A Piece of Pie: The Queer Film Podcast

Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson are two of their generation's most celebrated filmmakers. But, everyone starts somewhere and The Queer Film Podcast is taking a look back at two auteur's debut films. Academy Awards and Palme d'Ors were in both men's future, but they announced themselves to the world in the 1990's with two movies about criminals with daddy issues. This multi-part series will compare and contrast our favorite filmmakers' rise from Sundance darlings to respected Academy Award elders. Join us as we follow their careers over time, have they evolved as filmmakers or are they still making the same movies over and over? Will they ever learn to write a woman? We'll find this out as Brian, Max and our contributors examine and dissect two of the best American filmmakers, side by side. In this episode, we start at the beginning, with their first films; Reservoir Dogs and Hard Eight.

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This week we're finally covering two of queer cinema's most famous road trips; To Wong Foo and Priscilla Queen of the Desert! (We know these aren't the full titles of these films, but brevity is everything when you have a character count.) One film beautifully showcases the Australian outback, features Oscar winning costume designs and three characters with secrets and their own hero's journey. The other stars Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes! How do these films hold up now? Are they cult classics or a patronizing story about magical drag queens who show up to solve everyone's problems? Chicago queen Alexis Bevels joins us with our newest contributor, Josh, to discuss all this, and of course Guy Pearce's body. 

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We’re back! After a month off, we’re joined by activist Len DeWilde, who brings with him the transgender German rom-com you didn’t know existed, Romeos, and we pair it with Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In. One is a harmless coming out story, the other is about an evil scientist and a sadistic quest for revenge. We play Almodovar drinking games, discuss trans representation in modern media, bland white leads and Antonio Banderas! 

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We're wrapping up Pride 2020 with a long look back, way back, to the sixteenth century with Mary, Queen of Scots. The film features great performances from Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie and some great beards from David Tennant and Guy Pierce. We pair it with the The Favourite, starring Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone and Best Actress winner Olivia Coleman. Two revisionist modern takes on the politics of being royalty, but do they work? Or are they bogged down by virtue signaling and trying too hard? Our friends Lauren Whalen and Matt Jackson join to help us find the answers to these questions!

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Continuing our celebration of Pride Month, this week we take a look at a couple of 1980's classics, each starring the one and only Dolly Parton. Brian is joined by his friend and Dolly Parton expert, Zack Hudson. In addition to sharing a star in Dolly, the films share a director, Colin Higgins. He was an out gay man, making an unapologetically feminist film with three of the early 80's biggest stars, and he followed it up with the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas! Join Brian and Zack as they revisit these two now classics, discussing Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLouise as well as share their favorite stories about Dolly Parton's legendary career. 

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Pride events are canceled all over the world; but pride can never truly be canceled. To celebrate our community, we're covering queer films all month long. We start with the Oscar winning documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk  and pair it with the 2008 biopic starring Sean Penn. The documentary helped introduce the world to the first openly gay city councilman, who was assassinated after just eleven months in office. Max joins this week as we wrestle with the problematic cast of the 2008 film, talk about Harvey's legacy, and of course, find time to compliment somebody's butt. 

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We’re heading to Broadway this week, as we cover two queer classics based on plays. First, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton team up to host the worst dinner party of all time in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Not to be outdone, the unabashedly gay leads of The Boys in the Band throw a birthday party for one of their friends, and learn a few secrets while they’re at it. Two iconic films, but have they aged well, or are were they eerily prescient? Rob and Max join this week, as we put on our theater caps and discuss two of cinema’s most iconic queer films. Let the games begin...

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This week, Max and Matt join Brian to discuss films about queer filmmakers! Ed Wood tells the tale of the titular director, giving us Tim Burton's finest film and Johnny Depp's best performance, tracing Wood's struggle to make it in Hollywood alongside his queer family. On the other hand, we have queer filmmaker Bill Condon telling the story of the last days of James Whale's life. Ian McKellan was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Whale's final days, but how does it hold up in 2020? 

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Our celebration of fifty episodes continues into our 51st! To commemorate the milestone, Brian reached out to his contributors to check in, and find out what everyone's watching while under quarantine. This week we're joined by contributors Lauren, Rob and Stephen. Once again, no stone is left unturned. We talk movies, like A Simple Favor, Onward, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and touch on our favorite television shows, like Schitt's Creek, The Comeback, You, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Feel Good. 

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It's our 50th official episode!!! To celebrate, Brian used Zoom to get a hold of every single contributor to check in on how they're doing and what pop-culture they're consuming to pass the time while stuck at home under quarantine. The result is two hours of our queer film experts discussing all their favorite things right now. No stone is left unturned across the two episodes! In Part 1, we discuss Tiger King, Westworld, Birds of Prey, the new albums from Fiona Apple and Purity Ring, Ken Russel films, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the camp classic The Apple, The Sopranos, Kurt Vonnegut and even video games like the "Uncharted" and "Monster Hunter" series. 

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