Broad Appeal

[There's one only exciting thing about MAMMA MIA 2.... MORE CHER! So, during our hiatus here's a classic look back at one of her previous summer releases.] A film about sexual sublimation, religious fervour, sisterhood and starring Winona Ryder... how has Brian never seen MERMAIDS (1990)?! Seán has, of course, because Cher. Winona is Charlotte Flax, the Jewish girl with a flare for romantic Catholicism who desperately tries to be the responsible one, sandwiched between her aquatic kid sister Christina Ricci and her nomadic, flirtatious mother, Cher. MERMAIDS may have the cheese factor of a ripe Taleggio, but this coming-of-age story is bolstered by the gorgeous and warm performances of these three gifted women. Seán had forgotten how much this film impacted his adolescence, and is ready to dive back in. But is Brian willing to put down his Proust and Shoop, Shoop? Warning: Contains sexualised Bob Hoskins references. Listener discretion is advised. All clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks)

[It's our summer hiatus, but it's also London Pride this weekend, so we're taking you into the backroom with Al Pacino and hundreds of horny men with a favorite vintage episode from our "Male Gayz" series!] Get your ass into cruise control, boys. Seán and Brian are back with our new miniseries - Broad Appeal: The Male Gayz. We've ditched the chicks and are hanging back with the brutes for seven whole episodes. We kick off with a re-evaluation of sleazy, sketchy and sloppy(?) sex-sesh CRUISING (1980), directed by William Friedkin who having dealt with the devil in The Exorcist, confronted audiences with something much more demonic: LEATHER. Al Pacino plays an undercover cop who huffs too many poppers in his quest to find a killer at large on the gay S&M scene. It's explicit, it's weird, it's QUEER. But is it any good? Grab your chaps and let's find out. All clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks)

[With Jodie Foster back in theatres with "Hotel Artemis," here's a summer hiatus flashback to one of our favorite past episodes... Are you OK to go????"] What's more plausible: the existence of God or intelligent alien life? Frankly, both are more believable than Jodie Foster's romance with Matthew McConaughey in CONTACT (1997). Jodie is Ellie Arroway, a scientist so brilliant and dedicated to her cause that no-one, and we mean no-one, seems to realise she might be an actual expert on this stuff. Watch how men of the 90s mansplain extraterrestrial life, God, government funding and who knows what else to one of the powerhouse actresses of the decade. Will Seán warm to Brian's 'space-is-profound' type of sci-fi, or have his own crisis of faith? There can be miracles, when you believe... P.S. Angela Bassett. All clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks)

[During our summer hiatus, we're bringing you back to some of our favourite episodes from seasons past. After our last Good/Bad/Crazy, we thought we'd return to our first encounter with Juliette....] Juliette Binoche f**ks Jeremy Irons, but also f**ks him up in the British/French erotic drama "Damage" (1992). A tale of desire and obsession, this film by Louis Malle leaves us ruminating on our own sexual awakenings in cinema and searching through Greek myth, French existentialism, and Freudian theory to penetrate the dark, dark heart of these morally ambiguous characters. With a standout turn by Miranda Richardson as the jilted wife, this film has enough heavy breathing and histrionics to spice up any European Union. All clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks)

It’s 1986 and a sexually-transmitted retrovirus is killing off young people. A massive pharma company have a vaccine in development that they won’t release, until a band of misfits break in to liberate it… Sound familiar? It is and it isn’t. The sophomore feature from French enfant terrible Leos Carax is a heady, swoony, futuristic Nouvelle Nouvelle Vague oddity, for which (Carax’s then-girlfriend) Binoche garnered her first César nomination. The real star is the film’s ever-shifting aesthetic that encompasses cartoonish absurdism, music video, spectacle and lyricism in equal measure. Alex (Denis Lavant) is a juvenile delinquent caught up in the vaccine heist but whose “amour fou” for the unavailable Anna (Binoche) has him completely pent up. You see, in this alternative future, anytime you “make love without love,” you risk death. This is a caper that is full of ideas, emotions and set-piece scenes (like Juliette herself - not a stunt woman! - dangling from an airplane!!!). If it left us scratching our heads at times, it also prompted reflections on the pure beauty of the moving image and the irrational risks we all take to achieve…. Modern Love. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

