Michael and Us

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57836336

We're joined by our old pal Branko Marcetic to discuss the viral sensation that is the New York Times' "B*d *rt Fr*end" article. Why is it popular right now? Is either "friend" in the right or wrong? And is capitalism really the worst friend of them all? PLUS: we discuss the "debate" around the watered-down reconciliation bill.

EASY RIDER (1969) has been encrusted in so many layers of Boomer nostalgia that we were wondering: is there anything still there? So we sat down and watched one of the most iconic films of the 1960s, and... the answer may surprise you! PLUS: more memories of student journalism.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57533296

In some ways, no movie franchise is as responsive to trends and fads as the James Bond series. And in other ways, no franchise is more stubbornly resistant to change. We discuss how the latest entry, NO TIME TO DIE (2021), positions itself in the zeitgeist. PLUS: the Dave Chappelle discourse.

At long last, we are finally tackling something related to The Sopranos. We discuss the many things wrong (and some things right) with the big-screen prequel THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (2021); the spirit of American decline that The Sopranos captures at its best; and what the recent surge in prequels and reboots tells us about this world we live in.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57270569

The great thing about bad articles is: they don't stop makin' 'em. In this chill and jolly episode, we toss around some of our most beloved bad pieces of bad writing, including articles by such living legends as Jeffrey Wells, Jonathan Chait, and Jerry Seinfeld. PLUS: we discuss Toronto's most eccentric film exhibitor.

We have discussed many bad films on this podcast, but now we finally turn our attention to The Worst Movie Ever Made™. We analyze how Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1957) turns the movie industry's flotsam and detritus into a Hollywood dreamscape. PLUS: The Sopranos, Necromania, and Justin Trudeau's recent vacation.

PATREON BONUS - https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-political-57123129

For many, the phrase "ruling class" symbolizes jet-setting metropolitans. Historian Patrick Wyman argues that an entirely different and more banal group wield a level of power and cultural influence that is out of proportion with their identity.

"American Gentry" by Patrick Wyman - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/trump-american-gentry-wyman-elites/620151/

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/56985194

The Superdelegate patron tier has selected BEYOND THE MAT (1999), a warts-and-all documentary about the lives of professional wrestlers like Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Mick "Mankind" Foley. We discuss what "the movie that Vince McMahon doesn't want you to see" has to say about the art and business of pro wrestling, and what pro wrestling can teach us about politics. PLUS: the Anti-Woke Film Festival and Keir Starmer.

Nine years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cinema's most enduring symbol of the perils of nuclear proliferation first crawled out of Tokyo Bay. We discuss how the original GODZILLA (1954) channeled the mood of its time. PLUS: how the media talks about the congressional wrangling over the reconciliation bill.

PATREON BONUS - https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-problem-is-56805720?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare

With the scale of our current social and political crises, it’s unsurprising to see a proliferation of conspiracy theories across unusually broad swathes of society. Luke talks to Guardian columnist and activist George Monbiot about the extreme right’s appropriation of countercultural idioms and revolutionary language in the age of QAnon and COVID; the corrosion of community in the neoliberal era; and the desperate need for a new narrative of solidarity and common good in an age of resurgent fascism and ecological collapse.

"It’s shocking to see so many leftwingers lured to the far right by conspiracy theories" by George Monbiot - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/22/leftwingers-far-right-conspiracy-theories-anti-vaxxers-power