From Katya: You know us as the pseudo-academic podcast with drinking and swearing. We also lied about that (very openly, in all fairness.) All of us have Ivory Tower experiences through teaching, conferences, independent scholarship, and the occasional long-winded degree. I left academic research a few years ago and the transition from being surrounding by…
Category: Movies and Film
e223. The Cultural Impact of Ms. Marvel on Disney+
This Wednesday saw the season finale of Ms. Marvel on Disney+, a show that we have been thoroughly enjoying. However, there’s been a weird bit of reaction to Ms. Marvel and the MCU in general as of late. While the critical reviews of Ms. Marvel are overwhelmingly positive (it currently sits at a 98% on…
e220. Obi-Wan Kenobi & the Star Wars Legacy
This week saw the end of the Disney+ Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi, a show devoted to… actually it’s really hard to talk about. Arguably, one of the biggest problems with the Kenobi tv show is that it is arguably impossible to talk about without spoilers. But it’s over now… so we’re going to spoil…
e219. Why We Still Love the Jurassic Park Franchise
Somehow, in 2022, there’s a Jurassic Park movie at the top of the box office. Some twenty-nine years after the first film and 32 years after the release of the first novel, this series is still going strong. There are cartoons, video games, Lego sets and other toys. Even though Jurassic World Dominion is theoretically…
e218. Does the Bechdel Test Fail the Bechdel Test?
A funny thing happened last week. The internet got into a minor scuffle about whether Fire Island, a film about gay men, was sexist because it failed the Bechdel Test, by not having substantive roles for women… because it was a movie about gay men. For those who haven’t seen the film… which frankly, is…
CFC: Bechdel Tests, Fire Island, and the lack of nuance in pop culture criticism
From Mav: So I hate the Bechdel Test. I think it’s stupid. See what I’m doing here is saying something kind of outrageous to start an article and then going into a more nuanced discussion where I try to make a larger point but that will be ignored by a lot of people who just…
CFC: We CAN do an episode about Jurassic Park; does that mean we SHOULD?
From Hannah: It’s been almost thirty years since we first were welcomed to Jurassic Park on the silver screen. And this weekend, the sixth movie in the franchise (which, uh, many of might say never should have had one sequel much less this many) Jurassic World: Dominion will premiere on North American screens. I’ve been…
e216. Chip’n Dale: Rescue Rangers & The Art Of The Cameo
If you haven’t had a chance to see the new Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers movie, you probably should watch it. It’s maybe the perfect blend of nostalgia, humor and just pointing at random IP cameos that you might recognize. It’s completely totally and in all ways absolutely delightful. This is in stark contrast to…
Call For Comments: Rescue Rangers, Cameo Films, and Marketing Nostalgia
From Mav: You know what… the new Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers movie is absolutely fucking delightful. It seriously is. It’s really really good and you should watch it. Not only is it really good, it’s sort of surprisingly good because it didn’t actually HAVE to be. We’ve done a lot of shows about nostalgia…
Call For Comments: Styles and Cycles (or, a funny thing happened on the way to Ragnarok)
August 2, 2022
From Wayne: So the biggest complaint I’ve heard about Thor: Love and Thunder is that is too silly. It’s a Taika Watiti movie, so I’m not really surprised by this, but the complaint seems to center around the idea that this change in the basic character of Thor from the comics is a bridge too…