In the "Film Listology" entry to Special Topics in Media , hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry evaluate the legacy of Elia Kazan's adaptation of the Tennessee Williams literary stageplay of the same name, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Boasting a pair of explosive performances by Vivian Leigh ( Gone With the Wind ) and Marlon Brando ( The Godfather , On the Waterfront ), Kazan infuses this Southern Gothic character study with masterful computation of shadow and light. With an award-winning supporting cast to boot, does Streetcar live up to its quotable history, or has its cultural significance expired? 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/ .…

This week in our "Film Listology" season of Special Topics in Media , Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry explore the innovation and influence of Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction silent film Metropolis . Can silent cinema maintain high cultural significance in an age of immersive media and high definition spectacle? The dialogic duo wrestle with the film to determine its value in the pantheon of film history. 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/ .…

Continuing the "Film Listology" seasons of Special Topics, the dialogic duo strategize the placement of the #78 film on the Super Index(TM), Christopher Nolan's 4-quadrant blockbuster released by Warner Bros. in 2008, The Dark Knight . The middle act to Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight won praise among audiences and critics, and became a zeitgeist touchstone in intellectual circles for years, a chameleon cypher in the film's appeasement of interpretations among liberal and conservative viewers. Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry sit down to examine the cultural significance of The Dark Knight and make a case for its ranking on the list. 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/ .…

In this "Film Listology" episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry compose an argument both for and against reading the 1985 Academy Award winner for Best Picture as culturally significant to the history of film. Directed by Milos Forman and released in 1984, Amadeus posits a lavish period biopic about the famed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the tensions experienced through a contemporary collaborator-rival, Antonio Salieri. Played with Machiavellian charm by Best Actor Academy Award Winner F. Murray Abraham, Salieri enjoys a privileged life of relative wealth and close proximity to royal prosperity, but that which elides him--true creative genius--sets him onto a path ripe with envy, bitterness, and possibly insanity. Our resident film geniuses (like Salieri, in their own minds) explore the film's beautiful elegance while mourning the loss of classical art in cinema. 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/ .…

In this episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry assess the cultural significance of the 2008 Pixar Animated feature film WALL*E . Directed by Andrew Stanton and released to wide critical acclaim, WALL*E centers on a labor robot fascinated by the haunting reveries of the now-vanished human civilization. WALL*E imaginatively embodies qualities of the silent film in its vaunted first half, and then shifts gears toward a more conventional animated adventure in its second half. Do these two parts combine to enhance or diminish the film's cultural significance factor in our Film Listology super index? Garret and Scott weigh in. 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/ .…

In our January RETURN to the Film Listology experiment, Scott McMurry reveals the next five films currently ranked by the analytics super index. What movies emerge as the Dialogic Duo debut the #80-76 entries? Should each of these be canonized in the Top 100, or is the data scheme exhibiting flaws in its matrix? Screen these film classic all month long and connect with the show online to share thoughts and insights into why each does or does not belong in our intermittent "Film Listology" long-form season of 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/ .…

