Emergency bonus episode! Michael, the oft-delayed musical biopic about the life and times of troubled genius and smooth (never convicted, often tried) alleged criminal Michael Jackson has a teaser trailer and an April 2026 release date. We risked 1990s-era Pokemon-inspired seizures as we watched the trailer over and over in an attempt to parse the psychotically edited clip parade for insights about what we can expect from this movie. What we’re confident predicting: the absolutely unbiased team of MJ estate executors producing the film will give us a film in which young boys will be the villains trying to take down one of the 20th century’s most iconic and important artists; Johnnie Cochran may not make it to the final cut because the filmmakers didn’t read MJ’s 1993 settlement agreement; screenwriter John Logan’s need for a GoFundMe (call us, John!), and that the musical sequences will probably be electrifying.  Also discussed: the economics of MJ and why it was easier to let him do whatever the hell he wanted; prosthetics; The Jacksons: An American Dream; how Rena was old enough to rent a car when she first saw the Thriller video; and the unexpected parallels between the Michael teaser trailer and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. And so much more.  Sources used in the episode include… https://variety.com/2025/film/news/michael-jackson-biopic-trailer-first-footage-1236168488/#recipient_hashed=b9997f00edcb0ce488b46f6883f897b1143a3ff8c2a571e2e26872f0fcba0958&recipient_salt=4d7867d3eca22b71fde0dba3b278c22145f502c20e757e3f49a26898273008a5&utm_medium=email&utm_source=exacttarget&utm_campaign=newsalert&utm_content=644726_11-06-2025&utm_term=6337474?utm_medium=&utm_source=&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&utm_id=    With additional thanks to Pajiba As promised, here's the video of Smokey Robinson and George Michael singing "Careless Whisper." Noted: Bill Cosby does the intro, sorry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZflvN5mkrxQ Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q   Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

We start Politics Month with a whimper: A 2 hour, 30 minute, ponderous look inside the months and (maybe?) years that immediately follow FDR’s devastating polio diagnosis.  Should this be an interesting look at a consequential moment in which the future of American politics was forever changed? Yes. Should this be an incisive character study on one of the most important, decent and progressive individuals to hold the office of president, during one of the most challenging eras in U.S. history? Yes. Is it? No.  We get furious about the monologuing, the Von Trapp style children, and desperate need for a screenplay editor. Also discussed: Alice Roosevelt’s bitchy vendetta against Eleanor, Sara’s parasocial relationship with Teddy Roosevelt, bad teeth and bad parenting, getting polio from a Boy Scout camp, and being in more than one community production of Annie.  Sunrise at Campobello stars Ralph Bellamy as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Greer Garson as Eleanor Roosevelt, Hume Cronyn as Louis Howe, Jean Hagen as Marguerite "Missy" LeHand, Ann Shoemaker as Sara Delano Roosevelt, Alan Bunce as Governor Alfred E. Smith, Tim Considine as James Roosevelt, Zina Bethune as Anna Roosevelt, Frank Ferguson as Dr. Bennett, Pat Close as Elliott Roosevelt, Robin Warga as Franklin Roosevelt Jr., Tom Carty as Johnny Roosevelt, Lyle Talbot as Mr. Brimmer, David White as Mr. Lassiter, Walter Sande as Captain Skinner and Herbert Anderson as Vincent Dailey, was directed by Vincent J. Donehue, and was based on a play by Dore Schary.   Sources used in the episode include…   Books The Roosevelt Women by Betty Boyd Caroli Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume I by Blanche Weisen Cook. Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Political Life by Robert Dallek Eleanor by David Michaelis Hissing Cousins: The Lifelong Rivalry of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth by Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer  The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency by James Tobin Podcasts The Totalus Rankium episodes on FDR.   Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q   Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

