Anne and Ryan discuss Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner, ANORA starring Mikey Madison and Mark Eydelshteyn. When Brooklyn stripper Ani (Madison) meets and impulsively weds the mega-wealthy Ivan (Eydelshteyn), a madcap adventure ensues as Ivan's family desperately attempts to annul the marriage. ANORA finds Baker executing his gritty style at a larger and more accessible scale than before, resulting in a near-unanimously praised awards contender. But does Mama Needs a Movie ador-a ANORA, or do we...

Anne and Ryan discuss the new released comedy-drama, A REAL PAIN starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin. Written and directed by Eisenberg, A REAL PAIN follows two estranged cousins on a tour through Poland as they attempt to connect with the memory of their recently deceased grandmother, their cultural heritage, and each other. Featuring a standout performance from Culkin, A REAL PAIN is just the kind of dialogue-driven character study perfect to kick off MNAM's tour of this autumn's...

Our political thriller series comes to an exciting Election Day conclusion with writer and actor Dan Chamberlain (Have I Got News for You) joining to discuss John Frankenheimer's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury and Janet Leigh. Based on Richard Condon's novel, this 1962 classic concerns a Korean War veteran Raymond Shaw (Harvey), who is brainwashed by communists to become an unwilling killer in an international conspiracy. One of the defining...

Our political thriller series reaches a fever pitch as writer Jack Allison (author of Kill the Rich) joins to discuss Oliver Stone's JFK starring Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, and many, many more. This 1991 Oscar-nominated drama relitigates the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy through the probing lens of New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Costner). Overflowing with equal parts historical information and conjecture...

As the 2024 election draws near, we can't get enough political thrillers, this week looking at Steven Spielberg's Cold War tale, BRIDGE OF SPIES starring Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance. Scripted by Matt Charman, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, the film tells the true story of James B. Donovan (Hanks), a New York City lawyer called upon to defend a recently arrested spy for the Soviets, Rudolph Abel (Rylance). Donovan develops a surprising respect for his stoic client, eventually fueling his motivation...

Our season-long Political Thriller obsession continues with Sydney Pollack's THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. This 1975 suspense classic centers on a CIA researcher who returns from his lunch break to discover his co-workers are murdered and he's on the run for his life. Featuring an unconventional romance between Redford and Dunaway and a villainously scene-stealing turn by Max von Sydow, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR typifies the post-Watergate paranoid thriller...

Our Political Thriller season continues with writer and actor Jon Millstein joining to discuss the 1985 espionage true story THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN starring Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn. Directed by John Schlesinger, the movie tells the fact-based tale of two disillusioned friends who embark on a dangerous hustle selling United States security secrets to the Soviet Union. With a whip smart script by Steven Zaillian (his first-ever produced) and revelatory performances from Hutton and...

Our season of political thrillers continues with guest Kayla Bates (host of ScreenVomit) joining to discuss Mary Harron's AMERICAN PSYCHO starring Christian Bale, Chloë Sevigny, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Samanta Mathis and Reese Witherspoon. Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, this turn-of-the-millenium satirical thriller delves into the psyche of Patrick Bateman, a status-obsessed investment banker leading a double life as a sadistic serial killer in 1980s Manhattan. Anchored by an...

Writer Ally Hord (Late Night with Seth Meyers) joins our Political Thriller series to discuss Alan J. Pakula's 1974 paranoia-fest, THE PARALLAX VIEW starring Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, and Paula Prentiss. Beatty stars as an investigative newspaper reporter uncovering a sinister shadow organization that specializes in political assassination. Released in the wake of several real life political assassinations and the Watergate scandal, THE PARALLAX VIEW typifies the stylish disillusionment of...

Just in time for election season, we're kicking off our Political Thriller series with IN THE LINE OF FIRE starring Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich and Rene Russo. Wolfgang Petersen directed this 1993 suspense actioner about a Secret Service agent trying to thwart a would-be assassin targeting the U.S. President. Upon release, IN THE LINE OF FIRE was a critical and commercial hit, garnering Oscar nominations for Malkovich, screenwriter Jeff Maguire and editor Anne V. Coates. From now until...

Anne and Ryan delve into the drama of the newly released IT ENDS WITH US starring Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj and Brandon Sklenar. Based on the bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover, the movie follows Lily Bloom (Lively), a florist reconciling her father's death, beginning a relationship with a surgeon and reuniting with an old flame. As the story unfolds, darker themes of domestic violence reveal themselves, forcing Lily to make tough decisions about her life moving...

