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Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 64: The Rise of Catherine the Great, Produced by Alexander KordaWe return to the depression era to watch the rise of a delightful, curly-haired naif who charms everyone — the help, the military, and her cynical, wealthy new family. No, we’re not doing John Huston’s noted biopic Annie, we’re doing 1935’s The Rise of Catherine the Great.
We explore the many, many links back to the godfather of international cinema Alexander Korda, lavender marriages, Peter the Great’s descendant Peter the Meh, OG nepo baby Douglas Fairbanks Jr., German expressionism, and so much more as we watch this very, very, very old movie.
The Rise of C...2025-07-2959 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 62: Florence Foster Jenkins, Starring Meryl Streep as the World's Worst Opera SingerWhen do shenanigans cross the line into elder abuse? That’s the hotly debated issue at the heart of our vastly different experiences watching 2016’s Florence Foster Jenkins, directed by Stephen Frears and starring the legendary Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins, a syphilis-suffering patron of the arts and absolutely beyond-the-pale terrible singer.
Who is this movie for, exactly?
Come for the charming(?) Hugh Grant’s tireless work in creating a scaffolding of lies, delusion, and gaslighting to make Florence feel good about her talents as she spends the last year of her life preparing for a...2025-07-221h 09Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 63: Alexander, The Oliver Stone Alexander the Great Movie from 2004This week, we’re back with our old pal Oliver Stone for his 2004 biopic of the world-conquering bisexual Alexander the Great, aptly titled Alexander.
We welcome Colin Farrell to the show, and rejoin one of our favorites, the late great Val Kilmer, and our not-so-favorites Angelina Jolie and Jared Leto, for this sometimes brilliant, often literal film of a decade-long cultural appropriation-and-violence-filled rumspringa, a magical horse named Bucephalus, a mother with an Olive Garden accent and an obsession with snakes, wigs on wigs on wigs, and talky talk talk about Zeus and Achilles.
Also covered: Germa...2025-07-151h 22Biopic: A Podcast StoryEmergency Episode 2: The Deliver Me From Nowhere Trailer, with Jeremy Allen White as Bruce SpringsteenFirst shots have been fired in the Oscarbation Wars of 2025 / 2026, and those shots are coming to you from Bruce Springsteen, in Brokendreamsville, New Jersey, in a biopic that will certainly cover territory that we’ve already seen many times this year in our emergency breakdown of the Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere trailer.
Will this movie have enough self-serious white men over-explaining the significance of the album Nebraska to satisfy Hollywood's annual quota of self-serious white men over-explaining things? Did the hotel room in which Bruce Springsteen recorded the album serve as a murder room for one of...2025-07-081h 01Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 61: Malcolm X with Guest Star, Filmmaker Brandon WilsonThis week, we welcome our special guest star, the very, very smart and insightful filmmaker, critic, and educator Brandon Wilson, to celebrate the 4th by dropping Malcolm X on Plymouth Rock.
Given [gestures around at everything], we wanted to celebrate the decaying, never-actually-real American Dream with Spike Lee’s revolutionary, game-changing magnum opus Malcolm X, which is, of course, about the revolutionary leader Malcolm X (and a lot of other things).
The original recording was almost 5 hours long, so we had to cut a lot of amazing convo since we’re two broads and not an idi...2025-07-012h 18Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 60: And the Band Played On, the Story of the Early Days of the AIDS CrisisIt’s been a minute since we’ve reminded our audience that Ronald Reagan is trash; there’s no better illustration of the hell he unleashed on America in one of our most mean-spirited decades by pretending that AIDS didn’t exist, or deriding it among his cabinet with giggle fits.
You know who’s not trash? The many scientists and activists who are featured in this groundbreaking 1993 TV movie, And the Band Played On, based on Randy Shilt’s groundbreaking nonfiction chronicle of the early days of the AIDS epidemic (except the Patient Zero business, and we’ll get to...2025-06-241h 03Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 59: I Shot Andy Warhol, Starring Lili Taylor as Failed Murderer Valerie SolanasGay Pride Month continues with 1996’s seminal I Shot Andy Warhol, Mary Harron’s feature debut, starring Lili Taylor as titular shooter and firebrand Valerie Solanas, and Jared Harris as titular shooting victim Andy Warhol.
We’re back in that wildly unimportant summer of 1968, and discussing what we call “the Stephen Dorff problem” (casting a decidedly super-hetero male as beautiful woman Candy Darling), the Velvet Underground tribute band “the Satin First Floors,” dinner theater, and stuff we loved when we were teenagers.
I Shot Andy Warhol was directed by Mary Harron and stars Lily Taylor as Valerie Sol...2025-06-171h 38Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 58: Battle of the Sexes, Starring Emma Stone as Tennis Legend Billie Jean KingRemember that time in 1973 when sexism was cured? Well, yeah, it didn’t work out because (**gestures around at everything**), but this unfairly overlooked movie nevertheless deserves your attention. The legendary match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs is commemorated in this utterly winsome, lovingly made 2017 biopic starring Emma Stone and Steve Carrell.
Battle of the Sexes details the utter triumph of one hard-working, pioneering feminist who has spent her entire professional life breaking down barriers for women as she takes down a possibly-Kayfabe-ing elder statesman and hustler, all while going on a journey of self-discovery ab...2025-06-101h 20Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 57: The Naked Civil Servant, Starring John Hurt as Quentin CrispWhat has four thumbs and loves John Hurt? This podcast. The Naked Civil Servant, a groundbreaking television movie from our friends in Great Britain, tells the powerful story of the wonderful Quentin Crisp—a man whose experience as a gay man spans the entire 20th century and is marked with trauma, challenges, arrests—and tremendous humor and humanity.
Topics include: The groundbreaking producer of this film, Verity Lambert; A from-the-afterlife Part II to “Fuck Tha Police” performed by QC, Harvey Milk, and Marsha P. Johnson; QC’s honest assessment of how he’d fare in the army—and our own; th...2025-06-0359 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 56: 24 Hour Party People with Guest Star, Music Writer Maggie SerotaUnsurprisingly, we had a great time discussing this raucous, genre-bending biopic that documents the madcap experiences of one Tony Wilson as he founds Factory Records and brings the world Joy Division, New Order, the Happy Mondays, the Hacienda nightclub, rave culture, and so much more.
