Michael and Us

We discuss one of the least sentimental films about death and family, Ingmar Bergman's CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972), and provide a possible political reading of Sweden's most famous auteur.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/61596359 We begin by checking in on Canada's most tiresome public intellectual, Jordan Peterson, and analyzing one of the right's biggest enemies, "woke capitalism." Then, we turn our attention to a subject of longstanding mutual interest: the great German director Werner Herzog. Focusing on MY BEST FIEND (1999) and FIREBALL: VISITORS FROM DARKER WORLDS (2020), but extending far and wide, we discuss what we find great (and, occasionally, not-great) about the mighty auteur's work.

The great Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin was assigned to make a documentary about his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He made MY WINNIPEG (2007), a hilarious, surreal dreamscape that combines autobiography, history, and fiction into a free-flowing meditation on a city and a home. We discuss the film's treatment of truth, memory, and the Canadian identity. PLUS: Luke discusses the glamorous life of being a published book author. Preorder Luke's book The Dead Center- https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-dead-center/ "Manitoba History - February 19, 1942: If Day" by Michael Newman - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/13/ifday.shtml Guy Maddin's "The Heart of the World" - The great Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin was assigned to make a documentary about his hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba. He made MY WINNIPEG (2007), a hilarious, surreal dreamscape that combines autobiography, history, and fiction into a free-flowing meditation on a city and a home. We discuss the film's treatment of truth, memory, and the Canadian identity. PLUS: Luke discusses the glamorous life of being a published book author. Preorder Luke's book The Dead Center- https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/the-dead-center/ "Manitoba History - February 19, 1942: If Day" by Michael Newman - http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/mb_history/13/ifday.shtml Guy Maddin's "The Heart of the World" - https://vimeo.com/115997353

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/61295780 In a cinematic landscape glutted with reboots and cinematic universes, Lana Wachowski's THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS (2021) is unique: an unnecessary sequel that knows it, and feels ambivalent. We discuss this divisive film's self-reflexive streak, and the many ways it tweaks the metaphors that became so iconic in 1999.

To mark a very special milestone, we decided to reach back to early in the podcast's history and revisit MICHAEL MOORE HATES AMERICA (2004). Mimicking Moore's own filmmaking style, this amateurish documentary sees a conservative man go on a cross-country journey to land and interview with Michael himself. We discuss why this piece of right-wing kitsch has remained so firmly lodged in our minds, and why it is such a product of its time.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/60909753 Our Superdelegate patron tier has voted for us to discuss LOVE ACTUALLY (2003), and so we dutifully tackled the most pressing question of our age: is this all-star romcom a delightful holiday classic... or the dangerous, reactionary film that so many clickbait articles would have us believe it is??? PLUS: we discuss Don't Look Up and the deaths of Peter Bogdanovich and Sidney Poitier.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/60648863 As we enter a new year, we're taking some time to look back on 2021 and reflect on some of the movies that defined our podcast over the past 12 months. In our second-annual Year-in-Review Extravaganza, we're handing out awards for Best Movie, Worst Movie, Best End-of-History Movie, Thing We Liked Growing Up That Holds Up Relatively Well, and more. PLUS: fiery hot takes on The Matrix Resurrections!

In 1985, a group of plucky renegades banded together to take on the political culture in the Democratic Party - demolishing Jesse Jackson's "Rainbow Coalition" to create a coalition that could win elections. That's the thesis of CRASHING THE PARTY (2016), a hagiographic documentary that chronicles the rise of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council and its star candidate, Bill Clinton. We discuss how funny it is that the documentary came out in mid-2016, just when it appeared that the Clintonite project was almost complete. "In Anthony Banua-Simon’s Cane Fire, Hawaiians Are No Longer the Extras" by Alex Press - https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/anthony-banua-simons-cane-fire-hawaii-documentary "Atari Democrats" by Lily Geismer - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/02/geismer-democratic-party-atari-tech-silicon-valley-mondale "The Obamanauts" by Corey Robin - https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-obamanauts

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/60369298 Drunk on the spirit of the holidays, the boys kick back their heels and have a low-key hangout where they discuss some of their very favorite things. Subjects range from Tolstoy's War and Peace to Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington's On Cinema at the Cinema to Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven to Monty Python and more.

