Tales From the Rec Room Bree!

We close out the week with Bree’s all-time fave, 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – and our good friend, Rachel Kellogg, has joined us! Yes, Dunst is a supporting player here, but she might be the most tragic supporting actor of all time. We discuss the timelessness of this movie, whether or not this movie is hopeful about love, how Dunst herself influenced the popular character analysis lexicon, and why Elijah Wood is the perfect Weird Lil Guy. Also, we’ve got a Mark Ruffalo Falling Over And/Or Dropping Things counter, Lacuna might be an absolute Mickey Mouse operation, and we’ve got some beef with Walk The Line.

Brr, it’s cold in here! Bree and Liz head on down to Rancho Carne to revisit Bring It On. We talk about how this movie permeated schoolyard culture, how it taught all us dorky white people about cultural appropriation, how well this would work as a 21st century Netflix series, and how this movie respects its teen audience. Plus, is there a male equivalent of the Bechdel test? Because this movie does not pass it, and we love it.

We’re off to Minnesota for this episode of Home for the HoliDunst! Kelsey Goldman stops by to discuss this cult classic – why does it appeal to queer people so much? Is there a universe in which the Will Sasso stuff has aged well? What is the magic sparkle dust that makes this movie so amazing and has allowed it to go from a critical and commercial flop to a total cult classic? We discuss it all – and also take some time to nod to the maybe-almost-a-good-movie Sugar and Spice.

Let’s take a trip back to 2004 against the backdrop of a whole lot of bad stuff happening in the world, but a great time at the air-conditioned cinema. Patrick Hamilton stops by to talk Spider-Man 2, one of Dunst’s last significant blockbuster movies. Does Dunst elevate Mary-Jane from being a really hot redhead? Is it hard to write a Spider-Man screenplay? Is this the last time emo will ever make it to a blockbuster OST? We detail the best parts of this movie, the few things that fall flat (James Franco, we’re lookin’ at you) and learn all about Midori sours.

Happy HoliDunst, everyone! Welcome to five days of continuous podcasts about our favourite Kirsten Dunst movies. On the first day, Bree and Mike Stephens take a stroll through the toy aisle and into a simpler time – a time when we were weirdly casual about guns, bomb threats and abject cruelty. Joe Dante’s Small Soldiers was famously panned, but as Bree and Mike look back at this movie, they find that it might be… almost good? There’s some brilliant one-liners, an absolutely charming final performance from Phil Hartman and, of course, Kirsten Dunst shines against the snoozy Gregory Smith. Also, does David Cross secretly suck as an actor? Anyway, chainsaw skateboard!!

Happy Halloween! Bree is joined by her old friend Jason Edwards on this special occasion to discuss a spooky, scary… video game? In 2000, The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask took players by surprise and alienated a generation of Zelda fans. Or did it? While Majora’s Mask was certainly a departure from the familiar formula due to its altered structure, uncanny valley characters and, of course, its horror elements, the retroactive portrayal of Majora’s Mask as a video game that was unappreciated in its time may be slight revisionist history. Nevertheless, Bree and Jason get to the bottom of what made Majora’s Mask so special then and now, how it influenced adventure games, whether or not it is the true best Zelda game and how it fits into the franchise as a whole.
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