Broad Appeal
101 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 23 ratingsBroad Appeal is Seán McGovern and Brian Mullin, two obsessive gay boys with an all-encompassing love of actresses. Listen every 2 weeks for some irreverent, incisive and engaged entertainment. Our current season: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE CRAZY looks at career spanning moments of some of our favourite actresses.
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Episodes
2019 Oscar Actor Episode - Part 2 - BA063B
February 05, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 58.2 MBIt is truth universally acknowledged that sequels are always better than the original so please enjoy Part 2 of our 2019 Oscar conversation. You’ll hear Brian school Seán on his childhood days in Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood, whilst Seán suggests that JOKER is far from Kingly in its Comedy. It’s all here: the Pain and the Glory of “Being Alive”. It’s been so good to be back. How long til our next episode...? We don’t dare say how long xoxo
2019 Oscar Actor Episode - Part 1 - BA063A
February 04, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour - 65 MBBack by popular demand, Seán and Brian go to the Oscars! In our usual take no prisoners style, we get down and dirty with the acting nominees… but not the ones you think. Listen as Seán mansplains THE IRISHMAN to a clueless imaginary twink, Brian dreams of Brad’s rad dad bod and both hosts genuflect to kiss two Papal rings. Sorry, ladies, it’s Men Only tonight. (Part 1 of 2) Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://...
2018 Oscar Actress Edition - Part 2 - BA062B
February 20, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 89.4 MB1950. 1987. There are certain years when the Best Actress lineup at the Oscars is so stacked with talent that it is nay on impossible to make a choice. With a legendary veteran, a pop megastar, a British genius up for her first award, a comedic superstar transitioning into drama and a total unknown all in competition, 2018 is the kind of year that makes fans like Seán and Brian go Gaga. In one of our longest discussions EVER, we anatomise every aspect of these five women and thei...
2018 Oscar Actress Edition - Part 1 - BA062A
February 19, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour - 84.3 MBThe telecast is a mess, The Academy keeps making boneheaded decisions, and Bohemian Rhapsody may win multiple awards, but…. THANK GOD FOR ACTRESSES! (Now more than ever.) We are back, binches, with our annual Special Edition waxing rhapsodic about the Academy Award and a truly vintage year for female acting nominees, starting off with the five ladies in the supporting category. And since we’ve been away for nearly two months, we’ve got A LOT to talk about. Enjoy this first act, wit...
SPECIAL EDITION - Broad Appeal LIVE at Fringe! - BA061
December 19, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBWe finally left the house!! Last month, Broad Appeal went out into the wild for our first-ever LIVE event as part of Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest in East London. Now you too can pretend you were there. Name an actress who is indisputably iconic… does she have what it takes to enter the Broad Appeal Hall of Fame? Your candidates are: a) a neurotic New Yorker; b) a delicious Dame; c) a moving Mum; d) a Force of Nature; e) a prissy Princess ripe for rehabilitation. Seán and Brian ...
SPECIAL EDITION - The Films of Ross Hunter - BA060
December 05, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 64 MBWelcome to Broad Appeal...after dark. Ahead of tonight's screening of THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE at the Cinema Museum, Seán and Brian engage in a diverse, insightful, and (let's face it) meandering conversation about gay Hollywood producer extraordinaire, Ross Hunter. While forgotten by history, this dippy queen's fingerprints are all over some of classic Hollywood’s biggest pictures, including ones that feature in both Brian’s and Seán’s feature personal canons. From melodramas to m...
1987 - Cher in Moonstruck - BA059
November 22, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 63.4 MBThe time has come... to snap out of it! The last in our 1987 Best Actress series is the timeless, charming and Oscar-winning MOONSTRUCK, starring Cher in her iconic role of lovelorn Brooklynite Loretta Castorini, who falls for the sweaty, agro charms of her fiancé's brother, played by a never-more-gorgeous Nicolas Cage. Cher was the ultimate winner that year and it's easy to see why: a genuinely multi-faceted role in a popular, much loved movie, with great dialogue by John Patrick S...
