Mama Needs a Movie

Actor and podcaster Craig Jorczak (The Oscar Should Have Gone To) joins to discuss the newly released action thriller, MONKEY MAN starring Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Pitobash, Vipin Sharma and Sikandar Kher. The film marks Patel's directorial debut in which he plays Kid, a young man set on taking revenge against the corrupt police chief who murdered his mother. Plagued by injuries sustained during fight training, a harsh mid-pandemic production, and a late withdrawal of Netflix distribution, Patel’s first foray behind the camera required a resiliency worthy of his action hero protagonist, but is the film worthy of the blood, sweat and tears that went into it? Join us as we tackle MONKEY MAN with some diversions into Ripley, Letterboxd, John Woo, the Skarsgård siblings, Monster's Ball, Foe, Kenneth Lonergan, movie stars on Broadway, and much, much more! MONKEY MAN is currently playing in theaters.

Director and writer Harrison Atkins (Lace Crater) joins for a discussion of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's rhapsodic 1947 drama, BLACK NARCISSUS starring Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, David Farrar and Sabu. Based on Rumer Godden's novel, BLACK NARCISSUS tells the story of Anglican nuns establishing a convent on a Himalayan mountaintop. Overwhelmed by the region's natural beauty and their own natural urges, the sisters begin to question their lives as nuns. Shot in stunning Technicolor by cinematographer Jack Cardiff, BLACK NARCISSUS is one of Powell and Pressburger's defining films, a thorny, surprisingly modern work on female devotion, repression, lust and madness. Join Mama Needs a Movie as it gazes into BLACK NARCISSUS, with some diversions into Annihilation, Paris Is Burning, declining horniness, Madeline, Silence, haircuts, Sister Wendy and much, much more! BLACK NARCISSUS is available to stream with subscription to The Criterion Channel or Max, and can be streamed for free on Freevee, Tubi, and The Roku Channel. 

Mama Needs a Movie celebrates 100 episodes of flawless podcasting with a telephone survey of former guests Danny Jelinek, Allan McLeod, Jessica Lee Williamson, Alex Kavutskiy, Courtney Davis, Meghann Murphy, Caramel Nguyen, Jon Millstein, and Rachel Lee Goldenberg.

Anne and Ryan serve up a spicy discussion of Denis Villenueve's DUNE: PART TWO, the second installment of the epic science-fiction saga starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Javiar Bardem. Based on Frank Herbert's classic novel, the film picks up where 2021's DUNE left off: In a distant future, after the fall of the House Atreides, Paul Atreides (Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Ferguson) travel with the Fremen on the planet of Arrakis. Paul's romance with Chandi (Zendaya) grows as he struggles with visions of a terrible future and an impending war with House Harkonnen. Opening to rave reviews and a strong box office performance, DUNE: PART TWO has already cemented its place as one of 2024's most celebrated releases, but does the film really live up to the hype? Join Mama Needs a Movie down the wormhole of Villenueve's latest, along with diversions into Star Wars, Priscilla, The Last Temptation of Christ, Sydney Sweeney, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and much, much more! DUNE: PART TWO is currently in theaters.

Actor, comedian and playwright John Ross Bowie (Brushstroke) joins to discuss the 1954 animated adaptation of George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM featuring the voices of Gordon Heath and Maurice Denham. Co-directed by John Halas and Joy Batchelor, ANIMAL FARM is a beast fable symbolizing decades of Russian history as an animal uprising on a brutally-maintained farm. Partially funded by the CIA's Office of Policy Coordination, ANIMAL FARM was intended as a covert piece of anti-communist propaganda, but performed poorly at the box office, eventually finding its biggest audience in American classrooms. We delve into this animated oddity in the context of Bowie's new play, BRUSHSTROKE, a Cold War comedy thriller dealing with the CIA's involvement in the modern art movement. Plus, we leave room for some off-topic diversions into The Secret of NIMH, The Green Berets, No Way Out, Mike Leigh, Andy Serkis, Captain America, Captain Phillips and much, much more!ANIMAL FARM is currently streaming for free on Freevee and Tubi.BRUSHSTROKE is currently playing at the Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles.Tickets at: https://odysseytheatre.com/tickets/?eid=111850