With our lovely and knowledgeable guest, music journalist Maggie Serota (@maggieserota.bsky.social), we discuss: how irritating is Steve Coogan? Does methadone lose efficacy when licked off the floor of Heathrow? Do the Happy Mondays have a viable case to sue Oasis for stealing their identities? Is the job of drug dealer/marac...2025-05-271h 20Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 55: The President’s Last Bang with Guest Star, Cartoonist Ryan EstradaGet ready for some of the lowest functioning addicts in the history of high-powered alcoholism.
Sara and Rena are joined by the amazing cartoonist and South Korea expert Ryan Estrada, who schools us up on the astonishingly dysfunctional and corrupt administration of South Korean president Park Chung-hee, who was assassinated by his own men in 1979 as part of a ill-thought-out coup.
We discuss the uniquely political South Korean filmmaking scene, our K-Pop overlords, what you see at the most depressing dinner parties, and our delight at this gem of a film.
The President’s...2025-05-201h 19Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 54: Seberg, Starring Kristen Stewart as Jean SebergDo NOT get us started on J. Edgar Hoover. The tragic life of actress Jean Seberg as seen through the lens of her entanglement with the FBI’s ugly COINTELPRO operations, Seberg is a pretty devastating portrait of a fragile, idealistic woman who is taken advantage of by everyone until she is driven to madness and blacklisted.
It’s not as if this has ever happened before or since.
Join us as we discuss the value of Captain America comments, metaphorical heaviness, the efficacy of bringing a gun into an audition for Paint Your Wagon, the...2025-05-131h 03Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 53: Better Man, the Biopic Where Britpop Star Robbie Williams is Played by a CGI ChimpRena’s on vacation so Sara is joined by her dear friend and 1990s/early 2000s britpop expert Alex to attempt to unpack the Robbie Williams “biopic” that, instead of starring a man who looks like Robbie Williams, features a CGI Chimp with Robbie Williams’s voice standing in for him in an otherwise typical musical biopic that features disappointed parents, drugs and alcohol, dysfunctional relationships, and splashy dance montages.
The central conceit of the movie is pretty impressed with itself, but who is this for? We don’t really know, nor do we know why the Australian...2025-05-061h 34Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 52: What’s Love Got to Do With It with Katy from the Queens PodcastAll hail Queen Tina (and while we’re at it, Queen Angela Bassett). We take a look at the story of the singular Tina Turner as told through the 1993 biopic of her marriage to garbage monster Ike Turner with our very special guest Katy, co-host of the always entertaining Queens Podcast.
We discuss what love has to do with it (spoiler: nothing, it’s coercive control), wigs, the #notallmen employees of the Ramada Inn, the weird journey of the traumatizing moment of “Eat the cake, Anna Mae,” and Tina Turner’s otherwise joy-filled life as an unparalleled superstar. ...2025-04-291h 20Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 51: Coco Avant Chanel with Fashion Writer Roxanne RobinsonSara and Rena welcome the brilliant fashion journalist Roxanne Robinson for the 2009 film Coco Avant Chanel (that means “Before” for anyone who hasn’t been using their 2025 existential crisis to re-learn French on Duolingo). By being “before” Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel became an icon, we can skip over the grossness of Coco’s who Nazi thing, and focus instead on the ambitious, very talented designer who wanted women to be free, comfortable, independent, and chic.
(And would go on to collaborate with the Nazis).
Coco Avant Chanel is directed by Anne Fontaine, and stars Audrey Tautou as Coco Chanel, Be...2025-04-221h 47Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 50: The Alamo, Starring John Wayne as Davy CrockettThe most meaningless standoff in American history is commemorated in a manner it deserves: a speechifying hagiography that’s actually about the political beliefs of its star and director, John Wayne. Davy Crockett (the awesomest dude who ever lived, according to this film), Jim Bowie (the second awesomest dude who ever lived) and William Travis (just kind of an okay dude) join forces to protect a fort (that has a basement, BTW) for “the republic.” Or, as history has revealed, for the republic to allow people to own slaves. Awkward details that make it all less heroic, so the movie...2025-04-081h 27Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 49: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Starring John C. ReillyRena and Sara dive into this unflinching look at the life and times of the singular Dewey Cox, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
We discuss: What if Nate Cox had survived? Why didn’t Don MacLean include Dewey in “American Pie”? How important are blankets in recovery from addiction? Is twelve too young to get married? What is the “Short Power” movement, anyway? … And so much more as we unpack Jake Kasdan’s seminal vision and John C. Reilly’s powerful performance.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is directed by Jake Kasdan and...2025-04-0153 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 48: The Agony and the Ecstasy, Guest Starring Fry and Bry from PontifactsHave you ever wanted to watch a movie about paint drying? You’re in luck. Sara and Rena are joined by Fry and Bry from Pontifacts to discuss the “will he or won’t he” tale of Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel starring the NRA’s Charlton Heston and alleged murder and confirmed monster Rex Harrison as Michelangelo and Pope Julius II, respectively.
And that’s it. That’s the plot. Will he finish the painting?
We discuss why the movie opens with a 15-minute long art lecture, warrior popes, Charlton Heston’s bummer political jo...2025-03-251h 34Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 47: Star 80, Bob Fosse's Last Movie and the Story of Dorothy StrattenIt’s a special week of watching Sara’s absolute favorite biopic, Bob Fosse’s masterpiece Star 80 (Note: All Fosse movies are masterpieces). Star 80 tells the story of Dorothy Stratten, a lovely young woman who would become Playboy’s Playmate of the Year in 1980 and had a massive future ahead of her, and how Paul Snider, her despicable partner, murdered her in a jealous rage spiral. Toxic masculinity, our society’s obsession with young, beautiful women, and the entertainment industry meat-grinder are all on display in this ahead-of-its-time film that features astonishing performances from Eric Roberts, Mariel Hemingway, and Carroll Ba...2025-03-181h 37Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 46: Walk the Line, Starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny CashIt’s the movie that, along with Ray, spawned a hundred other movies that follow this precise template, Walk the Line. James Mangold’s film about the addict-y and self-destructive parts of Johnny Cash’s life has earned some mockery over the years for its one-way ticket to Clichéistan, but is that criticism warranted? Well…sometimes.
