The Politics of Cinema
On this show, we believe that films are never neutral. There is a political as well as artistic message captured (on purpose and on accident) in every film. We’re on the lookout for all of it.
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Episodes
Friday Jan 22, 2021
Friday Jan 22, 2021
Uptight (1968) is a Cleveland set, Cleveland filmed masterpiece that is ripe for re-discovery. It was co-written, produced and co-stars Cleveland born Ruby Dee and documents the political and social struggle of local revolutionaries in the wake of MLK Jr.'s assassination. In part I of our II part series, we take a look at how the script came together and discuss the filming of that script with special guest Mike Wendt from the Greater Cleveland Film Commission. Watch Uptight on YouTube before we dive in with our coverage in Part II. Sources: Soul Searching: Black-themed Cinema from the March on Washington to the Rise of Blaxploitation Follow us at: Twitter / Instagram / Letterboxd / Facebook
Thursday Dec 24, 2020
Thursday Dec 24, 2020
How Joe Dante's Gremlins (1984) documents the crisis of Reagan's America and how it places Trump as an 80's throwback. Articles discussed on the show: Trench Warfare by Mike Davis Cute. Dangerous. Asian Americans. "Gremlins" @ 35 by Wendy Allison Lee Follow us at: Twitter / Instagram / Letterboxd / Facebook
Friday Dec 18, 2020
Friday Dec 18, 2020
Aaron and Isaac discuss why they haven't been covering the films of 2020 and then cover a film from 2020. Steve McQueen has "created a whoa! level piece of cinema"*. Film #1 in the Small Axe series, Mangrove, is the topic of this episode and Mr. McQueen has given us a lot to think about; C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, Marxist social movements, political strategies to fight a colonial power and (as they say) much, much more! *actual Isaac quote Follow us at: Twitter / Instagram / Letterboxd / Facebook
Friday Dec 04, 2020
Friday Dec 04, 2020
On this episode we get nostalgic, well Isaac does. He makes Aaron watch the 1982 John Milius opus, Conan the Barbarian. Follow us at: Twitter / Instagram / Letterboxd / Facebook
Friday Nov 20, 2020
Friday Nov 20, 2020
In 1987, Paul Verhoeven came to Hollywood and gave us all the Neoliberal critique that is RoboCop. A violent image of dystopian future where corporations run public services like hospitals, prisons, space exploration and the police. How absurd! Ten years later, after making Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992) and Showgirls (1995) Mr. Verhoeven gave the world a "film about fascists who don't know they are fascist". Starship Troopers (1997) was dismissed at the time as a film celebrating fascism instead of being the great satire that it really is. Articles mentioned on this episode: RoboCop review by Rita Kempley RoboCop cartoon series Paul Verhoeven interview about Starship Troopers Goosestepping at the Movies by Steven Hunter Starship Troopers review by Janet Maslin Follow us at: Twitter / Instagram / Letterboxd
Friday Nov 13, 2020
Friday Nov 13, 2020
Well, the US election happened...what better way to mark the occasion that looking at the high concept horror film The Purge: Election Year. Political leaders making backroom deals that fuck over the poor and working class. Religious zealots attempting to kill their enemies. Heavily armed white nationalist storm troopers targeting activists. Community organizers and street medics taking care of people cast aside by the those in power. Has this franchise veered away from high concept horror and steered into modern day political allegory? Yes. Yes it has... Follow us at: Twitter / Instagram / Letterboxd
Friday Oct 30, 2020
Friday Oct 30, 2020
It's that time of year... We decided to focus on the recent trend in horror cinema known as Art House Horror by taking a look at Ari Aster's sophomore film, Midsommar. We also discuss two horror sub-genres - we look at Werewolf films via; When Animals Dream, Ginger Snaps & Dog Soldiers and the metaphorical zombie film via; Pontypool, Deathdream (aka Dead of Night) and The Crazies.
Friday Oct 23, 2020
Friday Oct 23, 2020
It's that time of year... We decided to focus on the recent trend in horror cinema known as Art House Horror by taking a look at the stunning debut feature of Jennifer Kent, The Babadook. We also discuss the vampires of films in the late 1980's via The Hunger, Lifeforce, The Lost Boys, Fright Night and Near Dark. We also take a look at the year of horror that was 1980.
Friday Oct 16, 2020
Friday Oct 16, 2020
It's that time of year... We decided to focus on the recent trend in horror cinema known as Art House Horror by taking a look at the stunning debut feature of Robbert Eggers, The Witch. We also discuss the slasher genre via The Slumber Party Massacre and It's Alive and the recent 1980's nostalgia horror trend via Summer of '84.
Friday Oct 09, 2020
Friday Oct 09, 2020
A few final thoughts on our viewing experiment that documented the years 1962-1969 in Hollywood along with a couple detours to the French New Wave and the Japanese New Wave. We also share our watchlists of favorite discoveries as well as films in our queue to watch immediately.