We welcome back the amazing cartoonist and South Korea expert Ryan Estrada  (https://www.ryanestrada.com/) to discuss this truly inspiring biopic that is “not about” (wink and nudge, folks) the early years of future 9th president of South Korea and human rights activist Roh Moo-huyn, then a tax attorney who is compelled to defend a number of teenage students who are arrested and imprisoned without warrants on fabricated charges of being communist sympathizers.  Fortunately, this is not at all timely, and we live in the U.S.A., so we can’t relate to people being detained without reason and hopped-up charges of aiding and abetting vague enemies in order to scare and intimidate everyone else into obeying in advance.  We discuss the reason why South Korean filmmakers prefer “based on a true story” for their biopics, talk more about Ryan’s superhero wife (and co-author) Kim Hyun Sook, and, of course, whether there’s anything to ever be hopeful about ever again.  Cut for time (probably for the best): Sara’s theories about Mattress stores being a front for criminal activities.  We unabashedly loved this movie and its performances by future Parasite star (and the Tom Hanks of South Korea) Song Kang-ho and K-Pop idol and Squid Game star Im Si-wan, and desperately needed its message about how one person’s actions can change the world.  ALSO: Ryan has a new book out with aformentioned superhero wife Kim Hyun Sook: Good Old Fashioned Korean Spirit (Penguin Workshop) which can be procured at Bookshop.org or from any of the other major book suppliers who absolutely do not need us to link to them.  The Attorney stars Song Kang-ho as Song Woo-suk, Kim Young-ae as Choi Soon-ae,  Oh Dal-su as Park Dong-ho, Kwak Do-won as Cha Dong-young, Im Si-wan as Park Jin-woo, Lee Sung-min as Lee Yoon-taek, Jung Won-joong as Attorney Kim Sang-pil, Song Young-chang as Judge, and Jo Min-ki as Prosecutor Kang Young-cheol. Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

 While it dazzles with its 1895-era special effects, the Thomas Edison-produced The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots offers scant commentary or insight into the life of Mary Stuart, opting for salaciousness over character development.  It’s also 18 seconds long.  Rena offers critical context that the O.G. shameless idea thief Thomas Edison’s film fails to provide, and we also discuss Sara’s ongoing enmity of Kevin Costner, Wes Bentley appreciation, Juilliard auditions, sad puppies, Hugo, and acrylic yarn.  The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots is directed by Alfred Clark, produced by Thomas Edison, and stars Robert L. Thomas (of course, a man) as Mary Stuart.  Sources used in the episode include… Queen Of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart By John Guy   Podcast: The Rest is History, series on Mary, Queen of Scots The Hollywood Reporter, “How Kevin Costner Lost Hollywood,” by Peter Kiefer, October 8, 2025. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/kevin-costner-horizon-yellowstone-2-1236395016/  Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q   Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

Juana of Castile is MADDDDD WITH LOOOOOVVVEEE for one of those Easter Island-headed Hapsburgs and … that’s the movie. That’s it. That’s Mad Love. After several back-to-back bangers, Rena and Sara find themselves in biopic purgatory with this boring-as-all-get-out movie that features baffling artistic choices (including absolutely no lighting and an angry-as-hell score) and manages to make what Rena promises are super-compelling people into droning dullards.  Some of the content discussed includes: the best way to shoot a dance sequence (from the waist up, of course), Hapsburg family inbreeding, toilet babies, Isabella and Ferdinand, and our general unhappiness with having watched this film.    Sources used in the episode include… Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile  By Julia Fox (no, not that Julia Fox, the other Julia Fox, although perhaps Julia Fox’s whole thing is to hide being a history nerd.)   Isabella of Castile: Europe's First Great Queen by Giles Tremlett   Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean by Edward Kritzler Emperor : a new life of Charles V by Geoffrey Parker The Habsburgs : To Rule the World by Martyn Rady   Podcasts The Queens Podcast, episodes on Isabella and Juana of Castile   Web https://frockflicks.com/snark-week-mad-love-juana-la-loca-2001/   Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q   Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