Sometimes a brown, gooey substance is sweet, delicious, even spiritual. But sometimes it’s actually just…. All the cacao in an ancient Mayan temple could not flavour this cynical, derivative Miramax joint from 2000 which somehow received five Oscar nominations, including BEST PICTURE??! Harvey Weinstein’s committed a lot of crimes, but aesthetically this one takes the fudge-filled (sludge-filled?) cake. Juliette is a mystical stranger who arrives in a fairytale French village - where everyone, even the French actors, somehow speak in English!! She’s got a daughter who sees imaginary kangaroos, some bon bons that can apparently change your sex life, and a spinning pagan disc that hypnotises everyone she meets into joining her cult… er, enjoying the pleasures of chocolate. Judi Dench slowly destroys her diabetic pancreas through constant truffle-eating, Johnny Depp listlessly invokes both the hairstyle and the accent of Bono, and Alfred Molina has nothing better to do during Lent than to lead a boycott against Juliette and her life-giving chocolate shop. THAT IS SERIOUSLY THE PLOT. Cynical, saccharine and soporific, CHOCOLAT is a film without sweetness and very definitely the worst viewing experience we’ve had so far. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

Quick: name an Oscar-winning actress who’s worked with both Godard AND Godzilla. THERE IS ONLY ONE. Having been on international screens for three decades, Juliette Binoche has matured more gracefully than a vintage Bourdeaux, acquired more ripe notes than a cave-aged Gruyère. Take a look at the whole career from the dewy, sexualized ingénue of DAMAGE to the earthy middle-aged diva of SILS MARIA, and it is clear: JB is the Actress of Actresses. She’s bared both her flesh and her soul for countless auteurs, but she’s perhaps never been asked to carry a film quite so completely as she did for Krzystof Kieslowski in THREE COLOURS: BLUE. As a grieving widow thrown into a traumatised “liberté” that she never asked for, Binoche’s performance is mostly silent, often as cold as the film’s azure cinematography and as deeply felt as Zbigniew Preisner’s extraordinary score. Her Julie (like the continent of Europe itself) must confront the submerged pains of the past as she is hurtled forward into an uncertain future. That’s right: Juliette Binoche IS Europe. She is Cinema. She is Everything.

By 1988, Glenda had made six films with Ken Russell including THE MUSIC LOVERS and WOMEN IN LOVE. But though Ken didn't quite have the clout he once did, Glenda was still loyal and totally game for this high-camp, theatrical, romp complete with loads of boobs, dildo-spears, and some baffling full frontal nudity. Glenda (braying, bilious and bejeweled from head to toe) is Herodias, second wife of Herod Antipas, who has the hots for his niece/step-daughter Salome, who in turn has the hots for John the Baptist. Now imagine all this being acted out in front of Oscar Wilde himself, by a cast of bootboys and skivvies. MARAT/SADE seems tame by comparison. We discuss Ken Russell, Wilde, our own personal nudity, and the Gospels, of course. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

By 1988, Glenda had made six films with Ken Russell including THE MUSIC LOVERS and WOMEN IN LOVE. But though Ken didn't quite have the clout he once did, Glenda was still loyal and totally game for this high-camp, theatrical, romp complete with loads of boobs, dildo-spears, and some baffling full frontal nudity. Glenda (braying, bilious and bejeweled from head to toe) is Herodias, second wife of Herod Antipas, who has the hots for his niece/step-daughter Salome, who in turn has the hots for John the Baptist. Now imagine all this being acted out in front of Oscar Wilde himself, by a cast of bootboys and skivvies. MARAT/SADE seems tame by comparison. We discuss Ken Russell, Wilde, our own personal nudity, and the Gospels, of course. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

