Seventh Row

A place to think deeply about movies

Lena Wilson podcast

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Ep. 113: About Time and I’m Your Man: Sci-fi love stories

This week on the podcast, we discuss two sci-fi-ish romantic comedies, Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man, which was one of our favourite films from the Berlinale earlier this year, and Richard Curtis’ About Time, about which we have complicated feelings.

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This week on the podcast we discuss About Time (left: featuring Domhnall Gleeson & Rachel McAdams) and I’m Your Man (right: featuring Dan Stevens and Maren Eggert).

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and staff writer Lena Wilson.

About Time (Richard Curtis, 2013)

Domhnall Gleeson stars as Tim, a sweet but awkward man looking for love. On his 21st birthday, his father, played by Bill Nighy, informs him that the men in their family can travel back in time to moments in their lives to redo them or just relive them. Tim decides to use this newfound power to try to find himself a girlfriend, with his tactics varying from well-meaning to manipulative to not really understanding how relationships work. Eventually, he meets and falls in love with Mary (Rachel McAdams) and the film becomes about the limits to time travel and redoing your life once you’ve made major life decisions, like having children. Like most Richard Curtis films, the romance is kind of the Macguffin, because this is really the story of the love between a father and son and an excuse to have a cast of supporting characters, here played by folks like Tom Hollander, Tom Hughes, Vanessa Kirby, Margot Robbie, Richard E. Grant, Richard Griffiths, and Joshua Maguire.

About Time is available on VOD, and streaming on Netflix in the US

I’m Your Man (Maria Schrader, 2021)

Synopsis: Cuneiform researcher Alma (Maren Eggert) is asked to test out a new AI robot, Tom (Dan Stevens), who has been designed to be her perfect man. For three weeks, he’ll live with her and learn from her, and at the end, she’ll write a report about the experience, evaluating what he’s like as a partner. She’s annoyed by the inconvenience, and decided to put him up in her spare room, treat him unkindly like a robot, and hope he’ll leave her alone. But when she faces a major loss in her career, while still grieving from personal loss, she decides to take comfort in Tom, and has to deal with how that conflicts with her personal values.

I’m Your Man is available on VOD in Canada and the US, and on Curzon Home Cinema in the UK.

Show Notes

  • Read Alex’s review of I’m Your Man
  • Register for The Seventh Circle, a symposium on gender, sexuality, and disability in horror cinema.
  • Sign up for updates on the first book to ever be published on the films of Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier

Related Episodes

  • Ep. 110: Brief encounters: Weekend and End of the Century
  • Ep. 92: Commodifying Women: Sugar Daddy and An Easy Girl
  • Ep. 89: Coming of Age at Forty: Spinster and The Forty-Year-Old Version
  • Ep. 73: Explorations of rape culture in Promising Young Woman and The Assistant (Members Only)
  • Ep. 61: Toxic male privilege in The Riot Club and What Richard Did (Members Only)

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Ep. 110: Weekend and End of the Century: Brief encounters

We finally discuss Andrew Haigh’s Weekend on the podcast. To celebrate the film’s 10th anniversary, we are going into detail on the film and discussing another great film about a brief encounter between gay men, End of the Century.

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Top: Tom Cullen and Chris New in Weekend; Bottom: Juan Barberini and Ramón Pujol in End of the Century

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and staff writer Lena Wilson.

We discuss Weekend (Andrew Haigh, 2011) on the podcast

Russell (Tom Cullen) unexpectedly spends a weekend talking to, having sex with, and getting to know Glen (Chris New), an artist he picks up at a club for sex — in exchange for a conversation about it that Glen will tape the next day and use as part of an art installation. Glen is moving to America at the end of the weekend, so their connection is inherently fleeting. But it sparks a sea change. Their discussions about coming out and past flings are the first time we see that Russell really yearns for a partner and for romance. Glen pushes Russell out of his comfort zone, challenging him to enter spaces he wouldn’t otherwise — emotionally and physically.

