In this episode we discuss In Bruges (McDonagh 2008), starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Clémence Poésy, and Ralph Fiennes. It's a violent and incredibly offensive movie about honour, goodness, and a generally non-toxic friendship between two Irish assassins (I know, we're really selling it), but it's also tender and brings up some important stuff about what it means to be a decent human. It's also a holiday movie!

Huge content warning here: there are depictions of child death, suicide, and suicidal ideation in this film, which we discuss, along with the movie's homophobic, fatphobic, ableist, and sizeist rhetoric, so please do what you need to do to take care of yourself.

Otherwise, enjoy!

Happy Holidays, everyone! In this episode, Charlie and Mandy talk about Scrooge (Hurst, 1951), the adaptation of A Christmas Carol that was probably on in the background at your grandparents' house. It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, absolute cherub of a man Mervyn Johns as Bob Cratchit, and Hermione Baddeley as Mrs. Cratchit (apart from being a dutiful wife, she also has a first name not mentioned in the movie, and it's Emily). Join us as we talk about issues of morality, poverty, capitalism, GHOSTS, and other fun holiday and holiday-adjacent topics! 

In this episode, we talk about Cat People (Tourneur, 1942) and its depiction of women, sexual hangups, immigrants, and, of course, cats. The film follows Oliver (Kent Smith) and Irena (Simone Simon) as they navigate sex (or rather, no sex), marriage, and the fallout of war-induced witchcraft. It's a delightful example of a classical Hollywood B-movie, and we hope you enjoy it! 

Hey folks! Today we're talking about Matt Reeves' 2022 iteration of the dark knight, The Batman. Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, and Paul Dano (who plays The "more-than-sufficiently-creepy" Riddler, this version of Batman brings darkness and ennui, but, like, a different kind of darkness and ennui than the other movies about a wealthy white man who dresses up as a bat to stop crimes and brood about how difficult his life is. Enjoy!  

In this episode, we discuss Elia Kazan's Panic in the Streets (1950), starring Richard Widmark, Jack Palance, and Barbara Bel Geddes. Big surprise, we talk about gender issues, but we also talk about other things, like race and immigration! While probably more of you have seen Kazan's more famous banger, On the Waterfront (1954), Kazan really liked this one, and so do we. It's also Jack Palance's first feature film, which is wild because it seems like he has just always been a rugged and creepy old man. But, in this, he's a rugged and creepy young man! Enjoy!

Today we're talking about Bong Joon Ho's Parasite (2019) and how much we love it. With a cast featuring Song Kang-ho, Choi Woo-sik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin, and Cho Yeo-jeong, the movie is a dramatic thriller about class and choice and a master class in con artistry. Listen as we talk about the film's depictions of class, family, performance, and enjoy Charlie shaming Mandy for never having seen Spy Kids (Rodriguez, 2001).

P.s. This episode doesn't cut immediately when it's over, and there's about half an hour of nothing at the end of it. We weren't trying to do anything arty; Mandy just messed up the audio. 

Robots! Explosive violence! Problematic policing! Today we're talking about RoboCop (Verhoeven, 1987), starring Peter Weller and Nancy Allen. We meander into conversations about satire, queerness, discomfort with cop culture and police violence, and we also spend way too much time talking about phallic substitutes (as if that's even possible)!

In this second (or is it first) episode of TJB, we gab about Wild Mountain Thyme (2020), a John Patrick Shanley film starring Emily Blunt, Jamie Dornan, and Jon Hamm, and Christopher Walken's attempt at an Irish accent (it's worth watching for that alone)!