You wait for ages for a film about a group of people sequestered in a room, questioning each other, keeping secrets, and repeatedly voting, and two come along at once. But while Juror #2's protagonist wrestled with his conscience, Conclave's Cardinal Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes, has little trouble consistently acting out of principle - sadly, many of his colleagues vying for the Catholic Church's vacant papacy don't share his clarity. Conclave is a marvellously entertaining mystery and thriller, a chamber play in which Fiennes' performance is a complex and deeply felt standout amongst a number of engaging, if less rich, star turns from Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini. We discuss whether the film is an advert for the Church, how it engages with religion, the striking visual design, liberalism vs. conservatism, representations of gender and nationality... and that magnificent twist. Spoilers within! Recorded on 1st December 2024.

A film whose brilliant conceit is so simple and compelling we can't believe we've never seen it before, Juror #2 tells the story of a juror whose responsibility it is to assess the guilt of a defendant who he knows is innocent of murder - because it was the juror who did it. Summoned to serve on a jury and quickly recognising the details of the case, Nicholas Hoult's Justin realises that the deer he hit with his car one dark, stormy night was in fact the defendant's girlfriend, for whose supposed murder he is on trial. So begins a morality play of sorts, Justin wanting to do the right thing and keep an innocent person from prison, but unwilling to expose himself as the real, if accidental, killer. It's a film that sets two institutions, the family and the court, at war. Justin's wife has a baby on the way, and is there any wrong that can't be justified by the protection of the family? We discuss this in the particular light of director Clint Eastwood's reputation as a lifelong conservative, Mike suggesting that the distrust the film shows towards the legal system, a government institution, has precedent in Eastwood's other work, but its critique of the sanctity of the family is surprising and invigorating. Juror #2 is a thoroughly engrossing exploration of a terrific idea, and you'll take its questions home with you long after it ends. What would you do? Are you sure? Recorded on 18th November 2024.

After a long time off, we return with M. Night Shyalaman's new thriller, Trap, in which Josh Hartnett's doting dad, Cooper, takes his daughter to see her favourite pop star at a massive arena gig, but finds himself surrounded and hunted by the FBI. We discuss the ways in which Shyamalan gives Cooper opportunities for escape but closes them off; the unusually disappointing lack of imagination and expression in some of the visual design and shot selection (something we're used to finding so interesting from Shyamalan); the attempt to sell a psychological background to Cooper, which is somehow neither intelligent nor daft enough; the production of the music and Saleka Night Shyamalan's performance as Lady Raven; Mike's fickleness in choosing whom to root for; and José's joy at seeing Hayley Mills. But despite picking at flaw after flaw, as we always do, we had a great time in Trap, and recommend it. Recorded on 9th August 2024.

We've enjoyed Adam McKay's previous couple of films, The Big Short and Vice, in which he dramatises real events in a pointed, opinionated, satirical manner. He now brings the same attitude to the apocalypse, painting a picture of a world in which an asteroid is headed on a collision course with Earth, poised to end the human race's existence unless something is done... and nobody cares. We debate its merits and failures, agreeing that it's a comedy with few laughs, but José arguing for its place in the national theatre of ideas that cinema has always been in America, and as a response to that question we've been hearing asked for several years now - how can you satirise a reality that's this absurd to begin with? Mike asks why McKay's previous films worked where this fails, and suggests that it's an inability to be indirect, to work in poetic ways - something that's effective when being openly sarcastic, as in The Big Short and Vice, but that falls short in Don't Look Up's appeal for earnestness and depth of character. An ambitious film, then, attempting to holistically satirise the state of things as they currently stand - but at best, a mixed bag. Recorded on 28th December 2021.

Paolo Sorrentino reaches into his childhood to tell a story that's in equal parts comic and tragic, with access to the off-kilter and fabulistic, in The Hand of God - whose title references that infamous goal scored by Diego Maradona, who Sorrentino semi-seriously credits with saving his life - as he dramatises here. We discuss the imagery, the familial banter, the curious opening scene, choosing Naples over Rome, and an oddball friendship with a happy-go-lucky smuggler. Recorded on 28th December 2021.

After eighteen years away and vast changes in the blockbuster landscape in which it once broke incredible new ground, the Matrix series is back with a fourth film, The Matrix Resurrections. Keanu Reeves' Neo is once again plugged into the Matrix as Thomas Anderson, but having trouble separating reality from dreams of events that happened twenty years ago... if dreams are what they are. We discuss Resurrections' endless self-reflexivity, how it uses motifs and themes of the previous films, updating them where necessary and bringing more out of them (Mike is glad of the much improved use of mirrors). We also consider the film's inclusivity, which is key to the Wachowskis' work, and an uncomplicated joy here - it's not difficult for people from a range of ethnic backgrounds and situated in different places along sexual and gender spectra to coexist in a blockbuster with no particular importance placed upon their identities, as Resurrections proves. You just have to want to do it, and the world that results is beautiful. And, at heart, it's a middle-aged romance - for which José swoons! Resurrections isn't without its issues, and we consider those too - Mike asks whether the sense of wonder associated with the special effects of the original films is simply gone forever in a world in which literally anything can be done, and is, with all-powerful CGI, and we agree that the action is a Bourne-inflected disappointment, especially so in a series that itself spawned so many imitators of its own action scenes two decades ago. But seen in its entirety, The Matrix Resurrections is an imaginative and interesting continuation of the story begun twenty years ago, and a holistic triumph of well-intentioned, positive and effortless representation. Whoever thought we'd get a fourth Matrix? And that it would be this different, and this good? Recorded on 22nd December 2021.

Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story is here at last. The obvious question it raises is just why such a well-regarded film needs a remake - and the answer quickly becomes clear. Robert Wise's 1961 adaptation of the 1957 stage musical is indeed a classic, but this new version comes from and enters a different America, one in which its message, José argues, is more urgently needed but faces a more difficult challenge to be heard. And on top of that, it's just a really good film. We discuss the film's use of colour and lighting, the brutality of the violence and believability of the gangs and particularly Riff, the Jets' leader, the purpose and effects of having a lot of dialogue spoken in entirely unsubtitled Spanish, and much more. The songs are timeless, the romance heartfelt, the imagery beautiful. West Side Story is a great success. Recorded on 13th December 2021.

In 1975, caring for her infant son and unable to spend much time away from home, Agnès Varda turned her camera on her neighbours on her street, Rue Daguerre in Paris. In Daguerréotypes - the title a pun on the photographic process for whose inventor the road is named - she both observes them at work, running their shops and providing their services, and asks them questions about their lives, discovering where they're originally from (most are not Paris natives) and how they met their husbands and wives. It's a gentle, relaxed form of portraiture, one that combines imagery of the practicalities of daily work with the subjects' descriptions of dreams and histories - although the use of a travelling magician's show is arguably a little too precious. We discuss the different ways in which we respond to their stories, José commenting on Varda's clear affection for the subjects, Mike arguing that there's a tragic dimension that overhangs the film, with talk of dreams and escape. Daguerréotypes is a sensitive portrait of a local community and a time capsule of an era that is now half a century old, and worth watching. Recorded on 5th December 2021.

A true story of love, ambition, passion, betrayal, and retribution, House of Gucci is entertaining, interesting, and beautifully played... so why isn't it good enough? We discuss its lack of seriousness of purpose, its failure to express itself with visual flair and use the camera to show us things we really need to see, and how it would have benefitted from giving Lady Gaga's Patrizia the unambiguous spotlight, rather than making her part of an ensemble. House of Gucci is a film that we have no problem recommending, but given everything it could have been, to come away feeling like it's a trifle is disappointing. Recorded on 5th December 2021.

As he did with 2016's Jackie, director Pablo Larraín explores the life, image, and legacy of a woman publicly struck by tragedy in Spencer, a fabulistic biopic that imagines a Christmas holiday spent with the royal family at Sandringham, during which Princess Diana struggles with the knowledge of her husband's affair and the watchful eyes of both the royals and the paparazzi. We discuss our own relationships to both Larraín and Diana, and consider how the film draws on various aspects of the princess's public image in painting a portrait of a woman losing her mind. The film is set squarely within that mind, and Mike argues that it uses several tropes and techniques common to horror in order to dramatise Diana's fracturing mental state. José expresses his love for Kristen Stewart's outstanding lead performance, one that doesn't impersonate but evokes, and conveys differing stages of psychosis with subtlety. We don't agree on everything, and the film isn't perfect, but Spencer is a really remarkable, expressive exploration of an iconic figure. Recorded on 14th November 2021.

A film of surprising delights - certainly for Mike, who hates anything that looks like it could appear on ITV - Mothering Sunday tells the story of one key 1924 day in the life of a young maid. It's a film filled with grief and lust, beautifully shot and featuring the best of British acting, Colin Firth and Olivia Colman's performances subtly modulated and multifaceted. It's imperfect, failing to engage with race as it perhaps should, and a framing device feels rather unnecessary - but it's a moving and sensitive film. Recorded on 14th November 2021.

The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson's love letter to The New Yorker, is, as you might expect, a charming way to pass a couple of hours - but not as funny or as tight as we might like, and certainly a disappointment in the light of his last two films, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Isle of Dogs (although, in fairness, reaching those heights even twice, let alone a third time consecutively, would be a big ask for anybody). Still, despite The French Dispatch's pleasures, some gorgeous imagery and a terrific, star-packed cast, we're left asking what it's all about, really - is it more than a vaguely diverting trifle based on Anderson's favourite publication? And why can't an ode to an icon of American sophistication be set in America? Recorded on 31st October 2021.

Edgar Wright's highly anticipated psychological horror, Last Night in Soho, reaches cinemas, and we dive into its themes, its visual magnificence, its relationship to the era and environment it portrays... and its problems. It's impossible not to admire this film for its lush cinematography, impressive special effects, and the best of its performances, but its screenplay leaves a huge amount to be desired, not just in how it conceptualises the world and people it portrays, but also, more simply, how clumsy it is in telling its story, bafflingly dropping entire character threads that seem like they obviously have places to go, and handling at least one secondary character's entire subplot very poorly. We discuss the film's dream logic, or lack thereof; its fear of the very lure of the grimy world it needs to show us, and the moralism that accompanies it; how it trades in nostalgia of Sixties Soho, despite being keen to exhibit is dark side; and the thematic simplicity of almost everything - things are good or bad, to be loved or feared, and room for complexity, there is none. With all that said, it's still a very enjoyable couple of hours, a discussion piece, and thanks to its fabulous imagery and in particular the performances of Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith, easy to recommend. P.S. Mike would like to acknowledge that he is aware that in the course of speaking too quickly for his brain to issue timely corrections, he wildly overstated how much the ghostly figures in Last Night in Soho are referred to as "blank" or "blanks". It happens maybe once or twice, if he remembers rightly, and in passing. But he asserts that nonetheless, their faceless, amorphous, anonymous design and relentless, zombie-like behaviour does make them a fair point of comparison with the Blanks in The World's End. So nyah. Recorded on 31st October 2021.