69! Very nice. We commit to the bit by exploring the seedy underworld of Los Angeles’ porn and drug scene in 2003’s unfairly overlooked Wonderland. Starring Val Kilmer as the legendary abusive monster John Holmes, aka Johnny Wadd, Wonderland documents, Rashomon-style, the notorious revenge murders in which John Holmes most definitely participated, and reminds us that drugs are indeed very, very, very bad.  We discuss a lot of addict logic, P.T. Anderson’s insistence that John Holmes was a good actor, the differences between crack and freebase, Tim Blake Nelson’s enduring gift for playing the kind of dude who would be comfortable at a dog fight, the unbelievable magic of Lisa Kudrow, Liberace, and so much more, including acrylic yarn.  Wonderland is directed by James Cox, and stars Val Kilmer as John Holmes, Lisa Kudrow as Sharon Holmes, Kate Bosworth as Dawn Schiller, Eric Bogosian as Eddie Nash, Dylan McDermott as David Lind, Carrie Fisher as Sally Hansen, Josh Lucas as Ron Launius, Ted Levine as Sam Nico, Tim Blake Nelson as Billy Severely, Christina Applegate as Susan Launius, Janeane Garofalo as Joy Miller, and Natasha Gregson Wagner as Barbara Richardson.    Sources used in the episode include… “The Devil and John Holmes” by Mike Sager —  this was an article for Rolling Stone that is kind of the definitive telling of this story.  Wonderland Murders podcast on Wondery. Michael Connelly's series on MGM TV called The Wonderland Massacre. Malice in Wonderland by Tom Lange. The documentary WADD, which came out in 1999. – Basically if there’s a podcast or episode of television or anything about this story Sara has probably looked into it.    Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

Rena and Sara are pretty psyched that they saw this the second-best way (the first being on an Apple watch) at the Paris Theater. Because David Lean’s epic masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia is what everyone says it is: expansive.  Why did everyone tolerate Peter O’Toole’s drunken shenanigans? Why was Anthony Quinn’s appearance the one that had to be made accurate with a prosthetic nose? Which of T.E. Lawrence’s contributions to society were most meaningful: foreign policy based on nation-building or the motorcycle helmet? Why is master bridge player and actor Omar Sharif so darn hot?  We also play “Thanks A Lot, Alexander Korda” (you nerds out there owe him big time), talk about Lawrence of Arabia’s place in the Listicle Industrial Complex, Rena discovers what might be Mitch McConnell’s burner account for writing IMDB reviews, and Sara again mentions that she is trying to read The Power Broker. Sources used in the episode include… Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T.E. Lawrence Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, by Noa Tishby David Lean: A Self Portrait  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jAb4tmCPOk  - I’d like to mention here that a friend pointed out the size of his ears - which are astonishing - and said, “It makes sense that one of the most acclaimed directors of the 20th century could probably hear everything on the set better than everyone else.” And I have not stopped thinking about that a little since. * Articles in the New York Post, El Pais, and others https://english.elpais.com/people/2023-12-24/alcohol-fights-and-indestructible-talent-how-peter-otoole-survived-the-bars.html  Podcasts The Empire podcast. An episode of History Hit An episode of In Our Time, from the BBCUnspooled, Lawrence of Arabia Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com * So David Lean is like Dumbo, sort of.

We finally found a movie that is both a Sara Movie and a Rena Movie, and it’s the damn-near-perfect 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde. Yes, their names are Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and they rob banks… but there’s so much more to talk about, including Sara’s Talmudic Loophole of Seeing Inappropriate Stuff as a Kid, whether Faye Dunaway is the most beautiful, most bananas, most brilliant actress to appear on screen, how the hell CW Moss got that box of grenades, Buck Barrow’s refusal to die, and Rena’s fascination with Blanche Barrow’s jodhpurs. We love this movie, we have a lot to say about it, and we went deep and hard, which, according to this film, was something Clyde Barrow could not do (though opinions vary). Bonus: We have a challenger for “Lou Gehrig’s Older Than the Dust Itself On-Screen Mother,” and Corpse Capers.   Sources used in the episode include… Public Enemies by Bryan Burroughs  Looking for Gatsby by Faye Dunaway  The Studio, by John Gregory Dunne  Go Down Together, by Jeff Guinn Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris  Documentary Faye, a documentary about the life of Faye Dunaway Podcasts American History Hit: Bonnie & Clyde Criminalia episode: The Reluctant Blanche Barrow: Bonnie Wasn’t the Only Dame in Clyde Barrow’s Gang Infamous America multi-parter on Bonnie & Clyde Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

