Shot/Reverse Shot

Star Wars is good again! Ed blows the dust off the podcast and is joined by co-host emeritus Matt Risby to talk at length about the first season of Andor, the Disney+ series created by Tony Gilroy which, against all odds, is one of the best Star Wars-related things ever. They talk about the quality of the show's writing, the way it engages with the nature of fascism, and whether Babu Frik will see jail time. Plenty of spoilers ahead, so watch out. To keep up with what Matt has been up to lately, check out his TTRPG podcast The Bad Spot on YouTube, and subscribe to his Patreon if you're so inclined.

In this episode, which was recorded a few months back (hence the very out of date news section) Emily announces that she is leaving the show, and the show goes on hiatus.

After a few weeks away, Emily and Ed catch up on some of the big news stories they missed, including The Oscars, that slap and its fallout, Ethan Coen striking out on his own, Bruce Willis retiring, and The Guest 2 getting a soundtrack despite not existing.

This week, Emily and Ed talk about films and TV shows that explore the idea of toxic femininity, with particular emphasis on Showtime's Yellowjackets. They also talk about Glaswegian architecture as it relates to The Batman.   00:00:00 - 00:13:55 - Intro & New 00:13:56 - 00:48:54 - Emily & Ed discuss Toxic Femininity in Films and TV 00:48:55 - 00:52:48 - SRS Recommends & Outro   Links - Be Kind Rewind's "Ruth Gordon's Unique and Defiant Journey to Oscar" as recommended by Emily - Dance Craze (1981) as recommended by Ed - Ed's appearance on the Games of Film podcast talking about The Matrix and its weird, ambitious videogame spin-offs

This week, inspired by this interview in Anne Helen Petersen's Substack with Scott Meslow, author of From Hollywood With Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy, Emily and Ed discuss the past, present and future of the romcom. Is the genre in rude health, as suggested by the increased number of them being made for streaming services? Or is it on life support, since romcoms generally don't get big theatrical releases anymore and (with some very notable exceptions) rarely break through to the broader culture as they did in their heyday of the '80s and '90s? Also, wasn't Nora Ephron the greatest? (That last one is of course rhetorical.) 00:00:00 - 00:10:11 - Intro 00:10:12 - 00:46:27 - Emily & Ed discuss the state of the 00:46:28 - 00:50:51 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links - Trainwreckords: Katy Perry's "Witness" by Todd in the Shadows, as recommended by Ed

This week, Emily and Ed discuss the 2022 Oscar nominations, and offer suggestions for how they would fix the Oscar's ongoing popularity and identity crisis, including adding new categories, changing eligibility rules, or encouraging broader public engagement from The Academy. Note: this episode was recorded before the announcement that eight awards would not be given out as part of the main ceremony this year. Suffice it to say, that's a very bad idea for fixing what is wrong with the Oscars. 00:00:00 - 00:22:24 - Intro & News 00:22:25 - 01:04:02 - Emily & Ed talk about the Oscars and how they would fix them 01:04:03 - 01:08:34 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, Emily and Ed talk about the bad movies (or at least movies they really dislike) that stick with them, whether it's because they have good ideas that they execute badly, they're so perplexing that they demand more consideration just to understand why they don't work, or because everyone else insists they're good. 00:00:00 - 00:17:23 - Intro & News 00:17:24 - 00:53:30 - Emily & Ed discuss bad movies they can't stop thinking about 00:53:31 - 00:57:46 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links - The Pudding, as recommended by Emily

This week, Emily and Ed discuss the importance of curation in an age defined by streaming services, as well as the ways in which many of the big services limit the capacity for people to discover new things and broaden their horizons. They also talk about "Sundance inflation" and the gutting of the AV Club by corporate ghouls. 00:00:00 - 00:28:30 - Intro & News 00:28:31 - 00:57:55 - Emily & Ed discuss curation in the streaming age 00:57:56 - 01:04:10 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links - Line Goes Up - The Problem with NFTs by Dan Olson, as recommended by Emily