1987 - Sally Kirkland in Anna - BA058
November 08, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 48.7 MBIn Oscar history, there have been some inexplicable moments: the Streaker, Christolph Wattz’s second Oscar, CRASH?? But none was more surprising, unprecedented and downright mind-boggling than the lone Best Actress nomination for Sally Kirkland in ANNA, a film that is practically mythical (especially since it is so hard to find). Kirkland herself is the stuff of legend. From bit parts in forgettable films where only her back faces the camera (A STAR IS BORN), she somehow strong-armed...
BREAKING NEWS - Broad Appeal Live Guest Lineup (Sat 17 Nov)
November 07, 2018 00:00 - 4 minutes - 2.83 MBHave we got news for you! And we promise it’s 100% guaranteed to please. Here, announced for the first time, is our lineup of all-star guests for Broad Appeal….. LIVE, coming to you on Sat 17th November at Hackney House in Shoreditch as part of Fringe! Queer Film & Art Fest. Tickets are FREE but there aren’t many of them so do be sure to book in advance at: www.fringefilmfest.com - SEE YOU THERE!
1987 - Holly Hunter in Broadcast News - BA057
October 25, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 49.8 MBPeriod dramas don't always feature big dresses and country mansions - in the case of BROADCAST NEWS ‘period’ means VHS tapes, chunky telephone receivers and something called the "nightly news." In the third installment of our 1987 Best Actress series, we look at Holly Hunter's first big leading role in James L. Brooks' weird and wordy romantic dramedy. The trifecta of almost likable characters are: Holly's scrappy news producer Jane; Albert Brooks' petulant, nebbishy reporter Aaron;...
1987 - Meryl Streep in Ironweed - BA056
October 11, 2018 00:00 - 53 minutes - 33.7 MBYou may be tempted to skip this episode… but don’t follow Brian’s bad example. That’s right, for the first time in the history of this podcast (and, in fact, his life) Brian Mullin hasn’t done his homework. And, believe us, Depression-era misery-fest IRONWEED does feel like homework. In the second of our 1987 Best Actress contenders, Meryl and Jack Nicholson are two alcoholic hoboes who are haunted by guilt, ghosts and grime. Pretty it isn’t, but Meryl gets to deliver both a song and...
1987 - Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction - BA055
September 27, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.8 MBGlenn, Meryl, Holly, Sally, Cher. Name a more iconic quintet... We begin a mini-series charting the five nominated actresses of the 1987 Oscars, starting with a film that epitomised Reagan-era Fear of Sex, but so indelibly that phrases like “bunny-boiling” still permeate our speech. Glenn Close plays Alex Forrest, the hyper-sexualised and independent woman whose fling with married man Michael Douglas got hot, then very, very heavy. And more than 30 years later the Broad Appeal boys...
Meryl Streep Baddest - She-Devil (w/ Michael Schulman) - BA054C
September 14, 2018 00:00 - 58 minutes - 40.5 MBI would like to talk about.... Mary. Fisher. In SHE-DEVIL, Streep gets her first attempt to do comedy. And like all first attempts, we have to accept that failing is sometimes inevitable. As a proto-Madeline Ashton, Streep gets to indulge her worst WASPy tendencies: pretty, privileged, tall and blonde. A formidable contrast to Roseanne Barr's dumpy, put-upon wife, right? Well... SHE-DEVIL is not so much a comedy as it is the idea of a comedy. Who knew a story of MS stealing Rosean...
Meryl Streep Badder - Doubt (w/ Michael Schulman) - BA054B
September 13, 2018 00:00 - 47 minutes - 32.3 MB21st Century Meryl: lauded, applauded… and impossible to rein in. Gone is the bloom of youth, replaced by overglazed ham. In a wimple. With a Bronx accent. John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama DOUBT set off sparks onstage, as a study in faith and ambiguity. Who should you trust: the progressive priest or the doctrinaire nun who accuses him of child abuse? In this stagey adaptation (filmed by the playwright himself, with plenty of wind and weather thrown in) the only u...
Meryl Streep Bad - Sophie's Choice (w/ Michael Schulman) - BA054
September 12, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.9 MBWhile there may be no such thing as the Greatest Living Actress, there is such thing as the Greatest Living Meryl Streep Aficionado, and that is Michael Schulman. Michael is not only the author of HER AGAIN: BECOMING MERYL STREEP and a writer at the New Yorker, he's also a big Broad Appeal Fan. He likes us, he really likes us. But does he like SOPHIE'S CHOICE? The revered Holocaust drama which won Streep her first Best Actress Oscar is mythologised and revered, but how many people ...
NOW, a warning?! - End of Summer Teaser
September 10, 2018 00:00 - 3 minutes - 2.19 MBCan we just say, there’s no such thing as the ‘best podcast’? There’s no such thing as the ‘greatest LIVING podcast’….? Oh, we can be such a tease! Summer is dwindling, and we’re back from vacation… almost. This is Seán & Brian saying hello again for the first time in months - with a couple of tiny hints about the next set of NEW episodes coming your way. xoxo
RE-ISSUE: The Bridges of Madison County - BA040
August 31, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 65.2 MB[Again, it's time to say goodbye to the summer holidays. But, unlike Robert Kincaid, we won't leave you with just some old issues of National Geographic... Instead we'll be back with NEW CONTENT very very soon. In the meantime, our last vintage episode in which a sensual summer romance brings out the very best in marvelous Meryl Streep.] The time has come: 12 books. 12 films. All of them read (by Brian). We conclude our magnum opus with THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, the insufferabl...
RE-ISSUE: Jackie Brown - BA039
August 16, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 55.5 MB[All too soon we'll be debating the merits of Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, so why don't we return to our discussion of a movie that we can all agree is actually his best?] An air hostess, a gun runner, a bail bondsman, a sun kissed dope-bunny and his boyfriend Brian... but enough about our holiday! Elmore Leonard's RUM PUNCH was adapted by Quentin Tarantino into JACKIE BROWN: a grown-up, low down, sly and slick piece of filmmaking. Tarantino, auteur and fanboy supreme...
RE-ISSUE: The Portrait of a Lady - BA028
August 02, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 59.6 MB[On our summer break we happened to be in Lucca, Italy - and we also happened to stumble across one of the actual palazzos that Nicole Kidman walks through in Jane Campion's film!! That seredipitous event indicated it was time to share this vintage episode from our literary adpatation series....] n which Brian & Seán read extended passages from Henry James and marvel at Barbara Hershey's collagen-injected lips. For the first in our series of female-driven literary adaptations, we t...
RE-ISSUE: Mermaids-BA019
July 19, 2018 00:00 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MB[There's one only exciting thing about MAMMA MIA 2.... MORE CHER! So, during our hiatus here's a classic look back at one of her previous summer releases.] A film about sexual sublimation, religious fervour, sisterhood and starring Winona Ryder... how has Brian never seen MERMAIDS (1990)?! Seán has, of course, because Cher. Winona is Charlotte Flax, the Jewish girl with a flare for romantic Catholicism who desperately tries to be the responsible one, sandwiched between her aquatic ...
RE-ISSUE: Male Gayz-Cruising-BA021
July 05, 2018 00:00 - 55 minutes - 51.2 MB[It's our summer hiatus, but it's also London Pride this weekend, so we're taking you into the backroom with Al Pacino and hundreds of horny men with a favorite vintage episode from our "Male Gayz" series!] Get your ass into cruise control, boys. Seán and Brian are back with our new miniseries - Broad Appeal: The Male Gayz. We've ditched the chicks and are hanging back with the brutes for seven whole episodes. We kick off with a re-evaluation of sleazy, sketchy and sloppy(?) sex-se...
RE-ISSUE: Contact - BA016
June 21, 2018 00:00 - 59 minutes - 54.7 MB[With Jodie Foster back in theatres with "Hotel Artemis," here's a summer hiatus flashback to one of our favorite past episodes... Are you OK to go????"] What's more plausible: the existence of God or intelligent alien life? Frankly, both are more believable than Jodie Foster's romance with Matthew McConaughey in CONTACT (1997). Jodie is Ellie Arroway, a scientist so brilliant and dedicated to her cause that no-one, and we mean no-one, seems to realise she might be an actual exper...