The Devils is a lot of things: a wholesome look at what happens when people believe in weird provincial nonsense instead of actual facts; a star vehicle for unlikely pin-up Oliver Reed; the most Catholic movie ever made; and the only time (so far, at least) we’ve used the phrase “Holy Water Enema.”   We’re SO excited to welcome back our show’s official Ken Russell sherpa, the still-brilliant Elana Levin from the Graphic Policy Podcast (https://graphicpolicy.com/radio/, on Bluesky @Levin), to take us through the not-at-all-relevant-in-present-day tale of a town’s one rational, science-trusting dude battling the floods of insanity, stupidity and mob rule led by religious maniacs.    Just a few of the topics we cover are the not-at-all-coded Klan hoods, Sara’s history with the Jesuits, where crocodiles fit into healthcare protocols, Jefferson Airplane, the musical Hair, and so much more. Also in this episode: Another “Road to Korda.”    The Devils is directed by Ken Russell, and stars Oliver Reed as Urbain Grandier, Vanessa Regrave as Sister Jeanne, Dudley Sutton as Baron De Laubardemont, Gemma Jones as Madeleine, Michael Gothard as Father Barre, Georgina Hale as Phillippe, Christopher Logue as Cardinal Richelieu, Max Adrian as Ibert, and Graham Armitage as Louis XIII.    Find Elana here: https://graphicpolicy.com/radio/  Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.   Sources used in the episode include…   Books:   The Devils of Loudon by Aldous Huxley   The Possession at Loudun by Michel de Certeau   Podcasts:   Bad Ideas, “The Devils of Loudon — Urbain Grandier and the Possessions of Loudon”   Battle Royale episode on Louis XIII   Not Just the Tudors episode on Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu.   Online:    Interview with Ken Russell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySbsO_9d3ls    https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/looking-back-possessions-loudun   Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

PART 2 of the most epic and definitive discussion of the greatest movie ever made: 1993’s Tombstone, a film we loved so much that we could not shut up about it and had to make our first two-parter.    There’s more talk about costumes and sets and history, but also a LOT more talk about the perfection of Val Kilmer, the one way America could be made great again (over-the-counter laudanum), continued hatred of 1994’s Wyatt Earp (known as “Boring Tombstone”),  what is not Charlton Heston’s final acting role.    This movie is perfect and that is settled law.    Tombstone stars Kurt Riussell as Wyatt Earp, Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Sam Elliott as Virgil Earp, Bill Paxton as Morgan Earp, Powers Boothe as Curly Bill Brocius, Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo, Charlton Heston as Henry Hooker, Jason Priestley as Billy Breckinridge,  Jon Tenney as Behan, Stephen Lang as Ike Clanton, Thomas Haden Church as Billy Clanton,  Dana Delany as Josephine Marcus, Paula Malcomson as Allie Earp, Lisa Collins as Louisa Earp, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson as Mattie Earp, Joanna Pacula as Kate, Michael Rooker as Sherman McMasters, and Harry Carey Jr. as Marshal Fred White.   Sources used in the episode include…   Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell By Tom Clavin   The Last Gunfight : The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral—and How it Changed the American West By Jeff Guinn   Lady at the O.K. Corral : The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp by Ann Kirschner   Ride the Devil's Herd : Wyatt Earp's Epic Battle Against the West's Biggest Outlaw Gang By John Boessenecker   The Making of Tombstone by John Farkis, and a note on John Farkis who is life goals—his bio: “Retired automotive executive John Farkis, is an historian and lifelong fan of the cinema.” He’s basically like, I am a fan of this movie and I am going to write a book and he DID.    Also a podcast that Sara would recommend highly, It was a Shit Show, which did an episode about the behind of the scenes of this film, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCN_JF1kN-g  Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

