Broad Appeal

[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 head

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

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. T

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).

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).

It is said that every Irish person remembers where they were when crusading journalist Veronica Guerin was killed. But when the Cate Blanchett movie about Veronica was released, it seems that not enough people remembered to go to the cinema… Despite being a Jerry Bruckheimer/Joel Schumacher Hollywood production, the film has some estimable Irish credentials: authentic Dublin locations, an impeccable accent from Cate… and Brenda feckin’ Fricker as her Mam!!! Not so much a “bad” movie as a horribly worthy one, it does feature small pleasures like Colin Farrell’s sexy neck tattoos and Cate’s Princess Diana hairdo. Brian learned a lot about the Irish underworld, but Seán still can’t get the maudlin sounds of “Fields of Athenry” out of his ears. Saint Veronica, pray for us!! Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

Category is: Greatest Living Actress. For all the Meryls, Juliannes and Sally Kirklands, there's another whose name gets on that list. She's Galadriel, she's Carol Aird, heck she's even Bob Dylan! She's Cate Blanchett. Brian is a sucker for a plummy mid-Atlantic accent. Seán is hesitant. Or is he? He really can't remember, either way he saw the CHARLOTTE GREY trailer way too many times. In her breakthrough role as Queen Elizabeth Numero Uno, Blanchett has notes of Streep, a hint of G. Jackson and that certain mouthfeel of a full-bodied Aussie that only an Antipodean lends to a legendary Anglo Saxon. ELIZABETH is not subtle, but it gets you drunk, perks you up and makes you feel a little sexy. And isn't that all you want in a Shiraz and an Actress? Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

Crazy has many meanings, and in SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY it’s what young wife Laura (Julia Roberts) discovers her husband to be when he obsesses over the arrangement of hand towels or the alignment of canned goods. But hubby Martin (Patrick Bergen) is more than just slightly OCD: he’s a violent psychopath and Julia must fake her own death to escape him. In her first big starring role after her breakout success, Julia is a woman in jeopardy - putting on aliases, wigs and even a fake mustache all in hopes of starting a new life in Smalltown, USA. At the centre of the the implausibly schematic scenario, a very youngJulia dampens her usual brightness to play a woman traumatized by fear - but learning to fight back. Drink your V8, Shelby! Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

When the 21st century bourgeoisie are lined up along the barricades and made to pay for their crimes, Julia, Ryan Murphy and (most of all) Elizabeth Gilbert better hope that our proletarian overlords are feeling particularly generous. EAT PRAY LOVE was a pre-credit crunch piece of best-selling self-help travel porn that had the misfortune to be made into a film once the world had gone tits up. You know you’re in trouble when even America’s Sweetheart struggles to make a protagonist remotely relatable. Julia slurps spaghetti, mouths mantras, and basks in Bali, all to… find herself? Get over a divorce? Fulfill an insanely generous book deal? No one knows and no one cares - except Seán who has found the latest entry to round out his syllabus for The Cinema of Repugnance. This execrable oddity just barely avoids torpedoing the goodwill Julia has accrued over all those years. But as they say, “If you don’t accept me at my bougie-est, you don’t deserve me at my Brokovich!!” Clips from the film presented accordin

Science has proven that Julia Roberts’s smile shows more teeth than any other human’s (except possibly Brian’s). Is this the key to her movie star longevity? Quite possibly they got her her start. But something more must have kept this woman in our hearts for so many years. NOTTING HILL attempts to answer this question and many more. An awkward Brit bookshop-owner (Hugh Grant) is unexpectedly snogged by a movie star who seems very much like Julia Roberts (Julia Roberts). What follows is the most self-consciously meta romantic comedy of all time in which one movie star plays herself and the other pretends not to be.a movie star. Julia/Anna may be just a girl standing in front of a boy, and this may be just another formulaic Richard Curtis joint, but there’s enough commentary on stardom here to fuel a dozen monographs by Richard Dyer. Grin and bear it! Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

What do you get when you combine ultra violence, a political metaphor and a kick-ass heroine? The answer? A Seán Film. Also known as STRANGE DAYS, from the mind of visionary director Kathryn Bigelow and bonkers ex-hubby James Cameron. The year is 1999. People are scared. They're jacking in to a weird bootleg neuro-hardware called SQUID. And like the internet, it begins as a bit of fun, then becomes porno and ends up as a toxic, racist, hate-dump. Only (sexy!) Ralph Fiennes and a kung-fu kicking limo driver mom (who was also once a waitress?) known as Angela Bassett can save us all from getting totally fucked up! In the midst of it all, a flawed but fascinating commentary emerges (dreamed up by two white millionaires) about the institutional violence of the LAPD in a post-Rodney King world. STRANGE DAYS is a miasma of brutality and brilliance, excess and truth. Angela saves not only the movie, but our future. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF

Sometimes the worst films make some of the best conversations, and boy, did Brian loathe VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN.  We can spread the blame around: Eddie Murphy's ego, the insistent racial stereotyping (of African-Americans AND Italians!), the half-dozen writers who couldn’t decide on a tone, or even usual maestro of horror Wes Craven who was clearly having an off-day. In fact, the only person not culpable is Angela Bassett, once again showing full commitment when battling the ludicrous and the undead. Listen to Seán explain vampire arcana to Brian, who seems misguidedly to be looking for plot consistency in a mid-90s horror comedy. The stress of the undertaking is so high that our hosts find themselves corpsing in ways that would typically be left on the cutting room floor. P.S. Eddie Murphy is a jerk. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

There are few actresses who have the level of commitment and intensity of Angela Bassett - both for every role she's in, as well as to that hunky husband of hers. And while Auntie Angela may be giving regal fish and smashing box office records everywhere in Black Panther, there is a whole lotta history to this woman's career. In 1995, following her iconic breakthrough as Tina Turner, it was #1 box office hit WAITING TO EXHALE that positioned Miss B. as a woman to be reckoned with. This film that launched a thousand .gifs is not unlike the kind of “women’s picture” like Joan Crawford used to make: Angela journeys to a place of strength, Loretta Devine is homely, Lela Rochon is horny, and Whitney, well poor Whitney is a TV anchor or something? Ready? Breathe...and exhale (shoop shoop)

How much would you pay for a blowjob? Somewhere in excess of $500? No? Well, wait till you hear who's giving them... NUTS is a film that could also just be called BAD, in which suspension of disbelief only takes you so far. Good luck believing that Barbra Streisand is a prostitute, that she is potentially mentally incompetent or even that the walls of the courtroom are not made of cardboard. While Seán and Brian may have little praise for the film, it doesn't mean they don't have A LOT to say. Barbra is Claudia Draper, a working girl caught up in a messy situation. After decapitating Leslie Nielsen, she is forced to fight for her right to stand trial. I mean, okay? Barbra thinks this is a searing look at the criminal justice system, while we think this film is truly criminal. You'll probably never see it, but you'd be NUTS not to listen to this podcast. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).

She kept her clothes and kept her space. She kept her nose to spite her face! Who else could it be but BARBRA? Simply, Barbra. Long before she was in the business of cloning domestic mammals, Barbra Streisand was an ACTRESS. And in today's unequivocally good film, THE WAY WE WERE, Babs sparkles as Katie Morosky: The earnest agitprop campus leftie who has eyes for hunky blonde, Hubbell Gardner, the only WASP known to make sweet, sweet honey. Charting the romance of two ideologically incompatible love-birds, THE WAY WE WERE is the second greatest communist romance (after REDS, of course) and leaves Seán and Brian both in love with Ms. Streisand and in sticky lust with Robert Redford. Barbra couldn’t do any wrong after this, could she? Would she? Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).