Genre Reveal Party!

For our final episode of this season on school films, Eleanor Russell helps us emotionally process the recent documentary about the Brat Pack, Brats (2024), and St. Elmo's Fire (1985). Spoilers: self-indulgence, repression, saxophones, sweat, swirlies, the "wet look is in," not getting over shit, Joel Schumacher's filmography, cocaine, Georgetown, Demi Moore's mansion, most of these guys are rapis...

This week we're joined by Kayte Terry, host of Tender Subject and Fangs for the Memories (a Buffy and horror podcast), to discuss The Faculty (1998). Spoilers: horror in the late '90s, Jon Stewart teaches science, Dawson's Creek talk, reverse She's All That-ing, it's good to do drugs, blondes from out of town, horrible use of hair gel, gay boys on TV, misunderstood endings. Check out Kayte's podca...

This week we covered the most contemporary film from our season "School Days," the queer-absurdist high school sex comedy Bottoms (2023). Spoilers: murder, blood, "main guys," cheerleaders, absurdism, making fun of skinny culture / being body positive and making the joke anyway, pineapple juice, beware of those who have cell phones. Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter , and email us...

We talked about even more graduation movies, this week with Genre Reveal Party series regular Jasmine Bridges. We paired two unlikely films in a double feature, and found a lot of connective tissue... Spoilers: Jasmine and Madeline and their Ghost World thing, we've got problems with Ben, movies that end with bus scenes, ambivalence about adulthood, generational traitors, going from one diner to t...

This week we talk about two canonical gen-x graduation movies: Reality Bites and Kicking and Screaming (no, not the one with Will Ferrell). Spoilers: 90s bisexual cinema, friendship cinema, lots of kinds of "cinema," geriatric millennial talk, chain smoking, Troy was a fuckboi but maybe Madeline forgives him because he gives good apology, more chain smoking, Noah Baumbach's directorial debut, MTV,...

It's our second double feature of student uprising films, including perhaps the most legendary movie in the genre, 1968's if... And Class of 1984 is also here. Joining us is Sean O’Brien, a writer and researcher who teaches at the University of Bristol. Spoilers: animal sounds, the worst movie we’ve ever watched for the podcast, the young Michael J Fox, ammunition, bad punks, vengeance, Mr Holland...

This week we talk about two excellent films from the 1970s about two very different contexts of student uprising. We're joined by E Conner, editor of The Weakly and TANC organizer in the Bay Area. Spoilers: teen runaways, rioting, Meinhof talk, the young Matt Dillon, being young and doing crimes, movies that end in the back of a bus with ambivalent facial expressions, German prison slang, poor Joh...

This week we're joined by Milo Muise to discuss what we're calling the "School Scandals Double Feature," May December (2023) and Notes on a Scandal (2006). Both films deal with the sexualization of the teacher/student relationship, abusive power dynamics, obsession, and divas. We felt this was a fascinating double feature, but we also flirt with the idea of this as a trilogy with Tar (2022). Maybe...

We put together another double-feature for this week called "All Teachers Are Cops." We watched a couple '90s, VHS classics: Dangerous Minds (1995) and Kindergarten Cop (1990). Spoilers: white savior complexes, child actors, "police school," sweat pants, leather jackets, Coolio, junk food diets, Michelle Pfeiffer hasn't won an Oscar, watching women eat in films in the '90s, grade abolition, karate...

This week we discussed two films about precocious high school students that came out in 1998 and 1999, which were both second features made by precocious indie filmmakers: Wes Anderson's Rushmore and Alexander Payne's Election. These films have a lot in common, but they also have very different takes on the adolescent / mid-life crisis dynamics they stir up. We also listen to a call-in from Johann...

This week we followed up our boarding school trilogy with an inspirational teacher comedy double feature: School of Rock (2003) and Hamlet 2 (2006). These are two incredible antidotes to Dead Poets Society. Spoilers: abolish grades!, the power of theater, Jack Black is sexy and everyone knows it, politically incorrect lyrics, Erin Brockovich on stage, Richard Linklater talk, boring and awful girlf...

To start off our latest season "School Days," we made you another trilogy! We discussed The Boarding School Trilogy: Dead Poets Society (1989), School Ties (1992), and Flirting (1991). Spoilers: shower scenes, acne, poetry, anti-semitism, the horrible history of 'boarding schools' and genocide in the US, Thandiwe we love you, hand jobs, book deals, Robin Williams casting history, Matt Damon doesn'...

We've got one more chat about Season 2's theme "We Don't Need Another Hero." For our bonus episode we talked about Training Day (2001), featuring Denzel Washington's Oscar-winning performance as a crooked cop. Scholar, activist (and sports dad!) Dylan Rodriguez helped us think through this film, LA politics, and Hollywood copaganda. Spoilers: Ethan Hawke's punchable face, all cops are crooked bast...

