Mama Needs a Movie

MNAM's spooky season continues with writer Carly Garber (The Goldbergs) joining to discuss the teen horror film THE CRAFT starring Fairuza Balk, Robin Tunney, Neve Campbell and Rachel True. The 1996 film deals with a group of Catholic school students who form a secret witch coven, casting spells to fulfill their desires. The Andrew Fleming-directed thriller was a modest hit at the time of rele...

Writer and comedian Joe Wengert (Big Mouth) helps us kick off the scary season with a discussion of the 2014 horror film IT FOLLOWS starring Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, and Daniel Zovatto. David Robert Mitchell wrote and directed this low budget thriller about a malevolent supernatural entity that passes through sexual encounters. An evocative metaphor for STDs and teenage sexual anxiety, IT FOL...

Artist, writer and comedian Raft joins for a spoiler-packed discussion of DON'T WORRY DARLING starring Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, and Chris Pine. Olivia Wilde's psychological thriller has been the subject of endless tabloid scrutiny, from reported on-set disagreements to its controversy-plagued premiere at the Venice Film Festival, but we've now seen the film for ourselves and will s...

TV writer and journalist Alex Scordelis ( Difficult People ) joins to discuss the sci-fi action classic, TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Robert Patrick. James Cameron's 1991 followup to the original THE TERMINATOR was the most expensive movie ever made in its time and paid off by being an even bigger box office success. 30 years lat...

Writer and actor Jon Millstein joins to discuss the 1995 psychological drama SAFE starring Julianne Moore, Peter Friedman, and Xander Berkeley. Written and directed by Todd Haynes, SAFE is the disturbing story of a suburban housewife in the 1987 San Fernando Valley who develops a sudden and inexplicable illness related to her environment. The film plays coy as to the causes of the lead character's...

Actress and improvisor Jean Villepique ( A.P. Bio ) joins to discuss Jane Campion's Oscar-winning classic THE PIANO starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill and Anna Paquin. The New Zealand-set drama about a mute Scottish pianist, her young daughter, her arranged husband, and her illicit lover became an immediate art house crossover sensation upon its release in 1993, winning the Palme d'Or...

Writer and performer Mike Hanford (The Sloppy Boys) joins to discuss the 2007 legal thriller MICHAEL CLAYTON starring George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson. Written and directed by Tony Gilroy, the film concerns the moral dilemmas of a New York City law firm's "fixer" who is known for getting clients out of sticky situations. MICHAEL CLAYTON was well-regarded upon release,...

Director Rachel Lee Goldenberg ( Unpregnant, Minx ) joins to discuss BUFFALO '66 starring Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Anjelica Houston, Ben Gazzara, and Kevin Corrigan. Gallo's feature directorial debut takes place over one day in the life of a newly released ex-convict who kidnaps a young woman to accompany him on a visit to his parents' home, all while planning a delusional revenge on a pro...

A truly out-of-this-world guest, Mike Mitchell (Doughboys, The Tomorrow War), joins to discuss Ridley Scott's PROMETHEUS starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, and Idris Elba. This 2012 prequel to the Alien films met an ambivalent reaction upon release, with critics slamming its tangled recontextualizaion of franchise lore. However, the last decade has seen an uptick in PR...

Comic, writer and director Emily Maya Mills (By a Thread) joins to discuss Martin Scorsese's THE KING OF COMEDY starring Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, and Sandra Bernhard. This disquieting dark comedy follows wannabe comedian Rupert Pupkin and his obsessive drive to win the attention of his hero, a late night talk show host named Jerry Langford. Upon release in 1982, THE KING OF COMEDY's unlikable...

Screenwriter Lauryn Kahn (Hulu's Fresh ) joins to discuss the coming-of-age romance DIRTY DANCING starring Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, and Jerry Orbach. The 1987 drama directed by Emile Ardolino is one of the most iconic dance films of all time, but how has the film's perspective on touchier subjects like abortion and class consciousness aged in modern times? Is DIRTY DANCING still worth liftin...

Actor and comedian Allan McLeod (You're the Worst) joins to discuss Paul Schrader's FIRST REFORMED starring Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, and Cedric Kyles. The 2017 drama concerns the grieving pastor of a small church in upstate New York who undergoes a spiritual crisis after counseling a depressed parishioner and his pregnant wife. Made in a spare, transcendental style, the film is a care...

Mama Needs a Movie discusses its first-ever TV movie with actor and voracious cinephile Doug Jones (Everything Is Terrible). Made for CBS in 1986, CIRCLE OF VIOLENCE: A FAMILY DRAMA features an impressive cast including Tuesday Weld, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and River Phoenix in a mother-daughter story tackling the issue of elder abuse. The film is a late-career effort from veteran British director D...