We discuss the unbelievable charm of Reese Witherspoon, how James Mangold engages in the most stunning act of self-plagiarism since 1985’s Fogarty vs. Fantasy, Inc., Johnny Cash’s hobgobblin-ishness as compared to annoying addict-rock star Jim Morrison, what happens to you when you b...2025-03-111h 23Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 45: Lisztomania with Special Guest Elana Levin from the Graphic Policy PodcastHappy birthday to Rena and Roger Daltrey! We’re delighted to be joined by the brilliant Elana Levin from the Graphic Policy podcast (https://graphicpolicy.com/radio/, on Bluesky @Levin) for the completely bananas, wildly original Lisztomania, Ken Russell’s 1970s musical biopic on the first rock star, Franz Lizst.
In this super-sized episode, we’re talking about birthday boy Roger Daltrey, a Roger Daltrey voodoo doll, phallus-laden musical numbers, Ringo Starr as the pope, neglected children, a room filled with butt sconces, a gold-dipped Frankenstein, a Richard Wagner-Hitler-vampire hybrid, a gorgeous score by prog rock el divo Ri...2025-03-042h 01Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 44: Shirley, Starring Regina King as Shirley Chisholm!We buckle up for the inspiring but also totally depressing story of Shirley Chisolm, the fearless Brooklynite who became the first major-party female candidate for President. Shirley is inspiring because she has class, style, incredible smarts, and is a preternaturally gifted politician. Shirley totally bummed us out because [gestures around at the trash-fire trainwreck that is 2025, and Americans’ racism and misogyny and how they got us to said trash-fire trainwreck]. Outside of the lamentable place in time in which we exist, we are nevertheless inspired by Shirley Chisholm, the trails she blazed, and the spaces she made at the ta...2025-02-251h 05Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 43: Straight Outta Compton, the Story of N.W.A.Responsible for this podcast’s existence and our term “Eazy-E Crying,” Straight Outta Compton is a straight-up delight — a biopic about the seminal rap group NWA whose excellence defies “and-then-i-ness,” that gets inside the joy of the creative process and manages to do non-cloying fan service. While the film is not without flaws (glossing over some pretty intense misogyny and some pretty serious abuse allegations), it’s pretty great.
Between unpacking a set of star-making performances and outstanding direction, we discuss whether an under-the-influence-of-Ambien Tipper Gore is writing all of the film’s negative reviews on IMDB, why you should ne...2025-02-181h 27Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 42: 42, Starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie RobinsonDescription: Black History Month continues, and numerical kismet isn’t the only thing we love this week: We LOVE 42, the 2013 biopic about Jackie Robinson’s first year as the first Black Major League Baseball player. The late, great Chadwick Boseman is, of course, brilliant, but so is Harrison Ford as sportsball manager Branch Rickey, a man committed to desegregating MLB. Which, spoiler alert, is what happens as Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers and changes the game forever.
There are roadblocks, mainly a number of white men whose use of the n-word is, shall we say, Quentin Tara...2025-02-111h 04Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 41: Harriet, Starring Cynthia Erivo as Harriet TubmanIt’s our first episode in Black History Month, and we’re starting with a bang – the story of one Harriet Tubman. Ms. Tubman is among the historical figures whose life most closely resembles that of a Marvel hero, so her moment was long overdue. But if you have to wait, at least you get the superlative talents, brilliance, and star power of one Cynthia Erivo playing Harriet.
While witnessing the unfathomable courage of Harriet Tubman, we consider issues like: how long should you wait to get remarried after your wife is presumed dead? Why are you here, J...2025-02-041h 06Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 40: A Complete Unknown, Starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan!How DOES it feel to be a total genius? It’s a burden for our dear friend Bob Dylan. A Complete Unknown is a big hit and is nominated for a billionty-five Academy Awards, so we went to the theaters to experience what might be the most sincere, prestige-y portrait of a ridiculously talented douchebag in the history of filmmaking.
Sara and Rena mostly love this, because of America’s high school English teacher Pete Seeger and his sincere embrace of the composting toilet, the brilliant, no-nonsense Joan Baez, the music, and the sensible but elegant direction and...2025-01-2859 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 39: Trumbo, Starring Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo!In honor of Sara’s natal day, we attempt to deconstruct her weird obsession with character actors as we enjoy this delightful film about the blacklist and one of its central heroes, Dalton Trumbo. Absent from the film are twin douchenozzles Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn, but present are douchenozzles like real-life blacklisting masturbator Louis CK and a bowdlerized version of nightmare gossip hack Louella Parsons (she was even worse IRL!).
Do we wrongly credit Kirk Douglas for breaking the blacklist when it should be Frank and Hymie King (ne Kozinsky) of The King Brothers Productions? Is Joh...2025-01-211h 05Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 38: Marie Antoinette with Special Guest Belle from Silhouettes: A Fashion History PodcastHow gorgeous is Sofia Coppola’s delicious, vibes-filled Marie Antoinette? So gorgeous that we brought on a special guest, Belle, the host of Silhouettes: The Fashion History Podcast, to discuss.
In addition to Belle’s deep expertise around the era, we discuss Kirsten Dunst’s perfection, the meta-level brilliance of Sofia’s cast (who better to play Louis XV than Rip Torn, a madcap actor with a secret family?), how Marie Antoinette created cottage-core, wigs, and the nightmarish ennui of the mid-aughts. Also, what is the appropriate way to correct the reproductive techniques of a king?
