Guess who just got back today!! In an historic reunion of the original Reel Politik lineup, Tom and Jack are joined by Reel Politik's American correspondent Yair Rice, returning to the show after an absence of a number of episodes to chit the chat about movies and politics, just like we did in the good old days. We catch Yair's thoughts on the British election, plus the political situation across the pond, Jack is taken to task for ideological crimes, and films reviewed include the 1957 Japanese...
Jun 01, 2017•1 hr
In the first of our Election Specials, Jack, Tom and Kieran shoot the shit with Corbyn's man in the media, Matt Zarb-Cousin, talking about the press, propaganda and Labour's popularity as this campaign has gone forward. Jason Cowley is denounced for the fourth consecutive episode, Bob Dylan is celebrated for his conversion to UKIP, and another special guest is brought in with the last of our Russian funds. We promised you gold and we give you it.
May 29, 2017•1 hr 30 min
In Part Two of our bumper episode with Jude Wanga (@judeinlondon on Twitter), the Labour Manifesto is pored through and critiqued with a balance and poise that New Statesman editor Jason Cowley would be proud of. The virtues of universalism are extolled, the Tory plate of shite is treated with the rank contempt it deserves, and the worst strata of the commentariat class - knobhead comedians - are mocked for their unilaterally garbage politics. It is, as ever, fucking great. ( - K. Morris)
May 24, 2017•1 hr 4 min
In the new Reel Politik, Jack and Tom are joined by freelance campaigner, writer, and purveyor of fiery takes Jude Wanga (@judeinlondon on Twitter) for the first of a two-part discussion of the manifestos the Labour and Conservative Parties are offering the British electorate in our current general election. The meat of the manifestos will be dealt with in part two, but in this first instalment we turn our attentions to various supplementary issues, such as how Labour can operate at a local leve...
May 21, 2017•1 hr 12 min
In our return episode, Jack and Kieran take aim at just about everyone and everything, riding on a wave of election euphoria to denounce, abuse and chastise anyone to the right of John McDonnell. Selections are discussed soberly, taxi drivers mocked viciously, and the Lib Dems celebrated for their 'Piff & Brexit' policy platform. We're back on our bullshit and loaded up for the next three weeks of campaigning.
May 14, 2017•1 hr 16 min
In the new Reel Politik, strap on your seatbelts as Tom and Jack take you on a long, rambling (politically rambling) dissection of Ken Loach’s 1983 documentary The Red and the Blue, which documents and contrasts the Labour and Conservative Party conferences of October 1982 (not 1983, as Tom originally says, although that was when the film aired.) It was recorded in two sessions, due to issues of competence in the first recording. As with any episode of the show, there are innumerable diversions ...
Apr 27, 2017•1 hr 34 min
In Part Two of our bumper Scottish episode, conversation descends into a wild game of Cop or Comrade?, as Jack, Alistair and Liam burn the midnight oil taking on slugs of all stripes - but, rather than individuals, these are the UK's various left-wing groupings, sluggy or otherwise. After this: a bonus clip on account of the General Election, with Jack, Tom and Kieran convening to pay solemn tribute to the departing Michael Dugher. This one gets incredibly sectarian.
Apr 20, 2017•1 hr 19 min
In Part One of our dark, drunken odyssey, Jack and an unconscious Tom shoot the shit with our comrades north of the border: Alistair Craig of Scottish Labour Young Socialists (SLYS), and Liam Gleeson, chair of Scottish Young Labour. With Scotland undergoing its greatest transformation since the Act of Union, the boys discuss Labour's role in this brave new world, and how they've adapted - or struggled - in the face of SNP dominance. Tears are shed, Jim Murphy is libelled, and neither guest has a...
Apr 16, 2017•1 hr
In the new Reel Politik, Tom and Jack are joined by Violet Lucca (@unbuttonmyeyes), a New York-based film critic who is digital producer and host of the excellent Film Comment podcast (@filmcomment). The discussion centres around the McCarthyist era of American history - the post-war anti-communist hysteria that saw anyone even vaguely left-of-centre become the target of ravenous right-wing ghouls, with lives and careers destroyed in the process - and John Wayne's 1952 anti-communist agitprop th...
