Is This Reel Life?

We have... differing views on this movie. But that's the whole point of talking about things, right? You get to hear someone else's point of view.  In this installment of Don't Call Me Girl, Sir! we discuss Flashdance (1983). It's the story of an ostensibly strong woman who is both a welder and a dancer, and she just wants to get into that badass dance school. Buuuuut she can't seem to do it without the help of a man, and you can bet we had MANY things to say about that. Please enjoy this extra-long episode! Flashdance IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085549/ 

We freaking LOVE this movie. In this installment of Don't Call Me Girl, Sir! we are covering the Disney film Mulan (1998). We love that the voice actor for the main character in an Asian movie is Ming-Na Wen, who was born in Macau (near Hong Kong). We love that the strongest character in the story is a woman. And we love how much fun we always have watching Mulan. The Ballad of Hua Mulan: http://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/ballad-hua-mulan-legendary-warrior-woman-who-brought-hope-china-005084 Mulan IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120762/

If you've ever seen a Michael Moore documentary, you know how important unions are to some people in the United States. While we can't agree with Mr. Moore on all his points (and his editing style), we do think the growth of unions is a major part of our country's history. Especially when the advancement of the union coincides with female empowerment. Norma Rae is the story of a woman who stands up to her bosses and speaks out for her co-workers. We could debate the benefit of unions, but we won't. This is the story of a woman who overcomes opposition in the deep south, where the old boys' club would rather she just sat down and shut up. Kind of on point for today. Norma Rae IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079638/

Ready for a fun new series? After mental health, how could we cover anything other than... Feminism! We don't consider Dirty Dancing (1987) to be about feminism so much as the horrific story of a botched abortion, but hell, we included it anyway.  We have named this series Don't Call Me Girl, Sir! after an excellent line from an episode of The Newsroom (available streaming via Amazon Prime). You should definitely watch that, too. Dirty Dancing IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092890/

Do you enjoy movies with no plot? Funny animals that are actually characters? Random jumping forward and backward in time and space? Then you will love this movie. Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer are the stars of this heartwrenching tale of loss, sadness, and finding oneself. This is our review of Beginners (2010). Beginners IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1532503/

It's hard to come up with a more intense, interesting, and thought-provoking movie about mental health than Girl, Interrupted (1999). We discuss hospitalization, various mental illnesses, coping mechanisms, and how it's sometimes hard to tell when your loved one has a mental disorder.  Borderline Personality Disorder: https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions/Borderline-Personality-Disorder Girl, Interrupted IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172493/

You can't really discuss mental health or paranoid schizophrenia without talking about John Nash, of Game Theory Fame. In this episode, we cover A Beautiful Mind (2001) with special guest Alexandra Hedrick. A Beautiful Mind IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268978/ Game Theory: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash/sfeature/sf_dixit.html John F. Nash Jr.: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1994/nash-bio.html 

You can't really talk about mental health without discussing one of the most ubiquitous portrayals of mental illness in film: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. For this episode, we watched The Aviator (2004), a movie about the life and madness of Howard Hughes.  He was a wealthy filmmaker, aviation innovator, and avid womanizer, and we had plenty to discuss... as this is a nearly three hour movie. OCD History: http://ocd.stanford.edu/treatment/history.html Howard Hughes Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes The Spruce Goose: http://www.evergreenmuseum.org/the-spruce-goose The Aviator IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338751/ Follow us on Twitter: @ReelLifeChicago Send us an email: ReelLifeChicago@gmail.com

When we decided to start this podcast, we wanted to cover some pretty deep shit. Topics like religion and LGBTQ issues... and mental health. This episode is about The Virgin Suicides (1999) and it begins our series dubbed Mental Health Days (because we all need them).  This year has been pretty shitty all around; 2016 has given us the deaths of many great actors and notables, and this time of year tends to be the worst for depression and suicide attempts.  This movie is about coping with grief - the wrong ways. If you are having difficulty coping with loss or depression, please check out the links below for the suicide prevention lifeline and better ways to cope.  As always, feel free to drop us a line at ReelLifeChicago@gmail.com. The Virgin Suicides IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159097/ http://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ Mayo Clinic's tips for coping: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/basics/coping-support/CON-20032977 Looking for a secular therapist in your are

