Michael and Us

In the middle of the 20th century, some of America's biggest companies made a habit of staging Broadway-quality musicals simply to hype up their employees. The documentary BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY (2018) chronicles the obsession that David Letterman's writer Steve Young developed with the arcane genre of the "industrial musical." Will is joined by special guest host Jesse Brenneman to discuss the fi...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/455-avatars-of-88293850 Last week's Republican presidential debate, competing Tucker Carlson/Donald Trump interview, and concurrent Trump mugshot drop had us hankering to find the worst Donald Trump documentary we could find. And boy, did we find it. We dived back into the Tubi mines and dredged up TRUMP: THE FIRST TERM (2020).

Released in the middle of the Obama era, George Clooney's THE IDES OF MARCH (2011) has a lot to tell us about a time when the horizons of possibility were contracting. That's right, folks - it's time to have fun with a good, old-fashioned Politics Movie™. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

We've been talking about a lot of soulless, big-budget IP movies that represent a rot in our culture... so how about a how about a hand-crafted, achingly personal movie that exists as a wart on the back of that rot? We discuss Kevin Smith's CLERKS III (2022), a harrowing vision of Gen X culture trapped in amber. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelan...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/87861707 With no end in sight to the SAG and WAG strikes, we looked at episodes of four beloved TV shows that deal with labor disputes: The Simpsons, South Park, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Babylon 5. PLUS: Fiery hot takes on the new movies by two of our fave filmmakers, Wes Anderson and Jackie Chan.

After years of hearing from censors that violent media images cause harm, David Cronenberg made a movie... in which violent media images cause harm. We discuss VIDEODROME (1983) - its media satire, its sexual/gender politics, and its vision of how technology influences reality. PLUS: the Prime Minister enters the Barbieheimer discourse, and further thoughts on Sound of Freedom. See Will introduce...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/450-echo-of-87439056 Luke has been a Trekkie (or perhaps he's a Trekker - sound off in the comments!) for all his life. Will has spent very little time with Star Trek. Now, the boys confront STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979) to see if its middling reputation is correct. The answer may or may not surprise you.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/449-popcorn-87204143 In this nice-n-chill ep, the boys invite you to pull up a chair and sit beside them as they hash over a variety of topics of mutual interest. Will pays tribute to the late, great Paul “Pee-wee Herman” Reubens, and the lads discuss such films as Dave, Memento, The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer, Die Another Day, Match Point, a...

Unfortunately, there was no avoiding it. We finally went to see the right-wing human-trafficking blockbuster SOUND OF FREEDOM (2023) and had one of our more unpleasant viewing experiences. We discuss the film's astroturfed box office, as well as the reasons for its very real cultural resonance. "Tim Ballard Has ‘Stepped Away’ From Operation Underground Railroad, Org Says" by Anna Merlan - https://...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/86802421 In a special solo documentary episode, Will looks at the 1946 radio broadcasts in which Orson Welles advocated for justice in the case of Isaac Woodard Jr., a black war veteran who was beaten and blinded by a police officer in the American south. Listen to the full Orson Welles Commentaries broadcasts here - https://orsonwelles.ind...

So, why do they call it "the little death"? Will is joined by film critic Adam Nayman to discuss Claire Denis's transgressive masterpiece TROUBLE EVERY DAY (2001) and how it scandalized film culture circa 2001. PLUS: What is it like to teach the history of satire at a university? Adam Nayman on Twitter - https://twitter.com/brofromanother Adam's books - https://www.abramsbooks.com/contributor/adam...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/445-hollywood-86422479 With the winds of change (and a couple of major strikes) hitting the movie industry, we look back on a document from an earlier time when the tectonic plates shifted in Hollywood. Shot throughout the 1970s, Orson Welles' posthumously completed THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018) looked at the New Hollywood from the jaun...

