The Curzon Film Podcast

In this episode we talk about everyone's favourite super assassin who's checking in to cinemas this week, John Wick. Plus, we speak to Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, the directors of crime epic Birds of Passage. Superassassin John Wick returns, played by Keanu Reeves with his trademark commitment to physical performance. Now with a $14 million price on his head, he is the target of an army of murderous bounty hunters. The third instalment of the story continues the emphasis on unreconstituted action, while also adding turns from the likes of Anjelica Huston, Halle Berry and Laurence Fishburne. From the filmmakers behind the Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent comes their latest epic, Birds of Passage, a tale about indigenous traditions and the corrupting forces of wealth and power, set against the backdrop of the Colombian marijuana boom of the 1970s. A film of both gangsters and spirits, corruption and fratricidal war, this is a thrilling depiction of the origins of the drug trade told through the story of an indigenous Wayuu family’s downfall when greed, passion and honour collide, putting their lives, culture and ancestral traditions at stake. Discussing the films this week are Jake Cunningham, Caitlin Quinlan, Alasdair Bayman and Mark Towers Follow the team on Social Media: @jakehcunningham - Jake @csquinlan - Caitlin @alasdairbayman - Alasdair @MarkDTowers - Mark Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode we go deep with Claire Denis' interstellar introspective inter-everything sci-fi High Life, as well as speaking to the great director of Chocolat, Trouble Every Day and Let The Sunshine In herself. Plus, we get a front seat for one of Aretha Franklin's finest performances in Amazing Grace. Discussing the films this week are Jake Cunningham, Steph Watts, Ella Kemp and Sam Howlett. Follow the team on Social Media: @jakehcunningham - Jake @efe_kemp - Ella @samhowlett_1 - Sam @_Stephwatts - Steph Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode we discuss Brady Corbet’s unique pop star biopic Vox Lux. Plus we’ve managed to swing some time in the VIP section and talk to two of it stars, Stacy Martin and Raffey Cassidy.  The second feature from writer-director Brady Corbet, Vox Lux is a stylish and absorbing modern portrait of a troubled pop star’s rise from the ashes of a major national tragedy to pop superstardom, featuring a remarkable performance from Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman. Discussing the films this week are Jake Cunningham, Kelly Powell, Ella Kemp and Sam Howlett. Follow the team on Social Media: @jakehcunningham - Jake @efe_kemp - Ella @samhowlett_1 - Sam @ks_powell - Kelly Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’re going from online to on-crime this week as we take a look at acclaimed coming-of-age drama Eighth Grade and Jia Zhang-ke’s epic Ash Is Purest White. Plus we welcome Bertie Gilbert who brings some insight into the world of YouTubers and filmmaking.  Bo Burnham, a former YouTuber himself, has made an incredibly impressive directorial debut with Eighth Grade, a refreshingly sincere look at a teenage girl growing up in the digital age. Ash is Purest White is an epic, decades-spanning crime drama about a woman who, after being released from prison, goes in search of her gangster boyfriend who left her there years ago.  Discussing the films this week are Jake Cunningham, Ella Kemp, Caitlin Quinlan and Bertie Gilbert. Follow the team on Social Media: @jakehcunningham - Jake @efe_kemp - Ella @csquinlan - Caitlin @bertieglbrt - Bertie Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're talking satire and scandal as we take a look at the Silvio Berlusconi biopic Loro and the Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn starring thriller Dragged Across Concrete. Plus we welcome Professor of Modern Italian Politics and writer John Foot on to the show to talk about the rise of Berlusconi, comparisons to Trump and how Berlusconi's life and career are portrayed in Loro. Loro is Paolo Sorrentino's (The Great Beauty) latest film, exploring the unseen private life of one of modern Italy's most controversial figures with longtime collaborator Tony Servillo as Berlusconi. While Loro takes us through the extravagant parties of high society Italy, S. Craig Zahler drags us to the murky criminal underworld in Dragged Across Concrete, starring Gibson and Vaughn as two cops suspended after brutalising a suspect, whose plan to rob a criminal goes violently awry. Discussing the films this week are Sam Howlett, Kelly Powell, Steven Ryder and Lou Thomas Follow the team on Social Media: @SamHowlett_1 Sam Howlett @London_lou - Lou Thomas @irma_pep - Steven @ks_powell - Kelly Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Put on your white cowboy boots and sequin jacket as we shine a spotlight on country musical Wild Rose and Jonah Hill's directorial debut Mid90s. Plus we welcome WILD ROSE's star and BAFTA Rising Star nominee Jessie Buckley on to the show to talk about her latest in a string of acclaimed performances. Wild Rose is directed by Tom Harper and is a passion project for writer Nicole Taylor, it's the story of a young Glaswegian mother who dreams of lighting up the country music bars of Nashville. Compared to the bright lights and shiny slide guitars of Wild Rose, Mid90s is a street level, free-rolling insight into the routines and relationships of a skate gang in, you guessed it, the mid-90s. Discussing the films this week are Jake Cunningham, Kelly Powell, Ella Kemp and Caitlin Quinlan. Follow the team on Social Media: @jakehcunningham - Jake @efe_kemp - Ella @csquinlan - Caitlin @ks_powell - Kelly Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed… well yee haw! On this week’s episode of the Curzon podcast we go West to the dusty plains of the USA and Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers, but not before paying a visit to the tobacco fields of Italy in Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro. First up, we visit the perennially happy Lazzaro, a kind soul who would help anyone in his remote Italian village. Cut off from the outside world by a bridge that no one has the energy to fix, the inhabitants of the village are serfs to the Marchesa, whose son drafts Lazzaro into a kidnapping plot that quickly go awry. Next we move with Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Dheepan) to the USA where he makes his English-language debut with Western, The Sisters Brothers. Eli (John C. Reilly) and Charlie Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix) are brothers and assassins, on the trail of a chemist (Riz Ahmed) who has a formula that can highlight gold in rivers. Discussing the films this week are Jake Cunningham, Kelly Powell, Ella Kemp and Sam Howlett. Follow the team on Social Media: @jakehcunningham - Jake @efe_kemp - Ella @SamHowlett_1  - Sam @ks_powell - Kelly Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Van Gogh expert, Martin Bailey, joins us on the show this week to enlighten us on all things Vincent as we review the Willem Dafoe starring biopic, At Eternity's Gate, and we revisit to a childhood favourite with Tim Burton's Dumbo. First up we discuss Julian Schnabel’s Vincent van Gogh biopic, At Eternity’s Gate. Shot with a painter’s eye, Schnabel once again shows his talent for working with complex biography and the lives of artists as in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Basquiat. And, earning him an Oscar nomination, Willem Dafoe is mesmerising as Vincent van Gogh. We talk to journalist and van Gogh expert, Martin Bailey, who teaches us the correct pronunciation of “Gogh”, debunks some van Gogh conspiracy theories, and reminds us just how significant and relevance Vincent’s work was and remains today. Next we discuss the nostalgic delights of Tim Burton’s reimagined Disney classic, Dumbo. You may think you already know all there is to know about that flying elephant, but Burton's film is an altogether different adventure. Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell) is hired by Max Medici (Danny DeVito) to work in his circus, charged with tending to the newborn elephant with outsize ears. Holt’s children are the first to discover that Dumbo can take to the air, but will he be able to escape the cynical clutches of V.A. Vandemere (Michael Keaton)? Discussing the films are podcast regulars Jake Cunningham, Sam Howlett, Ella Kemp and Steven Ryder. Follow the team on Social Media: @jakehcunningham - Jake @efe_kemp - Ella @SamHowlett_1  - Sam @irma_pep - Steven Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ralph Fiennes joins us on the Curzon Film Podcast this week to tell us all about his third directorial effort, the Rudolf Nureyev biopic The White Crow, and we tumble down the creepy rabbit hole that is Jordan Peele’s doppelgänger horror, Us. We begin with the most nervously anticipated horror of the year, Jordan Peele’s follow up to the surprise hit Get Out, it’s the terrifying Us. While on holiday, an African American family come face-to-face with demonic doppelgängers hell-bent on killing them. Next up, Kaleem sits down with Ralph Fiennes to discuss his new film, The White Crow. This biopic of Rudolf Nureyev, possibly the greatest ballet dancer of the twentieth century, hinges on