Actress and writer Meghann Murphy (host of The Oscar Should Have Gone To) joins for a look back at James Cameron's Oscar-winning romance TITANIC starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Billy Zane. Set aboard the ill-fated vessel, the story finds a newly-engaged first class passenger Rose (Winslet) falling for a free-spirited artist (DiCaprio) in third class. Cameron's ambitious epic, (pitched as "Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic"), was a fraught production, racking up a then all-time record budget of $200 million dollars and sparking speculation that it would be a box office disaster. Upon release in December of 1997, TITANIC remained number one at the box office for 15 consecutive weeks, racked up 14 Academy Award nominations, won 11, and launched DiCaprio and Winslet into the ranks of superstardom. Congrats, you've won a ticket aboard the our detailed reassessment of this Valentine's Day staple, along with diversions into Amadeus, May December, Revolutionary Road, Bradley Cooper, Saltburn, Lars von Trier and much, much more!  TITANIC is currently available to stream with subscription to Paramount+

Anne and Ryan discuss Yorgos Lanthimos's gothic comedy POOR THINGS starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe. Based on a novel by Alasdair Gray, POOR THINGS tells the fantastical tale of Bella Baxter (Stone), a Victorian era woman resurrected from the dead through a brain transplant. Escaping her constrictive environs with a rapidly maturing mind, Bella experiences an intellectual and sexual awakening traveling throughout London, Lisbon, Alexandria, and Paris. Released at the end of 2023, POOR THINGS received praise for the performances of Stone, Dafoe, Ruffalo, as well as its innovative production design, costumes and musical score. But what will MAMA NEEDS A MOVIE have to say about Lanthimos' twisted variation on Frankenstein? Observe our grisly dissection of POOR THINGS, along with divisions into The Curse, The Man with Two Brains, Yellow Submarine, NYAD, Frankenhooker, Good Time, Bunnicula, and much, much more! POOR THINGS is currently in theaters.

Anne and Ryan look back on their most memorable movie experiences from 2023 in this special year-in-review episode. Buckle up for a spoiler-heavy discussion of 2023 films including: AFIRE, ALL OF US STRANGERS, AMERICAN FICTION, ANATOMY OF A FALL, THE HOLDOVERS, THE IRON CLAW, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, MAY DECEMBER, NAPOLEON, PASSAGES, PAST LIVES, SALTBURN, THE ZONE OF INTEREST, plus first-time watches of older titles like THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT, NO WAY OUT, OUT OF THE BLUE and much, much more!

Our "Alone for the Holidays" series concludes with our final episode of 2023, a discussion of Andrew Dominik's bleak 2012 crime drama KILLING THEM SOFTLY starring Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta and Richard Jenkins. Set against the backdrop of the 2008 financial crises, KILLING THEM SOFTLY follows a pair of low-level criminals pulling an opportunistic heist, then switches to the hit man hired to control the fallout. Based on the novel Cogan's Trade by George V. Higgins, KILLING THEM SOFTLY was largely dismissed by audiences upon release as too downbeat, but it's an honest and exhilarating movie of big ideas, expressing with great efficiency and poetry what it means to be alone in America. KILLING THEM SOFTLY is currently available to stream for free on PlutoTV or Tubi, or with subscription to Prime Video.

In this special holiday bonus episode, Anne and Ryan have seen MAESTRO and simply must have an emergency discussion of Bradley Cooper's long-gestating 2023 biopic of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein. Cooper's drama largely focuses on Bernstein's marriage with Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), and the couple's many challenges in the face of Bernstein's success. Enjoy this surprise discussion of MAESTRO that also diverts into Humoresque, TÁR, The Bandwagon, Beavis and Butt-Head, Oppenheimer, Unfaithfully Yours and much much more! MAESTRO is currently available to stream with subscription on Netflix.

Writer and performer Brian Finkelstein returns for our "Alone for the Holidays" film series, discussing Robert Zemeckis's survival tale, CAST AWAY starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt. In CAST AWAY, Hanks plays a time-obsessed FedEx employee who survives a plane crash on Christmas Eve, drifting ashore on a deserted island. After years of learning to survive in solitude, he must decide whether to risk his life to return to civilization. CAST AWAY was a box office and critical hit in the year 2000, scoring Hanks an Oscar nomination for his astounding body transformation. Join us for a discussion of CASTAWAY that also drifts toward diversions into The Shawshank Redemption, The Martian, James Cameron, the Sphere in Las Vegas, Octonauts, Charlie Wilson's War and much, much more! CAST AWAY is currently available to stream for free on Tubi.

