Michael and Us

Our journey through America's second-greatest law-and-order franchise continues with WALKING TALL: THE PAYBACK (2007), a direct-to-video adventure with Kevin Sorbo. We discuss how the rural Dirty Harry was reimagined (or not) for the late Bush era. PLUS: Randall Emmett, Kevin Spacey, the death of cinema, and of course, Donald Trump's guilty verdict. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every we...

The troops fight abroad, and sketch comedians fight on the home front. In our latest dispatch from the universe of Aaron Sorkin's STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP, we ponder the author's tortured relationship with everything from advertising to gender to Woody Allen via "The Nevada Day" Parts 1 & 2 and "The Option Period." PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/528-studio-sucky-105...

In the feature-film adaptation of John le Carré's TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY (2011), Cold War-era Britain doesn't look that much different from behind the Iron Curtain - visually, at least. We discuss the challenges of compressing an intricate novel into a two-hour movie, and try to situate le Carré politically. PLUS: Taking the temperature of the snap British election, and a fond farewell to a...

It's a jumbo-sized helping of Aaron Sorkin as we continue our descent into madness/journey through STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP. In this instalment, we consider Sorkin's views on race, the Greatest Generation, and Abbott & Costello. PLUS: We probe further into the dark heart of Jerry Seinfeld. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/526-studio-sucky-104631151

Maybe it's a fool's errand to look for politics in the Marx Brothers' DUCK SOUP (1933), but nevertheless, many have tried. We discuss the philosophy of the Brothers' tomfoolery, and the way that movies and literature imagine countries like Freedonia. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

After inhabiting the White House but before examining the Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin created a show that sought nothing less than to fix the most important American institution of them all: Saturday Night Live. We launch what will eventually become a multi-episode discussion of STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP (2006-7). Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaela...

You've seen Air, you've seen Blackberry, and are you ready for the Corporate I.P. genre to reach its baroque period? We discuss Jerry Seinfeld's UNFROSTED (2024), a comedy about the invention of the pop-tart, and attempt an ideological reading of a comedian who has stubbornly resisted ideology. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/523-from-freezer-103971720

A new campaign to boycott Canada's biggest grocery chain raises a plethora of issues about how monopolies work in Canada, and what role governments and consumers should play in combatting them. On this special episode, Luke welcomes writers David Moscrop and Mitchell Thompson to discuss the Loblaws boycott and Canada's grocery-store oligarchs, the Weston Family. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https:/...

In the election year of 2004, an ultraviolent subtitled right-wing Christian movie became a genuine cultural phenomenon and political lightning-rod. We finally discuss THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004) and theology according to Mel Gibson. PLUS: the White House Correspondents Dinner, the Columbia encampment, and the one optimistic takeaway of a discouraging week. Join us on Patreon for an extra epi...

We had to do it. We heard that GOD'S NOT DEAD: WE THE PEOPLE (2021), the fourth entry in the Evangelical film franchise, goes all-in on the culture wars of the Trump years. We welcome back our official God's Not Dead correspondent Alex Shephard to discuss the wackiest entry yet. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/103293856

If all of our current class hierarchies were eliminated, what would replace them? This question is at the core of TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022), the art-house hit that show the limits of being an "equal-opportunity offender." PLUS: campus protests, keffiyeh bans, and the state of the publishing industry. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus "No One...

Less than a decade after the revolutionary potential of the May 1968 protests, Robert Bresson's THE DEVIL, PROBABLY (1977) follows a disaffected youth in a world full of evil who asks: Is life worth living? It's a hard question, but we do our best to answer it. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Aiming straight for the zeitgeist, CIVIL WAR (2024) is a disaster movie for the post-January 6th America. But in deliberately removing any politics or ideology from his vision of a country at war with itself, Alex Garland has made a movie that is rigorously, even militantly unwilling to say anything. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/517-civil-war-102614736

By the third entry of the God's Not Dead franchise, its creative team had clearly started listening to their critics. The result was a kinder, gentler right-wing Evangelical Christian drama that sought to heal divides... and failed at the box office. We welcome back New Republic writer and our resident God's Not Dead correspondent Alex Shephard to discuss GOD'S NOT DEAD: A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS (2...

When he emerged on radio, he was celebrated as a pioneering black star in a white entertainment landscape. By the time of the Civil Rights Movement, he was regarded by many a symbol of black subservience. In this solo documentary episode Cohost Will considers the career and thorny legacy of Eddie Anderson, the actor and comedian who played "Rochester" on The Jack Benny Show. "Jack Benny and the Go...

With the world in flames, it was time to have a little fun. We return to one of our all-time favourite discoveries, checking in on John Cleese's mind-bogglingly awful GB News chat show THE DINOSAUR HOUR to see how or if it has evolved since its debut. PLUS: What exactly do conservatives mean by "Marxism"? And Will uncovers a right-wing Evangelical book from the 1950s that exposes the dark heart of...

For seven weeks in 1936 and 1937, workers at the General Motors plant in Flint Michigan held a risky sit-down strike. A true David vs. Goliath story, their strike won recognition for the United Auto Workers and changed labour in the United States forever. With a newer UAW strike fresh in the memory, we discuss the BBC documentary THE GREAT SIT-DOWN (1976). JOIN US ON PATREON FOR AN EXTRA EPISODE E...

Imagine a world where shadowy forces completely disconnected from democracy control everything. Friends, you don't have to imagine, because this world is the setting for the quintessential '70s paranoia thriller, THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974). PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/513-parallax-101743154

We follow up our recent episode on a 1973 law-and-order semi-classic by examining its Bush-era remake. We found a gentrified and sandpapered WALKING TALL (2004), with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson" in a role "inspired by a true story" "suggested by events in the life of Buford Pusser." PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/512-walking-tall-101441962

In 1939, King George VI visited President Roosevelt to gain his support in the coming war. Some years later, it happened. As the Bill Murray vehicle HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (2012) unconvincingly argues, the Special Relationship was sealed over a hot dog. We dig up a forgotten piece of failed Oscar bait just to bury it all over again. BONUS Hyde Park on Hudson talk on our Patreon - https://www.patreon....

Our Superdelgate patron tier has tasked us with discussed the sitcom THE GOOD PLACE, and it leads us down a dark and scary path of remembering culture and politics in the early Trump era. PLUS: Checking in with Garfield Eats, and Luke sounds off on Masters of the Air. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/510-2017-core-100993255

For decades, a cottage industry flourished in the subterranean depths of the American music industry: send a company your poem, and for a fee, they'll turn it into a song. Maybe the song will even be your entryway into the industry and the Billboard charts! But most assuredly it will not be. Was this industry exploitative? Did it produce art? What even is "art" anyway? We tackle all these question...

An anti-imperial saga dreamed up by a Nixon-supporting conservative... a White Saviour narrative adapted to a time skeptical of White Saviours... folks, you could say that DUNE: PART TWO (2024) and its source material are a land of contradictions. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/508-spice-world-100540196

In 1991, over 100 of the the most famous singers, movie stars, an athletes in America got together to record a song for the troops in the first Gulf War. We take a visit to the consent-manufacturing factory and discuss the "apolitical" James Woods-hosted TV special VOICES THAT CARE: STAND TALL, STAND PROUD (1991). Watch the special here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ1S_UNaWps&ab_channel=Leapi...

Remember. Every day here, you're selling. Every thing you do, every interaction you have, every breath you take needs to be in the service of selling. But it shouldn't look like that. We're not that kind of store. Our customers don't appreciate being sold to. You should feel proud to work here. We discuss THE STORE (1983), by the god of cinéma vérité, Frederick Wiseman. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE -...