Special Topics in Media continues its RETRO REWIND Season 2 focus on writer/artist Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. In this episode, Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry analyze the various mass media adaptions and textual legacy of Miller's DKR. While some may contend Miller's muddied pages belong to a bygone era, it's continuous impact on the caped crusader show no signs of slowing down in the forty years after its release.    Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns":Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, 1986.Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.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.Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds.Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

In this episode, the Special Topics in Media RETRO REWIND Season 2 focus on Batman: The Dark Knight Returns winds down. We close our our literary focus and cultural analysis of Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns with careful consideration of its text, context, author, and audience. Specifically, the dialogic duo explore facets of Miller's narrative form and how these literary decisions speak to fictional themes and real-world critiques. Is DKR  capable of delivering a satisfying conclusion, or like so many popular fantasies, does this cultural artifact fail to "stick the landing"?  Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns":Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, 1986.Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.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.Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds.Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

In this RETRO look back at Season 2 of Special Topics in Media, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry explore the narrative discourse emanating out of the pages of Frank Miller's seminal superhero spectacle, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The dialogic duo discuss "Book 3" in which an aged Bruce Wayne comes to terms with the limits of his mythic presence across the dystopian Gotham City landscape. With its stylistic prose and uber-punk aesthetics, Dark Knight Returns, Book 3 will pay off certain readerly anticipations while also usurping traditional expectations within the traditional genre of superhero comics. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns":Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, 1986.Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.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.Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds.Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

In this continuation of our Season 2 RETRO REWIND, Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry deepen their analytic criticism of Frank Miller's iconoclast graphic novel released as a comic book mini-series, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. In this episode, the dialogic duo further denote the cultural context in which Miller's Batman tale draws upon certain social anxieties of the time while also reinterpreting the psychological complexities that motivate Bruce Wayne and his rogues gallery.  Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns":Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, 1986.Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.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.Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds.Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

In this RETRO SEASON of Special Topics in Media, host Garret Castleberry winds back the podcasting clock to the quarantine months of the 2020 global pandemic. The Comics Studies mini-series focuses on what many consider the great stand-alone superhero story ever told, Frank Miller's future shock crime thriller, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Released in four parts near the end of the real-world Cold War in 1986, Miller posits an iconoclast depiction of a city in turmoil, a country at the crossroads, and an isolationist antihero in retirement. Miller's punk rock penciling ignites the interior panels like a flame lit buzzsaw. The artist-author's boxy illustrations are further upstaged by Miller's sharper than glass Neo-noir internal monologues and terse scripted prose. Equal parts revenge fantasy, superhero love letter, mythic deconstruction, and political satire, Miller's work remains a crowning achievement ahead of its time and serving as a paradigm shift to the way superhero comics are perceived and received by critics and audiences. Each episode will focus on a single entry in the four-part series, followed by a discussion on the topic of adaptation as well as a scholarly roundtable that examines the media artifact's continuing impact on American popular culture.   Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns":Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, 1986.Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.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.Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds.Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

In this "Prologue" preview to our RETRO SEASON of Special Topics in Media, host Garret Castleberry sits down with Scott McMurry to discuss one of our earliest seasons for Special Topics in Media. The dialogic duo offer a brief framework for the next mini-season on deck, a conversation series covering one of the most influential comic books in history, Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986).  Each episode will focus on a single entry in the four-part series, followed by a discussion on the topic of adaptation as well as a scholarly roundtable that examines the media artifact's continuing impact on American popular culture.   Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings paired with Season Two "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns":Frank Miller (with Klaus Jansen). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. DC Comics, 1986.Chris Gavaler. Superhero Comics. Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2017.Robert Jewett & John Shelton Lawrence. The Myth of the American Superhero. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002.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.Follow Kyla Hammonds's wider media insights in the Facebook Group MovieTalk, with Kyle Hammonds.Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

Our Film Listology exploration of variability in the cultural significance of film history continues with consideration of director George Roy Hill's ragtime-sounding, depression era "big con" feature The Sting (1973). A winner of seven Academy Awards and a top commercial earner in the year of its release, The Sting provided audiences of 70s cinema a populist escapism that feels like an echo of Hollywood's Studio System heyday. Hill re-teams with his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid compadres Robert Redford and Paul Newman in a feature more pressed to entertain outright rather than craft a social commentary. The result was a generational commercial hit, but has this movie lost its charm over time? The dialogic duo Scott McMurry and Garret Castleberry take the opportunity to get one over on this once beloved artifact of twentieth century film lore.      Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: 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/.

