After a few weeks away, Emily and Ed catch up on some of the big news stories they missed, including The Oscars, that slap and its fallout, Ethan Coen striking out on his own, Bruce Willis retiring, and The Guest 2 getting a soundtrack despite not existing.
359. News Round Up
May 1st, 2022
358. Toxic Femininity
March 20th, 2022
This week, Emily and Ed talk about films and TV shows that explore the idea of toxic femininity, with particular emphasis on Showtime's Yellowjackets. They also talk about Glaswegian architecture as it relates to The Batman.
00:00:00 - 00:13:55 - Intro & New
00:13:56 - 00:48:54 - Emily & Ed discuss Toxic Femininity in Films and TV
00:48:55 - 00:52:48 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Links
- Be Kind Rewind's "Ruth Gordon's Unique and Defiant Journey to Oscar" as recommended by Emily
- Dance Craze (1981) as recommended by Ed
- Ed's appearance on the Games of Film podcast talking about The Matrix and its weird, ambitious videogame spin-offs
357. The Modern State of the Rom-Com
February 27th, 2022
This week, inspired by this interview in Anne Helen Petersen's Substack with Scott Meslow, author of From Hollywood With Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy, Emily and Ed discuss the past, present and future of the romcom. Is the genre in rude health, as suggested by the increased number of them being made for streaming services? Or is it on life support, since romcoms generally don't get big theatrical releases anymore and (with some very notable exceptions) rarely break through to the broader culture as they did in their heyday of the '80s and '90s? Also, wasn't Nora Ephron the greatest? (That last one is of course rhetorical.)
00:00:00 - 00:10:11 - Intro
00:10:12 - 00:46:27 - Emily & Ed discuss the state of the
00:46:28 - 00:50:51 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Links
- Trainwreckords: Katy Perry's "Witness" by Todd in the Shadows, as recommended by Ed
356. How We Would Fix the Oscars
February 26th, 2022
This week, Emily and Ed discuss the 2022 Oscar nominations, and offer suggestions for how they would fix the Oscar's ongoing popularity and identity crisis, including adding new categories, changing eligibility rules, or encouraging broader public engagement from The Academy.
Note: this episode was recorded before the announcement that eight awards would not be given out as part of the main ceremony this year. Suffice it to say, that's a very bad idea for fixing what is wrong with the Oscars.
00:00:00 - 00:22:24 - Intro & News
00:22:25 - 01:04:02 - Emily & Ed talk about the Oscars and how they would fix them
01:04:03 - 01:08:34 - SRS Recommends & Outro
355. Bad Movies We Can’t Stop Thinking About
February 14th, 2022
This week, Emily and Ed talk about the bad movies (or at least movies they really dislike) that stick with them, whether it's because they have good ideas that they execute badly, they're so perplexing that they demand more consideration just to understand why they don't work, or because everyone else insists they're good.
00:00:00 - 00:17:23 - Intro & News
00:17:24 - 00:53:30 - Emily & Ed discuss bad movies they can't stop thinking about
00:53:31 - 00:57:46 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Links
- The Pudding, as recommended by Emily
354.Curation in the Streaming Age
February 6th, 2022
This week, Emily and Ed discuss the importance of curation in an age defined by streaming services, as well as the ways in which many of the big services limit the capacity for people to discover new things and broaden their horizons. They also talk about "Sundance inflation" and the gutting of the AV Club by corporate ghouls.
00:00:00 - 00:28:30 - Intro & News
00:28:31 - 00:57:55 - Emily & Ed discuss curation in the streaming age
00:57:56 - 01:04:10 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Links
- Line Goes Up - The Problem with NFTs by Dan Olson, as recommended by Emily
353. Emily’s Birthday 2022
January 30th, 2022
It's Emily's birthday (or it was a few weeks ago)! To celebrate, she and Ed discuss movies that have no clear protagonist. They also try to fix the acting categories at the major awards ceremonies.
00:00:00 - 00:14:04 - Intro & News
00:14:05 - 00:57:09 - Emily & Ed discuss films that have no clear protagonist
00:57:10 - 01:01:45 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Links
- Monsters and Mullets, the newsletter by A. Perry, as recommended by Emily
352. Best of 2021
January 16th, 2022
To mark the start of a new year, Emily and Ed run down their best films/TV shows/albums/games/books/etc. of 2021. They also talk about Lindsay Ellis quitting YouTube and the deaths of Jean-Marc Vallée and Betty White.
00:00:00 - 00:14:58 - Intro & News
00:14:59 - 00:28:32 - Honourable Mentions
00:28:33 - 01:33:54 - Emily & Ed talk about their Top 10s
351. The Lord of the Rings Films Are Old and So Are We
December 27th, 2021
To mark the 20th anniversary of the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Emily and Ed talk about their love of the trilogy, its legacy, and whether Aragorn should have ended up with Eowyn.
00:00:00 - 00:12:37 - Intro & News
00:12:38 - 00:50:29 - Emily & Ed talk about The Lord of the Rings films
00:50:30 - 00:55:35 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Links:
- Here's A Spy Movie on YouTube, as recommended by Emily
350. Musicians Acting
December 6th, 2021
Given the, er, divided response to Lady Gaga's performance in House of Gucci, now seems like the perfect time to talk about musicians acting in movies. In addition to discussing the ways in which movies play with or against a musician's public persona, Emily and Ed talk about musicians who achieved recognition for their performances, those for whom recognition proved elusive, and those who transcended the need for films to bestow them with acclaim. They also talk about the deaths of Stephen Sondheim and Antony Sher, new details about the split between Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, and the news that The AV Club will soon be forced to move to L.A. from its longtime home of Chicago.