Weekend is available on VOD, and streaming on the Criterion Channel in Canada and the US and BFI Player in the UK

We also discuss End of the Century (Lucio Castro, 2019) on the podcast

Lucio Castro’s directorial debut, End of the Century, starts out like an Iberian sequel to Weekend, only to become a kind of post-modern exploration of love, sex, intimacy, and possible lives. Two men repeatedly cross paths in Barcelona and eventually, after what one of them refers to as a “chess game” of sending signals, fall into bed together. Ocho, an Argentinian poet (Juan Barberini) who makes his living in advertising in New York City, is renting an AirBnB in the city for a vacation; Javi (Ramon Pujol) is a local. Intimate conversation follows the sex, and the long, uninterrupted takes feel like familiar territory. But when Javi drops that they have actually met before, we suddenly cut quickly back in time for the film’s second act: to that meeting a decade previously, when they spent a day together, sharing stories, looking at art, and possibly going to bed together. 

End of the Century is available on VOD, and streaming on BFI Player in the UK

Show Notes for Weekend and End of the Century

  • Purchase our ebook on Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete, which includes an essay on home in all of Haigh’s films.
  • Weekend was our 5th favourite film of the 2010s. See the other choices.
  • Read our list of 25 unsung queer cinema treasures, featuring End of the Century
  • Stay tuned to the site for more coverage of Weekend this week
  • Ep. 96: Girlhood and compulsory heterosexuality: Water Lilies and Jennifer’s Body
  • Ep. 94: Looking
  • Ep. 91: AIDS on screen, featuring It’s a Sin
  • Ep. 69: Paddington and Paddington 2 (Members Only)
  • Ep. 66: Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country and Ammonite (Members Only)
  • Ep. 29: Films about finite romance (Members Only)
  • Ep. 7: Lean on Pete (Members Only)

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Ep. 106: Christine and Kate Plays Christine: Reviving Christine Chubbuck

We discuss Christine and Kate Plays Christine, a fiction and documentary film about Christine Chubbuck. We ask, what’s the value of telling a story in fiction versus nonfiction?

This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.

Left: Rebecca Hall as Christine Chubbuck; Right: Kate Lyn Sheil as Kate Playing Christine

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and special guest Lena Wilson.

Want to listen to the episode?

Click here to become a Seventh Row member and get access to this episode, as well as all other podcast episodes older than six months.

Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)

Christine follows Christine Chubbuck, played by Rebecca Hall, in the weeks leading up to her death. At the news station where she works, her boss Mike, played by Tracy Letts, is pressuring the reporters to favour blood and guts television over less sensationalised news stories, which Christine prefers. As the pressure mounts at work, in Christine’s romantic life, and with her relationship with her mother, she eventually comes to the decision to kill herself on air.

Christine is streaming on Netflix in Canada, Hulu in the US, and is available on VOD in Canada, the US, and the UK

Kate Plays Christine (Robert Greene, 2016)

 For his documentary Kate Plays Christine, Robert Greene has created a fictional construction — that he’s shooting a fiction film about Christine Chubbuck — in which to make a documentary film about an actor’s process. He follows Kate Lyn Sheil, who will be playing Christine, as she attempts to understand the woman she’s playing and get into character. Through costume and wig fittings, and interviews with experts and people who knew Chubbuck, Sheil gets increasingly frustrated by her inability to totally understand the woman and why she did what she did. She also gets frustrated by the movie she’s preparing to star in, wondering why it exists in the first place?

Kate Plays Christine is streaming on Kanopy in Canada, Hoopla and Fandor in Canada and the US, and is available on VOD in Canada, the US, and the UK

On this episode

  • Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film (2:34)
  • Why we paired these films and the Christine Chubbuck story (5:18)
  • The mid-2010s trend of men making movies about how bad men oppress women (10:04)
  • Christine (15:16)
  • Rebecca Hall’s performance (21:50)
  • The strange questions the film asks (30:50)
  • The Florida perspective (35:03)
  • The 1970s (38:35)
  • Kate Plays Christine (41:36)
  • The film’s ending (59:52)
  • Blame on authorship and viewership (1:07:51)
  • Conclusion (1:19:19)