Denis Villeneuve's epic adaptation of Dune makes its first appearance on the podcast in the form of the second film in the series - we saw the first when it came out but never podcasted on it. With the lore in place, the scene set, and the characters established, Dune: Part Two is free to develop romance, engage in action, and tell the story of the construction of a messiah. It's beautiful, exciting entertainment - as long as you can remember everyone's names and what their magic powers are and what they're up to and why. José feels no such issues keeping track of Part Two's various story elements, but Mike hasn't done the homework and finds that the film isn't going out of its way to help him. But no matter! The imagery on offer is astonishingly pretty, reassuringly expensive, and tuned for maximum visual impact - though we wonder how poetic it is, and ask ourselves to what extent the imagery in Villeneuve's other work lingers in the mind, despite its premium sheen. We also discuss the degree to which we feel Part Two really feels like it's buying in to its more supernatural elements. It tells a story of prophecy, visions, and unlikely fates, but, Mike suggests, also offers mechanisms and plausible explanations for things we see, arguably favouring its scepticism to avoid putting off an audience unwilling to go along with the otherworldly. Whether you care or not, whether you can follow the details or not, there's no reason to not see Dune: Part Two on the biggest and best screen available. For the visual design and production alone, it's value for money - that the rest is good is a lovely bonus. Recorded on 3rd March 2024.

In a chilly outdoor screening at the Coffin Works in Birmingham, we indulge in Nosferatu, F. W. Murnau's 1922 German Expressionist classic. José's seen it many times, Mike never in its entirety. We discuss how this 100-year-old film holds up today and still entertains a general audience, its differences from and similarities to Dracula, its source material, and more. Including how cold it was. Mike only wore a t-shirt. Recorded on 22nd October 2021.

Don't believe the trailer, which gives a poor impression of what's in store: Ridley Scott's latest historical epic is lighter on the action than you'd expect, and, for a blockbuster, formally adventurous. Based on true events that took place in 14th century France, The Last Duel tells the story of a lifelong feud and a sexual assault... then it tells it again, and then once more. Three perspectives are brought to bear on the events, those of Jean (Matt Damon), a soldier and vassal; Marguerite (Jodie Comer), his wife and the daughter of a treacherous lord; and Jacques (Adam Driver), his oldest friend, and squire to a count - each controls a third of the film, shaping the story as they understand it. It's an ambitious project, drawing consciously on narratives and discourses around patriarchy and sexual assault whose importance to our cultural conversation have become increasingly established in recent years - but does it work? Richard Brody's review of the film in the New Yorker helps to shape our discussion, and it can be found here: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/the-last-duel-reviewed-ridley-scotts-wannabe-metoo-movie Recorded on 17th October 2021.

Venom returns after his surprisingly enjoyable, if trashy, 2018 solo debut, but we don't find much of a way to have fun with this sequel. Its cast is underserved by both the direction and screenplay, Tom Hardy appears to want to be seen as a slob, there's not a memorable shot throughout, and most of the comedy, while promising in principle, falls flat. Mike asks where the real carnage even is, the film scared to show anything even cartoonishly gory, while José decries the carnage generally present in American cinema in general, this film, like so many, unable to conceive of a way to generate excitement without blowing things up and causing destruction. Recorded on 17th October 2021.

Daniel Craig's Bond bids us goodbye in No Time to Die, the culmination of his fifteen-year tenure as the gentleman's spy - but is it really Bond? The character, and the films in which he appears, have changed in tone and attitude in recent years, in response to several factors, including criticisms of misogyny and the cinematic influence of the Bourne series, all of which results, for José, in a film that while good, just isn't Bond any more. We consider what makes No Time to Die's Bond different, discussing his clothing, the intensity of serialisation from one film to the next, and the Bond girl - and, as Mike suggests, the character's key change in attitude: Craig's Bond takes things seriously and is capable of being outraged. Although we pick at these things, the film is easy to recommend. The action is well-executed, Rami Malek's villain beautifully played (if lazily written), and the entire affair is hugely enjoyable. Where Bond goes from here, who knows, but No Time to Die is a good send-off for Craig's incarnation. Recorded on 3rd October 2021.

We're joined by Dr. Ben Lamb of Teesside University, television scholar and Sopranos megafan, to discuss The Many Saints of Newark, the prequel to The Sopranos. Set in the 1960s and 1970s, it depicts a young Tony Soprano - played by James Gandolfini's son, Michael - and offers a portrait of the family, time, place and culture that shaped him, but focuses primarily on his uncle Dickie, to whom he looks up. We also discuss the film's incorporation of the 1967 Newark riots, and the black gang that rivals the Italians'; how violence is used and what it expresses about the characters; whether the film is cinematic; and whether some of its characters' actions are believable. And, key to the discussion: While Ben and José are familiar with the show, Mike's never made it past episode one, and that disparity raises questions - how much knowledge of the show is required to understand this film, how much does it reward fan investment, and does it inspire Mike to finally watch the series? Recorded on 26th September 2021.

Aretha Franklin, an icon of American music, receives a dispiritingly by-the-numbers biopic in Respect, which takes this perfect subject for such a film and does nothing very interesting with her. We discuss, among other topics, the film's dependence on clichés, its poor lighting, Franklin's relationship with her father and upbringing in a prosperous household, Jennifer Hudson's performance in the central role, and that scene, so common to music biopics, in which the signature song is developed. If one of the functions of the biopic is to introduce newcomers to a person's work and provide an insight into what made them worthy of their story being told... then the Queen of Soul needs another biopic. Respect certainly isn't devoid of entertaining and engaging moments, but, ultimately, it fails its subject. Recorded on 14th September 2021.

