Michael and Us

Cohost Will asks your kind indulgence as he invites Jack Frayne-Reid (from the Reel Politik podcast) to has over one of his personal obsessions: the blockbuster 2014 Monty Python reunion show. They discuss MONTY PYTHON LIVE (MOSTLY) and how comedy can change and wilt under different social and political contexts.

Check out Reel Politik - https://soundcloud.com/reelpolitikpodcast

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

The thing about mass culture is, it channels the ambient wisdom of its day. So we applied this theory to the new Willy Wonka reboot WONKA (2023) and looked to see what it said about our times. Friends... we were not disappointed.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/490-grindset-96483445

Your coworkers are spying on you. Your boss won't let you keep the expired food. The coffeeshop is charging you an arm and a leg to rent a laptop. In Aki Kaurismäki's funny and wonderful FALLEN LEAVES (2023), can a budding romance survive the everyday indignities of life under capitalism? PLUS: What would a British West Wing look like?

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

TORONTO: See Will introduce The Dragon Lives Again (1977) at the Fox Theatre on February 23 - https://www.foxtheatre.ca/movies/the-important-cinema-club-masterpiece-classics-the-dragon-lives-again/

From THE FLASH to SOUND OF FREEDOM and many more along the way, we look back at some of the movies that defined the podcast in 2023, and hand out the coveted Michael & Us Awards. What won Best Movie? Worst Movie? Dumbest Idea for the Podcast? Biggest Disappointment?

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/488-fourth-us-in-96020283

We ring in the new year by raiding the fridge for some holiday leftovers. It's become an annual tradition on this podcast to try to extract ideology from Tim Allen's "Santa Clause" franchise. With THE SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE (2006), we hit the motherlode.

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

To celebrate Christmas (and at the behest of our Superdelegate patrons), we took a flight on Victor Ziegler's Lolita Express to a big mansion in Long Island, where we watched Stanley Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT (1999). We had a great time revisiting a movie that only gets richer and stranger with every viewing.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/95244713

If society outlawed emotions, could we stop all war and conflict? This is the very, very stupid question at the heart of EQUILIBRIUM (2002), the dystopian extravaganza that introduced the world to the art of "gun kata."

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Get Will's new project "The Journal of Stoogeological Studies: An Unauthorized Three Stooges Fanzine"

US: https://amazon.com/dp/B0CPM5JBPB

Canada: https://amazon.ca/dp/B0CPM5JBPB

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CPM5JBPB

For years, one political satirist has dared to push the limits of comedy with such groundbreaking fake-news headlines as “Matt Gaetz accuses Kevin McCarthy of behaving like an adult” and “Trump accuses media of not listening to the voices he hears in his head." But could that be set to change? With news that The New Yorker has laid off its resident liberal jokesmith, we consider the comedy and philosophy of Andy Borowitz.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/484-farewell-94853418

The French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte have inspired a lot of takes... so, of course, you can depend on Ridley Scott to find the least imaginative one. We discuss his lugubrious NAPOLEON (2023). PLUS: An update on Canadian politics, and some thoughts on the man who may be Prime Minsiter, Pierre Poilievre.

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Is Popeye the Sailor a deep Jungian archetype? Did Sweethaven's tax-and-spend government lead the way for Reaganism? Is mankind divided between Blutos and Wimpys? These and other pressing political questions will not be answered in our discussion of Robert Altman's POPEYE (1980).

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/482-smorgasbord-94440388