For the first of our Hitchcockian films, we discuss the best "Hitchcock film not directed by Hitchcock": Stanley Donen's Charade (1963), a somewhat satirical, fantastically entertaining globe-trotting thriller with a stellar cast featuring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, and Walter Matthau. Next week we'll be chatting about Gaslight (1944), which somehow Hitchcock also did not direct.
It's Alfred Hitchcock's birthday month and we're kicking off the celebration with one of his quintessential films: North by Northwest . Cary Grant stars alongside Eva Marie Saint and James Mason in this tale of mistaken identity, espionage, and intrigue. From an attempted assassination via crop duster to the face(s) of Mount Rushmore, one of Hitch's biggest and more iconic films is thrilling, romantic, and funny.
We close out Pride Month this year with a brand-new film (that's technically a remake, but shhhh): The Wedding Banquet, from Fire Island director Andrew Ahn, and starring Bowen Yang, Han Gi-chan, Lily Gladstone, and Kelly Marie Tran as two gay couples who have to try to play it straight. The result is a beautiful (and hilarious) film about found family and queer identity. We'll be on a break for the rest of July, returning in August with our annual Hitchcock coverage (starting with North by Nort...
We continue our Pride Month series with the 2005 lesbian spy rom-com, D.E.B.S. This gem of a movie, directed by Angela Robinson, is the story of a super hot super spy and a super hot super villain who meet and fall in love. Underrated in its time, but finding new popularity in recent years, D.E.B.S. is the kind of funny, silly girl movie we wish there were more of. How this didn't launch a whole subgenre is beyond us!
The Dames continue Pride Month with the seminal queercore punk-rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch , directed by and starring John Cameron Mitchell. While Lauren tries to explain Judith Butler, Karen wonders why Hedwig is kind of a dick? Next week: D.E.B.S. and lesbians committing espionage!
The Dames are celebrating Pride Month! And we're starting off with the 1994 road trip movie, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert . Terrence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pierce star as a trans woman and two drag queens who embark on a road trip across Australia, encountering good, bad, and dangerous challenges along the way.
We close out our Varda series with her penultimate film Faces Places (2017), co-directed by visual artist JR, with whom Varda travels across France, meeting people, taking photographs, and discussing art, image, and the passage of time. We also decide that Godard is a jerk. Next week, we're moving into Pride month viewing with some queer classics and even a brand-new film! First up is The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)!
This week, the Dames continue our Varda series with the surreal and unique Jane B par Agnès V. Is it a documentary? Is it an essay film? What is this movie? In another inventive film from Agnès Varda, she sets out to help her friend Jane Birkin experience the film roles she never got to play and her fears about turning 40.
Our Agnès Varda month continues with a discussion of Le Bonheur (Happiness) , following the lives of a happy little nuclear family whose happiness gets challenged (or does it?) when the father begins an affair. Deeply feminist and gorgeously filmed, Le Bonheur fools you into thinking its one thing and then becomes another. We do recommend watching the film before listening to the podcast! Next week, we'll be chatting some of Varda's documentaries, starting with Jane B. par Agnès V....
This month we are (finally!) exploring some of the works of the great Agnès Varda, one of the pioneers of the French New Wave. First up, we're starting with one of her most widely seen: Cléo from 5 to 7 . Corinne Marchand stars as the titular Cléo, a young singer waiting for important medical results. Over the course of 90 minutes, Cléo tries to distract herself from the agonizing wait, first among friends, and then on a winding route through Paris. The film screened at the 1962 Cannes Film Fest...
We close out 1987 with a quirky one: Steve Martin's adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac : Roxanne, starring Daryl Hannah as the titular intellectual love interest of C.D. (Martin), a small-town fire chief with a brilliant mind and a prominent proboscis. This is a really fun way to end this series! Next up we'll have an entire month of Agnes Varda, starting with her first feature Cleo from 5 to 7 , so start watching!
This week, the Dames are talking about love, true love as we discuss the beloved 1987 fairy tale classic, The Princess Bride . William Goldman adapted the script from his own novel. Rob Reiner directs the film which stars Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn and so many more. Be sure to come back next week when we finish out our 1987 romantic movie series with Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah in Roxanne ....
And we're back! This week, we're talking about Maurice (1987), the Merchant-Ivory adaptation of E.M. Forster's startlingly progressive story of homosexual love in Edwardian England. The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems. Next week, we'll be discussing The Princess Bride , so Gen-Xers and Millennials should get real excited!