Get in, losers, we’re going to Tombstone. We’re back from hiatus, and we love this movie so much that it gets pretty embarrassing. But what are you supposed to do when gazing upon the majesty of Kurt Russell with ALL the eyeliner on, Sam Elliot and his magical moustache, Powers Boothe’s goofy, over-the-top Curly Bill, and, of course, the miraculous Val Kilmer’s virtuoso turn as Doc Holliday?  Kevin Costner and “Boring Tombstone” catch plenty of strays as we praise this film’s costumes (no, seriously), the screenplay’s avoidance of clever subtext, it’s sort-of-a-scientology audit meet-cute scene between Wyatt and his eventual wife Josie, and so much more.  Also, we loved this so much that we had to do this episode as a two-parter!   Sources used in the episode include… Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell By Tom Clavin The Last Gunfight : The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral—and How it Changed the American West By Jeff Guinn Lady at the O.K. Corral : The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp by Ann Kirschner   Ride the Devil's Herd : Wyatt Earp's Epic Battle Against the West's Biggest Outlaw Gang By John Boessenecker The Making of Tombstone by John Farkis, and a note on John Farkis who is life goals - his bio: “Retired automotive executive John Farkis, is an historian and lifelong fan of the cinema.” He’s basically like, I am a fan of this movie and I am going to write a book and he DID.  Also a podcast that I would recommend highly, It was a Shit Show, which did an episode about the behind of the scenes of this film, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCN_JF1kN-g  Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q   Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

Hooray! We have a bonus episode: our 13th edition of Irrelevant Host Banter, with a flashback to mid-2024 with Episode 25: Ray and Episode 26: Liz & Dick.  These are some outtakes that were cut for running time, and/or because we were digressive or repetitive. Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs. We jump around in a senseless, context-deprived manner, and you should definitely skip this episode and download any normal episode from “Episode 10: Cobb” onwards if this is your first time listening. Includes material cut from: Episode 25: Ray Episode 26: Liz & Dick Highlights include: Rena fuming about other podcast hosts boring her by talking about what they are wearing or drinking. Another dead brother. The time that Sara and Rena saw the Cats movie together: “Do you remember like halfway through that when we realized when I was like, their ears are moving. Like the horror was like the horror washed over you so slowly.” David Eigenberg appreciation. Speculating on the budget for Liz & Dick. Love for Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Relief that Lawrence Olivier did not win an Oscar for Othello. And much more, of course. Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.   Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory  Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

Sara and Rena have an announcement to make about why there is no episode new this week, and why we'll be taking a hiatus for the month of August, 2025. We will be back on September 2 with Tombstone. Until then, we have over sixty official episode plus bonuses that we're hoping you'll check out. See you in September!   Love,  Rena & Sara

We return to the depression era to watch the rise of a delightful, curly-haired naif who charms everyone — the help, the military, and her cynical, wealthy new family. No, we’re not doing John Huston’s noted biopic Annie, we’re doing 1935’s The Rise of Catherine the Great. We explore the many, many links back to the godfather of international cinema Alexander Korda, lavender marriages, Peter the Great’s descendant Peter the Meh, OG nepo baby Douglas Fairbanks Jr., German expressionism, and so much more as we watch this very, very, very old movie.  The Rise of Catherine the Great was produced by Alexander Korda, directed by Paul Czinner, and stars Elisabeth Bergner as Catherine the Great of Russia, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., as Grand Duke Peter (later Peter III), Dorothy Hale as Countess Olga, Flora Robson as Empress Elizabeth, Gerald du Maurier as Lecocq, Irene Vanbrugh as Princess Johanna von Anhalt-Zerbst, Diana Napier as Countess Vorontzova, Griffith Jones as Grigory Orlov, and Gibb McLaughlin as Bestujhev.   Sources used in the episode include… Elizabeth and Catherine: Empresses of all the Russias, by Robert Coughlan. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie.   Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q   Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

