Star Wars is good again! Ed blows the dust off the podcast and is joined by co-host emeritus Matt Risby to talk at length about the first season of Andor , the Disney+ series created by Tony Gilroy which, against all odds, is one of the best Star Wars -related things ever. They talk about the quality of the show's writing, the way it engages with the nature of fascism, and whether Babu Frik will see jail time. Plenty of spoilers ahead, so watch out. To keep up with what Matt has been up to latel...
Nov 28, 2022•1 hr 48 min•Ep. 242
In this episode, which was recorded a few months back (hence the very out of date news section) Emily announces that she is leaving the show, and the show goes on hiatus.
Sep 08, 2022•53 min•Ep. 241
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.
May 02, 2022•49 min•Ep. 240
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...
Mar 21, 2022•53 min•Ep. 239
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 ...
Feb 28, 2022•51 min•Ep. 238
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...
Feb 26, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 237
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 ...
Feb 14, 2022•58 min•Ep. 236
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 - ...
Feb 07, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 235
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...
Jan 31, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 234
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
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 233
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...
Dec 27, 2021•56 min•Ep. 232
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 Son...
Dec 06, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 231
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.
Nov 29, 2021•51 min•Ep. 230
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...
Nov 22, 2021•55 min•Ep. 229
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 a...
Nov 15, 2021•54 min•Ep. 228
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
Nov 06, 2021•51 min•Ep. 227
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
Oct 24, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 226
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
Oct 17, 2021•57 min•Ep. 225
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...
Oct 03, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 224
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
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 223
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
Sep 12, 2021•58 min•Ep. 222
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 f...
Aug 23, 2021•58 min•Ep. 221
To celebrate Ed's birthday (which was actually a few weeks ago but things have been busy!) he and Emily discuss some of the movies they've rewatched the most, movies that changed the most for them between rewatches, and movies that they don't know if they can go back to. 00:00:00 - 00:17:09 - Intro & News 00:17:10 - 00:55:49 - Emily & Ed discuss rewatching movies 00:55:50 - 01:00:25 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Aug 22, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 220
This week's episode is all news, as Emily and Ed take a moment to appreciate the work of Bob Odenkirk in light of the actor/writer/director/lovely guy's recent health scare, then dig into Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit against Disney over the release of Black Widow and its potential impact on Hollywood more broadly. They also manage to squeeze in some thoughts on the House of Gucci trailer , and Adam Driver's post- Star Wars movie blitz. 00:00:00 - 00:03:47 - Intro 00:03:48 - 00:40:36 - Emily &...
Aug 02, 2021•45 min•Ep. 219
For this week's Show and Tell, Emily brings the second series of Mae Martin's Netflix show Feel Good , and Ed brings Rodney Ascher's simulation theory doc A Glitch in the Matrix. They also talk about the calamitous Space Jam: A New Legacy , the winners from Cannes, and bad depictions of standup. 00:00:00 - 00:15:51 - Intro & News 00:15:52 - 00:43:31 - Emily & Ed discuss Feel Good and A Glitch in the Matrix 00:43:32 - 00:47:42 - SRS Recommends & Outro...
Aug 01, 2021•48 min•Ep. 218
This week, after some (in the end) misplaced optimism about the football, Emily and Ed discuss Rare Beasts , the debut feature from Billie Piper, and the second season of Netflix's I Think You Should Leave . 00:00:00 - 00:21:00 - Intro & News 00:21:01 - 00:48:37 - Emily & Ed discuss Rare Beasts and I Think You Should Leave 00:48:38 - 00:54:40 - SRS Recommends & Outro - Here is the article by Kath Barbadoro on I Think You Should Leave for Vulture: "Stupid Times Call for Stupid Jokes"...
Jul 14, 2021•55 min•Ep. 217
For this week's Show and Tell, Emily brings Jim Jarmusch's zombie ensemble The Dead Don't Die , while Ed brings Edgar Wright's documentary about the long career of cult pop band Sparks. They also pay tribute to the film blogger Christopher Laverty, who passed away suddenly last week. 00:00:00 - 00:10:51 - Intro & News 00:10:52 - 00:39:21 - Emily & Ed discuss The Dead Don't Die and The Sparks Brothers 00:39:22 - 00:44:02 - SRS Recommends & Outro...
Jun 29, 2021•44 min•Ep. 216
For this week's Show and Tell, Emily brings Shrill , the Hulu comedy series starring Aidy Bryant which just finished its three season run, and Ed brings Muriel's Wedding , the Australian comedy that served as a breakthrough for Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths. They also pay tribute to Ned Beatty. 00:00:00 - 00:18:09 - Intro & News 00:18:10 - 00:53:51 - Emily & Ed discuss Shrill and Muriel's Wedding 00:53:52 - 00:58:36 - SRS Recommends & Outro...
Jun 21, 2021•59 min•Ep. 215
For this week's Show and Tell, Emily brings Bo Burnham's new Netflix special Inside , and Ed brings Walter Hill's cult neo-noir rock and roll musical Streets of Fire , which also just happened to be added to Netflix. They discuss being out of step with the critical consensus, the ways in which musical comedy can be distancing, and why more movies need Catbuses. 00:00:00 - 00:19:30 - Intro & News 00:19:31 - 00:58:05 - Emily & Ed discuss Inside and Streets of Fire 00:58:06 - 01:02:35 - SRS...
Jun 07, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 214
For this week's show and tell, Emily brings three thrillers ( Copycat , Arlington Road and Runaway Jury ) that she has watched recently and found oddly comforting, despite some extremely dark subject matter, and Ed brings Rumble in the Bronx , the film that really broke Jackie Chan as a major star in the US. They discuss the decline of the mid-budget movie, the thrill of seeing real people do wild stunts, and the value of un-selfconscious movies. They also talk about the success of A Quiet Place...
May 31, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 213
