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Mike is joined by Bernadette and Stamper to go over some of their favorite women of film, specifically focusing on three characters: Sarah Connor from The Terminator, Leeloo from The Fifth Element and Beatrix Kiddo AKA The Bride from Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2. #Newsletter #Podcasts #Overdrinkers #StrongWomeninFilm #MikeBurdge #BernadetteGorman #KatelynStamper #TheTerminator #TheFifthElement #KillBillVol1 #KillBillVol2 #BloodyMarys

“Shakespeare one gets acquainted with without knowing how,” proclaims the young Englishman in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. “His celebrated passages are quoted by everybody,” responds the other. “They are in half the books we open and we all talk Shakespeare, use his similes, and describe in his descriptions.” Over four hundred years after Shakespeare’s death, his work is no less pervasive than in Austen’s time, and in no small part due to his use of language. Inventive neologism, indelible turns of phrase, soaring poetic beauty, pulse-pounding excitement, psychological insight, sly ribaldry, subversion, and satire are all to be found in Shakespeare’s choice of words and form. Yet many modern films drawn from Shakespeare, dispense with his language entirely, instead adapting stories that were, themselves, already adapted by Shakespeare from a litany of classical, historical, and literary sources. If the intrinsic value of Shakespeare is so deeply rooted in his language, can a film that does away with it still justifiably call itself “Shakespeare?” Actually, yes. Allow me to explain. There are many ways to think about Shakespeare, but we can divide them broadly into two categories: Shakespeare the man, bound strictly to his life and times, whose work must be examined in context, and Shakespeare the cultural force: timeless, malleable, modern. A study of Shakespearean text requires the former lens, but if you’ve ever seen Shakespeare performed well, then you already know it won’t do here. Shakespeare in performance is alive, immediate, and thrilling. What does the Globe Theatre Fire of 1613 have to do with the stirring passion of Kenneth Branagh’s St. Crispin’s Day speech, the seething bitterness of Al Pacino’s “if you prick us,” the pitiable heartbreak of Jean Simmons’ “hey nonny,” or, for that matter, 10 Things I Hate About You? Nothing. Examining Shakespeare’s modern impact calls for a modern perspective. So, if we accept a definition of “Shakespeare” beyond the context of one man’s life, allowing us, in modern times, to claim a share of ownership of his legacy, what of the fact that the stories he immortalized were not originally his? Is West Side Story really an adaptation of Shakespeare, or simply another incarnation of story elements dating as far back as the 4th century A.D.? Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, drawn heavily from Arthur Brooke, transforms the poem into an intricate clockwork machine, condensing the timeframe and plunging the characters into a headlong rush of mistakes, violence, passion, and paradox. Plautus’ Menaechmi and Amphitruo are combined and unified in Comedy of Errors. A range of sources, both literary and legendary, informed King Lear, none of which conclude with the death of Lear and Cordelia. That Shakespeare's stories were not his own, does not devalue his structural, thematic, philosophical, and poetic innovation. However, while we accept that West Side Story is, in a sense, “Shakespeare,” can it be so easily lumped together with Luhrmann’s, Romeo + Juliet, 2013’s Warm Bodies, or (god help us) Twilight? Clearly, some distinctions must be made. Let's create three categories. It'll be fun; I promise! First, the “Adaptations:” films drawn directly from Shakespeare's language, if heavily edited. Think Branagh, Luhrmann, Whedon, 2015’s Macbeth or 1971’s King Lear. You get the idea. Next, the “Re-Tellings:” Kurosawa’s Ran and Throne of Blood, or She's the Man, which jettison the language and change the setting, but maintain fidelity to story and character. Finally, the “Analogues:” Forbidden Planet, The Lion King, Star Wars Ep III: Revenge of the Sith (think about it), which draw on Shakespeare in only the most elemental fashion. A sub-category could perhaps be termed “Meta-Analogues:” films like Kiss Me, Kate, Shakespeare in Love, and Get Over It, which play analogous stories directly against their literal inspiration. While adaptations and re-tellings can both be viewed, for our purposes, as “Shakespeare,” the analogues can safely be dismissed as too far removed for relevance. With these distinctions made, let's take a closer look at the re-tellings. Lacking Shakespeare's language, 10 Things I Hate About You, nevertheless hews closely to The Taming of The Shrew - more so, in fact, than Kiss Me, Kate. The distasteful sexism of Shakespeare's play and the efficacy of appropriating “shrewishness” for feminism within the fundamentally problematic structure of a romantic comedy are discussions for another time. Films like 10 Things are important, not just for keeping Shakespeare’s influence alive and well in our pop culture awareness, but as a tool for overcoming barriers to accessibility. What greater barrier does a high school student face when confronting Shakespeare than the language? How fitting, therefore, that so many Shakespearean re-tellings are set in modern high schools, and how well some of the material lends itself to such a setting! In bringing a 400 year-old text to life for a new generation, educators share a priority with directors and performers: accessibility, engagement, and immediacy. What better way to introduce Twelfth Night to students than to precede it with a viewing of She's the Man? Beyond the classroom, the artistic viability of the Shakespearean re-telling holds true. The strength, life, and power of Shakespeare in modern performance is tied to its reinvention. These stories, as immortalized by Shakespeare's astonishing constellation of talents, have infused our culture, speech, values, dreams, fears, and fascinations. A Shakespearean film, even one without Shakespeare's language, nevertheless draws from the bottomless well of his resonance in our lives. We must never stop reading, performing, and filming Shakespeare in his own words, but neither need we be so protective as to eschew its re-telling. Shakespeare is for everyone, after all. Let there be no lock upon the door. Edward Gibbons-Brown (Sometimes) a theatrical director/actor/producer and writer, and (mostly) a bartender and New Beaconite often found in semi-aimless wander, Edward is pleased and honored to contribute this piece to the most excellent Story Screen. #Newsletter #Articles #Shakespeare #SeriesActI #EdwardGibbonsBrown

