Film Chat

On this week's episode Danny reviews Midnight Special, the chase movie/soulful meditation on parenthood/elaborate Spielberg homage. It's a film that asks you to leave your cyncism at home and take a leap of faith to believe that........Michael Shannon and Kirsten Dunst were a couple???? It's pretty out there stuff. We also review Hardcore Henry the first film to be based upon the wank fantasy of a 13year old teenager who loves Counter Strike. Needless to say it is bloody deep stuff. Plus we discuss the sequel to Filmchat's whipping boy, Kingsman, get an exclusive interview with with Indie high priestess St. Vincent, and examine some of Danny's most erotic dreams.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week we review Victoria, a gripping drama set over the course of one wild night in Berlin and shot in an unbroken single take. To honour this astounding technical achievement we recorded the episode the same way. As a result it's 4 hours long and consists mainly of bickering and loo breaks. We also visit Zootropolis, Disney’s lavish animated adventure and crash course on racial profiling. It's a sophisticated fable of diversity and tolerance set in a stunningly realised animal city. Also Shakira plays a gazelle popstar called Gazelle. Plus: smartest documentarian in the room Alex Gibney lines up a non-documentary thriller; the people who made Young Adult are reteaming; and Warner Bros desperately recuts Batman v Superman in an attempt to add some levity, with mixed results.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week we review the most anticipated sequel of all time, a film that will finally answer that age old question....what will Gus Portakolas do when he finds out his marriage isn't valid?????? Well needless to say that question is answered and then some in film of the week, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 We also find time to review blockbuster behemoth, Franchise Plan Vs Misguided Auteur: Dawn of Incoherence..sorry I mean Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. It's fair to say that all the critics have taken a massive dump on this one, but will FilmChat being adding to the mountain of shit currently resting on Zack Snyder's shoulders........yes? We also get a chance to discuss one of our favourite genres "bunch of ladies with one dude movies" when we examine the latest projects from introspective naval gazer Sophia Coppola and esoteric pulp man Alex Garland. ...and after last weeks shameful attempt to spontaneously come up with some pirate themed Beatles song we dedicate 40 minutes of the episode to listeni

This week we review two spooky films that upend some common lifestyle fantasies. You know how you always wanted to be a Puritan living in New England in the 17th century? Well acclaimed horror The Witch may make give you second thoughts. And you know how you also always wanted to live in total isolation in a nuclear bunker with John Goodman? Well psychological thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane might make you wonder about that as well. We also report a victory for hatchet jobs in that titanic struggle, Batman v Superman v film critics; celebrate the news that Paul McCartney is finally getting what he always wanted, a cameo in Pirates of the Caribbean 5; and pitch some universe-crossover “versus” films that might work better than Zack Snyder’s much-maligned superhero bust-up.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's 'definitely very good but i'm not entirely sure why' week on Film Chat as we review two films that left us satisfied and confounded in equal measures. First up we tackle Anomalisa the stop motion existential crisis movie from existential crisis movie expert Charlie Kaufman. It's a profound, complicated look at what it means to be human plus you get to see Jennifer Jason Leigh's norks* in it!!!! Then we try and wrap our heads around Ben Wheatley's adaptation of J G Ballard's High-Rise. It's a period sci fi film that tackles ideas of class, society and identity plus you get to see Tom Hiddleston's dick** in it!!! We also discuss all things Indy 5, wonder how long it will be until movies are just beamed directly into our heads and try and land the role of young Han Solo. *They're plastic puppet norks. **You don't actually see his dick, it's covered by a book #Bullshit  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hello, Joel and Ethan! Yes, the Coen brothers are back with “Hail, Caesar!”, their knockabout tribute to old Hollywood in which a bewildering array of movie stars wear great costumes and do silly things. Danny and Sam have both seen it — listen to this week’s Film Chat to discover how much the frothy farcical fun buttered their respective muffins. Also this week, Danny reviews last year’s acclaimed comedy-drama “Tangerine”, which was famously shot entirely on an iPhone. Danny paid tribute to the heroically lo-fi nature of the production by watching it entirely on a zoetrope. Plus, “The Look of Silence” director Joshua Oppenheimer follows his Indonesian genocide doc and his other Indonesian genocide doc with the obvious next project, an avant-garde musical; Will Smith makes a massive deal with Netflix and chills; and we ramble a bit about up-and-coming young screenwriter Max Landis, who is massively successful and only a few years older than we are. What a dick.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy a

