Marvelous! or The Death of Cinema

WHEN THERE'S NO MORE ROOM IN HELL, THE DEAD WILL WALK THE EARTH

It's our first ever listener-selected Halloween Special! And you where all kind enough to gift us a classic: George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. The cult hit and canonical classic that launched an entire sub-genre of horror, spawned every "what would you do in the zombie apocalypse" conversation, pioneered shocking new gore and make-up effects, and conveys a satirical, apocalyptic vision of social collapse that feels as salient now as it did in 1978. Join us as we discuss the film's production, themes, legacy, Romero's amiable and improvisational directorial style, ponder the rise and fall of the Shopping Mall in culture, and weigh our own options for when the dead inevitably rise to consume the living.

Check out this circa-2001 Making-Of on Youtube.

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A snippet from Stu and Nicole's wide-ranging conversation about Bram Stoker's Dracula, the horny, weird, baroque and lavishly over the top 1992 Francis Ford Coppola film with Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves.

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In 2014 a weird Christian guy made a videogame about spending the night with scary haunted animatronics. What followed was a cultural sensation, with a boatload of sequels and an increasingly weird and esoteric lore. Did you know that the animatronics are concealing the corpses of murdered children? Do you know about Golden Freddy? Did they somehow succeed at fitting this all into a Blumhouse movie? Follow along as Cole, with the help of our Discord community, leads us on a journey into lore, madness, and child murder. Also we talk about the movie.

An extra special thanks to our $10-tier Executive Producers: Terri Edwards-Nixon, Luke P, JetChiclete, GalaxyPeaBrain, squishward, JayJeffrey, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, Ronny Gardocki and Owen2.

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A sample from our discussion of Gore Verbinski's The Ring, the American remake of the 1998 Japanese film 'Ring', the first of a wave of such remakes and the only one that's any good.

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Atomic Horror month concludes on Marvelous! with the most recent and so-far most lucrative Godzilla movie of all time: Godzilla Minus One. Champion fourth mic Seqarts joins us to discuss the reasons for the films massive success, its flaws and virtues, where it fits into the wider canon, discuss its political themes and to explore the the prismatic ways in which it reflects the various concerns, anxieties and narratives of Japanese culture past and present.

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: Luke P, JetChiclete, GalaxyPeaBrain, squishward, JayJeffrey, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

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A sample from our newly released Patreon episode on Ishiro Honda's original 1954 film "Godzilla".

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For our movie and MCU news catch-up bonus episode, Cole reads out the leaked Avengers: Doomsday plot synopsis to Nicole and Stu. Nicole reacts very, very badly.

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This week on Marvelous!, the second and inarguably superior half of the monocultural fugue state that was Barbenheimer summer: a three hour biopic-cum-courtroom drama that's partly in black and white about the world's most consequential product launch. And it had (almost) as much pull as girl toy IP. In the long awaited return of Christopher Nolan to the podcast, Nicole, Stu, and Cole dissect the figurative box office bomb that is Oppenheimer. Topics include Oppie's autistic rizz, the synthesis between Nolan and American Prometheus, the memetic appeal of Barbenheimer, the woman question, and how we begrudgingly have to thank James Woods for making this happen.

And tune in Sunday to the Patreon for a brand new special Marvelous! report on the state of cinema, MCU news, and the angriest Nicole has ever gotten at anything in the history of the podcast.

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: Luke P, JetChiclete, GalaxyPeaBrain, squishward, JayJeffrey, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

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Fun fact: not only was the 1987 He-Man movie Masters of the Universelargely responsible for bankrupting the already flailing Israeli cultural institution that was Cannon Films, but it was also directed by an (alleged) serial gay pedophile.

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"It’s about a fucking doll!" - Amy Taubin

This week, the Marvelous! crew sets their sights on the hot pink pop cultural phenomenon that is Barbie, a billion-plus dollar (post-)feminist object/Mattel rebrand strategy grappling with the fraught, symbolic legacy of the world's most famous doll by giving her a kitschy existentialist crisis. We talk about how the film's priorities as an officially licensed commercial product limit its purportedly feminist politics, its 2016-internet conception of masculinity, how camp aesthetics and self-effacing humor disavow the specter of capitalism, and think a little too deeply about the metaphysical relationship between Barbie Land and the real world. Plus, Nicole gives a lesson on post-feminism, commodified Girl Power, and how Barbie signaled a consumerist end to Fourth Wave feminism as a meaningful political project.

(This episode is dedicated to the life, memory, and herstory of famed Barbie-critic and CIA asset Gloria Steinem.)

"After 'Barbie,' Mattel is Raiding its Entire Toybox" by Alex Barasch

"This Barbie Has Melancholy Feminism: Framing Empowerment and Grievable Lives" by Scarlette Nhi Do

"#Feminism: The Internet’s Facilitation of the Fourth Wave” by Nicole Veneto

Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert

Feeling Cynical About Barbie by Broey Deschanel

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, GalaxyPeaBrain, squishward, JayJeffrey, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

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Gaza Funds

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PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

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MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

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National Networks of Abortion Funds

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Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive episodes, commentary tracks, and more.

