The Broad Perspective

Moonlight, one of the best, best picture winners in recent memory up against La La Land, a crowd pleasing love letter to hollywood and the oscar mixup that made history

Toy Story 3 is one of only three movies ever nominated for best picture. In 2011 at the 83rd Academy Awards, it lost to the King's Speech along with some other incredible films in the nomination lineup. In this episode we talk about saying goodbye to childhood through film, the never ending sequel era we are currently in, and so much more.

At the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010, Kathryn Bigelow made history by becoming the first woman to win an oscar for best directing for her film, The Hurt Locker. he beat out her ex husband, James Cameron, for his film Avatar and Quentin Tarantino, for Inglorious Basterds, in the same category. In this episode we get into our complicated feelings over this win, we talk about the three previous films that nominated a woman for best director before this win, and the limited paths for success for women in film at the time.

At the 81st Academy Awards in 2009, Heath Ledger posthumously won a best supporting actor for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. But did the film get enough accolades? The year before the Academy would expand the best picture category from just 5 films nominated to 10, a great debate was sparked by a super hero movie. We get into it on this week's episode, touch on the actual best picture winner of 2009, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, and do our best Alfred impersonations.

At the 78th Academy awards in 2006 Ang Lee's, Brokeback Mountain, was nominated for best picture. It lost the award to Crash, one of the most notorious best picture wins in Oscar history. We get into this love story for the ages, the specifics of sheep herding, cute little cowboy fits and the unbelievable tragedy of Crash winning the night.

In 1999, it was the 71st Academy Awards, Harvey Weinstien, had just introduced a strong armed new approach to campaigning movies like politicians for oscars and one of the most contoversial best picture wins in history was about to be born.

In the final episode of our first horror series, we tackle the one and only Scream (1996). Wes Craven's iconic meta slasher has remained a cultural touchstone and we talk about all the reasons why. Plus the best ghostfaces, Gail's endlessly interesting hair, & the nuance of teen social dynamics.

Modern horror gets ritualistic in Ready or Not (2019) directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpinn & Tyler Gillett. One of Megan & Chelsea's favorites they talk the upcoming sister sequel(!), the significance of goats, how fighting for your life in your wedding dress would actually feel and of course, the magic of Adam Brody.

Bodies Bodies Bodies!! One of the greatest modern horror comedies comes to the Broad Perspective this week. We talk what makes a satisfying horror ending, family/friendly dysfunction and of course, queen Alice, our funniest and smartest friend. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) Directed by Halina Reijn

The Broad Perspective goes back to 1979 to talk about one of the most seminal horror films of all time. Also early 2000s disneyworld and the Alien experience ride.

or Lighthouses & Library Books. The Ring (2002), Gore Verbinski's millennial horror masterpiece vs the Japanese original Ringu (1998) and more only slightly choatic thoughts on the classic.

We're kicking off our first horror series with a classic, 28 Days Later! A film that changed the horror landscape and pushed Chelsea to her suspension of disbelief limit.

Our first series comes to an end with Knocked Up! The rom com that literally kind of ended all rom coms.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is one of the most quintessential 2000s era rom coms and a nostalgic favorite for Megan and Chelsea. Is Andie Anderson patient zero of the "cool girl"? Is this movie more self aware than it's thought to be? Can we count Fool's Gold as a canonical sequel? All these questions answered and more on this week's episode of TBP.

Bridget Jones's Diary is a holiday rom com for the ages. Megan and Chelsea discuss British humor, food, and mini-break weekend holidays, in celebration of the Indiana Jones of rom coms - the undeniable, Bridget Jones.

On this episode we discuss one of the most quotable rom coms of all time, Jerry Maguire, and we try to figure out where Tom Cruise ranks on the crazy/hot scale and other important topics.

Megan and Chelsea revisit one of the supposedly great rom coms, Notting Hill. Things do not go as expected. Megan calls it "The Materialists" again.

The Broad Perspective returns with double the perspective. Chelsea comes on as permanent cohost and we discus the most controversial rom com in recent memory, Materialists, and one of the greatest of all time, You've Got Mail.

It's been awhile since we've had a good old fashioned Hollywood showdown with twin films from competing studios this similar and close in release. Host Megan Cruz, along with horror connoisseur, Max, from the Roughtake Podcast break down both Immaculate and The First Omen and how they address sexy nuns, religion, and patriarchy with varying levels of success.