Despite this being a film-based podcast for our entire run, a single question has defined the show namely; How to be Single? Fortunately for us that question is answered pretty bloody conclusively in the rom com of the same name. I don't want to give anything away but the key is to sleep with nobody or everybody none or some of the time. Go forth you celibate sluts!! Then Danny reviews family friendly romp Goosebumps adapted from the popular series of books of the same name. If you like your young characters earnest and plucky and your old characters hostile and grumpy then this is the movie for you. Plus we round up all the Oscar related news. We laugh at Rock, cry for Leo, gasp for Rylance and sneer at Beaven. For God's Sake BEAVEN SORT IT OUT!!!!........and we ain't afraid of no (female) ghost...busters when we give our take on the controversial trailer for the upcoming sequel.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tell me, how do you like your bum and dick jokes? If you answered “made by a superhero while he winks at the audience” you're probably one of the many, many people to have seen alternative comic book blockbuster Deadpool, in which Ryan Reynolds gives it his all in the title role and Ed Skrein does his thing of being unremittingly self-satisfied. Is it the riot its made out to be or does the whole affair disappear up Ryan's Main Street? For this week’s episode Danny and Sam went to find out. Danny also found time to check out The Survivalist, a slow burn post-apocalyptic drama recommend to us by friend of the podcast Mick Patrick. Danny liked the film but he had a shit time trying to download it on iTunes, so - thanks for nothing, Mick. Plus! Scintillating name-filled chat about which actor has worked with the most great directors, our expert tribute to the late great Douglas Slocombe (OK we barely know who he is), and a journey into Ed Skrein’s rapping alter ego, Dinner Lady P.I.M.P.  See acast.co

On this week Sam went to see smash hit comedy Zoolander 2 with Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and the rest of the gang reprising their roles as the clueless but lovable ridiculously good looking models. He was baffled by a large sprawling film which seemed to mainly consist of political machinations in 9th century China and definitely didn't have Ben Stiller in it. It was only when the credits rolled that he realised that he'd actually gone to wrong screen and had watched the entirety of The Assassin, a sumptuous epic from esteemed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien....so he reviewed that instead. Meanwhile Danny went to check out Alvin and Chipmunks: The Road Chip. He was initially impressed by the stellar A list cast- Ralph Fiennes as Alvin with Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts and Dakota Johnson as the chipmunks?! It all seemed to implausible to be true and it turned out it was as what he'd actually watched was A Bigger Splash - a film about sexy rich people hating each other on a beautiful Italian island. H

When Brooklyn came out last November, its tinkly cutesy trailer put us off going to see it. But the low-key story of a luminous Irish lass torn between worlds old and new has since done nothing but pick up awards and praise, so this week Danny decided to see what all the fuss was about. Did it welcome him like a beaming distant family relative, or leave him wanting to emigrate from the cinema forever? His review reveals all. Another film that has received some Academy love is Trumbo, all about a cranky communist screenwriter and his bristling moustache facing down John Wayne and the flag wavin, commie-hatin House Un-American Activities Committee. It wasn’t particularly good but it did make a strong case for First Amendment rights, high-waisted trousers, and writing in the bath. Plus: Danny contains his boiling rage as a listener disagrees with his review of Room; we discuss the 3 seconds of shirtless Bourne boxing millions of Superbowl viewers enjoyed last Sunday; and gravel-voiced northerner Sam Riley elab

This week Sam reviews Youth. It's a film where Michael Caine plays an old mentor who tells what Matthew McConaughey what to do.. No sorry that's Interstellar. It's actually a film where he plays an old mentor type who tells Leonardo DiCaprio what to do....No wait that's Inception. It's actually a film where he plays an old mentor type who tells Christian Bale what to do.....No wait that's Batman. It's actually a film where Michael Caine doesn't mentor anybody...go figure. Then we both review Spotlight, the oscar nominated film about a group of journalists being really excellent at their jobs. Hey BBC maybe you should watch this movie and take some notes huh? ‪#‎Satire‬ Plus we discuss the latest projects from auteurs Ben Wheatley and Nicolas Wending Refn as well as all the usual giggling, clapping and donkey punching that comes as standard.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, a head-to-head between two Oscar-nominated films adapted from books with extremely simple-sounding titles. Danny braved Lenny Abrahamson's Room, an adaptation of Emma Donoghue's novel about a boy whose whole universe is the room in which he and his mother are imprisoned. It's a premise so grim it took Danny days to adjust to normal human life after he escaped the cinema. Sam and Danny also watched The Big Short, a film about the 2008 global financial crisis and the bunch of crazy white guys in bad wigs who saw it coming. Anchorman director Adam McKay tries to balance the technicalities of subprime mortgage-backed securities with a lot of fun montages, fourth-wall breaking, and Selena Gomez playing blackjack. It would be a great educational movie for kids if everyone didn't say fuck all the time. We also go over a lot of bizarre recent film news, including Miley Cyrus joining Woody Allen's TV show (?!), Joseph Fiennes being cast as Michael Jackson in a 9/11 road trip drama (?!?!) and Daniel Radcli

