This movie went from zero to “might win J.Lo an Oscar” in no time at all. As a woman-directed female-led crime story, we couldn’t wait to see it.

Silver Screen Queens

334: Hustlers

We didn’t really want to watch this, but we absolutely had to be part of the conversation. When people start maligning our much-loved comic book movies and thinking they can do it better, we need to get in there and see for ourselves. Joaquin Phoenix plays this (apparently) grittier, more realistic version of the Joker, directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips, trying to reinvent himself as an auteur. Did it deserve the top prize at Venice? We discuss.

333: Joker

In 2018, documentary filmmaker Rachel Lear’s followed four non-traditional female candidates for the congressional primaries. One of those candidates was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and so this film has a ringside seat to the rise of one of the most exciting new progressive voices of our age.

332: Knock Down the House

Brad Pitt is getting some later-career Oscar buzz for this performance as a lone astronaut journeying across the solar system to find his missing dad. We love a good sci-fi, and that premise had us intrigued.

331: Ad Astra

This new Netflix sci-fi may be only a middling look at motherhood, but less than 24 hours after this episode was recoded, Mel gave birth. Starring Hillary Swank, newcomer Clara Rugaard and a robot voiced by Rose Byrne, this film tells the story of a robot raising human children in a secure facility designed to repopulate the ruined Earth. Shot in 30 days in South Australia, with an able assist from New Zealand’s Weta, we thought it was worth our time. Now we also wonder if it had prophetic powers.

330: I Am Mother

The second half of Stephen King’s IT gets the big budget, big star treatment (and nearly three hours of run time).

329: It Chapter 2

Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal and Ben Affleck in a Netflix movie? As former special forces soldiers taking on South American drug lords? Count us in! A new instalment of the long-running ‘Katie watches Oscar Isaac’s entire filmography’ series.

328: Triple Frontier

Mindy Kaling gave Emma Thompson the great gift of this role as the host of a long-running late night show facing oblivion as her show nears three decades on air. Kaling takes her expert-level rom-com game and applies it here to the story of a diversity hire in a white, male world, taking us on a tour of how race and gender play out in Hollywood with a comedic touch. Please also enjoy the dulcet tones of baby burbling as Mel recorded this episode with her seven week old daughter strapped to her chest.

327: Late Night

SSQ fave Randall Park teams up with comedian Ali Wong to make a Netflix comedy about a high-flying chef reunited with her stuck-in-high-school childhood best friend after a long absence. Featuring a buzzy Keanu Reeves cameo, we had to give it a go.

326: Always Be My Maybe

Chris Pine in a Netflix movie! Where he gets naked! Sign us up! Our favourite Starfleet Captain/Superhero Love Interest/Indie Darling takes on the juicy role of 12th century rebel Scottish leader Robert the Bruce, ably supported by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Tony Curran, and reteaming with Hell or High Water director David Mackenzie.

325: Outlaw King

The Fast & Furious franchise gives its two biggest stars their own spin-off, and finally teams The Rock with Jason Statham (ably assisted by Idris Elba and Vanessa Kirby). The explosions are as big as the muscles as car nerdery gives way to more generic, physics-denying stunts, exotic locations and showy cameos as Universal wrings every last dollar out of their superhero franchise.

324: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw

Disney’s nostalgia goldmine continues to deliver with a live-action (CGI-action?) remake of everyone’s childhood favourite The Lion King, directed by friend of the pod Jon Favreau. How long will they keep making these? Are we part of the problem for giving them attention? Did Mel really take her two-week old to a screening? the answers are: until it becomes unprofitable, maybe, and yes.

323: The Lion King (2019)

We missed this highly-regarded film from Korean director Park Chan-Wook (director of one of our oft-overlooked favourites, Stoker) because it missed out on an Australian release back in 2016. Based on an English novel, it tells the story of two women brought together in unusual circumstances in Japanese-ruled Korea in the 1930s. We finally caught it on Netflix in 2018.

322: The Handmaiden

Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man takes Europe, and helps Marvel audiences recover from the Endgame! We were a little late in getting this episode out, due to the small matter of the arrival of a new human.

321: Spider-Man: Far From Home

This reboot of DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS arrived with little fanfare, but the involvement of Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson meant we were all over it!

320: The Hustle

Melissa Savage and Katie Molloy met in film class, and haven’t been able to stop talking movies ever since. Each week they watch a movie and review it, stopping to make plenty of nerdy references along the way.

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Silver Screen Queens

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