It's Emily's birthday (or it was a few weeks ago)! To celebrate, she and Ed discuss movies that have no clear protagonist. They also try to fix the acting categories at the major awards ceremonies. 00:00:00 - 00:14:04 - Intro & News 00:14:05 - 00:57:09 - Emily & Ed discuss films that have no clear protagonist 00:57:10 - 01:01:45 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links - Monsters and Mullets, the newsletter by A. Perry, as recommended by Emily

To mark the start of a new year, Emily and Ed run down their best films/TV shows/albums/games/books/etc. of 2021. They also talk about Lindsay Ellis quitting YouTube and the deaths of Jean-Marc Vallée and Betty White. 00:00:00 - 00:14:58 - Intro & News 00:14:59 - 00:28:32 - Honourable Mentions 00:28:33 - 01:33:54 - Emily & Ed talk about their Top 10s

To mark the 20th anniversary of the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Emily and Ed talk about their love of the trilogy, its legacy, and whether Aragorn should have ended up with Eowyn. 00:00:00 - 00:12:37 - Intro & News 00:12:38 - 00:50:29 - Emily & Ed talk about The Lord of the Rings films 00:50:30 - 00:55:35 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links: - Here's A Spy Movie on YouTube, as recommended by Emily

Given the, er, divided response to Lady Gaga's performance in House of Gucci, now seems like the perfect time to talk about musicians acting in movies. In addition to discussing the ways in which movies play with or against a musician's public persona, Emily and Ed talk about musicians who achieved recognition for their performances, those for whom recognition proved elusive, and those who transcended the need for films to bestow them with acclaim. They also talk about the deaths of Stephen Sondheim and Antony Sher, new details about the split between Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, and the news that The AV Club will soon be forced to move to L.A. from its longtime home of Chicago. 00:00:00 - 00:22:45 - Intro & News 00:22:46 - 00:55:14 - Emily & Ed discuss musicians acting in film 00:55:15 - 01:01:05 - SRS Recommends & Outro - Link to the FastPass episode of Defunctland, as recommend by Emily

Content Warning: As part of the main topic we discuss the plot of The Last Duel, so there is brief discussion of rape and sexual assault. Inspired by the shifting viewpoints in Ridley Scott's The Last Duel, Emily and Ed talk about movies that play with ideas of perspective, and the ways in which cinema can uniquely handle the idea of showing a story from the vantage points of multiple characters.

This week Emily and Ed discuss the difference between a gimmick and a premise, as they relate to movies, as well of examples of gimmicks that work so well that they cannot be extricated from a premise. They also talk about the ratification of the IATSE contract, #FreeBritney, and the deaths of Mick Rock and Dean Stockwell.   00:00:00 - 00:19:26 - Intro & News 00:19:27 - 00:50:47 - Emily & Ed discuss Gimmicks vs. Premises 00:50:48 - 00:55:11 - SRS Recommends & Outro   Link to the Bandcamp page for Billy Nomates, as recommended by Emily

On this week's episode Emily sits down with director Arthur Jones to talk about their documentary The Six, which tells the story of the six Chinese survivors of the Titanic, and how their experiences of discrimination in the face of calamity continue to resonate over a century later. For further information about The Six, including planned screenings, please visit the film's website. 00:00:00 - 00:02:42 - Intro & (extremely brief) news 00:02:43 - 00:50:58 - Emily interviews Arthur Jones about The Six 00:50:59 - 00:54:03 - SRS Recommends & Outro