RE-ISSUE: Damage-BA014
June 07, 2018 00:00 - 52 minutes - 47.9 MB[During our summer hiatus, we're bringing you back to some of our favourite episodes from seasons past. After our last Good/Bad/Crazy, we thought we'd return to our first encounter with Juliette....] Juliette Binoche f**ks Jeremy Irons, but also f**ks him up in the British/French erotic drama "Damage" (1992). A tale of desire and obsession, this film by Louis Malle leaves us ruminating on our own sexual awakenings in cinema and searching through Greek myth, French existentialism, a...
Juliette Binoche Crazy - Mauvais Sang - BA053C
May 25, 2018 00:00 - 52 minutes - 35.7 MBIt’s 1986 and a sexually-transmitted retrovirus is killing off young people. A massive pharma company have a vaccine in development that they won’t release, until a band of misfits break in to liberate it… Sound familiar? It is and it isn’t. The sophomore feature from French enfant terrible Leos Carax is a heady, swoony, futuristic Nouvelle Nouvelle Vague oddity, for which (Carax’s then-girlfriend) Binoche garnered her first César nomination. The real star is the film’s ever-shifting...
Juliette Binoche Bad - Chocolat - BA052B
May 24, 2018 00:00 - 57 minutes - 39.6 MBSometimes a brown, gooey substance is sweet, delicious, even spiritual. But sometimes it’s actually just…. All the cacao in an ancient Mayan temple could not flavour this cynical, derivative Miramax joint from 2000 which somehow received five Oscar nominations, including BEST PICTURE??! Harvey Weinstein’s committed a lot of crimes, but aesthetically this one takes the fudge-filled (sludge-filled?) cake. Juliette is a mystical stranger who arrives in a fairytale French village - wher...
Juliette Binoche Good - Three Colours Blue - BA053
May 23, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 52.8 MBQuick: name an Oscar-winning actress who’s worked with both Godard AND Godzilla. THERE IS ONLY ONE. Having been on international screens for three decades, Juliette Binoche has matured more gracefully than a vintage Bourdeaux, acquired more ripe notes than a cave-aged Gruyère. Take a look at the whole career from the dewy, sexualized ingénue of DAMAGE to the earthy middle-aged diva of SILS MARIA, and it is clear: JB is the Actress of Actresses. She’s bared both her flesh and her sou...
Glenda Jackson Crazy - Salome's Last Dance - BA052C
May 11, 2018 00:00 - 46 minutes - 32.2 MBBy 1988, Glenda had made six films with Ken Russell including THE MUSIC LOVERS and WOMEN IN LOVE. But though Ken didn't quite have the clout he once did, Glenda was still loyal and totally game for this high-camp, theatrical, romp complete with loads of boobs, dildo-spears, and some baffling full frontal nudity. Glenda (braying, bilious and bejeweled from head to toe) is Herodias, second wife of Herod Antipas, who has the hots for his niece/step-daughter Salome, who in turn has the ...
Glenda Jackson Bad - A Touch of Class - BA052B
May 10, 2018 00:00 - 52 minutes - 36 MBYou know when the Academy gets it (horribly) wrong? Well, sorry Ms. Jackson, but this is one of those times. A TOUCH OF CLASS was one of the films that inspired Broad Appeal; we tuned in for a scathing 70’s satire of feminism and sexual mores starring one of our favorite actresses. Only to learn that the film is more like a juvenile TV sitcom that got to play its cancelled series out in one extended episode. Glenda plays Vicky Alessio, a rag trade divorcée who gets involved with bra...
Glenda Jackson Good - Sunday Bloody Sunday - BA052
May 09, 2018 00:00 - 59 minutes - 41 MBShe's served you withering stares on screen as well as in the constituency of Hampstead and Highgate. Of course we’re talking about Glenda Jackson MP, who as far as we know is the only British politician whose own boobs were used against her by the opposition. Glenda's place is in our hearts and in the House of Commons, but also firmly in 1970s cinema history. With two Oscars wins within four years, her career symbolised a potent change in roles for women. Nestled between her two aw...
