Summer Movie Season: June 2023 - Part 2

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The month of August has ended, but the heat index continues to soar. Fortunately, Special Topics in Media continues to capitalize on recent nostalgia with the 2023 Summer Movie Season mini-series. Host Garret Castleberry reconnects with Kyle Hammonds in their curated tour of popcorn commercial cinema. The shadow-and-light rhetors drift further into their POD-A-THON! emphasis on the June 2023 IP Franchise Wars. Having previously assessed the cultural relativity of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Garret transforms topics to consider his SURPRISE guilty pleasure of the summer and the sneaking synergy encoded within Paramount's Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. Then, the rambling rhetors weigh the cultural politics casting a current shadow on Disney's franchise output, including the latest Pixar release Elemental.

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kyle Hammonds

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended screenings (Garret)/Ontological Obstacle (Kyle):
Steve Caple Jr. (Director). Transformers: Rise of the Beasts [Film]. Montreal, Quebec; Cuzco, Peru; USA: Paramount Pictures/Skydance Media/New Republic Pictures, 2023.

Ontological Obstacles (skipped):
Peter Sohn (Director). Elemental. [Film]. USA: Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios, 2023.

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