The fairytale figure of the undine has been used and developed in the arts for two hundred years, and Christian Petzold, whose Transit we loved, brings his clear-eyed but sensitive aesthetic to it in Undine. Paula Beer plays the titular character with transparent emotion, in the opening scene regretfully informing her ex-boyfriend, as he dumps her, that she will have to kill him. It's a moment that captures the timbre of the film that follows - fantastical, potent, full of drama, but grounded throughout. We also discuss Undine's knowing and deliberate setting against a sociopolitical backdrop, the film devoting significant time to Undine's lectures on the history of Berlin, tying them and the city to her relationships, and the way the film conveys the tactility of new lovers, unable to keep from touching each other. We disagree on the film's greatness - to Mike, it's something of a trifle, particularly in comparison with Transit, but José is in deep love with it. But we're agreed that it's well worth your time. Recorded on 13th September 2021.

Based on the trailer, Mike was interested in The Night House, a horror film about a recently bereaved woman and the secrets she discovers her husband was keeping - but it took him a good third of the film's duration to remember why. It's an ugly film, one of the poorest-lit you're likely to see, and the culmination of its mystery is almost offensively stupid. José finds the thematic ground it covers has potential, and Rebecca Hall's performance is very good - she's unafraid to make herself unlikeable, which is likeable indeed. Still, she's really the only reason to see it. If you actually can see it through the terrible lighting. Recorded on 13th September 2021.

A new day, a new entry in the MCU, and on this occasion we're introduced to an entirely new set of characters and mythos: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings fills us in on the history of a young Chinese-American man and his dad's magical jewellery. Like Doctor Strange and Black Panther, it's a film whose connection to the wider MCU is light, establishing characters, a setting, and story elements that are certain to tie in to subsequent films, but free of the obligation to prioritise them at the expense of itself. And like Doctor Strange and Black Panther, that freedom works in its favour - it's of a piece, interesting, pretty, and entertaining. We discuss the film's setting in a Chinese-American immigrant context, comparing it in particular to The Farewell and Crazy Rich Asians: all three films dramatise the cultural differences between the new and old country, and the ways in which the younger generation might face challenges in visiting or returning to their ancestral home. Indeed, Awkwafina appears in all three films, and, even in supporting roles, expresses this subject all by herself. We also think about the MCU's use of the film to address its own past, a character from Iron Man 3 returning: Shang-Chi not only rejects the way the earlier film totally reconfigured him from the comics, but also addresses the Orientalism with which he has historically been associated. And there's more besides - Tony Leung's beautiful, evocative performance of a character that nonetheless doesn't quite work; the quality of the action, much of it a cut above what we typically expect from Marvel; and that classic Disney trick - if in doubt, animate a cute animal. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a promising start to the MCU's next phase, and we look forward to finding out how its world will integrate down the line, but it's worth seeing on its own terms. Recorded on 12th September 2021.

Benedict Cumberbatch gets himself embroiled in the Cuban Missile Crisis in The Courier, a dramatisation of the true story of Greville Wynne, a British businessman recruited by MI6 to smuggle Soviet secrets provided by high-ranking GRU officer Oleg Penkovsky. It's a film that offers pleasures in its performances and in the telling of a story you likely haven't heard, but its storytelling is often banal and sometimes unclear, and, José contends, it's full of tricks and tropes that are just there for effect - and often not very good ones. Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies, set in a similar period of the Cold War and also telling a true story of a citizen's recruitment to engage in an overseas mission, is an obvious point of comparison, and perhaps The Courier's greatest gift is that its mediocrity helps to show off just how assured and polished is Spielberg's cinematic technique, even if the ideological purposes to which he puts it leave us rolling our eyes. The Courier isn't a terrible film, and its performances do make it worth a look... but it isn't a very good film, either. Recorded on 23rd August 2021.

Wim Wenders finds inspiration in Japanese public lavatories in Perfect Days, a slice of life drama about Hirayama, a janitor who finds quiet happiness in his routine of travelling from public convenience to public convenience cleaning, photographing trees in the park, being welcomed at restaurants by proprietors who fetch him his usuals, and reading books before bed. We discuss Wenders' delicate touch and observational eye, Kōji Yakusho's central performance, for which he was named Best Actor at Cannes, how small moments indicate whole avenues of a person's life, and the film's theme of connections between the individual worlds in which we live. Recorded on 18th February 2024.

Ryan Reynolds' schtick, so irritating for so long, is winning us back, and Free Guy is built around his entire star persona, the self-effacing originality of which José remarks upon. Reynolds plays Guy, a videogame non-player character - an extra, essentially, following a programmed routine within a virtual world - with a lightness and sweetness that defines the tone of the entire film. We discuss what the film represents about videogame culture and what it discards, the desire for romance that drives the story, what Mike questions about its ending, and more. Free Guy is a charming and entertaining action comedy, whether you know games or not. Recorded on 23rd August 2021.

Matt Damon gives arguably a career best performance in Stillwater, as a tightly-wound, reserved, Oklahoma roughneck doing his best to support his daughter, who has been convicted of murder and resides in a Marseille prison. We discuss the film's origins in the real case of Amanda Knox and Meredith Kercher, consider how well the characterisation works and where it might fail, and work through our fundamental responses to the film: for José, it's is an unusual and complex critique of American society and culture; for Mike, it's hard to take seriously, its animus obvious and milquetoast. Wherever you land, though, Stillwater is a deeply engrossing drama and worth seeing. Recorded on 6th August 2021.

