Lara gets to utilise her English degree and her South London upbringing this week as we dig into The Local Stigmatic, Al's pet project during his on-screen hiatus. Terrible accents abound, bets are placed at the dawg track, and we explore the best site on the internet.

Digressions include Friends, David Thewlis, Basic Instinct 2, Withnail & I, Top Gun, Thief, NT Live, Yentl, Shakespeare, Martin McDonagh, Breakfast Wine, No Time to Die, Billy Magnussen, and Pulp Fiction.

Al Pacino by Bette Gordon & Betsy Sussler in BOMB Magazine

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We're exploring middle-aged sexuality in the dying breaths of the erotic thriller this week as we discuss Sea of Love, Al's cinematic comeback after spending four years on Diane Keaton's sofa. New York is a character, John Goodman is a star, and Ellen Barkin is a top.

Digressions include Basic Instinct, Minnie and Moskowitz, Crimes of Passion, Body Heat, Michael Mann, Christopher Nolan, Monsters, Inc., Cars, and Paul Newman.

A "Sea of Love" Among Men by Nickolas Pappas

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Al’s flop era reaches its climax with the American Revolutionary War epic that, fittingly, nearly destroys the British film industry. He’ll never work in this town again, and this town is Norfolk: this week, Maddy and Lara discuss Hugh Hudson’s Revolution. Congress is coming!

Digressions include The Mission, First Cow, There Will Be Blood, Assassin’s Creed, Silence, Klaus Kinski, Tom Cruise, Winona Ryder, and Al’s long history of hat and scarf wearing. Maddy describes Chariots Of Fire as being about ‘vibes’, and Lara describes multiple things as ‘fertile’.

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Say hello to my little podcast! Friend of the show Ciaran joins Maddy and Lara to talk about the immense cultural impact and deluge of Hawaiian shirts in Brian De Palma’s gangster odyssey Scarface. He also pitches us on Isabelle Huppodcast, which we encourage all our listeners to support.

Digressions include Ghostbusters, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Any Given Sunday, Married to the Mob, the Kardashian-West family, Timothee Chalamet, The Lonely Island’s ‘Jack Sparrow’, and assorted titles from the filmography of Domhnall Gleeson.

Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan by Robin Wood

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Al invokes Lara's wrath this week as we discuss his first true comedic turn (and his entry into DILF canon) in Arthur Hiller's Author! Author! with dear friend Aleisha Murphy.

Digressions include Marriage Story, Shakespeare, An Unmarried Woman, Kramer Vs Kramer, All That Jazz, The Muppets, Mrs Doubtfire, Something's Gotta Give, Robert De Niro's late-period comedies, Shark Tale, the Jack Black oeuvre, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, and Dead Poets Society.

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On this week's episode we're joined by dear friend Frances Harvey to discuss gaze, gays, and various forms of penetration in William Friedkin's unfairly maligned S&M thriller Cruising.

Digressions include Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Rope, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tom of Finland, Blow Out, Zodiac, Fifty Shades of Grey, Possession, Poison, and In the Cut.

The Mineshaft by Jack Fritscher

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This week, Maddy and Lara discuss Norman Jewison's tonally bizarre (but still pretty good) 1979 legal dramedy And Justice for All.

Digressions include Moonstruck, eighties cinema, The Verdict, Nashville, Born on the Fourth of July, Dustin Hoffman, Daniel Day-Lewis, My Cousin Vinny, Mikey and Nicky, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and Warren Beatty

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This week, Maddy and Lara are entering Al's flop era with Bobby Deerfield, a deeply ambient movie but one that represents a fascinating moment in Al's career.

Digressions include racing pictures past, Tom Cruise, All That Jazz, John Green, Robert Pattinson, Robert De Niro, The Last Tycoon, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Meryl Streep, Jeremy Strong, The Farewell Waltz, The Wind Rises, and Nancy Meyers.

The Year of the Death Wish (Fran Hoepfner on Tom Cruise and Free Solo)

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Be gay, do crime: it's time for Maddy and Lara to discuss power and the media in their favourite Pacino picture yet, Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon.

Digressions include Inside Llewyn Davis, Mad Men, The Social Network, The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Golden Globes, The Deer Hunter, Mikey and Nicky, Heat, The King of Comedy, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Elizabeth Debbie Eden

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This week, Lara and Maddy go deep on both family and The Family as they discuss the saddest movie ever made: The Godfather: Part II. 

Digressions include Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, Hi, Mom!, Succession, The Sopranos, The Irishman, Bob and Al's dating histories, and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Letterboxd review by vivian

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