Seventh Row Podcast

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Woman in Revolt Editor-in-Chief joins Alex to discuss Halina Reijn's Babygirl, a movie we liked but didn't love but we think is worth digging into.

Nicole Kidman stars as Romy, a high-powered CEO married to a theatre director, played by Antonio Banderas, but unsatisfied with her sexual relationship in her marriage. When a new intern at her company, played by Harris Dickinson, clocks her desire for submission, they begin a pas-de-deux that turns into a sexual power-exchange relationship.

On the episode, we discuss the film's best scenes, why Harris Dickinson steals the film, whether the film is as racy as it thinks it is, some of its missteps, and compare it to other recent films it's in conversation with (from Fifty Shades of Grey to Elle).

Related Episodes also featuring Lindsay Pugh

Promising Young Woman + The Assistant: Rape culture on film in 2020 (Redux)

101. Magnus von Horn's films The Here After and Sweat

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***Want help to sit down and make those tough decisions about what you're going to watch this year? Join the Curate Your 2025 Watchlist Workshop on January 12. Sign up here: http://seventh-row.com/watchlist

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In this episode, Alex discusses what makes a truly remarkable year of movies, beyond just watching as many films as possible. Alex shares her insights on ensuring your year is filled with memorable and diverse movies that challenge and delight. Drawing from her journey of discovery through film festivals and indie films, she introduces three key ingredients for a fulfilling cinematic year.

First, Alex discusses the importance of variety and diversity in your film choices. Whether it's films from different continents and genres, filmmakers from underrepresented groups, films from different eras, and beyond, variety is the spice of a rewarding movie year.

Secondly, she highlights the need to include 'sure things' in your watchlist—films by directors or actors you love—to balance staying in your comfort zone while still discovering new films.

Lastly, Alex emphasizes the value of planned risks. Taking chances on lesser-known films can lead to surprising and enriching experiences, expanding your cinematic horizons.

Finally, Alex also introduces the Curate Your 2025 Watchlist Workshop, designed to help you create a personalized and diverse movie watchlist for the upcoming year. Sign up to ensure your movie year is both adventurous and satisfying.

Related Episodes

152. Three reasons you need a curated watchlist for 2025

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***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated and find out about more great under-the-radar character dramas: http://email.seventh-row.com

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Today on the podcast, Alex discusses the new Italian film from Maura Delpero, Vermiglio, set in a remote village in the Italian Alps at the end of WWII. It's Delpero's second feature, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival. It's in cinemas this week.

The film is the story of the local teacher's family and the power of both formal and informal knowledge and how it's passed down. When the film opens, the family is hiding a Sicilian soldier who has escape from the army – an open secret in the town. He falls in love with the teacher's eldest daughter, and the film follows their budding relationship — and all the familial relationships around them — over the course of a year, as the seasons change and the war ends.

Related Episodes:

• 139. Green Border: an interview with Agniezka Holland (It won the Special Jury Prize at Venice in 2023)
• 147. Why is it so hard to see the new Cillian Murphy movie? (On why it's hard to see independent/foreign films in cinemas).

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Follow Seventh Row on Twitter and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Follow Alex Heeney on Twitter and Instagram.

Happy New Year! If you want 2025 to be the year you watch good movies, the secret to success is a curated watchlist. It's the best way to make sure that reaching for what's easy will be synonymous with reaching for films you actually want to see — including films that might have felt like aspirational achievements you'll never reach.

In this episode, Alex shares three reasons you need a curated watchlist for 2025.

***Want help to sit down and make those tough decisions about what you're going to watch this year? Join the Curate Your 2025 Watchlist Workshop on January 12. Sign up here: http://seventh-row.com/watchlist

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Stay updated on Seventh Row

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Follow Alex Heeney on Bluesky, Twitter and Instagram.

***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated and find out about more great under-the-radar character dramas: http://email.seventh-row.com

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2024 has been a landmark year for Luca Guadagnino, with the release of his tennis drama Challengers and his adaptation of William S. Burroughs' Queer. As these films garner attention, Alex Heeney takes this opportunity to revisit Guadagnino's 2017 masterpiece Call Me by Your Name, a film she deems his best work to date.

In this episode, Alex explores connections between Call Me by Your Name and Guadagnino's latest films, noting how the opening credits of Queer serve as a direct homage to those of Call Me by Your Name.

She delves into why she loves Call Me by Your Name, from how it works as a 'romance of stuff,' its attention to tactile details, its flirtatious editing style, and its ability to evoke a world beyond the frame.

