And today, take a little trip with me. Once upon a time, there was a man, and that man drew a mouse, and from that mouse grew an empire. In that empire was a whole slew of princesses that were appropriated from different cultures, who are all public domain and free to use. Yay! We love a happy story. In the beginning, these princesses were very simple. They were just young little girls who needed a man to save them, and that was very simple. But then, as audiences kind of evolved, so did the princesses, and a new generation of princesses came forth, ones that were resourceful and intelligent and yet still had to get married at the end of the movie. Recently, these princesses have come under fire because, well, even though Disney princesses have evolved dramatically over the years, there's still quite a few issues with them. There's some issues with how they act. There's some issues with how they grow as people. And there are some major issues with Pocahontas.

So today we're going to tackle the so-called princess problem.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

This week on Cinematix Problematix, we’re heading back to Faber College for John Landis' 1978 film Animal House, the movie that helped define frat-boy culture, brought John Belushi out of late-night and into cinemas, introduced toga parties into society, and is absolutely a minefield of 1970s “yikes.” And yes, we still kind of love it. Blame nostalgia. Or the soundtrack. Or the fact that the 1970s were lawless times.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Erin Maxwell & Kristina “Krissie” Rettig

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan

Today, we’re talking about the 1993 Joel Schumacher film Falling Down. It follows a down-on-his luck man named William Foster (aka D-FENS) over the course of a 24 hour period on a hot day in 1990’s Los Angeles. Sitting in traffic, surrounded by a cacophonous crescendo of standard LA traffic stimuli, he abandons his car in the middle of the freeway, and sets off on a cross-city trek from East LA to Venice. Along the way, he takes out all of his pent-up resentments on a murderer’s row of LA archetypes that include: a Korean shopowner, hostile Latino gang members, homeless people, fast food workers, construction workers, a neo-nazi who owns a gun shop, and - my favorite - his ex wife (who has a restraining order against him).

Join us to discuss how this film is still relevant today, as well as to revel in how disturbed Erin was watching it.

CREDITS

Hosted by: Kristina “Krissie” Rettig & Erin Maxwell

Edited by: Russ Lichter

Theme song by: Spooky Dan