The Playlist Podcast Network

The wonderfully talented Betty Gilpin has seen a bit of a surge in her career since her show-stealing role in Netflix’s “Glow,” but now she’s trading body slams and piledrivers for tender moments with Chris Pratt in Amazon’s upcoming alien invasion blockbuster, “The Tomorrow War,” which hits Amazon Prime on July 2. Betty Gilpin joined The Playlist Podcast for a discussion on the film and her other previous and upcoming projects.

So says every warden on today's podcast, Alcatraz was the most secure prison ever constructed. Film directors, of course, took that as a challenge and gave us movies about prisoners with dreams too big for the famous San Francisco jail. These legendary inmates will try and escape one way or another. We watched "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), "Escape From Alcatraz" (1979) and "The Rock" (1996).

This week on the Deep Focus podcast we have the great and legendary Abel Ferrara, the director of “The Bad Lieutenant,” “The Addiction,” “The King Of New York,” and his most recent film, “Siberia” with Willem Dafoe. The 69-year-old director is a quintessential New York filmmaker, but he left the U.S. for Italy almost 20 years ago. In this career-spanning conversation, Ferrara talks about his early films, his New York days, working with Dennis Hopper, and there's a hilarious little bit about “The King of New York” and Quentin Tarantino, and lol, Ferrara remains totally unphased. 

The iconoclastic filmmaker also talks about getting sober, his underseen "Mary" film with Juliette Binoche playing Mary Magdalene, and his upcoming film “Zeros and Ones” which sounds trippy and stars Ethan Hawke. Ferrara's latest, "Siberia," a hypnotic thriller is available now in limited release, Blu-Ray/DVD, and all places where you can rent films digitally. Thanks for listening to this episode guest-hosted by film critic Charles Bramesco. Please share, rate and subscribe to our podcast wherever you listen to it. We greatly appreciate it.

Comedian Iliza Shlesinger had a weird thing happen to her some years back: she basically got fooled into a relationship with a complete fraud. Now, while most people would crawl into a hole and have a good cry, Shlesinger did that but also decided to turn her shocking situation into a feature film, “Good On Paper,” which she discusses on this episode of The Playlist Podcast.

Unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock, you’re probably well aware of the name Billie Eilish. The young singer has become one of the biggest names in the music industry and has a legion of devoted fans around the world. But even if you’re completely unfamiliar with the work of Eilish, you’ll still probably really enjoy the recent documentary, “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry.” And in this episode of The Playlist Podcast, filmmaker R.J. Cutler joins us to talk about his new film about the musical superstar. 

With his latest film, “False Positive,” director John Lee takes the always thrilling genre of psychological horror and combines it with his signature dark comedy to construct a commentary on pregnancy, and a woman’s right to her own bodily autonomy. Written by Lee, Ilana Glazer, and Alissa Nutting, “False Positive” stars Glazer as Lucy, who - along with her husband Adrian (Justin Theroux) - has been trying and failing to get pregnant. It’s only after they find the fertility doctor of their dreams, Dr. Hindle, that the couple achieves success, learning that they are going to have a baby girl. However, Lucy detects something sinister about the doctor, and in investigating it, unravels the truth about him and her pregnancy.

The character of Dr. Hindle, with his effortless charm that turns into something dark and mysterious, requires an actor who can play both sides; the charismatic hero but also the disturbed villain. In steps Pierce Brosnan, James Bond himself, to weave the character and his arc back and forth across that line. Brosnan is of course most famous for Bond and other dashing heroic roles, but his resume is also filled with ambiguous or fully antagonistic turns as well ranging from his antihero hitman in “The Matador,” or corrupt bureaucrats in “The Tailor of Panama” and “The Foreigner.”

"False Positive's" straddling of tonal lines is also something that naturally fits into Lee’s sensibilities as a filmmaker. Having been a key creative voice behind shows such as “Wonder Showzen,” “Superjail!,” and “The Heart, She Holler,” Lee would often contrast pleasing aesthetics and upbeat tonalities with morbid, oftentimes grotesque, and controversial humor. Between that background and his conviction in not mincing words as a creator, it allows him to convincingly craft a horror vehicle with teeth, while also strengthening the confronting messaging inherent in a film like “False Positive.”