Is there truly a Ranger within all of us? What does it mean to "Morph" and when exactly is it the right "Time?" Are we simply all a collection of stardust endlessly spiraling into an oblivion we can neither fathom nor experience? Does Ivan Ooze show up? These questions, and more, are mostly answered by Jack and Robert, two of the bravest souls of movie-watching we've ever witnessed. May their sacrifice not go unnoticed. #Newsletter #Podcasts #HotTakes #PowerRangers #JackKolodziejski #RobertAnderson

More often than not, the most horrifying and heartbreaking villains are represented by people who look just like you and me. In Neill Blomkamp's 2009 Sci-Fi, District 9, the conflict we watch on screen is an allegory, not only for the apartheid era in South Africa, but an even broader commentary on how we react to situations and “others” that we do not fully understand. Fear of the other has been a devastatingly driving force behind terrible historic events continuously repeated, as if we are forever re-learning the golden rule. Treating others the way we want to be treated is an instruction that sadly, is most accessible through familiarity, above all else. In District 9, Blomkamp introduces you to a Johannesburg, South Africa ravaged with socio-political discord and civil unrest, a situation only heightened by the fact that an alien race has also been living there for two-plus decades. When an alien ship mysteriously settles over Johannesburg in the early 80’s, its malnourished alien race is policed into a human-regulated, quarantined compound called District 9. Over time, due to mass reproduction and an unjust economy within the district, their living conditions have been reduced to a massive slum. Understanding that District 9 has become uninhabitable, and needing to better regulate the alien race, the government decides to relocate the population to a new enclosure called District 10. Whereas District 9 was a quick solution at the beginning of the aliens’ residency in Johannesburg, for all intents and purposes, District 10 is an engineered concentration camp. As viewers, we are introduced to this relocation process through documentary-style footage, meant to connect us with our human counterparts even more so than if we were just watching a straightforward sci-fi monster movie. We never learn the name the alien race calls themselves; instead, “we” put them in their place by referring to them as prawns. Parktown prawns are a species of cricket found in South Africa that is considered an undeniable pest. Taking away their dignity by calling them prawns behind, (and in front of) their backs, is only the first offense in a long list of degrading ways in which the aliens are mistreated. Only the Nigerians who operate within the compound show the aliens any compassion, only displaying kindness to profit from overcharging them for food and manning an alien technology black market. These hustlers are the ones who interact with the alien race most frequently, and still, they know them no better than you or I come to know them within the first few minutes of the film. It seems that no real effort was made to integrate the aliens into human society, and over twenty years, this “fear of the other” became ingrained in an entire culture of belief. Sound familiar? Outside of the documentary-style footage, our point of contact within District 9 is Wikus van de Merwe. Wikus is an employee of Multinational United (MNU), the second largest weapons manufacturing company in the world. MNU was also put in charge of the rules and regulations for which the aliens and humans must coexist. At the beginning of the film, Wikus is put in charge of the new alien relocation program to District 10, beginning with evicting the aliens from the only homes they’ve ever known on Earth. Within the human community, Wikus seems to be a likeable person. He seems to be at the bottom of a bureaucratic food chain and is given the chance at a promotion within MNU from his brute of a father-in-law. While interacting with his peers, it’s apparent that Wilkus is a socially awkward people-pleaser that acquires the personas of those around him to fit in. While highly intelligent and mostly competent at his job, the relocation responsibility is his first chance to “run with the big boys,” and make his mark on the company. Wikus is an excellent example of someone molded by their environment to be at war with their inner humanity and the innate desire to assimilate in society. Most of the characters in District 9 are fairly one-note: the heartless MNU executive, the kill-crazy soldier, the thoughtless wife. But how Wikus interacts with the aliens paints him to be a very complicated character. The likeable guy we saw with the documentary film crew begins to erode as he patronizes the aliens, cursing them while not treating any of them with any sense of individuality. He even goes so far as to show his newly appointed protegee how to “abort” a shack of gestating alien eggs by removing their food source and then torching the shack to make sure the job is complete. As he and his team work their way through the slum, he only identifies aliens with higher intelligence by calling out their relationship to the crimes they are committing. Christopher Johnson is one of those aliens that Wikus typecasts as a criminal. While investigating Christopher’s shack, he comes across many scientific apparatus that are in the process of rehabilitating a ship that can help get the aliens home. s he picks up the all-too-important canister containing the life-blood of the ship, he gets spritzed by the black liquid inside. This incident is the true catalyst for the personal morality struggle within District 9. After getting sprayed and suffering an arm injury, Wikus becomes very sick. Due to his exposure to the alien biotechnology, his body begins to reject its human appearance and Wikus physically starts transforming into the very other that he fears. It is only then that he begins to sympathize with the alien and understand the hatred and fear they endure. It should not be lost on any viewer that it takes having his humanness disintegrate from his body for Wikus to learn true humanity and compassion for fellow life. District 9 is rich with symbolism, and is a desperate call to action to love your neighbor. The sci-fi genre is perfectly constructed to mask messages that need to be heard within riveting landscapes of faraway planets and imaginative new forms of life. Ignoring the alien biotechnology and simply redefining the term “alien” with its synonymous counterpart, “foreign”, we can acknowledge District 9 as a gritty realization of every refugee state to come about in our history. I think there are elements of Wikus in every single one of us. We want to find acceptance, be successful, make each other laugh, and at the end of the workday, retire to a loving and peaceful home. Those desires are what bond us together. And like Wikus, we struggle (to various degrees) with fighting our inner fears, and the shame that cause us to lash out at one another. To live in such discord is the essence of living, fight or flight, beyond just human nature. This cornucopia of emotion and struggle can be found in even the most stable of households. Now imagine taking that discord and feeling that struggle in a place in which you’re not wanted, reviled even. Districts 9 implores that we be even better than Wikus, and speak up for the impoverished and abused, those displaced in society without a true physical and, even more important, spiritual home. Some say now, more than ever, it’s time to stand up to injustice; but that fight is always relevant. When the documentary footage is no longer our window into the world of District 9, we see action as it happens, sans the conditioning rhetoric of the bureaucracy and media. It is our duty as able bodied, intelligent consumers to heed District 9’s call to action. Alien or not, know your neighbor and fight that fear. Bernadette Gorman-White Managing Editor Bernadette graduated from DePauw University in 2011 with a Film Studies degree she’s not currently using. She constantly consumes television, film, and all things pop culture and will never be full. She doesn’t tweet much, but give her a follow @BeaGorman and see if that changes. #Newsletter #Review #District9 #March #BernadetteGorman

Jack, Robert and Mike pull into the gas station that is Fast Five and fill her up five times over in the latest Quarter Mile at a Time. They also run inside real quick to grab some Gatorade and chips. They take too long. #Newsletter #Podcasts #QMAAT #QuarterMileataTime #FastFive #JackKolodziejski #RobertAnderson #MikeBurdge

Robert, along with guest Jeremy, takes a look at the new horror film from writer James Gunn and director Greg McLean and starring teen heart-throb Michael Rooker. #Newsletter #Podcasts #HotTakes #TheBelkoExperiment #RobertAnderson #JeremyKolodziejski

Human being Mike Burdge is joined by all around not-a-robot Robert "Robot" Anderson to discuss one of Mike's favorite films, Paul Verhoeven's 1987 masterpiece, RoboCop. #Newsletter #Podcasts #March #Overdrinkers #MikeBurdge #RobertAnderson #RoboCop

