Zachary Lee

The horror genre is a beloved one, and it is teeming with multitudes of subgenres. We explore all of these subgenres in this week’s movie draft. From slashers to paranormal to monster movies and more, the exploration of our fears and anxieties are taken on in these various forms. We draft everything from old classic Universal monster movies to modern horror hits and everything in between. https://www.establishingshotpod.com/ Feedback: Email us at establishingshotpod@gmail.com Leave a voicem...

While artificial intelligence has burst on the scene as a huge cultural topic in recent years, there is a long history of AI stories in film. This week, we do a movie draft of films dealing with artificial intelligence. We talk about the ways the films we choose explore the topic, how so many of these films are more relevant today than ever, and enjoy discussing the wide variety of styles and storytelling in these AI movies. Plus, you get to vote on who had the better draft! https://www.esta...

With A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Steven Spielberg dove headfirst into sci-fi storytelling more than he ever had before. With incredible production design, another great child performance for Spielberg in Haley Joel Osment, a pinocchio infused, existential sci-fi story, and especially the Stanley Kubrick collaboration, this was an incredible feat even for Spielberg (even if it was and still is a pretty divisive film). We talk about all of this, how this film speaks to the modern artificial inte...

Sometimes even the best directors have a big ol’, old fashioned FLOP. This week, we decided to follow up our discussion of Spielberg’s critical and audience flop with a movie draft of some of our most renowned directors’ flops! The goal is not to draft the worst collection of movies, but movies we think hold up despite flopping at the time of their release. We tried to stick with movies that had 60 or below on their metascore, were rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, were huge commercial failures, and ty...

In 1941, the 1979 WWII comedy, we have a prime example of a powerhouse director putting out a complete flop. Steven Spielberg along with writers in Robert Zemecki & Bob Gale and producer John Milius were trying to ride the train of troublemaking comedies that came before them. While the film did fine commercially worldwide, it was not well received by audiences and critics alike. Our discussion delves into why this movie was a failure and what we can learn from that. https://www.establishing...

The Dark Knight Rises was an ambitious end to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Its epic scale feels like the natural target of the trajectory that this trilogy and Nolan’s career overall had been taking. Our discussion spans from the incredible production work to the core themes at play, and we try to figure out if this is a satisfying wrap up of the trilogy. In our movie news section, guest Zachary Lee shares some of his favorite films of 2023 so far. Finally, we do a horror subgenre movie d...