We spoke with Lee and Brosnan about "False Positive," particularly regarding its social and political relevance in a world where so much emphasis is put on women having children, but not providing them with a proper set of resources once they do get pregnant.

Of course, in between talking about “False Positive,” we had to sneak in at least one Bond question. It’s been nearly 20 years since Brosnan portrayed the iconic spy, and we were curious what differences there would be in his interpretation of the role today.

You can listen to the rest of our exciting conversation with Pierce Brosnan and John Lee below and check out A24's "False Positive" when it hits Hulu on June 25th.

Additional reporting by Brody Serravalli

In honor of the recent Season 4 finale of “Snowfall,” the series’ creator/showrunner Dave Andron and writer/producer Leonard Chang join The Playlist Podcast to talk about the incredible drama series, “Snowfall,” and how it seems to keep getting bigger and bigger each season, thanks to people (like us) finding it on FX on Hulu. Plus, we discuss that in-development "Justified" spinoff that sees Timothy Olyphant return to FX. 

Indie filmmaker Hannah Fidell is circling back to her roots. While she has made relationship dramas like "6 Years," the Netflix comedy, "The Long Dumb Road," and directed TV ("Casual," "Sorry For Your Loss"), her latest project is the most ambitious of her career.  It’s a remake and reimagining of her own work, her 2013 directorial debut “A Teacher,” about a female teacher who has an affair with one of her students, and the implosion of those events. 2020’s “A Teacher,” now a 10-part FX series is much different. Influenced by the events of #MeToo and her own personal experiences, “A Teacher,” changes the perspective and point of view of the film and reconfigures it to also give space to the victim, in this case, Nick Robinson. Starring Kate Mara as the teacher, “A Teacher” also expands the story, in Fidell’s view, more of a proper beginning, middle, and end, but also with a long epilogue about consequences and the impacts of abuse.

In this Deep Focus episode, we spoke to Fidell about “A Teacher,” the ways she wanted the audience to feel complicit in the relationship, a new political series that she is writing she calls a cross between “Euphoria” and “House of Cards” and she tells us about directing on the upcoming Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape mini-series for Hulu.

Who are Sparks? What are they about? That’s exactly what Edgar Wright’s new documentary "The Sparks Brothers" tries to unpack and demystify. Because Sparks is not only a band (chiefly brothers, Ron and Russel Mael) but they’re a highly eclectic, trailblazing artpop group that's fairly elusive and mysterious to a lot of people. As Beck says in the documentary, one of the many famous admirers, the highly influential Sparks are likely your favorite band's favorite band. 

They’ve released 25 albums, been around for 5 decades since the early '70s, and they began as an eccentric glam rock band that was a little bit like a cross between T-Rex, Roxy Music, and Queen, with a little David Bowie thrown in too. But Sparks has covered every style under the sun, pioneered synthpop, and they're massively important, yet mostly still unknown. Edgar Wright ("Shaun of The Dead," "Hot Fuzz"), says he made the documentary, in part, in a kind of way to save time at dinner parties. Instead of a 90-minute explainer, he's created a whole thrilling, deeply compelling documentary about the band, and it's one of the best movies of the year, frankly. As a big fan of Sparks and Edgar Wright, this 40-minute-ish conversation with the trio, Edgar, Ron, and Russell, was a huge treat for me. "The Sparks Brothers" hits theaters June 18 via Focus Features, make sure to catch it.

If you’re a regular reader of The Playlist, then it’s likely you’re a fan of Luke Wilson. From his debut in the incredible film, “Bottle Rocket,” to his later collaborations with Wes Anderson, to his highly underrated and sadly prescient “Idiocracy,” Wilson is an actor that has been in a number of iconic films over the past three decades. And in honor of his new film, the feel-good drama, “12 Mighty Orphans,” Luke Wilson joined The Playlist Podcast for a discussion about the football feature and his previous filmography.