In this unlocked episode of Mama Needs a Movie's Patreon spinoff podcast, ATTENTION MUST BE PAID (patreon.com/MNAM), Anne and Ryan look back at Lynne Ramsay's MORVERN CALLAR, a 2002 Scottish drama anchored by a haunting performance from Samantha Morton that is worthy of far more attention. Traumatized by the suicide of her novelist boyfriend on Christmas morning, Morvern Callar (Morton), submits his last manuscript as her own, then sets out on a trip to Spain with her best friend Lana...

Anne and Ryan discuss the newly-released disaster sequel, TWISTERS starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell. Lee Isaac Chung (director of 2020's Minari) helms this fresh follow-up to Jan de Bont's 1996 original. TWISTERS follows meteorologist Kate Carter (Jones) as she re-enters the dangerous world of tornado chasing after a tragedy. When Kate meets Tyler (Powell), a hotshot hillbilly with a storm chasing YouTube channel, she is compelled to resume her groundbreaking scientific research...

In anticipation of the newly released sequel, Anne and Ryan take a look back at 1996's original TWISTER starring Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Lois Smith, Jeremy Davies, Todd Field and Alan Ruck. Director Jan de Bont's disaster spectacular follows a group of amateur storm chasers across Oklahoma, flirting dangerously close with tornados as old flames Jo (Hunt) and Bill (Paxton) flirt with each other. Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin...

Vroom vroom! Writer Eva Anderson returns to the podcast for a joy ride with THE BIKERIDERS starring Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Mike Faist. Jeff Nichols wrote and directed this pedal-pumping drama based on Danny Lyon's book of the same name. Based on real figures from 1960s Chicago motorcycle scene, THE BIKERIDERS finds the brooding Benny Cross (Butler) torn between his wife Kathy (Comer) and the reluctant leader of the Vandals bike gang, Johnny (Hardy). Listen to Mama Needs a...

Writer/director/actor Courtney Davis returns to the podcast to help us judge Alan J. Pakula's 1990 legal thriller PRESUMED INNOCENT starring Harrison Ford, Raul Julia, Bonnie Bedelia, Brian Dennehy, Paul Winfield and Greta Scacchi. Based on the best-selling novel by Scott Turow, PRESUMED INNOCENT spins the engrossing tale of a respected prosecutor accused of murdering a colleague. To give away any more of the plot would be a crime in itself. A box office hit upon release, the story has...

It's raining men on Mama Needs a Movie with our first ever doubleheader review, discussing Richard Linklater's comedy noir HIT MAN and Chris Pine's lighthearted mystery POOLMAN. HIT MAN stars Glen Powell as a mild-mannered philosophy professor Gary Johnson, moonlighting as an undercover fake hit man, who falls for Madison (Adria Arjona), a woman who hires him. Debuting to critical praise at the Venice Film Festival, HIT MAN was picked up by Netflix for a straight-to-streaming...

We push the pedal to the metal in our discussion of George Miller's post-apocalyptic actioner, FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke. The fifth installment of Australia's venerable Mad Max series finds a young Furiosa kidnapped by biker warlord Dr. Dementus, and forced to watch her mother be murdered. After growing to adulthood at the Citadel, Furiosa becomes intent on taking revenge on Dementus, setting out on Fury Road where she meets Praetorian...

Artist, writer and comedian Raft joins for a discussion of the new romantic comedy, THE IDEA OF YOU starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine. Directed by Michael Showalter, this Prime Video release tells the story of Solène (Hathaway), a Silver Lake art gallery owner and divorced mother turning 40 whose accidental Coachella encounter with 24-year-old pop star, Hayes Campbell (Galitzine) leads to a sexy romance. Based on the book by Robinne Lee, THE IDEA OF YOU has garnered buzz for...

Anne and Ryan volley points back and forth on Luca Guadagnino's tennis romance, CHALLENGERS starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor. CHALLENGERS is the chronologically jumbled story of two young tennis players, Patrick (O'Connor) and Art (Faist) who meet another pro, Tashi (Zendaya) and are immediately drawn to her. Years later, Tashi has coached one player to numerous titles, while the other fumbles through a career low point, the fate of all three realigning at a Challenger event....

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,...

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...

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...