On this episode, the Film Listology voyage sails onward with the commercial zenith of Disney's 2D Animation Studios era, The Lion King. Released in 1994, The Lion King handed the Mouse House one of its biggest hits of the decade, and more importantly, provided the kind of four quadrant entertainment capable of sustaining an intellectual property engine that continues to influence audiences thirty years after its release. The dialogic duo reminisce on their memories of The Lion King and assign its cultural significance.    Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: 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/.

This week Special Topics continues its Film Listology focus on the '80s. No, not that '80s but 'an' '80s nonetheless. Hosts Garret and Scott discuss Otto Preminger's 1959 courtroom crime drama Anatomy of a Murder. In some ways, the film functions as a precursor to the #TrueCrime movement that will dominate popular interest in the late twentieth and twenty-first century.  Does Anatomy lay the groundwork for the crime courtroom yarns to come, or has this artifact's time run out due to the dated conditions in which is was made? The dialogic duo weigh in on Preminger's critically acclaimed artifact in an effort to discern whether or not the tonally uneven feature maintains steady cultural significance.   Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: 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/.

This week the Special Topics in Media Film Listology season returns to a silent era heavyweight in Hollywood history, Charlie Chaplin. Cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine 1921's The Kid, a film written, produced, and directed by Chapline, who also wrote and conducted the film's score.The Kid ebbs and flows through film history, which resulted in numerous versions of the movie circulating in private release and public domain. Indeed, access and quality may impede a cultural artifact that already struggles in its cultural significance as a black-and-white film produced in the silent age. The dialogic duo wrestle with the five-reel film's cultural significance in an effort to discern its position in the pantheon of great cinema. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: 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/.

This year marks the critical peak in Christopher Nolan's quarter century of commercial filmmaking. In this episode, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry wind up the countdown clock to consider the wide-reaching cultural significance of Nolan's 2010 blockbuster Inception. Written and directed by Nolan, co-produced by Nolan and career-life partner Emma Thomas, and distributed by Warner Bros., Inception "wowed" audiences as a syncretic late-summer smash at the box office. It's labyrinthine structure draws from Greek myth, surrealism, and art history, while transplanting those ideas alongside Nolan's inner imagination into an action thriller that echoes film history while forging an original film experience. Does Inception stand the test of time, or is it quickly fading into the recesses of audiences' minds? Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: 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/.

In this Special Topics in Media Film Listology reveal episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unveil the films results quantified by the McMurry SuperIndex (MSI) at ranking #90-86. Accompanying each entry, Scott provides data points for contextualizing each film's placement in the running, just as Garret reacts to the film's poll position as a cultural artifacts worthy of topical assessment. Which films land in the MSI rankings? Screen the films and let us know what you consider the cultural significant factor for each (0-4).  Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: 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/.

Continuing our Graphic Design and Portfolio Management mini-series, host Garret Castleberry introduces listeners to  graphic designer Caleb Cole. An alumni of Oklahoma Baptist University, Caleb unpacks his formal educational journey and professional training in visual design, and thoughtfully individualizes his experience in ways that will allow listeners to learn about the interests and motivations that drive his early career success. Recommended readings:Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal principles of design, revised and updated: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design (2nd ed.). Beverly, MA: Rockport. ISBN: 978-1-59253-587-3 .Roam, D. (2013). The back of the napkin: Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures (Extended ed.). New York: Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN: 978-1-59184-269-9. Sibbet, D. (2010). Visual Meetings: How graphics, sticky notes & idea mapping can transform group productivity. New York: Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-60178-5. 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/.

In this extension to our Graphic Design and Portfolio Management mini-series, host Garret Castleberry connects with fellow academic and chair for the division of art and design at Oklahoma Baptist University, Corey Lee Fuller. Corey discusses the intricacies of a life (and lifestyle) devoted to art and graphic design. He helps unpack the evolution of art into contemporary professions like painting, illustrating, and integrated design. Garret presses Corey to describe the professional values of working in and parallel to graphic design, and they explore how professional opportunities coordinate with additional fields and professions ranging from math and architecture to website design and data analytics. Recommended readings:Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal principles of design, revised and updated: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design (2nd ed.). Beverly, MA: Rockport. ISBN: 978-1-59253-587-3 . Roam, D. (2013). The back of the napkin: Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures (Extended ed.). New York: Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN: 978-1-59184-269-9. Sibbet, D. (2010). Visual Meetings: How graphics, sticky notes & idea mapping can transform group productivity. New York: Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-60178-5. 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/.

