Special Topics in Media

Send us Fan Mail It's our 50th episode of the "Film Listology" longform season on  Special Topics in Media . In our Super Index composite of Top Film ratings and rankings, the #69 entrant represents an all-time classic. But for whom? Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Scott McMurry to discuss THE gamechanger event movie that forever changed summer movie season...and going into the...

Send us Fan Mail The Special Topics in Media "Film Listology" season resumes with the #70 entry in the Super Index, the tech-noir cult masterpiece from director Ridley Scott in 1982,  Blade Runner . Scott's film gained a notorious reputation for post-production meddling that compromised its unique vision. Blade Runner  is also not without controversy, having been re-edited twice int...

Send us Fan Mail The "Film Listology" countdown resumes with a special reveal episode for films ranking #70-66 on the Listology Super Index. What movies make the cut? What commonality do these titles share? Scott McMurry joins Garret Castleberry to unveil the next batch of historical films for topical discussion on this "Film Listology" installation of  Special Topics in Media...

Send us Fan Mail This May, Special Topics in Media returns to a newer tradition, our "Student Spotlight Series". Last year, we examined a number of successful internship experiences shared by students in the Media Production and Communication program at MACU. This month, Garret sits down with key officers in the Communication and Media Club, continuing with graduating senior, CMC Vice Pr...

Send us Fan Mail This May, Special Topics in Media returns to a newer tradition, our "Student Spotlight Series". Last year, we examined a number of successful internship experiences shared by students in the Media Production and Communication program at MACU. This month, Garret sits down with key officers in the Communication and Media Club, starting with the current CMC President, and 2...

Send us Fan Mail As our "Film Listology" season counts down the Top 100 films in the Listology Super Index, we rediscover a surprise import of international acclaim: Parasite , from Academy Award-winning writer-director Bong Joon Ho, in 2019.  Parasite tells the story of families dueling for class status amidst the backdrop of modern Seoul, South Korea.  Parasite  presents itself as a fa...

Send us Fan Mail In this "Film Listology" episode of  Special Topics in Media , the dialogic duo wrangles with the impact of Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award-winning 1952 film, High Noon . This ideological Film Western stars Gary Cooper as Marshal Will Cain, the outgoing lawman of the small New Mexican town of Hadleyville. Marshal Cain relinquishes his badge in favor of domesticity, b...

Send us Fan Mail Our "Film Listology" season continues with a surprise entrant in the #73 slot, from famed director Stanley Kubrick in 1975,  Barry Lyndon . One could argue that Kubrick fuses a surrogate love letter to his never-filmed Napoleon Bonaparte biopic with a loose adaptation of the William Makepeace Thackeray novel,  The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. The result is as meditative...

Send us Fan Mail The "Film Listology" season continues with our #74 entry, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Released in 1939, Frank Capra directs Jimmy Stewart in this tale of an idealistic junior senator thrust into the cynical matrix of the Washington D. C. political establishment.  Mr. Smith  stands as a perennial "feel good" movie about how the American political system functi...

Send us Fan Mail Our "Film Listology" season sets sail once again with the #75 film according to the MCM Super Index,  The Graduate . Mike Nichols directs Dustin Hoffman in this Academy Award Winning feature from 1967. The film "spoke" to a generation with its coming-of-age themes, scandalous insinuations, and the postwar malaise that seemingly swept over the Baby Boomers at th...

Send us Fan Mail Film Listology RETURNS! Scott McMurry joins Garret Castleberry to reveal the next five films currently ranked #75-71 by the analytics super index. Which films made the cross-composite list? Should each of these be canonized in filmdom's Top 100? Check them out, send us your memories of each, and listen in as we resume the Season 8 focus on "Film Listology" on Specia...

Send us Fan Mail The Special Topics in Media winds down prematurely with our Heist Film conversation (circa 2021) focusing on Steven Soderbergh's 2017 rural caper, Logan Lucky . Host Garret Castleberry is joined by  dialogic duo partner in crime Scott McMurry in a serenading love letter to the quieter films that often go unnoticed. Due to an inadvertant data dump, this conversation culminates...

