Michael and Us

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/346-bad-take-68662564

In these difficult times, the bad takes are flying fast and furious. To deal with the problem, we've staged a Bad Takes Olympics, where we discuss recent earth-shattering ideas from such heavyweights as Rob Reiner, Paul Mason, and Hans Zimmer. PLUS: the boys reminisce about a lost Toronto.

It's an extremely discouraging political moment for our neighbors in the United States, so we decided the time was right to finally examine one of the quintessential cinematic articulations of American exceptionalism, FORREST GUMP (1994). Is life, in fact, like a box of chocolates? We investigate.

"The Man Who Loved Presidents: On John Meacham" by Thomas Frank - https://harpers.org/archive/2021/07/jon-meacham-thomas-frank-soul-of-america/

"Tom Hanks Explains It All" by David Marchese - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/13/magazine/tom-hanks-interview.html

The Buzz Lightyear origin movie LIGHTYEAR (2022) has become a cultural lightning-rod in the right-wing moral panic over "grooming." We discuss this controversy (which is ridiculous, by the way), and then discuss the movie, in which we can learn a little bit about how the Disney Company views itself.

Support the National Network of Abortion Funds - https://abortionfunds.org/

Abortion Funds in Every State - https://donations4abortion.com/

The Repro Legal Defense Fund - https://reprolegaldefensefund.org/

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/68234387

In 1930, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí set out to make a barbed attack on bourgeois society and its institutions. The result, L'AGE D'OR (1930), nearly got its financiers excommunicated from the Catholic Church. We discuss a classic of surrealist cinema. PLUS: We discuss the U.S. Supreme Court's repeal of Roe v. Wade.

Donate to abortion funds in every state: https://donations4abortion.com/

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/342-black-friday-68045387

In 1970, the October Crisis in Quebec led to the first government-mandated suspension of civil liberties in Canada during peacetime. The documentary ACTION: THE OCTOBER CRISIS OF 1970 (1974) gives us opportunity discuss the conditions of French/English Canadian tensions that led to the kidnapping of two politicians by a militant Quebec separatist group, and the long shadow that this brief period of martial law has cast on Canada. PLUS: Yet again, we discuss that menace to society, Tom Hanks.

Long before the "metaverse" loomed over us, David Cronenberg's EXISTENZ (1999) imagined a completely immersive virtual environment that is even less cozy than our own. We discuss the film's porous boundary between reality and unreality, and explain why Cronenberg is one of the few Canadian filmmakers who really "gets" Canada. PLUS: Looking back at a moral panic over right-wing art from the early '90s.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/67682775

With the beloved Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall currently in the midst of a comeback, we took a look at their sole feature-film spin-off. KIDS IN THE HALL: BRAIN CANDY (1996) is a satire of big-business and '90s wellness culture that, seen today, shows how wellness culture has evolved. PLUS: Jimmy Savile, Joe Biden, and the new elite style of tweeness.

Our Superdelegate patron tier has voted for us to discuss Mike Judge's workplace satire OFFICE SPACE (1999), and it leads us down a long rabbit hole of remembering bad work experiences. PLUS: We take a fond look back on the all-time classic Man of the Year (2006)

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/67404387

We recap the recent provincial election in our home of Ontario, Canada (long story short: more bad news), discuss movie-of-the-moment TOP GUN: MAVERICK (2022), and pay our respects to Chuck Schumer's imaginary friends.

What is a quickly-made, low-effort documentary like ONE NATION UNDER TRUMP (2016) good for? Not a lot. But one thing that this ridiculous pro-Trump hagiography provided us with was a chance to marinate for long, unbroken stretches of time in the 45th president's rhetorical style. We made some unexpected discoveries about how his distinctive way of speaking led him to the presidency.