In this episode, Special Topics in Media bridges two themes tied to our Season 9 emphasis. Seasons 9 emphasizes two distinct professional arenas of digital communication, podcasting and graphic design. This week we blend and blur those words. We sit down with emerging graphic design artist Allison Garner. Alli shares parts of her creative journey, a somewhat untraditional path of artistic discovery that continues to gain momentum. Pieces of her personal (and professional) voyage also intersect with the world of podcasting, including previous collaborations to help construct the visual identity of Special Topics in Media. Special Topics is excited to spotlight this emerging  artist and allow her story to resonate with listeners considering careers in either podcasting or graphic design.  Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Allison Garner (guest)Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings:Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2020.David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques, 9th edition. New York: Routledge, 2017.Guest media:Christine Becker (co-host/co-producer). Aca-Media Podcast. 2013-present.Ways to Connect with us online:Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter/X 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/.

In this episode, the Media Methods and Content Creation mini-series welcomes Dr. Christine Becker, co-host and co-producer of the Aca-Media Podcast. As she explains, Aca-Media provides a cross-disciplinary series that serves as an mediated brand extension for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS).  Dr. Becker then walks us through Aca-Media's collaborative production process, providing key insights into the attentive details that help promote the podcast's longevity as a publicly distributed academic and intellectual media project.  Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Christine Becker (guest)Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings:Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2020.David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques, 9th edition. New York: Routledge, 2017.Guest media:Christine Becker (co-host/co-producer). Aca-Media Podcast. 2013-present.Ways to Connect with us online:Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter/X 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/.

This week we return to our Media Methods and Content Creation mini-series. Host Garret Castleberry interviews Scott Hardy and Cam Smith, cohosts of SpyHards -- A Spy Movie Podcast. Scott and Cam reveal the origins of their multimedia partnership and explain how their participatory roles within fan culture helped birth their current mission to engage audiences with the history of spy cinema. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott Hardy (guest) and Cam Smith (guest)Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)Recommended readings:Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2020.David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques, 9th edition. New York: Routledge, 2017.Guest media:Scott Hardy & Cam Smith (hosts). SpyHards -- A Spy Movie Podcast. 2020-present. 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/.

"What is real? How do you define, real?" In this episode, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unpack the wide-reaching cultural significance of 1999's The Matrix. Written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, produced and distributed by Warner Bros., The Matrix redirected popular cinema for the 21st Century through its ingenious remixing of philosophy, theology, and mythology baked into a dystopian action film that also functions as a techno-remix of classical tales like Alice in the Looking Glass and The Wizard of Oz. Has The Matrix faded from the popular imaginary, or does its brief legacy suggest a temporally resonant cultural artifact that  continues to inspire new audiences?   Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: 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/.

This week the Film Listology season of Special Topics in Media continues with an all-timer that has evolved from lowbrow crowd-pleasing mainstream B-movie from 20th Century Fox and relatively unknown director upon release, Sir Ridley Scott, to a "Top-Shelf Classic" that finds increasing cultural cache for its simplicity, elegance, ingenious conception, and nightmarish aesthetics.A.....L......I......E.....N.....Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Scott McMurry to rank Alien's cultural significance, and, perhaps more importantly, to widen the origin of creative credit that goes into this iconoclast space/horror genre mashup. Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: 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/.

The Film Listology season continues with a welcome break from recent genre form.  Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry revisit Woody Allen's Academy Award Winner for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay from 1977, Annie Hall. The film captured the hearts of film critics and belongs in the pantheon of great "New York movies". Indeed, much of writer-directer Allen's oeuvre became synonymous with a handful of directors forever linked to New York City and their filmic relationship to this vibrant city of tomorrow. Ironically, some of the offscreen choices made by Allen over time have altered the relationship between his expressed ideas, his films as art, film audiences, and their reception versus rejection of his work. Do external factors impact the film's cultural significance, or can the film's haughty whimsy elude critique? The dialogic duo debates to arrive at a contemporary interpretation of Annie Hall and its film legacy.  Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurryProducers: 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/.