408 – The Russia House

In the years after his Oscar win for The Untouchables, Sean Connery remained a major movie star and box office draw. The latter proved untrue in 1990 when The Russia House fizzled at the holiday box office. Based on the John le Carré novel, the film follows Connery as a publisher pulled into espionage in Russia during perestroika, only to fall in love with an informant’s wife, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. One year after The Fabulous Baker Boys, Pfeiffer earned a Globe nomination for her performance, but Oscar honored neither of these headliners.

This episode, we discuss director Fred Schepisi and the Academy’s arms-length relationship with the chillier adaptations of le Carré’s work. We also discuss Connery’s next decade as a major star, Pfeiffer’ on her 10th THOB-day (that’s a To Gillian reference for anyone paying attention)’s extensive THOB history, and director Ken Russell hiding out among the film’s ensemble.

Topics also include the 1990 EW Holiday Movie Preview, a Berlin competition lineup with two Best Picture winners, and composer Jerry Goldsmith.

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407 – Destroyer

In 2018, we were rooting for the comeback of director Karyn Kusama, emerging with the promising crime thriller Destroyer. Centering on Nicole Kidman playing against type as a grizzled investigator haunted by a previous undercover case gone wrong, the film applies a serpentine structure to its breed of hard boiled LA noir to mixed results. After receiving a mixed reaction on the festival circuit but praise for Kidman’s performance, the film was one of several 2018 Annapurna Pictures films that struggled to gain momentum.

This episode, we talk about the strength of Kidman’s performance and the unfortunate fate that met some of Kusama’s films. We also talk about the film’s baffling ending, Sebastian Stan as Kidman’s hot love interest, and Kidman going ham on Bradley Whitford and Tatiana Maslany.

Topics also include “deglam” Oscar campaigns, The Invitation, and Kidman’s Golden Globe nomination.

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406 – Arsenic and Old Lace (with Emily St. James!)

We have writer Emily St. James back with us this week, so naturally we’re breaking our own record for oldest film discussed on the show (after her episode on Moby Dick)! Based on the Broadway smash comedy, Arsenic and Old Lacewas Frank Capra’s intentional return to comedy after a string of serious movies. Starring Cary Grant as the critic nephew of two aging sisters, the farce unfolds as the aunts reveal they have been offing unmarried travelers and a brother who now looks like Boris Karloff returns to the family. Since the adaptation rights stipulated the film could not open until the Broadway run ended, the film sat on a shelf and was not released until Capra was overseas documenting the war.

This episode, we talk about Emily’s new book (with Lauren Theisen) about It’s a Wonderful Life titled Every Time a Bell Rings and the effect of WWII on Capra. We also talk about the Broadway run that actually starred Karloff, Grant’s nomination in the same year for None But The Lonely Heart, and face guy Peter Lorre.

Topics also include The Best Years of Our Lives, high school theatre, and queer coding.

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2026 TIFF Recap!!

We’re back home from our latest trip to the Toronto International Film Festival! And as always, we’re offering you a buffet of our reactions from a week’s worth of movies that will be coming soon to a theatre near you! We talk about the newest People’s Choice Award winner La Bola Negra, along with the International People’s Choice Award winner (and Best Actor contender for Andrew Scott) Elsinore. Topics also include Julianne Moore earning huge crowd reaction in The Debut, Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine underwhelming us both, our collective favorite of the fest Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care, the TIFF preroll ads, injuries, festival flops, and more!!

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405 – She Said

After their 2017 exposé of the horrors Harvey Weinstein inflicted upon women for decades, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey detailed their process in their 2019 book She Said. Post-pandemic, Maria Schrader directed an adaptation that reflected the lives of both reporters in tandem with their work and their struggle to get women on the record about the case. With a strong and sprawling ensemble led by Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan, the film was ultimately met with polite but less than effusive reviews.

This episode, we talk about the film’s struggle with depicting expository process and the perhaps unavoidable comparisons to Spotlight. We also discuss Mulligan’s category fraud campaign in Supporting Actress, Samantha Morton giving one-scene barnburner, and the film’s use of actors in the roles of familiar names in the case.

Topics also include the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, Ashley Judd playing herself, and MVP Jennifer Ehle.