PATREON BONUS - https://www.patreon.com/posts/60215138 What exactly is “national conservatism” and to what extent does it represent a break from the post-Reaganite consensus as we’ve known it? Luke talked to Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell (cohosts of the Know Your Enemy podcast) about the recent National Conservative Conference (NatCon), the so-called national conservatives, and where the Right may be headed in the coming years.

PATREON EXCLUSIVE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/60156412 For our annual holiday episode, we return to our obsession with '90s fatherhood-in-crisis movies by watching the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic JINGLE ALL THE WAY (1996). Folks, you know it, you love it. "I am not a pervert! I am just looking for Turbo Man doll!" PLUS: we have a fun time roasting one of Canada's most annoying writers.

For months we've been immersing ourselves in such Intellectual Property soups as Ready Player One, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and The Simpsons in Plusaversary, so we felt it was time to examine the animated hit that helped birth this new phenomenon: THE LEGO MOVIE (2014). PLUS: the return of COVID, a bad week for the Democrats, and the actual, honest-to-goodness phenomenon of official Rifkin's Festival NFTs. "What’s behind global covid inequalities? Corporate greed" by Luke Savage - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/13/covid-vaccine-corporatism-inequality/ "Beyond NFT: DAMOVE company is building the future of movies & entertainment" - https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/beyond-nft-damove-company-is-building-the-future-of-movies-entertainment#ixzz7FW3eISjz Learn more about Rifkin's Festival NFTs - https://twitter.com/RifkinsfestNft

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/59880390 In 1999, The Matrix became a zeitgeist-catching, generation-defining phenomenon. A year earlier, DARK CITY (1998) traversed similar thematic terrain but failed to meet the same success. In this Superdelegate-selected episode, we discuss the similarities and key differences between the two films, and situation Dark City in its cultural moment.

For 78 days in 1990, a group of Mohawk protestors withstood a siege from the Canadian armed forces. The root of the conflict? A town in Quebec sought to take over their land to expand a golf course. The Oka Crisis is the subject of Alanis Obomsawin's acclaimed documentary KANEHSATAKE: 270 YEARS OF RESISTANCE (1993), which offers us an opportunity to consider how Canada treats its First Nations. Watch the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yP3srFvhKs

= PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/59599572 Everyone has their price. Anything that has ever meant anything to you will be corrupted. No artwork you love really belongs to you. This is the dark message of the new Disney+ short film THE SIMPSONS IN PLUSAVERSARY (2021). PLUS: we talk about a range of TV and film, including Parks & Recreation, 2012, and the cinema of Fred Halstead.

With the Beatles once again in the zeitgeist, we decided to revisit the jukebox musical ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2007), which positioned the lads' music as a backdrop to the social upheavals of the 1960s. Does it completely misunderstand both the music and the milieu? (Spoiler: yes)

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/289-for-petes-w-59307399 In a jumbo-sized crossover with The West Wing Thing podcast, Luke discusses Amazon's new Pete Buttigieg documentary MAYOR PETE (2021) with Josh Olson and Dave Anthony. Relive the magic and fun of those early primaries with Pete, Chasten, Lis Smith, and the whole gang! And fall in love with the sitting United States secretary of transportation all over again! (NOTE: cohost Will is off this episode because, sadly, he has fallen down a well. Rescue teams are at the scene, and we all pray for his speedy recovery) Check out The West Wing Thing- https://westwingthing.libsyn.com/

Before there was Elon Musk, there was Tony Stark. We travelled back to 2008 to look at IRON MAN, the first entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and were excited to find that it serves its ideology on a big platter and with minimal ornamentation. A video on the filming of Iron Man 2 at Edwards Air Force Base - https://vimeo.com/191818335?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=4293012

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/287-malcolm-do-59024249 Sometimes it's fun to reach for the low-hanging fruit. On this episode, we tackle the right-wing anti-Bernie Sanders comedy FREE LUNCH EXPRESS (2021) - co-starring Kevin Sorbo, Eric Roberts, and (*deep, heavy sigh*) Malcolm McDowell - and actually learn a few things about how the right views the left.

