Michael and Us

We travel back to Nixon's America with 1974's DEATH WISH, the franchise-spawning Silent Majority hit in which Charles Bronson transforms from a bleeding-heart liberal to a gun-wielding avenging angel. We discuss how the film's reactionary politics and apocalyptic vision of an American city are still being replicated in conservative media today. PLUS: The Last Blockbuster, new advancements in product-placement technology, and an unlikely new kingpin in the NFT landscape.

Patreon Episode - https://www.patreon.com/posts/50195779 Under the eccentric management of CEO Adam Neumann, the baffling real estate/tech company WeWork became a multibillion-dollar Wall Street giant without ever turning a profit. The new Hulu documentary WEWORK, OR: THE THE MAKING AND BREAKING OF A $47 BILLION UNICORN (2021) explores how it all came crashing down... but we're joined by startup veteran turned leftist writer Wendy Liu (author of Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism) to discuss how its prescription falls short. Check out Abolish Silicon Valley: How to Liberate Technology from Capitalism by Wendy Liu - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622177/abolish-silicon-valley-by-wendy-liu/

A gay communist atheist directing the most reverential film ever made about Jesus Christ? It happened! Pier Paolo Pasolini's THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW (1964) uses neorealist aesthetics to emphasize the material side of Jesus's life over the divine, and foregrounds His politics over his miracles. PLUS: the pleasures and perils of being extremely online during a pandemic, and what conservatives say about democracy behind closed doors. "A Cinema of Poetry" by Patrick Rumble - https://www.artforum.com/film/patrick-rumble-on-pier-paolo-pasolini-38175 "Behind Closed Doors, Republican Plutocrats Conspiring Against Democracy Let the Mask Slip" by Luke Savage - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/voting-rights-hr1-bill-republicans-antidemocratic "Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century" by Jane Mayer - https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century Check out our Patreon for exclusive bonus episodes - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Get it - https://www.patreon.com/posts/49872356 Yes folks, we're returning once again to our roots. In a special crossover episode with The West Wing Thing podcast, we join forces with Dave Anthony and Josh Olson dissect Aaron Sorkin's recent appearance on Michael Moore's podcast "Rumble." Does the encounter bring out the best or the worst in both men? PLUS: we discuss the pleasures and perils of "Rumble with Michael Moore" itself. Check out The West Wing Thing - https://westwingthing.libsyn.com/

Filmed over three years, the new HBO docuseries Q: INTO THE STORM (2021) seeks to find an answer to the question that plagued the Trump years: who is Q, the mysterious leader of the "QAnon" movement? The documentary offers a provisional answer... but of course, there is no one simple explanation for how QAnon came to dominate the past few years. We discuss the backwash of the Trump era, PLUS: a report on Fox News' new late-night talk show "Gutfeld!" "Howard Dean pushes Biden to oppose generic COVID-19 vaccines for developing countries" by Lee Fang - https://theintercept.com/2021/04/08/howard-dean-biden-covid-vaccines/ "Is Gutfeld! the Worst Show on Television?" by Alex Shephard - https://newrepublic.com/article/161985/gutfeld-worst-show-television Check out our Patreon for exclusive bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Patreon Episode - https://www.patreon.com/posts/49602781 The latest Superdelegate selection is the Canadian cult classic CUBE (1997), in which a handful of people need to find their way out a mysterious, deadly structure comprised of many identical cubes. The structure is, of course, a metaphor for our society, but what, exactly, is its ideology? We offer a theory. PLUS: the return of Godzilla, Luke's days as a child actor, and why the Biden years will be The Era of the Mods.

With the British monarchy at its lowest ebb of popularity since the week after Diana's death, we consider these two moments within the context of the wretched institution's ignoble history. We watch Christopher Hitchens' documentary DIANA: THE MOURNING AFTER (1998) - a controversial dissenting take on the Diana myth - and also discuss Netflix's THE CROWN and the Harry/Meghan phenomenon. In the process, we speculate how the existential threat facing this frankly worthless institution might lead to an unholy reinvention. PLUS: a rueful look back at James Berardinelli, the most popular web-based critic of the '90s. "The British Monarchy Will Not Survive Late Capitalism — And Harry and Meghan Are Proof" by Luke Savage - https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/03/british-monarchy-neoliberal-age-prince-harry-meghan-markle

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/49309128 In 2006, Neil Young reunited with Crosby, Stills, and Nash to embark on a tour that he hoped would raise consciousness against the Iraq War, swing the midterms for the Democrats, and establish a link between the protest music of the '60s and the George W. Bush era. Jack Frayne-Reid (cohost of the Reel Politik podcast) fills in for Luke to discuss Neil Young's documentary CSNY/DEJA VU (2008), and the mild pleasures and serious limitations of Young's Iraq War-themed music. PLUS: the strange story of former Labour MP Mike Gapes.

The forces of liberal democracy (Jimmy Stewart) and rugged frontier self-reliance (John Wayne) come head-to-head in John Ford's masterpiece THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962) - an elegiac look at a Wild West becoming tamed by progress. Aisling McCrea (contributing editor and podmaster general at Current Affairs magazine) fills in for Luke to discuss who shot Lee Marvin's chaotic outlaw, and what it means. The answers may surprise you! PLUS: the death of "mythos" in cultural criticism, and the history of "the Dilbert guy." Check out the Current Affairs podcast - https://www.currentaffairs.org/podcast "Satanic Panics and the Death of Mythos" by Aisling McCrea - https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/02/satanic-panics-and-the-death-of-mythos "The Adams Principle" by Aisling McCrea - https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/10/the-adams-principle "Dilbert: A Reckoning" by Miles Wray - https://www.theawl.com/2017/12/dilbert-a-reckoning/

PATREON EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/49010494 Several months ago, we watched KICKASSIA, the first of several horrific movies directed by internet comedian Doug "The Nostalgia Critic" Walker as part of his "Channel Awesome" empire. The experience nearly drove us mad. This week, our old friend Alex Ross subs in for Luke and heroically wades through SUBURBAN KNIGHTS (2012), the 130-minute (!!!!!) sequel. Nearly everyone involved with this movie has since disowned it, and we discuss how this mind-melting movie has become a fascinating time capsule of a long-gone internet subculture AND of a plainly toxic workplace. PLUS: Homer Simpson is a millennial now???

In 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced one of his biggest scandals yet when a charitable organization to which his family had longstanding (and lucrative) ties was given a plum contract to build a high-profile volunteer program for Canadian youth. The ensuing conflict of interest scandal brought down WE Charity (formerly Free the Children), the brainchild of Canuck philanthropy wunderkinds Craig & Mark Kielburger. We watched THE PRICE WE PAID (2021), fine new investigative documentary by the CBC's The Fifth Estate series, which broke down the WE Scandal and the shady practices of the disgraced charity. We discuss how WE Charity is a perfect symbol for the deep rot in the soul of corporate philanthropy. PLUS: the Alberta government's war with Netflix; Celebrity Apprentice memories; and an introduction to the world's best/worst Oscar blogger. Watch "The Price WE Paid" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC_wos7MwHo&ab_channel=TheFifthEstate "Jason Kenney’s Energy War Room Launches Campaign to Stop Netflix Children’s Cartoon About ‘Bigfoot’" by PressProgress - https://pressprogress.ca/jason-kenneys-energy-war-room-launches-campaign-to-stop-netflix-childrens-cartoon-about-bigfoot/ Jeffrey Wells's "Hollywood Elsewhere" blog - https://hollywood-elsewhere.com/