Seventh Row Podcast

Pope Francis died today, which means it will soon be time to elect a new pope. Instead of rewatching Oscar Winner Conclave , Alex recommends catching the delightful Italian comedy  We Have a Pope . On this episode, Alex talks about why watching  Conclave made her immediately want to rewatch Nanni Moretti's We Have a Pope , and what Moretti's film has that  Conclave lacks.  If  Conclave is a film a...

What if one of the most important movies of this decade, maybe even this century, flew under your radar? What if it won major awards in its country of origin, including audience awards at festivals, and yet you still hadn't heard of it? Would you want to see it?  We're watching one of those movies this month in the April 2025 edition of Reel Ruminators.  On today's episode, Alex discusses the film...

Today, Alex Heeney recommends Alain Guiraudie's multi-César-nominated erotic thriller Misericordia . Since the film takes many twists and turns that she doesn't want to spoil, she introduces the film briefly before delving into what we can learn from the opening sequence. In excellent movies like this one, the opening scene can teach us so much about how to watch the film and what's to come. Alex...

Today, Alex Heeney recommends Steven Soderbergh's new spy thriller, Black Bag, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. It's the rare film for adults that's a taut 90 minutes, character-focused, heaps of fun, and also screening in cinemas. Alex discusses why she's been a Soderbergh devotee for 25 years and how Black Bag showcases Soderbergh at his best. *** Want to discover more fun movies...

Today, we're celebrating pioneering American woman director Joan Micklin Silver by looking at her biggest flop, the excellent Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979), and her biggest hit, Crossing Delancey (1988). Although both films are over 35 years old, they mostly still read as very modern. Woman in Revolt Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Pugh joins Alex Heeney to discuss why we love Joan Micklin Silver, why he...

Now that the Oscars are over, the best movies of the year are heading to cinemas in the next 3-4 months.  In this episode, Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney is joined by C.J. Prince of Acquired Cinema to discuss four must-see films coming to cinemas this spring. This episode is an addendum to our two-part series on how the Oscars affect the international films you hear about in episode 160 and 161. List...

Contrary to popular belief, when Oscar season ends, good movie season begins. The 3-4 month window after the Oscars and before summer movie season is when 90% of the year's best movies get released. Today on the podcast, we look back on the wide variety of excellent international movies that have directly followed the Oscars in this window in past years. We explain some of the attributes that defi...

The Oscars are changing for the better, but the field is not nearly as wide open as you might think, nor is it reflective of the wide variety of high-quality films that exist. Even if you don't care about the Oscars, what's considered Oscar-worthy deeply impacts what films you hear about.  Because arthouse and international distributors divide films into two categories: movies they think can win O...

This weekend, you can catch a recording of the Donmar Warehouse production of  Macbeth starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo, directed by Max Webster. In this episode of the podcast, Alex discusses why this production is a must-see and why you should make time for it now and for recorded Shakespeare more generally. The best time to watch Shakespeare is when it's fresh. You learn something new from...

At Sundance 2025, Alex saw a lovely debut feature from a Tunisian woman director,  Where the Wind Comes From.  And it made her think about how difficult it can be to find films by women from Africa and the Middle East. But she can recommend  several  first features from Tunisian women directors that you can watch right now. In this episode, Alex discusses why it's so hard to see films by women fro...

The worldwide online French film festival, myfrenchfilmfestival , is happening now until February 17, 2025, and it's a can't-miss event. Alex has been attending since 2017. In this episode, Alex discusses three reasons why you should make time for myfrenchfilmfestival and recommends three films to watch: A Real Job, No Love Lost, and Through the Night. ***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay up...

***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated on myfrenchfilmfestival and other unique opportunities to watch under-the-radar films: http://email.seventh-row.com Legendary British filmmaker Mike Leigh has a new film out in cinemas called  Hard Truths , which is one of the best films of the year. What makes Mike Leigh's films so good and so uniquely Mike Leigh Films is inextricable from the pr...

***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated and find out about more great under-the-radar character dramas: http://email.seventh-row.com ------- Woman in Revolt Editor-in-Chief joins Alex to discuss Halina Reijn's Babygirl, a movie we liked but didn't love but we think is worth digging into.  Nicole Kidman stars as Romy, a high-powered CEO married to a theatre director, played by Antonio Ba...