Show notes

  • Purchase Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film for more on Robert Greene, the casting conceit in creative nonfiction, and much more.
  • Purchase tickets for August 29th’s livestream conversation between Robert Greene (Kate Plays Christine, Bisbee ‘17) and Joe Bini (editor of twenty-seven Werner Herzog films).
  • Read Alex’s interview with Penny Lane about Nuts!
  • Read Miriam Bale’s essay in The New Republic on Christine and Kate Plays Christine
  • Read why Kate Lyn Shiel gives one of the best performances of 2016.
  • Ep. 68: Mothers struggling with addiction in Hillbilly Elegy and Down to the Bone (Members Only)
  • Ep. 67: Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris and City Hall (Members Only)
  • Ep. 12: Hail Satan? featuring director Penny Lane (Members Only)

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Ep. 97: The films and TV of Desiree Akhavan

On this episode, we discuss the work of bisexual Iranian-American filmmaker Desiree Akhavan, who is best known for the films Appropriate Behaviour and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, as well as the TV shows The Slope and The Bisexual.

This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.

Left: Desiree Akhavan in Appropriate Behavior; Centre: Akhavan in The Bisexual; Right: Chloë Grace Moretz in The Miseducation of Cameron Post

The episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney. Executive Editor Orla Smith, and special guest Lena Wilson.

Want to listen to the episode?

Click here to become a Seventh Row member and get access to this episode, as well as all other podcast episodes older than six months.

On this episode

  • Why this episode (4:37)
  • Appropriate Behavior (9:14)
  • Akhavan’s great casting (12:23)
  • The Bisexual (13:02)
  • Bisexual identity (13:49)
  • Coming out narratives (36:44)
  • The Bisexual‘s emotional experience of casual sex (43:46)
  • Structure in Appropriate Behaviour and The Bisexual (48:50)
  • The Miseducation of Cameron Post (54:15)
  • Chloe Grace Moretz (1:22:18)

Appropriate Behavior (2014)

Appropriate Behaviour, which was released in 2014, follows Shirin, played by Desiree Akhavan. Shirin is a young bisexual woman in New York getting over a breakup with her ex-girlfriend Maxine, played by Rebecca Henderson. The film cuts between flashbacks to Shirin’s relationship with Maxine and the present day, where she’s trying to get her life together. That involves clumsily rejoining the dating scene, and switching careers from journalism to teaching preschool kids to make movies on GoPro cameras. In the film, we get a comedic insight into Shirin’s struggles dating as a bisexual woman, and her reluctance to come out to her Iranian family.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is based on Emily M. Danforth’s novel of the same name. It’s the ‘90s-set coming-of-age story of Cameron, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, a young teenage lesbian who is sent to a gay conversion therapy camp by her very Christian aunt. There she befriends misfits Jane and Adam, played by Sasha Lane and Forrest Goodluck. She also faces emotional abuse at the hands of the camp’s icy leader, Dr. Lydia Marsh, played by Jennifer Ehle, and her “ex-gay” brother turned camp counselor, Reverend Rick, played by John Gallagher Jr.

Desiree Akhavan episode notes

  • Read Lena’s 2018 review of The Bisexual on The Playlist
  • Read Orla’s interview with The Miseducation of Cameron Post DP Ashley Connor

Episodes 45 and 66, along with most episodes older than six months, are only available to Seventh Row members as part of the Premium Podcast feed. Membership is cheap and comes with a ton of benefits. Click here to find out more.

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Ep. 96: Water Lilies and Jennifer’s Body: Girlhood and compulsory heterosexuality

On this episode, we discuss two films about close female friendships between teenage girls — that may tip into sapphic love — and how they are affected when the girls are possessed by the patriarchy: Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies (2007) and Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body (2009).

This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.

Left: Megan Fox in Jennifer’s Body; Right Adèle Haenel and Pauline Acquart in Water Lillies

The episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney. Executive Editor Orla Smith, Editor-at-Large Mary Angela Rowe, and special guest Lena Wilson.

Want to listen to the episode?

