Mixed Bag

If you're an Oscar completionist and need to see all the Academy-Award nominated performances of that year, you technically have to see Bombshell (2019)! Featuring a star-studded cast of Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie and introducing Make Up, join Matt, Cass and James as they see if this examination of the FOX news scandal is a gripping biopic or a cash grab capitalising on an impor...

Mmm thank you veryyy muuuuch  For your patience! Apologies that this was uploaded later than normal, we recorded ahead of schedule and then Cass and James just went off and decided to have a lovely holiday before editing and scheduling it in. But now, without further ado, we return to the wonderful world of Baz this week with Elvis, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, returning to his true-true...

It's Pride Month in America and we thought we'd invite along an incredible guest, Aimee Smith, wave our colourful flags and watch the lesbian cult film But I'm a Cheerleader (1999) starring Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, RuPaul and New Zealand's own Melanie Lynskey! "Megan is an all-American girl. A cheerleader. She has a boyfriend. But Megan doesn’t like kissing her boyfriend very much. And she’s p...

I feel the need... the need for speed! With TOP GUN: MAVERICK being a colossal hit in the Box Office, the Mixed Bag team decided to visit the original, a film none of them had seen. They were not familiar with such iconic names as Iceman, Jocker and Goose. We truly were in for a treat. Did James, Cass and Matt enjoy the homoeroticism of this Tony Scott classic? What about the propaganda for the mi...

*a gentle whisper* Gatsby... It's the final episode of 'All That Baz!' (for now...) it's 2013's The Great Gatsby! Starring Leonardo DiCaprio in one of his final boyish charm roles, Tobey Maguire as pining Nick Carraway, Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan, Joel Edgerton as her hubby Tom and THE TALLEST WOMAN ALIVE Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker. Chuck on that green light and get borne back ceasele...

There was a Baz, a very strange enchanted Baz… It’s our 75th episode and we’re celebrating with another one of our original picks when we first created this podcast, a film that truly represents the term All That Baz, Moulin Rouge! Made in 2001 with Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge’s impact on culture was indelible. But is it any good? Twenty-one years later, Cass, Matt and James turn...

*Extremely stereotypical larrikin voice* 'STRAYA! We've got dingos, we've got shrimp on barbies and we called over Hugh and Nicole to do a bit of the ol' pretend! It's the first episode of All That Baz with his 2008 epic Australia. Available now on Disney+ Set in northern Australia before World War II, an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch reluctantly pacts with a stock-man in order...

What's that?! A film before the early 00s?! Here at Mixed Bag we realised we had some recent movie bias so we're going back in time to the swinging 60s, where the fashion was chic, the love was free (debatably) and Breakfast was at Tiffany's. It's also where white men felt a lot more comfortable donning makeup and performing yellowface. Can this smash hit starring Audrey Hepburn, adapted from a sh...

🎉 Happy Oscars Day! 🎉 In keeping with the theme of those little gold men, we're going back to 2018's Green Book and dissecting whether this Best Picture winner was deserving of the top spot and if not, how bad or mixed is it really? Just like this podcast, this movie was "inspired by a true friendship". Don't know the movie, he's the rundown (thanks to Letterboxd) Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is...

*French accent* Ahh the podcast. Where dedicated listeners form a parasocial relationship to disembodied voices who chat in week in, week out. But this is no ordinary week, this episode we're joined by Catherine Gavigan-Binnie to chat about the movie adaptation of The Spongebob Squarepants Movie!  Made in 2004 and marking the end of series creator  Stephen Hillenburg 's run with Spongebob, the Spo...

"There are whole movements I wrote, imagining us meeting again and again, in different lives, different ages..." The time has come, we're finally covering the Wachowskis. Directed by Lana & Lilly Wachowski and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Perfume) Cloud Atlas is... well... what is it? Over to you Letterboxd description! "A set of six nested stories spanning time between the 19th century and a dis...

69 (nice) (OK so technically we're only on 65 episodes because of some reuploads and a promo ep for Apocalypse Songs but Podbean told us it was 69 and we recorded a whole episode about 69, so you're getting episode 69) It's time for some late 90s Cruel Intentions, babyyyy.

Its birthday season for two of our hosts (Cassandra and Matt) so what better way to reflect back over the years than a film that does that very thing in its storytelling. It's time for the 1997 Romy and Michele's High School Reunion starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino Janeane Garofalo and Alan Cumming. Two not-too-bright party girls reinvent themselves for their high school reunion. Armed with a bo...

