The Silver Nitrate Witches' Movie Review Brew

The Silver Nitrate Witches' Movie Review Brew

Welcome to the Silver Nitrate Witches’ Movie Review Brew. We’re here to explore the way we review movies! From experienced critics to posts from casual viewers, we want to talk about how we talk about movies, how that’s changed over time, what directions we see it going in, and more.

Episodes

August 20, 2025 17 mins

This week, your Silver Nitrate Witches reunite IN PERSON in New Orleans! Together we chat a bit about a fantastically weird and wild movie, Cat People (1982), the Audubon Institute, and pool scenes. What more could you want?

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenze and @bellang303. Like the theme song? You can check out the band Fine Motor at finemotormusic.com...

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It's not October 3rd quite yet, but your Silver Nitrate Witch Isabelle Lang is always ready to talk about Mean Girls (2004).

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenze and @bellang303. Music for episodes is provided by Fine Motor, and you can check out more about the band at finemotormusic.com. Thanks for listening, stay witchy, and keep watching movies.

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Why are we called the Silver Nitrate Witches' Movie Review Brew? Hear the story behind the name in this week's mini episode by Laura Valenza. (And learn a little film history, too!)

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thank you to Fine Motor for the use of their song "Highway Moon." You can find out more about the band at finemotormusic.com.

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July 30, 2025 67 mins

This week, your host witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, head back to middle school to take a lesson from the goofy god of rock himself, Jack Black. You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thanks to Fine Motor for the use of their songs "Highway Moon" and "Movie." You can find out more about the band at finemotormusic.com.

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Reese Witherspoon, Victor Garbo, and Bette Davis, oh my!

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. Thanks so much to Fine Motor for the use of their music. You can check out more about the band at finemotormusic.com.

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July 16, 2025 117 mins

Your Silver Nitrate Witches don't miss a beat in this episode on Damien Chazelle's iconic jazz world movie from the 2010s, starring Miles Teller and JK Simmons. We cover what it means to be an artist, if success and ambition are gendered, homophobia and racial representation, and whether movies need to have clear morals and likeable characters (hint, hint: they don't!).

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isa...

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Who knew bread could be so fascinating?

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July 3, 2025 4 mins

Your Silver Nitrate Witch Laura Valenza brings you a charming anecdote and fun film fact. Come back soon for full length episodes with (Isabelle Lang as well) on Whiplash, School of Rock, Finding Forrester, and more!

Thank you to Fine Motor for the use of their song "Highway Moon."

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This week we don’t have a whole witches’ brew, but just a little sleeping draught for you: a minisode looking into the Siskel & Ebert reception of the 1983 film Educating Rita, with one of your Silver Nitrate Witches, Isabelle Lang. Let’s talk education as granting choice, alcoholic academics, and our shared annoyance with Roger Ebert’s thoughts on literature movies.

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Is...

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June 18, 2025 91 mins

This episode, your Silver Nitrate Witches head off to boarding school, despite Laura's protests that they're super scary, and take a look at the reception to the 1989 Robin Williams movie that's not quite a Robin Williams movie, Dead Poets Society.

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. You can check out more about Fine Motor at finemotormusi...

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June 11, 2025 128 mins

Your Silver Nitrate Witches (Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang) are brewing pink potions with a touch of peroxide this week. The competition for dye jobs and law jobs proves steep at Harvard where we're rooting for Elle Woods to succeed in Legally Blonde (2001). We cover women's empowerment and sisterhood, the early 2000s and their weird obsession with dumb blonde jokes, and contemporary fascism. Plus, ChatGPT helps us recreate MGM's...

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Welcome to the Silver Nitrate Witches’ Movie Review Brew. Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang explore the way we review movies! From experienced critics to posts from casual viewers, we want to talk about how we talk about movies, how that’s changed over time, what directions we see it going in, and more. Announcing the theme of Season 2!

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May 28, 2025 75 mins

Did you ever wonder how Hollywood came to be? Did you ever wonder how Thomas Edison was a part of that? Did you even know there was a connection there? We did! The Silver Nitrate Witches give you a special episode today on how Hollywood was almost New Jersey.

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellang303. You can check out more about Fine Motor at f...

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May 21, 2025 67 mins

This week, the Silver Nitrate Witches travel to New Mexico to explore the reviews and reception of Salt of the Earth (1954), a film based on the historic 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company. This three-part series has everything: communists, Catholic newspapers, feminism, deportation, and even a prison full of women chanting “We want bathrooms!”

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on va...

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May 14, 2025 79 mins

This week, the Silver Nitrate Witches travel to New Mexico to explore the reviews and reception of Salt of the Earth (1954), a film based on the historic 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company. This three-part series (whoops, it got longer!) has everything: communists, Catholic newspapers, feminism, deportation, and even a prison full of women chanting “We want bathrooms!”

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza...

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May 7, 2025 95 mins

Today, the Silver Nitrate Witches pay homage to the baddest Head Bitch In Charge, Bette Davis, exploring the reviews and reception of In This Our Life (1942). The fall of the decadent South meets a fiery end, with lots of tragic turns on the highway to hell, piloted there by the monster femme fatale herself.

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various online platforms @ljvalenza and @bellan...

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April 30, 2025 75 mins

This week, the Silver Nitrate Witches travel to New Mexico to explore the reviews and reception of Salt of the Earth (1954), a film based on the historic 1951 strike against the Empire Zinc Company. This two-part series has everything: communists, Catholic newspapers, feminism, deportation, and even a prison full of women chanting “We want bathrooms!”

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on vari...

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April 23, 2025 99 mins

The Silver Nitrate Witches attend a show by Lady Lou in the Bowery this week, exploring the reviews and reception of the film She Done Him Wrong (1933), starring Mae West and Cary Grant. From critics body-checking the leading lady to a history of the beer growler, of all things, this episode transports us to a pre-Code Hollywood salacious story.

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and Isabelle Lang, on various on...

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April 13, 2025 94 mins

This week, the Silver Nitrate Witches check in at the Grand Hotel (1932) to explore the reviews and reception around a film with one of the most star-studded casts of the era. We look at the predictions of catty leading ladies, the censorship of Joan Crawford, and even how technology like the typewriter and switchboard liberated women, both economically and in other ways…

You can find your Silver Nitrate Witches, Laura Valenza and I...

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