Click here to become a Seventh Row member and get access to this episode, as well as all other podcast episodes older than six months.

On this episode

Water Lilies

  • What it was like watching Water Lilies in 2007 vs today, how the world has changed, and how our relationship to the film has changed
  • “Every lesbian on earth found out about who Celine Sciamma was last year” (-Lena)…but Lena and Alex were fans a decade ago!
  • How Water Lilies deals with girls and their relationship to their bodies
  • Why it’s a “rite of passage to be sexually harassed” as a young woman in our culture and how that’s depicted in the film
  • How Water Lilies depicts heteronormativity and the “rite of passage of losing your virginity” but privileges lesbian sex acts
  • Links between Water Lilies and Never Rarely Sometimes Always
  • How the film uses the images of synchronized swimming as a metaphor for performative femininity and what it is to be part of a group of girls
  • How the girls have internalised misogyny and participate in their own objectification
  • Why it matters that the actresses are very close in age to the girls and therefore look like children — especially in a film that is so much about their relationship to their bodies and how they are treated by others because of their bodies

Jennifer’s Body

  • What it was like getting in on the ground floor as Jennifer’s Body fans for Lena and Mary Angela
  • How Jennifer’s Body is a cultural artefact of its time, which makes it distinctly dated in certain ways
  • How Jennifer’s Body depicts a toxic codependent female friendship
  • Why the world wasn’t ready for Jennifer’s Body in 2009, and why there’s been a renaissance since
  • Why Adam Brody’s agent deserves a raise
  • How both films address sexual assault
  • How Jennifer’s Body deconstructs ‘the hot girl’
  • The blurry line between female friendship and desire and how cultural expectations of closeness as being sexual affect this
  • How both films depict confusing sexuality for the characters
  • How both films explore compulsory heterosexuality and how that confuses and hurts the girls

Water Lilies (Céline Sciamma, 2007)

Water Lilies follows Marie (Pauline Acquart), a shy teen who becomes infatuated by Floriane (Adèle Haenel), an incredibly cool and beautiful girl who is captain of the local synchronised swimming team. The film chronicles Marie’s attraction to Floriane, which may or may not be reciprocated, Floriane’s constant performance for the male gaze, and Marie’s relationship with her best friend Anne (Louise Blachère), who is going through her own sexual awakening.

Water Lilies is only available on out-of-print DVD so check eBay or your local library!

Jennifer’s Body (Karyn Kusama, 2009)

The setup of this film is, what would you do if your sort-of horrible best friend turned into a man-eating monster? Jennifer’s Body is about a lot of things, but mostly it’s about a kind of female friendship that many of us will find familiar — so close you almost want to climb into each other’s skins, but also haunted by a mutually-destructive and shifting imbalance of power. In the small town of Devil’s Kettle, dorky Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and beautiful Jennifer (Megan Fox) are unlikely best friends since the sandbox days. One day, an Indie rock band from New York visits their shitty small town, and the bar goes up in flames. Needy and Jennifer escape, but Jennifer goes off with the band’s lead singer, and when she comes back she’s… different. Needy discovers that her best friend Jennifer has become a literal maneater. It turns out that our band of indie rockers, thinking Jennifer is a virgin, sacrificed her to Satan in a ritual to gain fame and fortune. But Jennifer, who in her own words “isn’t even a back-door virgin anymore”, comes back as a succubus. As Needy says in a deleted scene, “You’re killing people!” and Jennifer responds, “No, I’m killing boys.”

Jennifer’s Body is streaming on Disney Plus in Canada and the UK and on Hulu in the US.

Episode notes

  • Purchase our book Portraits of resistance: The cinema of Céline Sciamma
  • Purchase our book Beyond empowertainment: Feminist horror and the struggle for female agency
  • Read Lena’s New York Times article on Jennifer’s Body, What Megan Fox Taught Me About the Power of Subversive Girls

Episodes 35 and 36, along with most episodes older than six months, are only available to Seventh Row members as part of the Premium Podcast feed. Membership is cheap and comes with a ton of benefits. Click here to find out more.