Musician Owen Ashworth (Advance Base) joins our ongoing "Alone for the Holidays" series with a discussion of JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES starring Delphine Seyrig. At the age of 25, Chantal Akerman wrote and directed this slow-burning Belgian drama depicting the daily chores of a widowed mother in exacting detail. Through a series of static long takes, we become accustomed to Jeanne Dielman's well-worn pattern of cooking, cleaning, caretaking, and sex work- until the pattern breaks down and her behavior grows increasingly erratic. When first screened at Cannes in 1975, JEANNE DIELMAN was met with a mixed reception, but subsequent re-evaluation deemed it a masterpiece of slow cinema. In the 2022 Sight and Sound poll, JEANNE DIELMAN was voted to be the greatest film of all time by critics, and is but one film of many in Akerman's body of work to grow in esteem since her 2015 death. Join us as we try to figure out the deal with DIELMAN, taking a few diversions into Aki Kaurismäki, Cold Mountain, Playtime, Afire, famous filming locations, housecleaning, and much, much more! Check out Owen's music with Advance Base: https://advancebasemusic.com/ Check out Owen's drawings: https://www.instagram.com/ownashworth JEANNE DIELMAN can currently be streamed with subscription to The Criterion Channel or Max.

Our "Alone for the Holidays" season kicks off with writer/director Pat Bishop (This Fool, Corporate) joining to discuss Wim Wenders's 1984 road film, PARIS, TEXAS starring Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, and Dean Stockwell. Scripted by Sam Shepard, the film opens in the Mojave desert where Travis (Stanton) emerges from years of self-imposed isolation. After reuniting with his brother Walt (Stockwell) and son Hunter (Hunter Carson), Travis's complicated past comes into greater focus, spurning another road trip of reconciliation. Featuring vibrant camerawork by Robby Müller and a starkly soulful musical score by Ry Cooder, PARIS, TEXAS was awarded the 1984 Palme d'Or and is now widely considered Stanton's iconic role and Wenders's American masterpiece. Join Mama Needs a Movie on a trip through PARIS, TEXAS that includes pit stops into Twin Peaks, The End of Violence, John Ford, '80s interest rates, Disney+, The Last Temptation of Christ, peep shows, Baywatch and much, much more! PARIS, TEXAS is available to stream with subscription to The Criterion Channel or Max.

Writer and performer Joan Ford returns to the podcast to discuss Mama Needs a Boo-vie's final spooky October selection, Paul Schrader's CAT PEOPLE (1982) starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell and John Heard. This loose remake of Jacques Tourneur's 1942 supernatural classic follows Irina (Kinski) traveling to New Orleans to meet her brother, Paul (McDowell). As incestuous undertones rage between the two, Irina is drawn into an investigation of serial murders, befriending a hotshot zoologist (Heard). This probe eventually leads to a shocking discovery about Irina's family lineage. Upon release, CAT PEOPLE received decent reviews, but proved a box office failure with only later reappraisals fully appreciating its sexy atmosphere and moody Giorgio Moroder synth score. Join us as the claws come out for this discussion of CAT PEOPLE, along with diversions into Five Nights at Freddy's, Doctor Detroit, Body Heat, Deep Blue Sea, Swiss Family Robinson, Mark Wahlberg, Las Vegas zoos, Scorsese on Letterboxd, and much, much more!

Writer Dave Ferguson (The Birthday Boys, I Love You America) braves our October excursion into cinematic scare fare with a discussion of David Cronenberg's 1986 classic THE FLY starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. The Canadian auteur injects his unmistakable brand of body horror into this sci-fi fable of scientist Seth Brundle (Goldblum) whose experiments with matter transport go awry when he mistakenly teleports himself along with a single house fly. THE FLY was a well-reviewed box office hit upon release, solidifying Goldblum and Davis as a brainy (and very tall) screen couple for the '80s and unleashing Cronenberg as a sicko master for the masses. Join us as we merge with THE FLY, taking a few diversions into Vidiots, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Mel Brooks, bug digestion, Little Monsters, stress dreams, kid Halloween costumes, Axe Body Spray, the Grinch and much, much more! THE FLY is currently available to stream with subscription to Max.