First off we examine Creed, the 7th film in the Rocky franchise. It's a film about a young black boxer trying to live up to legacy of his famous father, but his black step mother doesn't want him to. However according to "The ACaDemy" it's just about an old white guy and no other characters ‪#‎Satire‬ Meanwhile DiCaprio brings new meaning to the phrase "go the distance" in the macho, bear attack/spiritual odyssey film The Revenant. Not since he was a toddler has Leo screamed and crawled this much. If you like the idea of seeing him crawl and scream a lot, and I mean A LOT then this is the film for you. We also check out the latest project announcements from Jennifer Lawrence, Tina Fey and Ronda Rousey before weighing in on the whole Oscars diversity debacle. Are our views more in accordance with Spike Lee or Charlotte Rampling. Listen to find out!!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Film Chat is back! It's revamped, meaner, bigger and ready for anything and everything 2016 has to throw at us!!!!!* First off Sam tackles the latest David O'Russell/Jennifer Lawrence collaboration Joy. After playing a sparky young widower and a sparky young mother, can J-Law play a sparky young divorcee/mother who invents a really nice mop???? Yes. Then we turn our attention to Quentin Tarantino's latest opus The Hateful Eight. A film shot on a format so big that it literally took the two of us to review it. Sam took the left half of the screen and I took the right. One of us loathed the film, one of us loved it -weird????? Plus we depress ourselves by paying tribute to the inordinate amount of legends we lost this week but then cheer ourselves up by remembering how funny Matt Damon was in the brilliant (and now award winning) comedy, The Martian. Remember that scene where he puts the potatoes in the shit? LOLZ!!! NOTE: There may be some odd crackly audio in the Hateful Eight review and the very end bit -

Danny, Sam, and Katie gather round the roaring log fire in our festive podcast cabin for a special Christmas episode of Film Chat. Shut yourself away from all that awful family time, grab a cocktail, and join us as we drink and spout nonsense about the holiday season and the year gone past. We compare our top ten films of the year (and explain why they are more correct than our listeners’), indulge in a Christmas quiz that doesn't descend into sullen bickering, pull some crackers, and pay a heartfelt tribute to Nicolas Cage and his ethical attitude towards the illicit trading of dinosaur bones. It's all such a riot, every other festive activity will seem like a drab, lifeless waste of time by comparison!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It is a time of great excitement in the world as this week the most anticipated cinematic event of the year took place this week....OUR review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens!! Sam with his trusted companion Danny traveled to the science museum where they watched the film on a format so big it was an affront to God. Did they think it was the dog's bollocks or was it the wookie's sphincter? Listen to find out. They also check out the latest movie which there is very little of because literally everybody is getting the hell out of Star Wars' way. It's like Disney is the death star and literally every other film studio is Alderaan and nobody wants to be Alderaan. Remember what happened to Alderaan? Exactly.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Danny dons the high-falutin beret of chin-stroking and Sam pulls on the lofty turtleneck of deep thought to review two films that the vast majority of the human race will never see. The Forbidden Room is the latest feature from Canadian director Guy Maddin, who has assembled an eclectic collection of melodramatic short stories nestled within one another like a Russian doll. Fragmented, theatrical, absurd - the film will be an acquired taste for most audiences. But not our extraordinarily discerning listeners. Those guys will love it. Also reviewed this week: The Russian Woodpecker, a concise but sweeping documentary that follows a young Ukrainian artist as he attempts to unravel the mystery of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It has everything you could want from a documentary - animation, archive footage, spectacular landscapes, interviews, conspiracies, performance art, a captivatingly weird protagonist, and a thick atmosphere of gradual, engulfing doom. The episode also contains ruminations on

On this episode Sam reviews Steven Spielberg's latest film which is about spies and bridges and swapping spies across the bridge. I think it was called 'Espionage Crossing'. We then both tackle Todd Haynes film about a woman called Carol who meets another woman not called Carol who falls in love with Carol, I think it was called " Old Timey Chicks Get Their Kicks!"* * We actually review Bridge of Spies & Carol Plus we discuss who we would cast as a young Han Solo, the Sight and Sound best of 2015 list and Peter Jackson's nobel attempts to save a man from a crazed despot. All of this and the usual dick measuring and back slapping that comes as standard.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's authoritarian capital city week on Film Chat! Danny checks out The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2. the latest blockbuster taking up all the advertising space on the tube. The final chapter of the young-adult juggernaut features a bunch of sexy kids up to their eyeballs in the horrors of conflict, the war-crossed lovers dividing their time between wide-eyed longing for one another and preparations for PTSD. Sam opts for another film whose characters suffer under an oppressive regime, though in this case the setting is non-fictional and the budget is approximately one zillion times smaller: Taxi Tehran, in which a cheery film director moonlights as a cab driver in Iran's capital city. A drama in a documentary style, the film's series of sunny urban vignettes coalesce into a quietly passionate political protest. PLUS! The US Army attempts to drive it's enemies mad using LSD, piquing the interest of Jennifer Lawrence; Kenny Branham capitalises on the success of Cinderella by readapting Murder on the Orie

They said we'd never get this far. They said that the podcast wouldn't be as good as Serial. They said Sam would develop a major heroin problem. They said Danny would get to the third round of the X Factor. On reflection most of their predictions were right but we have managed to produce 50 episodes of Film Chat! First off we review the Aaron Sorkin scripted Steve Jobs starring Michael Fassbender as the titular computer genius. In keeping with the style of the film Danny and Sam walked around the room yelling their opinions at each other and reciting factoids they'd read on wikipedia. Danny then reviews the Alan Bennett adaptation The Lady in the Van starring Dame Maggie Smith. It's a film about a cantankerous old hag with appalling levels of personal hygiene who is generally dismissive of everybody else's opinions. Incidentally Katie is back from her travels. Plus all the usual nonsense that began to wear thin around episode 3.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.