Truth & Movies: A Little White Lies Podcast

Serial murder, high school massacre and a double dose of Zac Efron – just another week in the world of Truth & Movies. On this week’s show, Michael Leader is joined by David Jenkins and Caitlin Quinlan to review Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, starring the once squeaky clean Disney alum as notorious killer Ted Bundy, and Vox Lux, in which Natalie Portman plays a jaded pop star. Then in Film Club, we revisit one of Efron’s early ‘serious’ roles, Lee Daniels’ strange Southern potboiler The Paperboy.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In today’s epic edition of Truth & Movies, Michael Leader, Kambole Campbell and Hannah Woodhead assemble for the mother of all blockbuster showdowns – but does Endgame bring a satisfying close to the Avengers saga? Also in cinemas this week is Eighth Grade from YouTube comedian-turned-filmmaker Bo Burnham, which finally arrives in the UK having earned plaudits across the pond. Then it’s back to the MCU for Film Club and the movie you voted as the best yet from Marvel Studios, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week’s episode of Truth & Movies is double hard-boiled, as Michael Leader, Sophie Monks Kaufman and Adam Woodward inspect S Craig Zahler’s button-pushing slowburn procedural, Dragged Across Concrete, and, in Film Club, Don Siegel’s classic cop thriller from 1971, Dirty Harry. Sandwiched in between is an altogether less serious film, Neil Jordan’s New York psychodrama Greta, in which Isabelle Huppert stalks an unsuspecting Chloë Grace Moretz.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week marks our 100th episode, and we’re celebrating with a song – not from our critics, Michael Leader, David Jenkins and Beth Webb, but star-on-the-rise Jessie Buckley, who gives a scintillating lead turn as an aspiring country singer in Wild Rose. That’s bookended by Jonah Hill’s coming-of-ager Mid90s, about a hard-knocks skate crew in Los Angeles, and Larry Clark’s controversial 1995 drama Kids, for Film Club.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On the latest Truth & Movies we take a side-by-side look at a pair of Stephen King adaptations: Mary Lambert’s 1989 Pet Sematary and the 2019 reincarnation from co-directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer. Host Michael Leader and guest critics Anton Bitel and Elena Lazic also check out Jacques Audiard’s side-splitting sibling western The Sisters Brothers, starring Joaquin Phoenix and John C Reilly. And we hear from Laika animation studios’ Chris Butler, whose latest stop-motion gem Missing Link is also in cinemas this week.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There’s a distinctly gothic flavour to this week’s Truth & Movies, as we check in with Tim Burton’s live-action Dumbo remake before setting a course to Norway circa the early 1990s, where there’s all kinds of devilry afoot in Jonas Åkerlund’s black metal biopic Lords of Chaos. Michael Leader, Adam Woodward and – making his T&M debut – Charles Bramesco are on hand to offer their thoughts on those, and there’s a welcome return to Burton’s retro-camp alien invasion caper, Mars Attacks!, for Film Club.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Doppelgänger is the word of the week on Truth & Movies, as Michael Leader is joined by Manuela Lazic and Sophie Monks Kaufman to unpack Jordan Peele’s eerie new horror Us. They also look at Peele’s hero Hitchcock and offer a reappraisal of his 1963 invasion classic The Birds, and journey to Rockford, Illinois for Bing Liu’s moving documentary portrait of youth in revolt, Minding the Gap.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There’s an LA noir flavour to this week’s Truth & Movies, as Michael Leader, David Jenkins and Hannah Woodhead unpick the myriad mysteries of David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake, starring Andrew Garfield and Riley Keough, before diving into Robert Altman’s ice-cool classic, The Long Goodbye, for Film Club. Sandwiched in between is Lukas Dhont’s affecting – and somewhat divisive – coming-of-age drama, Girl, about a young trans teenager who dreams of becoming a ballerina.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode of Truth & Movies, Michael Leader, Simran Hans and Beth Webb assemble to discuss Captain Marvel, the 21st film in the MCU – and the studio’s only feature-length offering to date to be fronted by a female character. That’s followed by a look at British kitchen sink drama Ray & Liz, from photographer-turned-filmmaker Richard Billingham, and lastly our female superhero-themed Film Club pick for this week, 1984’s Supergirl.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this week’s show, Michael Leader, Greg Evans and Adam Woodward have the final word on the 91st Academy Awards before looking ahead to two brand new releases. Florence Pugh grapples with challenges in and out of the wrestling ring in Stephen Merchant’s crowd-pleasing Fighting with My Family, while in Irish horror The Hole in the Ground a single mother makes a disturbing discovery about her young son. There’s still more horror on offer in Film Club, as we revisit Hideo Nakata’s Ring (albeit through partially covered eyes) ahead of its 20th anniversary re-release.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On Truth & Movies this week, Michael Leader, Elena Lazic and Hannah Woodhead preside over a pair of very different courtroom dramas. First in the dock is On the Basis of Sex, Mimi Leder’s Hollywood biopic of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, starring Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer, followed by Nadine Labaki’s Cannes-winning Capernaum, about a young Lebanese boy who sues his parents for neglect. In Film Club, Leder’s 1998 disaster movie Deep Impact – at the time the highest budget given to a female director – gets a long-overdue reappraisal.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With the 91st Academy Awards almost upon us, Truth & Movies tackles the key issues surrounding this year’s ceremony, as well as giving our predictions for whose acceptance speech will be cut short this year. Joining regular host Michael Leader is The Telegraph’s chief film critic and Oscars pundit Robbie Collin, who offers expert insight into Hollywood’s awards machine – while fielding some pressing questions and conspiracy theories from our own David Jenkins.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Wizardry, war and wisecracks are on the T&M menu this week, as Michael Leader, Matt Thrift and Adam Woodward chew the fat over Joe Cornish’s youthful modern twist on the Arthurian legend, The Kid Who Would Be King, followed by Matthew Heineman’s A Private War, starring Rosamud Pike as the late war correspondent Maria Colvin. And with the BFI’s Barbara Stanwyck season in full swing, we revisit arguably the finest performance of her glittering career, in Preston Sturgess’ 1941 screwball classic The Lady Eve.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How do you follow-up an Oscar-winning breakthrough like Moonlight? That’s the question on our lips this week as Michael Leader, David Jenkins and Kelli Weston weigh up Barry Jenkins’ hotly-anticipated third feature If Beale Street Could Talk, adapted from James Baldwin’s celebrated novel. This week also sees the release of Australian actor-turned-director Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased, based on a true account of a young man’s experience at a gay conversion therapy centre. And in Film Club, we explore one of Jenkins’ key inspirations for Beale Street, 1959’s Black Orpheus by French master Marcel Camus.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Two of LWLies’ favourite films of 2018 are finally released in UK cinemas this week – and Michael Leader, David Jenkins and Beth Webb are on hand to offer their thoughts on both. First up is Marielle Heller’s true crime saga with a twist, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, starring Oscars hopefuls Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant. That’s followed by the majestic mystery romance that is Burning, South Korean director Lee Chang-dong’s spellbinding Murakami adaptation. And in Film Club, we revisit 2016’s Ghostbusters “she-boot” in light of the recent announcement of an all-new sequel to the beloved original.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.