Michael and Us

What happens when the UK's Minister for International Development accidentally calls an inevitable war "unforeseeable"? We discuss Armando Iannucci's beloved political satire IN THE LOOP (2009) and what it says about the culture of spin in U.K. politics. PLUS: further developments in the Canadian trucker protest, and thoughts on that most important institution of all: the Oscars.

Mayor Ed Koch's movie review show - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl1C-jPg7L4nsHg6EVgAXvQ

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/62221412

We discuss a range of important topics, including:

✓ The Trucker Convoy protest in Toronto

✓ Deep ideological readings of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

✓ Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror (2021)

✓ A host's unlikely appearance in a crossword puzzle!

We discuss one of the least sentimental films about death and family, Ingmar Bergman's CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972), and provide a possible political reading of Sweden's most famous auteur.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/61596359

We begin by checking in on Canada's most tiresome public intellectual, Jordan Peterson, and analyzing one of the right's biggest enemies, "woke capitalism." Then, we turn our attention to a subject of longstanding mutual interest: the great German director Werner Herzog. Focusing on MY BEST FIEND (1999) and FIREBALL: VISITORS FROM DARKER WORLDS (2020), but extending far and wide, we discuss what we find great (and, occasionally, not-great) about the mighty auteur's work.

The great Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin was assigned to make a documentary about his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He made MY WINNIPEG (2007), a hilarious, surreal dreamscape that combines autobiography, history, and fiction into a free-flowing meditation on a city and a home. We discuss the film's treatment of truth, memory, and the Canadian identity. PLUS: Luke discusses the glamorous life of being a published book author.

Preorder Luke's book The Dead Center- https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-dead-center/

"Manitoba History - February 19, 1942: If Day" by Michael Newman - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/13/ifday.shtml

Guy Maddin's "The Heart of the World" - The great Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin was assigned to make a documentary about his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He made MY WINNIPEG (2007), a hilarious, surreal dreamscape that combines autobiography, history, and fiction into a free-flowing meditation on a city and a home. We discuss the film's treatment of truth, memory, and the Canadian identity. PLUS: Luke discusses the glamorous life of being a published book author.

Preorder Luke's book The Dead Center- https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-dead-center/

"Manitoba History - February 19, 1942: If Day" by Michael Newman - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/13/ifday.shtml

Guy Maddin's "The Heart of the World" - https://vimeo.com/115997353

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/61295780

In a cinematic landscape glutted with reboots and cinematic universes, Lana Wachowski's THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS (2021) is unique: an unnecessary sequel that knows it, and feels ambivalent. We discuss this divisive film's self-reflexive streak, and the many ways it tweaks the metaphors that became so iconic in 1999.

To mark a very special milestone, we decided to reach back to early in the podcast's history and revisit MICHAEL MOORE HATES AMERICA (2004). Mimicking Moore's own filmmaking style, this amateurish documentary sees a conservative man go on a cross-country journey to land and interview with Michael himself. We discuss why this piece of right-wing kitsch has remained so firmly lodged in our minds, and why it is such a product of its time.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/60909753

Our Superdelegate patron tier has voted for us to discuss LOVE ACTUALLY (2003), and so we dutifully tackled the most pressing question of our age: is this all-star romcom a delightful holiday classic... or the dangerous, reactionary film that so many clickbait articles would have us believe it is??? PLUS: we discuss Don't Look Up and the deaths of Peter Bogdanovich and Sidney Poitier.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/60648863

As we enter a new year, we're taking some time to look back on 2021 and reflect on some of the movies that defined our podcast over the past 12 months. In our second-annual Year-in-Review Extravaganza, we're handing out awards for Best Movie, Worst Movie, Best End-of-History Movie, Thing We Liked Growing Up That Holds Up Relatively Well, and more. PLUS: fiery hot takes on The Matrix Resurrections!

In 1985, a group of plucky renegades banded together to take on the political culture in the Democratic Party - demolishing Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow Coalition" to create a coalition that could win elections. That's the thesis of CRASHING THE PARTY (2016), a hagiographic documentary that chronicles the rise of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and its star candidate, Bill Clinton. We discuss how funny it is that the documentary came out in mid-2016, just when it appeared that the Clintonite project was almost complete.

"In Anthony Banua-Simon’s Cane Fire, Hawaiians Are No Longer the Extras" by Alex Press - https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/anthony-banua-simons-cane-fire-hawaii-documentary

"Atari Democrats" by Lily Geismer - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/geismer-democratic-party-atari-tech-silicon-valley-mondale

"The Obamanauts" by Corey Robin - https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-obamanauts