Cate Blanchett Crazy - Hanna - BA051C
April 27, 2018 00:00 - 35 minutes - 24.5 MBWith an actress of a particular brilliance there's a special register of performance called "good-bad" acting. That's right, GOOD and BAD at exactly the same time (for more examples of this, please check out Meryl Streep's entire body of work post-DEVIL WEARS PRADA). In the case of Cate, we have HANNA. A frenetic, baffling, high-octane and enjoyable thriller with our favourite Irish cailín, Saoirse Ronan, out there breaking people's necks like all girls do at that age. In Blanchett'...
Cate Blanchett Bad - Veronica Guerin - BA051B
April 26, 2018 00:00 - 44 minutes - 30.4 MBIt is said that every Irish person remembers where they were when crusading journalist Veronica Guerin was killed. But when the Cate Blanchett movie about Veronica was released, it seems that not enough people remembered to go to the cinema… Despite being a Jerry Bruckheimer/Joel Schumacher Hollywood production, the film has some estimable Irish credentials: authentic Dublin locations, an impeccable accent from Cate… and Brenda feckin’ Fricker as her Mam!!! Not so much a “bad” movie...
Cate Blanchett Good - Elizabeth - BA051
April 25, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBCategory is: Greatest Living Actress. For all the Meryls, Juliannes and Sally Kirklands, there's another whose name gets on that list. She's Galadriel, she's Carol Aird, heck she's even Bob Dylan! She's Cate Blanchett. Brian is a sucker for a plummy mid-Atlantic accent. Seán is hesitant. Or is he? He really can't remember, either way he saw the CHARLOTTE GREY trailer way too many times. In her breakthrough role as Queen Elizabeth Numero Uno, Blanchett has notes of Streep, a hint of ...
Julia Roberts Crazy - Sleeping with the Enemy - BA050C
April 13, 2018 00:00 - 48 minutes - 33.2 MBCrazy has many meanings, and in SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY it’s what young wife Laura (Julia Roberts) discovers her husband to be when he obsesses over the arrangement of hand towels or the alignment of canned goods. But hubby Martin (Patrick Bergen) is more than just slightly OCD: he’s a violent psychopath and Julia must fake her own death to escape him. In her first big starring role after her breakout success, Julia is a woman in jeopardy - putting on aliases, wigs and even a fake m...
Julia Roberts Bad - Eat Pray Love - BA050B
April 12, 2018 00:00 - 47 minutes - 32.4 MBWhen the 21st century bourgeoisie are lined up along the barricades and made to pay for their crimes, Julia, Ryan Murphy and (most of all) Elizabeth Gilbert better hope that our proletarian overlords are feeling particularly generous. EAT PRAY LOVE was a pre-credit crunch piece of best-selling self-help travel porn that had the misfortune to be made into a film once the world had gone tits up. You know you’re in trouble when even America’s Sweetheart struggles to make a protagonist ...
Julia Roberts Good - Notting Hill - BA050
April 11, 2018 00:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBScience has proven that Julia Roberts’s smile shows more teeth than any other human’s (except possibly Brian’s). Is this the key to her movie star longevity? Quite possibly they got her her start. But something more must have kept this woman in our hearts for so many years. NOTTING HILL attempts to answer this question and many more. An awkward Brit bookshop-owner (Hugh Grant) is unexpectedly snogged by a movie star who seems very much like Julia Roberts (Julia Roberts). What follow...
Angela Bassett Crazy - Strange Days - BA049C
March 30, 2018 00:00 - 55 minutes - 38 MBWhat do you get when you combine ultra violence, a political metaphor and a kick-ass heroine? The answer? A Seán Film. Also known as STRANGE DAYS, from the mind of visionary director Kathryn Bigelow and bonkers ex-hubby James Cameron. The year is 1999. People are scared. They're jacking in to a weird bootleg neuro-hardware called SQUID. And like the internet, it begins as a bit of fun, then becomes porno and ends up as a toxic, racist, hate-dump. Only (sexy!) Ralph Fiennes and a ku...