Happy Winter Solstice! We want to thank all of our patrons for supporting our new podcast. For that reason, we've decided to get you a special holiday episode all about the 1974 classic The Year Without a Santa Claus just in time for the 2016 Winter Solstice.  Join us as we travel to the North Pole; Southtown, USA; and Mother Nature's floating house in the clouds! In addition to discussing such amazing characters as Jingle, Jangle, and Iggy, you will get to hear Bethany's super awesome Santa Claus voice, as well as a brief jovial rendition of Heat Miser's song.  The Year Without a Santa Claus IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072424/ Update: It's a Festivus Miracle! We wanted to give the gift of the extra holiday episode to all our listeners this Christmas. Thank you all so much for listening. Please enjoy!

Let this special extra-long episode be evidence to you, dear listeners, that we love you enough to watch some truly terrible movies for your amusement. This episode in the Movies that Moved... Someone? series discusses God's Not Dead (2014). This movie is filled with subplots and twists and turns! There's Duck Dynasty! There's cancer and journalism and surprisingly well-made graphic presentations! Oh! And Jesus starts a car with magic! Joining us as our first special guest is Trent L. Haskins, co-founder of the Chicago Atheist Society. Interested in following the CAS? Email ChicagoAtheistSociety@gmail.com or check them out on Twitter: @ChicagoAtheists God's Not Dead IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2528814/

Continuing our series of Movies that Moved... Someone? Kristen chose Catching Faith (2015), which was promoted as a movie about a high school football star who gets in trouble with alcohol, but Jesus comes to the rescue. Unfortunately, the description does not give any indication as to what this movie is really about. Football? Jesus? Alcohol? How could we resist!  Joe Tennant Psychology Blog: https://joetennantpsychology.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/the-saga-of-wayne-grudem-part-1-is-voting-for-trump-moral/ Catching Faith IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3475020/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

For the second episode in our series of Movies that Moved... Someone? we watched Fireproof (2008), the harrowing tale of a jackass firefighter whose marriage is on the rocks, and who apparently really doesn't like trash cans or computers.  Fireproof IMDb; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1129423/

In plenty of time for your commute home from work, episode 3 starts our second series: Movies that Moved... Someone?  We tortured our brains and eyes for you by watching some seriously dreadful Christian movies; they may have touched the heart of your fundamentalist auntie, but we found them less than moving.  For our first episode of the series, we watched Christian Mingle (2014), which is essentially a 103 minute commercial for a religious dating website. The movie follows non-Christian (but... actually theist, probably Christian) Gwyneth in her desperate ploy to find a man by signing up with Christian Mingle. Yes, that's both the name of the dating site in real life and the title of the movie.  Spoiler Alert: We're pretty sure this movie was made by aliens. But what if my boyfriend really is a robot?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eOlH-yvGVw Because Christians are mean: http://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/ Christian Mingle IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3398066/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

For the second episode in the Movies We Missed series, we chose a movie that neither of us had seen before: Boy Meets Girl (2014). It's a romantic (?) comedy (?) drama (?) that follows Ricky, a young trans woman in Kentucky. When this film initially came out, there was uproarious approval from some of the LGBTQ community for its sex-positive attitude and frank discussions of life for transgender people. For this reason, we figured it was time for us to see it and find out what all the hype was about.  Emotional Biker Moment Timestamp: 1 hour 36 minutes 25 seconds Boy Meets Girl IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3007302/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

The much anticipated first episode of Is This Reel Life? is here! For our first movie series, we are covering Movies We Missed, these are films that at least one of us should have seen already, but hadn't. The first episode covers The Addams Family (1991), in which a group of con artists attempt to take the unusual but wealthy Addams family for all they're worth.  The Addams Family IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101272/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1