Stereoactive Presents

J. McVay and Jacqueline Soller discuss On The Rocks, a film written and directed by Sofia Coppola and distributed by A24 and Apple TV+. On The Rocks stars Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, and Marlon Wayans.

Laura and her husband Deane have hit a rough patch in their marriage. Dean is spending too much time away on work trips and leaving Laura to take care of their two young daughters alone. When Laura finds a woman's toiletry bag in Dean's luggage, suspicions arise. Laura's father, Felix, drawing from his own experience as an adulterer, is quick to assume that her husband is having an affair. The pair have fun playing private investigators, following Dean around to try to catch him in the act. At its heart, On the Rocks is a story about a father and daughter spending quality time together after a difficult past, which leads to perhaps a new understanding between the two about why her father did what he did and ultimately broke their family apart. It is a relationship that is rarely seen on screen, and despite the film being centered on an upper class family with access to enough wealth to use on frivolous things like a vintage convertible for a late night car chase through the streets of New York City and a last minute trip to a tropical resort, there's still the universal experience of a child wanting to turn to her parent for help and see him as a good person whom she can trust despite childhood scars. 

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Jacqueline Soller

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 12/11/20

Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media

Mank tells the story of the writer behind arguably the best movie in cinematic history, Citizen Kane. Famous for his wit, Herman Mankiewicz was one of the highest paid screenwriters of the era. His charisma earned him invites to newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst’s extravagant dinner parties, which gained him firsthand experience that he could draw upon when writing Hearts’s thinly veiled facsimile, Charles Foster Kane. Mankiewicz was a complex man with unrespectable habits and honorable values. Although he was an alcoholic and a gambler, he helped Jewish refugees escape Nazi persecution and was seemingly the only one at MGM to stand against the company's deceitful propaganda that influenced California's 1934 gubernatorial race. Although Mank is more than the making of Citizen Kane, it parallels the film in its non-linear portrayal of a tortured man who stood by his values till the end. It reveals the corruption within Golden Age Hollywood and acknowledges the still present abuse of power by the highly influential through the eyes of a man whose only capacity to fight was, in his words.

J. McVay and Jacqueline Soller discuss Mank, a film directed by David Fincher and distributed by Netflix.

Mank stars Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, and Lily Collins.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host: J. McVay

Guests: Jacqueline Soller

Music: Hansdale Hsu

Originally released as part of a previous podcast on 12/11/20

Now released and distributed by Stereoactive Media