Marxists at the Movies

S2E6 - Cocoon (1985): Literal Alien-ation

🎬 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  [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCnU2BTXNXN8m-aBWB9x87IA] ) 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

S2E2 - The Breakfast Club (1985): The Revolution That Stayed in the Library

🎬 The Breakfast Club (1985): The Revolution That Stayed in the Library It'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.com Leftist nostalgia for the people. 📽️🔨

S1E43 - Yentl (1983): The Cost of Truth

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.

S1E42 - Madonna - Truth Or Dare (1991): Machine of Queer Extraction

Visit ⁠www.cinemarchmedia.com⁠ [http://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.

S1E41 - MUSIC - New Kids on the Block - Step By Step (1990): The Backstage Bedroom

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.