Steven Spielberg is one of the most accomplished directors in film history. In this episode, we do an overview of his career focusing on the first two decades of his work as a director. Everything from his childhood, his start as a director, his filmmaking techniques, and the recurring themes…
To accompany our discussion of Wes Anderson’s short films including The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, we did a draft of our favorite short films. There are so many great short films from Maya Deren’s work to Pixar’s shorts. This was a fun draft and led to some great discussion.…
Wes Anderson’s love for Roald Dahl’s storytelling pours out of the screen in his four short film adaptations of Dahl short stories that dropped on Netflix in 2023. This week, we discuss the unique pop-up book execution of Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan, The Rat Catcher,…
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MERRY CHRISTMAS! It’s the most wonderful time of the year for movies, and what better way to celebrate than with a movie draft. In this Christmas Movie Draft Special, we draft Christmas movies into seven different categories and get to talk about our holiday favorites. Join us for a festive…
Christopher Nolan’s career is a fairly unique! He has made some huge movies (in scale, budget, and box office revenue) that smuggle in his personal obsessions and interests in intriguing ways. Nolan has truly come to define big budget Hollywood for his generation of filmmakers. Digging into his films over…
Tenet is, in many ways, the culmination of Nolan’s career up this point. It is a huge budget genre movie with a sci-fi twist, and really feels like something only he could pull off. With action sequences unlike anything else you’ve ever seen on screen, it is certainly worthy of…
Dunkirk is the culmination of so many techniques and filmmaking obsessions that Christopher Nolan had developed up to this point in his career. We discuss its unrelenting pace, the incredible work done to bring this film into being, and why this movie is so meaningful for both Nolan and the…
Interstellar manages to be Christopher Nolan’s most expansive film yet while simultaneously being his most sentimental. We discuss the incredible work done making this film as well as why this film feels like Nolan’s most emotional in his filmography. In our movie news section, we very briefly anticipate Sofia Coppola’s…
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…
A BIG episode for a BIG movie! Christopher Nolan’s Inception feels like a lifetime achievement in many ways. Its inception as an idea goes back to his childhood, and here we see the culmination of his visual, conceptual, and emotional obsessions culminate in a film that dominated cultural conversation. Our…
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is arguably his most notable film to date, changing not just superhero movies but the film industry in general. His grounded approach to the comic book world, Ledger’s iconic performance, and escalated scale in both the action and the story add up to a phenomenal…
In our discussion about Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, we marvel at the cinematic sleight of hand that Nolan brings with his technical and plot precision. He stretches his budget to its extremes with an incredible cast, phenomenal set pieces, and an ending that leaves you wanting more. In our movie…
In our discussion about Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, we dig into what he brought to this beloved franchise that changed superhero films. Working with a huge budget and his detailed mind, Nolan reimagined the world of Batman and Gotham and kicked off the trilogy that would elevate his career. In…
In our discussion about Christopher Nolan’s first studio feature, Insomnia, we examine why this feels like his forgotten film. Somehow with Insomnia’s studio budget, star-studded cast, adapted script, and its fairly standard narrative structure, Nolan is still able to display his unique style as he gives us an incredibly interesting…
Our discussion of Christopher Nolan’s sophomore film, Memento, praises the unique experience that he brought us in his budding career. Memento’s backwards structure, iconic design, and great performances put Nolan on the map as the next great American filmmaker. In our movie news section, we discuss theatrical re-releases of classic…
This week we discuss Christopher Nolan’s debut feature film, Following. With virtually no budget and borrowed equipment, Nolan was able to make an interesting twist on noir that already displayed his personal flair. In our movie news section, we share some random discussion on Scorsese anticipating Killers of the Flower…
This week we kick off our Christopher Nolan series by discussing his career as a whole. This episode will act as an establishing shot for the rest of the series, cluing us in to techniques and themes to look for as we watch through Nolan’s filmography. In our movie news…
This week, we have a bonus episode where I talk about watching old movies with your kids, recommending Ty Burr’s The Best Old Movies for Families, and my four year old gives his review of two recent watches: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)…
This week I take a break between director series and talk about some recent releases that I have seen as well as look forward to some upcoming releases coming out this fall by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Denis Villenueve, Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, and more! https://www.establishingshotpod.com/ Timestamps: Intro (00:40)…
This week I wrap up our series on Wes Anderson’s filmography with an epilogue episode. I talk through some of my major takeaways from Anderson’s filmography then share a takeaway from the endeavor of going through a director’s filmography in general. Finally, I announce the director we will cover in…
This week we discuss “Asteroid City”, Wes Anderson’s latest film. With a meta-textual, layered framing device, highly stylized desert set and just as dry characters, and Wes at the height of his powers, this discussion was bound to be great. In our movie news section, we discuss Wes Anderson and…
This week we discuss The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson’s first work in an anthology format. This one is both an ode to French cinema and to The New Yorker, is charming in its own drab yet fanciful Anderson way, and is chock full of various filmmaking abstractions. In our movie…
This week we discuss Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson’s second venture into stop-motion animation. Full of beautiful sets, love for Japanese art, and of course dogs, this is a really enjoyable film to both watch and discuss. In our movie news section, we discuss Tom Cruise’s stunts in Mission Impossible…