Send us Fan Mail Special Topics in Media is getting the crew together again for a LIVE reaction special. Host Garret Castleberry recruits the Special Topics in Media Studies class for a post-screening response to Christopher Nolan's brainy blockbuster, Inception (2010). Can we add Nolan to heist film auteur canon? Students clutch their respective totems and pick their collective jaw off the p...

Send us Fan Mail The  Special Topics in Media  retro season resumes with a callback to our Heist Film conversation (circa 2021) centered on Christopher Nolan's 2010 summer blockbuster, Inception . Host Garret Castleberry is joined by his dialogic duo partner in crime Scott McMurry in a cross-examination of Nolan's cerebral brain-bender. Does Inception  work within the heist film genre, o...

Send us Fan Mail A FIRST! Special Topics in Media goes "Live" (sort of), in an effort to activate improvisational audience feedback. Host Garret Castleberry taps into the collective power of the Special Topics in Media Studies class for a post-screening interpretive recap of intellectual themes resonant in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox . Students are pressed to speak to several u...

Send us Fan Mail The past returns! Special Topics in Media slips under the radar to release its next "vault" discussion (circa fall 2021) celebrating The Heist Film . Host Garret Castleberry captures Scott McMurry for an analytic dissection of Wes Anderson's playful stop-motion animation adaptation, Fantastic Mr. Fox (2012). Does Anderson have what it takes to enter the conversation...

Send us Fan Mail What's old is new! Special Topics in Media breaks into the next "vault" discussion (circa fall 2021) celebrating The Heist Film . Host Garret Castleberry hoodwinks Scott McMurry into the job of a lifetime. The dialogic duo wind back the clock to dissect Stanley Kubrick's forgotten film noir masterpiece, The Killing (1956). Does  The Killing  demonstrate the sec...

Send us Fan Mail What's old is new! Special Topics in Media kicks off another "vault" discussion (circa fall 2021) celebrating The Heist Film as a distinct (yet liminal) film genre. Host Garret Castleberry recruits Scott McMurry to uncover the roots of the heist genre and its connections to American social and cultural history. The dialogic duo kick off their conversation series wit...

Send us Fan Mail A new season, and an old season, are here! Join us as we peek into the past and present for a season built around the heist movie genre. The Dialogic Duo is up to no good! Host Garret Castleberry convinces Scott McMurry to "get the gang back together" to pull off one last job. That job? To expand the discourse around heist films as a way of better understanding film as a...

Send us Fan Mail Finally...the 2025 Summer Movie Season concludes.  Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds to discuss key releases in August. Was August 2025 the best August in summer movie history? These rhetors debate the successes and failures of the doldrum summer month. Listen to hear which mainstream movies had their ticket stubs torn, and reach out to connect and let us know whi...

Send us Fan Mail Somehow...the 2025 Summer Movie Season returned.  Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds to discuss key releases in July, a month rich is blockbuster discourse  Listen to hear which mainstream movies had their ticket stubs torn, and reach out to connect and let us know which July releases topped your radar in 2025.  Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds Producers: G...

Send us Fan Mail The 2025 Summer Movie Season interruption CONTINUES with a second reflection on Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. 2025). How does PTA's latest film rate as a Border Western , and what character themes resonate with contemporary tensions in America?  Host Garret Castleberry provides an armchair rhetorician second screening review of PTA's...

Send us Fan Mail We interrupt this 2025 Summer Movie Season programming with a report from the FUTURE! Or, at least the present. Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another has arrived in theaters to immense pre-release critical acclaim. But will that film buzz translate to a wide audience reception?  Host Garret Castleberry provides an armchair rhetorician response to screening PTA'...

Send us Fan Mail Summer is a time to celebrate a great many things, and we are seasonally framing our favorite "cool down" treats for a hot sunny day at the movies . Host Garret Castleberry grabs his wallet, swipes his card, and collects enough goodies to count down a " Top 5 Summer Movie Snacks ". It's a Top 5 Countdown to get the mouth watering. Email us your rainy day t...

Send us Fan Mail We're BACK! After a minor hiatus to update the power converters and reset the flux capacitor (movie logic excuses only), the 2025 Summer Movie Season resumes with an enriched look into the month of June. Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds to discuss key releases in June, a month full of genre surprises.  Listen to hear which mainstream movies had their ticket...