Inspired by Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse, Emily and Ed discuss movies with small casts, and which genres and sub-genres are particularly suited to using a handful of actors. There's also a bunch of talk about Disney+, the benefits of releasing TV episodes weekly instead of all at once, and Sonic.

00:00:00 - 00:27:50 - Intro & News

00:27:51 - 01:06:38 - Ed & Emily discuss movies with small casts

01:06:39 - 01:11:45 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Matt and Ed break down some of the news that happened over the past few weeks, including Benioff & Weiss leaving/getting fired from Star Wars and the escalating streaming wars, then Ed is joined by Emily to discuss instances where an actor being cast in a movie adds extra resonance and power to the performance thanks to the audience's prior knowledge of the star.

00:00:00 - 00:42:09 - Intro & News

00:42:10 - 01:25:24 - Ed & Emily discuss movies that are about their stars

01:25:25 - 01:31:22 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by the release of Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club Encore, Matt and Ed discuss minor works by great filmmakers, including recent entries to the sub-genre like Ang Lee's Gemini Man and Steven Soderbergh's The Laundromat.

00:00:00 - 00:28:16 - Intro & News

00:28:17 - 01:10:14 - Matt & Ed discuss minor works by great filmmakers

01:10:15 - 01:16:19 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by Ghosteen, the new album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Emily and Ed discuss the artists they love who changed drastically over the course of their careers, as well as artists who tried to change but wound up falling back on old habits. They also talk about Martin Scorsese, the trailer for Dolittle, and the death of Robert Forster.

Here is Harry Brewis's talk from XOXO about his Donkey Kong 64 charity livestream, and here is Scout Tafoya's video essay on grief and Russian Doll (CW: discussion of suicide) as mentioned by Emily in Recommendations.

00:00:00 - 00:28:46 - Intro & News

00:28:47 - 00:56:24 - Emily & Ed discuss artists who changed over the course of their career

00:56:25 - 01:01:25 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Ten years ago, Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer was released to generally positive reviews from most people (and acute irritation from Ed). To celebrate(?) this milestone, Ed and Emily discuss the disconnect between the central performances and the movie around them, its queasy and unsuccessful attempt to make sexist jokes without being sexist, and whether it qualifies as an "elevated" romcom.

Here is Weighing the Value of Director's Cuts: Scanline, as recommended by Ed towards the end of the episode.

Inspired by The Man Who Killed Don Quixote improbably now being available for all to see after decades of fitful progress, Emily and Ed discuss "wounded bird" movies: those flawed, mistreated, or merely strange films that they can't help but take into their hearts. They also try to make sense of the just announced awards from the Venice film festival, Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump making a Tomb Raider sequel, and the rise and fall of the Jeremy Renner app.

Here is Stefan Heck's piece on the Jeremy Renner app, as mentioned in the news section.

00:00:00 - 00:23:21 - Intro & News

00:23:22 - 00:52:04 - Emily & Ed discuss wounded bird movies

00:52:05 - 00:57:19 - SRS Recommends & Outro

After a quick catch-up, in which Emily talks about her experience doing a show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, she and Ed discuss themes, tropes and stories that always work on them. They also go over Disney's baffling approach to their repertory titles, Richard Linklater's exceedingly optimistic plan to spend 20 years adapting Merrily We Roll Along, and how great Kirsten Dunst is.

00:00:00 - 00:32:24 - Intro & News

00:32:25 - 01:02:51 - Emily & Ed discuss their Pet Themes

01:02:52 - 01:06:45 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Since Disney's D23 fan convention occurred this weekend and they released a ton of new information about their forthcoming streaming service, shows and movies, Matt and Ed talk about the current cultural dominance of the company, what the next year or so looks like, and the quandary of being excited for things made by a company whose actions could be so damaging. They also discussion the sudden returns of The Matrix and Jesse Pinkman, and going too hard, too early at festivals.

00:00:00 - 00:27:58 - Intro & News

00:27:59 - 01:12:03 - Matt & Ed discussion D23

01:12:04 - 01:17:46 - SRS Recommends & Outro

The death of Peter Fonda inspires Matt and Ed to ruminate on the legacy of the American counterculture that Fonda, thanks to his work on Easy Rider, came to embody. They also run through an all-Disney news segment, pretty much all of which is bad!

Here is Art Spiegelman's introduction to a Marvel collection which is mentioned in the News section.

00:00:00 - 00:30:03 - Intro & News

00:30:04 - 01:08:21 - Matt & Ed discuss the Counterculture

01:08:22 - 01:14:45 - SRS Recommends & Outro

It was Ed's birthday this week, and as is tradition, he got to pick any topic for this week's episode. He chose Video Games, so he and Matt have a long chat about their own personal history with video games, the titles that resonated with them, and what genres elude them. There's also some teeth talk, and a breakdown of how and why Universal decided to cancel the release of the thriller The Hunt.

Apologies for the sound issues in this episode: Ed's mic had problems which only became apparent once the episode was recorded and being edited.

00:00:00 - 00:12:11 - Intro & News

00:12:12 - 01:08:22 - Matt & Ed discuss Video Games

01:08:23 - 01:14:12 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by an article in the Hollywood Reporter about Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily and Ed discuss the changing nature of movie stardom in an age of social media and Constantly Being On. They also talk about Emily's time at the Edinburgh Fringe (where she is performing her show Big Wendy), CBS All Access taking big swings with its adaptations of The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Stand, and the first trailers for The Irishman, The Lighthouse and 1917.

