Marxists at the Movies

Is Good Burger (1997) secretly cinema’s sharpest anti-capitalist satire? On this episode of Marxists at the Movies, Edward Michael Francis audits late-90s Nickelodeon nostalgia, the class struggle behind Ed’s secret sauce, and why this cult classic accidentally became a foundational Marxist critique of monopoly capital.We’re breaking down the film's material conditions, corporate greed, and working-class resistance:The Labor Theory of Secret Sauce: How Ed (Kel Mitchell) embodies un-alienated living labor while Dexter Reed (Kenan Thompson) runs an exploitative 80/20 venture capital contract.Mondo Burger & High-Control Cult Dynamics: Deconstructing Kurt Bozwell's bio-engineered "Franken-Patties" and welcoming a surprise guest from our sister show CultFroggy with an AAC speech soundboard to run Steven Hassan’s BITE model! The Reality Behind 90s Nickelodeon: Analyzing Dan Schneider, Brian Robbins' path to Paramount Global co-CEO, and Kel Mitchell’s reflections on child stardom, emotional labor, and character ownership.Studio Oversight: Executive feline supervision provided by Myron the cat from their command pillow. ✊ Join the Collective & Support Independent MediaMarxists at the Movies is 100% human-created, independently funded, and completely free of corporate sponsors. Patreon: Get every episode a full month early, unlock exclusive companion essays, bonus audio, and research archives at patreon.com/cinemarchmedia. Official Website: Explore our show notes, full essay library, and get our memoir, 7 Rooms: One Family Inside a Cult, at cinemarchmedia.com[cite: 4, 7].Follow & Subscribe: Find Marxists at the Movies and CultFroggy across Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and TikTok!

What does God need with a starship? More importantly: how did Sybok manage to turn the "Planet of Galactic Peace" into a hostage crisis, hijack Starfleet’s flagship, and pull off an interstellar pyramid scheme straight through the Great Barrier?In this episode of Marxists at the Movies, we take a deep, analytical look at 1989’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, directed by William Shatner. Moving past the campfire singing and marshmallow dispensers, we examine the film’s chaotic production history, studio budget cuts, and how its narrative reflects late Cold War cultural fatigue and the mechanics of spiritual hucksterism.Inside the Episode:Sybok & High-Control Charisma: How Sybok exploits personal trauma to build a devoted follower base, and the psychology behind messianic cult leaders.The Failure of Nimbus III: Deconstructing the "Planet of Galactic Peace"—why a joint Federation, Klingon, and Romulan utopian outpost collapsed into an impoverished, desolate wasteland.Production Mechanics & 1989 Chaos: William Shatner’s directorial ambitions, the 1988 Writers Guild strike, Paramount’s budget slashing, and why the VFX team struggled to deliver the film's cosmic vision.The "Sha Ka Ree" Climax: False deities, the illusion of cosmic authority, and Captain Kirk’s refusal to surrender critical thinking to a booming disembodied entity.⭐ Support Marxists at the Movies & CineMarch Media:Love the show? Help keep our deep-dive media analysis independent and ad-free by becoming a patron. Members get bonus discussions, extended cuts, early access to future episodes, and our full archive.👉 Join the crew on Patreon: www.patreon.com/cinemarchmedia🌐 Website & Show Notes: www.cinemarchmedia.com

"This is a story of boy meets girl, but this is not a love story." 🎬✨ Today on Marxists at the Movies, we deliver leftist nostalgia for the people with an ideological takedown of (500) Days of Summer. Check out our research with Google LM here: https://notebook.google.com/notebook/7d72aa36-b1a0-405d-94f9-88f3272ac275 👥 Yes, there are two hosts running this show, and yes, both of them are me. Confused? Tune in to hear the Analyst and the Chaos Muppet go head-to-headWe explore Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, dismantle Tom Hansen’s softboy entitlement, defend Summer Finn’s boundaries, and answer to our feline Executive Producer, Myron the Revolutionary Cat 🐾☭. 🔗 Full essays and updates: https://www.cinemarchmedia.com🎟️ Join the Patreon club (free 7-day trials open now!): https://www.patreon.com/cinemarchmedia