In this (belated) Halloween episode, Emily and Ed discuss scary moments in movies that aren't strictly speaking horror movies. 00:00:00 - 00:19:06 - Intro & News 00:19:07 - 00:48:34 - Emily & Ed discuss scary moments in non-horror movies 00:48:35 - 00:51:28 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, Emily and Ed talk about some of their favourite examples of sprawling (or "bloated" if you want to be a little less charitable) art, running the gamut from the fiction of Paul Auster to the Yakuza series of video games. 00:00:00 - 00:27:27 - Intro & News 00:27:28 - 00:52:54 - Emily & Ed discuss sprawling art 00:52:55 - 01:00:23 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week's show and tell finds Emily and Ed bringing two distinctive but very different visions: Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross's creative non-fiction film Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets and James Wan's gothic delight Malignant. They also talk about recent film news and the new SNL cast. 00:00:00 - 00:39:02 - Intro & News 00:39:03 - 00:57:13 - Emily & Ed discuss Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets and Malignant

Inspired by Ed's first ever viewing of Event Horizon, Emily and Ed talk about what it takes for a film that rips off another film to overcome that stigma. They also talk about how amazing Sandra Bullock is, Nicholas Sparks movie posters, and the "low-stakes Uncut Gems" week that Ed had. 00:00:00 - 00:27:40 - Intro & News 00:27:41 - 00:58:16 - Emily & Ed discuss good rip-offs 00:58:17 - 01:04:10 - SRS Recommends & Outro

It's been a few weeks since Emily and Ed last recorded, so they catch up on some of the biggest news stories that they missed, as well as the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Links: - As recommended by Emily, "At the Turtle Club in the Shadow of 9/11" on Defector

This week, Emily and Ed talk about the most recent series of Inside No. 9, the anthology series from Reese Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, before jumping off to a broader discussion of anthology TV shows, particularly the slew of them that have emerged in the past decade. 00:00:00 - 00:19:43 - Intro & News 00:19:44 - 00:52:48 - Emily & Ed discuss TV Antologies 00:52:49 - 00:57:32 - SRS Recommends & Outro

For this week's Show and Tell episode, Emily brings the sadly short-lived Showtime series On Becoming a God in Central Florida, while Ed brings the Leos Carax X Sparks musical Annette. They also talk about the recent deaths of Sonny Chiba and Sean Lock. 00:00:00 - 00:17:27 - Intro & News 00:17:28 - 00:51:53 - Emily & Ed discuss On Becoming a God in Central Florida and Annette 00:51:54 - 00:57:31 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links - Kris Straub's Local 58, as recommended by Emily (cw for suicide) - Voidburger's A Puzzle of Flesh in an Era of Strife, as recommended by Ed

To celebrate Ed's birthday (which was actually a few weeks ago but things have been busy!) he and Emily discuss some of the movies they've rewatched the most, movies that changed the most for them between rewatches, and movies that they don't know if they can go back to. 00:00:00 - 00:17:09 - Intro & News 00:17:10 - 00:55:49 - Emily & Ed discuss rewatching movies 00:55:50 - 01:00:25 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week's episode is all news, as Emily and Ed take a moment to appreciate the work of Bob Odenkirk in light of the actor/writer/director/lovely guy's recent health scare, then dig into Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit against Disney over the release of Black Widow and its potential impact on Hollywood more broadly. They also manage to squeeze in some thoughts on the House of Gucci trailer, and Adam Driver's post-Star Wars movie blitz. 00:00:00 - 00:03:47 - Intro 00:03:48 - 00:40:36 - Emily & Ed discuss the news of the week 00:40:37 - 00:44:51 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links - José's YouTube channel, as recommended by Emily - Maggie Mae Fish's video on The Royal Tenenbaums and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, as recommended by Ed - The latest episode of Tim Heidecker's Office Hours, in which he talks about Bob Odenkirk, as mentioned by Ed