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404 – Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a musical like no other. A Off-Broadway smash in 1998 from creators John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, Mitchell also starred as the titular volatile rocker who escaped East Berlin after a forced surgery to live as a woman, only to have her songs stolen by the protege she takes under her wing. For the film, Mitchell also took over directing duties, earning several Breakthrough Director honors for the beloved film, earning a new legion of fans.

This episode, we talk about our origins with the film/musical and how the film shared the summer with another rule-breaking musical, Moulin Rouge!. We also discuss JCM’s rangy directorial output, Miriam Shor’s performance as Yitzhak, and the starry Broadway revival that came a decade later.

Topics also include the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, Andrea Martin, and costume designer Arianne Phillips.

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403 – The Homesman (with Richard Lawson!)

We welcome back Richard Lawson this week to discuss Tommy Lee Jones’s final (to date!) directorial effort, 2014’s The Homesman. Led by Hilary Swank, the film follows a 19th century woman charged to transport three women with “prairie madness” across the Nebraska Territory. With Jones as a wayward man who assists her journey, the film debuted at Cannes and promised a return to the Best Actress race for Swank that never came to be.

This episode, we talk about Swank’s two Best Actress Oscars and Richard details his first experience with Cannes. We also talk about this film’s arrival after neo-westerns made a splash in the late aughts, its reflection on women during old west times, and Meryl Streep’s third act cameo.

Topics also include Ben Schnetzer, Amy Madigan narrating the Donner Party, and Julianne Moore’s sudden arrival in 2014’s Best Actress race with Still Alice.

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402 – The Return

As The Odyssey continues to prove to be a career peak for Christopher Nolan and possible return to the Oscar stage, we’re looking back at a very different take on Homer’s epic poem. In 2024, The Return reunited Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as the Ithacan king and queen – but limited the story just to the fallout from Odysseus’s arrival back to his kingdom. Despite the promise of TIFF Gala placement and a holiday release, The Return was met with a shrug on arrival.

This episode, we talk about Ralph Fiennes’s physique-forward performance (eye emoji) and Fiennes in the year of Conclave. We also discuss Charlie Plummer’s brattier take on Telemachus, the film’s lackluster design and aesthetics, and the Oscar hopes for Nolan’s blockbuster.

Topics also include Bleecker Street Film, Penelope’s loom, and Best Picture reunion 20 Questions.

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401 – Playing By Heart

Playing by Heart (1998) Directed by Willard Carroll Shown: Angelina Jolie, Ryan Phillippe

In the bygone moviegoing trend of “interconnected stories of Angelenos,” this week’s episode is a forgotten entry with a loaded cast. Playing By Heart from writer/director Willard Carroll follows multiple stories of romantic struggles, with Gena Rowlands and Sean Connery as a TV chef and her producer husband as the film’s epicenter. With themes of infidelity and HIV/AIDS throughout, the ensemble’s standout was a pre-Oscar Angelina Jolie as a manic actress chasing after a blue-haired Ryan Phillippe. While Miramax put its full weight into Shakespeare in Love, this film fell by the wayside in their awards lineup after mixed reviews.

This week, we talk about Jolie’s breakthrough years with Gia and her NBR prize for this film. We also discuss Gillian Anderson’s rare film performances, Ellen Burstyn serving Hannah Pitt, and Dennis Quaid’s deranged plot line of hoaxing strangers with sob stories at various L.A. bars.

Topics also include the original title “Dancing About Architecture,” AIDS onscreen post-Rent, and being haunted by April Grace.

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400 – Town and Country

It’s our 400th episode this week, so we had to go big. What could be more fitting than a notorious bomb with major star pedigree?! No stranger to misfires, Warren Beatty nevertheless was one of the biggest names in Hollywood that could generate buzz with any project – and more prophetically in this case – could have any budgetary or creative demand met. Town and Country was a simple middle-aged sex farce (that Beatty took neither producing or writing credits…) that ultimately resulted in years of reshoots or creative redirections before becoming one of the biggest and most forgotten Hollywood box office bombs.

This episode, we talk about how the film fails to riff on Beatty’s playboy star persona and the film’s troubled production history. We also talk about the numerous rewrites and reshoots that plagued the film, a foul-mouthed Marian Seldes, and and Beatty’s reactions to the film’s disastrous press cycle.

Topics also include Idaho costume parties, cello tattoos, and our favorites from the previous year of the show.

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