We’re losing money hand over fist in this week’s episode. Or maybe making money? Or buying… um… options? We have no idea what we’re doing to be honest, but neither do many of the protagonists in this week’s films. Dumb Money, from the director of Cruella, is the first film we’ve ever seen that’s based on a Reddit thread, and is a surprisingly funny and warm hearted comedy about money that ends up being about something much more important. Trading Places, now forty years old, covers much of the s...
Oct 04, 2023•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 81
Spencer Brown, director and co-writer of T.I.M., the number one Netflix feature, joins us at the Popcorn Counter this episode, to discuss the making of his film about an AI companion that becomes the world’s most effective and threatening stalker. He has some fascinating insights into the writing process and his methods of collaboration with his wife, best selling novelist Sarah Govett. But what was the kernel of the idea? How does he approach rewriting scenes that aren’t working? What is ‘think...
Sep 27, 2023•21 min•Ep. 80
Join us on the road not taken this episode, as we watch new Korean-American feature Past Lives and compare it to a very 90s take on similar themes in Sliding Doors. Past Lives is like a tiny serving of understated New York drama, filled with comfortable silences and autobiographical details. But we have to ask: does enough actually happen? Meanwhile, London based Sliding Doors might have the opposite problem, packing the screen with events until it effectively crams two whole films into less tha...
Sep 20, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 79
There have been more than 450 spy films released in the last 12 months* (*citation needed) and yet most spy films seem to involve very little actual spying. James Bond has spent vastly more of his career running, driving, shooting and drinking than he has LOOKING AT THINGS CAREFULLY. At the popcorn counter this week we ask which spy films get it right and which do not. Which is the best Bond film? Which spy did Benedict Cumberbatch play to a tee? And which one of us knows a CIA agent in real lif...
Sep 13, 2023•18 min•Ep. 78
TRCC favourite Tom Cruise returns this episode, as we look at Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part One, the seventh film in the ever growing franchise, and compare it to the 1935 Hitchcock classic The 39 Steps. Trains, chases, handcuffs and the very latest technology pepper the screen with bullet holes in both films, even though they were made 88 years apart. But which film nearly ended Andres’ marriage? Which film features cinema’s most notable milkman? And how does the finest moment from o...
Sep 06, 2023•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 77
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, last week’s film, is now broadly acknowledged as The Greatest Film Of All Time. Do we agree? And what, to quote LL Cool J, is on our lists of the Greatest Of All Time? Will we include works by Kubrick, Hitchcock and the Cohen Brothers, or will we play it safe and stick to Zack Snyder? How many of our favourites are not in English? How many of them are suitable for family viewing? How many were made in the twenty first century? And how often can we be interrup...
Aug 30, 2023•25 min•Ep. 76
It’s part two of our interview with A list Hollywood sound recordist Mike Primmer at the Popcorn Counter this week. We talk about the early days of VHS film making, the joys of the ‘Control Track’ and in-camera effects, Mike’s secret technique for beating the popcorn counter at its own game, and why every short film ought to be a remake of Taxi Driver. If you enjoyed the show, find us on social media: Instagram: @tworeelcinemaclub Contact us at tworeelcinemaclub@gmail.com Or come to our website,...
Aug 23, 2023•32 min•Ep. 75
Who had any expectations for a Barbie movie? But somehow the heavily branded toy franchise has given birth to a smart and witty satire that’s started a lot of conversations about the lives of women in the 21st century. We talk about what we enjoyed and what we missed, and compare it to the 1975 ‘slow cinema’ masterpiece now acknowledged by Sight and Sound as the greatest film of all time: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. It’s two sides of the same coin once again. But which f...
Aug 16, 2023•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 74
A special, musical Popcorn Counter this week as we talk to the star of Debutante, upright guitarist extraordinaire Steven Ray Liedlich. In between excerpts from the movie we talk about song writing, composing for film, gender fluidity, Steve’s unique playing style and the Boulder music scene of the 1990s. Make sure you listen to the end for a beautiful performance of the song River Road. This recording was a real pleasure for us, and we hope you enjoy it just as much as we did. Watch the film on...
Aug 09, 2023•44 min•Ep. 73
A new Christopher Nolan film is always an event, and there are certainly parts of Oppenheimer that we loved… but which parts? Join us to find out which sections of the film contain all the high drama, and which sections resemble ten men arguing over whether somebody’s library card should be renewed. Which characters get short-changed and who gets all the funny lines? And how does Oppie compare to Kubrick’s hilarious 1964 take on the nuclear arms race, Dr Strangelove? Plus we court the QAnon crow...
