485 - Verity
from Eavesdropping at the Movies Hosted by Jose Arroyo and Michael Glass
We love a good thriller, and Verity is one... depending on your expectations. It's reliant on three excellent star performances, Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett all charismatic and committed to getting the best out of the entertainingly daft screenplay. Verity does tricks on the tightrope between sincere and self-knowingly nonsensical, and is dramatic and funny in equal measure. On top of this, we discuss the nuance - such as there can be, in the context of a somewhat absurd thriller - of the characters' actions, how the opening sets a tone that might be easy to overlook, and the layers of irony and uncertainty built in to the themes of truth and villainy. And we consider some depressing aspects of the real world that the film reflects, including the general societal illiteracy and stupidity it unwittingly reproduces in its dialogue and the novelistic and journalistic writing we're shown, the new media environment in which the podcast interview has become at least as important as legacy media, and the sizeable and vocal section of society that's devoted to demonising women as manipulative, psychopathic, murderous liars. Recorded on 21st October 2026.
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