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Our "Film Listology" season continues with a surprise entrant in the #73 slot, from famed director Stanley Kubrick in 1975, Barry Lyndon. One could argue that Kubrick fuses a surrogate love letter to his never-filmed Napoleon Bonaparte biopic with a loose adaptation of the William Makepeace Thackeray novel, The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. The result is as meditative and synchronic an examination into the spaces between love and loss, triumph and defeat, and possibly a search for satisfaction amidst unquenchable appetites. Barry Lyndon boasts a symphony of technical production film stories. But are these enough to position it among the elite titles of film history? The dialogic duo examine Kubrick's most refined work.

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

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The "Film Listology" season continues with our #74 entry, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Released in 1939, Frank Capra directs Jimmy Stewart in this tale of an idealistic junior senator thrust into the cynical matrix of the Washington D. C. political establishment. Mr. Smith stands as a perennial "feel good" movie about how the American political system functions as the ultimate course corrective within an unjust world. But what happens if the film were to feel increasingly like a disillusioned fantasy far removed from modern sentiment? The dialogic duo discuss the film to arrive at a contemporary assessment of its cultural significance factor in the twenty-first century.

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

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Send us Fan Mail

Our "Film Listology" season sets sail once again with the #75 film according to the MCM Super Index, The Graduate. Mike Nichols directs Dustin Hoffman in this Academy Award Winning feature from 1967. The film "spoke" to a generation with its coming-of-age themes, scandalous insinuations, and the postwar malaise that seemingly swept over the Baby Boomers at the heart of the New Youth movement in America. But what happens when none of this matters? The Graduate posits the ultimate MeGeneration fantasy, which has echoed through pop culture history ever since. But to what extent? Scott joins Garret for an abridged discussion of this aging metaphor about cyclical perceived individuality.

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

Support the show

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Film Listology RETURNS! Scott McMurry joins Garret Castleberry to reveal the next five films currently ranked #75-71 by the analytics super index. Which films made the cross-composite list? Should each of these be canonized in filmdom's Top 100? Check them out, send us your memories of each, and listen in as we resume the Season 8 focus on "Film Listology" on Special Topics in Media Studies.

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

The Special Topics in Media winds down prematurely with our Heist Film conversation (circa 2021) focusing on Steven Soderbergh's 2017 rural caper, Logan Lucky. Host Garret Castleberry is joined by dialogic duo partner in crime Scott McMurry in a serenading love letter to the quieter films that often go unnoticed. Due to an inadvertant data dump, this conversation culminates our "Heist Film Season" of Special Topics.

Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings to pair with Season 5 "The Heist Film":
Jim Leach & Jeannette Slowniowski (editors). The Best Laid Plans: Interrogating the Heist Film. Wayne State University Press, 2017.

Daryl Lee. The Heist Film: Stealing With Style. Wallflower Press, 2014.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

Support the show

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Special Topics in Media is getting the crew together again for a LIVE reaction special. Host Garret Castleberry recruits the Special Topics in Media Studies class for a post-screening response to Christopher Nolan's brainy blockbuster, Inception (2010). Can we add Nolan to heist film auteur canon? Students clutch their respective totems and pick their collective jaw off the proverbial ground to grapple with the film's key themes.

Host: Garret Castleberry,

Guests: Mia Haynes, Adia Reid, Peyton Towery, Brady Allen, Christian Soto, Abel Houston, Jasie Eischen, Sapraise Counsellor

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings to pair with Season 5 "The Heist Film":
Jim Leach & Jeannette Slowniowski (editors). The Best Laid Plans: Interrogating the Heist Film. Wayne State University Press, 2017.

Daryl Lee. The Heist Film: Stealing With Style. Wallflower Press, 2014.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

Support the show

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

The Special Topics in Media retro season resumes with a callback to our Heist Film conversation (circa 2021) centered on Christopher Nolan's 2010 summer blockbuster, Inception. Host Garret Castleberry is joined by his dialogic duo partner in crime Scott McMurry in a cross-examination of Nolan's cerebral brain-bender. Does Inception work within the heist film genre, or does the film collapse in its plural ambitions?

Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings to pair with Season 5 "The Heist Film":
Jim Leach & Jeannette Slowniowski (editors). The Best Laid Plans: Interrogating the Heist Film. Wayne State University Press, 2017.

Daryl Lee. The Heist Film: Stealing With Style. Wallflower Press, 2014.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

A FIRST! Special Topics in Media goes "Live" (sort of), in an effort to activate improvisational audience feedback. Host Garret Castleberry taps into the collective power of the Special Topics in Media Studies class for a post-screening interpretive recap of intellectual themes resonant in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox. Students are pressed to speak to several unique categories in an improvisational interpretive event recorded for educational fair use. Does Anderson's film function within the Heist Film genre? Does this adaptation breach the generational divide? Key students share their immediate reactions.

Host: Garret Castleberry,

Guests: Mia Haynes, Adia Reid, Peyton Towery, Brady Allen, Christian Soto, Abel Houston, Jasie Eischen, Sapraise Counsellor

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings to pair with Season 5 "The Heist Film":
Jim Leach & Jeannette Slowniowski (editors). The Best Laid Plans: Interrogating the Heist Film. Wayne State University Press, 2017.

Daryl Lee. The Heist Film: Stealing With Style. Wallflower Press, 2014.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

Support the show