For this week's Show and Tell, Emily brings the second series of Mae Martin's Netflix show Feel Good, and Ed brings Rodney Ascher's simulation theory doc A Glitch in the Matrix. They also talk about the calamitous Space Jam: A New Legacy, the winners from Cannes, and bad depictions of standup. 00:00:00 - 00:15:51 - Intro & News 00:15:52 - 00:43:31 - Emily & Ed discuss Feel Good and A Glitch in the Matrix 00:43:32 - 00:47:42 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, after some (in the end) misplaced optimism about the football, Emily and Ed discuss Rare Beasts, the debut feature from Billie Piper, and the second season of Netflix's I Think You Should Leave. 00:00:00 - 00:21:00 - Intro & News 00:21:01 - 00:48:37 - Emily & Ed discuss Rare Beasts and I Think You Should Leave 00:48:38 - 00:54:40 - SRS Recommends & Outro - Here is the article by Kath Barbadoro on I Think You Should Leave for Vulture: "Stupid Times Call for Stupid Jokes"

For this week's Show and Tell, Emily brings Jim Jarmusch's zombie ensemble The Dead Don't Die, while Ed brings Edgar Wright's documentary about the long career of cult pop band Sparks. They also pay tribute to the film blogger Christopher Laverty, who passed away suddenly last week. 00:00:00 - 00:10:51 - Intro & News 00:10:52 - 00:39:21 - Emily & Ed discuss The Dead Don't Die and The Sparks Brothers 00:39:22 - 00:44:02 - SRS Recommends & Outro

For this week's Show and Tell, Emily brings Shrill, the Hulu comedy series starring Aidy Bryant which just finished its three season run, and Ed brings Muriel's Wedding, the Australian comedy that served as a breakthrough for Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths. They also pay tribute to Ned Beatty. 00:00:00 - 00:18:09 - Intro & News 00:18:10 - 00:53:51 - Emily & Ed discuss Shrill and Muriel's Wedding 00:53:52 - 00:58:36 - SRS Recommends & Outro

For this week's Show and Tell, Emily brings Bo Burnham's new Netflix special Inside, and Ed brings Walter Hill's cult neo-noir rock and roll musical Streets of Fire, which also just happened to be added to Netflix. They discuss being out of step with the critical consensus, the ways in which musical comedy can be distancing, and why more movies need Catbuses. 00:00:00 - 00:19:30 - Intro & News 00:19:31 - 00:58:05 - Emily & Ed discuss Inside and Streets of Fire 00:58:06 - 01:02:35 - SRS Recommends & Outro

For this week's show and tell, Emily brings three thrillers (Copycat, Arlington Road and Runaway Jury) that she has watched recently and found oddly comforting, despite some extremely dark subject matter, and Ed brings Rumble in the Bronx, the film that really broke Jackie Chan as a major star in the US. They discuss the decline of the mid-budget movie, the thrill of seeing real people do wild stunts, and the value of un-selfconscious movies. They also talk about the success of A Quiet Place Part II, Amazon buying MGM, and Matt LeBlanc becoming an Irish icon. 00:00:00 - 00:24:33 - Intro & News 00:24:34 - 01:00:01 - Emily & Ed discuss their show and tell movies 01:00:02 - 01:04:34 - SRS Recommends & Outro

For this week's show and tell, Ed brings the final adaptation/spinoff of the Final Fantasy RPG series, and Emily brings Trey Edward Shults' ultra low-budget debut. They discuss the uncanny valley, terrifying films that aren't horror movies, and turning short films into features. They also discuss the trailer for Dear Evan Hansen and the latest strange turn in the story of Warner Bros. 00:00:00 - 00:26:48 - Intro & News 00:26:49 - 01:02:10 - Emily & Ed discuss Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Krisha 01:02:11 - 01:07:25 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week we're trying out a new format, as Emily and Ed bring in films that they've seen recently and found interesting, and try to find some common ground between them, or at the very least use them as jumping off points for conversation. In this inaugural episode, Ed brings Clifford, the notorious comedy in which Martin Short plays a 10-year old who terrorizes his uncle (played by a "never more vexed" Charles Grodin), and Emily brings Black Bear, the recent indie drama in which Aubrey Plaza goes to a cabin and...things happen. From there, they discuss films that are unafraid to alienate audiences, actors who look eerily similar, and how the pandemic has shaped the way they view movies. They also discuss the recent turmoil around the Golden Globes, and whether the world's least essential awards body can survive not being televised. 00:00:00 - 00:11:58 - Intro & News 00:11:59 - 00:45:08 - Emily & Ed discuss Clifford and Black Bear 00:45:09 - 00:49:35 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, Emily and Ed discuss the aftermath of the 2021 Academy Awards, and whether the all-time low ratings are indicative of a deeper crisis for cinema, or just a side effect of no one being able to go out and see movies for much of the last year. They also talk about Ed getting his second COVID vaccination, and the recent changes at Giant Bomb. 00:00:00 - 00:14:42 - Intro & News 00:14:43 - 00:44:48 - Emily & Ed discuss the Oscars 00:44:49 - 00:48:28 - SRS Recommends & Outro

