School of Movies

[School of Movies 2026]

Grindhouse is a deliberate evocation of grotty late night movies at the most questionable and sticky of back-alley theatres in the 1980s. The kind of places you go if you wish to purchase a human kidney. Robert and his frequent colaborator Quentin Tarantino remember these dives fondly and wanted to bring us that feeling with an audacious double-bill of two authentic-feeling movies, Planet Terror and Death Proof, accompanied by trailers for films that did not exist (at least at the time, three of them were made for real afterwards).

How did this bold experiment go for them? Here you can find out from a variety of angles, including a journey back to one of the first podcast episodes I ever recorded, as well as the direct response to the first time Sharon and I ever got to see the double-bill as intended and finally a culmination discussion regarding a very decisive re-edit of both films by me.

Here is a turning point in the career of Robert Rodriguez, and here is where our Director Season will close out (though we are continuing with discussions on Alita: Battle Angel, Machete and Spy Kids 4 on the patreon After School Club bonus podcast feed for everyone who throws in five bucks or more a month).

[School of Movies 2026]

Robert Rodriguez reaches his masterpiece. This film is truly magnificent as an adaptation of cinema to the aesthetics and hallmarks of this particular pitch black graphic novel series. It seems like every element combined in swift, smooth and effortlessly striking fashion as this sleazy, stark crime opera anthology drew on every skill Robert had learned over the 90s and somehow focused all of his haphazard digital work into one infinitely sharp point. The flourishes of colour and thundering automobiles hypnotising us like deer in the darkness of a snowy woodland road.

It was also blessed with an astonishing cast; Mickey Rourke making a comeback that would lead him to The Wrestler (2008), Bruce Willis in one of his last great performances, Clive Owen at his snarling hungriest, Rosario Dawson setting the screen on fire, Benicio Del Toro as a powder-keg of entitled misogyny, Michael Clarke Duncan delivering a captivating Terminator-Bear hybrid, Rutger Hauer, Powers Booth and Nick Stahl as the most detestable richly-connected psychopath villains imaginable, and even little Elijah Wood chilling our blood by playing a sprightly cannibal who neither talks nor blinks.

Bringing in Frank Miller himself and crediting him as co-director while humbly taking the mantle of the man who ‘Shoots and Cuts’, Robert was able to make this feel extraordinary in a way its imitators, including Zack Snyder's 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009), Frank Miller's own The Spirit (2008) and even Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For (2014) could not possibly match.

And folks supporting us for five bucks on our Patreon bonus feed can, this coming weekend hear all about how that second film imploded.

[School of Movies 2026]

The Robert Rodriguez series continues. After Desperado and then From Dusk till Dawn, Robert stayed in the Horror milieu and was shunted onto the Scream bandwagon by his regrettable Dimension Films keepers, the Weinsteins.

Written by Kevin Williamson (who wrote Scream and recently directed the seventh in that undying franchise) this one brought a predatory serial killer vibe back to the high school, but with an alien infiltration plot from an earlier script.

It's amazing that this one shaped up to be as likable and memorable as it did, and we put that down to Rodriguez and his enthusiastic direction, and the truly stellar cast of talented young people, including newcomer Josh Hartnett (who had only just finished Scream-aping Halloween H20, also from Dimension Films, also with a very familiar Marco Beltrami Score) Clea DuVall (who co-starred in lesbian cult favourite 'But I'm a Cheerleader' the next year), a pre-X-Men Famke Jansen, a pre-Furious Jordana Brewster, the always-fantastic Chris McDonald and Bebe Neuwirth, a T-1000-evoking Robert Patrick, a pre-Daily Show Jon Stewart and a pre-Fellowship Elija Wood.

It's The Breakfast Club meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and it had all the cool kids shouting "F*ck you, t*tbags!" along with various other colourful turns of phrase in its dialogue.

[School of Movies 2024]

NOTE: This episode was originally released two years prior to the Robert Rodriguez director season, in 2024's Cloon June.

This was George's first significant lead part after over a decade of sheepish appearances in shonky Z-List horror and then two years of his breakout role in E.R. as eminently desirable paediatrician Doctor Ross. This is a firestorm of a counterpoint to that gentle healer, fugitive thief Seth Gecko is a deeply angry man, though he is a charming picnic next to his monstrous brother.

This episode is also an intersection between two director-seasons we have in preparation, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Rarely has a collaborative movie been made that is such an appealingly riotous showcase of the distinct styles of two auteurs, whilst being humbly grimy, memorably quotable, and so very excited just to exist.

WARNING: This movie is nasty, and we will be discussing sexual assault, extreme violence, florid language and Quentin being a weird creep.

[School of Movies 2026]

Here we begin a Director Season on the films of Robert Rodriguez. This first show is kind of a roller coaster as we get to know his style, what makes Robert tick, and we chart his progress from absolute indie obscurity, making a film for almost nothing and garnering recognition on the festival circuit, charting that up through his awkward TV movie pitstop, until he hit actual popularity with genuine audiences with a sequel that is also a remake, and just happens to star Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek at the peak of their sizzling onscreen sexiness.

After this came his collaboration with Quentin Tarantino, Four Rooms, From Dusk till Dawn and then the neo teen-Horror wave of the late 90s with The Faculty (coming next week). After this he began his slew of Spy Kids films, which appealed to a completely different audience.

But we conclude with the third and final part of what became his "Mexico Trilogy", when Robert charged in on the wave of new film tech, both shooting and editing digitally. His career would change irrevocably at this point.

1. El Mariachi (1992) + Road Racers (1994)

2. Desperado (1995)

3. Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)