Marie A...2025-01-141h 20Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 37: Radioactive, Starring Rosamund Pike as Marie Curie!How do two astonishing gifted women—director Marjane Sartrapi and actor Rosamund Pike—make a movie together about 2x Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie and have it come out this boring? Start by combining masterful visual style with dull, on-the-nose words, and then add weird, apocryphal character quirks (Marie Curie is afraid of hospitals for … reasons) and stick the most interesting elements of the story in the epilogue cards (Marie and Einstein were friends—where’s this movie?).
When Rena and Sara are not postulating theories and formulating equations, they are discussing the merits of child performers with hair...2025-01-071h 01Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 36: Spartacus, the Movie that (Debatably) Broke the Blacklist!We all are Spartacus this week. Sara and Rena watch this astonishing epic that masterfully Trojan-horses a bunch of crazy messages about communism, righteousness, and self-sacrifice in a movie that pretends to be about toxic masculinity and oiled-up, 1950s-fit men gladiating.
Of course we love this movie: So much Peter Ustinov, so much Stanley Kubrick being forced to work within the rubric of the studio system, so much Dalton Trumbo getting to use his name after HUAC, so much Kirk Douglas with an anachronistic buzzcut that we don’t care about, so much Tony Curtis being the worl...2024-12-311h 34Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 35: Bohemian Rhapsody, Starring Rami Malek as Freddie MercuryPeople wanted this, so we did it, and one of us is WAY happier about it than the other. Is Bohemian Rhapsody an efficient, joyful look at the life and genius of Freddie Mercury and his fellow geniuses in Queen, or is it a Wikipedia-skimming, nightmarishly-edited, lie-filled romp through fan-service hell? Things we can agree on: Adam Lambert is unconvincing as a truck driver, Bob Geldof’s fame is mystifying, and Mike Myers should not have been allowed in this movie. Things we can’t agree on: the offensiveness of the false teeth worn by our film’s star, Rami M...2024-12-241h 50Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 34: Maria, with Maria Callas Biographer Sophia LambtonMaria is nominally about a profoundly gifted opera singer, but seems a bit more about how ponderous and remote character studies never fail to trap the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Two hours of visiting Paris (aka Budapest) as it would look if Jesus raptured the city and left behind only Satan and a few journalists, with some diversions to the shared cinematic universe of fellow sad gal Jackie Kennedy, left us exhausted.
Additionally, our brilliant guest, award-winning Callas biographer Sophia Lambton, points out that roughly four things in the movie are real:
There w...2024-12-171h 23Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 33: The Private Life of Henry VIII, Our First Tudor Movie!Why are we watching yet another movie about trashy royals, this one from 1933? Because this one’s pretty seminal: it introduced the world to auteur filmmaking pioneers Charles Laughton and director/producer Alexander Korda, and actresses Merle Oberon and Elsa Lanchester.
If you’ve seen the musical Six you know the story: Henry VIII has an easy time getting married, but finds it challenging to stay married. In this movie, we meet five of his six wives, and hijinks ensue.
Was Henry VIII actually attractive? Did Jamie Lee Curtis use Elsa Lanchester’s performance as inspira...2024-12-1055 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 32: Priscilla, the Priscilla Presley Biopic Directed by Sofia CoppolaRena and Sara venture into the much-documented world of Elvis Presley and the people who he trapped in his hunka-hunka-burning-emotional-tractor beam from a heretofore unconsidered POV: his wife, Priscilla Presley. Never has grooming a minor looked so glamorous.
While Sofia Coppola has undisputedly crafted another remote, beautiful piece of art and we loved many things, there are, of course, questions: should Elvis have just gone to college to go through his experimental drug-and-religion phase in relative privacy? How on earth did Priscilla manage to wrestle away control of Elvis’s estate from the Colonel? Was the mansion in...2024-12-0353 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 31: Tennessee Johnson, the Life of Our Terrible 17th President, Andrew JohnsonPresidential month continues apace as Sara and Rena watch Tennessee Johnson, a garbage movie that would be better titled Battle Cry of FreeDumb.
Outrage, the likes of which our microphones and households have never experienced, is on the menu this week as we bear witness to this trashfire hagiography about one of America’s worst presidents, the drunken, corrupt, racist monster Andrew Johnson, who was apparently named after preceding drunken, corrupt racist monster Andrew Jackson. This rightfully-forgotten 1942 motion picture asks the question, “Why do we have to be so mean to the South after the Civil War?”
...2024-11-2658 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 30: Amistad, Directed by Steven SpielbergApparently we watched this movie. Amistad is an unusually mediocre (for him, and only for him) and sort of forgettable Steven Spielberg movie about a captive mutiny against slave runners, John Quincy Adams, and the awkward game of hot-potato that was the pre-Civil War era U.S. government. Come for the uprising, stay for the utterly depressing and real depiction of the American legal system.
Some of the important questions that come up: What part of Philadelphia is the part where they say “y’all” and scissor-kick like LBJ? Is any actor more capable of creating a discom...2024-11-191h 00Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 29: All The Way, with Bryan Cranston as President Lyndon JohnsonPresidential biopic month continues with the 2016 television movie All the Way, about the blockbuster year of 1964 and Lyndon B. Johnson’s first (and only) year of presidential campaigning and his efforts to try to do nice things for all Americans by spearheading the War on Poverty and the Civil Rights Act.
We know how Americans love it when leaders try to do things to make America a better place for everyone, so everything goes great for Lyndon, Martin Luther King and SNCC as they work to destroy institutional inequality. Americans grew emotionally and intellectually over the one-hundred ye...2024-11-1259 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 28: Lincoln, Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham LincolnThis week we enter the world of Lincoln, an almost-perfect 2012 movie that features just about every “hey it’s that guy” brilliant character actor and one unforgettable, magical performance as honest Abe by Daniel Day-Lewis. We don’t have a lot to complain about outside of top hats, weird facial hair, and “states’ rights,” so we spend a lot of time praising the casual brilliance of Tony Kushner’s writing and some guy named Steven Spielberg who seems to be going places as a director.
No way around it: This movie is flawless.
