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?

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PREVIEW - #488 - The Fourth Annual Michael & Us Year-in-Review Extravaganza

A podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world. Hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage.

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TV & Film

A new campaign to boycott Canada's biggest grocery chain raises a plethora of issues about how monopolies work in Canada, and what role governments and consumers should play in combatting them. On this special episode, Luke welcomes writers David Moscrop and Mitchell Thompson to discuss the Loblaws boycott and Canada's grocery-store oligarchs, the Weston Family.

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PREVIEW - #522 - The Everything Company (w/ David Moscrop and Mitchell Thompson)

In the election year of 2004, an ultraviolent subtitled right-wing Christian movie became a genuine cultural phenomenon and political lightning-rod. We finally discuss THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004) and theology according to Mel Gibson. PLUS: the White House Correspondents Dinner, the Columbia encampment, and the one optimistic takeaway of a discouraging week.

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"This Is How Power Protects Itself" by Jack Mirkinson - https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/columbia-ccny-cuny-protest-nypd-police-brutality/

"Mel Gibson's Martyrdom Complex" by Frank Rich - https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/movies/mel-gibson-s-martyrdom-complex.html

"The Gospel According to Mel" by Christopher Hitchens - https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/03/hitchens-201102

The Mel Gibson/Diane Sawyer interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ecnfe530IE

#521 - The Nazarene Troublemaker

We had to do it. We heard that GOD'S NOT DEAD: WE THE PEOPLE (2021), the fourth entry in the Evangelical film franchise, goes all-in on the culture wars of the Trump years. We welcome back our official God's Not Dead correspondent Alex Shephard to discuss the wackiest entry yet.

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PREVIEW - #520 - Pastor Dave Goes to Washington (w/ Alex Shephard)

If all of our current class hierarchies were eliminated, what would replace them? This question is at the core of TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022), the art-house hit that show the limits of being an "equal-opportunity offender." PLUS: campus protests, keffiyeh bans, and the state of the publishing industry.

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"No One Buys Books" by Elle Griffin - https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books

"The Delusional Triangle of Sadness" by Armond White - https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/10/the-delusional-triangle-of-sadness/

"Triangle of Sadness" review by Richard Brody - https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/triangle-of-sadness-reviewed-were-on-a-yacht-and-were-puking

"Triangle of Sadness" review by Gabe Klinger - https://letterboxd.com/gabeklinger/film/triangle-of-sadness/

#519 - Triangle of Badness

Less than a decade after the revolutionary potential of the May 1968 protests, Robert Bresson's THE DEVIL, PROBABLY (1977) follows a disaffected youth in a world full of evil who asks: Is life worth living? It's a hard question, but we do our best to answer it.

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

PREVIEW - #488 - The Fourth Annual Michael & Us Year-in-Review Extravaganza

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