Purchase our ebook on Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name

Related Episodes:

• TIFF 2024 Ep. 7 Luca Guadagnino's Queer
• Ep. 137 Luca Guadagnino's Challengers
• Ep. 23 Find Me and adapting Andre Aciman for the screen

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***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated and find out about more great under-the-radar character dramas: http://email.seventh-row.com

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One of Alex's deep cuts of 2024 is Limbo, an Australian film by Indigenous writer-director-cinematographer Ivan Sen. It's one of her top 3 films of the year.

Fewer than 4000 people have logged it on Letterboxd and only 54 critics reviewed it on Rotten Tomatoes (mostly positive!). Even though it had its world premiere in Competition at the Berlinale and is by one of the most important filmmakers working today and certainly one of the most important in Australia.

She realized that the reason she's one of the few critics recommending Limbo is partly because she's one of the few people who saw it! And that's because she had a pre-existing interest in Indigenous films from Australia, which goes back years and has taken a long, circuitous path.

So on today's episode, Alex talks about how she got interested in Indigenous films from Australia, why Limbo is one of the best films of 2024, and why you don't have to have her dedication to the topic to find something to love about the film.

Related Episodes:

Ep. 131 Remembering Jeff Barnaby

Ep. 120 Remembering David Gulpilil

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Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Follow Alex Heeney on Bluesky, Twitter and Instagram.

***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated and find out about more great under-the-radar character dramas: http://email.seventh-row.com

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What separates a good character drama from a great character drama is a film that actually places the character in a very particular context — a place, a culture, a group of people — so we understand what constraints and opportunities they're responding to.

In this episode, Alex talks about how Magnus von Horn's The Girl with the Needle exemplifies this definition of a great character drama. In fact, it's one of the best movies of 2024. It's a film that's as about the complex characters at its centre as the world that produced them and pushed them to behave in the way they do.

Then, Alex talks to director von Horn about how we crafted the world around the characters.

Set in Copenhagen during/after WWI, The Girl with the Needle follows Karoline in her quest for upward mobility when she finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy desperate for a solution. Enter Dagmar, who provides an enticing solution and becomes her new employer. But is Dagmar's promise as simple and sweet as it sounds?

Related Episodes:

Ep 101. Magnus von Horn's The Here After and Sweat

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Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Follow Alex Heeney on Bluesky, Twitter and Instagram.

** Doors are now open for Reel Ruminators: Explorer, an annual membership which curates 12 incredible films you may have missed.

** Find out more here: http://seventh-row.com/explorer

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In 2011, I came very, very close to never seeing the movie that would be my favourite film of the 2010s.

So that got me thinking...

What makes us willing to take a chance on a film that might surprise us?

In this episode, I tell you about my near miss, why I think I still would have missed the movie later if I hadn't seen it when I did, and what I learned about what we can all do to avoid missing our next favourite film.

Related Episodes:

Ep. 107. Another Round and Oslo, August 31st: Are men OK? Masculinity, mental health & addiction

Stay updated on Seventh Row

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Follow Alex Heeney on Bluesky, Twitter and Instagram.

** Doors are now open for Reel Ruminators: Explorer, an annual membership which curates 12 incredible films you may have missed.

** Find out more here: http://seventh-row.com/explorer

** Or purchase your membership now: http://reelruminators.com/payment

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Last week on the podcast, Alex recommended the Cillian Murphy Irish drama Small Things Like These, directed by Tim Mielants.

A listener raised that the film had terrible distribution, so in this episode, Alex looks at why it's so hard to see Small Things Like These. She compares the film's distribution to other Cillian Murphy independent films, other films in this year's Berlinale Competition (where Small Things premiered), and other niche films starring even bigger stars.

Unfortunately, while the distribution for Small Things Like These is frustratingly bad, it's actually pretty good for a film of its ilk.

Related Episodes:

146. Tim Mielants' Small Things Like These

Creative Nonfiction #2: Sophie Fiennes on Four Quartets

Ep. 38 Australian Westerns and The True History of the Kelly Gang (Members Only)

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On today's episode, Alex recommends the Cillian Murphy Irish drama Small Things Like These, directed by Tim Mielants. Based on the novella by Claire Keegan, the film addresses a dark chapter of Irish history from a side angle: the story of a man who realizes he can no longer be silently complicit in the abuse of unwed mothers by the Catholic Church.

Want to discover and watch more under-the-radar films with my expert guidance and a community of movie lovers?

Join the waitlist for Reel Ruminators so you'll be the first to know when doors open for November: http://seventh-row.com/reelruminators. Coming soon: Indigenous Noirvember.

Stay updated on Seventh Row

Follow Seventh Row on Twitter and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com.

Follow Alex Heeney on Twitter and Instagram.