436 – Maria

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The third film in Pablo Larraín’s trilogy of iconic women, following 2016’s Jackie and 2021’s Spencer, Maria shows us the final week of the life of opera singer Maria Callas, who at the age of 53 is experiencing delusions, hallucinations, and the fear that her once-perfect singing voice has abandoned her. Mike isn’t familiar with Maria Callas; José is (despite worrying before we started recording that he wouldn’t have much to say when expected to explain who she is).

No familiarity with her is required, however, to enjoy the film. Larraín’s elegant direction, Steven Knight’s intelligent screenplay, and Angelina Jolie’s extraordinary, subtle performance combine beautifully to explore Maria’s ego, fears, and passion. Maria’s delusions, in which choirs fill town squares, orchestras back her in her apartment, and a fascinated journalist follows her around Paris chronicling her memories, are evident throughout the film… everywhere but in song. She knows all too well that her voice is leaving her, she hopes for and needs its return, and ultimately, the film renders her struggle with it a fight to hold on to life itself. It’s sympathetic, understandable, and beautiful.

Maria is the best film of Larraín’s impressive body of work, and features perhaps the best performance of Jolie’s. See it.

(We also discuss Robbie Williams, because Mike saw Better Man, the Robbie Williams monkey movie, and is desperate to talk about it.)

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

435 – Nosferatu (2024)

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Listen to our podcast on F. W. Murnau’s original, silent Nosferatu here.

Writer-director Robert Eggers, whose reputation for aesthetically rich, deeply-researched and idiosyncratic horror precedes him, has long been working on a remake of F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, the 1922 German Expressionist classic whose influence has been felt in the horror genre for a century. It’s a big fish to try to take down, but it’s source material that feels like it exists especially for him – how does he do?

Very well, as it turns out… although, in classic fashion, we manage to talk around what a fantastic time we had by concentrating on our criticisms. Ignore them until you’ve taken yourself to the biggest cinema you can to see it – it’s an experience you should have. Then come back and listen to us discuss the debt Eggers’ Nosferatu owes to the colour tinting processes of the silent era, how the second half gets bogged down in tropes and plot, the delineation between sex and love, the pressure to be accessible, whether horror needs to be scary, and the important lesson we learned from Shrek Forever After.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

434 – Conclave

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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!

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

433 – Juror #2

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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?
With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

432 – Heretic

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Hugh Grant brings his idiosyncratic brand of English charm to the world of horror in Heretic, in which he isolates and tests the faith of two young Mormon missionaries. It’s a film that leaves you asking all sorts of questions, such as, “did anything he was up to actually make any sense?”, but for a horror film so heavy on the dialogue and relatively light on the scares, it’s fabulously enertaining throughout – a real achievement of direction and writing. See it!

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

431 – Venom: The Last Dance

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We enjoyed the first. We didn’t care for the second. Does the third bring back the fun?

No, not really.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

430 – Gladiator II

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Ridley Scott returns to Gladiator after more than twenty years, telling a story that’s broadly the same, but neatly picks up from the original too. Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal in the central role, and we discuss whether he has the movie star charisma to match his indie film credentials; we also talk action, visual effects, Denzel Washington’s Iago figure, the trope of the gay villain, and more.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

429 – Joker: Folie à Deux

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2019’s Joker, which gave the iconic supervillain an all-purpose mental health disorder, a tragic origin story, and a name – Arthur Fleck – was never meant to have a sequel. But it made a billion dollars, so Joker: Folie à Deux is here. And, being a jukebox musical based primarily on show tunes from the mid-20th century canon, we ask who it’s for. The first film took risks in eschewing so many trappings of the comic book genre; did the filmmakers hope that their audience would respond similarly to further experimentation? Or is it a means of punishing an audience they attracted but loathe?

If the film hates its audience… well, so does Mike, which might explain why he got on with it. José, on the other hand, liked the first film, and is happy to see more of Joaquin Phoenix and hear those classic songs. Joker: Folie à Deux is far from a great film, not that close to a good film, and doesn’t have much of interest or intelligence to say about its themes – but it’s fascinating that it exists.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

428 – Megalopolis

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Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited passion project, Megalopolis, self-funded to the tune of $120m, has finally arrived. We love it. It’s wild, imaginative, earnest, and beautiful. We discuss and decry some of the criticisms of it we’ve already seen while coming up with some of our own – how could we have known that an octogenarian might hold rather traditional views? – in between breathlessly enthusing about what captivated us.

Megalopolis is hardly a perfect film but it’s a visual treat and a fantastic cinematic experience. Don’t let the naysayers’ sniping turn you off. Indulge!

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.

427 – Alien: Romulus

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A welcome new instalment in the Alien franchise, which has moved between genres and directors, remained popular for over four decades, and offered fascinating expansions of its internal mythos, Alien: Romulus moves with the times to give Generation Z the opportunity to die in space. It goes like the clappers, orchestrates loads of entertaining, tactile action, and is unbelievably good-looking. It’s also underwritten, arguably overstuffed with reference to previous films in the series, and features one of those entirely uncontroversial and ethically pure reanimations of a deceased actor through CGI and other technologies. Perhaps after seeing the muted responses to the ideas on offer in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, the series has decided to seek refuge in the cloying bosom of nostalgia – but we differ on how excessive it is, while enthusiastically agreeing that Romulus is great fun, and easy to recommend.

With José Arroyo of First Impressions and Michael Glass of Writing About Film.