Host Megan Cruz and guest Chelsea Garlock discuss the new Netflix fantasy vehicle, Damsel, and all the ways it illustrates the decline of the fantasy genre in the modern cinema landscape.

The 96th Academy Awards have come and gone and in this episode host, Megan Cruz, is joined by guest Chelsea Garlock to talk about the winners, losers and what the Oscars really mean to us.

The Oscars are almost upon us and host, Megan Cruz, finally gets to wax poetic about two of her personal favorite Best Picture nominees this year, Poor Things & Anatomy of a Fall. Journalist and cohost of the podcast This Ends At Prom, BJ Colangelo joins to discuss the themes that run across both of these films in their depiction of feminine identity under patriarchy.

What is the deal with modern rom coms? Anyone But You has set box office records for the genre but is it the kind of film we really need right now? Host, Megan Cruz, and rom com aficionado, Chelsea Garlock, give extremely thorough reasonings for the case against Anyone But You, and try to get to the bottom of how rom coms got here. We talk some of our favorite modern rom coms and what they get so right about updating the genre and we find another reason to hate what the streaming model has done to hollywood.

Madame Web might be the worst superhero movie of all time but what are its similarities to other female centric comic book movies? Is it indicative of a pattern unique to the super-heroine genre that predestined it to be bad or is there something much more sinister at play with the reception and creation of these films? Host, Megan Cruz, unpacks the unpleasant realities of being sold a "strong female character" and the discomfort that comes with finding yourself on the wrong side of internet discourse. Madame Web, the Marvels, and Birds of Prey are all part of the larger discussion on what we get, what we deserve, and why these movies are the way they are.

Hell is a teenage girl... Jennifer's Body has become a cult classic in the 15 years since it released to majority negative reviews in 2009. In honor of Valentine's Day, host Megan Cruz and guest Chelsea Garlock discuss the film Megan describes as both a horror comedy and a tragic romance for the ages. They go over everything from the overtly queer themes of the film, to how the public perception of Megan Fox impacted the way people reacted to it.

Host Megan Cruz is joined by guests Tayler Scriber, a phd candidate in film studies at Northwestern university, and friend of the pod, Chelsea Garlock, to discuss Killers of the Flower Moon and American Fiction! We get into so many topics from the ethics of human exploitation in storytelling to seeing movies alone.

We continue our deep dives into all the best picture nominees this week with a discussion about Past Lives and Maestro. Host Megan Cruz, is joined by film and pop culture commentators, Mike Collado, sometimes known as watchwithmike, and Nirupam Dhakal, or hugeasmammoth.films.

The Oscar nominations are finally and host Megan Cruz reacts to the surprises and snubs with guest Chelsea Garlock. We're counting down to the Oscars with deep dives on every best picture nominee and starting out with what else but Barbenheimer, very different films that created a shared cultural phenomenon. We talk our thoughts on Oppenheimer and Barbie, the gender politics at play and the many readings and interpretations of the films.

Incredible film critics, Angelique Jackson of Variety and Perri Nemiroff of Collider, get into the highs and lows of award season so far this year and share some of their personal favorite films of 2023.

The incredible and charming Emma Caulfield Ford talks Breaking Bad, her love of James Cameron's films and what it was like to bring back her character, Anya, in her new audible podcast series Slayers.

Megan chats with Kelly Fremon Craig about continuously growing up, giving women the freedom to be unlikable on screen, what it means to be a mother and a filmmaker and, of course, her incredible film, Are You There God It's Me Margaret.

In the spirit of the holidays, Megan and guests, Joe Aragon & Chelsea Garlock argue about which Christmas movie is best. Heavy hitters, Little Women, A Muppet Christmas Carol & the Holiday are all great films but for some arbitrary reason, there can only be one.

This week Megan talks the impact of TV and children's media with the one and only Bobbi Miller of the Afternoon Special fame

In which Megan gets sentimental with one of her biggest influences in film and life, Jasmine Gomez.

Hello and welcome to The Broad Perspective with Megan Cruz, the podcast that looks to dismantle the idea that there's only one kind of great art and offer a broader perspective... so to speak. Complete with corny jokes, feminist film theory, and some incredible guests. Subscribe now because I can't wait to share more of what we have in store for you!