When do shenanigans cross the line into elder abuse? That’s the hotly debated issue at the heart of our vastly different experiences watching 2016’s Florence Foster Jenkins, directed by Stephen Frears and starring the legendary Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins, a syphilis-suffering patron of the arts and absolutely beyond-the-pale terrible singer. Who is this movie for, exactly? Come for the charming(?) Hugh Grant’s tireless work in creating a scaffolding of lies, delusion, and gaslighting to make Florence feel good about her talents as she spends the last year of her life preparing for a concert at Carnegie Hall. Stay for the nausea-inducing bathtub filled with mayonnaise-based potato salad, the invention of irony, tales of Rena’s high school trauma, more conversation about Sharknado than necessary, the suffering (both on and off-screen) of Rebecca Ferguson, and the lamentably brief appearance of the preternaturally gifted Nina Arianda. Florence Foster Jenkins Is directed by Steven Frears from a script by Nicholas Martin and Julia Kogan and stars Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins, Hugh Grant as St. Clair Bayfield, Simon Helberg as Cosmé McMoon, Rebecca Ferguson as Kathleen, Nina Ariana as Agnes Stark, Stanley Townsend as Phineas Stark, Allan Corduner as John Totten, Christian McKay as Earl Wilson, Brid Brennan as Kitty, David Hague as Carlo Edwards, Mark Arnold as Cole Porter, and John Cavanaugh as Arturo Toscanini with a cameo appearance by Josh O’Connor as Donaghey. Sources:  Florence Foster Jenkins: The Inspiring True Story of the World’s Worst Singer by Nicholas Martin and Jasper Rees Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

This week, we’re back with our old pal Oliver Stone for his 2004 biopic of the world-conquering bisexual Alexander the Great, aptly titled Alexander.   We welcome Colin Farrell to the show, and rejoin one of our favorites, the late great Val Kilmer, and our not-so-favorites Angelina Jolie and Jared Leto, for this sometimes brilliant, often literal film of a decade-long cultural appropriation-and-violence-filled rumspringa, a magical horse named Bucephalus, a mother with an Olive Garden accent and an obsession with snakes, wigs on wigs on wigs, and talky talk talk about Zeus and Achilles.  Also covered: Germany’s pre-2006 filmmaking tax benefits, Oliver Stone’s judicious use of CGI (we’re not always being dicks, guys), Donald Sutherland, elephants, guyliner, and how to get impregnated by a God.  Alexander is directed by Oliver Stone and stars Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Jared Leto, Brian Blessed, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Anthony Hopkins, Rosario Dawson, and many, many animals who may or may not have been harmed in the making of this film.  Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

Hooray! We have a bonus episode: our 11th edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time, and/or because we were digressive or repetitive. Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs. We jump around in a senseless, context-deprived manner, and you should definitely skip this episode and download any normal episode from “Episode 10: Cobb” onwards if this is your first time listening. Includes material cut from: Episode 21: Gandhi Episode 22: The Duchess Highlights include: Blade Runner Rutger Hauer monologue appreciation. More fun tidbits about rotten boroughs. Rena’s loathing for antimaterialism. Why corsets are less barbaric than going to the gym. Kevin Costner being a big man-ho in the 90s. And much more, of course!  Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory  Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