00:00:00 - 00:22:45 - Intro & News
00:22:46 - 00:55:14 - Emily & Ed discuss musicians acting in film
00:55:15 - 01:01:05 - SRS Recommends & Outro
- Link to the FastPass episode of Defunctland, as recommend by Emily
349. Perspective
November 29th, 2021
Content Warning: As part of the main topic we discuss the plot of The Last Duel, so there is brief discussion of rape and sexual assault.
Inspired by the shifting viewpoints in Ridley Scott's The Last Duel, Emily and Ed talk about movies that play with ideas of perspective, and the ways in which cinema can uniquely handle the idea of showing a story from the vantage points of multiple characters.
348. Gimmick vs. Premise
November 22nd, 2021
This week Emily and Ed discuss the difference between a gimmick and a premise, as they relate to movies, as well of examples of gimmicks that work so well that they cannot be extricated from a premise. They also talk about the ratification of the IATSE contract, #FreeBritney, and the deaths of Mick Rock and Dean Stockwell.
00:00:00 - 00:19:26 - Intro & News
00:19:27 - 00:50:47 - Emily & Ed discuss Gimmicks vs. Premises
00:50:48 - 00:55:11 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Link to the Bandcamp page for Billy Nomates, as recommended by Emily
347. The Six (with Arthur Jones)
November 15th, 2021
On this week's episode Emily sits down with director Arthur Jones to talk about their documentary The Six, which tells the story of the six Chinese survivors of the Titanic, and how their experiences of discrimination in the face of calamity continue to resonate over a century later.
For further information about The Six, including planned screenings, please visit the film's website.
00:00:00 - 00:02:42 - Intro & (extremely brief) news
00:02:43 - 00:50:58 - Emily interviews Arthur Jones about The Six
00:50:59 - 00:54:03 - SRS Recommends & Outro
346. Scary Moments in Non-Horror
November 6th, 2021
In this (belated) Halloween episode, Emily and Ed discuss scary moments in movies that aren't strictly speaking horror movies.
00:00:00 - 00:19:06 - Intro & News
00:19:07 - 00:48:34 - Emily & Ed discuss scary moments in non-horror movies
00:48:35 - 00:51:28 - SRS Recommends & Outro
345. The Fun of Sprawling Art
October 24th, 2021
This week, Emily and Ed talk about some of their favourite examples of sprawling (or "bloated" if you want to be a little less charitable) art, running the gamut from the fiction of Paul Auster to the Yakuza series of video games.
00:00:00 - 00:27:27 - Intro & News
00:27:28 - 00:52:54 - Emily & Ed discuss sprawling art
00:52:55 - 01:00:23 - SRS Recommends & Outro
344. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020) / Malignant (2021)
October 16th, 2021
This week's show and tell finds Emily and Ed bringing two distinctive but very different visions: Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross's creative non-fiction film Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets and James Wan's gothic delight Malignant. They also talk about recent film news and the new SNL cast.
00:00:00 - 00:39:02 - Intro & News
00:39:03 - 00:57:13 - Emily & Ed discuss Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets and Malignant
343. What Makes a Good Rip-Off?
October 3rd, 2021
Inspired by Ed's first ever viewing of Event Horizon, Emily and Ed talk about what it takes for a film that rips off another film to overcome that stigma. They also talk about how amazing Sandra Bullock is, Nicholas Sparks movie posters, and the "low-stakes Uncut Gems" week that Ed had.
00:00:00 - 00:27:40 - Intro & News
00:27:41 - 00:58:16 - Emily & Ed discuss good rip-offs
00:58:17 - 01:04:10 - SRS Recommends & Outro
342. The Matrix Online is Canon!
September 19th, 2021
It's been a few weeks since Emily and Ed last recorded, so they catch up on some of the biggest news stories that they missed, as well as the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Links:
- As recommended by Emily, "At the Turtle Club in the Shadow of 9/11" on Defector
341. TV Anthologies
September 12th, 2021
This week, Emily and Ed talk about the most recent series of Inside No. 9, the anthology series from Reese Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, before jumping off to a broader discussion of anthology TV shows, particularly the slew of them that have emerged in the past decade.
00:00:00 - 00:19:43 - Intro & News
00:19:44 - 00:52:48 - Emily & Ed discuss TV Antologies
00:52:49 - 00:57:32 - SRS Recommends & Outro
340. On Becoming A God in Central Florida (2019)/Annette (2021)
August 23rd, 2021
For this week's Show and Tell episode, Emily brings the sadly short-lived Showtime series On Becoming a God in Central Florida, while Ed brings the Leos Carax X Sparks musical Annette. They also talk about the recent deaths of Sonny Chiba and Sean Lock.
00:00:00 - 00:17:27 - Intro & News
00:17:28 - 00:51:53 - Emily & Ed discuss On Becoming a God in Central Florida and Annette
00:51:54 - 00:57:31 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Links
- Kris Straub's Local 58, as recommended by Emily (cw for suicide)
- Voidburger's A Puzzle of Flesh in an Era of Strife, as recommended by Ed