Aug 02, 2023•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 72
It’s a very special popcorn counter this week, as we bump into A-list Hollywood sound recordist Michael Primmer and ask him all about his adventures in the screen trade. What’s it like to record Al Pacino? What happened to the dialogue Michael recorded for Christopher Nolan in Interstellar? How would he describe David Fincher’s set? And what’s the secret to a successful career in sound? If you enjoyed the show, find us on social media: Instagram: @tworeelcinemaclub Contact us at tworeelcinemaclu...
Jul 26, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 71
For a film all about time loops, the new Indiana Jones picture Dial of Destiny sure seems interested in repeating the past. Harrison Ford returns for the fifth Indy movie, which is filled with daring chases, speeding trains, mysterious artefacts and troublesome Nazis. But how much does the film owe to its 1981 predecessor Raiders of the Lost Ark? We run them both through our projector this episode, and ask: just how similar are they? Can the new version match the textbook film-making of the orig...
Jul 19, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 70
If we got a dollar every time someone asked us where we get our ideas, we’d have eight dollars. Everyone seems to have a great idea for a movie, but what does the process of converting that idea into a hundred page script look like? This episode we talk at the popcorn counter about what writing techniques work for us. Mind maps? Post it notes? Treatments? Or just plain ‘listening to strangers’ conversations on the bus and writing them down verbatim’? Plus, what’s the one screenwriting book we’d ...
Jul 12, 2023•24 min•Ep. 69
There’s a new Wes Anderson film out! Is it very different to the last Wes Anderson film? Good question… This episode we watch Asteroid City and compare it to Anderson’s sophomore picture Rushmore from 1998. The new film is certainly starrier, with the kind of cast that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars on any other film. But does that result in much actual drama or is Asteroid City as flat as the desert that surrounds it? And has the work of America’s most recognisable director changed ...
Jul 05, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 68
The 1970s is often called the last Golden Age of Hollywood, with big stars and auteur directors making challenging and experimental films aimed at an adult audience. Join us as we relax in the sticky, grimy foyer of our local repertory cinema for our longest Popcorn Counter yet, where we try to come up with an A to Z of the most influential pictures and talents of the decade. Will we see appearances by Coppola, Spielberg or Altman? Are there any uniting themes that define the era? And which of u...
Jun 28, 2023•46 min•Ep. 67
Some movies are ‘ripped from the headlines’ but new HBO feature Reality has been literally transcribed from the headlines, using the text of a publicly available FBI interview as its script, word for word. It’s a mesmerising tale about espionage, betrayal and the US intelligence services, and this episode we put it in a locked room with Sidney Pollack’s 1975 spy thriller Three Days of the Condor and see which one breaks first. How have attitudes to spies and leaks changed in nearly fifty years? ...
Jun 21, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 66
Brevity is famously the soul of wit, but exactly how short can a film be to still get classified as ‘feature length’? We looked it up and the answer is probably shorter than you think (and more than four times shorter than Avatar: The Way of Water…) Join us at the Popcorn Counter this episode where we try to figure out what is the greatest film of all time under ninety minutes using our own, foolproof, scientific scoring system. Along the way, we struggle with French pronunciation, fail to add u...
Jun 14, 2023•23 min•Ep. 65
It’s back to the first year of Junior High this episode, with two preteen dramas that both perform well in their midterms. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret is a heart warming family story that’s witty, fresh, sweet and more moving than we expected, while 1995s Welcome to the Dollhouse is its antimatter equivalent, jarring, grimy and nihilistic. But the two have so much in common that it’s like looking in a greasy, fire-damaged mirror. Which film has the more modern view of adolescence? Whic...
Jun 07, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 64
French actor Adèle Haenel, best known for Portrait of a Woman on Fire, published an incredible letter about her retirement from the film industry a couple of weeks ago. This episode at the Popcorn Counter we read the letter and talk about some of the issues she raises. What are our responsibilities as writers and as consumers of cinema? What is the right way to respond to news of sexual assaults and the abuse of power? And what can we do to effect progress? Some heavy subject matter this time ro...
May 31, 2023•28 min•Ep. 63
We’re still trying to recover from the trauma of watching Beau Is Afraid for this episode. Ari Aster’s new Freudian ‘comedy’ horror movie feels like a three hour nightmare that left us begging to wake up. Happily, we’re comparing it to Tom Hanks’ 1994 Oscar winner Forrest Gump, which is just the right film to cleanse our tainted, rancid, bloody palates. These two have so much in common that one is like a ‘dark dimension’ mirror image of the other. But which movie features the most running? Which...
