A Piece of Pie: The Queer Film Podcast

Brian welcomes filmmaker Sav Rodgers to discuss his documentary Chasing Chasing Amy. The documentary investigates his own complicated feelings with Kevin Smith's 1997 hit, Chasing Amy in which Ben Affleck falls for a lesbian. Revolutionary at the time, its now seen as a problematic attempt from a straight white guy to tell a queer story. Or maybe it's an empathetic queer coming of age tale that was accidentally written by a cis white man. Sav's movie asks that question head-on. 

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With Disclosure Day, legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg returns to the alien invasion genre he's defined for generations. So this week we took a look back at where he started, with just his third theatrical release, Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977. 

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After 5 and half years, Brian and Max finally wrap up their series on filmmakers Quentin Tarantino & Paul Thomas Anderson. Since mid-2020 they’ve been pairing off the works of the two Gen X auteurs. Chris joins them to discuss Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, his favorite Tarantino, paired off with PTA’s own Los Angeles love letter, Licorice Pizza. 

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This week we're taking a look at one of the year's biggest movies, and one of its gayest, The Devil Wears Prada 2. And we take a look back at the 2006 original, discussing it's status in the queer canon. 

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This week Brian and Keegon take a look at two tales of the search for eternal youth. A campy, laugh filled Death Becomes Her and the dark body horror Oscar nominated The Substance. 

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Paul and Chris return to the pod to bring their expertise on classic Hollywood. In 1934, Will Hays, then the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, began strenuously enforcing the Production Code. This code was a guideline used to determine what films could depict on screen and the behavior of characters. These included drug use, promiscuity, and yes, homosexuality. Despite limiting these things, it inspired creative filmmakers to work around the code and find new and clever ways to challenge it. The films we chose, She Done Him Wrong and Baby Face were each released in 1933, and a case could be made that they led to stricter enforcement of the code. Baby Face stars Barbara Stanwyck as Lily, a woman who escapes her evil father and makes her way in the city, quite literally sleeping her way to the top of high society. She Done Him Wrong is based on Mae West's own play, and she plays a nightclub owner who must contend with a jealous ex who escapes from prison, and a young Cary Grant, a police captain. 

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Brian welcomes back Keegon and Chris as they discuss this year's Oscar night. 

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We’re continuing our series examining the films of 90’s auteurs, Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson! This time Brian and Max are joined by playwright and our newest contributor, Keegon Schuett. We discuss the legacy of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams’ questionable handjobs and, as always, the problematic behavior of Quentin Tarantino. Is this his most relaxed film, or his most baldly depraved? 

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This week, Raina Deerwater from GLAAD returns to the pod to discuss two nominees of the 2026 GLAAD Media Awards. On Swift Horses and Hedda were nominated for Outstanding Film (Wide release). Each film tackles queer characters in mid-century America. On Swift Horses is about a war veteran returning to the states where he reunites with his brother, while Hedda is a queer adaptation of the play, "Hedda Gabler" starring Tessa Thompson. Raina and Brian discuss queer representation in films, then and now, and take a look at two different films taking place in similar eras examining queer lives in a time when it was a secret to be hidden. 

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For our 150th Episode, Brian decided to highlight one of his favorite films, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. 

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