To close out our season on heroes and villains, we talked about Mike Birbiglia's 2013 comedy special My Girlfriend's Boyfriend with guest Lucas O'Neil. Spoilers: comedy talk, aspirations, inspirations, Death Cab for Cutie, white guys, "which," humiliation, controlling the narrative, Georgetown, geriatric millennial vibes, one man shows, clowns. Find Lucas' tour dates and join his email list at luc...

This week we dug into the recently concluded fifth season of FX's Fargo, with guest Kyle Lane-McKinley! We discuss the series as an adaptation of the 1996 Coen Brothers' film, and more broadly the Coenesque world. And we keep reflecting on the theme of our own season, heroes and villains. Spoilers: Coencidences, Wizard of Oz, nipple rings and prosthetic nipples with rings, lions, tigers, bears, ra...

This week Madeline's best friend Jasmine joins us once again - our first second appearance on the podcast! We hope to have her on every season. This time around Jasmine assigned us with Inventing Anna, the 2022 Shonda Rhimes mini series about Anna Delvey aka Anna Sorokin. Spoilers: poor people pretending to be rich and rich people pretending to be poor, failed Venn diagrams, hustling, grifting, sc...

This week we talked all things Survivor with comedian Ariel Elias. Like Dave, Ariel is a Survivor super-fan, and had lots to say about Season 20: Heroes and Villains. Spoilers: Russell's eyes, poop in the ocean, pandemic binging, Russell's hat, libertarianism, all-coconut diets, Coach's vulnerability, Mae Martin & Parvati, no one gets to be a hero. Ariel Elias is a comedian living in New York...

This week we talked about The Hunger Games franchise with special guest Hope Barnes! Spoilers: Peeta revenge fantasies, sperm creatures, post-Occupy vibes, what if cannibalism?, fascism. Follow Hope @hope.ellen.barnes on Instagram. Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter , and email us at genrerevealparty@gmail.com with your thoughts, suggestions, guest requests, and genre reveals. Foll...

Is this season secretly about horror? Maybe. This week we talked about Jennifer's Body. Spoilers: pronunciations of "Seyfried," being late to learning about Megan Fox, bad lip syncing, production company conspiracies, speculative making-of mocku-dramedies, wtf another Diablo Cody movie? Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter , and email us at genrerevealparty@gmail.com with your though...

We made another trilogy episode! This week we talked with Phil Longo about the "Women Against Power Trilogy": The China Syndrome (1979), Silkwood (1983), and Erin Brockovich (2000). These movies each feature a bad-ass woman (Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, and Julia Roberts) standing up against a power plant conspiracy, and we had a great time thinking about them as a series. Spoilers: poison, boobs, th...

This week we talk with special guest and feminist horror critic Johanna Isaacson about Ana Lily Amirpour's 2014 Persian-language western Neo-noir vampire film A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Spoilers: sexy vampires, terrible men, Chester Cheeto, skateboarding, the "Jurassic Park rule," hipster directors, Tony Hawk 380. Special Guest: Johanna Isaacson, author of Stepford Daughters: Weapons for Fe...

This week we talk with special guest Eleanor Russell about that one time when Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro tried to make a comedy as their follow-up to Raging Bull . King of Comedy stars De Niro, Jerry Lewis, and the incredible Sandra Bernhard. Spoilers: we are all Rupert Pupkin, Joker talk, obsessive fandom, Liza Minelli/Martin Scorsese/Mikhail Baryshnikov love triangle, Jerry Lewis wrapped...

This week we talked about Neil Jordan's 1994 film Interview with the Vampire , adapted from Anne Rice's 1975 novel, as an eerie portrait of '90s sexy leading actors who are actually vampires pretending to be men: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Antonio Banderas. Spoilers: "how avant garde," there will be blood, the existence of Tom Cruise, immortality, the '90s, Claudia's Lolita vibes, brief discussion...

A comedy about terrorism? Released in 2010, Four Lions follows the story of four British Muslims who decide to become suicide bombers. It's... funny, tragic, confusing, satirical, and maybe a spoof of The Lion King. Directed by Sam Morris, and written by Morris, Sam Bain, and Jesse Armstrong, the film stars Riz Ahmed, Kayvan Novak, Nigel Lindsay, Arsher Ali, and Adeel Akhtar. Spoilers: weird to be...

We're launching our second season with Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the film that inspired our season's title, "We Don't Need Another Hero." Made in 1985, the film is the third installment in George Miller's Mad Max franchise, and the last (thankfully) to star Mel Gibson. Stealing the show are Tina Turner as Aunty Entity, who rules over Bartertown. Spoilers: Mel Gibson (go to hell), Tina Turner (RI...