Month: August 2026

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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399 – Lovely And Amazing (with Jeff Hiller!)

Emmy winner Jeff Hiller joins us this week to talk about one of our beloved Nicole Holofcener’s earliest films. Lovely and Amazing follows a Los Angeles family of women burdened by insecurities, from the mother (Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn) opting in to liposuction to her two adult daughters who help her with a preteen adopted sister. Debuting at festivals in 2001, the film released the next summer to strong reviews for Holofcener muse Catherine Keener and earned an Indie Spirit win for Emily Mortimer.

This episode, we talk about Holofcener’s style of funny and bracing brutal honesty and this film’s depiction of actor insecurities. We also discuss Mortimer’s showcase scene mentioned in many reviews, Raven Goodwin’s terrific child performance, and some of the forgotten titles from that year’s Independent Spirit awards.

Topics also include Apple Trailers, news bloopers, and tackling Isabelle Huppert.

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