Disney has already turned one of its theme park rides into a box office colossus - is it time for another? They seem to think so, bringing us Jungle Cruise, an adaptation of one of the attractions from Disneyland's grand opening in 1955, the Jungle River Cruise, starring The Rock, who we still refuse to call Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, and Jack Whitehall, as explorers searching for the Tree of Life. The film gives the ride more than a nod and a wink, The Rock's character operating a cruise along the Brazilian Amazon, complete with the real ride's cheesy dad jokes - and there's effort made to reckon with the attraction's history of racist representation of indigenous peoples. How successfully it does so is up for debate, the film indulging in its own cultural imperialism - despite being set in Brazil, there isn't a word of Portuguese spoken; and no matter the purity of their intention, the characters are still in Brazil to take something that doesn't belong to them. We also discuss the film's feminism and sexual politics, as embodied by Blunt's and Whitehall's characters, the setting in 1916 and the use of England rather than the USA as a point of origin for its story, and consider who the film is for - Mike sees its relationship with the likes of Jumanji, Indiana Jones, Hook and The Mummy, and is sure that he'd have loved this as a kid as much as he did those. It fails to really explore the poetic potential of some of its ideas, and one too many action scenes feel like they need explosions to keep things exciting, but on the whole, Jungle Cruise is a likeable bit of popcorn fodder with three terrific performances, and chemistry to match. Recorded on 6th August 2021.

Freely based, as the closing credits tell us, on Jean Cocteau's 1930 play of the same name, The Human Voice sees Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar working in the English language for the first time. The play has long been on Almodóvar's mind, inspiring, significantly, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, among other works of his, and this short film joins the pantheon of adaptations of the play, which has seen its single character, a woman speaking on the phone to an unseen, unheard lover, played by such stars as Sophia Loren, Ingrid Bergman, and Anna Magnani. Here, Tilda Swinton plays that role, bringing to it a sense of reserve that didn't quite make sense to José until the final sequence and the resolution to the story - perhaps an effect of having seen the play adapted so many times and not having seen the character played this way before. Conversely, Mike feels he instinctively understands the character, remarking upon her change from being out of place, both geographically and emotionally, to her assumption of control of her world and destiny. José, who identifies with Almodóvar's work like nobody else's, picks up on the themes, motifs, visual designs, settings and interests that tie The Human Voice to the rest of his oeuvre, and finds where this short fits in and where it doesn't. Specifically, he argues that Almodóvar's control of language and knowledge of how people speak is typically overlooked in favour of his visuals, but here becomes obvious precisely because of the decision to use English rather than Spanish, which results in less poetry and nothing memorable throughout the entire monologue. That flaw is evident but minor in the scheme of the entire film, which is an elegantly made and interesting study both of Swinton's character and of Almodóvar's own style and lifelong interests. The Human Voice is on Mubi, and well worth your time. Recorded on 3rd August 2021.

A chamber piece that asks what happens when your life of carefully constructed lies is exposed, Shiva Baby is a smart, tense comedy set in that most aggravating of situations: the funeral, in which you're forced to be judged by lots of people you want to avoid but aren't allowed to kick up a stink. We discuss debut writer-director Emma Seligman's handling of the story's shifts in tone, in particular how she intensely ekes out tension; the light in which it depicts its women, who bookend scenes with sarcastic off-screen barbs and gossip; and the main character's relationship to technology, and how her use of it to seek power is a double-edged sword. Recorded on 6th August 2021.

Apparently dissatisfied with the dismal reception of 2016's Suicide Squad, DC has bravely decided to vaguely reboot the property with a spot-the-difference name change to The Suicide Squad, probably hoping that this new film will effortlessly send its predecessor down the memory hole. We ask whether it hits that whimsical tone it clearly wants to and discuss imperialism, satire, racism, gazing at males, rats, story structure, excessive volume and more. Recorded on 3rd August 2021.

Reminding José of 1970s auteur exploitation movies and Mike of The Twilight Zone, M. Night Shyamalan's Old confines its characters, and most of its action, to an isolated beach at a high-class tropical resort. As you might expect with Shyamalan, it's best seen with little advance knowledge, as the plot twists and turns, revelations throwing previous events into new light. But we do, indeed, encourage you to see it - it's perhaps the most entertaining film Shyamalan's made in some time, and although his dialogue isn't the finest you'll ever hear, his camerawork is some of the most interesting. He's a director who always seeks an interesting or expressive composition, who isn't satisfied with shot-reverse shot, and his enthusiasm for the image is infectious. Some things could be better - some dramatic moments could be heightened, and it's a fairly thin film that may not reward a second viewing, when there's no hope of surprise. But the first viewing is an engrossing one, and we recommend it. Recorded on 24th July 2021.

1996's Space Jam is beloved of people Mike's age throughout the Western hemisphere, despite basketball's limited reach beyond North America - it was a Looney Tunes film, full of imagination and laughs, and is today a nostalgic linchpin for millennials. And because millennials now make films, it's back, twenty years on, with Space Jam: A New Legacy, featuring LeBron James in Michael Jordan's central role as the basketball star who joins forces with the Looney Tunes to defeat a team of superpowered villains. But the wit and tone of the 1996 original is nowhere to be found here, beyond those unacceptably brief moments in which Bugs Bunny and co. get to shine. There's a heavy focus on family, a theme that's come up more than a few times on recent podcasts and never feels intelligently explored, with LeBron's son held hostage in scenes that are supposed to heighten the sense of threat but in fact just grind any sense of entertainment to dust. But even that isn't the film's biggest problem - it's the corporate project of it all. Now, that a big-budget studio property has a corporate project to it is no surprise, but the extent of A New Legacy's is shocking. As LeBron and his son are sucked into Warner Bros.' computers, the studio's back catalogue becomes their universe, quite literally. The Looney Tunes have a planet. Harry Potter has a planet. Game of Thrones has a planet. Even Casablanca has a planet. And throughout, clips from old films are invaded by the Looney Tunes, references pop up constantly, and characters from countless properties pepper the crowd at the climactic basketball game. Any of these alone is nothing to screech about, and indeed, spotting characters and references is fun on its own merit - but the ethos behind it all, of making Warner Bros. the sole provider of culture in a universe pathetically dependent on the work it cannibalises from itself, is as revolting as it is revoltingly proud of itself. It really has to be seen to be believed. But in order to believe it you'd have to see it. What a dilemma. So, no. We don't recommend Space Jam: A New Legacy. Mike's still going to try to get José to watch the first one though. Recorded on 24th July 2021.

