Truth & Movies: A Little White Lies Podcast

Disney’s The Lion King stampedes into cinemas this week, but Hannah Woodhead and Kelli Weston aren’t feeling the love for this latest “live-action” reboot from the House of Mouse. There’s lots of praise from team T&M for another new release though – Varda by Agnès sees the late French cinema icon reflect on her remarkable career, while in Film Club we revisit the film’s companion piece from 2008, Beaches of Agnès.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week’s Truth & Movies, Michael Leader is joined by regular guests David Jenkins and Matt Thrift, who take a collective bite out of Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die before sampling the latest from maverick Mexican auteur Carlos Reygadas, Our Time. Then in Film Club, we slip back into the Jarmusch groove for long overdue look back at the director’s spiritual monochrome western from 1995, Dead Man.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

You may know Little White Lies from our weekly Truth & Movies podcast, but we also make a magazine, and its 80th issue is currently on shelves. Inside, we explore an alternative history of British cinema with a list of 100 mould-breaking movies, and on this special episode, host Michael Leader is joined by special guests Will Fowler, curator at BFI and co-author of new book on the underground British visual culture, The Bodies Beneath, and Rowan Woods, who works for British Council and BFI, to delve into the British cinema, past, present and future. LWLies editor, David Jenkins, is also in the mix, with each panelist bringing two of their favourite British films to the table.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Young love and break ups are the flavour of the day on this episode of Truth & Movies, as the MCU goes to the EU in Spider-Man: Far From Home and Hereditary writer/director Ari Aster heads to rural Sweden for his solstice-set freakout Midsommar. Michael Leader, David Jenkins and Adam Woodward offer their thoughts on these new releases, while in Film Club we trace the folk horror genre’s origins back to Michael Reeves 1968 masterpiece Witchfinder General.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s Beatles week on Truth & Movies, as Michael Leader samples Danny Boyle’s crowd-pleasing fantasy comedy, Yesterday, with a little help from his friends David Jenkins and Sophie Monks Kaufman. Later in the episode, the podders revisit the Fab Four’s breezy big screen debut from 1964, A Hard Day’s Night. Before that, we enter the bizarre realm of Peter Strickland’s In Fabric, an absurdist ghost story about a killer dress.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The toys are back in town. On the show this week, Michael Leader, Anton Bitel and Caitlin Quinlan team up to offer their thoughts on two new releases from opposite ends of the genre spectrum. First up is Toy Story 4, which sees Woody, Buzz and co reunite for one last adventure (probably), before the T&M gang turn their attentions to the reboot of the cult 1988 slasher Child’s Play. And in Film Club, the pint-sized serial killer gets another run out in 2004’s Seed of Chucky.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joining Michael Leader in the studio this week are Carl Anka and Adam Woodward, two ’90s kids and self-confessed football fanatics who accordingly are well placed to discuss director Asif Kapadia’s latest celebrity exposé, Diego Maradona. Before that we take a look at Men in Black: International, starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson as the slick-suited galaxy defenders, and, in Film Club, the original – and still best – Men in Black from 1997.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Like a mythical bird rising from the ashes, the X-Men return to our screens this week hoping to undo the damage caused by 2016’s Apocalypse – but does Dark Phoenix catch fire or simply fizzle out? Michael Leader, Simran Hans and Kambole Campbell are on hand to help you decide whether it’s worth the trip, while also offering their thoughts on Sebastián Lelio’s muted midlife crisis drama, Gloria Bell, starring Julianne Moore and John Turturro. Lastly, the classic Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets is reappraised ahead of its 70th anniversary re-release in our Film Club.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After the dizzying highs of the Cannes Film Festival, Truth & Movies comes back down to earth with a thud this week. Michael Leader, Hannah Woodhead and Adam Woodward are on hand to wade through the murky CG waters of Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, a colossal misfire which kicks off the summer blockbuster season with a whimper, before things take a decidedly more enjoyable turn with Olivia Wilde’s triumphant teen comedy Booksmart. There’s no Film Club this week, but we’re back to our regular scheduled programme next.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Looking beyond the main competition, Michael Leader is joined by special guest Charles McDonald to offer a publicist’s perspective on the ins and outs of the world’s glitziest film festival. In a little over three decades of attending Cannes, Charles has worked with everyone from Jim Jarmusch and Lynne Ramsay to Ken Loach and here reveals how the festival – and the movies themselves – have changed down the years.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Once upon a time in Cannes... Quentin Tarantino returns to the Croisette with his hotly-anticipated ninth feature, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as an ageing TV star and his stunt double sidekick respectively. We’ve got our own A-list double act in the form of Michael Leader and Adam Woodward to offer their reaction on that, plus Bong Joon-ho’s blistering social parable Parasite, both of which are serious Palme d’Or contenders.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In our latest dispatch from Cannes, Michael Leader and Hannah Woodhead recap the best of the weekend’s action. Tales of forbidden female desire, crises of faith and nautical purgatory abound in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life and Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse respectively – all major new works which have successively raised the bar at this year’s festival.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With the Cannes Film Festival in full swing, Michael Leader is joined by Little White Lies’ US correspondent Charles Bramesco to round up the best of the action on day two. In the main competition there’s the bizarre and bloody Bacarau from Brazilian directing pair Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, and over in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar, Jean Dujardin dons the jacket of his dreams in Quentin Dupieux’s agreeably psychotic Deerskin.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Truth & Movies is on tour for the next two weeks, reporting live from the 72nd Cannes Film Festival. In this first bite-sized dispatch, Michael Leader and Adam Woodward discuss the opening film, Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die, and preview our most anticipated films across the official selection on Day 2.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this bumper edition of Truth & Movies, Michael Leader, Hannah Woodhead and Adam Woodward venture to the outer reaches of the galaxy for Claire Denis’ awe-inspiring sci-fi opus High Life, starring Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche. We also hear from the director herself, who discusses meeting the cast for the first time. Then it’s back down to earth with a thud, as Detective Pikachu puts a surprising twist on the Pokémon franchise, with Ryan Reynolds voicing the titular diminutive private eye. Returning to the world of Claire Denis, we revisit the French luminary’s esoteric art-house horror from 2001, Trouble Every Day, for Film Club, before Adrienne Groen joins us to talk about her work curating an expansive new Stanley Kubrick exhibition currently running at the London Design Museum.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.