We Love the Love

We're kicking off our summer of superheroes with one of the first theatrical superhero movies: the 1966 Batman movie starring Adam West and Burt Ward!

Join in as we discuss the development of the TV show, the film's relationship to camp, Batman's detective work, and the state of modern superhero cinema.

Plus: Why is this Batman movie set entirely during daylight hours? Why did Burt Ward do almost all of his own stunts? Does Batman work for the government? Can Marc name the Thunderbolts? And, most importantly, who is the most dateable Batman?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006)

---------------------------------------------

Key sources and links for this episode:

• The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise ofNerd Culture by Glen Weldon (2016)

• The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America by David Hadju (2009)
• "Batman" (Museum of Broadcast Communications)
• "Adam West: Behind the Mask" (The Independent)
• "Batman" (AFI Catalog)
• "Original Design for the Leader in Captain America: Brave New World Revealed" (IGN)
• "Captain America: Brave New World Leader Merchandise Looks Nothing Like the Character in the Movie" (ScreenCrush)\
• "The Comic Artists Who Inspired Roy Lichtenstein Aren't Too Thrilled About It" (Smithsonian Magazine)

We're closing out our D.C. Onscreen series with a look at the interwoven affairs of the 2008 Coen brothers comedy Burn After Reading!

Join in as we discuss our favorite Coen Brothers movies, the perplexed reception the film got from critics, and possibly the worst street in all of D.C.

Plus: What's the best blind date spot in D.C.? Is anyone in this movie not an idiot? Does 2008 comedy sensation Tropic Thunder hold up? And, most importantly, what's the worst picture book in the current market?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Batman (1966)

------------------------------------------------

Key sources and links for this episode:

• 2008 interview with Joel and Ethan Coen at TIFF (SpoutBlog)
• Composer Carter Burwell's notes on the Burn After Reading score
• "Coens Dumb it Down with Burn" (USA Today)
• "Venice Opens with Pitt and Clooney in Madcap Comedy" (Reuters)
• "Movie Preview: Burn After Reading" (EW)
• "Jeremy Renner Turned Down Hawkeye Season 2 Because He Was Offered 'Half' His Season 1 Salary: 'Did You Think I'm Half the Jeremy Renner Because I Got Run Over?'" (Variety)
• "Tropic Thunder R-Word Use Draws Ire" (CBS News)

Hollywood couldn't figure out how to sell a historical fiction political comedy about teenagers set twenty-five years in the past, but we're big fans of Andrew Fleming's 1999 film Dick and we're here to talk about it!

Join in as we discuss teenage celebrity crushes, child stardom, an odd choice for weed storage, and a deep cast of sketch performers.

Plus: Why does Nixon White House Counsel John Dean have a "special thanks" in the credits? Why is the New York Times review so fixated on connecting this movie to Monica Lewinsky? And, most importantly, why does this dog look nothing like Checkers??

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Burn After Reading (2008)

----------------------------------------------

Key sources and links for this episode:

• Stephen Holden's review in the New York Times
• Michael O'Sullivan's review in the Washington Post
• "Generation X's Tricky Dick" (Washington Post)
• "Dick Director on the Challenges of Making a Watergate Comedy and Whether it Could be Done Today" (The Hollywood Reporter)
• "9 Things You Never Really Knew about Dick" (Huffington Post)
• "Dick at 25: The Watergate Satire's Writer and Director on Putting Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst in Nixon's White House" (IndieWire)
• "Michelle Williams Bares All for Her Art" (Entertainment Weekly)
• "Michelle Williams, Naked Angel" (Paper Magazine)
• "Some Like Her Hot" (2012 GQ cover story on Michelle Williams)
• "How Did Two Elite Students Fall for the Zizians Cult?" (The Cut)
• "Stalkers, Disease, and Doubt: A Gymnast's Hard Road Back to the Games" (New York Times piece on Suni Lee's adjustment to fame and adult life)
• Dear Hollywood - Alyson Stoner's podcast on child acting
• "Jason Bateman" (Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend)
• "The Reveal of Emo Kylo Ren's Parentage is Tearing Twitter Apart" (AV Club)
• "The Story of the Really Weird Night Richard Nixon Hung out with Hippies at the Lincoln Memorial" (Washingtonian Magazine)

Our D.C. Onscreen series takes us to Georgetown as we look at the reincarnation romance of Emile Ardolino's 1989 film Chances Are!