May 24, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 62
Welcome to the ‘urban planning’ section of the podcast, as we meet at the popcorn counter this week and talk about why the inner city gets such a bad rep in cinema. Who is London’s most famous inner city resident? What does ‘NF’ stand for in the world of Shane Meadow’s ‘This is England’? And why should ‘Boyz N The Hood’ be remade as ‘Boyz N The Garden’? If you enjoyed the show, find us on social media: Twitter: @tworeelcineclub Instagram: @tworeelcinemaclub Or come to our website, where we’ll be...
May 17, 2023•19 min•Ep. 61
We return to school again this episode, spending a semester with new Argentine Netflix feature The Substitute, before graduating to a course with 2008 Palme d’Or-winning French drama La Classe. Both films examine the challenges of inner city schooling, but while The Substitute makes teaching look like a Sicario spin off, La Classe is more realistic and subtle. Which film sees two teachers sneak off at lunchtime for a little afternoon delight? Which film shows that there isn’t much of a differenc...
May 10, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 60
Listen to us get completely out of our depth in tonight’s episode, discussing our encounters with LGBTQ cinema over the years, and its role in advancing social change. Which is our favourite date movie? Who is the Countess von Bismark? Where does Al Pacino fit in? And what happens when you write the words ‘there is a song and dance number’ in a script? If you enjoyed the show, find us on social media: Twitter: @tworeelcineclub Instagram: @tworeelcinemaclub Or come to our website, where we’ll be ...
May 03, 2023•18 min•Ep. 59
(Let’s start with a content warning, as this episode’s films contain scenes of extreme violence, self harm and suicide.) If you’re happy to continue, join us as we watch two films about the many forms of love this time: new Belgian drama Close and 1999’s classic Boys Don’t Cry. They form a great double bill, outstanding, beautiful, moving, absorbing, tragic and transformative. But which film reminds us vividly of our ‘happy place’? And which film feels so contemporary it’s a shock when one of th...
Apr 26, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 58
Join us as we hide in a little bubble of nostalgia at the popcorn counter this week. Before AI and chatbots, before Netflix and YouTube, before dvd, there was VHS. We explain why we think those chunky cassettes might possibly have been the most important thing to happen to cinema ever, both for film viewers and for film makers. So what if you spent half your evening adjusting the tracking and then had to watch the movie through a fog of static that would get even blurrier just before the good bi...
Apr 19, 2023•16 min•Ep. 57
You can’t move for blog posts and YouTube videos about ChatGPT at the moment, but what is it going to mean for working writers? Will AI help us, giving every writer a patient editor and a sympathetic sounding board to ease them through the painful development process? Or will it steal all the jobs and throw us away, leaving us no option but to look for employment in an Amazon warehouse or sweeping up at the local cinema? Join us at the popcorn counter as we give what we like to call ‘CheatGPT’ s...
Apr 12, 2023•21 min•Ep. 56
We’ve seen the future in this episode’s films, and frankly it doesn’t look like a place we’d want to visit. Netflix’s new Hong Kong Chinese sci-fi action movie Warriors of Future paints a bleak picture of the rest of the 21st century, with killer plants, killer robots, killer air pollution and killer civil engineers to contend with. We compare it to 1995 anime classic Ghost in the Shell, which adds urban flooding, malign AI, existential crises and brain hacking to the mix. But which film fights ...
Apr 05, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 55
Back in the 80s, when we were naive enough to think that the song ‘White Lines’ was a road safety anthem, cocaine was a big thing in movies - and not a small thing in the movie industry. Join us in a cramped toilet cubicle for a few snorts of our favourite cocaine films, including Die Hard, Annie Hall and Maria Full of Grace. Plus a quick look at drug slang, a celebration of Melle Mel, and a little insight into how medical grade cocaine is used legally. If you enjoyed the show, find us on social...
Mar 29, 2023•15 min•Ep. 54
We take a hike in the wilderness for this week’s episode, and find ourselves shimmying up a tree at speed in the hope of avoiding the worst of Cocaine Bear, the not-so-impressive new comedy horror from the Lord and Miller stable. Then once we’re in a position of safety we take our time with Werner Herzog’s astonishing and revelatory 2005 documentary Grizzly Man. There’s a lot of gruesome violence between these two, but which film has the scariest bear in it? Which film has the most heinous clich...
Mar 22, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 53
We get stuck in a phone booth on the way to the popcorn counter this episode. (Do they still even exist?) Mobile telephony has ruined a lot of plots since about 1999, and smart phones have spoiled even more since 2007, but on the other hand there have been some great telephone scenes in cinema. We talk about the joys and pitfalls, celebrate Hal Hartley and Scorsese, curse Steve Jobs, and discuss the lengths we’ve had to go to in our own projects to stop someone’s phone ruining the whole thing. I...
Mar 15, 2023•16 min•Ep. 52