Some other questions: How b...2024-11-051h 10Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 27: Ed Wood with Guest Star, Comedian Liam McEneany!Biopic’s all grown up and welcoming its very first guest, the brilliant comedian Liam McEneaney. Liam is also an Ed Wood expert (making all of Sara and Rena’s outstanding Wikipedia-based research less critical) his work has been praised by Gilbert Gottfried, and he’s released 2 comedy albums and has written for a variety of funny shows and comedians.
Outside of an opening jump scare featuring convicted felon Jeffrey Jones, Ed Wood is an unscary, delightful romp through the world of auteur Ed Wood’s not-amazing (or maybe amazing?) filmmaking and truly lovely self-acceptance. Tim Burton’s 1994 fil...2024-10-291h 17Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 26: Liz and Dick, with Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth TaylorIs it a movie if half of the scenes only have one line of dialogue? This and other philosophical issues about the art of filmmaking are considered as Rena and Sara reluctantly reenter the chaotic, tax-dodging world of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in 2012’s barely-a-movie Lifetime teleplay Liz and Dick.
Is there a world where Lindsay Lohan was on Ambien the entire time she was making this movie? Did Creed Bratton and David Eigenberg need credits for their SAG insurance eligibility, or did the director of this film help them bury a body? Where exactly is th...2024-10-221h 01Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 25: Ray, with Jamie Foxx as Ray CharlesIt’s time to dissect one of the reasons for this podcast’s existence: The Oscarbatory biopic of the life of one Ray Charles, as told by director and co-writer Taylor Hackford (aka Mr. Helen Mirren) and featuring a dynamite performance by Jamie Foxx.
Picture it: 2004, peak “I am going to imitate this famous person and I am going to get awards for it” filmmaking. Sara and Rena have a few problems with this movie, however: mainly that while the state of Georgia has committed, and continues to commit, countless sins, they never exactly banned and then asked fo...2024-10-151h 05Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 24: Saint Joan, with Jean Seberg as Joan of ArcRena and Sara find themselves in complete agreement on Saint Joan, the 1957 Otto Preminger adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan.
Find out about Rena’s secret passion for time traveling historical characters and learn more about Sara’s weird catholicism, along with the timeless visuals of a young woman being emotionally destroyed in a courtroom filled with men fighting over who gets to hurt her the worst.
Prepare yourself for wild 14th and 15th century history, including Henry VI’s “Loveday,” a solution better suited for siblings than warring countrymen, a brief look at Otto Premi...2024-10-0854 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 23: The Pride of the Yankees, with Gary Cooper as Lou GehrigOur 1+ hour journey into our oldest film yet, 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees, leads us to ask, who is history’s greatest monster? Probably Sara, for the giant tank of haterade she dumps all over this painfully “and-then” film featuring far-too-old actors that covers the life and times of the nevertheless honorable man and incredible athlete Lou Gehrig.
We discuss Lou Gehrig’s miraculous birth to elderly parents, his hip-breaking fist-fights with the beloved fraternity Alpha Alpha AARP, Walter Brennan’s role as a third party in Lou Gehrig’s marriage, and whether there’s anything more upsetting th...2024-10-011h 06Biopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 11: Gandhi and The DuchessHooray! We have a bonus episode: our 11th edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time, and/or because we were digressive or repetitive.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs. We jump around in a senseless, context-deprived manner, and you should definitely skip this episode and download any normal episode from “Episode 10: Cobb” onwards if this is your first time listening.
Includes material cut from:
Episode 21: Gandhi
Episode 22: The Duchess
Highlights include:
Blade Runner Rutger Hauer monologue appreciation.
More...2024-09-2743 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 22: The Duchess, Starring Keira Knightley as Georgiana, Duchess of DevonshireFinally, a proper costume drama! We are surprised that it took this long. In the 2008 film The Duchess, we travel to the days where it really sucked to be a woman (as opposed to every other time in history) and meet the captivating, delightful, ahead-of-her-time Duchess of Devonshire, her dull-as-dishwater, dog-obsessed husband, and her “he looks like a member of Oasis” partner in cuckolding.
Despite the hangovers of Cleopatra and Gandhi, Rena and Sara actually want this tidy, 1 hour, 50 minute film to be longer as they discuss the positives and negatives of gambling addiction, rotten boroughs as a me...2024-09-241h 10Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 21: Gandhi, the Biopic that Won Best Picture Instead of E.T.Remember that time we pretended that Blade Runner, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The King of Comedy, ET, and Rocky III were inferior to the movie Gandhi? The 1980s were fun.
Rena and Sara take a journey back to their teen years to re-watch this beloved teaching aid for high school history instructors and it was … not fun. Gandhi remains a bloodless but well-executed hagiography that also happens to be beautifully shot and eighty-nine hours long. So many train rides and speeches and marches and beatific jailings, so much clothing-weaving and platitude sharing. Oh, and dust. Plentiful du...2024-09-171h 12Biopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 10: 50+ Minutes of Us Trashing ReaganWe recorded around three hours of material for “Episode 20: Reagan” back in August of 2024. That movie was torture to endure and we wound up cutting about half of what we recorded. We assert that the right to free assembly allows us, the much-loathed coastal media types, the right to seek hope, comfort, and the mutual salving of wounds among the like-minded. So, this bonus episode is not for everybody. If you are broken-hearted about the horrible thing that happened in Washington, DC on Monday, January 20 of 2025, and you would rather not be told “F— your feelings, pronoun person,” here is nearly...2024-09-1556 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 9: And Starring Pancho Villa as HimselfHooray! We have a bonus episode: our ninth edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs. We jump around in a senseless, context-deprived manner, and you should definitely skip this episode and download any normal episode from “Episode 10: Cobb” onwards if this is your first time listening.
This bonus episode consists of material cut from Episode 19: And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself. Subjects include:
Non-lucrative possibilities for the publishing industry.
