Our Special Topics in Media Pod-a-Thon! reaches its summer 2023 conclusion with an examination of the twinning effect that impacted the month of July. Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds in a conversation that highlights the cultural peaks and valleys  encountered through July's movie releases. Among the films released, a clear trend of oppositional twinning emerges. The first half of July pitted an unexpected  showdown between heroes portrayed by Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, Dead Reckoning, Part 1 and Jim Caviezel in Sound of Freedom. The unexpected fallout between these film releases was then compounded by the unique phenomenon colloquially branded "Barbenheimer". Barbenheimer could have spelled doom for one or both of the releases from Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures. Instead, Greta Gerwig's pop icon imagining and Christopher Nolan singular approach to directing a biopic collectively produced over $2 billion in box office revenue. The conversation "teases" these unexpected trends while saving room for future long-form analysis.  

 
Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended Screenings (Garret/Kyle):
Christopher Nolan. (Director). Oppenheimer. [Film].Los Alamos, New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Zurich, Switzerland: Universal Pictures/Atlas Entertainment/Gadget Films.

Chrisopher McQuarrie. (Director). Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One [Film]. Norway, Italy, England, United Arab Emerits: Focus Paramount Pictures/Skydance Media/TC Productions, 2023.

Greta Gerwig. (Director). Barbie. California, USA, England, UK: Warner Bros./Heyday Films/LuckyChap Entertainment, 2023.

James Mangold. (Director). Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny [Film]. Yorkshire, England; Glascow, Scottland, UK: Walt Disney Pictures/Lucasfilm/Paramount Pictures.

Ontological Obstacles (Garret/Kyle):
Alejandro Monteverde. (Director). Sound of Freedom. [Film]. Columbia, California, USA: Metanoia/Santa Fe Films, 2023.

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