Films Change Lives

We discuss: Representing the American Midwest, the especially lives of people in Minnesota Tonal ambiguity and cinematic strangeness! Carter Burwell’s genre-bending score Ironic parallels between Fargo and Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) William H. Macy’s oddly charming performance as a loathsome character The film’s connections with westerns and films noir The film echoing Shakespeare’s problem plays a...

We discuss: The wonderment Marcel inspires The voices of Jenny Slade and Isabella Rossellini The genesis of the movie The treatment of everyday objects as precious, sometimes repurposed The impact of multi-media storytelling The significance of seeing the world on a different scale Sources of inspiration, such as Sarah Penwarden’s creation of found poetry (in relation to Marcel’s world of found ob...

We discuss: The reality of hospice care Michelle Aaron’s book Death and the Moving Image (Edinburgh University Press) Familial, cultural, and cinematic strategies for coping with grief The place of children in a household of grief-stricken adults Grief management in a specifically Mexican cultural context The importance of memories and especially remembering moments of laughter while facing death...

This podcast reflects my love of cinema and hearing about the films that have changed other people’s lives for the long term. While I’m an established scholar, editor, and author who loves sharing my own love of cinema, I’ve come to realize that it’s the dialogues with others that teach me the most. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to...

We discuss: The dearth of nuanced representations of deaf people on film, and CODA as an important new example ASL in cinema: pitfalls and opportunities for relaying physicalized expressivity Music as self-expression in relation to coming-of-age and personal growth across generations Perfectly imperfect parenting  Leftist emphases on community-minded, localized solidarity The value of generative q...

We talk about The deceptively simple plot of The Quiet Girl Exquisitely nuanced visual and sonic details of life within it The distinctively Irish vision and mindset of the film The Irish language being featured (unusually for a globally successful release) Sharing the film experience with loved ones who will understand The difference between realizing and verbalizing what is to be understood in t...

Please forgive the relatively low-grade quality of this pilot episode. We recorded it at home via Zoom, which felt right because of the personal subject matter. It was a cold, snowy, winter day, and the film uplifted us. We discussed: Processing the film together, in real time, while it was still fresh Being virtually “seen” by the film Queer isolation Queer children and their parents Multi-genera...

We discuss: Greta Gerwig’s distinct directorial approach Authentically representing teenage life and being Social class in America Emotional realness Meaningful ellipses Phil Lowrie and “Crash Into Me” as a “crystal song” Stand-out performances by Saoirse Ronan Laurie Metcalf Maternal melodrama Suppressed emotional truths and poignant subtexts of life at high school Sisterhood beyond the family Th...

We discuss: A children’s film for adults Family and friendship Grief Non-linear time Maximalist fiction in contrast with this minimalist film Father/child dynamics Mother/grandmother/daughter dynamics The non-existence of objective time The value of subjective time Carlo Rovelli’s work on time from a scientific POV Hanna Meretoja’s “The Ethics of Storytelling” Freud’s fort-da game, and the reality...

We discuss: Algeria’s War of Independence Willful forgetting and the obligation to remember colonial history The reality of France's (post)colonial impact Personal and collective guilt and intentional amnesia Inter-generational trauma Themes of personal, national, and multi-national guilt The obligation to confront the harms of history, even when they implicate one’s own family The massacre of Fre...