***Want help to sit down and make those tough decisions about what you're going to watch this year? Join the Curate Your 2025 Watchlist Workshop on January 12. Sign up here: http://seventh-row.com/watchlist ------- In this episode, Alex discusses what makes a truly remarkable year of movies, beyond just watching as many films as possible. Alex shares her insights on ensuring your year is filled wi...

***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated and find out about more great under-the-radar character dramas: http://email.seventh-row.com ------- Today on the podcast, Alex discusses the new Italian film from Maura Delpero,  Vermiglio , set in a remote village in the Italian Alps at the end of WWII. It's Delpero's second feature, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Fil...

Happy New Year! If you want 2025 to be the year you watch good movies, the secret to success is a curated watchlist. It's the best way to make sure that reaching for what's easy will be synonymous with reaching for films you actually want to see — including films that might have felt like aspirational achievements you'll never reach. In this episode, Alex shares three reasons you need a curated wa...

***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated and find out about more great under-the-radar character dramas: http://email.seventh-row.com ------- 2024 has been a landmark year for Luca Guadagnino, with the release of his tennis drama  Challengers  and his adaptation of William S. Burroughs'  Queer . As these films garner attention, Alex Heeney takes this opportunity to revisit Guadagnino's 2...

***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated and find out about more great under-the-radar character dramas: http://email.seventh-row.com ------- One of Alex's deep cuts of 2024 is  Limbo , an Australian film by Indigenous writer-director-cinematographer Ivan Sen. It's one of her top 3 films of the year. Fewer than 4000 people have logged it on Letterboxd and only 54 critics reviewed it on R...

***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated and find out about more great under-the-radar character dramas: http://email.seventh-row.com ------- What separates a good character drama from a great character drama is a film that actually places the character in a very particular context — a place, a culture, a group of people — so we understand what constraints and opportunities they're respo...

** Doors are now open for  Reel Ruminators: Explorer , an annual membership which curates 12 incredible films you may have missed. ** Find out more here:  http://seventh-row.com/explorer ------- In 2011, I came very, very close to never seeing the movie that would be my favourite film of the 2010s.  So that got me thinking... What makes us willing to take a chance on a film that might surprise us?...

** Doors are now open for  Reel Ruminators: Explorer , an annual membership which curates 12 incredible films you may have missed. ** Find out more here:  http://seventh-row.com/explorer ** Or purchase your membership now:  http://reelruminators.com/payment   ------- Last week on the podcast, Alex recommended the Cillian Murphy Irish drama Small Things Like These, directed by Tim Mielants.  A list...

On today's episode, Alex recommends the Cillian Murphy Irish drama Small Things Like These, directed by Tim Mielants. Based on the novella by Claire Keegan, the film addresses a dark chapter of Irish history from a side angle: the story of a man who realizes he can no longer be silently complicit in the abuse of unwed mothers by the Catholic Church.  Want to discover and watch more under-the-radar...

On the occasion of the release of Steve McQueen's Blitz , we're bringing back our 2020 episode on his five BBC films about the Windrush Generation, Small Axe . With Blitz , McQueen returns to telling stories of Black British history. This episode was originally published on December 30, 2020 . We discuss each film (or episode?) of McQueen's series and how they work together to form a cohesive whol...

**To join the waitlist for Reel Ruminators: A Movie-of-the-Month Discussion Club, visit http://seventh-row.com/reelruminators  ** Legendary theatre director Marianne Elliott ( Angels in America  at the National Theatre, gender-swapped  Company ,  War Horse ) joins Alex on the podcast to discuss her feature film debut, The Salt Path . The film is based on the best-selling memoir about a working-cla...

On today's episode, Alex recommends alternative programming to the newly released Oscar-tipped Conclave, with another film about a new pope: Nanni Moretti's 2011 film We Have a Pope . It's fun and funny, a backstage movie that's still aware of the audience, and full of rich characters with actual motivations. Seeing Conclave made me wish I had been rewatching this instead.  For my thoughts on  Con...