What began twenty years ago as a series of car chases and races has since spiralled out of control into an action behemoth encompassing ten films, a TV series, videogames, and theme park attractions. But for the spinoff film Hobbs & Shaw, Fast and Furious 9 is Mike's introduction to the Fast & Furious series, with José having seen some of the previous instalments, but not all. We discuss the soap opera storytelling, the way it expresses humour - what it thinks are jokes are really just aggressive, macho posturing - and what it thinks of intelligence, José contending that it represents the worst of American culture in privileging stupidity and making it victorious, with Mike offering a complementary drop of nuance, arguing that it does at least believe that its heroes are smart... but it's a stupid person's idea of what being smart is. Core to the film's failings is its almost complete lack of irony, only the car-turned-space shuttle indicating that the film has any understanding of comedy and how absurd it all is. There's no recommending Fast and Furious 9, its shortcomings exposed by the competence of almost every other action blockbuster (even Hobbs & Shaw, which had its own problems, but was a pleasant surprise). On the basis of this, Mike's curiosity has been sated, and he's happy to continue avoiding this godforsaken series for the rest of his life. Recorded on 15th July 2021.

Marvel's triumphant return to our cinemas is... a film that fills in a plot hole nobody cared about for a character who not only should have had a standalone film long before now but who has since been killed off. To say that Black Widow feels like a kick in the teeth is an understatement, but still, the MCU is back with us and we see what it has to offer. And what it presents us with is something much more earthbound than the spacefaring antics in which Marvel has increasingly indulged: a good old-fashioned Russian spy story, and a family reunion of sorts, Natasha Romanoff driven to reconnect with the other undercover Russian agents who formed her surrogate family as a child. We ask whether the theme of family is done justice here, especially the father's part in its expression. And, among others, we ask questions of the action filmmaking, the lack of humour in heroes, Romanoff's conceptualisation, how the women are filmed, and whether it's necessary to eschew edginess in order to pursue a progressive politics. Black Widow is a film we enjoyed, though on reflection, picking out the reasons why is harder than picking at its flaws - but it certainly hasn't dampened our willingness to continue following Marvel's movies. Recorded on 13th July 2021.

Writer-director Andrew Haigh's romantic fantasy, All of Us Strangers, flows beautifully from scene to scene, inviting the audience to question the reality of what they're shown but seldom requiring them to - it's about the feeling it creates. It's a film about isolation, building and rebuilding connections, how the past reverberates, and in particular, experiences of growing up gay in the homophobic society of the 1980s. Its themes are universal and easily understood, but people who share those experiences will identify with it more closely than most. We discuss the complexity and natural feeling of the protagonist's conversations with his parents, who carry with them, alongside love for their son, those homophobic attitudes; the way scenes flow into each other; how letting go of those questions of what and how things are real allows us to get the most out of the film; and we ask those questions anyway. We also take the opportunity to revisit the ending of The Zone of Interest, discuss audiences proudly displaying their dislikes, and have another think about The Holdovers with that in mind. Recorded on 6th February 2024.

An offbeat, gentle, surreal, intriguing and slightly camp comic drama, French Exit is a pleasant surprise for us both. Michelle Pfeiffer's widowed heiress, reduced to selling her late husband's property, takes what's left of her life - her cat, adult son, and attitude - to an apartment in Paris, where she resolves to spend her remaining money before ending her life. Sounds hilarious. And indeed it is, its director, Azazel Jabocs, demonstrating a mastery of tone. We discuss what makes the film work, its visual design, its relationship with and attitude towards money, how that campness José perceives is kept subdued, and more. French Exit isn't a perfect film by any means, but it is a good one, and a charming way to spend a couple of hours. Recorded on 4th July 2021.

The sequel to one of the first films we discussed on Eavesdropping at the Movies, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard reunites Samuel L. Jackson's hitman, Ryan Reynolds' bodyguard, and Salma Hayek's hitman's wife - whose role is significantly expanded from the first film's bit part. The vaguely sketched plot - Antonio Banderas wants to blow up Europe or something, and that's enough detail - is the wire hanger upon which jokes and comic character interplay are draped, but, crucially, is the comedy successful? Whether it is or isn't, and what we read into the audience response, is up for discussion, as is the deployment of the stars' personas and cinematic histories, what renders Ryan Reynolds' schtick endearing here where it's normally irritating, and whether the film's sexual dimension is overly vulgar or too one-sided. José has seen The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard twice now, and is no less in thrall to Hayek's aggressive, wild performance the second time, loudly and enthusiastically responding to it. Mike is much less impressed with the film, but does admit to warming up to it in the second half, after a particularly mad joke that we won't spoil here (but do in the podcast). If there are more Hitman's Bodyguard films to come, hopefully with increasingly deliberately clunky titles, we're up for them. Recorded on 4th July 2021.

