Baumann and Burch welcomes its first guest of the podcast. Tim’s former ex-roommate Josh comes onto the podcast to talk with us about the Disney Renaissance. Listen for what Greek myth would adapt nicely to Disney animation, deciding if Aladdin has more in common with Game of Thrones or the First Persian Gulf War, and… Read More Baumann and Burch Podcast #5 – Edward’s Angels (Disney Renaissance, Part 1)
We kept the last one to an hour. This one, not so much. We had many things to say about The Incredibles – Helen Parr, the best Pixar character and Syndrome, faceless victim to Bob Parr’s Howard Roark – and not so many things to say, comparatively speaking, about Finding Nemo. Listen to find out… Read More Baumann and Burch Podcast #4 – Feminist Icon Helen Parr (Pixar, Part 2)
We meant to make a single podcast about Pixar. We made two instead. This first half (which is less than an hour! Woo!) talks about our bottom five Pixar movies, as well as Tim’s scorching take on Toy Story 3 and Matt’s belief that all of these movies contain a secret message about a workers’… Read More Baumann and Burch Podcast #3 – Immigrant Pillbugs (Pixar, Part 1)
Dir. Richard Fleischer. Starring Paul Lukas, James Mason, Kirk Douglas Tomorrowland, one of the many attractions at many Disney theme parks, opened first at Disneyland in 1955. In 1954, Tomorrowland was very much in view in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a Disney film based on the Jules Verne novel. It is the only sci-fi… Read More 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
There are some books that I read over and over again. From the time I was in sixth grade up into my last year of college, I read To Kill a Mockingbird at least twice a year. (I’ll be citing the edition that is yellow and a little torn beyond its years: it’s the first… Read More Villainous Age in Harper Lee’s “Oeuvre”
Dir. John Ford. Starring John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Henry Brandon The diagetic portions of this movie begin with a surprisingly striking image: a woman stands in a doorway, black in the way Pierre-Auguste Renoir said a painting should never use black, her silhouette blocking the majestic view of the ostensibly Texan skyline. (It’s Monument Valley,… Read More The Searchers (1956)
Dir. David Lean. Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Cyril Raymond At least it wasn’t penalties. When Laura Bassett’s clearance fell short and went in off the crossbar (half an hour after Toni Duggan’s shot went out off the crossbar), resulting in a crushing own goal with no time left for England to regroup, the result… Read More Brief Encounter (1945)
Dir. Alexander Mackendrick. Starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison There’s a movie out there about what Bill O’Reilly would have been like if he’d been born handsome in a different era. It’s called Sweet Smell of Success, and you should see it. If you are like me, and you went to high school and… Read More Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Dir. Pete Docter. Starring Amy Poehler, Kaitlyn Dias, Phyllis Smith That’s my Middle West – not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns but the thrilling, returning trains of my youth and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows… Read More Inside Out (2015)
Dir. Oliver Stone. Starring Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, and Joe Pesci I was looking through the Wikipedia article for The Da Vinci Code recently, and I was surprised/not surprised to find that there’s a Wikipedia page for “Criticism of The Da Vinci Code.” Without really reading the article, one can guess at its contents… Read More JFK (1991)
Seeing Things Secondhand 