Angela Bassett Bad - Vampire in Brooklyn - BA049B
March 29, 2018 00:00 - 49 minutes - 34.2 MBSometimes the worst films make some of the best conversations, and boy, did Brian loathe VAMPIRE IN BROOKLYN. We can spread the blame around: Eddie Murphy's ego, the insistent racial stereotyping (of African-Americans AND Italians!), the half-dozen writers who couldn’t decide on a tone, or even usual maestro of horror Wes Craven who was clearly having an off-day. In fact, the only person not culpable is Angela Bassett, once again showing full commitment when battling the ludicrous ...
Angela Bassett Good - Waiting to Exhale - BA049
March 28, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 43.6 MBThere are few actresses who have the level of commitment and intensity of Angela Bassett - both for every role she's in, as well as to that hunky husband of hers. And while Auntie Angela may be giving regal fish and smashing box office records everywhere in Black Panther, there is a whole lotta history to this woman's career. In 1995, following her iconic breakthrough as Tina Turner, it was #1 box office hit WAITING TO EXHALE that positioned Miss B. as a woman to be reckoned with. T...
Barbra Streisand Crazy - A Star is Born - BA048C
March 16, 2018 00:00 - 51 minutes - 35.6 MBA vast meteor, hurtling toward our planet, but sparing us total destruction: so, too, is Barbra Streisand’s A STAR IS BORN. A stratospheric arrival that leads ineluctably to total self-immolation. Somewhere in between THE STONEY END and TELL HIM (feat. Celine Dion) was a period where Barbra was "hip", "groovy" and "totally far out". Even Barbra must have a few lost years - this would explain her relationship to illiterate hairdresser Jon Peters, mastermind behind some of Barbra's w...
Barbra Streisand Bad - Nuts - BA048B
March 15, 2018 00:00 - 42 minutes - 29.3 MBHow much would you pay for a blowjob? Somewhere in excess of $500? No? Well, wait till you hear who's giving them... NUTS is a film that could also just be called BAD, in which suspension of disbelief only takes you so far. Good luck believing that Barbra Streisand is a prostitute, that she is potentially mentally incompetent or even that the walls of the courtroom are not made of cardboard. While Seán and Brian may have little praise for the film, it doesn't mean they don't have A ...
Barbra Streisand Good - The Way We Were - BA048
March 14, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour - 45.8 MBShe kept her clothes and kept her space. She kept her nose to spite her face! Who else could it be but BARBRA? Simply, Barbra. Long before she was in the business of cloning domestic mammals, Barbra Streisand was an ACTRESS. And in today's unequivocally good film, THE WAY WE WERE, Babs sparkles as Katie Morosky: The earnest agitprop campus leftie who has eyes for hunky blonde, Hubbell Gardner, the only WASP known to make sweet, sweet honey. Charting the romance of two ideologically ...
2017 Oscar Actress Edition - Part 2 - BA047B
March 02, 2018 00:00 - 47 minutes - 32.6 MB"A mother on a quest for vengeance. A strong and silent heroine. A young woman on the cusp of adulthood. A publisher with the ultimate choice to make. Tonya Harding. Here are the five extraordinary women nominated for Best Actress" - Sharon Stone, in our fantasies. Join us for Part 2 of our Actress Oscar Special. Clips from the film presented according to fair use policy. Podcast Theme: "Pipeline" by CyberSDF (https://soundcloud.com/cybersdf/tracks).
2017 Oscar Actress Edition - Part 1 - BA047A
March 01, 2018 00:00 - 55 minutes - 37.9 MBAfter a short hiatus of watching films strictly for pleasure and not taking any notes during movies, we're back! And what a time to be alive - it's Oscar week! Seán and Brian take on the only categories that matter: Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. And in our typical style, this simple conversation has turned into two episodes. Join us for Part 1 as we talk Mary J., Leslie, Octavia, Allison and (swoon) Laurie. Any guess who our favourite is? Clips from the film presented ...