With its story of an idealistic political outsider who arrives in Washington to shake things up, Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939) helped codify what is perhaps the quintessential archetype of American politics. But... what does the movie actually say? To find out, we sat down and actually watched it. This one has been a long time coming, folks!

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/58734680 In this very special episode, the boys have a riff session about a range of movies of wildly varying quality, from the McDonald's biopic THE FOUNDER (2016) to Edgar Wright's quasi-quasi-feminist horror film LAST NIGHT IN SOHO (2021) to BERGMAN ISLAND (2021) to the hilarious Christian oddity BILL WALLACE OF CHINA (1967)

THE QUEEN (2006) brings together a mismatched-buddy duo — one a symbol of stiff-upper-lipped British tradition (Liz Windsor), the other a radical left-wing politician (uh... Tony Blair?) — who both slowly realize that they might be able to learn from each other. We discuss why this is the ultimate film of the New Labour era.

PATREON EXCLUSIVE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/58634648 Multilevel marketing is a scam. But thanks to protection by political elites and well-funded industry propaganda, it keeps growing. Cracking down on it would be as simple as enforcing the laws against fraud — if only the political will could be found. Luke talks to MLM expert Robert FitzPatrick for a wide-ranging conversation about the history, scale, and structure of MLMs, and why there’s no such thing as a legitimate MLM.

A month or so on, we're releasing this one from behind its Patreon paywall. If you want to hear more interviews like this, and get an extra episode each week, sign up at Patreon.com/MichaelandUs. In this interview, recorded in September, Luke talks to Guardian columnist and activist George Monbiot about the extreme right’s appropriation of countercultural idioms and revolutionary language in the age of QAnon and COVID; the corrosion of community in the neoliberal era; and the desperate need for a new narrative of solidarity and common good in an age of resurgent fascism and ecological collapse. "It’s shocking to see so many leftwingers lured to the far right by conspiracy theories" by George Monbiot - www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2…i-vaxxers-power

FALLING DOWN (1993) features Michael Douglas as an ordinary man who's mad as hell, turning into a Travis Bickle for the Rush Limbaugh era. It's Hollywood's attempt to make a serious statement about a post-Cold War malaise, and folks, it's a very, very bad movie. PLUS: we share memories of Canada''s greatest bad filmmaker.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/58314876 In this very special episode, Luke talks to Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and many others) and investigate journalist David Sirota to discuss their new podcast series Meltdown. The series looks back on the 2008 financial crisis and mounts the case that the institutional response from Democrats still haunt politics today, and represents a skeleton key to understanding the current moment. NOTE: this conversation was recorded before this week's US elections, but has much to say about the results.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/58157534 To tweak a phrase from Jeff Goldblum, so much time was spent asking IF the Superdelegate Patreon tier can vote for us to discuss Steven Spielberg's JURASSIC PARK (1993) and not whether they SHOULD. Just kidding, folks - we had a fun time revisiting this certified Popcorn Classic and discussing the ideological evolution from Spielberg's original to the 2015 reboot Jurassic World. PLUS: fiery hot takes on the new films The French Dispatch and Halloween Kills.

We travel to postwar Vienna to visit THE THIRD MAN (1949) and discuss how this classic film's style perfectly articulates a bleak and despairing state of being. PLUS: thoughts on the dark 'n' gritty new Buzz Lightyear origin movie, AND we finally answer whether politics is upstream or downstream from culture.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57836336 We're joined by our old pal Branko Marcetic to discuss the viral sensation that is the New York Times' "B*d *rt Fr*end" article. Why is it popular right now? Is either "friend" in the right or wrong? And is capitalism really the worst friend of them all? PLUS: we discuss the "debate" around the watered-down reconciliation bill.