🗑️ IT'S TIME TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH 🗑️ It's finally here, the episode that'll make you go Gaga, House of Gucci (Ridley Scott, 2021). We wanted to start 2022 with a bang and what better way than a tale of betrayal, decadence, revenge, and ultimately...murder. We don't consider ourselves a particularly ethical podcast so we didn't hold back. Can anyone wake up Jeremy Irons? What is Jared Leto doing?...

It's (just after) the most wonderful time of the year! That's right, we're just finishing up the tail end of the silly season and so it's time for our yearly tradition of reviewing a Christmas film with friend of the pod, Lucas Neal. This year, he's chosen something a little controversial: Home Alone 3 which follows a new kid, eight-year-old Alex (played by Alex D. Linz). Our guest has thrown down...

Born from a real life tragedy, this 1997 faux-Disney musical is a wild ride of strong liberties to Russian history, complete with a magical Rasputin with a deranged Christopher Lloyd. Does the charm of Meg Ryan and John Cusack shine through the stilted rotoscoping or should we say do svidanya to Anastasia and her conmen buddies? The last of our personal picks, before we get to our Christmas tradit...

A police detective is in charge of the investigation of a brutal murder, in which a beautiful and seductive woman could be involved. It's the lurid, erotic neo-noir Basic Instinct. Dropped in 1922, this box office smash made Sharon Stone into a star and perpetuated some pretty tired and problematic gay and bisexual narratives. Likes are you've heard about THE scene but is the film itself any good?...

Here's there... the Phantom of the Opera! (2004) 🌹🥀 When camp bat-nipple director Joel Schumacher joined forces with the exceedingly OTT Andrew Lloyd Webber, it should've been a match made in heaven. And yet, The 2004 version of Phantom of the Opera is in some camps despised and most definitely mixed. What about Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum didn't do it for audiences? And can the combined force...

Whether you're wrapping up your Halloween and emerging from your candy slumber or set to celebrate it tonight, Halloween reaches far and wide and the spooky season has got to Mixed Bag. That's why we've popped on the 1993 children's classic Hocus Pocus, directed by Kenny Ortega, who joined the third-timers for directors on Mixed Bag. Not a great accomplishment but we love having you here, Kenny! A...

Folks, we have reached our final night... with Knightley. The film that spawned this miniseries, the feature presentation that makes most use of Keira Knightley's... advantages. Namely, one. Her chin. David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method. You may have seen the infamous clip featuring body horror levels of chin acting (link here if you haven't) but how does the film stack up? Seduced by the challe...

Hello Boys! It's time to get Sugar Plum Sweet and dive into the magical world of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018). Our penultimate night with Knightley and our most recent Keira flick, Nutcracker4Realms is adapted from the 1892 two-act ballet which has some of the sickest classical earworms you've ever come across. Will the trio find Keira's Sugar Plum Fairy sumptuous or sickly sweet and...

Announcing the return of Mixed Bag! It's been quite some time since we last spoke but fear not listener, we are resuming our Five Nights with Knightley with our third entry, the epitome of Keira's period films, The Duchess! What's it about? A duchess of course! But other than that? God we had no clue. But little did we know that they film is covertly part of the glorious gay agenda! That's right,...

ARRR!! You liver lilies didn't think we'd cover the canon of Keira without investigating her most famous franchise did you? This week we're joined by esteemed cat lover and fellow podcaster Patrick Barnes who, until now, has never seen a Pirates of the Caribbean film. Did we want to spend seven minutes in Heaven in Davy Jones' locker or is this just one terrible beastie as bad as the dreaded krake...

Our latest season 'Five Nights of Knightley' commences with the third and final Joe Wright and Keira Knightley reunion, Anna Karenina (2012). It's cold in Wellington but it's nothing compared to Russia, let's hope that Anna wraps up warm, dodges scandal and avoids those trains! But when handsome Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) stares at her from across the room, who can resist? He's certainly far m...

Mike Bryant brings his new discovered classic, Clue back from 1985 for us all to revel in its exceeding foolishness. Based on the board game of the same name or Cluedo depending on where you're from, Clue follows a star studded cast who try to determine who killed Mr. Boddy and why. We have a tiny recorded issue with this episode with it being accidentally recorded from a laptop instead of a micro...