Robert, Jack and Mike take a look at the turning-of-the-tide installment, the return to form, the getting-the-gang-back-together-part-one, the bombastic joy-mobile that is Fast and Furious. #Newsletter #Podcasts #QMAAT #QuarterMileataTime #FastandFurious #RobertAnderson #JackKolodziejski #MikeBurdge

In the absence of Jack, Robert ventures into the great unknown with Bernadette and Mike to relive the tale that's as old as time in Disney's latest live-action adaptation, Beauty and the Beast. #Newsletter #Podcasts #HotTakes #RobertAnderson #BernadetteGorman #MikeBurdge #BeautyandtheBeast

Three Queens, who can only be described as statuesque, embark on a cross-country journey to Hollywood, California, where they will compete in the Drag Queen of America contest in Beeban Kidron’s To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. The 1995 comedy stars Patrick Swayze as lead Queen Vida, Wesley Snipes as the fierce Noxeema, and John Leguizamo as Queen-in-training Chi-Chi, three actors famously known for not playing Drag Queens. To Wong Foo is a fun twist on your typical “fish out of water” story, wherein our three fabulous heroines become trapped in the small, backwater town of Snydersville, after their chariot, a 1967 Cadillac Deville convertible, breaks down. The majority of the film takes place in Snydersville. While we easily could have had a film about Drag Queens going on a road trip culminating in the ferocious competition of the Drag Queen of America crown, we instead have a story of how Drag Queens make a small town a little queerer. So, what is To Wong Foo trying to say about the power of Drag? Drag is all about becoming a character. Noxeema’s definition of a Drag Queen is, “A gay man who has too much fashion sense for one gender.” It’s a fun explanation for why men decide to do drag, but in a way it’s flawed, we know that straight men also perform drag. The thing about drag is, it’s less about becoming a gender and more about becoming a character. Patrick Swayze’s character in the film doesn’t become a woman when he puts on a dress and FIERCE make up; he becomes Miss Vida, a character who happens to be a woman. Drag is a hyperbole of the “Male Gaze,” a term coined by British film theorist Laura Mulvey. In Mark Fortier’s “Theory/Theatre, an introduction,” he explains the Male Gaze as: “Patriarchal cultural visions often reducing woman to stereotypes (virgin, whore, Madonna, bitch) and fetishizing body parts (breasts, vagina, face).” Drag uses this same concept but in a way that makes it satirical. Though the Male Gaze is a representation of women that dehumanizes them, Drag uses it as empowerment. The performance nature of Drag serves to have people look at you, to gaze upon you, using the stereotypes described above, and hyperbolizing the body parts (described above); Drag Queens create a character that is so larger than life, you have to watch them. At many points in To Wong Foo, we see our heroines face adversity, from getting accosted on the streets of New York City, to actually being hunted by sexist, homophobic, rapist, all around bad dude Sheriff Dollard (Chris Penn). This may be relevant to the lives of many men who decide to perform in drag, (except for the being hunted by Chris Penn part, but who knows), whether they identify as gay or not. Having a stage, having a character to transform into, gives these people strength. This same strength is given to Snydersville, whose townsfolk are the audience to a very crazy Drag performance. The town starts off as a place where the women are underpowered, and the men are all kinda pieces of shit, from the physically/verbally abusive husband of Carol Ann, to the group of young boys who are also constantly trying to trap Chi-Chi. The Queens arrive and change the entire way the town functions by transforming the town’s Strawberry Social event into a Drag Queen show. The Queens objective seems to be to empower all those who are not empowered, from the women of the town, to even the young boy who works at the antique shop. The film’s climax is when Sheriff Dollard comes to town to arrest (or kill?) the Queens, but the town’s folk protect them by saying how they’re all Drag Queens. Drag Performances are a ton of fun. Drag Queens are a ton of fun. It’s an expression of an individual but also of Queer culture itself. Audiences to these shows are almost always mixed. People come from all walks of life to be entertained by these larger than life characters. Like the people of Snydersville, we all leave these shows, and this film, a little queerer than when we started. Robert Anderson Robert has a degree in Screenwriting and Playwriting and works in multiple genres. He's just your typical man-child who enjoys most things nerd culture. You can follow him on Twitter @RoBaeBae #Newsletter #Review #ToWongFoo #RobertAnderson #March