Emma Thompson Crazy - The Tall Guy - BA046C
December 22, 2017 00:00 - 43 minutes - 30.1 MBThe year is 1989. “Bad” communism is coming to an end, Europe is breaking into new nation states, Seán is being born and Emma Thompson is telling the world she is an absolute star in THE TALL GUY. After garroting Richard Curtis in the last episode, he gets an odd free pass here by helping create a strikingly independent female character in Emma's Kate Tampon Lemon. The film is a cluttered and creaking 80s romantic comedy, somewhere between Slaves of New York and A Chorus Line (i.e. f...
Emma Thompson Bad - Love Actually - BA046B
December 21, 2017 00:00 - 59 minutes - 40.6 MBHere at Broad Appeal we have the perfect gift for you: A foaming-at-the-mouth screed about one of the most repugnant little films masquerading as entertainment! Were it not for Emma Thompson, who brings an emotional weight to an entirely undeserving film, LOVE ACTUALLY would be consigned to the dust-bin of history. Also in that bin is every skeezy boss who ever creeped on his staff, political figures who think they can get away with anything, lad culture, and all “awkward” weirdos wh...
Emma Thompson Good - Sense and Sensibility - BA046
December 20, 2017 00:00 - 1 hour - 49.5 MBYou may be yin, and I may be yang, but we can all agree on Emma Thompson. For some, she is the queen of 90s prestige filmmaking, for others (i.e. Brian) she is a role model, an idol, a way of life. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (which Em wrote and starred in) takes 18th century English manners and deconstructs them through the Taiwanese lens of director And Lee. The story of wildly disparate sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood certainly left its impact on your wildly disparate hosts. For Br...
Judi Dench Crazy - Notes on a Scandal - BA045C
December 08, 2017 00:00 - 47 minutes - 32.5 MBDon't you just love it when the bourgeoisie debase themselves? In what is undoubtedly a masterpiece in malice, Judi delivers her best performance ever in NOTES ON A SCANDAL. She is Barbara Covett, a petrified husk of an educator, who believes that Sapphic machinations form the basis of any good friendship. And yet even Dench's detestability is put to the test by Cate Blanchett's Sheba Hart: performing youth outreach in the form of sexual favours offered to the underaged. NOTES ON A S...
Judi Dench Bad - Tea with Mussolini - BA045B
December 07, 2017 00:00 - 35 minutes - 24.1 MBWhat do you get when you combine Judi Dench, Cher, Maggie Smith, Lily Tomlin and someone called Joan Plowright with a bunch of hot Italian men, World War II and a healthy dose of fascism? The answer... practically nothing. TEA WITH MUSSOLINI is exactly the kind of film you'd expect from a right-wing homosexual, wistfully recounting his misspent youth amongst delightfully polite blackshirts. Maggie sympathises, Joan frets, Cher is rich and Judi goes gaga for her pooch. Even if the fil...
Judi Dench Good - Philomena - BA045
December 06, 2017 00:00 - 58 minutes - 40.2 MBHere at Broad Appeal we try and avoid all honorific titles and that includes “national treasure”. But as it turns out, Judi Dench has earned these platitudes: regal imperiousness is her USP! To say her range is limited to the odd monarch or head of MI6, however, is to do her a disservice. PHILOMENA may look like the perfect film to watch with your aunt, but like The Dench herself, it's far more than that. Judi D. plays the titular Phil, an Irish woman who for years kept a secret clos...
Jennifer Lopez Crazy - The Boy Next Door - BA044C
November 24, 2017 00:00 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBJENNIFER LOPEZ IS A GENIUS. Who else could've spun box office gold from this laughable material and turned it into... the ultimate guilty pleasure? JLo is a suburban Mom (and Classics teacher!) whose ill-advised jones for jailbait comes back to haunt her, and then some. Don'tcha hate it when the neighbor boy with the rock-hard abs turns out to be a psychopath? Achilles never raged as vengefully as this horny hunk who becomes hell-bent on destroying her family unit. This is Fatal Att...