Michael and Us
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Episodes of Michael and Us
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In Akira Kurosawa's KAGEMUSHA (1980), a lowly thief is recruited to impersonate a feudal warlord, and he almost gets away with it. This mighty epic gives us opportunity to ponder the role of illusion in maintaining power, and whether or not a l
THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF OUR ONGOING "STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP" SERIES ON PATREON - Join us there for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandusIt's Studio 60 vs the unions in Episode 17 ("The Disaster Show") of Aaro
It's Studio 60 vs the unions in Episode 17 ("The Disaster Show") of Aaron Sorkin's STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP. We're pleased to welcome Will Menaker (of Chapo Trap House and Movie Mindset fame) to help us make sense of Sorkin's perspective o
Government and big tech are in cahoots to reshape America, and the only man who can stop it is Elon Musk. That's more-or-less the thesis of THE TWITTER FILES (2023), a movie that plumbs new depths even in the right-wing movie ecosystem. PLUS: T
As we drift further and further into STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP, we find a show that is quickly losing touch with its original premise of saving comedy, and transforming into a workplace soap opera with a lot of sexual harassment. We discuss
You can go looking for the zeitgeist, but only the zeitgeist can find you. That's what the makers of countless pieces of failed Oscar bait have learned. In this special episode, we run through some of the most legendary failed Oscar bait of the
We know you've waited a whole week since our last episode on STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP, anxiously looking forward to any update on the Macau Deal. Your wish is our command. We discuss Episodes 12 ("Monday") and 13 ("The Harriet Dinner, Part
When our politicians fail us, can journalism save us? We revisit George Clooney's GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK (2005), about Edward R. Murrow's battle with Joseph McCarthy, and get a lesson in how the liberal imagination remembers the Red Scare. PL
We continue our long journey through the dark heart of Aaron Sorkin's STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP. Jordan gets pregnant, Harriet is inducted into the Falstaff Society, Matt & Danny create the most Epic Christmas TV broadcast ever, and Aaron S
During the Trump presidency, #TheResistance had a powerful figurehead, and his name was (the late) Mr. Rogers. We discuss the Tom Hanks-led #nicecore landmark A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD (2019), the strengths and limitations of Fred Rog
Growing up in Iran under the shadow of American imperialism, filmmaker Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa felt an unlikely personal connection with American cinema - specifically, the films of Jerry Lewis. In her documentary JERRY AND ME (2012) she explores Le
Our journey through America's second-greatest law-and-order franchise continues with WALKING TALL: THE PAYBACK (2007), a direct-to-video adventure with Kevin Sorbo. We discuss how the rural Dirty Harry was reimagined (or not) for the late Bush
The troops fight abroad, and sketch comedians fight on the home front. In our latest dispatch from the universe of Aaron Sorkin's STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP, we ponder the author's tortured relationship with everything from advertising to ge
In the feature-film adaptation of John le Carré's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY (2011), Cold War-era Britain doesn't look that much different from behind the Iron Curtain - visually, at least. We discuss the challenges of compressing an intricat
It's a jumbo-sized helping of Aaron Sorkin as we continue our descent into madness/journey through STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP. In this instalment, we consider Sorkin's views on race, the Greatest Generation, and Abbott & Costello. PLUS: We p
Maybe it's a fool's errand to look for politics in the Marx Brothers' DUCK SOUP (1933), but nevertheless, many have tried. We discuss the philosophy of the Brothers' tomfoolery, and the way that movies and literature imagine countries like Free
After inhabiting the White House but before examining the Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin created a show that sought nothing less than to fix the most important American institution of them all: Saturday Night Live. We launch what will eventually become
You've seen Air, you've seen Blackberry, and are you ready for the Corporate I.P. genre to reach its baroque period? We discuss Jerry Seinfeld's UNFROSTED (2024), a comedy about the invention of the pop-tart, and attempt an ideological reading
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 Dav
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:
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
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
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 b
Aiming straight for the zeitgeist, CIVIL WAR (2024) is a disaster movie for the post-January 6th America. But in deliberately removing any politics or ideology from his vision of a country at war with itself, Alex Garland has made a movie that
By the third entry of the God's Not Dead franchise, its creative team had clearly started listening to their critics. The result was a kinder, gentler right-wing Evangelical Christian drama that sought to heal divides... and failed at the box o
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