Two Reel Cinema Club

Welcome to our quarterly celebration of dead air and reflective silence: it’s the TRCC Popcorn Counter Quiz! This time around, we have thirty films released between 1957 and 2024, all starring pop stars. Can you guess the title and the star from the clues? Who is mostly made of oil and lotion? Who was the inventor of off-white paint? And when did Jennifer Connolly star in an episode of Fraggle Roc...

The mystique of Bob Dylan wafts through the Two Reel Cinema Club this week, as we watch the thoroughly enjoyable new biopic A Complete Unknown, and compare it to the actual Bob Dylan as he appears in the 1967 rock documentary Don’t Look Back. Two portraits of the Nobel Prize winning bard of the 20th century, but which reveals more of the real man? Which film features the most cigarettes? Which fil...

It’s that time again, our annual favourite episode, the Two Reel Cinema Club Film of the Year Show. Seven categories, including best film, best actor, best script, biggest clunker, and weirdest moment of the year. As usual, we’ve kept our nominations secret from each other, so expect some dramatic revelations, some laughter, some tears and some last minute negotiations. Who will win, who will lose...

It’s yet another episode about four legged mammals this week, as we watch the riotous black and white physical comedy indie hit Hundreds of Beavers and compare it with the clever, witty and mind bending 2014 Chilean documentary Beaverland. These films offer two very different views of the industrious, furry dam-builders, while at the same time telling very similar stories. But which one had us ask...

There’s a shocking and perplexing development at the Popcorn Counter this week, as we tell the tale of how Google recently censored and deleted one of our podcasts. What was the objectionable material? Racism? Sexism? Incitement to violence? Or… a Sanskrit quotation from Oppenheimer? We discuss the history of censorship in the UK, the curious rules of film classification in the US, and the terrify...

It’s our annual Christmas episode at the Two Reel Cinema Club, and in keeping with the festive season, this year we’re watching two films about sex workers. Wait, what? Join us as we talk about the new, Sean Baker-directed, heavily award-tipped drama Anora, and compare it to the dream-like 1967 Luis Buñuel classic Belle de Jour. Two different takes on sex work, more than fifty years apart - but ho...

Did we ever tell you about the time we met Al Gore? Join us at the Popcorn Counter to hear how we encountered the man who was almost the President of the United States, and what it had to do with the film industry. Plus, once we’re on the subject of An Inconvenient Truth, we ask why there aren’t more environmental films, given the size of the problem. Movies mentioned include Silent Running, The C...

We’re watching new Latvian animated film Flow this episode, a beautiful and distinctive looking parable about cooperation and environmental collapse, and we’re comparing it to the 1997 Studio Ghibli classic Princess Mononoke. These two movies offer two very different perspectives on the effects of humans on the lives of animals: Flow seems simple and family friendly, while Mononoke is violent, com...

This year is the first time in the history of cinema that every film in the top ten is a sequel or a prequel. Join us at the popcorn counter to talk about what’s wrong with the industry, how we’ve ended up here and what we might do to get ourselves out of this particular creative ditch. Who has the star power to open a non-franchise film these days? How can we encourage more risks? What can we lea...

We have watched the new Sebastian Stan movie A Different Man this week, a low budget, independent, off kilter comedy drama about an actor with neurofibromatosis who transforms his appearance and alters his identity. But do things change for the better or the worse? We’re comparing it to the classic tale of stolen identity, 1982’s The Return of Martin Guerre. These movies offer two takes on similar...

We’re in conversation with probably the world’s number one sound recordist this week, friend of the pod Mike Primmer, who was the man holding the boom in last week’s film A Prairie Home Companion. Join us for not only the best recorded Popcorn Counter ever, but also for some incredible insights into the making of this 2006 classic. How many takes does Robert Altman like to shoot? What’s Woody Harr...

Stop singing that Whigfield hit from 1994 and instead join us for a look at Saturday Night, the brand new feature film comedy from Jason Reitman about the first broadcast of US television institution Saturday Night Live. With its fairly soft plot, character based comedy, constantly moving camera and huge ensemble cast it looks a lot like a Robert Altman movie - which is a lucky coincidence, becaus...

It’s quiz night once again at the Popcorn Counter this week, in what we’re going to call ‘Pop Quiz’ from now on. This time: detective movies. Can you name forty detective movies given our cryptic, random and rambling clues? Score over 28 to earn our undying respect. In between the questions, we wonder about Orson Welles’ shooting style, recall some outstandingly well recorded dialogue, and summari...

Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman of the Hour is our new film at the Two Reel Cinema Club this week, a true life serial killer thriller that mixes perky humour and dreadful violence to powerful effect. We’re comparing it to one of the granddaddies of serial killer movies, 1971’s Dirty Harry. Which film is stacked to the rafters with Christian imagery? Which film takes no interest in the vict...

It’s not an episode for those with claustrophobia this week, as we get stuck in the elevator on the way to the Popcorn Counter for the second time. At least we have our microphones, so we take the opportunity to practice our best elevator pitches. With Joker: Folie à Deux fresh in our minds, are there any other well known properties that would benefit from a musical redo? Which three films from re...

When Joker made nearly $1.1bn at the box office, a sequel was more or less assured. But who expected a musical? Join us this week as we watch Joaquim Phoenix and Lady Gaga in Joker: Folie à Deux and ask: is it possible to turn a comic book movie into anything? What does the film say about the state of the world? Is society a civilising force or a tissue-thin cover for anarchy? And how does this ne...

Join us at the Popcorn Counter this episode, where we ask: where now for the film industry? You, like us, may have read recently about the current contraction of Hollywood and the collapse of streaming. Is cinema’s obituary mere alarmism or an uncomfortable truth? What will happen to the small and mid sized movies? Where are the opportunities for new and established writers going to come from? Wil...

We’re not entirely sure which of us is which this episode, as we stagger out of the new queasy feminist body-swap horror epic The Substance, and into John Woo’s classic body-swap action adventure Face/Off. These two have plenty in common, with actors chewing the scenery and flesh and blood everywhere. But which film is the most joyful? Which film has the most convincing medical procedures? Which f...

Everyone loves a ghost story … but gather around in the darkest, quietest corner of the popcorn counter this episode as we tell you a strange and chilling story about how EVERY film is really a ghost story. Well, kind of. We try our theory out on not just The Sixth Sense and Ghost, but The Shining, It Follows, Oculus, Ring, and even Vertigo and Citizen Kane… So what are ghost films really about? A...

This episode we’re descending into hell and watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, confirming that ‘belated sequels to hits from the 80s’ looks like it’s going to be a thing… Most of the cast is back, as are a number of the same gags. But instead of comparing it to the 1988 original movie, Beetlejuice, we’ve spread our net a little wider to draw parallels with the masterful 2001 Nicole Kidman slow burn...

You may think you’ve heard some nerdy podcasts in the past, but we’re going to ask you to buckle up your space suits and accelerate away from the Earth with us into the nerdiest possible sector of the whole galaxy this episode. We’ve seen a few films set in the deepest reaches of space recently - but out of the whole cinematic canon, which film is set FURTHEST from Earth? We’ve done some research,...

It’s all scary monsters and super creeps at the Popcorn Counter this episode. Join us as we shelter from a storm and count down our 13 favourite scary movies. (Please note, however, that ‘scary’ doesn’t always mean ‘good’.) Including a French film we wish we’d never seen, a Richard Burton film we probably didn’t see, or at least don’t remember very clearly, and a satanic film that should be avoide...

If there’s one thing we know about the xenomorphs in the Alien films, it’s that they’re very, very good at reproducing themselves…  Join us this episode as we watch the new sci-fi horror picture Alien: Romulus and its 1979 sci-fi horror granddaddy, Alien, and ask ourselves: is it possible we might have watched the same film twice? Romulus may be filled with callbacks and fan service and easter egg...

Going to the cinema is like experiencing a shared dream. (Especially when the film is so bad we fall asleep in it - and that’s happened to us more than a few times.) But who is the finest auteur of films as dreams? Is it Federico Fellini, or David Lynch, or is it Arnold Schwarzenegger in a blockbuster from 1990? Join us at the Popcorn Counter this episode as we mooch about in the dreamscape, drift...

We’re processing trauma and fighting a mighty wind at the Two Reel Cinema Club this episode, as we go to see the new weather-based action sequel Twisters, and compare it to the 1939 family classic The Wizard of Oz. Twisters can’t stop quoting from Oz, but the parallels don’t end there: both films centre around powerful women and both films are about trying to get back to the Midwest. But we still...