Required Reading: A Film Podcast

Eight months to the day we popped out our last podbaby, Required Reading re-returns with a new sense of purpose and a more hopeful outlook. Until February, anyway, when it’ll probably all come crashing down again. So let’s ride this wave of optimism while it lasts and transport ourselves to that cheeriest of places, mid-80s communist Czechoslovakia! No seriously; My Sweet Little Village, from the late, Academy Award-winning director Jiří Menzel is a delightful peek at the lives of a close-knit community in a rural hamlet. Make sure to watch this Oscar-nominated treat on Prime Video before listening in to Alex and Dan’s spoiler-filled reactions. Oh, and bone up on your cinematic canines while you’re at it because there will be a quiz.

It’s the (presumably) long-awaited return of our ‘Blind Spot’ special! As avid listeners might remember, no sooner did Dan choose the Bobby De Niro and Charles Grodin-starring action-comedy Midnight Run almost two years ago, did it mysteriously vanish from VoD. We are men of our word, however, and its eventual resurfacing on Netflix meant that we were duty bound to make good on our promise. Episode 19, then, is the Episode 10 that never was. But, like Jack Walsh’s protracted attempt to bring The Duke to LA, was it worth the effort? Our Mid-Discussion Quiz is back by unpopular demand, and we have a bunch of new telly recommendations, including Joe Pera Talks with You and Stephen King adaptation The Outsider. Double spoiler warning on this episode, as we have a bonus chat about The Mandalorian towards the episode’s close. Why now? Because Alex is the only person in the UK to have waited to watch it legally.

How frustrating that, as the days grow longer and warmer, we’re unable to get together with our friends and loved ones to truly enjoy the great outdoors. So, thoughtful podcast that we are, we decided to pick a film that brings those communal sun ‘n’ fun vibes indoors. Ah, Midsommar, a welcome dose of cinematic sunshine during one of our darkest hours. We maintain the chipper spirit with our other recommendations, including Alex Garland’s new iPlayer/FX series Devs, and Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts, a documentary about the popular RuPaul's Drag Race alumnus. But it’s not all happy, as Alex lowers the mood with a rare warning for what appeared to be a promising TV prospect, and Dan somehow manages to bring up Madeleine McCann. Other than that, though, it’s rainbows all round, so get ready to don your flower crowns and let your ears dance freely around our aural maypole.

In an exciting RR:AFP first, we’ve got a contribution from someone who actually starred in the film we’re discussing. Gosh. That film, as if the episode title and giant image didn’t already give away, is Jonathan Glazer’s genre-muddling Under The Skin, which sees Scarlett Johansson (with a hard ‘J’) sailing far beyond her--and our--comfort zone. It’s a film both Alex and Dan have been putting off viewing for some years, so is it a case of delayed gratification, or do we wish we’d left it to fester in inky black space tar? As ever, there’s an MDQ (what the kids aren’t calling our Mid-Discussion Quiz these days) all about cinematic aliens. If you think you know your Dracs from your Tets, why not see if you can beat Dan’s score?

Alison Brie’s screenwriting debut Horse Girl marks her second collaboration with director (and co-writer) Jeff Baena. Initially positioned as the typical quirky indie fare you’d expect from the Sundance Film Festival--where it made its debut--the film soon takes an unexpected turn down a darker alley, exploring the devastating effects of paranoid schizophrenia (or is it?, etc.) from its protagonist’s increasingly fractured perspective. Does this Netflix Original clear the fence, or is it due a visit to the glue factory? Alex and Dan are of course on hand to deliver their insights, ably assisted by our ever-growing, always eloquent group of Readers, although somehow - somehow! - we completely forget to mention the excellently observed show-within-a-film Purgatory. For shame. Please accept a mid-discussion quiz on actors with foody-drinky names (none of whom are called Geoff Beef) by way of atonement.

PTA reunites with DDL for a film as delicately, intricately and beautifully woven as its protagonist’s highly desirable couture dresses. Phantom Thread is a tale of twisted love, precarious power dynamics, Oedipal grief, all-consuming perfectionism, and excessive breakfast orders, where the devil is most certainly in the detail. If you give even the slightest tinker’s-fucking-curse as to what we—and our listeners--thought of this most curious film, listen on, dear Reader.

Welcome to the latest episode of Required Reading: A Film Podcast! Episode 14 sees Alex and Dan return to a director(s) for the first time ever on the podcast to cover the Safdie brothers’ latest – UNCUT GEMS. We both gave their last film (Good Time - 2017) the coveted ‘McCartney’ meaning two thumbs up. Will lightning strike twice? Listen as we discuss anxiety filmmaking, bejewelled furbies, colonoscopies and John Travolta’s attempt at pronouncing Idina Menzel. Let us know what you thought of the episode and perhaps suggest films from Netflix or Amazon video prime we could cover in the future by tweeting us @alxalxalx and @MrPointyHead  

Armed with a newfound sense of vigour and purpose, we storm into 2020 with the first Required Reading for over a year. Let’s not dwell on the reasons for our absence and instead celebrate the fact that one our greatest living directors has reunited with some our greatest living actors to add tremendous weight to the argument for streaming services being a legitimate platform for fantastic films. The Irishman, ironically, marks the start of a new era for RR with what’s very much an end-of-an-era epic. Based on the non-fiction work I Heard You Paint Houses, it follows the life of mob hitman Frank Sheeran, widely thought to be the man responsible for Jimmy Hoffa’s demise (although you can’t prove nuthin’, ya hear me?). Did the latest, possibly final Scorsese/De Niro pairing earn the highest RR accolade, the incredibly prestigious McCartney? Only one way to find out. Also: Dan’s first ever quiz and more VoD recommendations than is really necessary.