In a world where science fiction breeds serious introspection... In this episode, host Garret Castleberry connects with science fiction film and media scholar Michael Harris to discuss his book Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films (Roman & Littlefield). Commemorating the book's one-year anniversary release, the author discusses how fictional artifacts relate to real-world challenges, which science fiction texts fuel his critical writing, and how the genre provides tremendous insights into how people express the reality we experience. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into expanded discussions centering on future shock science fiction. Host: Garret Castleberry, Michael Harris (Guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. 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 a world where science fiction breeds serious discussion... In this episode, host Garret Castleberry connects with science fiction film and media scholar Keith M. Johnston to discuss his book Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction (Bloomsbury Press). Commemorating the book's ten-...to fifteen-year anniversary, the author discusses his research process, why science fiction warrants serious discussion among readers and audiences, and how the genre both predicts and anticipates (and possibly inoculates) twenty-first century innovations in technological history. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into expanded discussions centering on future shock science fiction. Host: Garret Castleberry, Keith M. Johnston (Guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. 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 a world where free speech converges with film studies, one group of students fight the pandemic and enter the "forbidden zone" whereby their thoughts on Future Shock Cinema enter the public sphere. In "Part 2" of our student roundtable, we sit down with the second group of classmates to discuss their reaction to the future shock course, our film selections, and how classes like this challenge us to view media differently. Following the accelerated film class Special Topics in Media Studies , course designer and primary instructor Garret Castleberry is joined by a handful of students who successfully completed the "Future Shock Film" course. To recap, the accelerated film and genre course examined Greenland (2020), I Am Legend (2007), Oblivion (2013), Tenet (2020), and Arrival (2016). Student reflect on course themes and relate the films in conversation with the course readings, comparative screenings, and the overall emphasis on future shock science fiction film. Host: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. 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 a world where free speech converges with film studies, one group of students fight the pandemic and enter the "forbidden zone" whereby their thoughts on Future Shock Cinema enter the public sphere. We sit down with students from the class immediately following our final course screening to discuss their reaction to the future shock course, our film selections, and how classes like this challenge us to view media differently. Following the accelerated film class Special Topics in Media Studies , course designer and primary instructor Garret Castleberry is joined by a handful of students who successfully completed the "Future Shock Film" course. To recap, the accelerated film and genre course examined Greenland (2020), I Am Legend (2007), Oblivion (2013), Tenet (2020), and Arrival (2016). Student reflect on course themes and relate the films in conversation with the course readings, comparative screenings, and the overall emphasis on future shock science fiction film. Host: Garret Castleberry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Rick Altman. Film/Genre . British Film Institute, 1999. Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray (Eds.). Keywords for Media Studies . NYU Press, 2017. 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 a world where language gains new meaning, Special Topics looks back at a film that imagines forward to a point in which "first contact" with extraterrestrial life posits the unexpected arrival of the future. In this entrant to our "Future Shock" season, we examine 2016's Arrival . Twenty-first century sci-fi auteur Denis Villeneuve directs this adaptation of writer Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life". Amy Adams stars as Louise Banks, an academic linguist recruited by the U.S. Government to decode text transmitted by an unidentified flying object. With a specialized skillset disrupted by traumatic visions of a life lost, Louise stands between governmental preemptive strikes and World War III. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Arrival as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. 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 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. 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 a world where time marches forward...and backward, one protagonist stands between an open future and an open war on the past. John David Washington stars in the mind-bending blockbuster that never was, Tenet (2020). Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Tenet posits a world where the laws of physics both conceal and reveal ways in which the universe might finally unravel as a result of experimentation by humankind. In a race against (but also for) time, can this protagonist come to terms with the new rules at play, or will clandestine forces succeed at sabotaging the status quo? Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Tenet as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. 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 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. 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 a world where science fiction spectacle overwhelms science fiction narrative, one team emerges from deep space to confront the uncanny moviegoing valley. Amidst a career pivot from grounded dramas and espionage action films, global superstar Tom Cruise reinvented his career with a series of strategic choices increasingly oriented around the science fiction film genre. Following a pair of Spielbergian collaborations in Minority Report (2002) and a 21st Century remake of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds (2005), Cruise gained somewhat mixed results from a pair of films released less than a year apart: Joseph Kosinski's Oblivion (2013) and Doug Liman's Edge of Tomorrow (2014). The former represents the least successful of this sci-fi run but is perhaps the most visually inventive. While Oblivion meets several criteria under the future shock banner, certain structural flaws weigh heavily on the film's overall impact. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Oblivion as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. 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 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. 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…

In a world where society suffers the consequences of global biological contamination, one individual survives as the bridge between our recognizable past and an undetermined future. Box office superstar Will Smith stretches his action-comedy comfort zone to anchor I Am Legend , which was released in 2007 and directed by Francis Lawrence. Smith stars as Robert Neville, a U.S. veteran and military scientist struggling to maintain sanity and normalcy in a near-future NYC ravaged by a mysterious biological plague. I Am Legend updates the Richard Matheson novel of the same name, itself an adaptation of Mary Shelley's lesser read 1826 follow-up to Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus , aptly titled The Last Man . In film history, I Am Legend represents the third effort to adapt these source materials, following The Last Man on Earth in 1964, and the Chuck Heston vehicle The Omega Man in 1971. Whereas the former features draw upon mythos linked to American Cold War concerns, Legend clearly rests within the shadow of 9/11 and serves as a meditation on unexpected consequences in medical and technological innovation. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate I Am Legend as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. 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 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. Ways to Connect with us online: Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topi…

In a world where extinction events pose an imminent threat, one family enacts their survivalist instincts in a desperate ploy to stay alive. From director Ric Roman Waugh and starring his frequent leading man counterpart Gerard Butler, Greenland fell out of theatrical wide-release in 2020 when it ran up against the real-world threat in the COVID-19 global pandemic. Finding a second life on streaming services, Greenland now functions as an underground B-movie that purports the dramatic circumstance of the widespread panic that ensues when a comet unexpectedly realigns toward earth. By leaning on pre-apocalyptic scenarios, the creative team effectively taps into the widespread paranoia that currently grips the underbelly of many First-World nations. Host Garret Castleberry welcomes Scott McMurry into the dystopian discourse that foregrounds this " Future Shock Film " season of Special Topic in Media. The dialogic duo explore the dystopian spaces that haunt sci-fi film and the fears and anxieties of storytellers and their audiences. The pair organize their analysis around genre themes concerning presence versus absence, imitation versus innovation, and make a case for what moments situate Greenland as future shock. "Future Shock" originated as Season 3 of Special Topics in Media. Season 3 collides with its altered future as we converge into a new season (and NEW university film course!) of future shock analyses. 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 3 "Future Shock Science Fiction Film": Keith M. Johnston. Science Fiction Film: A Critical Introduction . Bloomsbury, 2011. Michael Harris. In Come With Me If You Want to Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films . Roman & Littlefield, 2024. Alvin Toffler. Future Shock . Ballantine Books, 2022. 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/ .…