Apr 09, 2017•1 hr 20 min
In this week's Reel Politik, Jack and Kieran take the latest issue of the New Statesman to task, going line by line through the bipartisan shite to answer the question of where the real opposition is, which as ever is the Labour frontbench. Slugs are salted and denounced in this bumper Easter special, which starts calm and ends in screaming, ranting and die-hard sectarianism.
Apr 04, 2017•1 hr 27 min
Jack and Tom are joined by nobody - not even their fellow members of the Reel Politik team - as they motor through a lengthy list of crowdsourced talking points, none of which have anything to do with cinema! Topics touched upon include all your favourite personalities from the Labour Party - Tom "Shadow Minister for Dad Rock" Watson, Seumas "Sex Icon" Milne, Neil "Westminster-centric Bellend" Coyle - the blithering idiocy and intellectual dishonesty of the Guardian's John Harris, Douglas Carswe...
Mar 27, 2017•1 hr 4 min
In the second part of our extensive conversation with our friend Tim MacGabhann (@TimMacGabhann), we go deeper into the three years he spent as a reporter in Mexico. He tells us about the moments that moved him the most, including the long period of time he spent with Donovan Tavera - Mexico's only licensed forensic cleaner - and his family, the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, a rehabilitation centre he visited in a beautiful area of Michoacan that helps addicts as young as four, and his o...
Mar 17, 2017•57 min
Our friend Tim MacGabhann (@TimMacGabhann) spent three years in Mexico reporting on the myriad social implications of the brutal War on Drugs that has raged in the country since 2006. Today he joins us - in the first instalment of a special Reel Politik two-parter - to tell us all about his experiences in Mexico, his position of privilege as a foreign reporter, the precarious existences of his Mexican colleagues, and the extent to which Mexico's endemic poverty and inequality feed into the blood...
Mar 14, 2017•58 min
In a special Reel Politik, Yair, Jack and Tom are joined by comrade @Pete_Begins off of Twitter - although Yair actually left five minutes in to go swimming - for a rip-roaring round of our acclaimed, ubiquitous game Cop or Comrade, in which we answer such questions as - who is the de facto leader of the opposition? Which centrist politician is our lord and saviour on earth? Which state is the "diseased maggot cock of America"? And, was the film 'Moonlight' scripted by Seumas Milne in a transpar...
Mar 08, 2017•1 hr 10 min
In our new episode, Jack (@ubercoca) and Tom (@t_foster94) are joined by Westminster Correspondent Kieran Morris (@hipsterscumbag) - with artwork designed by respected Labour moderate journalist Simon Hedges (@orwell_fan) - as they detail the surreptitious leadership bid that Labour MP Clive Lewis and his allies have allegedly been working on since at least last summer, with support from elements of the press (one "element" in particular) and unions. A large portion of the claims made in this po...
Mar 01, 2017•1 hr 21 min
In a special bite-sized episode, our Westminster correspondent Kieran Morris (@hipsterscumbag) briefs Jack (@ubercoca) and Yair (@ysrice) on the latest rumblings from the corridors of power. We discuss drama in the Labour Party, beef in what counts for a left-wing media in Britain, what makes somebody a "pound shop" something-or-other, and our own Kieran and Jack's recent ideological realignments. Just like Labour's victory in the Stoke-on-Trent by-election, this episode is brought to you - as e...
Feb 24, 2017•33 min
In our new episode, Jack and Yair review films including The Fear of 13, the Number 23, Weiner, Anthropoid, Carol, the Spectre of Marxism, the Spirit of '45 and Tony Benn: Will and Testament, as well as Owen Hatherley's book The Ministry of Nostalgia. Also discussed is the recent revelation that noted fascist M*lo Yishjidnaofsfasff is a massive nonce, the libertarian-fash intersection that provided him with a ready-made fanbase of bitter, pubescent nerd men, and also two comedy sketches we wrote...
Feb 21, 2017•58 min
In the second and final part of our disquisition on Martin Scorsese's storied body of work, we discuss his films from 1989 - in which he directed the short film Life Lessons for the anthology New York Stories - to the present day, including his new film Silence, which at least one of us (meaning one of us) has actually seen! We talk about his cameos in other directors' films, his career as a producer, and the role of faith in his work, and we pick some of our favourites from his extensive catalo...