Join in as we discuss our favorite afterlife bureaucracies, Yale's draconian library fees, and the performances by Cybill Shepherd, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan O'Neal, and Mary Stuart Masterson.

Plus: Why didn't the mobster just kill Louie (Christopher Macdonald)? Has Alex (Downey) ever been to a doctor? How long does Corinne (Shepherd) leave out food for her dead husband? And, most importantly, what should you do with baby teeth?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next episode: Dick (1999)

--------------------------------------------

Key sources and links for this episode:

• Desson Howe's review in the Washington Post
• Rita Kempley's review in the Washington Post
• Roger Ebert's 3.5-star review
• Janet Maslin's review in the New York Times
• "Movie Motors: Four-Wheeled Actors Set the Scene in these D.C. Films" (Washington Post)
• "Inside Anthony Michael Hall's Relationship with Robert Downey Jr." (The List)

Goldie Hawn grew up in the D.C. area, so it's only right for our D.C. Onscreen series to look at her starring role in 1984's Protocol!

Join in as we discuss theme restaurants, a weirdly deep cast, Reagan assassination parody, and the death of Skype.

Plus: Who thought any of this Ohtar stuff worked? How did Sunny Davis get shot in the butt? Why does Chris Sarandon totally disappear from the movie? And, most importantly, which quadrant of D.C. does Sunny live in?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Chances Are (1989)

---------------------------------------------------

Key sources and links for this episode:

• Roger Ebert's 2.5-star review
• "Making of Protocol is a Hit on the Streets" (Washington Post)
• "Goldie Hawn Surprised by Arab Protests" (UPI)
• "Goldie Hawn, Wacky Like a Fox" (Washington Post)
• Read about Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg's failed theme restaurant

We're moving our D.C. Onscreen series into the 1980s with a look at the romance of Joel Schumacher's sophomore feature, D.C. Cab!

Join in as we discuss our own D.C. cab experiences, 1980s D.C., the explosive popularity of Mr. T, a movie in search of a plot.

Plus: Who is the lead of the movie? Which characters can you actually root for? How did Universal botch the movie's marketing? And how do cabs work anyway?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Protocol (1984)

------------------------------------------------

Key sources and links for this episode:

• "D.C. Cab Offers Wild Ride through Underside of City" (Washington Post)
• Roger Ebert's two-star review
• D.C. Cab in the AFI Catalog
• "The A-Team's Mr. T" (People)
• Remarks by Mayor Marion Barry at the Premiere of D.C. Cab
• “Damaged goods in the shop window: He's upset America's Hispanics and Koreans, and he's not exactly the toast of Los Angeles. Is Joel Schumacher sorry? Is he hell.” (The Independent)
• "Taking a Ride with D.C. Cab, a Movie that Captured a Bit of Washington" (Washington Post)
• "D.C. Cab is a Terrible Movie, but it's Our Terrible Movie" (Washington City Paper)
• "Kristi Noem's Bag, with Security Badge and $3,000, is Stolen" (New York Times)

We're kicking off our series on DC Onscreen with a look at the romance of Otto Preminger's 1962 Senate drama Advise & Consent!

Join in as we discuss the movie's deployment of star Henry Fonda, the tension between Preminger's liberalism and Allen Drury's Pulitzer-winning novel, and the real-life incidents that inspired the story.

Plus: What stunt castings did Preminger want (and get) for the movie? How effective is its then-controversial depiction of gay people? And, most importantly, is Gene Tierney's Dolly Harrison the coolest woman we'll see in this series?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: D.C. Cab (1983) - available here via the Internet Archive!