Before Lin-Manuel Miranda shot to fame in the mid-2010s with Hamilton, he had already enjoyed success with his 2005 musical, In the Heights, with a book by Quiara Alegría Hudes, winning four Tonys for its Broadway production in 2008. Set in Washington Heights, a largely Dominican neighbourhood in Upper Manhattan, it now comes to cinemas, following the lives, struggles and dreams of its inhabitants, who simply cannot stop singing. Well, singing and rapping - and it's the rapping that shines, Miranda's lyrics as witty and intricate as those in Hamilton, while the singing is less impressive, and the domain of the film's women, who Mike wishes had been given the opportunity to rap. We discuss our disappointment in the direction - the film is full of visual ideas that aren't executed to their fullest potential - and its relationship to the cultures and peoples it portrays. In the Heights has its flaws, but despite them, it's an immensely likeable portrait of life in its locale, José in particular, an immigrant to North America himself, recognising a lot of what it depicts and loving the way it shows off the cultures around which it's based. We pick fault with it, because that's what we do, but don't let that stop you from seeing and enjoying it. Recorded on 20th June 2021.

We explore Come and See, a 1985 Soviet film whose reputation precedes it - it's regarded as one of the greatest war films of all time. In 1943 Belarus, a young teenager, Flyora, joins the resistance, but as he travels from village to village across Nazi-occupied Belarus, experiencing worsening horrors and atrocities brought upon the locals, the extent to which he is out of his depth gradually becomes clearer and clearer. Part of Come and See's reputation is of being hard to watch, something we both take issue with - it goes to some deeply unpleasant places, but it's a gradual descent rather than an onslaught. That the film is regarded as such a trial has likely caused some filmgoers to unnecessarily avoid an experience that they would value. While it depicts shocking imagery and events, it's shot with an ethical eye - everything that's shown has a purpose, and that which would be excessively prurient is often avoided. We also consider the use of supernatural and fairytale aesthetics to place us in the mind of an innocent teenager, and the repeated portrait photography that shows the deepening scars the film's events leave upon him. We also discuss the film's view of Hitler and how it espouses a kind of great man theory in placing him as an icon at the centre of the Nazis' crimes, and the explosion of audiovisual imagination that is the final scene. Come and See is a beautifully made expression of the hideous costs of war on the innocent, and on our humanity. It's imaginative, intelligent, moving and shocking, and, we might add, beautifully restored. If you've avoided it on the basis of its notoriety, we urge you to reconsider. It's truly great. Recorded on 17th June 2021.

A Quiet Place Part II picks up moments after its 2018 predecessor ends, its characters desperate for refuge from the terrifying predators hunting them. Seeking survivors, they encounter a family friend, now a recluse, having lost his wife and children. Emboldened by her discovery of a way to combat the aliens, the family's deaf daughter makes a beeline for a radio station she believes can help, and what was a home invasion horror becomes an action adventure. While accommodating this alteration in tone, A Quiet Place Part II offers, as sequels tend to do, more of what made the first film so successful, and it's terrifically entertaining cinema - but a diminished experience, compared to its predecessor, in almost every way. We consider the film's view of society, the uncritical whiteness in its casting and its inability to imagine ways of living that don't involve the nuclear family unit; and the lack of threat we feel, despite its functional and well-orchestrated set-pieces - we simply never feel like these characters are at any real risk of being allowed to die. We have problems with A Quiet Place Part II, but don't let them dissuade you from seeing it. It's exciting and made José jump time and time again - we just wish, both in cinematic and social terms, it could see beyond its rather narrow boundaries. Recorded on 9th June 2021.

Disney's latest update of its back catalogue sees Emma Stone bring punk rock to Sixties London in Cruella, a beautiful, stylish, but clunky affair. Like Maleficent before it, Cruella offers an origin story to a key Disney villain: Estella, as she's named when we meet her, takes a circuitous route to her destiny as a star fashion designer, grifting with friends to make ends meet, and waging war on the leading fashionista of the day, Baroness von Hellman - played by a fabulously wicked Emma Thompson. Oh, and there are some Dalmatians involved. We discuss the quality and intentions of Cruella's characterisation and Stone's performance, the conspicuously expensive soundtrack, the use of CGI animals, whether the film is as queer as some of the hype has suggested, the role of men and masculinity, and why it is that fashion movies are one of very few areas in cinema where women get to play fun villains like the Baroness. Cruella is an imperfect film, less than the sum of its parts - but at their best, those parts are worth it for their own sake. Recorded on 3rd June 2021.

Billy Wilder directs this adaptation of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, a courtroom drama concerning a man on trial for the murder of an old woman - did he do it? What's up with his wife? Will his lawyer's nurse catch him smoking? As with Christie's stageplay, The Mousetrap, upon the film's conclusion, the audience is kindly asked to refrain from revealing its twists and revelations, but we at Eavesdropping at the Movies respect no such requests. Spoilers within. Charles Laughton is pleasingly hammy, Marlene Dietrich composed, and Tyrone Power a loud, sweaty, stressed out mess - and somehow mostly in the background, despite his central role as the accused murderer. We discuss their performances and characters, the pleasures and methods of Agatha Christie's mysteries, and Wilder's direction, which hopes, in that classic Hollywood style, to render technique invisible. Witness for the Prosecution is an engrossing mystery filled with interesting bits of business that enrich its characters, and a classic. Recorded on 23rd May 2021.

