Episode 206: Promare
This week, Gavia and Morgan discuss the 2019 anime film Promare, from Studio Trigger. Topics include the film's queer subtext, its electrifying visuals, the many unexpected twists of its screenplay, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 205: Men in Black
This week, Gavia and Morgan dive into the nineties classic Men in Black, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as special agents tasked with supervising Earth's alien population. They discuss the film's political subtext, the star personas and winning performances of its lead actors, Sonnenfeld's visual panache as a director, and more.
Read MoreEpisode 204: WandaVision
This week, Gavia and Morgan break down WandaVision, the MCU's first show on Disney+, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany. They consider its place in the wider Marvel universe, critique its lack of depth, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 203: Opening Night
This week, Gavia and Morgan discuss John Cassavetes' 1977 film Opening Night, starring Gena Rowlands as an alcoholic actress struggling with a lead role in a Broadway play. Topics include Cassavetes' fascinating career, his collaboration with Rowlands, the film's treatment of the theater, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 202: Sweet Country
This week, Gavia and Morgan discuss Warwick Thornton's film Sweet Country, an Australian neo-Western examining colonialism and starring actors including Hamilton Morris, Sam Neill, and Bryan Brown. Topics include the film's engagement with the Western genre, its unflinching and intelligent depiction of racism, the role of women in the film, and more.
Read MoreEpisode 201: Eternal Beauty
This week, Gavia and Morgan discuss Craig Roberts' indie dramedy Eternal Beauty, starring Sally Hawkins as a woman with paranoid schizophrenia. Topics include the film's stylistic influences, its frustrating treatment of mental illness, performances by Hawkins, Billie Piper, and David Thewlis, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 200: Titanic
For their 200th (!) episode, Gavia and Morgan take a trip to James Cameron's celebrated epic Titanic. They discuss the trope-laden but irresistible romance between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron's dictatorial directing style, the phenomenon surrounding the film and its stars after its release, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 199: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
This week, Gavia and Morgan discuss the 1993 animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, an extension of Batman: The Animated Series. Topics include the film's relationship to the TV series, its homages to classic American and German cinema, its approach to the familiar cast of Batman characters, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 198: A Patch of Blue
This week, Gavia and Morgan discuss Sidney Poitier's highest-grossing film, A Patch of Blue (1965), in which Poitier stars as a man who befriends a young, blind white woman played by Elizabeth Hartman. They discuss Poitier's storied career, the film's complex treatment of race and disability, Hollywood in the 1960s, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 197: Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
This week, Gavia and Morgan revisit Kenneth Branagh's classic 1993 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, starring a glitzy ensemble of actors including Branagh himself, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, and many more. Topics include Branagh and Thompson's peculiar careers, Shakespeare on film, the influence of Shakespeare's comedies, and more.
Read MoreEpisode 196: Our Top 10 Films of 2020!
This week, Gavia and Morgan share their picks for the top 10 films of 2020, highlighting a range of films that have sadly not gotten their due this year as a result of the pandemic shutting down theaters. They discuss their choices, which include indie features in a range of genres, documentaries, foreign language films, an animated movie for children, and more.
Read MoreEpisode 195: Tenet
This week, Gavia and Morgan finally watch Christopher Nolan's much-delayed blockbuster Tenet, starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kenneth Branagh. They, alas, bemoan its incoherent plotting, lousy treatment of women, muddy sound design, and more.
Read MoreEpisode 194: The Philadelphia Story
This week, Morgan and Gavia revisit the beloved romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. They place the film in the context of other romantic comedies from the 1930s and 1940s, consider the stars' public personas in conjunction with their roles in this film, discuss the movie's treatment of class and gender, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 193: Margaret
This week, Morgan and Gavia discuss Kenneth Lonergan's undersung epic Margaret (2011), starring an expansive cast including Anna Paquin, J. Smith Cameron, Mark Ruffalo, and Matt Damon. Topics include the film's fraught post-production history, its stellar ensemble cast, Lonergan's mastery of character and dialogue, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 192: Mank
This week, Morgan and Gavia dissect David Fincher's new film Mank, a biopic of Herman Mankiewicz, the screenwriter of Citizen Kane. They critique the film's approach to pastiching 1940s movies, question the decision to cast Gary Oldman in the lead role, dive into the film's discrepancies with the life of the real Mankiewicz, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 191: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
This week, Gavia and Morgan conclude their deep-dive into Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy with an episode on The Return of the King, the triumphant final film of the series. They discuss the film's lasting legacy in Hollywood; its successes (and weaknesses) as an adaptation; all those endings; fine performances from Billy Boyd, Sean Astin, and others; its sweep of the Academy Awards; and more.
Read MoreEpisode 190: The Endless
This week, Gavia and Morgan discuss the trippy world of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's 2017 microbudget horror flick The Endless. They praise the film's innovative use of visual effects technology and tight storytelling technique, compare it to other indie horror films, and more.
Read MoreEpisode 189: Battlestar Galactica
This week, Gavia and Morgan delve into the world of Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries (2003), a childhood favorite of Gav's that Morgan is watching for the first time. They discuss the changes in television storytelling over the last twenty years, the way the show enacts and flouts sci-fi conventions, the superb female characters, and more.
Read MoreEpisode 188: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
This week, Gavia and Morgan dive into the second installment of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers. They discuss the film's departures from the novel, the difficulties of adapting the source text, Howard Shore's score, Andy Serkis' mesmerizing performance as Gollum, and much more.
Read MoreEpisode 187: Rebecca (2020)
This week, Gavia and Morgan dig into Ben Wheatley's woefully misguided remake of Rebecca, the 1940 classic by Alfred Hitchcock. They compare the new movie, starring Armie Hammer and Lily James, to the original as well as Daphne du Maurier's beloved novel; bemoan its misunderstanding of the source material; critique its mystifyingly incompetent script; and (alas) much more.
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