Cinema Bing Bong – Details, episodes & analysis

Sometimes there isn't enough time in a month to watch new movies but CINEMA BING BONG perseveres! With a Very Special Episode where Amelia has made up twenty film-related questions to answer. 

Memes from 2007, Amelia's book of linked essays, uncredited re-writes of Blue Moon (2025), the NZ government's Successful Women's Sustainability Egg Freezing Fund, Amelia tries to impress the listeners by pretending she uses a keep cup, best and worse smells in a cinema, the screening of Paddington 3 for dogs, everyone's talking about Project Hail Mary, should children be in movies, Amelia's Most Controversial Opinion, the Arabian Prince of Plugs (2028), Rebecca reads out the whole plot summary of the 2020 film Unhinged.

Films mentioned:

How to with John Wilson (TV, 2020)

The Saddest Music in the World (2003)

Smashing Time (1967)

Once (2007)

The Drama (2026)

The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)

Pillion (2025)

Amelia thinks the listeners won't believe that she's actually busy and isn't just doing crosswords all the time. The microphone the podcast was spoken into was not the microphone the computer decided to record from. Is 35 the right age for a sexual awakening? Is let me sniff ya fingers, Mrs a sexy concept?

Wuthering Heights (2025), The Secret Agent (2025), A Little Princess (1995), Blue Moon (2025), The Sound of Music (1965), Sorry, Baby (2025)

A24 is a US film production and distribution company named after an Italian motorway and it's time to rank the movies they've produced and distributed. Are they known more for their touching family dramas or their shouty dick movies? When you hear Franco do you think first of the dictator or the disgraced actor James Franco? Are the irony poisoned youth ruining tiered rankings? Is there a movie about an evil phone or did Amelia just make that up? Rebecca recounts a heartbreaking story about not being Pynchonesque after all. Amelia tries to make up a name for Peter Strickland fans. A new A24 movie is pitched.

3 Women (1977)
20th Century Women (2016)
A Different Man (2024)
Aftersun (2022)
Beau is Afraid (2023)
The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Certain Women (2016)
Civil War (2024)
Climax (2018)
Close (2022)
The Disaster Artist (2017)
Dream Scenario (2023)
Eighth Grade (2018)
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
The Farewell (2019)
The Florida Project (2017)
Funny Pages (2022)
Ghost Story (2017)
Gloria Bell (2018)
In Fabric (2018)
I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
Janet Planet (2024)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Ladybird (2017)
La La Land (2016)
The Lighthouse (2019)
The Lobster (2015)
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Lucy (2014)
Menashe (2017)
Midsommar (2019)
Moonlight (2016)
Past Lives (2023)
Pearl (2022)
Priscilla (2023)
Problemista (2023)
Spring Breakers (2012) 
Stop Making Sense (2023)
Swiss Army Man (2016)
Talk to Me (2022)
Uncut Gems (2019)
Under the Silver Lake (2018)
Under the Skin (2013)
The Whale (2022)
White Noise (2022)
The Witch (2015)
The Zone of Interest (2023)

Trap
Maxxxine
Longlegs
Kinds of Kindness
Chime
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Alien ROMULUS sorry it's Romulus not Resurrection 

Julio Torresbong, Japanese pharmacy, the fourth dimension, what are the most spiritually evil films

The Film Festivals are over and what have you done? Besides Google 'so this is christmas lyrics'. Amelia and Rebecca have seen some films and have been rewarded with not only depression and influenza, but also an awareness of the latest trends in cinemâ (Canada, interpretive dance and so on). Amelia reports live from a kebab shop. Warning for misophonia: she was still eating the kebab at the time of the report.

The Shrouds (2024), Rumours (2024), Kneecap (2024), Megalopolis (2024), My Sunshine (2024), Janet Planet (2024), The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), All We Imagined As Light (2024), Problemista (2023), I Saw the TV Glow (2024), Armand (2024), The Teachers' Lounge (2023), Cuckoo (2024), Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)

Cinema Bing Bong returns a second time this month to go through the programme of the New Zealand International Film Festival, beginning with quite an extended discussion about what in Gosden's name is going on with the festival and finishing up with some motivational brain-drain content about what's showing at Melbourne International Film Festival. Featuring an interactive aspect where you can email in and say if you think Amelia was the asshole in two situations, the new phrase 'doing my coming to terms with myself', the innovative concept of not seeing movies if you can see the same stuff outside and some recommendations for listeners in loveless marriages.

Note: if you are in a hurry with the NZIFF booking page open, skip to ~48'

Films mentioned:

NZIFF
Janet Planet (2023) US
Problemista (2023) US
I Saw the TV Glow (2024) US
Humanist Vampire Seeks Consenting Suicidal Person (2023) Canada
A Different Man (2024) US
All We Imagine as Light (2024) India
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) Iran
Armand (2024) Norway
Tatami (2024) Georgia *NOTE: On further research, may have an anti-BDS plot which CBB does not support*
The Teachers’ Lounge (2023) Germany
Crossing (2024) Sweden/Georgia
Opus (2023) Japan
The Haka Party Incident (2024) NZ
Naughty Little Peeptoe (2000) NZ
The Substance (2024) US
Sleep (2023) South Korea
The Universal Theory (2023) Germany
Kneecap (2024) Ireland
The People’s Joker (2022) US
No Other Land (2024) Palestine
My Favourite Cake (2024) Iran
Brief History of a Family (2024) China
The Village Next to Paradise (2024) Somalia
Wild Diamond (2024) France
The Monk and the Gun (2023) Bhutan
Explanation for Everything (2023) Hungary
Dìdi (2024) US
Seeking Mavis Beacon (2024) US
The Sweet East (2023) US
Gloria (2024) Italy
Head South (2024) NZ
We Were Dangerous (2024) NZ