The Lost Cause sucks and...2024-09-1228 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 19: And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, Starring Antonio Banderas as the Eponymous Mexican RevolutionaryThe fascinating topic of Pancho Villa’s savvy engagement of the film industry to prop up the Mexican Revolution is made somewhat less fascinating with this sometimes jaunty and crackling, sometimes bummer-ific 2003 HBO film And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself. Why must we have two Blandy McBlanderson tubs of vanilla ice cream as our way into this story? Why does one of them have to be the condescending communist and future episode subject John Reed? Why can’t this movie have more Alan Arkin? Is it possible to make Antonio Banderas unattractive?
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himse...2024-09-1052 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 8: Get on Up! and GottiHooray! We have a bonus episode: our eighth edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs. We jump around in a senseless, context-deprived manner, and you should definitely skip this episode and download any normal episode from “Episode 10: Cobb” onwards if this is your first time listening.
Includes material cut from:
Episode 17: Get on Up!
Episode 18: Gotti
Highlights include:
Sara is surprised to learn that Dan Ackyroyd’s eyes don’t match.
A discus...2024-09-0931 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 7: Cleopatra and Get on Up!Hooray! We have a bonus episode: our seventh edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time. If this is your first time listening to us, we recommend that you listen to one of our regular episodes instead.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs.
Includes material cut from:
Episode 16: Cleopatra
Episode 17: Get on Up!
Highlights include:
Clarifying Carroll O’Connor’s age.
More revolting Ptolemaic incest talk.
Appreciation for Craig Robinson and the fine art of yelling at the scre...2024-09-0735 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 6: Prefontaine, Respect, and The ConquerorHooray! We have a bonus episode: our sixth edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs.
Includes material cut from:
Episode 15: Prefontaine
Episode 4: Respect
Episode 5: The Conqueror
Highlights include:
Rena and Sara debate what number constitutes “several.”
The "Second Opinion" for Prefontaine that didn't make it into the episode.
Sara’s reaction to an abbreviated Beauty and the Beast performance at Disney World.
And more, of course!
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everyth...2024-09-0526 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 20: Reagan, Starring Dennis Quaid as Ronald ReaganWE CALLED AN AUDIBLE FOR THE GIPPER.
The things you do for love: Because Rena and Sara care and do not want anyone to spend money to see this movie, they went to see it.
While Reagan is a soul-crushing journey through a propagandistic vision of the life and times of one simple mofo who was either blindly optimistic or the root of all modern evil, it’s also (mostly) objectively bad filmmaking: Everything looks hideous and coated in putty, scenes often contain only 3 to 4 lines of dialogue, and Reagan’s only human flaw is loving...2024-09-031h 08Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 18: Gotti, Starring John Travolta as John GottiHave you ever thought, “Maybe John Gotti has a lot in common with Nelson Mandela?” If so, this is the film for you.
John Gotti gets the “throw every good movie about the cosa nostra in a blender and strain out the wrong lessons and the cliches” treatment with this barely-a-movie biopic that boasts 38 producers, 5 production companies, too many connections to the TV show Entourage, and little else. Oh, and Pitbull’s here to threaten you with his score.
Gotti also offers John Travolta preening around with a cat-butt mouth, performances that challenge the terribleness of Robert Wu...2024-08-271h 10Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 17: Get On Up!, with Chadwick Boseman as James BrownThe mercurial, incredibly talented, and wildly chaotic James Brown gets the biopic treatment with Tate Taylor’s Get On Up!, which depicts a troublingly sanitized version of the musical superstar. Featuring perhaps the greatest framing device in the history of the genre (an office park, a rifle, a life coaching seminar, and a woman who used the wrong toilet), Get On Up! keeps us on our toes with its wild timeline-bending storytelling and features unsurprisingly brilliant performances from its murder’s row of talented actors, led by the late, great Chadwick Boseman as James Brown.
Also explored are...2024-08-201h 10Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 16: Cleopatra, the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor VersionHoly sh%t you guys. Rena and Sara dive into this colossal fiasco of a motion picture and come dangerously close to anhedonia as they stare into the void for four boring hours. Get on board for a lengthy history lesson about one of the film industry’s greatest cautionary tales. How did everyone involved do so little with so much? Was Richard Burton’s Roomba charging station filled with whiskey? How long was Cleopatra standing expectantly at the top of that giant plastic Sphinx?
The ridiculous props, excessive premature use of marble, Joe Mankiewicz’s gift for cr...2024-08-131h 40Biopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 5: RaceWe had a lot to say about Race, so much that our fifth edition of Irrelevant Host Banter is entirely composed of material that we cut from Episode 14: Race.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs, mostly about Race.
Highlights include:
The sentimental way that Rena commemorates D-Day every year.
Spoilers for Jordan Peele's Nope.
Sara marvels at the wonders of the postal service.
The Lion King's visual references to Triumph of the Will haunt Berlin's Museum Island.
Sara and Rena discuss possible future films and how to prioritize them.
And more, of course!
Spo...2024-08-0829 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 15: Prefontaine, Starring Jared Leto as Steve PrefontaineDid you even medal, bro? White male mediocrity (compared to last week’s movie, at least) gets its due as we watch one of two debatably necessary Steve Prefontaine biopics that arrived in the late 1990s. What exactly did this guy do except run really fast on the collegiate level, witness the Munich Olympics’ atrocious massacre unfold on television, and serve as a Nike footwear beta user?
Sara and Rena take a one-way, no-exit trip into dialogue clichesville, where they discuss the Jared Leto problem, how Ed O’Neill always rises to the occasion, whether everyone in Oregon...2024-08-061h 01Biopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 4: Becket & FridaHooray! We have a bonus episode: our fourth edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs.
Includes material cut from:
• Episode 12: Becket
• Episode 13: Frida
Highlights include:
Rena's rant about her unintended visit to Casa Trotsky.
An extended cut of portions of our "Would You Hook Up With this World Leader?" quiz.
Further discussion of Harvey Weinstein's repulsiveness.
More about the history of forks in Europe.
A definition of negging for listeners over sixty.