Feb 16, 2017•1 hr
In the first instalment of a Reel Politik two-parter on the films of Martin Scorsese, Tom, Jack and Yair take a look at the first twenty-one years of filmography: from his 1967 debut, Who's That Knocking At My Door? (which, in all honesty, we actually forgot to talk about) to his 1988 masterpiece The Last Temptation of Christ, stopping off at classics such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Mean Streets along the way, Typically, the guys get waylaid and discuss slug Labour MPs and Marine A, and Jac...
Feb 13, 2017•1 hr 4 min
With Kieran Morris in tow, Tom subjects he and Jack to the entirety of ghastly literal-not-figurative troll Rod Liddle's comprehensive 26-question Sunday Times magazine quiz, the object of which is to determine whether or not its contestants are part of the liberal elite. Guys...it's time for some game theory. Because we're playing a game. And we all quite like theory. Tbh I don't know what game theory is or even who I am.
Feb 07, 2017•1 hr 14 min
Recorded the same night as our infamous (AKA most recent) 'Enoch Had It Wrong' episode - which accounts for the poor audio quality - and realised to coincide with our beloved comrade @tomfoster94's birthday, this edition of Reel Politik delves into the political tumult of a wearing January; including Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States, the Labour Party's travails over immigration and Brexit, and Jeremy Corbyn's "populist reboot". Films reviewed include Martin Scorsese'...
Feb 02, 2017•42 min
The sixth episode of our podcast sees the Reel Politik boys joined by the writer Kieran Morris (@hipsterscumbag) for a rousing discussion of the 1995 documentary Odd Man Out, which documents the life, senility and nativist "quirks" of the influential erotic poet, colonial conqueror and fascist Tory politician Enoch Powell, who invented the "full bladder technique" and helped legitimise racism in polite society. Our closing song is 'Getting Wet From Touching The Dead', written and performed by Mo...
Jan 26, 2017•58 min
In our latest episode we continue our discussion of party political broadcasts, this time branching out beyond the Labour Party to encompass the Conservatives, Greens, Liberal Democrats, Liberal/SDP Alliance, BNP, Britain First, National Front, Welsh Communists, Sin Fein and the IRA. We also discuss antisemitism in the Labour Party and things suffixed by "-gate". Podcast-listeners of the world, listen. You have nothing to lose but your interest.
Jan 09, 2017•38 min
Episode 4 - Labour Party Political Broadcasts by Reel Politik
Dec 28, 2016•1 hr 9 min
The third episode of the Reel Politik podcast is a festive bumper episode, featuring boundless sweet, succulent #content to keep you entertained over the holidays, such as: - a recap of some of the year's films - a discussion of the cinematic oeuvre of the musical comedy trio The Lonely Island - a discussion of Christmas-themed cinema - a special new game called Cop or Comrade - and a chance to catch up with The Man Who Was Never There, Labour's Owen Smith Our guest for this episode is our frien...
Dec 18, 2016•1 hr 48 min
Reel Politik is a podcast by Tom Foster, Jack Frayne-Reid and Yair Rice, in which your three humble servants of the revolution struggle to determine whether works of cinema from through the ages are dialectically pleasing and, furthermore, ideologically correct, or whether they deserve to be consigned forever to the celluloid gulag. Paying penance for left-deviationist crimes, the condemned trio shall raid the bargain basement of history until their gibbering brains are reduced to frail, dusty p...
Dec 04, 2016•46 min
Reel Politik is a podcast by Tom Foster, Jack Frayne-Reid and Yair Rice, in which your three humble servants of the revolution struggle to determine whether works of cinema from through the ages are dialectically pleasing and, furthermore, ideologically correct, or whether they deserve to be consigned forever to the celluloid gulag. Paying penance for left-deviationist crimes, the condemned trio shall raid the bargain basement of history until their gibbering brains are reduced to frail, dusty p...
Nov 25, 2016•1 hr
Some real muthafucking politik, comrades, coming soon to an internet near you. Reel Politik is a podcast by Tom Foster, Jack Frayne-Reid and Yair Rice, in which your three humble servants of the revolution struggle to determine whether works of cinema from through the ages are dialectically pleasing and, furthermore, ideologically correct, or whether they deserve to be consigned forever to the celluloid gulag. Paying penance for left-deviationist crimes, the condemned trio shall raid the bargain...
Nov 25, 2016•57 sec