Writer and performer Brian Finkelstein joins to discuss the Loretta Lynn biopic, COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER starring Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D'Angelo, and Levon Helm. The Michael Apted-directed drama scored Spacek the Best Actress Oscar for 1980 and remains one of the seminal films about life in the world of country music. Don't miss this far-ranging Mama Needs a Movie conversation with...

Writer and performer Amy Heidt joins to discuss the Coen Brothers' RAISING ARIZONA starring Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter. The 1987 kidnapping caper is considered the Coens' most kinetic comedy, boasting speedy 94 minute runtime and more quotable lines than you can count, (and we make sure to quote most of them). Don't miss this wide-ranging conversation that touches on TikTok, Spielberg's E.T., t...

Comedy writer Jordan Morris (Bubble; Jordan, Jesse Go!) joins to discuss the 1971 British crime film, GET CARTER, starring Michael Caine. This ruthlessly violent drama, directed by Mike Hodges, follows the eponymous gangster Jack Carter (played by Caine) on a quest to avenge his brother's murder. The movie has long been a benchmark in the genre of underworld sleaze, but how does its bleak worl...

Writer and animation connoisseur Joan Ford, ( DC Super Hero Girls , Tiny Toons Looniversity ), joins to discuss Pixar's new release, LIGHTYEAR starring Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, and Peter Sohn. The Angus MacLane-directed animated science fiction film is a (sort of) prequel to the Toy Story franchise, presented as a 1995 adventure movie that inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy. But does the movie-withi...

In a conversation 65 million years in the making, guest James III ( Astronomy Club, Black Men Can't Jump [In Hollywood] ) joins Mama Needs a Movie to discuss JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, and Campbell Scott. Colin Trevorrow directs this apocalyptic blockbuster conclusion to the Jurassic Wo...

In a supersonic episode, writer and film devotee Mark Rennie (co-host of Two Old Queens ) joins Anne and Ryan to discuss the new high-flying blockbuster, TOP GUN: MAVERICK starring Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, and Miles Teller. The Joseph Kosinski-directed sequel to Tony Scott's 1986 original has been widely-praised by critics and audiences alike for delivering old-school action thrills, but thi...

Anne and Ryan welcome guest Caramel Nguyen to discuss the 2001 romance SAVE THE LAST DANCE starring Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, and Kerry Washington. The Thomas Carter-directed story of a teenage interracial couple in Chicago helped inspire the early-2000s dance flick craze, (not to mention a recent fascination on TikTok). Viewed two decade's later, the film's themes of race and class encom...

Writer, director and performer Alex Fernie joins for a discussion of THE NORTHMAN starring Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, and Anya Taylor-Joy. Robert Eggers' Viking epic has received critical acclaim for its historical accuracy and gruesome violence, but how will it stack up in the Mama Panic Attack Assessment? You won't want to miss this truly berserk conversation that covers Star Wars, magi...

Writer and comedian Tim Barnes, (The Tonight Show, Warped!, the YubNub podcast), joins Anne and Ryan for a discussion of BEING THE RICARDOS starring Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem. The 2021 Lucillle Ball/Desi Arnez biopic is unmistakably the work of its writer-director, Aaron Sorkin, who imbues the movie with fast-paced repartee and a dead serious treatment of making comedy. In a slightly less se...

Anne and Ryan welcome guest Saba Harouni Lurie, marriage and family therapist and founder of Take Root Therapy, to discuss ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW starring Miranda July and John Hawkes. This 2005 comedy-romance was July's feature directing debut and announced her as a major new voice in independent film. To honor this bold and enigmatic movie, Mama Needs a Movie grapples with the subjects...

Bonafide Texan Matt Kowalick (The Birthday Boys) joins for a discussion of George Stevens' GIANT starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean. The 1956 epic of the Lone Star State remains unrivaled in scope and grandeur, filled to the ten-gallon brim with cattle, spurting oil rigs, barbecues, and complex racial dynamics. Mama Needs a Movie serves up an equally huge discussion, covering no...

Anne and Ryan welcome producer, writer and film fanatic Andrew Grissom, to take a bite out of Mike Nichols' WOLF starring Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, and James Spader. Released in the summer of 1994, WOLF's mix of horror, romance, and satire opened to middling reviews, but has since garnered fascination due to its odd mix of sophisticated humor, Rick Baker creature makeup, and hypot...