Cinema is back! And to celebrate, we see the new spin-off of the Saw series, Spiral, which... is not a good film. But it gives us much to think on, especially the surprisingly big names of its cast, which includes Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, and Max Minghella. Slasher series don't traditionally accommodate stars, but, beyond the fact that they're typically too expensive, Spiral offers a warning against their presence: the screentime they require pulls too much attention away from the thrills, the reason we're really there. The deaths we're accustomed to enjoying in Saw films just aren't given to us in sufficient excess or quantity in Spiral; Chris Rock's protagonist, a detective hunting a Jigsaw copycat, dominates the story. As if catching the murderer is more exciting than watching him work. Honestly. Despite our disappointment in the film, we enjoy our return to the cinema after nine months away, José finding a new appreciation for the meditative quality of submitting himself to a movie he can't pause in a darkened room, after a year of experiencing a fractured, distracted mental state watching streaming media. Mike likes the bigness of the screen, and that's as far as his introspection takes him. In an increasingly vaccinated Britain, this return to the cinema is more optimistic than the shaky and short-lived reopening of last summer, and feels like it stands a good chance of lasting. And a damn good thing, too. We've missed it. Recorded on 20th May 2021.

We explore René Clair's adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel of - in the US - the same name, And Then There Were None. In terms of quality, it's nothing to write home about, sadly, but is interesting nonetheless. Recorded on 13th May 2021.

We explore Dario Argento's Suspiria, his 1977 horror classic, and its loose remake by Luca Guadagnino, from 2018. We've never seen either, although Argento's film casts a long shadow - those who've seen it never forget it, and it's easy to see why. Its visual design is bold, imaginative and beautiful, the images it creates extraordinary, its violence heightened and wild. José loves it, literally wowed by it, captivated by its cinematic flair and interesting casting. But, Mike argues, it's a film that offers nothing beyond the aesthetic, uninterested in its own characters or story, which leaves him cold. Our responses to Guadagnino's remake are reversed entirely. For Mike, it's superior: ambitious, keen to mine the threadbare original for thematic depth, and laudably attempting to weave together generational guilt, dance, institutional corruption and women's bodies into a complex tapestry, although one which requires too much audience participation to complete. José thinks he's giving a pretentious work of ego far too much credit, is turned off by the dance scenes, annoyed at the lack of connection he finds between its wider themes and central coven, angered by its grey, wintry colour palette and dry cinematography... in fact, he's angered by all of it! Now he knows how his friends felt as he valiantly tried to argue them into appreciating Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, which he loved, but which many of them greeted with similar hostility. The original a cult classic, its remake a very different take on the core premise - both are worth watching. But if our responses are anything to go by, your mileage may vary considerably. Recorded on 11th May 2021.

Is the world right, or is Mike? Argylle, Matthew Vaughn's new spy comedy, has received terrible reviews and is bombing at the box office - but Mike thinks everyone else is wrong, taking it far too seriously, and missing the parody. José is more in tune with the vox populi, finding the film a slog, Henry Cavill's hair ugly, and Bryce Dallas Howard ill-cast. But we find concord when it comes to the film's action scenes, and we discuss the transitions between Cavill and Sam Rockwell, Howard's look and movement, Mike's continuing complaint about the peculiar look of British visual effects, and more. Recorded on 4th February 2024.

Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce star as the previous and current Popes respectively, in The Two Popes, an imagined biopic that uses their personas and public profiles as jumping off points to explore a range of ideas. We discuss the success with which the film has been adapted from the original stage play, but the lack of visual artistry it nonetheless exhibits; the ways in which it uses - and ignores - the characters' histories and mistakes; the sincerity that underpins the entire film; and the rather cheap and simple, if entertaining, use of football to convey Pope Francis as a man of the people. Although we find all sorts of areas to pick at, The Two Popes is easy to recommend - witty, charming, brilliantly performed by Hopkins and Pryce, and keen to explore meaningful ideas with seriousness and solemnity, when the moment calls for it. Worth a look. Recorded on 2nd May 2021.

We're joined by returning guest Celia, on the phone from Canada, to discuss writer-director Emerald Fennell's unusual revenge thriller, Promising Young Woman. Following the rape and - implied - suicide of her friend Nina, which goes unpunished, Carey Mulligan's Cassie drops out of medical school, and now spends her nights feigning drunkenness, allowing men to pick her up and take her home, alarming them with her sobriety as they begin to sexually assault her. When a chance reunion with a former classmate reveals that Nina's rapist is engaged, Cassie embarks upon a campaign of vengeance against those she considers responsible for and involved in committing and allowing her friend's rape and its cover-up. Celia loves it, finding that it invokes and brings to life many subtle and important observations about life for women in the patriarchy, enjoying the various forms Cassie's revenge takes - particularly the "exercises in forced empathy", in her words - and feeling a call to arms; José decidedly doesn't, decrying those observations and revenges as cinematically unrealised in what is merely a filmed essay, albeit one that admirably exhibits a style, an aesthetic and a point of view. Mike bravely sits in the middle, pretending to be superior to the other two by virtue of not exhibiting an extreme response to the film. The discussion is varied and passionate - and full of spoilers. Love it or hate it, Promising Young Woman is a thought-provoking, vital film, and well worth watching. Recorded on 18th April 2021.

Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford star in Gild- sorry, Affair in Trinidad, Hayworth's first film upon her return to Hollywood after four years away, and a blatant rip-off of a certain classic film noir from 1946. (There's also a chunk of Notorious thrown in for good measure.) Expensively cobbled together at Columbia boss Harry Cohn's instruction, its production was rushed, with its script barely presentable and Vincent Sherman's direction lazy, but audiences weren't put off - it made $7m domestically, blockbuster box office in 1952. Now featured as part of Columbia Noir #2, a box-set from the same series that includes The Garment Jungle, we take the opportunity to see what Affair in Trinidad has to offer - for José, the answer is, "not much, besides Rita Hayworth, gorgeous gowns and rich cinematography" - and discuss more besides, including Hayworth's name and image, and how and why they were changed. Affair in Trinidad is far from a good film, but one of historical interest, and certainly worth seeing for any fan of Rita Hayworth. Recorded on 18th April 2021.