Writer and actor Dan Chamberlain (The Tonight Show) returns to kick off our October "Mama Needs a BOO-vie" fright-fest with Brian De Palma's supernatural classic, CARRIE starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen and John Travolta. This 1976 adaptation of Stephen King's novel follows Carrie White (Spacek), a timid teen who lives under the thumb of high school bullies and her abusive zealot mother, Margaret (Laurie). As her classmates devise a cruel prom night prank, Carrie begins to develop telekinetic powers, leading up to one of horror cinema's most unforgettable climaxes. A box office smash and double Oscar nominee (Spacek and Laurie both received nods), CARRIE solidified De Palma's status as New Hollywood's most audacious stylist, King's bankability as an adaptable author, and telekinesis as a horror movie trend. Join us as we discuss CARRIE with some spooky diversions into Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark, H.P. Lovecraft, Freddy Krueger, Blue Steel, The Exorcist, Duets, Sam Elliott, and much, much more! CARRIE is currently available to stream with subscription to Max.

Writer Harper Steele (SNL, Casa de mi Padre, Eurovision) joins to discuss the adventure classic SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON starring John Mills and Dorothy McGuire. Director Ken Annakin helmed Disney's lavish 1960 adaptation of Johann David Wyss's 1812 novel about a family of five shipwrecked on a deserted island. Scavenging the contents of the defunct vessel, the Robinsons manage to build an elaborate tree house and play host to a menagerie of wild animals- but the coziness of their newfound Eden threatens to be corrupted by a looming pirate menace. SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON may have been initally released as an family offering, but its gender dynamics, racial representation and themes of colonization make for a complicated reassessment through a contemporary lens. Listen as we explore the deep roots this film has taken in our own lives, and as we branch out into diversions on Mary Poppins, Freebie and the Bean, dumpster diving, Kurt Russell, living off the grid, and much, much more! SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON is available to stream with subscription to Disney+

In the conclusion of our "Summer Abroad" world cinema series, comedian and writer Sean O'Connor (Solar Opposites, Norm Macdonald Live) returns to discuss the 1962 Italian road comedy IL SORPASSO starring Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Dino Risi directed this primo example of commedia all'italiana, a genre of socially astute, highly successful comedies that coincided with Italy's economic boom of the 1960s. Gassman gives an indelible performance as Bruno, a smooth-talking alpha male who manhandles a mild-mannered stranger, Roberto (Trintignant) into having the best day of his life. Hitch a ride with our discussion of IL SORPASSO, with a few pit stop diversions into Al Pacino, Austin Butler, Letterboxd, Bottoms, Ava DuVernay, Willy Wonka, the "art of the steal" and much, much more! IL SORPASSO is available to stream with subscription to The Criterion Channel.

Our "Summer Abroad" international film series continues with director Oz Rodríguez (Miguel Wants to Fight, SNL) joining to discuss Alfonso Cuarón's Mexican road picture, Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN starring Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal and Maribel Verdú. Cuarón and his brother Carlos scripted this unconventional coming-of-age story of two teenage boys on a road trip, while vying for the affection of a newly single traveling companion in her late twenties. Layered against the backdrop of Mexico's class disparity and late-millennium political upheaval, Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN was an unqualified world cinema smash upon release in 2001, but how has its frank and sexy subject matter matured in the past two decades? Join Mama's discussion of MAMA along with diversions into Oppenheimer, Andor, Pablo Larraín, Looking, directing fight scenes, natural wine, Great Expectations, circumcision and much, much more! MIGUEL WANTS TO FIGHT is available to stream on Hulu. Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN is available for streaming rental and on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

Our "Summer Abroad" international film series continues with writer Jordan Morris (Bubble; Jordan, Jesse, Go!) joining to discuss the French thriller LA PISCINE (THE SWIMMING POOL) starring Alain Delon, Romy Schneider, Maurice Ronet and Jane Birkin. Jacques Deray directed this sexually-charged slow-burner in which a couple's vacation at a stylish Saint-Tropez villa is disturbed by the arrival of an ex-lover and his daughter. As unease builds within this tanned and toned quartet, sex and violence become the obvious outlets for their growing resentments. A box office hit and style landmark upon release, LA PISCINE experienced a resurgence in popularity with American audiences after its 2021 re-release. In this spoiler-filled discussion, we venture to the deep end of THE SWIMMING POOL, but not before a few diversions into school dances, pool noodles, Luca Guadagnino, David Hockney, boba, Boba Fett, the O.J. Simpson freeway chase and much, much more! Go to orphanbooksinc.com/shop for signed copies of Jordan's graphic novel BUBBLE, or attend AN AFTERNOON WITH AUTHORS at Dynasty Typewriter August 26th at 4pm. (Net proceeds go towards the Entertainment Community Fund) LA PISCINE is available to stream with subscription to The Criterion Channel.