You know when the Academy gets it (horribly) wrong? Well, sorry Ms. Jackson, but this is one of those times. A TOUCH OF CLASS was one of the films that inspired Broad Appeal; we tuned in for a scathing 70’s satire of feminism and sexual mores starring one of our favorite actresses. Only to learn that the film is more like a juvenile TV sitcom that got to play its cancelled series out in one extended episode. Glenda plays Vicky Alessio, a rag trade divorcée who gets involved with brash American dirty dawg George Segal (and who never seems concerned about her children's whereabouts). A searing sex comedy this is not. A messed up, kinda funny, outdated, ridiculous mess it certainly is. And don't just take out word for it, take a look at the faces of Ellen Burstyn, Joanne Woodward and Marsha Mason when Glenda nabs it. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

You know when the Academy gets it (horribly) wrong? Well, sorry Ms. Jackson, but this is one of those times. A TOUCH OF CLASS was one of the films that inspired Broad Appeal; we tuned in for a scathing 70’s satire of feminism and sexual mores starring one of our favorite actresses. Only to learn that the film is more like a juvenile TV sitcom that got to play its cancelled series out in one extended episode. Glenda plays Vicky Alessio, a rag trade divorcée who gets involved with brash American dirty dawg George Segal (and who never seems concerned about her children's whereabouts). A searing sex comedy this is not. A messed up, kinda funny, outdated, ridiculous mess it certainly is. And don't just take out word for it, take a look at the faces of Ellen Burstyn, Joanne Woodward and Marsha Mason when Glenda nabs it. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

She's served you withering stares on screen as well as in the constituency of Hampstead and Highgate. Of course we’re talking about Glenda Jackson MP, who as far as we know is the only British politician whose own boobs were used against her by the opposition. Glenda's place is in our hearts and in the House of Commons, but also firmly in 1970s cinema history. With two Oscars wins within four years, her career symbolised a potent change in roles for women. Nestled between her two awarded roles is SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY - a bisexual love triangle, a nuanced social commentary and a great study of how rotary telephones used to work. If she deserved a second Oscar, it should have been for this subtle sexual roundelay about liberated libertines who discover that trying to have it all is not all it’s cracked up to be. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

She's served you withering stares on screen as well as in the constituency of Hampstead and Highgate. Of course we’re talking about Glenda Jackson MP, who as far as we know is the only British politician whose own boobs were used against her by the opposition. Glenda's place is in our hearts and in the House of Commons, but also firmly in 1970s cinema history. With two Oscars wins within four years, her career symbolised a potent change in roles for women. Nestled between her two awarded roles is SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY - a bisexual love triangle, a nuanced social commentary and a great study of how rotary telephones used to work. If she deserved a second Oscar, it should have been for this subtle sexual roundelay about liberated libertines who discover that trying to have it all is not all it’s cracked up to be. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

With an actress of a particular brilliance there's a special register of performance called "good-bad" acting. That's right, GOOD and BAD at exactly the same time (for more examples of this, please check out Meryl Streep's entire body of work post-DEVIL WEARS PRADA). In the case of Cate, we have HANNA. A frenetic, baffling, high-octane and enjoyable thriller with our favourite Irish cailín, Saoirse Ronan, out there breaking people's necks like all girls do at that age. In Blanchett's Marisa Wiegler we get a drawl so far south that voiceless alveolar stops are practically non-existent! In place of of /t/ sounds we get kitten heels, a great wig and an unstoppable urge to neutralise a little girl. Hanna? More like HAMMA! But we loooove what she doooooees. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

With an actress of a particular brilliance there's a special register of performance called "good-bad" acting. That's right, GOOD and BAD at exactly the same time (for more examples of this, please check out Meryl Streep's entire body of work post-DEVIL WEARS PRADA). In the case of Cate, we have HANNA. A frenetic, baffling, high-octane and enjoyable thriller with our favourite Irish cailín, Saoirse Ronan, out there breaking people's necks like all girls do at that age. In Blanchett's Marisa Wiegler we get a drawl so far south that voiceless alveolar stops are practically non-existent! In place of of /t/ sounds we get kitten heels, a great wig and an unstoppable urge to neutralise a little girl. Hanna? More like HAMMA! But we loooove what she doooooees. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).