The Silver Nitrate Witches' Movie Review Brew

Your silver nitrate Witch Laura is flying solo on her broom this week. But she meets some feisty and funny friends, Butch and Sundance, while flying over the Wild West. We departing from our educational theme this season to honor the life and legacy of actor Robert Redford. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellan...

Toga! Toga! Toga! Join your Silver Nitrate Witches on Fraternity Row this week as we explore National Lampoon's Animal House , college in the 60s, and the National Lampoon itself. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thanks to Fine Motor for the use of their songs "Highway Moon" and "Movie." You can check...

Your witchy guide this week is Isabelle, who takes you through some ins and outs of candle magic, as inspired by our OG silver screen witches: The Owens Sisters. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thanks to Fine Motor for the use of their song "Highway Moon." You can check out more about the band at fin...

Forrester? Where are you? This week, your host witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, are Finding Forrester, with its epic cast comprised of Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, and starring Rob Brown in his debut role. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thanks to Fine Motor for the use of their songs "Highway Moon" and "Mov...

This week, your host witch, Laura Valenza, is looking like "a high-end stripper, the kind for governors or athletes." Can you guess the movie? Dust off your red A's and stitch them on your bustiers because we're headed to Ojai High with Emma Stone in Easy A. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thanks to Fine Motor for the use of their so...

This week, your Silver Nitrate Witches reunite IN PERSON in New Orleans! Together we chat a bit about a fantastically weird and wild movie, Cat People (1982), the Audubon Institute, and pool scenes. What more could you want? You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenze and @bellang303. Like the theme song? You can check out the b...

It's not October 3rd quite yet, but your Silver Nitrate Witch Isabelle Lang is always ready to talk about Mean Girls (2004). You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenze and @bellang303. Music for episodes is provided by Fine Motor, and you can check out more about the band at finemotormusic.com. Thanks for listening, stay witchy...

Why are we called the Silver Nitrate Witches' Movie Review Brew? Hear the story behind the name in this week's mini episode by Laura Valenza. (And learn a little film history, too!) You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thank you to Fine Motor for the use of their song "Highway Moon." You can find out more about the band at finemotormusic....

This week, your host witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, head back to middle school to take a lesson from the goofy god of rock himself, Jack Black. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thanks to Fine Motor for the use of their songs "Highway Moon" and "Movie." You can find out more about the band at finemotormusic.com.

Reese Witherspoon, Victor Garbo, and Bette Davis, oh my! You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thanks so much to Fine Motor for the use of their music. You can check out more about the band at finemotormusic.com.

Your Silver Nitrate Witches don't miss a beat in this episode on Damien Chazelle's iconic jazz world movie from the 2010s, starring Miles Teller and JK Simmons. We cover what it means to be an artist, if success and ambition are gendered, homophobia and racial representation, and whether movies need to have clear morals and likeable characters (hint, hint: they don't!). You can find your Silver Ni...

Who knew bread could be so fascinating?

Your Silver Nitrate Witch Laura Valenza brings you a charming anecdote and fun film fact. Come back soon for full length episodes with (Isabelle Lang as well) on Whiplash, School of Rock, Finding Forrester, and more! Thank you to Fine Motor for the use of their song "Highway Moon."

This week we don’t have a whole witches’ brew, but just a little sleeping draught for you: a minisode looking into the Siskel & Ebert reception of the 1983 film Educating Rita , with one of your Silver Nitrate Witches, Isabelle Lang. Let’s talk education as granting choice, alcoholic academics, and our shared annoyance with Roger Ebert’s thoughts on literature movies . You can find your Silver...

This episode, your Silver Nitrate Witches head off to boarding school, despite Laura's protests that they're super scary, and take a look at the reception to the 1989 Robin Williams movie that's not quite a Robin Williams movie, Dead Poets Society. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. You can check out mo...

Your Silver Nitrate Witches (Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang) are brewing pink potions with a touch of peroxide this week. The competition for dye jobs and law jobs proves steep at Harvard where we're rooting for Elle Woods to succeed in Legally Blonde (2001). We cover women's empowerment and sisterhood, the early 2000s and their weird obsession with dumb blonde jokes, and contemporary fascism. Pl...

Welcome to the Silver Nitrate Witches’ Movie Review Brew. Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang explore the way we review movies! From experienced critics to posts from casual viewers, we want to talk about how we talk about movies, how that’s changed over time, what directions we see it going in, and more. Announcing the theme of Season 2!

Did you ever wonder how Hollywood came to be? Did you ever wonder how Thomas Edison was a part of that? Did you even know there was a connection there? We did! The Silver Nitrate Witches give you a special episode today on how Hollywood was almost New Jersey. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. You can c...

This week, the Silver Nitrate Witches travel to New Mexico to explore the reviews and reception of Salt of the Earth (1954), a film based on the historic 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company. This three-part series has everything : communists, Catholic newspapers, feminism, deportation, and even a prison full of women chanting “We want bathrooms!” You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, L...

This week, the Silver Nitrate Witches travel to New Mexico to explore the reviews and reception of Salt of the Earth (1954), a film based on the historic 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company. This three-part series (whoops, it got longer!) has everything : communists, Catholic newspapers, feminism, deportation, and even a prison full of women chanting “We want bathrooms!” You can find your...

Today, the Silver Nitrate Witches pay homage to the baddest Head Bitch In Charge, Bette Davis, exploring the reviews and reception of In This Our Life (1942). The fall of the decadent South meets a fiery end, with lots of tragic turns on the highway to hell, piloted there by the monster femme fatale herself. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various onli...

This week, the Silver Nitrate Witches travel to New Mexico to explore the reviews and reception of Salt of the Earth (1954), a film based on the historic 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company. This two-part series has everything : communists, Catholic newspapers, feminism, deportation, and even a prison full of women chanting “We want bathrooms!” You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Lau...

The Silver Nitrate Witches attend a show by Lady Lou in the Bowery this week, exploring the reviews and reception of the film She Done Him Wrong (1933), starring Mae West and Cary Grant. From critics body-checking the leading lady to a history of the beer growler, of all things, this episode transports us to a pre-Code Hollywood salacious story. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Vale...

This week, the Silver Nitrate Witches check in at the Grand Hotel (1932) to explore the reviews and reception around a film with one of the most star-studded casts of the era. We look at the predictions of catty leading ladies, the censorship of Joan Crawford, and even how technology like the typewriter and switchboard liberated women, both economically and in other ways… You can find your Silver...