-----------------------------------------------------

Key sources and links for this episode:

• Bosley Crowther's review of Advise & Consent (New York Times)
• "Hollywood's Biggest Washington Movie Goofs" (Washingtonian Magazine)
• "Otto Preminger, 1960-1979 (The Old Man is Still Alive, Part 7)" (You Must Remember This)
• "1961: Starring Martin Luther King, Jr. (And Henry Fonda)" (New York Times)
• "Just How Gay is the Right?" by Frank Rich (New York Times)
• "Allen Drury and the Washington Novel" (Hoover Institute)
• "Uniquely Nasty: The Blockbuster Novel that Haunted Gay Washington" (Yahoo News)
• "The 1959 Novel that Convinced a Young Barney Frank Not to Come Out" (Washington Post)
• "Trump Allies Pressure GOP Senators to Back Cabinet Picks - Or Else" (Washington Post)
• "The Week Trump Finally Broke the Senate" (Politico)
• "Takeaways from Doug Liman's Secret Brett Kavanaugh Documentary" (Washington Post)

We're tackling another listener request as we delve into the very weird world of the 2018 Netflix rom com The Kissing Booth!

Join in as we discuss the careers of the Euphoria cast, Netflix's 2018 rom com boom, a Welsh teen's idea of American high school, and the movie's odd but pernicious sexism.

Plus: What is Jacob Elordi doing with his voice? How did a kissing booth get approved for a school event? Why does Elle's (Joey King) dad hate Flynn so much? Can a freshman really head to college in June? And, most importantly, how does this school's uniform work?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Advise & Consent (1962)

-----------------------------------------------

Key sources and links for this episode:

• Kate Erbland's D review of The Kissing Booth (IndieWire)
• "Book Publishing's Latest Success Still Has to Do Her Homework Every Night" (TIME)
• "The Sixteen Most Influential Teens of 2013" (TIME)
• "The Kissing Booth: How a Newport Teen Author Inspired Netflix" (BBC News)
• "Set It Up and the Rise of the Non-Studio Rom-Com" (The Hollywood Reporter)
• "Inside the Binge Factory" (Vulture)
• "How Jacob Elordi Became the New King" (GQ)
• "A Timeline of Snow White and its Many Controversies" (Vulture)

In honor of this year's remake of The Wedding Banquet (now in theaters!), we're taking a look at a more troubled Ang Lee romance: his 2007 adaptation of Eileen Chang's novella Lust, Caution.

Join in as we discuss the star performances of Tony Leung and Tang Wei, the various censored versions of the film, Lee's use of sex as a storytelling device, and also Sinners because it's too good to ignore!

Plus: Why is the first shot a close-up of a German shepherd? Why don't they ever develop a specific plan to kill Mr. Yee? And could anyone resist trying to date Tang Wei's character?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: The Kissing Booth (2018)

Note: We tried a new recording setup for this episode and some audio is a little funky, but we've worked out the kinks going forward.

Key sources and links for this episode:

• "Focus Won't Sweat NC-17 for Lust" (The Hollywood Reporter)
• "Ang Lee is Heartbroken by Media Hype of Sex" (China Times Showbiz)
• "No Sex Scenes in China's Version of Lust, Caution" (CBC)
• "Lee Admits 'Political Edit' of Film"
• "Lust, Caution Actress is Banned in China" (Reuters)
• "Tang Wei's Erotic Sex Scenes Accused of Blaspheming Martyrs" (People (China))
• "The Dark Side of Your $5 Footling: Business Owners Say it Could Bite Them" (Washington Post)
• "The End of Hooters" (The Atlantic)

We're diving into one another's heads to explore the romance of Spike Jonze's 1999 genre-defying hit Being John Malkovich!

Join in as we discuss the 7 1/2th floor, the script's sparse character descriptions, the movie's exploration of gender and sexuality, and our own experiences with Malkovich.

Plus: Does Malkovich ever sleep? How are they retrieving their clients in New Jersey? What's Maxine's job? And, most importantly, why couldn't it be Being Tom Cruise?

Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe!

Next week: Lust, Caution (2007)

-----------------------------------------------

Key sources and links for this episode:

• Rogert Ebert's four-star review
• "The Fun and Games of Living a Virtual Life" (New York Times)
• "Being Charlie Kaufman" (Salon)
• Interview with Catherine Keener and Cameron Diaz (StarTalk)
• Interview with John Cusack and John Malkovich (StarTalk)
• John Cusack Interview with Tasha Robinson (The AV Club)
• "White Lotus Star Aimee Lou Wood, 31, Won't Get Botox. Here's Why" (Evie Magazine on YouTube)