Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss Muriel’s Wedding, the humiliations of home and the difference between running away from your life and leaving to finally begin one.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith consider the stories families pass down, ordinary lives, and ask whether the past was ever safer, kinder, or easier to understand.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore how grief, abuse, and loneliness leave Annie Wilson carrying the emotional weight of an entire community.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith discuss how four million dollars exposes the rising anxiety of the disappearing middle class in Sam Raimi's bleak American crime tragedy A Simple Plan.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith follow the snow covered trail of debt, kidnapping, and suburban collapse in Fargo.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith descend into the glossy nightmare of The Housemaid, where fake-perfect kitchens, mommy’s boys, and cream-cheese-frosted thriller twists hide a story about coercive control and survival.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith descend into the hidden levels of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, where wealth performs sophistication while poverty fights for survival beneath the floorboards.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore how family life becomes a curated image in One Hour Photo, and what happens when someone tries to live inside that illusion.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith explore how The Hand That Rocks the Cradle turns the role of mother into something that can be learned, performed, and stolen.

Jim Groom and Michael Branson Smith examine how a single act of infidelity fractures the illusion of stability in an upper middle class family in Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction.