Heads Down, Two Thumbs Up

In this episode of Heads Down Two Thumbs Up, Carla and Bill discuss the iconic film Sixteen Candles.  This movie launched the career of John Hughes who quickly became known for his portrayal of teenage angst through the ubiquitous experiences of unrequited crushes, embarrassing parents and a punishing social hierarchy. Samantha Baker is turning 16, but in the chaos of her sister’s wedding, he...

In this episode of Heads Down Two Thumbs Up, Bill and Carla discuss School of Rock. This iconic movie features Jack Black as a slacker musician who, in a moment of desperation, lies to get a substitute teaching gig at a pretentious elementary school. Joan Cusack plays the uptight principal who only lightens up when she hears Stevie Nicks. Does this movie stand the test of time? Does it accurately...

In this episode of Heads Down Two Thumbs Up, Bill and Carla discuss Almost Famous. Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, this semi-autobiographical story is NOT set in a school, but it is about learning. When high school student William Miller gets the chance to follow his passion of music journalism and is invited to tour with a up and coming band, Stillwater, he takes it, trading classroom lear...

• episode transcript (click to read) In this special edition episode, we focus exclusively on the music of movies. The soundtrack. The score. We love this quote from Underground Press :  As music can tell the story and explain the plot, filmmakers use it very carefully to build the tone and mood of a film. Also, music is used to expose feelings of characters, actions, tensions, and even ...

Travel back to 1988 with Bill and . . . Carla, as we have a MOST excellent adventure together taking about another favorite movie that talks about school. When two disengaged high school students, Theodore Logan and William S. Preston, Esquire, are faced a failing grade in history class, they have just one option left – to do one kick-ass final project. But they know nothing about history. J...

You watched the movie, you listened to the podcast, and now it’s time to listen to the B-Side from The Karate Kid. Bill sits down with Jesse Lubinsky for an extended interview. If you’re completely lost, go back and listen to full episode of The Karate Kid , and then listen to this. It’ll make more sense.

This month, Bill and Carla talk Karate Kid, the iconic 1984 movie staring Ralph Macchio as the young Karate student of Mr. Miyagi played by Pat Morita.  We discuss the relationship between master teacher and student apprentice, the Dojo as school for life, bad fashion, and the many filming locations of the film.  If you are a fan of the fan-fiction series, Cobra Kai, we have you covered, and we ta...

It’s our first episode of the 2021-22 season.  We’re talking about Stand and Deliver, the true story of high school teacher Jaime Escalante who finds himself teaching math in East LA. He finds a group of students who find his less-than conventional teaching methods to be inspiring and he takes them all the was to AP Calculus. When they all successfully pass the AP Exam, their scor...

We’re back!  After our pandemic hiatus, it felt great to be back in the studio to record Episode Six. Coming off of one of the craziest elections seasons in American history, we made the obvious choice.  Election was released in 1999 and starred Matthew Broderick as Jim McAllister, a high school civics teacher, and Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick, an overachieving student running...

You watched the movie, you listened to the podcast, and now it’s time to listen to the B-Side from Rushmore. Carla sits down with Greg Bamford for an extended interview. If you’re completely lost, go back and listen to full episode of Rushmore , and then listen to this. It’ll make more sense.