EASY RIDER (1969) has been encrusted in so many layers of Boomer nostalgia that we were wondering: is there anything still there? So we sat down and watched one of the most iconic films of the 1960s, and... the answer may surprise you! PLUS: more memories of student journalism.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57533296 In some ways, no movie franchise is as responsive to trends and fads as the James Bond series. And in other ways, no franchise is more stubbornly resistant to change. We discuss how the latest entry, NO TIME TO DIE (2021), positions itself in the zeitgeist. PLUS: the Dave Chappelle discourse.

At long last, we are finally tackling something related to The Sopranos. We discuss the many things wrong (and some things right) with the big-screen prequel THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (2021); the spirit of American decline that The Sopranos captures at its best; and what the recent surge in prequels and reboots tells us about this world we live in.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/57270569 The great thing about bad articles is: they don't stop makin' 'em. In this chill and jolly episode, we toss around some of our most beloved bad pieces of bad writing, including articles by such living legends as Jeffrey Wells, Jonathan Chait, and Jerry Seinfeld. PLUS: we discuss Toronto's most eccentric film exhibitor.

We have discussed many bad films on this podcast, but now we finally turn our attention to The Worst Movie Ever Made™. We analyze how Ed Wood's PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1957) turns the movie industry's flotsam and detritus into a Hollywood dreamscape. PLUS: The Sopranos, Necromania, and Justin Trudeau's recent vacation.

PATREON BONUS - https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-political-57123129 For many, the phrase "ruling class" symbolizes jet-setting metropolitans. Historian Patrick Wyman argues that an entirely different and more banal group wield a level of power and cultural influence that is out of proportion with their identity. "American Gentry" by Patrick Wyman - https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/trump-american-gentry-wyman-elites/620151/

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/56985194 The Superdelegate patron tier has selected BEYOND THE MAT (1999), a warts-and-all documentary about the lives of professional wrestlers like Jake "The Snake" Roberts and Mick "Mankind" Foley. We discuss what "the movie that Vince McMahon doesn't want you to see" has to say about the art and business of pro wrestling, and what pro wrestling can teach us about politics. PLUS: the Anti-Woke Film Festival and Keir Starmer.

Nine years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cinema's most enduring symbol of the perils of nuclear proliferation first crawled out of Tokyo Bay. We discuss how the original GODZILLA (1954) channeled the mood of its time. PLUS: how the media talks about the congressional wrangling over the reconciliation bill.

PATREON BONUS - https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-problem-is-56805720?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare With the scale of our current social and political crises, it’s unsurprising to see a proliferation of conspiracy theories across unusually broad swathes of society. Luke talks to Guardian columnist and activist George Monbiot about the extreme right’s appropriation of countercultural idioms and revolutionary language in the age of QAnon and COVID; the corrosion of community in the neoliberal era; and the desperate need for a new narrative of solidarity and common good in an age of resurgent fascism and ecological collapse. "It’s shocking to see so many leftwingers lured to the far right by conspiracy theories" by George Monbiot - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/22/leftwingers-far-right-conspiracy-theories-anti-vaxxers-power

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/56663705 When we were teenagers, George Carlin offered a gateway to more radical ways of thinking about politics and the world around us. But does his sledgehammer brand of satire hold up for us now? We re-immersed ourselves in Carlin to find out. PLUS: we discuss Andrew Yang's new political party, and dredge up our old disagreement about Andy Warhol.

The mockumentary DEATH OF A PRESIDENT (2006) imagined what would happen if then-president George W. Bush was assassinated. Though briefly very controversial, this justly-forgotten film is a perfect encapsulation of just how conservative a liberal movie could be in the years following 9/11. PLUS: we analyze the recent Canadian federal election.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/56380720 In 1980, the legendary journalist Gay Talese first learned of a peeping-tom who bought a motel to spy on his guests. In 2016, he finally got this man to speak on the record in a New Yorker cover story... but further reportage revealed that the peeping-tom was a less-than-reliable narrator. This scandal is the subject of the Netflix documentary VOYEUR (2017), which had us asking: even if the story is true, is it actually interesting? PLUS: final thoughts on the Canadian election, and looking back at George Carlin.

