this was a mistake

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This week, Mark Tilley returns to the pod to discuss 2022's The Banshees of Inisherin, Colin's reunion with Martin McDonagh, the source of his first Academy Awards nomination, and frankly one of the key reasons we did this podcast in the first place. Is this movie the true successor to Italian neo-realism? Have we as a society properly reckoned with the crimes of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri? Two years on, is this movie's total shutout at the Oscars deeply embarrassing? Does the Brenan Gleeson Rushmore get so contentious it almost ruins a friendship? Do we all love Jenny the Donkey? The answers to these questions, and many more, can be found inside.

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This week, the great Sean Fahey returns to the show and straps on his diving gear for a discussion of Ron Howard's Thirteen Lives. Starring Viggo Mortensen and our boy Colin as two of the divers instrumental in the famous 2018 Thai cave rescue, the film would have some of the best test scores in MGM history before being unceremoniously dumped by the new Amazon régime. But here's the thing about those test scores? They were right. We talk this movie's quiet sentimentality, the out of nowhere Ron Howard redemption tour, whether or not this is an apology for Hillbilly Elegy, and of course a Viggo Rushmore.

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This week, we inaugurate the year of Colin Farrell and return to the superhero mileu to talk Matt Reeves' dark reboot of the caped crusader, 2022's The Batman. Released to much acclaim as an exciting new vision, two and a half years later (well, June of 2024 when we recorded it) it's time to take a look back with clearer eyes and ask the question: wait, is this thing actually any good? No. The answer is no. Along the way, we talk the film's misguided politics, the crimes of Todd Phillips, Robert Pattinson the movie star, the vestigial nature of Colin's role, and touch on the elements of this that we do quite like. Ay! Take it easy sweetheart!

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We're back! This week, we explain what's going on with the show, and then the great Andrew Kinsella returns to discuss the 2021 miniseries The North Water, the story of two men pitted against each other on an ill-fated whaling voyage. Topics include: the career of director Andrew Haigh, the state of the contemporary prestige miniseries, the failed attempt to turn Jack O'Connell into a star, just what voice Colin is doing here, and the shameful secret behind our show's methodology.

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This week, we are taking a look at 2020's The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie's return to his trademark type of ensemble crime films after a decade of franchise fare and a movie that one of your cohosts thinks is the worst thing we've ever discussed on the podcast. Topics include: the diminishing returns of Ritchie's whole deal, this movie's rancid racist and nationalist politics, the dying art of studio fanfare, and the weird legacy of Colin's "pull up your pants" performance in this film. Plus: he's not very good in this, but we still go long on the career of star Matthew McConaughey.

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This week, the great Stuart Elmore joins us to talk 2019's Dumbo, a somewhat misbegotten entry in Disney's attempts to remake their animated classics and, to date, Colin's last starring role in a major studio film. We get into our feelings on director Tim Burton and his body of work, the complicated history of the original, Disney's monstrous 2019 and the broader wave of live-action remakes, and the difficulties of integrating subversive or progressive ideology into works released by major conglomerates. Plus: Stuart, no stranger to tackling full actor filmographies himself, prods us to answer the question we've been dancing around for weeks: what is going on with Colin's career and why does he keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

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This week, the great Johnny Buse joins us to discuss Steve McQueen's 2018 Windy City heist epic Widows. As anyone who's seen it knows, this movie is a very rich text, and as this is a Colin Farrell podcast (and with two Chicago boys on the recording), we mostly focus in on his subplot regarding a contested alderman race for a South Side ward, and the film's broader understanding of Chicago's political structure, racial tensions, and social boundaries along neighborhood lines. But we also do touch on other aspects of the film at large, including its misbegotten Oscar chances, the star-studded cast and how it plays with their receptions, the legacy of Chicago in film, the cosmopolitan concerns of an English television series being remade in the United States, that one scene where Michelle Rodriguez makes out with a stranger, and, of course, a Viola Davis Mount Rushmore.

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Here on Above the Title, we're completionists. We've made the pledge that we are going to discuss every Colin Farrell performance of the 21st century. And if that means we have to talk about a 40 minute Game of Thrones knockoff ad for a quartz company that never mentions quartz, well, that's the task we've set for ourselves. But you, dear listener, you have not made this pledge. You have a limited time on this Earth and are under no obligation to listen to this discussion. The subject is Legend of Cambria. The guest is Jeff Sweeney. We have fulfilled our obligation and wash our hands of whatever choice you make with this information. Godspeed.

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This week, the great Justin Stillmaker returns to the show to close out our look at Colin's run of prestige projects in 2017 with the misbegotten but still Oscar nominated legal drama Roman J. Israel, Esq. The sophomore film from Nightcrawler writer/director Dan Gilroy, the film stars the god Denzel Washington as the titular lawyer, a civil rights activist struggling with a crisis of faith, and Colin the corporate lawyer he inspires to action. We get into Colin's penchant for taking unremarkable supporting roles in higher profiles of this ilk and his difficulties connecting with strong directors, and discuss the film's well intentioned but misguided politics, its muddled narrative resulting from post-production woes, and its frankly shameless similarities to Michael Clayton, a film originally pitched to Washington and written and directed by Gilroy's older brother. But mostly, we are here to valorize Denzel, the man all three of us think might just be the best movie star of all time.

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