Movies On The Radio

We’re STILL waiting on nominations for the Academy Awards. So, in the meantime, we’re making our own list!

What was your favorite film of 2019?

Send your nomination to sot@wunc.org for your chance to be on the next Movies on the Radio with film experts Laura Boyes and Marsha Gordon.

Note: This program will air in February, 2020.

The State of Things is dancing our way to the next Movies on the Radio. Film experts Laura Boyes and Marsha Gordon will talk about your favorite dance movies, from “Singin’ in the Rain” to “You Got Served.”

What is Soylent Green? Who killed JFK? What goes on at Area 51? Paranoia is justified in these classics about conspiracies and cover-ups, reaching the highest levels of government, church, and corporation. For the next edition of Movies on the Radio, we want to know your favorite films about pulling back the curtain and speaking truth to power.

Steven Spielberg’s work ranges from the gripping war drama “Saving Private Ryan” to the animated series “Pinky and the Brain.” He scared us with “Poltergeist,” and fascinated us with “Jurassic Park.” Spielberg made us laugh at “The Goonies” and cry in “The Color Purple.” Whether writing, producing or directing, Steven Spielberg is one of Hollywood’s elite filmmakers whose name is worth its weight in Oscar gold. This month we want to know about your favorite Spielberg movie? 

Hollywood continues to change the English language. We constantly quote and misquote cinema — sometimes without ever having seen the referenced film. Sometimes the line we keep repeating simply doesn’t exist! Whether it’s from Monty Python, Spike Lee or Spielberg, movie quotes are the way we map our cultural common ground.

On the next Movies on the Radio, we want to know your notable quotables. What bits of dialogue do you most often pepper into conversation? Which lines do your friends and family inevitably end up quoting?

Somewhere over the rainbow, The State of Things is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the film adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz.” The 1939 movie is best known for its hit musical numbers, fantastical plotline and use of Technicolor. Judy Garland’s career took off after she portrayed Dorothy Gale on her journey through the magical land of Oz, and the film has since become an American cultural touchstone.

From Erin Brokovich's fight for environmental justice to the lush natural world in James Cameron’s “Avatar,” nature and the environment often play a starring role in film.

For the next edition of “Movies On The Radio,” we want to know which film about nature stuck with you the most? Is it Reese Witherspoon’s tough journey in “Wild” or maybe the classic animated film “FernGully: The Last Rainforest?”

Have you ever paid $10 dollars to see a movie in the theater only to walk out long before the credits? Or cozied up on your couch with all intention to watch the latest streaming movie, but you just couldn’t make it through to the end?

Oh, is there something in your eye? It’s not your fault. Some movies are simply designed to be tearjerkers. 

 Maybe you wailed as a tween over Jack Dawson’s cold “Titanic” death, or needed a tissue to get through a classic like “Steel Magnolias.” Did your lip tremble as Simba and Mufasa frolicked as father and son in “The Lion King” without knowing the tragedy in store? Or is it injustice that elicits sobs when you watch scenes from “The Green Mile” or “Precious?”  

We’re going to make you an offer you can’t refuse. The State of Things wants to know about your favorite gangster, mafia, and mob movies for the next edition of Movies On The Radio.

Films that draw us into the gritty highs and lows of the music world are having a big cinematic moment. There’s the new head-banging Queen biopic, a film that takes on the rise of Elton John, and yet another reincarnation of “A Star is Born.”

For the next edition of Movies on the Radio, we want to know which movie about musicians resonates most with you? Is it the dark poignancy of “Ray?” The drug and music fueled tour in “Almost Famous?” How about rise and fall of N.W.A. in “Straight Outta Compton?”

Most horror movies are meant to be spooky and scary...but bad acting or cheap special effects can turn a terrifying tale into campy one. The classic example is “Evil Dead” or a B movie like “Plan 9 From Outer Space.”

Some films blend horror with humor, two genres that some would call opposites. “Shaun of the Dead” and “Young Frankenstein” are two well-known comedy-horror movies.

Jackson Pollock, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Frida Kahlo: all had rich stories to match their art. And those stories were further dramatized in the aptly-named Hollywood films “Pollock,” “Basquiat,” and “Frida.”

Good cinema takes you out of your living room and transports you miles, eons, and even worlds away. And like a good book, the best films can leave you with a deep desire to meet those characters, or even live life for a day in their magical worlds. Think about living out supernatural fantasies within the walls of Hogwarts, hunting an elusive jaguar shark alongside your quirky buddies in a Wes Anderson film, or dodging bullets as a super-human cybercriminal in “The Matrix.”