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Welcome to “Pop Break Goes to Washington” where host Allison Lips is joined by a special guest to discuss the historical significance and impact of a political film. Allison and her guests discuss how politics is portrayed in each film. While this podcast focuses on the American political system, it does make a few forays outside of the United States.
For our second episode, Allison and Justin Mancini from the Podwork Angels: The Rush Hour, a podcast dedicated to the rock band Rush, explore the themes in Dave. Justin is co-host of Cinema Joes, a film podcast which is now on hiatus. You can find his writing on film at his website, thecinemaverick.com, and on Letterboxd @TheCineMaverick.
As for Dave, the movie held its own at the year-end box office, finishing 13th, in a year with Jurassic Park, The Fugitive, and Mrs. Doubtfire. However, it tends to get lost in a year with those monster blockbusters and Schindler’s List winning tons of awards.
The film stars Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella, Ben Kingsley, Ving Rhames, Kevin Dunn, Faith Prince Charles Grodin, Laura Linney, Stephen Root and Bonnie Hunt with cameos from actors, politicians and media personalities such as: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Oliver Stone, Tip O’Neil, Ben Stein, Chris Dodd, Chris Matthews and Jay Leno. The film was written by Gary Ross – who was known at the time for his script for the Tom Hanks’ comedy Big. He would later go on to write and direct the first Hunger Games film and Ocean’s 8. The film was directed by Ivan Reitman — known for his iconic comedies Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, Kindergarten Cop and Twins.
Join Allison and Justin as they debate whether this Ivan Reitman film holds up today and deserves to be reconsidered.