The "Second Opinion" for Frida that didn't make it...2024-08-0128 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 14: Race, a Jesse Owens Biopic, Starring Stephan JamesAll it took for a feature film about American hero, sports pioneer, and Third Reich-bitch-slapper Jesse Owens were French, Canadian, and German film producers to team up to get it off the ground. The results are mostly magical, with a compelling and winsome lead performance from Stephan James and a budget stretched to the max to bring the cringe-inducing Hitler Olympics to life.
Sara and Rena go in deep talking about the corruption of the IOC, the pointlessness of boycotting the Olympics, and the profoundly crappy way Jesse Owens was treated on his return to America after h...2024-07-301h 00Biopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter, 3rd Edition: Cobb & EvitaWe have a bonus episode: our third edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs.
Includes material cut from:
• Episode 10: Cobb
• Episode 11: Evita
Highlights include:
• The extended take of our reactions to Eva Peron’s corpse.
• Extra criticisms of Robert Wuhl’s performance in Cobb.
• A look at insider trading laws and the history of Coca-Cola in cans.
• Lots more!
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
Follow us!
Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory
Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social
T...2024-07-2733 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryIrrelevant Host Banter, Edition 3: Cobb & EvitaWe have a bonus episode: our third edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs.
Includes material cut from:
Episode 10: Cobb
Episode 11: Evita
Highlights include:
The extended take of our reactions to Eva Peron’s corpse.
Extra criticisms of Robert Wuhl’s performance in Cobb.
A look at insider trading laws and the history of Coca-Cola in cans.
Lots more!
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
Visu...2024-07-2635 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 13: Frida, with Salma Hayek as Frida KahloSalma Hayek’s passion project Frida—a gem of a film directed by the confounding, singular talent that is Julie Taymor—is under the microscope this week. At play: what’s the deal with communist men and the civilized way they hang out with their exes? Why are there so many children’s books about Frida Kahlo, a completely badass artist who played by her own rules, hooked up with everybody she felt like, created complex and colorful art about infidelity, politics, and miscarried babies, and endured decades of chronic pain? How hot are the communist Brangelina, Frida Kahlo and Leon T...2024-07-231h 14Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 12: Becket, Starring Peter O'Toole as Henry IIHow’d we get a biopic about the one-time Archbishop of Canterbury and his bromance with King Henry II before Roberto Clemente? Should we have watched this movie during Pride Month? Rena and Sara debate these and other issues like when forks actually arrived in Great Britain and whipping-as-penance. Sara has many dumb questions because she majored in Valley of the Dolls Studies at college, but Rena has answers because she has been fascinated by the Plantagenets since middle school.
There’s a struggle to stay on task as other issues are considered: the charmlessness of drunk perf...2024-07-161h 12Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 11: Evita, with Madonna as Eva PeronRena and Sara confront the ghosts of their theater-kid selves while exploring the Madonna-starring Evita, the film version of hopelessly middlebrow composer Andrew Lloyd Webbers’s musical. Come for Sara’s appreciation of director Alan Parker’s oeuvre and Rena’s impassioned take-down of the least convincing pair of brown contact lenses ever used, stay to ponder “How much Madonna is too much Madonna?” and the impenetrable four-dimensional horseshoe of Argentine politics in particular and South American politics in general, and to think about the more interesting and macabre tale of Eva Peron’s corpse, which has had both a biopic and a...2024-07-091h 17Biopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter, Edition 2: Milk, Bessie, Rocketman & GiaJust in time for 4th of July weekend 2024, we have a bonus episode: our second edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes from the episodes that we released in June of 2024 that were cut for running time.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs.
Includes material cut from:
Episode 6: Milk
Episode 7: Bessie
Episode 8: Rocketman
Episode 9: Gia
Highlights include:
Rena hates surprises.
An intense, literalist deconstruction of the lyrics to "Rocket Man".
Our sadness that racism did not end in 2008.
The time that Elton John...2024-07-0535 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 10: Cobb, Starring Tommy Lee Jones as Ty CobbWhat better way to celebrate America’s birthday than with a baseball movie with exactly one scene of baseball, elder abuse, racism, and Robert Wuhl? This week we will be talking about Cobb, starring returning champion Tommy Lee Jones as rather evil baseball legend Ty Cobb, who might be less evil than Al Stump, this film’s proposed protagonist. This episode features a passionate if unintentional defense of Ty Cobb’s honor by two non-sportsball fans, as well as digressions about Kayfabe, a proposal for a reverse Driving Miss Daisy, and a pitch for Al Stump to be recast with t...2024-07-021h 03Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 9: Gia, Starring Angelina Jolie as Supermodel Gia CarangiIs it a movie about the 1970s and 1980s fashion scene if there’s no fashion in it? Rena and Sara are varying degrees of annoyed at this biopic about legendary supermodel Gia Carangi, whose meteoric rise and devastating fall in the modelling industry is kind of documented in this film. Who’s the worse pastiche character – the grubby modelling agency owner or the makeup artist, who came straight to this set from a Newport News catalog shoot? Why can’t we get a period-accurate needle drop in this film? Where are we and when are we? So many question...2024-06-2557 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 8: Rocketman, the Elton John Biopic Starring Taron EgertonRena and Sara discuss Rocketman, the 2019 musical biopic about the life and work of the one and only Elton John.
Are musicals realistic biopics, or not? We discuss the parameters of why they totally are, and why everything about this movie is pretty darn delightful, from the brilliant costumes, the fabulous singing and dancing, and the stylish exploration of the sad, desperate world of being a superstar drug and alcohol addict. Come for the world’s most improbable twelve-step meeting, stay for the glorious digressions about football hero John Madden (no relation to Richard), Bernie Tau-PAHN, Queen Lat...2024-06-181h 07Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 7: Bessie, Starring Queen Latifah as Bessie SmithRena and Sara watched Bessie, the 2015 HBO movie starring Queen Latifah as Blues Empress Bessie Smith.
