School of Movies

Dec 06 2024 454 ep. 123 mins 3.3k

School of Movies Podcast artwork

Super in-depth analysis of movies (and occasionally TV, and video games). Hosted by veteran podcasters Alex & Sharon Shaw with different guests for round-table chats every week. To get into our hundreds of previous episodes look for the School of Movies Archive and the School of Everything Else Archive. If you can’t find a show it will be on one of those.

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Sunshine

Dec 06 2024 111 mins

[School of Movies 2024] This is an exceptionally long-awaited episode for us. One of the very first films discussed on our very first episode, way back in April 2007, mentioned repeatedly in the intervening 17 years, and promised over and over. Now we finally reach it, one of the most special and meaningful films to us. It was directed by Danny Boyle after 28 Days later but before

The First Hour and Seven Minutes of Oppenheimer

Dec 05 2024 28 mins

[School of Movies 2023] [This was originally released in the summer of 2023. We have subsequently seen every inch of Oppenheimer... we stand by what is said here.] I think this will be the only piece I create about Oppenheimer (2023). You definitely do not have to have seen it and I won't be saying anything that could be considered a plot spoiler. This is dark, upsetting, heavy and

Interstellar

Nov 29 2024 108 mins

[School of Movies 2024] Nolan-Vember comes to a close as we handle possibly his most emotionally-driven film. Drawing heavily from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Contact (two films we've already covered) Nolan presented the most populist blockbuster version of the speculative possibilities of what happens when a human being goes tear-assing into a black hole. This is very much our wheel

The Dark Knight Rises

Nov 29 2024 101 mins

[Digital Gonzo 2012] NOTE: This is a reissued episode from over 12 years ago. Please forgive the lower production values and boneheaded things I say. The epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s game-changing Dark Knight Trilogy. It’s definitely not as straightforward as film two in the series because many people hate this film already, and an equal amount adore every inch of it.

Inception

Nov 22 2024 71 mins

[School of Movies 2024] Nolan-Vember evolves to a whole new stage of the man's career, as following the billion-dollar success of The Dark Knight in 2008 he became a household name. This 2010 film, after The Prestige, just four years earlier garnered a mere $109m at the box office totally flipped the landscape of possibility in cerebral blockbuster cinema. It netted an astonishing

The Dark Knight

Nov 22 2024 103 mins

[Digital Gonzo 2012] NOTE: This is a reissued episode from over 12 years ago. Please forgive the lower production values and boneheaded things I say. Part two of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. Following the powerful set-up of Batman Begins, the production team pulled out all the stops to deliver an epic crime thriller in the style of Michael Mann’s Heat. This is a sto

The Prestige

Nov 15 2024 102 mins

[School of Movies 2024] Nolan-Vember continues with Christopher's fifth film. Now, you would think, following the momentous success of Batman Begins, his period piece about feuding magicians that remains one of his best tricks to date would have been a stellar success... Wolverine's Hugh Jackman versus Dark Knight Christian Bale, and for the low, low price of $40 million; this is a

Batman Begins

Nov 15 2024 106 mins

[Digital Gonzo 2012] NOTE: This is a reissued episode from over 12 years ago. Please forgive the lower production values and boneheaded things I say. Finally we get to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. After eight years away from cinema screens, and multiple stalled attempts at relaunching the franchise, Warner Bros knocked the Bat out of the park with the best film so far

Memento

Nov 08 2024 112 mins

[School of Movies 2024] Kicking off Nolan-Vember with a tale of obsession, revenge and the untrustworthy, ephemeral nature of memory. Things play out in nonlinear fashion as Nolan executes his second film with the deft surety of a man who can see the final arrangement within all the misaligned frames. Guy Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, a man afflicted with a rare brain disorder that

Beetlejuice

Nov 01 2024 87 mins

[School of Movies 2024] A perennial Halloween favourite for our family, this was Tim Burton's Sophomore effort, after his debut with Pee-Wee's Big Adventure but before he became a Hollywood Titan with Batman (starring Beetlejuice). And I know we give him a hard time a lot, as a purveyor of populist Goth chic to the masses, but when he hits right you get this movie. And it really do