49. Cartel Land & Beasts of No Nation

This week, Danny and Sam eschew theatrical releases in favour of two harrowing explorations of systemic violence that are mainly available on demand - so viewers can despair at the pointless brutality of it all from the comfort of their own homes. Cartel Land is a documentary about two groups of vigilantes either side of the Mexico-US border, which features the most gut-wrenching narrative of power, corruption, and gang warfare this side of The Wire. Watch it on your streaming site of choice: http://www.cartellandmovie.co.uk/watchBeasts of No Nation is a similarly cheery, bubblegum affair about a child caught up ina a horrifying African civil war. Industry insider that he is, Danny read the script for this one back when it was in development. Did Cary Fukunaga and Idris Elba take his thoughtful script notes on board? Did they fuck. You can also watch Beast of No Nation on your streaming site of choice, as long as your choice is Netflix.When not grappling with international misery and chaos, Danny and Sam discuss more important topics such as whether Richard Curtis is a good choice to write The Little Mermaid; what a Face/Off-themed restaurant would be like; and why Hollywood has decided to follow up Exodus: Gods and Kinds with another blockbuster project set in ancient Egypt whose case is predominantly a very un-Egyptian shade of white.At the end, Idris Elba embarks on another ill-advised rapping project related to one of his movies. I'm not sure rapping is really for him. It just sounds wrong when he does it.Audio quality note: Katie's absence is still making itself felt, as the first 20 minutes or so of the podcast has a certain amount of background crackle that you'll probably notice if you're listening on good headphones. Power through as the crackle gremlins bugger off eventually.

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