Words and Movies Podcast

Author: Claude

  • Reel 44: When Musicians Direct

    No, you’re not missing an episode…we are. I (Claude) have no idea how it happened but our recording for Episode 43 has simply vanished. Having said that, however, Sean and I have committed to re-recording the show and you’ll get it in your feed, just out of order. In the meantime, here’s Episode 44, which…

  • Reel 42: Off-Beat Musical Biopics

    Biographical films are always tricky to navigate, largely because they need to choose a point of view to work from. For instance, when talking with other people about the recent biopic Elvis, some viewers were disappointed that we didn’t get to see Elvis Presley eating one of his weird sandwiches, or that we didn’t get…

  • Reel 9: SorkinFest Part IV–The Credited Rewrites

    We’re closing in on the end of SorkinFest as we get to Part 4 of our five-part series looking at the work of Aaron Sorkin. And this time around we’re looking at a couple of films that Sorkin had a public hand in writing–or, more accurately, re-writing: 1993’s Malice, starring Nicole Kidman and Alec Baldwin,…

  • Reel 7: Sorkinfest, Part 2

    Aaaand, we’re finally back, thank goodness. SorkinFest continues with the two films that Aaron Sorkin wrote after his series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip was cancelled after only one season. (Interestingly, the same people who seemed kind of disappointed in Studio 60 as it aired are viewing it a little more generously in retrospect.)…

  • Reel 2: Malcolm X, Selma

    In today’s episode, Sean and Claude take a look at two films about civil rights leaders of the 1960s: Malcolm X (1992), directed by Spike Lee, and Selma (2014), directed by Ava DuVernay. In general, people have very different images of these two icons in their heads: Martin Luther King as the nonviolent, peaceful “passive…

  • Reel 1: 1968 Science Fiction

    That this didn’t appear sooner is totally on me (Claude). I promise, the workflow on this show is improving. For our first show, we have to go back to the start, of course. Specifically, Sean’s start. We go back to the year of his birth and check out a couple of science fiction movies that…

  • Reel 1 Preview

    In our honest-to-goodness first episode, Sean and Claude take a look at two science fiction films which were both released in 1968, but which couldn’t have more different views with regard to how things turn out in the future. Tune in on August 24th when we look at 2001: A Space Odyssey and the original…