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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Our "Summer Abroad" world cinema tour continues with writer, actor, and director Kate Freund joining to discuss Bong Joon-ho's thriller MOTHER starring Kim Hye-ja, Won Bin, Jin Goo and Yoon Je-moon. This 2009 South Korean film follows an unnamed Mother who is fiercely protective of her intellectually disabled adult son, Do-joon. When Do-joon is accused of murder, Mother will stop at nothing to clear him of the charges. A twisty and tragic portrait of unconditional love turned lethal, MOTHER...

Our month-long "Summer Abroad" world cinema series kicks off with writer and actor Conner Shin (Harley Quinn) joining to discuss Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 post-apocalyptic anime fantasy NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND featuring the voices of Sumi Shimamoto, Gorō Naya, Youji Matsuda and Hisako Kyoda. NAUSICAÄ tells the story of a bug-loving teenage princess who resides in the peaceful Valley of the Wind, but regularly traverses the Toxic Jungle to communicate with large mutant insects called...

Actor and writer Amy Heidt joins to discuss Greta Gerwig's blockbuster comedy BARBIE starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera and Kate McKinnon. Gerwig's satiric take of Mattel's flagship doll finds Barbie (Robbie) in an existential crisis, venturing outside of the idyllic and matriarchal Barbieland and into the real world for answers to womanhood's complexities. Meanwhile, Ken (Gosling) discovers the patriarchal structure of the real world and threatens to forever transform...

Writer and comedian Nick Wiger (Doughboys, Get Played) joins to discuss Christopher Nolan's biopic OPPENHEIMER starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. One of 2023's most highly-anticipated films, OPPENHEIMER chronicles the life and times of the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, from his early days at Cambridge, to his spearheading the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, the fateful Trinity test, to facing scrutiny at the peak of Cold War paranoia....

Screenwriter Van Robichaux (Fist Fight, Brooklyn 99) joins to discuss Steven Spielberg's 2001 science fiction film A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE starring Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor and William Hurt. Originally developed by Stanley Kubrick and handed to Spielberg, A.I. is a fascinating mix of two major filmmakers' disparate sensibilities, combining fairy tale fancy with dystopian sci-fi. Osment earned praise for his intense portrayal of David, a sophisticated robot boy...

Anne and Ryan discuss Celine Song's 2023 drama PAST LIVES starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro. Song wrote and directed this tender story of two childhood sweethearts, Nora (Lee) and Hae Sung (Yoo) from Seoul, South Korea reuniting as adults in New York City, much to the discomfort of Nora's husband, Arthur (Magaro). PAST LIVES is an intimate romance of epic scope, exploring the immigrant experience, and the human bonds that persist through our lifetime(s). Join Anne and Ryan for a...

Writer Emily Strachan joins to discuss Nancy Meyers's 2009 romantic comedy, IT'S COMPLICATED starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin and John Krasinski. Set in sunny Santa Barbara, IT'S COMPLICATED features Streep as a successful bakery owner pursuing a fling with her now re-married ex-husband, played by Baldwin. A rare and upbeat portrait of sex in middle age, the film was one of Meyers's biggest commercial hits upon release, but how do the movie's sexual politics and famously...

Director Chris VanArtsdalen (The Birthday Boys) joins to discuss Wes Anderson's newest, ASTEROID CITY starring Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody and many more. Anderson uses a nesting play-within-a-show-within-a-movie structure to tell the story of a Junior Stargazing event gone awry in a remote desert town. ASTEROID CITY has opened to mostly positive reviews and promising box office returns, but some...

In this preview of Mama Needs a Movie's Patreon-exclusive spinoff, ATTENTION MUST BE PAID (patreon.com/MNAM), Anne and Ryan show some love to under-seen cinematic gems like 2017's LOVE AFTER LOVE starring Andie MacDowell, Chris O'Dowd and James Adomian. Russell Harbaugh's directorial debut follows Suzanne (MacDowell), a mother of two adult sons, trying to move on after the death of her husband. Unfurling its lived-in character dynamics with unusual patience, the film creates a indelible...