a climatic moment in the young dancer’s life. Discussing the films are podcast regulars Sam Howlett, Ella Kemp and Steven Ryder, who are this week joined by a special guest reviewer, Kaleem Aftab. Follow the team on Social Media: @SamHowlett_1  - Sam @efe_kemp - Ella @irma_pep - Steven @aftabamon - Kaleem Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Popworld provocateur-turned-filmmaker, Simon Amstell, joins us on the Curzon Film Podcast this week, to talk about his romantic comedy, Benjamin, but first we get right to the pointe of Lukas Dhont’s ballet drama, Girl. Still only in his twenties, Belgian writer-director Lukas Dhont has already made a name for himself with his impressive, tender and controversial debut film. Girl tells the story of Lara (Victor Polster), a determined 15-year-old, committed to becoming a professional ballerina after starting at a new school. Having been born a boy, she faces a world that questions her gender and selfhood, while also also taking on the intense physical demands of a dancer's life. The film has been landed and criticised in near equal measure, the winner of multiple awards, challenged for its treatment of the transgender experience.  After Girl, we then sit down with Simon Amstell, once a highly skilled troublemaker, now a talented filmmaker. Amstell’s Benjamin is a bittersweet comedy about a rising star filmmaker (that’s Benjamin, played by (Colin Morgan) who is thrown into emotional turmoil on the brink of premiering his second film, when Billie, his hard partying publicist, introduces him to a mesmeric French musician called Noah. Set among the back streets of East and North London - and partly filmed in our very own Curzon Soho - the film boasts original music from James Righton of the Klaxons and great performances from its young cast including Colin Morgan, Phénix Brossard, Joel Fry, Jack Rowan and Jessica Raine. Discussing the films this week are Sam Howlett, Jake Cunningham, Ella Kemp and Caitlin Quinlan. Follow the team on Social Media: @jakehcunningham - Jake @efe_kemp - Ella @SamHowlett_1  - Sam @csaquinlan - Caitlin Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Wowzers, what a week for new films! On this episode of the Curzon Film Podcast, we speak to Maggie Gyllenhaal about her role in The Kindergarten Teacher and we review Asghar Farhadi’s new film Everybody Knows.  First off, cinema’s most attractive real-life couple, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz (swoon) team up with the Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi for psychological thriller, Everybody Knows. To complement the film's release, Curzon Home Cinema has created a collection of Farhadi's previous films so that you can catch up on the work of this modern master. We then sit down with the wonderful Maggie Gyllenhaal to talk about The Deuce, working with female filmmakers, and her new film, The Kindergarten Teacher. Also in cinemas this weekend are Captain Marvel, Border and Ray & Liz. Discussing the films this week are Jake Cunningham, Kelly Powell, Steven Ryder and Ella Kemp. Follow the team on Social Media: @ks_powell - Kelly @irma_pep - Steven @efekemp - Ella @jakehcunningham - Jake Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on the Curzon Film Podcast, we take a close look at war on film, in all its confusing, chaotic and complicated ways.  We start with Samuel Maoz’s Foxtrot, which stations much of its narrative at a desolate military checkpoint manned by four young soldiers who all try to burn away the hours of boredom that occur between cars arriving for inspection and, every now and then, a lone camel walking by. Meanwhile at home, the parents of one of the boys are devastated by the news of his supposed sudden death, though the circumstances surrounding this take several unexpected twists.  We then take turns to pitch the very best war films, not in the English language. War films, particularly those from the US and the UK, tend to be quite similar in their heroics and bombast. So we've compiled a list of the best war films from elsewhere in the world, which each show the different sides of conflict. Thank you to all the listeners who helped us put together this list. This leads us onto the end of war and its lasting impact, as we discuss The Aftermath. Starring Keira Knightley in one of her finest performances yet, the film tells a story of tangled love in post-WWII Berlin. Discussing the films this week are Kelly Powell, Sam Howlett, Steven Ryder and Ella Kemp Follow the team on Social Media: @ks_powell - Kelly @irma_pep - Steven @efekemp - Ella @SamHowlett_1  - Sam Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week’s episode of the