First shots have been fired in the Oscarbation Wars of 2025 / 2026, and those shots are coming to you from Bruce Springsteen, in Brokendreamsville, New Jersey, in a biopic that will certainly cover territory that we’ve already seen many times this year in our emergency breakdown of the Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere trailer.  Will this movie have enough self-serious white men over-explaining the significance of the album Nebraska to satisfy Hollywood’s annual quota of self-serious white men over-explaining things? Did the hotel room in which Bruce Springsteen recorded the album serve as a murder room for one of the many serial killers who haunted America in the 1970s because of the excessive use of lead paint? Are we going to see an actor’s interpretation of record executive John Hammond for the fourth time since we’ve launched this show?  Most important: how important is that hole in the floor that Jeremy Strong talks about in this trailer going to be to the plot of this film?  Come for the rage and the coverage of everything from former New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s unrequited passion for Bruce to how Gaby Hoffman’s Jersey hausfrau turn makes us feel old, stay for Sara’s truly vexing true-or-false quiz about Bruce Springsteen.  This movie comes out on October 24 and you bet we’d prefer not to see it.  Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is directed by Scott Cooper and stars Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen, Stephen Graham as Douglas “Dutch” Springsteen, Paul Walter Hauser as Mike Batlan, Marc Maron as Chuck Plotkin, Gaby Hoffman as Adele Springsteen, David Krumholtz as Al Teller, the magnificent Jeremy Strong as Jon Landau, some bottle blonde actress as a woman who is probably not Patti Scialfa or Julianne from Sisters as “The Girl 🙄,” and soon-to-be-breakout-star Cormac Fingeret as “Man Riding in Truck with Man Yelling ‘Bruce, You Suck!” The trailer’s here: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2147076121/?ref_=tt_vids_vi_1  Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

This week, we welcome our special guest star, the very, very smart and insightful filmmaker, critic, and educator Brandon Wilson, to celebrate the 4th by dropping Malcolm X on Plymouth Rock.  Given [gestures around at everything], we wanted to celebrate the decaying, never-actually-real American Dream with Spike Lee’s revolutionary, game-changing magnum opus Malcolm X, which is, of course, about the revolutionary leader Malcolm X (and a lot of other things).  The original recording was almost 5 hours long, so we had to cut a lot of amazing convo since we’re two broads and not an idiotic white man who works overtime to humanize monsters and has the capability to sway elections and get people to disbelieve common sense science.  However, we cover plenty of other things as we take the plunge into this very long but deeply exhilarating epic, including the genius of Spike Lee, the astonishing snubs this film received from the Academy (but hey, Howard’s End and Enchanted April, right? And Scent of a Woman?), having the Jersey shore stand in for Mecca, how the hell this film got made, and so much more. Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

It’s been a minute since we’ve reminded our audience that Ronald Reagan is trash; there’s no better illustration of the hell he unleashed on America in one of our most mean-spirited decades by pretending that AIDS didn’t exist, or deriding it among his cabinet with giggle fits.  You know who’s not trash? The many scientists and activists who are featured in this groundbreaking 1993 TV movie, And the Band Played On, based on Randy Shilt’s groundbreaking nonfiction chronicle of the early days of the AIDS epidemic (except the Patient Zero business, and we’ll get to that).  At the wrap-up of Pride Month, Rena and Sara discuss the heroic efforts of Aaron Spelling (yes, that Aaron Spelling) to get this film made, the mini-masterpiece performances by Richard Gere, Swoosie Kurtz, and Steve Martin, how Charles Martin Smith is always the hero you want, the 1990s as the golden age of sex ed in the public school system, and the lost art of shaming.  And the Band Played On is directed by Roger Spottiswoode and stars Ian McKellan as Bill Kraus, Matthew Modine as Dr. Don Francis, Glenne Headley as Dr. Mary Guinan, Richard Gere as the Choreographer, Saul Rubenek as Dr. James Curran, Richard Masur  as Dr. William Darrow, Alan Alda as Dr. Robert Gallow, Lily Tomlin as Dr. Selma Dritz, Charles Martin Smith as Dr. Harold Jaffe, Patrick Bachau as Dr. Luc Montagnier, B.D. Wong as Kico Govantes, Richard Jenkins as Dr. Marcus Conant, Tchéky Karyo as Dr. Willy Rozenbaum, Donal Logue as Bobbi Campbell, with Steve Martin, Swoosie Kurtz, Anjelica Houston, Phil Collins, and Stephen Spinella.  Sources used in the episode include… And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts This amazing interview with Aaron Spelling: https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/aaron-spelling?clip=54430   Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it. Follow us! Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social Threads: @biopicapodcaststory Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com