Reports of God's death remain greatly exaggerated in GOD'S NOT DEAD 2 (2016), in which Evangelical Christianity is put literally on trial. We welcome back Alex Shephard (staff writer for The New Republic and expert in the blockbuster Christian film franchise), and discuss how this instalment's relentless focus on Facts and Logic situates it in a recent but very different era of the culture war. PL...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/443-comfortably-86096994 Many have called NOSTALGIA CRITIC: THE WALL (2019) the worst movie review of all time. But upon viewing this infamous YouTube video, we're forced to ponder: is it even worse than that? We cap our recent run of Pink Floyd content by revisiting one of the lowest moments in the history of the internet.

PATREON EXCLUSIVE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-podcastful-86089621 In a very special interview, Luke talks to Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason about reviving the band's early music, their legendary 1975 Hamilton show, and why they're experiencing a renaissance.

At the behest of our Superdelegate patron tier, we have returned to a TV show that is one of the prime relics of mid-2000s libertarian culture. We watch episodes of PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT! on topics as disparate from handicapped parking to reparations, but find that for the libertarian funnymen, it all comes back to property rights. PLUS: thoughts on the QAnon human-trafficking thriller that's ro...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/441-flaming-cow-85777013 In a solo documentary episode, Luke offers a brief history of Pink Floyd and its landmark 1970 suite Atom Heart Mother. He then sits down with the piece's co-writer Ron Geesin to discuss its composition, his unique career, his collaborations with Pink Floyd and Roger Waters, a chance encounter with Syd Barrett, and...

Quentin Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019) hit the zeitgeist by consciously going against the 2019-era cultural grain. Tarantino looks back on the winds of change that greeted the movie business in the late 1960s and lands firmly - but not uncomplicatedly - on the side of the old guard. PLUS: Bluesky vs Twitter, wrapping up the Toronto mayoral election, and checking in on a man by th...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/439-rambo-fourth-85222850 John Rambo enters Myanmar - and affirms his belief that man is fundamentally barbaric - in the fourth and bleakest entry in the series, titled simply RAMBO (2008). We find in this ugly film the purest articulation of writer/director/star Sylvester Stallone's conservative politics. PLUS: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Netf...

Did Tetris bring down the USSR? That's the implication of TETRIS (2023), a highly fictionalized account of the beloved video game's journey from the Soviet Union to your phone. We examine what anti-Communist kitsch looks like in the year 2023. PLUS: Russian coups, disappearing subs, and further thoughts on the movie on everyone's lips, The Flash. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/437-flash-is-84903674 We went to see the cursed blockbuster THE FLASH (2023) and discovered not merely a bad movie, but also a movie that encapsulates nearly everything bad about movies in the year 2023. Strap in, folks.

Our sacred quest to tackle every political comedy inevitably reaches the Will Ferrell/Zack Galifianakis vehicle THE CAMPAIGN (2012). We discuss what a middle-of-the-road comedy from smack dab in the middle of the Obama era captures of its time and ambience. PLUS: Checking in on some of the wackier characters in the Toronto mayoral race.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/435-ford-84518277 It's Die Hard on an airplane and the President of the United States is John McClane. In AIR FORCE ONE (1997), Harrison Ford plays a president so great that he can beat the terrorists with his own hands. PLUS: We discuss breadlines and blockbusters.

Hell is real, and it's really bad, and it's really important that you repent. That's the thesis of THE BURNING HELL (1974), a crackpot Evangelical oddity from the deep south, brought to you by the dynamic duo of director Ron Ormond and preacher/star Estus W. Pirkle. We discuss what this bizarre handmade movie tells us about American religious conservatism. PLUS: enter Mike Pence and Chris Christie...

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/84221377 With ED WOOD (1994), one of the most commercially successful American filmmakers paid tribute to one of the least. We discuss how the film establishes an aesthetic and spiritual common-ground between Tim Burton and Edward D. Wood, Jr. PLUS: Who will be the standard-bearer of American conservatism until he dies? I think we all know...