🎬 Marxists at the Movies – Cocoon (1985): Literal Alien-ation 🛸🛠️Welcome back, Comrades! In this episode, we are diving deep into a pool of glowing water and 1980s nostalgia to dissect the 1985 sci-fi fantasy classic, *Cocoon*. On its surface, it’s a sweet, family-friendly tale about lovable senior citizens rediscovering their youth. But underneath? It has volumes to say about how our capitalist society treats our most cherished friends and relatives.We apply a leftist, social justice lens to the film , filtering it through frameworks like sociologist Peter Townsend's "structured dependency" , Simone de Beauvoir's "comprehensive othering of the aged" , and Erving Goffman's concept of the "total institution".From Don Ameche’s legendary breakdancing scene to Wilford Brimley’s historic, age-defying sexual agency —plus the tragic, real-world reason why this James Horner-scored film is legally missing from every major streaming platform —we uncover why Cocoon is an unintentional communist masterpiece. SUPPORT THE REVOLUTION ON PATREONWant to hear our episodes a full month before anyone else? Our **CineMarch Media Information Club** on Patreon gets early access to every single episode, plus exclusive ongoing bonus series!If you love what we do, consider joining or upgrading your tier today:The $7 Screening Committee Tier 🎟️The $12 Full Spectrum Comrade Tier 🛠️The Ultimate Leftist Media Steal: When you support CineMarch Media, you're getting TWO shows and TWO adorable mascots for the price of one single subscription! You get complete access to both Marxists at the Movies and our sister show CultFroggy (examining high-control institutional systems and cult dynamics). It is the ultimate media package.👉 Join the Cadre here: patreon.com/cinemarchmedia CONNECT WITH CINEMARCH MEDIAFind transcripts, articles, exclusive merchandise, and Myron the Revolutionary Cat's latest completely unreasonable demands over at our central hub!🌐 Website: https://www.cinemarchmedia.com🐸 CultFroggy Podcast: Available on YouTube ( @CultFroggy  ) Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else you listen! FOLLOW US ON SOCIALS Instagram: @CineMarch Media TikTok: @MarxistsAtTheMovies @CultFroggy Executive Producer: Myron The Revolutionary Cat (supervising strictly from the bed).#Marxism #FilmAnalysis #Cocoon #PhysicalMedia #CriticalGerontology #LeftistPodcast #CineMarchMedia #CultFroggy #ronhoward #marxistsatthemovies

🎬 The Breakfast Club (1985): The Revolution That Stayed in the LibraryIt's April, and we're crashing Saturday detention — Marxist-style. 🏫✊Marxists at the Movies takes John Hughes's generation-defining classic through a dual-track analysis: Marxist critique meets developmental psychology and neuroscience. We're talking Baumrind's parenting styles, Elkind's Imaginary Audience, Hot Cognition, and the specific way high-control environments shape the adolescent brain — and the film that almost named all of it but flinched at the last second.We cover the studio interference that lobotomized the original cut, the toxic relationship modeling nobody interrogated in 1985, the blinding whiteness of Shermer's "universal" empathy — and we make the case that Ally Sheedy essentially co-wrote this movie and got a makeover scene for her trouble. 🎨❄️This month's Comrade of the Week? You already know. Don't you forget about her.🐱 Executive Producer Myron approves this message from a sunny windowsill.⏰ Patreon members got this one a full month early! Join the CineMarch Media Information Club at patreon.com/cinemarchmedia — Marxists at the Movies starts at just $7/month, or go Full Spectrum Comrade at $12/month and add CultFroggy to your roster.🌐 Everything we do lives at cinemarchmedia.comLeftist nostalgia for the people. 📽️🔨

Visit ⁠⁠www.cinemarchmedia.com⁠⁠ and patreon.com/cinemarchmedia to support the work.In this episode of Marxists at the Movies, we dismantle the yeshiva as an ideological site in Barbra Streisand’s Yentl (1983) — viewing it not just as a musical debut, but as a fifteen-year cage match of attrition against the Hollywood patriarchy.While often remembered as a feminist fable or a "novelty premise," Yentl is something more rigorous: a study of forbidden knowledge and the brutal mechanics of exclusion. It is a film where the need for total control functions as both a survival strategy and a creative prison. The camera doesn’t just capture a performance; it documents a woman clutching her directing monitor for dear life, transforming a decade of rejection into a symbolic test case for female authorship.We examine the film as a workplace of intellectual production: where the pursuit of truth is a commodity denied to the feminine, and where "precision" stops being professionalism and starts functioning as armor. From the clandestine study of the Talmud to the non-diegetic interior monologues, Yentl reveals how intensity and ambition can only be made "respectable" through the tightest possible calibration.This isn’t a simple critique of the musical.It’s an analysis of how cultural meaning is vindicated through a struggle against the means of production.This is not just a song.This is a defense.This is the cost of truth — rehearsed down to the syllable.If Yentl once felt like a triumphant arrival — we’re asking what was lost in the "fifteen-year war" to get it made.And why the industry found a woman handling millions of dollars so threatening.And yes — Myron is listening too, tail twitching in approval from their usual spot.