00:00:00 - 00:34:07 - Intro & News

00:34:08 - 01:04:30 - Ed & Emily discuss movie stardom in the year 2019

01:04:31 - 01:08:34 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Continuing their run of music-themed episodes, this week finds Emily and Ed discussing iconic songs from movies and TV shows which transcend their origins and percolate out into broader culture, musical tropes that they personally respond to, and filmmakers who re-use music from other films and make it their own. They also talk about the news coming out of Cannes, R-Batz, and Disney consolidating even more control over culture.

Correction: At one point Ed incorrectly says that Kill Bill prominently uses a piece of Bernard Hermann's score from Sisters, when it is in fact part of his score to Twisted Nerve.

00:00:00 - 00:20:27 - Intro & News

00:20:28 - 00:43:24 - Emily & Ed discuss Iconic Music and Musical Tropes

00:43:25 - 00:49:34 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by Beyoncé's Homecoming - and continuing the music theme started with their episode on Visual Albums - this week finds Emily and Ed talking about concert movies, specifically the ones that go beyond recording a band or artist performing live to really using the language of cinema to transport and immerse the audience. They also discuss the absolute mess that is the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, their excitement about seeing Renée Zellweger play Judy Garland, and the death of Peggy Lipton.

00:00:00 - 00:19:44 - Intro & News

00:19:45 - 00:48:42 - Emily & Ed discuss Concert Movies

00:48:43 - 00:53:17 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by the recent release of Childish Gambino's Guava Island, as well as the success and acclaim in recent years of Beyoncé's Lemonade and Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer, Emily and Ed discuss the visual album as a form of expression. They also ponder the goodness of Sigourney Weaver and Keanu Reeves, and the potential horrors of a live-action Rugrats movies.

00:00:00 - 00:24:57 - Intro & News

00:24:58 - 00:50:38 - Emily & Ed discuss visual albums

00:50:39 - 00:55:51 - SRS Recommends & Outro

The gang were unable to record together this week, so please enjoy Ed's recent appearance on the Big Questions podcast from Oxford Sparks at the University of Oxford. Host Emily Elias spoke to Ed about the science in films like King Kong, Pi, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Office Space and Superman III, and they listened to scientists assess just how feasible those "what if" scenarios might be. There's also a brief Recommendations segment at the end for good measure.

MATT GOT A DOG!

Also, Disney revealed a bunch of details about their forthcoming streaming service which, in addition to a few other stories from this past week, paints an interesting/terrifying picture of the streaming landscape, one which could be fundamentally reshaped by Disney and its franchise menagerie. Matt and Ed discuss the potential Disney+ has to challenge Netflix, the debut of the Criterion Channel, and how streaming services relate to a Supreme Court Case from 1948. Also, dogs.

00:00:00 - 00:02:35 - Intro

00:02:36 - 00:47:25 - Matt & Ed discuss the present and future of streaming

00:47:26 - 00:52:10 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by a rewatch of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Ed and Emily discuss instances where they changed their minds about a work of art, how their relationships to specific filmmakers have evolved over time, and being able to admit when you don't like canonically "great" movies. They also discuss the college admissions scandal involving Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, Netflix's weaselly cancellation of One Day at a Time, and James Gunn's surprise reinstatement to the MCU.

00:00:00 - 00:22:17 - Intro & News

00:22:18 - 00:49:31 - Ed & Emily discuss changing your mind about art

00:49:32 - 00:54:07 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Now that the dust has settled from last week's Oscars ceremony, Ed and Emily are ready to stir it up all over again by dissecting the winners of awards season, and what the victory of Green Book means for Hollywood more generally (assuming it means anything at all). They also discuss the controversy over possible changes to the Academy's bylaws that could exclude Netflix films in the future, and the best joke from long-forgotten 1990s animated anthropomorphic procedural Fish Police.

00:00:00 - 00:06:01 - Intro

00:06:02 - 00:35:44 - News

00:35:45 - 01:16:23 - Ed & Emily discuss the Oscars, Green Book, and awards season

01:16:24 - 01:23:39 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by the absolutely stacked cast for the new version of Dune, Matt, Emily and Ed spend this week's episode talking about movies with notable ensembles, as well as which genres benefit from a deep bench and the factors, both commercial and artistic, that can compel filmmakers to work with a big cast. They also try to parse the latest Oscars broadcast drama and the Aladdin teaser.

00:00:00 - 00:01:34 - Intro

00:01:35 - 00:27:45 - News

00:27:46 - 01:05:06 - Matt, Emily & Ed discuss movies with notable ensembles

01:05:07 - 01:08:57 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by M. Night Shyamalan's Glass (which is mentioned briefly, but in a spoiler-free fashion), Matt and Ed discuss examples of long delayed sequels, particularly ones made by the same creators as the originals. They also talk about the dispiriting experience of watching the Super Bowl, the freshly completed BAFTAs, and the death of Albert Finney.

00:00:00 - 00:06:30 - Intro

00:06:31 - 00:29:35 - News

00:29:36 - 00:57:10 - Matt & Ed discuss Long Delayed Sequels

00:57:11 - 01:02:55 - SRS Recommends & Outro