Tucker Carlson reigns as the most-watched personality on cable news. How did he get that way? How important is he really? And what does he actually believe? To answer these questions, he enlist the help of Tucker scholar and returning guest Alex Shephard, who guides us through Carlson's trajectory from a Tom Wolfe-ish magazine scribe to a Jon Stewart punching-bag to the living embodiment of the GOP's hard-right turn. "How Tucker Carlson Lost It" by Alex Shephard - https://newrepublic.com/article/163567/tucker-carlson-profile-lost-mind

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/56092187 The fastest fists of the east enter a junior partnership with the biggest mouth of the west in RUSH HOUR (1998), a film that represents the United States' view of its relationship with China during a moment of unquestioned U.S. hegemony. We discuss this Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker semi-classic, which every millennial has seen at least several times. PLUS: one of the hosts revisited Gran Torino (2008) and has some thoughts on it.

In Apichatpong Weerasethakul's UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (2010), the boundaries between life and death, past and present, ghost and human, and human and animal fade away. We discuss some possible philosophical and political readings of this cryptic masterpiece. PLUS: the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the media is covering the Canadian election. "Why Justin Trudeau’s snap election is backfiring" by Luke Savage - https://www.newstatesman.com/world/north-america/2021/09/why-justin-trudeau-s-snap-election-backfiring

PATREON BONUS - https://www.patreon.com/posts/duffygate-w-luke-55808939 With Will on a temporary hiatus, Michael and Us is pleased to welcome Luke LeBrun, editor of my journalistic alma mater PressProgress, for a chill discussion of media coverage in Canada's ongoing federal election. With that behind us, Luke and I turn to a decidedly low-stakes political scandal from the already forgotten Harper era (colloquially known as DuffyGate), recount some old war stories from our days covering Canada's many right wing think tanks, and talk about one our country's most ignoble institutions: the Senate. Watch CBC's The Rise and Fall of Mike Duffy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK2CD7P6yrM Follow Luke on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_llebrun https://pressprogress.ca/

PATREON BONUS - https://www.patreon.com/posts/55643199 Just as the American media has turned on Joe Biden following the announcement of withdrawal from Afghanistan, the British media has given a rapturous reception to Tony Blair as he's waded back into the discourse. Luke talks to writer and author Richard Seymour about the British establishment’s crack-up over Afghanistan, its inability to quit Blair, the storied history of liberal justifications for war and empire, and other issues raised in his recent essay “Disaster Liberalism.”

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/55508789 Our Superdelegate patrons have selected Paul Thomas Anderson's much-loved parable about American capitalism, THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007), and we drank it up. PLUS: the state of the Canadian election, and memories of eccentric characters from our university days.

Andrei Tarkovsky's debut film IVAN'S CHILDHOOD (1962) sends us into a discussion about poetic cinema, memory, Russia, and what it means to be a national filmmaker. PLUS: Spike Lee's flirtation with 9/11 truth, and check-ins with two reactionary celebrities.

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/55227370 Al Gore changed the way millions of people think about the climate crisis, but a full 15 years after the intended wake-up call of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (2006), the crisis is worse than ever. We look back at the documentary and analyze why Gore's brand of neoliberal environmentalism hasn't worked. PLUS: the Canadian election, The Sopranos, and tales of small-town political corruption.

In 1987, Oliver Stone introduced the world to a man who was not your daddy's capitalist: Gordon Gekko. We revisit WALL STREET to consider the strengths and limitations of its distinctly New Deal Liberal perspective on American capitalism; to marinate in the particular left-liberal Boomer perspective of Stone; and determine once and for all if greed is, in fact, good.