A retread of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? A homage to the pop music of 1980s Welsh singing sensation Bonnie Tyler? The rare American studio film that celebrates polyamory? It's all of these things; Barry Levinson's Bandits (2001). Cate Blanchett...

We have a special episode this week, a companion to our discussion last week of Notes on a Scandal. We visit with the Dame, Judi Dench.  We discuss her film career, with deep dives into an early entry A Room With a View (1986) and the film that launched...

A scandalous affair with an underage boy is the entry into this melodrama about the friendship between two teachers in North London. Murtada Elfadl welcomes back Teo Bugbee to discuss the juicy and delicious Notes on a Scandal, the trope of the...

In lieu of a regular episode, this week we are discussing the many films we screened at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Murtada Elfadl welcomes back writer and critic Valerie Complex to discuss a few films including Rebecca Hall's Passing, Shaka King's...

Cate Blanchett: Medicine Woman. She's a healer in 1880s New Mexico in Ron Howard's Western The Missing (2003). We discuss the film, the performances of Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones and Evan Rachel Wood. Plus we look into Howard's filmography including his...

Well the time has come. This week we have a hurricane in us and we are going to command the wind. It's Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), the movie that contains that most famous monologue in Cate Blanchett's filmography. We discuss the film, that iconic...

Glamour! Big Acting ! An Accent! A few hallmarks of Cate Blanchett's performances that we love are present in Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried (2001). It's a commanding star turn that shows Blanchett at her best, and for that the movie is a must-see for...

This week we discuss Galadriel, Cate Blanchett most iconic role. We delve into the enduring populariy of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and why diffrentiates them as excellent action adventure films, what makes Galadriel so special within Blanchett's...

It's time for another delicious villian from Cate Blanchett. The Wicked Stepmother in 'Cinderella,' the 2015 live action Disney remake, directed by Kenneth Branagh. For this conversation Murtada Elfadl welcomes writer and podcaster Manish Mathur, host...

This week we are take a brief detour from the films of Cate Blanchett. Instead we are discussing a current film, out on release now, Ammonite. Plus the career of Kate Winslet  and in the latter part of the podcast we discuss a few other queer films out...

We kickoff the 3rd season of the podcast with the last film we saw in theaters for Cate Blanchett. Richard Linklater's Where'd You Go, Bernadette. For this conversation Murtada Elfadl welcomes the hosts of the The B Side podcast,  Dan Mecca and Connor...

The podcast will be coming back from hiatus soon.  Season 3 arriving wherever you listen to podcasts. Hosted by Murtada Elfadl.

For the 2nd season finale of the podcast, we return to 1998. Elizabeth was Cate Blanchett's international breakout and the first time many people saw her on screen. Hence it deserves a revisit. To discuss the film again, along with Blanchett's first...

It's not Maid Marian but rather Marion Loxely, a more modern take on Robin Hood's paramour, played by Cate Blanchett in Ridley Scott's 2010 version of the folklore tale of the legendary outlaw and his merry men. For this discussion Murtada Elfadl...

To review the last two episodes of Mrs. America  Murtada Elfadl welcomes back writer and filmmaker Tayler Montague. The TV miniseries about the fight to ratify the equal rights amendment in the 1970s is created by Dahvi Waller and stars Cate Blanchett...

The costumes are green, the hair is red and Cate Blanchett is the Wicked Witch in Hanna (2011). Ostensibly a thriller about a teenage assassin, it reveals itself to be a fairytale with a modern twist. For this disscussion, Murtada welcomes back Gavin...

We continue recaping and reviewing Hulu's Mrs. America starring Cate Blanchett. This week we will tackle episodes 6 and 7 of the series about Jill Ruckelshaus played by Elizabeth Banks and Bella Abzug played by Margo Martindale. Also in this episode an...

We continue recaping and reviewing Hulu's Mrs. America starring Cate Blanchett. This week we tackle episodes 4 and 5 dealing with Betty Freidan (Tracey Ullman) and Brenda Feigen Fasteau (Ari Graynor) debating Phyllis Schlafly (Blanchett). Hosted by...

The podcast will return next week with a review of episodes 4 and 5 of the FX on Hulu series Mrs. America starring Cate Blanchett. In a short clip from last week's podcast, Murtada Elfadl and Tayler Montague discuss what they liked about Blanchett's...

We are going back to the early 1970s to talk about the first three episodes of Cate Blanchett's first major TV role in Mrs America. She's playing polarizing right wing figure Phyllis Schalfly. We discuss her performance, the all star cast, the costumes...

After last week, we stay with Cate Blanchett during WW2. This time as an Australian nurse in a Japanese internment camp who becomes part of a voice choir with her fellow prisoners of war in Paradise Road (1997). Hosted by Murtada Elfadl with guest...

For this episode we visit with Cate Blanchett among the ruins of 1945 Berlin in Steven Soderbergh's re-creation of a 1940s drama, The Good German. A film and performance we consider to be Blanchett's most underrated. Hosted by Murtada Elfadl with guest...

In Truth, Cate Blanchett plays journalist and TV news producer Mary Mapes in the story of the fallout from the CBS investigation into George Bush's military service, that led to the resignation of Dan Rather. The performance was warmly recieved even if...

In this episode we discuss another Cate Blanchett foray into playing a villian in a big blockbuster; as Hela the goddess of death in Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Hosted by Murtada Elfadl with guest writer and critic Joi Childs, host of The Color Grade podcast.