Boy meets girl. Girl erases boy. Boy tries everything within his mental capabilities to remember girl. So goes the plot of 2004’s, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry, two men who live in surreality and matryoshka fables. Main characters, Joel and Clementine’s story begins from the outmost edge, and then travels inward to reveal the messy intricacies of what it means to know and love someone. At the painful end of a two-year relationship, Clementine decides remembering Joel, and the person she became while with him, is too painful. Luckily, Lacuna Inc. specializes in misery removal. This company maps relationship memories (a former flame, a deceased pet) within your brain, and subsequently eradicates the very neurotransmitters that would ever lead you to think of the forgotten ever again. It is a procedure based on finality; but what if someone, in the throes of the drugged-up procedure, wants to call it off? Joel also carries the emotional baggage of his memories of Clementine, and upon finding out that she has erased him entirely from her life, he chooses to undergo the procedure as well. We spend the bulk of the film within Joel’s memories as Lacuna is gradually taking them away. As Lacuna travels further and further back in time within his mind, the tarnish of the negative memories disappear, and Joel begins to see the good memories more clearly than he had in months. Lacuna doesn’t discriminate between good and bad memories, and per their policy, all memories must go for their work to be truly successful. Joel, trapped inside his extremely paralyzed body, (but remembering happier and happier moments of love), becomes desperate to stop the procedure. The Clementine version of Joel’s subconscious suggests hiding her in memories altogether unrelated to their union, hopefully saving a piece of her in a memory Lacuna won’t be able to find. Eternal Sunshine certainly succeeds at intimating a beautiful romance rife with real problems, but it does itself one better by also subtly signaling the importance of self-awareness. Joel’s first revisited memory when Lacuna begins the procedure depicts him as an unreliable narrator. A conversation he had just had with his neighbor is repeated, but with missing dialogue, to set the tone for the remainder of the memories. If even the most recent of memories is not entirely accurate, it’s safe to say the further distanced memories have the possibility to be distorted as well. The Clementine we see Joel falling back in love with may not be the real Clementine, but her caricature is raw and genuine. Joel remembers both himself and Clementine as incredibly flawed messes of people: he even paints himself as less than charming in many circumstances. We revisit wily Clementine challenging reserved Joel, and vice-versa, but after many small and large blows to their egos, they forgot the importance of appreciating their differences. Externally from Joel’s mind, two Lacuna Inc. employees also face the backlash of one choosing to undergo the procedure. Dr. Howard Mierzwiak and his receptionist, Mary, had an affair in their past, but only he knows about it. Mary erased the affair from her memory, but it didn’t change the way she ultimately feels about him, causing history to repeat itself. Erasing the memories of the past is one thing, but Lacuna doesn’t specialize in dissecting the emotions associated with the heart. Howard has to reveal their past to Mary when she, in a passionate admission, kisses him and tells him she’s been in love with him for a very long time. The knowledge of her past completely changes her opinion on the work that they do. She once saw it as a beautiful kindness done unto their patients, removing their pain and giving them a fresh start; she now sees the procedure as a robbery. In her grief, Mary decides to mail Lacuna’s patients their files, detailing their forgotten memories. Her actions force the recently reunited Joel and Clementine to face their past and question their importance to each other. What Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind does so well is portray a couple of people who ultimately might not be the right fit for each other. Their relationship is complicated and conflicting, but they care about one another immensely, or at least they did. Although Lacuna may provide a polarizing procedure, the benefit for Joel and Clementine is that they get to begin their relationship anew with the knowledge they can drop their facades. By admitting their faults up front, the relationship has the freedom to honestly breathe, and the two can enjoy reacquainting themselves with what they love about each other. The puzzle-of-a-plot screenwriting lyrically expresses the beauty in letting someone be who he or she is, baggage and all. Joel and Clementine know they can get under each other's skin, but they choose to accept it. In Joel’s last Lacuna-stolen memory, he confesses to Clementine that he wished he had stayed with her the first night they met, but left her in confusion and embarrassment. Deciding to stick around for the second run of their relationship is just the first step in their emotional recovery. Deciding to embrace their differences and forget their associated hang-ups, that’s what commitment’s all about. Bernadette Gorman-White Bernadette graduated from DePauw University in 2011 with a Film Studies degree she’s not currently using. She constantly consumes television, film, and all things pop culture and will never be full. She doesn’t tweet much, but give her a follow @BeaGorman and see if that changes. #Newsletter #Articles #BernadetteGorman #March #EternalSunshineoftheSpotlessMind

It has arrived: The somber discovery-of-the-void-within-all-of-us podcast about the electrifying thrill ride of a sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious. Robert, Mike and Jack buckle up again, but not before checking the pressure in their tires. All four of em. #Newsletter #Podcasts #QuarterMileataTime #QMAAT #2Fast2Furious #LUDA #RobertAnderson #MikeBurdge #JackKolodziejski