Curzon Film Podcast we're joined by Hollywood A-lister Armie Hammer, who talks to us about his new film On the Basis of Sex. Plus we discuss the BAFTA and Oscar-nominated Capernaum. We begin with Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum, a Lebanese film set on the streets of Beirut where a world-weary 12 year old, Zain, decides to sue his negligent parents for bringing him into his poverty stricken existence. A gritty and authentic film, it's being touted as a modern day Bicycle Thieves, telling a harrowing story of endurance that still manages to find hope in the darkest of situations. Head over to the Curzon blog to read our interview with the director, Labaki. We then hear from the ever-charming Armie Hammer, star of one of Curzon’s favourite films of recent years, Call Me By Your Name. He joins us to talk about the impact of the MeToo and TimesUp movements, good husband goals, and his new film On the Basis of Sex, a biopic of Ruth Bader Ginsberg that charts the formative years of her ongoing battle for gender equality in the United States. Felicity Jones plays the Supreme Court Justice known to many as RBG, and Hammer plays Martin Ginsberg, supportive husband to Ruth and an all round stand up guy.  Discussing the films this week are Kelly Powell, Sam Howlett, Jake Cunningham and Ella Kemp Follow the team on Social Media: @ks_powell - Kelly @jakehcunningham - Jake @efekemp - Ella @SamHowlett_1  - Sam Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on the Curzon Film Podcast, we're joined by The Sunday Times' Chief Foreign Correspondent to talk about A Private War, and Joe Cornish drops by to tell us about his new children's fantasy epic, The Kid Who Would Be King.  We start with A Private War, a biopic following the life and work of Marie Colvin, an iconic foreign correspondent who reported from some of the most dangerous conflict zones in the world – from Sri Lanka to Syria and Iraq – risking her life to reveal the truth about unjust regimes and humanitarian crimes. A Private War avoids biopic cliches and instead asks troubling questions about the sacrifices made by Colvin and war reporters alike. Christina Lamb is Chief Foreign Correspondent at The Sunday Times, where Marie Colvin spent much of her career. Lamb and Colvin were colleagues and friends, and so we visited Lamb at her London office to discuss the film, the reality of life as a foreign correspondent, and her memories of Colvin. Later in the episode we discuss Joe Cornish’s The Kid Who Would Be King, a modern day re-imagining of the Sword in the Stone legend. Alex is just like any other twelve year old, until he retrieves the legendary Excalibur. Paired with the wizard Merlin (inexpertly hiding himself as a 16 year old boy), he must face his destiny, marshal his friends and defeat the enchantress Morgana, all before tea time. Director Joe Cornish joins us to talk about all things fantastical, and his hopes for this highly original take on a well known classic tale. Discussing the films this week are Kelly Powell, Sam Howlett, Jake Cunningham and Steven Ryder Follow the team on Social Media: @ks_powell - Kelly @jakehcunningham - Jake @irma_pep - Steven @SamHowlett_1  - Sam Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week's episode of the Curzon Film Podcast we speak to Moonlight director, Barry Jenkins, about his new film, If Beale Street Could Talk, and we discuss All Is True with none other than Sir Kenneth Branagh. We start with If Beale Street Could Talk. Adapted from the novel by celebrated author, James Baldwin, it follows the romance between Fonny and Tish, two young lovers living in 1970s Harlem, New York. Their love is tested to its limits when Fonny is wrongly imprisoned, and the fight for justice takes a heavy toll on the young couple's lives. Once again taking social realist material and blending it with a poetic eye, Jenkins’ film simply glows off the screen. Later in the episode we look at Sir Kenneth Branagh’s All Is True, which tells the little known story of Sir William Shakespeare’s humble retirement. Written by Ben Elton and directed by Sir Kenneth, this is a new take on Shakespeare that collects together the cream of British acting talent (including Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench) and is shot with an elegance and beauty, as well as a pitched honesty, that is a tribute to the Bard. Discussing the films this week are Kelly Powell, Ella Kemp, Jake Cunningham and Steven Ryder Follow the team on Social Media: @ks_powell - Kelly @jakehcunningham - Jake @irma_pep - Steven @efekemp - Ella Produced by Jake Cunningham Edited by Mark Towers  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.