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The flailing DCEU runs at light-speed into a brick wall with this misbegotten penultimate pre-reboot entry. Ugly and unfunny, even the film's sole interesting element - Ezra Miller's weird and hysterical performance - is ultimately abandoned for Batman nostalgia and a failed, flat attempt to launch an (immediately recast) Supergirl. It's a bad, bad movie, but at least we had a lot of fun talking about it. Plus: Cole's pot-history of the character and defense of the CW tv show!

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, GalaxyPeaBrain, squishward, JayJeffrey, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2. If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

• Gaza Funds
• PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)
• MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
• National Networks of Abortion Funds

If you enjoy the show please consider:

• Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive episodes, commentary tracks, and more.
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As the DC Extended Universe nears its inevitable reboot, filmmaker Chris Bell (Failed State, Attention Shoppers, The Winds That Scatter) joins the pod to dissect one of its last offerings in the form of Blue Beetle, a comparatively decent entry from a franchise that's still got another very expensive bowel-movement or two waiting for us. We once again debate the merits and limitations of Hollywood progressivism with this rather earnest if not by-the-numbers origin story for the Jaime Reyes incarnation of Blue Beetle, who according to SOME third mics is more popular than Iron Man if you're going by children's' lunchboxes. More importantly, what is a Blue Beetle and what's his relationship to the School of the Americas? Why did it take until the DCEU was about to be scrapped for parts for a Latino-led superhero movie to get released? Do Toyotas speak to an authentic Latino cultural experience? Did mother Susan Sarandon relish the opportunity to play her mortal enemy Hillary Clinton? If you'd like to see Chris' newest film, Failed State, send him an email at christopherjasonbell@gmail.com. And check out Attention Shoppers and The Winds That Scatter on Means TV. Use promo code CHRISBELL to get 10% off an annual subscription. An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, GalaxyPeaBrain, squishward, JayJeffrey, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2. If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

• Gaza Funds
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• MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
• National Networks of Abortion Funds

If you enjoy the show please consider:

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• Like, comment, rate, and review as the algorithm demands.

A sample from our latest patrons-exclusive TVChat, wherein Cole and our long time friend and recurring guest Seqarts continue their retrospective on the 2000s superhero-monster-of-the-week-teen-melodrama Smallville.

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... according to Letterboxd, anyway, but your pals at Marvelous! aren't quite so sanguine. From Phil Lord's tyrannical rule of production to the tedium of infinite Spiders-Men and the so-facile-it-might-be-accidental queer representation — we dig into all the things that keep this (sometimes good) film from achieving the greatness its reputation implies.

For this episode we relied especially on the following articles:

• Spider-Verse Artists Say Working on the Sequel Was ‘Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts’ by Chris Lee
• Get Real! Relatability on Demand by Matt Purets, Alisha Hines, and Yalda T. Uhls
• Laborious Aesthetics: Visible and Invisible Labor in the Spider-Verse franchise by Jordan Schonig

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, GalaxyPeaBrain, squishward, JayJeffrey, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, Owen2 and Ronnie Gardocki.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

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Gaza Funds

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PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

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MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

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National Networks of Abortion Funds

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Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota

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Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive episodes and other material, like our retrospective on the rest of the Fast and Furious series.

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After concluding our long patreon-exclusive retrospective on the series, we arrive at last back in 2023 with Fast X, the bloated, messy, chaotic beginning of the end for the 'Fast Family'. Along the way we discuss Justin Lin's sudden exit, too much bluescreen, Vatican pinball, Jason Momoa as an evil gay guy, sticking Michelle Rodriguez in a concrete room for most of the movie, alternate storylines, Vin Diesel's social media carnival barking, giant ego and allegations -- it all comes to a big, bald head here with the penultimate installment of this strange, misshapen, yet often lovable mutant of a movie series.

Note: We relied heavily on the books Fast and Furious Franchising by Dan Hassler-Forest and Welcome to the Family by Barry Hertz to inform our research and discussion of this series.

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

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Gaza Funds

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PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

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MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

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National Networks of Abortion Funds

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Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota

If you enjoy the show please consider:

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Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive episodes and other material, like our retrospective on the rest of the Fast and Furious series.

• Giving us a positive rating and review on your platform of choice. It really does help!

Cole's back and they've learned the secret of the orient: not being that mad anymore.

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

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Fellow Canucks Remember Shuffle join Stu and a hopelessly outnumbered Nicole for a lively and in-depth discussion about Blackberry, and the seething neurotic resentment that comes from living in the Great White North.

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Cole was too busy watching actual basketball, so Nicole and Stu are left to fend for themselves in alien territory as we enter the worlds of shoes and sports with the Affleck/Damon brand-biopic. Is it a fleeting microgenre, or are products the new comic books? We discuss what makes the film hollow and irritating, the limits of slipping 'subversive' messages into hyper-corporate movies, the odd way it handles Michael Jordan as a figure, it's success with xillennials, endless 80s nostalgia, and how the film doubles as a pitch for Affleck and Damon's revenue-sharing based studio 'Artists Equity'.

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

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Gaza Funds

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PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

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MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

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National Networks of Abortion Funds

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Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota

If you enjoy the show please consider:

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Before we (Nicole and Cole) fulfill their contractually obligated second Patreon Raffle pick on Trần Anh Hùng's under-appreciated neo-noir I Come With the Rain, we pay our respect to Stu, who at the time caught the hantavirus from that cruise. Remember when that happened?

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An excerpt from our conversation with Jane Altoids about Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, adapted from the novel by Scott Heims.

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