As a result of losing an episode due to technical problems. Emily and Ed catch up on some of the news stories of the past few weeks, including Sony and Netflix signing a streaming exclusivity deal for the former's movies, Steven Spielberg making a small, personal movie, and the deaths of Anne Beatts, Nikki Grahame, Helen McCrory and DMX. - Episodes of Square Pegs can be found on YouTube, as recommends by Emily - Here is the New York Times article on Aphex Twin's "Avril 14th", as recommended by Ed

After a few weeks away, Emily and Ed catch up on some of the big news stories from the film world, including the deaths of George Segal, Jessica Walter, and Larry McMurtry; Netflix paying a huge amount of money for two Knives Out sequels; and Disney putting some of their big forthcoming movies onto Disney+.

Emily and Ed discuss Can't Get You Out of My Head, the latest film from Adam Curtis, as well as films by directors who tackle incredibly personal subject matter through the documentary form. They also talk about this year's kind of okay slate of Oscar nominees. 00:00:00 - 00:23:49 - Intro & News 00:24:00 - 00:58:48 - Emily & Ed discuss Personal Documentaries 00:58:49 - 01:02:19 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Emily and Ed accidentally do an all-news episode, as they cover the Golden Globes, Edie Falco playing Hillary Clinton, NFTs, and more.

HBO's Six Feet Under turns 20 years old this year, which is just the sort of flimsy justification Emily and Ed need to talk about it. They discuss the show's ability to tackle grief in a way that was both funny and cathartic, its use of magical realism, how well it fleshed out its entire ensemble, and of course, the finale. (So there are some spoilers dotted throughout.) 00:00:00 - 00:20:23 - Intro & News 00:20:24 - 01:05:28 - Emily & Ed discuss Six Feet Under 01:05:29 - 01:08:29 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, inspired by the discussion around Netflix's Malcolm and Marie, Emily and Ed discuss nepotism in film and television, and the tension that comes from loving an artist while knowing that they enjoyed considerable advantages from being the child of powerful or influential figures in the entertainment industry. 00:00:00 - 00:21:40 - Intro & News 00:21:41 - 00:50:06 - Emily & Ed discuss nepotism in film and TV 00:50:07 - 00:54:52 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, Emily and Ed discuss the filmmakers and actors who they will always have time for, and will seek out the work of even if their work declines in quality or they fall out of favour. 00:00:00 - 00:22:14 - Intro & News 00:22:15 - 00:50:58 - Emily & Ed discuss the artists they'll happily give a free pass to 00:50:59 - 00:56:12 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, inspired by Patrick H. Willems' video essay about Kevin Smith, Emily and Ed discuss the filmmakers who made a big impact on them when they first started getting into films, and who introduced them to stories, genres and forms that they otherwise might not have experienced. 00:00:00 - 00:16:18 - Intro & News 00:16:19 - 00:51:38 - Emily & Ed discuss their gateway filmmakers 00:51:39 - 00:55:42 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, Emily and Ed discuss some of their cinematic blind spots, as well as the shortcomings of streaming services when it comes to discovering new or unexpected movies. 00:00:00 - 00:13:32 - Intro & News 00:13:33 - 00:45:07 - Emily & Ed discuss blind spots 00:45:08 - 00:51:28 - SRS Recommends & Outro

