Episode 153: The Dash for Viv [Song of the Sea; Dear White People; Housebound]
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It’s Episode 153 of In the Mood for Podcast, a British-based film podcast hosted by Calum Reed of Ultimate Addict and Pete Sheppard of In the Mood for Blog.
This week we’re going full-blown indie, with reviews of Irish animated adventure “Song of the Sea,” and New Zealand-set horror comedy “Housebound,” while the racial politics of college-set satire “Dear White People” leave us with conflicted thoughts. We get off to an overwhelmingly positive start, as July’s instalment of the Red Light District features a Colombian festival hit and a Hammer Horror classic, and leads to digressions about the Best Actress Oscar race of 1963 and the richness of 2013’s world cinema. Elsewhere, there’s a competition which could see you win DVDs of a Bresson classic and a recently restored Ealing Studios pic, plus Pete brings up an interesting anecdote involving Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
The week’s news:
- The death of Omar Sharif
- The week’s birthdays
[4:10 – 12:04]
Red Light District: Our regular feature in which we discuss non-new releases we’ve seen from the past month, featuring discussion of “The Curse of Frankenstein,” “Heartbreaker,” “Hue and Cry,” “A Man Escaped,” “Manos Sucias,” “A Most Wanted Man,” and “Out of the Clouds”!
[12:05 – 30:20]
Preconception Corner
Reviews of:
- Dear White People 32:50 – 46:09
- Housebound 46:10 – 51:59
- Song of the Sea 52:00 – 1:01:23
Shag, Marry or Kill?
The Pootsition
The Garrett Gauge
Outro Music: The Smiths, “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”
Episode 123: The Folly of Ambition [Interstellar; Leviathan; Human Capital]
It’s Episode 123 of In the Mood for Podcast, a British-based film podcast hosted by Calum Reed of Ultimate Addict and Pete Sheppard of In the Mood for Blog.
This week we’re joined once again by Irini M., who brings us news from her home country’s Thessaloniki Film Festival in a notably more concise fashion than September’s Venice round-up. She also joins in our discussion of some interesting recent events, which includes some rare exciting news involving David O. Russell, and the bizarre spectrum of films vying for this year’s Animated Feature Oscar. We discuss two Foreign Language Oscar contenders, as Paolo Virzi’s “Human Capital” enlivens the middle-class misery of bourgeois Italy and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Leviathan” documents the coastal conflicts of rural Russia, before giving ambition a dressing down, as Christopher Nolan’s epic “Interstellar” comes to town. We reveal whether the cinematic influences used in the film are a blessing or curse, and whether Nolan’s scope and logic holds up under scrutiny. Elsewhere, we recount a horror show from Venice which saw Pete become a gay advocate, a mistaken text briefly convinced Cal that his niece was a child genius, while Keira Knightley’s recent quest to boost female self-image has us rather baffled.
- Darren Aronofsky to head the jury at next year’s Berlin Film Festival
- David O. Russell’s long-delayed “Nailed” re-titled as “Love in Politics” and scheduled for release in the UK
- Animated Feature Oscar qualifying list is announced
- European Film Award nominations are announced
[3:05 – 20:55]
[21:00 – 34:45]
Reviews of:
- Leviathan
- Human Capital
[43:25 – 1:01:30]
Closing Segment: Our take on Christopher Nolan’s space-set epic “Interstellar,” and discussing cine-literate films, with comment on “Allegro,” “Kill Bill,” and “Once Upon a Time in the West”!
[1:01:35 – 1:28:40]
The Isaac Range
Outro Music: Adam and the Ants, “Prince Charming”
In the Mood for Podcast 
