Genre Reveal Party‪!‬ Dave Maher and Madeline Lane-McKinley

This week we discussed two films about precocious high school students that came out in 1998 and 1999, which were both second features made by precocious indie filmmakers: Wes Anderson's Rushmore and Alexander Payne's Election. These films have a lot in common, but they also have very different takes on the adolescent / mid-life crisis dynamics they stir up.
We also listen to a call-in from Johanna Isaacson about Slumber Party Massacre, as we continue looking at representations of school in film.
Spoilers: bee sting sequences, Bueller... Bueller..., American Beauty, justice for Margaret Yang, unnecessary aquariums, Alexander Payne and teenage girls, fencing clubs, hand jobs and fingering, women who smoke cigarettes in Wes Anderson films, the power of theater (again), please cast Dave in another Dick Wolf production.
Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter, and email us at genrerevealparty@gmail.com with your thoughts, suggestions, guest requests, and genre reveals.
Follow Madeline @la_louve_rouge_ on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to his other podcast, This Is Your Afterlife.
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Music by Kirk Rawlings from Courtesy and beige on beige
Cover art by Tuli Lane-McKinley

This week we followed up our boarding school trilogy with an inspirational teacher comedy double feature: School of Rock (2003) and Hamlet 2 (2006). These are two incredible antidotes to Dead Poets Society.
Spoilers: abolish grades!, the power of theater, Jack Black is sexy and everyone knows it, politically incorrect lyrics, Erin Brockovich on stage, Richard Linklater talk, boring and awful girlfriend roles, Tamika makes us cry, herpes commercials, cast Dave in a Dick Wolf production or as Jack Black's brother who works as a librarian ASAP, keep the original cast if you go to Broadway.
Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter, and email us at genrerevealparty@gmail.com with your thoughts, suggestions, guest requests, and genre reveals.
Follow Madeline @la_louve_rouge_ on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to his other podcast, This Is Your Afterlife.
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Music by Kirk Rawlings from Courtesy and beige on beige
Cover art by Tuli Lane-McKinley

To start off our latest season "School Days," we made you another trilogy! We discussed The Boarding School Trilogy: Dead Poets Society (1989), School Ties (1992), and Flirting (1991).
Spoilers: shower scenes, acne, poetry, anti-semitism, the horrible history of 'boarding schools' and genocide in the US, Thandiwe we love you, hand jobs, book deals, Robin Williams casting history, Matt Damon doesn't deserve a redemption arc, Madeline's problematic crush on Ethan Hawke, Dave's #TeamRobertSeanLeonard, University of Chicago confessions, standing on desks and playing saxophone in a cave, Gen-X, trilogies that stopped at two, Dick Wolf.
Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter, and email us at genrerevealparty@gmail.com with your thoughts, suggestions, guest requests, and genre reveals.
Follow Madeline @la_louve_rouge_ on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to his other podcast, This Is Your Afterlife.
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Music by Kirk Rawlings from Courtesy and beige on beige
Cover art by Tuli Lane-McKinley

We've got one more chat about Season 2's theme "We Don't Need Another Hero." For our bonus episode we talked about Training Day (2001), featuring Denzel Washington's Oscar-winning performance as a crooked cop. Scholar, activist (and sports dad!) Dylan Rodriguez helped us think through this film, LA politics, and Hollywood copaganda.
Spoilers: Ethan Hawke's punchable face, all cops are crooked bastards, Snoop cameo, LAPD / Hollywood collaborations, NAACP, respectability politics, David Simon, King Kong, Macy Gray, post-9/11 patriotism, Denzel Washington in the '90s.
Dylan Rodriguez is the author of several books, most recently White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logics of Genocide (2021). He's kept his day job as a Professor at UC Riverside since 2001, where he teaches in the newly formed department Black Study as well as Media and Cultural Studies. You can find out more about his political work and scholarship at linktr.ee/dylanrodriguez73. Follow him on Twitter @dylanrodriguez.
Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter, and email us at genrerevealparty@gmail.com with your thoughts, suggestions, guest requests, and genre reveals.
Follow Madeline @la_louve_rouge_ on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to his other podcast, This Is Your Afterlife.
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Music by Kirk Rawlings from Courtesy and beige on beige
Cover art by Tuli Lane-McKinley

To close out our season on heroes and villains, we talked about Mike Birbiglia's 2013 comedy special My Girlfriend's Boyfriend with guest Lucas O'Neil.
Spoilers: comedy talk, aspirations, inspirations, Death Cab for Cutie, white guys, "which," humiliation, controlling the narrative, Georgetown, geriatric millennial vibes, one man shows, clowns.
Find Lucas' tour dates and join his email list at lucasoneil.com. Follow him @mr.lucasoneil on Instagram and TikTok.
Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter, and email us at genrerevealparty@gmail.com with your thoughts, suggestions, guest requests, and genre reveals.
Follow Madeline @la_louve_rouge_ on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to his other podcast, This Is Your Afterlife.
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Music by Kirk Rawlings from Courtesy and beige on beige
Cover art by Tuli Lane-McKinley

This week we dug into the recently concluded fifth season of FX's Fargo, with guest Kyle Lane-McKinley! We discuss the series as an adaptation of the 1996 Coen Brothers' film, and more broadly the Coenesque world. And we keep reflecting on the theme of our own season, heroes and villains.
Spoilers: Coencidences, Wizard of Oz, nipple rings and prosthetic nipples with rings, lions, tigers, bears, rabbits, gators, home invasion, 500 year old sin eaters, bisquick, allegories, Jon Hamm's BDE, redemption, David Graeber, scary men with women's haircuts, chili movies, etymologies, accents.
Follow us @genrerevealpod on Instagram and Twitter, and email us at genrerevealparty@gmail.com with your thoughts, suggestions, guest requests, and genre reveals.
Follow Madeline @la_louve_rouge_ on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow Dave @thisisdavemaher on Twitter and Instagram, and listen to his other podcast, This Is Your Afterlife.
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Music by Kirk Rawlings from Courtesy and beige on beige
Cover art by Tuli Lane-McKinley