This month we're traveling back to 1987, starting with the Academy Award-winning romance, Moonstruck . Plot: Loretta Castorini, a bookkeeper from Brooklyn, New York, finds herself in a difficult situation when she falls for the brother of the man she has agreed to marry. Directed by: Norman Jewison Written by: John Patrick Shanley Starring: Cher, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia
We close out our Women's History Month discussion of Penelope Spheeris with THE movie of the 1990s: Wayne's World , starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey! Hear about the film that introduced a generation to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and maybe sort of formed Lauren's entire psyche. Next week, we'll be chatting about Moonstruck , so defo prep for that! Party on!
We continue our Penelope Spheeris series with her first narrative feature, Suburbia . Plot summary: Suburbia is director Penelope Spheeris's study of the Los Angeles punk rock scene in the early 1980s. Evan and his younger brother leave their broken home in an attempt to escape their alcoholic mother. They find family in a group of punks who live as squatters in an abandoned house by the side of the highway.
We're celebrating Women's History Month by discussing some of the best films of the severely underrated Penelope Spheeris, whose filmography is quite something. First up: Spheeris's first feature, The Decline of Western Civilization, an intense, enjoyable, wholly strange documentary about the LA hardcore punk scene in 1979/1980. Even if you're not a punk fan, this is a must-see. We'll be on a brief break next week, but will return the week after to discuss Spheeris's Suburbia (1983), a fictional...
We conclude our David Lynch series with his first Academy Award-nominated feature, The Elephant Man . Released in 1980, John Hurt stars as John Merrick, a Victorian era freak show star whose life changes when he meets Dr. Frederick Treves, played by Anthony Hopkins. But of course, with David Lynch telling the story, there is so much more to it than what lies on the surface.
This week we continue our David Lynch series with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me , the prequel film to the remarkable series. Trigger warning for discussion of sexual abuse/incest.
This week, we continue our David Lynch series by exploring the mysteries of Mulholland Drive . Plot summary: After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality. Written and directed by David Lynch Starring: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Patrick Fischler, Robert Forster, Ann Miller
We're back and better than ever! After a brief hiatus while Karen was at Sundance, the Dames return to discuss some of the must-sees of the festival, followed by a deep dive into David Lynch's 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet , starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, and Laura Dern.
This week, we're discussing Andy Griffith's first big screen role in A Face in the Crowd, the 1957 film from Elia Kazan. Griffith stars as Lonesome Rhodes, a wandering musician who is discovered in a small county jail and goes on to become an influential television star. It is a fascinating and timely examination of fame, influence, and the cult of personality. Additional Reading: Vulture Article: " There Is No Safe Word: How the Best-Selling Fantasy Author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of h...
The Dames delve into the darkness and despair with Robert Eggers's Nosferatu , a Dracula adaptation, remake of Murnau's 1922 film, and work of art all its own.
Welcome to 2025! As we gear up for a new year of exciting episodes and so many movies to talk about, we take a little look back at some of the films we have been watching lately, from Lauren's Hitchcock Year to Will & Harper and Wallace & Gromit , this wide-ranging conversation covers a lot of recent and upcoming releases as well as some of our favorite rewatches. End clip: Demi Moore wins the Best Female Actor - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy award for The Substance at the 82nd Annual Go...
Happy New Year from Citizen Dame! For our final episode of 2024, we talk about the hilarious and melancholic The Apartment , directed and written by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon as an office worker who lets executives use his apartment for extramarital affairs, and Shirley Maclaine as the elevator girl he develops feelings for (without knowing she's having an affair of her own). Come for the Billy Wilder dialogue, stay for Fred MacMurray being The Worst. (Available to stream for free on Pr...
This week, we celebrate the season with Todd Haynes' 2015 holiday romance, Carol . Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star in this adaptation of the 1952 Patricia Highsmith novel.
The Dames do a double-feature this week with The Bishop's Wife and The Preacher's Wife, in which we try to determine whether Cary or Denzel is the hottest angel committed to film. Jury's still out.
The Dames are kicking off a month of holiday movies, beginning with the 1941 French production, L'assassinat du Père Noël/Who Killed Santa Claus? Directed by: Christian-Jaque Written by: Charles Spaak; based on the novel by Pierre Véry Starring: Harry Baur, Renée Faure, Raymond Rouleau, Robert Le Vigan, Jean Brochard Produced by Continental Films
The Dames close out Noirvember in pulpy style with Samuel Fuller's still shocking The Naked Kiss, starring Constance Towers as a prostitute who moves to a small town and upends its social and sexual hierarchy by actually being a kind, ethical person. (TW for discussions of sexual abuse.)
This week, we discuss Orson Welles' noir classic, Touch of Evil . Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh star as a Mexican official and his wife who find themselves embroiled in a drug trafficking scandal that also involves an American detective (Welles) and his questionable methods of bringing people to justice.