MIFF
The Cars that Ate Paris (1974) Australia
My Sunshine (2024) Japan
Megalopolis (2024) US
The Shrouds (2024) Canada
Dream Team (2024) US
Rumours (2024) Canada

Other
Tenebre (1982) Italy
Last Year at Marienbad (1961) France
Flux Gourmet (2022) UK
Black Narcissus (1947) UK
In Bed With Madonna (1991) US
World on a Wire (1973) Germany
The Desert Bride (2017) Argentina/Chile
Las Herederas (2018) Paraguay
Anatolian Leopard (2021) Türkiye
D’Jon Afrika (2018) Portugal/Cape Verde
Mid90s (2018) US
The Saddest Music in the World (2003) Canada
Doctor Strange (2016) US / Doctor Sleep (2019) US

A very special episode! As Cinema Bing Bong takes to the actual cinema and comes to you Live from Event Queen Street and a bench outside Atrium on Elliott. Then it's back to the studio where Amelia's bragging about how many films are screening in Melbourne and Rebecca can't remember the name of anything just which crimes were involved. Featuring a fun new time travel segment: favourite films age 13-16 aka 'teen movie kill amelia segment'.

Furiosa (2024), The Beast (2023), Marjorie Prime (2017), The Fall Guy (2024), Shiva Baby (2020), Bring it On (2000), Fallen Leaves (2023), Eagle vs Shark (2006), A Mighty Wind (2003), Donnie Darko (2001), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Roman Holiday (1953), Funny Man (1994), What's Cooking (2000), Amélie (2001), The Spanish Apartment (2002), Welcome to the Sticks (2008), Being John Malkovich (1999), Suddenly Last Winter (2008)

PS enjoy Cinema Bing Bong curated content: 
https://tinyurl.com/cinemabingbong
key: J2sBea

May's Cinema Bing Bong is a treasure trove of delights: After seven years Amelia has finally listened to Rebecca about the films of Alice Rohrwacher and immediately turned bisexual looking at Josh O'Connor. The tables have turned and Rebecca has overthought how to pronounce Franz Rogowski so much she forgot it has a g in it. A damning report on the cinemagoers of Auckland's North Shore and a NEW game.

Films referenced: La Chimera (2023) + Happy as Lazzaro (2018) + The Invisible Life of Euridíce Gusmão (2019) + Challengers (2024) + Evil Does Not Exist (2024) + The Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) + In the Aisles (2018)

Follow us on instagram! @cinemabingbong

A thrilling new episode of Cinema Bing Bong, which includes two new games to play along with!

Spooky scary! Amelia's been watching horror movies by herself, in April. Luckily for the listeners who are yet to see Immaculate (2024) or any of the other American Nun Movies, she's bleeped out the spoilers. Rebecca cried all the way through Civil War (2024), but the real thing to cry over is how Amelia takes on average four years to watch any of her recommendations. Discourse topics: is New Zealand just like Finland? Which director would you want to direct the film of your funeral? Which is worse: using AI or producing films in the UAE? What are refuse collectors called in Australia? Amelia gets given a crash course in pronouncing foreign names and so much more, this month on the #1 ranked film podcast in New Zealand.

Note: Sadly there are minor sound issues in this episode! Listen on low quality computer speakers and you won't notice.

Films referred to:
Immaculate (2024)
The First Omen (2024)
Late Night with the Devil (2023)
Look Around You (2002)
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004)
Debs (2004)
Civil War (2024)
Possession (1981)
The films of Aki Kaurismäki
The films of Alice Rohrwacher

Beware the Ides of March—awards season is over and no one in Australasia can agree on how to pronounce Dune. Amelia has become the nation's foremost Frank Herbert fanatic and can't stop filling her boots with geriatric spice. The only Sandra Hüller movie Rebecca saw in 2023 was the unpopular Sisi und Ich. This episode contains a dramatic reading of FRISCO, the script that might seem like it was plagiarised by The Holdovers to people who saw it between two plane seats after being awake for 36 hours. Amelia is inconsistently bothered by anachronisms but insists she's still fun. Rebecca wishes she could love everything especially unallocated seating. Javier Bardem doesn't know how to drive.

* Spoiler Alert * — Spoilers for the end of Love Lies Bleeding from 1:19:15 – 1:31:27

Maestro (2023) | The Zone of Interest (2023) | The Holdovers (2023) | Dune 2 (2024) | Love Lies Bleeding (2024) | Perfect Days (2023) | Sweet November (2001) | Rebecca (2020) | Sexy Beast (2001) | Birth (2004) | Schindler's List (1993) | Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023) | Sisi und Ich (2023)

Note: If you are neurodivergent and can't watch a three-hour film with your feet on the floor, your posture is trash and your thumbs can touch your forearms, it's time to look into hypermobility spectrum disoders

Correction: It's Charlize Theron who's in Sweet November, not Meg Ryan, which is WORSE