Reel Deep Dive

One of the most prominent subgenres in action cinema is the "tournament movie": this is a film where the protagonist enters a fighting contest where they battle a series of incrementally more powerful opponents before facing off against the main villain at the climax. While effective in popular movies like Enter the Dragon (1973) and Bloodsport (1988), this structure might be even more suitable to...

For this episode, we're taking the 2018 animated superhero hit and using it to examine the techniques of animation, the limits of heroic narrative, and how the monomyth template of Joseph Campbell is used by Hollywood screenwriters. And, since this is a kid's movie, Ryan is joined by his nine year old nephew Toby (who struggles with the audio equipment somewhat). Ryan's a cynical old nerd who over...

Not every fictional character has the longevity of Sherlock Holmes, Hercules, or Dracula. Some popular figures fade to the position where most people seem to vaguely know who they are without anyone seeming to give a damn about them. Such is the fate of Zorro, the proto-superhero who fights for justice in colonial-era California. For this episode, Ryan digs into the 1920 silent action film that pu...

The first episode of a podcast usually involves people struggling with the audio equipment (and there's some of that here). So, with that in mind, it's probably unfair to expect the maiden voyage of a movie podcast to have a firm sense of identity in place. Knowing that we're still figuring things out, we thought that we'd start things off with the simple topic of what's allegedly the greatest fil...