It's Emily's birthday this week, which means she gets to pick the topic. That topic: the legacy of Brokeback Mountain, which came out just over 15 years ago, as well as author E. Annie Proulx's recent comments about the fan fiction giving Ennis and Jack a happy ending. 00:00:00 - 00:09:40 - Intro & News 00:09:41 - 00:43:44 - Emily & Ed discuss Brokeback Mountain at 15 00:43:45 - 00:48:43 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links Tom Little on Twitter, as recommended by Emily

This week, Emily and Ed discuss their top ten films, TV shows, podcast etc. from 2020, as well as the release of Wonder Woman 1984, and the deaths of MF DOOM and Joan Micklin Silver. Note: This episode was recorded before there was an attempted coup at the US Capitol, which explains why the intro is cheery and all about how things have been pretty quiet. 00:00:00 - 00:24:33 - Intro & News 00:24:24 - 01:47:04 - Emily & Ed discuss their best of the 2020 01:47:05 - 01:48:23 - Outro

For the last episode of 2020, Emily and Ed talk about the culture that helped them deal with this somewhat trying year. 00:00:00 - 00:24:20 - Intro & News 00:24:21 - 00:54:03 - Emily & Ed discuss the art that got them through 2020 00:54:04 - 00:58:45 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, Emily and Ed discuss the recent news that WarnerMedia will be putting all of their 2021 theatrical releases - including major prospective blockbusters like Dune, The Matrix 4 and Kong vs. Godzilla - onto their HBOMax streaming platform on the same day they will hit theatres. 00:00:00 - 00:22:54 - Intro & News 00:22:55 - 00:44:05 - Emily & Ed discuss WarnerMedia's decision to put all their movies on HBOMax 00:44:06 - 00:48:03 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links - The Bandcamp page for Shelley Byron & The Poison Sleep, as recommended by Emily

This week, Emily and Ed discuss the trailer for Sia's forthcoming film/album Music, the criticism of the trailer and Sia's response to the criticism, and then talk about how the project fits into the broader problems with depicting autism in media. 00:00:00 - 00:15:06 - Intro & News 00:15:07 - 00:43:40 - Emily & Ed discuss autism in film and TV 00:43:41 - 00:48:05 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week, Emily and Ed discuss the aesthetics, themes and tropes of autumnal movies, and ask if movies can be autumnal regardless of when they are actually set so long as they have the right knitwear. 00:00:00 - 00:18:52 - Intro & News 00:18:53 - 00:44:50 - Emily & Ed discuss Autumnal Movies 00:44:51 - 00:47:54 - SRS Recommends & Outro

This week finds Emily and Ed discussing filmmakers who repeatedly work with the same groups of collaborators, and the ways in which working together numerous times can provide a comfort and safety for a filmmaker, or challenge them to keep trying new things. They also discuss the seismic news that Emily in Paris will be returning for another season. 00:00:00 - 00:15:14 - Intro & News 00:15:15 - 00:48:33 - Emily & Ed discuss frequent collaborators 00:48:34 - 00:54:01 - SRS Recommends & Outro Links - You can check out Emily's new podcast The Mother of All Losses here

As the 2020 Presidential election finally(?) grinds to an end, Emily and Ed discuss the pop culture detritus surrounding the election, what works of art they think really captured the absurdity of the Trump era, and elections in film more generally. They also pay tribute to John Sessions and Alex Trebek. 00:00:00 - 00:27:28 - Intro & News 00:27:29 - 01:00:01 - Emily & Ed discuss elections in pop culture 01:00:02 - 01:05:13 - SRS Recommends & Outro