our heroes have split up and are in danger! Sam and Frodo wrestle with whether or not to trust Gollum and how to get into Mordor; Merry and Pippin escape capture and must convince the Ents to battle Saruman, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli must save Rohan from the Uruk-hai army. Middles are often a slog...but not this one. It's wall to wall action and tension...and it all reaches a climax at the Battle of Helms Deep. Yaaaaasssssssss!

We're HALFWAY THROUGH the list!!! Crazy. It's flown by. This week, we do a deep dive into how we've rated the movies on this list thus far: how have the top 50 films fared? How do Josh and Ira differ from each other? What are our biases based on decades of movie-making? And what are the LIST'S biases? It's all a fascinating peak behind this list and our reactions to it thus far. Enjoy!

One ring to rule them all! Peter Jackson's epic live-action series based on THE masterwork of fantasy, JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was ground-breaking. For decades, THE masterwork of fantasy was considered un-filmable; too big, too expensive. Jackson smashed that notion with the first of these three films, and was at the vanguard of a new huge property, high-concept, CGI-driven, blockbuster-or-nothing era in Hollywood. But . . . does it hold up nearly 20 years later? We find out, this week on Film School!