Movies That Matter

Stacy and Nicole discuss The Circle with guest host Jen, and cover millennials and the positive and negative aspects of increased privacy erosion by technology. We mention the movie critic Dana Stevens, Dave Eggers's previous book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Beck and the album Odelay, and The Circle's Wikipedia page.

Recommendations this week: Minority Report, Parks and Recreation's 7th Season, and Attack the Block.

Stacy and Nicole disagree about Colossal and Anne Hathaway and also discuss the Nice Guy (tm) and toxic masculinity. Further reading on Nice Guy (tm) here and here. Check our twitter feed for our next movie!

Stacy and Nicole discuss Gifted, family court, class divides in education, and the value of socialization. The Erma Bombeck column Nicole mentioned is reprinted in this blog post. And here's an article about the UK study Stacy talked about showing a 43% decline in suicides from Tylenol overdoses after changing to blister packs.

Recommendations this week: Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Cat Stevens' Teaser and the Firecat.

Nicole and Adam discuss T2, the passage of 20 years, the genius of Danny Boyle, the misinterpretation of Choose Life, and, of course, the bathroom.

Recommendations this week: Dear Sugar Radio originally from The Rumpus and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

Stacy and Nicole discuss The Shack, forgiveness, and the function of religion in our lives. Stacy mentions press coverage of the movie that took issue with human representation of God and the Trinity. Also mentioned, statistics on the number of people said to hold a "Christian worldview".

Recommendations this week: Greenleaf and The Way.

Stacy and Nicole discuss Logan, Westerns, the X-Men universe, and the depth (or lack thereof) of meaning in Marvel superhero movies.

Recommendation this week, The Girl With All The Gifts and Watchmen.

Nicole and Stacy talk with Sari about Get Out, the fear of being black in white spaces, white fragility, and horror movie tropes. Mentioned in the episode is a an interview with Jordan Peele on the Nerdist podcast.

Recommendations this week: This Is Us and Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.

Nicole and Stacy discuss The Founder and the legacy of McDonald's in shaping American spending and eating habits. Mentioned in this episode: the article on Michelle Obama's stealth battle against the food industry and the article on American's changing on eating habits. Stacy recommends Dear White People and Nicole recommends A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Nicole, Sari, and Stacy talk Hidden Figures, the difficulties of surviving at NASA as a black female "computer" and avoiding classic cliches about American individualism. This week Sari recommends Fences, Stacy recommends Hell or High Water, and Nicole recommends One Day at a Time.

Nicole and Spencer discuss 20th Century Women, the perils of teenage love, and what it means to be a man. Check out Hanna Rosin's provoking essay The End of Men and the letter one Princeton alum wrote about why women should get to marrying (her son).   Our recommendations for this episode are The Women (1939), Everybody Wants Some!!, and Searching for John Hughes.