We dissect the glory that is Mo’Nique, the spiritual battle between Dee Rees and Horton Foote, and the world’s fakest-looking pair of emerald earrings as we journey through Bessie Smith’s rise, fall, and recovery (and thankfully, not her tragic death). The all-over-the-place screenplay inspires us to whip out our corkboard, red thread and tinfoil hats with a theory about the 22 year journey the original screenplay took to film. It cannot be overstated: Rena really hates the (extremely fake-looking like t...2024-06-111h 00Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 6: MilkKicking off Gay Pride Month with a masterpiece, Rena and Sara discuss Milk, the 2008 film directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black. Sean Penn won an Oscar for Best Actor for his outstanding, joyful portrayal of the late San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, who shattered closet doors while battling the Christian Coalition, Anita Bryant, and the mediocre white schmuck colleague who would assassinate him between bouts of allegedly eating too much junk food and complaining about the need for traditional family values. That colleague sucks, but Harvey Milk – and this film – do not.
T...2024-06-041h 17Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 6: Milk, Starring Sean Penn as Harvey MilkThis is a re-recording of an episode that originally dropped on June 4, 2024, as the first film in our 2024 Pride Month series. We are re-releasing it because the original version sounded like we recorded it inside a wind tunnel on board a submarine. It sounded that way because we didn’t know that we needed to turn off the air conditioner before recording an episode.
Kicking off Gay Pride Month with a masterpiece, Rena and Sara discuss Milk, the 2008 film directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black. Sean Penn won an Oscar for Best Ac...2024-06-041h 16Biopic: A Podcast StoryBonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter, Edition 1: Intro, The Doors & CaligulaRena and Sara prefer that our podcast be at least half an hour shorter than the movies that we talk about. Rena generally dislikes listening to other podcast hosts banter about their personal lives, so she's happy to cut all of that out. But we needed to learn some new audio skills, so she spliced together a bunch of random irrelevant host banter and a few things that were cut for running time. The clips in this episode were taken from the following episodes:
Introduction: Who Are We and What Are We Doing?
Episode 1: The Doors
Episode 3: Caligula
2024-06-0124 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEmergency Episode: The Reagan TrailerReagan is finally here and boy does it look mighty bad.
Rena and Sara try to make sense of the Reagan trailer, a film that has been waiting for its moment since filming in 2020, and speculate on its contents, whether its director is an auteur, and the putty and prosthetics budget. We play a game called “Desperate or Canceled.” This film will star Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan, Mena Suvari as Jane Wyman, Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan, Dan Lauria as Tip O'Neill, king of accent work Jon Voight, Robert Davi, Kevin Dillon, Scott Stapp, and mayb...2024-05-3026 minBiopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 5: The Conqueror, with John Wayne as Genghis KhanRena and Sara discuss The Conqueror, a 1956 Howard Hughes production starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan. You read that correctly. This one is a doozy. Join us as we dig into all the things that make The Conqueror, er, special, including radioactive sand, a demoralised RKO studios gutted by Hughes, a supposedly tame panther, future Klingon gear, and a script full of insane, stilted, pseudo-archaic dialog that Wayne didn't bother reading until he arrived on the Utah desert set that was posing as the Gobi.
The Duke told screenwriter Oscar Millard that he couldn't say any of th...2024-05-261h 24Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 4: Respect, Starring Jennifer Hudson as Aretha FranklinWhat do you do when your assessment of a movie is out of step with critical and public consensus? That is a question that we found ourselves pondering on watching Respect, the 2021 Aretha Franklin biopic starring Jennifer Hudson as Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, Forrest Whitaker as Reverend C.L. Franklin, Marc Maron as Jerry Wexler, Audra Ann McDonald as Barbara Franklin, Titus Burgess as James Cleveland, and a dude from White Chicks as Ted White.
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
Follow us!
Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory
Website: https...2024-05-221h 18Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 3: CaligulaRena and Sara slog through Caligula, the infamous 1979 life story of the notorious ancient Roman emperor, starring Malcolm McDowell as Caligula, Helen Mirren as Caesonia, John Gielgud as Nerva, Peter O'Toole as Tiberius, Teresa Ann Savoy as Drusilla, and a slew of miserable or clueless-looking naked and barely dressed people. It was produced by Penthouse owner Bob Guccione Jr. from the remains of a Gore Vidal script and features incest, paper mache, and the world's first Zambomi-slash-head-chopper-off machine. What else does this movie have? Trial-free delivery via mail chute to crazy people jail, magic, pornography, suicide, poison...everything. We...2024-05-191h 05Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 2: Coal Miner's DaughterOur second biopic is Coal Miner's Daughter, the life story of country music legend Loretta Lynn. Rena and Sara discuss the Academy Award-winning 1980 flick, directed by Michael Apted and starring Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn, Tommy Lee Jones as Doolittle Lynn, Beverly D'Angelo as Patsy Cline, and Levon Helm as Loretta's dad, Mr. Webb, the titular coal miner. Hot topics include poorly executed hair dye jobs, whether coal mining is glamorous, and how young is too young to get married.
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
Images: https://imgur.com/gallery/coal-miners-daughter-episode-2...2024-05-171h 03Biopic: A Podcast StoryEpisode 1: The DoorsNote from the future: This is our first episode, and we've noticed that people seem to download it first. Please skip to episode 10 instead or to our most recent episode! The thing is, we were inexperienced when we recorded this, but we've already re-recorded it at least three times and changed the scoring system significantly. This is not an episode that people should listen to first! It's an episode that you should listen to after listening to a few more recent episodes, and then going to back to see what we were like when we were just starting out. P...2024-05-161h 06Biopic: A Podcast StoryIntroduction, Episode 0: Who Are We and What Are We Doing?Rena and Sara do an introductory explainer episode for Biopic: A Podcast Story.
This is where we explain how the rating system works, how we choose what movies to cover next, and what is and is not a biopic for the purposes of this podcast.
We talk about ourselves a little bit, and Rena serendipitously pitches Sara’s dream biopic project: Andy Warhol Presents Abe Lincoln’s Sleep.
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
Visual Aids: https://imgur.com/user/BiopicAPodcastStory
Follow us!
Instagram: @biop...2024-05-1253 min