Visit ⁠www.cinemarchmedia.com⁠ and patreon.com/cinemarchmedia to support the work.In this episode of Marxists at the Movies, we step inside Madonna’s Truth or Dare (1991) — not as a tour documentary, but as a tightly engineered system of labor, intimacy, and queer visibility under capitalism.Often remembered as scandal, provocation, or queer breakthrough, Truth or Dare is something more precise — and more unsettling. It is a machine that extracts authenticity, vulnerability, and cultural transgression, then repackages them as brand reinforcement. The camera doesn’t just observe Madonna’s orbit; it disciplines it. Desire is curated. Boundaries are tested selectively. Queerness is invited in — but only as long as it performs, entertains, and stabilizes the center of power.We examine the film as a workplace disguised as a confessional: dancers competing for proximity, loyalty framed as love, and intimacy staged as access. From the ballroom scene to the backstage rituals, Truth or Dare reveals how queer labor is spotlighted, aestheticized, and consumed — while remaining structurally disposable.This isn’t a takedown of Madonna’s artistry.It’s an analysis of how cultural icons function inside late-capitalist spectacle.This is not rebellion.This is extraction.This is queerness at work — smiling for the camera.If Truth or Dare once felt thrilling, dangerous, or liberating — we’re asking why.And who paid the cost.And yes — Myron is listening too, tail twitching in approval from their usual spot.

We’re back — after an extended break — and truly, thank you for your patience. 🖤Marxists at the Movies (Music) has reopened the backstage door, fluffed the pillows, and turned the camera back on.Visit ⁠www.cinemarchmedia.com⁠ and ⁠patreon.com/cinemarchmedia⁠ to support the work.In this episode, we step into New Kids on the Block’s 1990 blockbuster Step by Step — an album that didn’t just dominate the charts, but perfected the pop-industrial fantasy of access, intimacy, and desire. This is The Backstage Bedroom: the carefully staged illusion where fans are invited to feel close, chosen, and special… without ever touching the machinery that’s actually running the show.We dig into NKOTB at their absolute commercial peak — post-Hangin’ Tough, pre-collapse — when boy band labor, gender performance, and teen devotion were engineered into a seamless, wildly profitable system. From the title track’s assembly-line momentum to the softer moments designed to simulate vulnerability, Step by Step reveals how pop masculinity is manufactured, softened, and sold — one heartthrob at a time.This isn’t nostalgia.This is labor.This is branding.This is desire under late capitalism, wearing a backwards baseball cap and asking you to trust him.If you’ve ever wondered why Step by Step felt both thrilling and strangely empty — we’re going there.If you’ve ever sensed that the bedroom was part of the product — welcome in.Thanks for sticking with us — truly.And yes, Myron is back too, tail twitching in approval from their preferred listening spot.

Visit www.cinemarchmedia.com and patreon.com/cinemarchmedia to support the work.This episode was supposed to drop during November’s Birthday Extravaganza, but better late than never — Edward’s birthday month has officially rolled straight into December. It’s that big of a deal. Even Myron has accepted this and is celebrating by twitching their tail in approval.In this Marxists at the Movies (Music) deep dive, we crack open Carly Simon’s 1980 album Come Upstairs — the messy, feral, genre-bending pivot where she kicked off the heels, walked past the polite singer-songwriter box, and plugged herself straight into the emotional wall socket.This is Carly at her rawest: punk edges, disco residue, and a whole lot of pain sharpened into power. We dig into the production choices, the cultural moment of 1980, and the way Carly tears through gender, desire, humiliation, and self-reinvention like she’s slicing through velvet wallpaper with a broken guitar string.If you’ve never heard Jesse the way a Marxist hears it — buckle up.If you’ve never considered Take Me as I Am a class war anthem — welcome.If you’ve ever felt like the ‘80s began with one woman kicking down the door — that woman was Carly Simon.And for the comrades at the $10 Hammer and Visionary tier, don’t miss this week’s Patreon Bonus Episode — an in-depth Marxist analysis of Carly’s spellbinding track “Boys in the Trees.”Thanks for listening, comrades — and Myron says hi from their winter perch.#cinemarchmedia #MarxistsAtTheMovies #MarxistsAtTheMusic #Communism #Socialism #CarlySimon #ComeUpstairs #1980Music #AlbumAnalysis #MikeManieri #LeftistMediaCritique #MusicHistory #ExCult #CultSurvivor #CultAwareness #CultRecovery #MyronTheCat #SidMcGinnis

🎧 ⁠www.cinemarchmedia.com⁠ | ⁠patreon.com/cinemarchmediaSupport the show—and keep Myron’s treat jar full—by joining us on Patreon! Your support keeps this revolution rolling and helps us keep speaking truth (and sarcasm) to power.In this week’s TV Spotlight, we journey back to the KTMA and Comedy Central years (1988–1996) of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Born from a Minneapolis UHF station and built on duct tape, wisecracks, and proletarian imagination, MST3K didn’t just mock movies—it mocked hierarchy itself.This isn’t just a retrospective. MST3K is one of the foremost influences on our entire show—its anti-corporate spirit, DIY ethos, and subversive humor helped shape the voice of Marxists at the Movies. These were silhouettes not just against bad cinema, but against power itself.#MarxistsAtTheMovies #CineMarchMedia #MysteryScienceTheater3000 #MST3K #Communism #CultTV #MediaCritique #ExCult #CultAwareness #Communism #Socialism #Marxism #JoelHodgson #MikeNelson #MaryJoPehl #ComedyCentral #TV