A place to think deeply about movies
On the podcast, we discuss the recent BFI restoration of Mike Leigh’s 1993 classic Naked, starring David Thewlis. We also discuss our favourite Mike Leigh films. Podcast hosts Alex Heeney and Orla Smith are joined by regular guest Lindsay Pugh.
On this episode of the podcast, we discuss the two features of Quebecois filmmaker Pascal Plante, Fake Tattoos and Nadia, Butterfly. Plante is an expert at depicting turning points in his characters’ lives and how they deal with major upheaval.
This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh.
Set in Montreal, Theo (Anthony Therrien) and the one-year-older Meg (Rose-Marie Perreault) meet on his eighteenth birthday in line at a diner after they both attended the same concert. They talk, have sex, and then negotiate a romantic relationship with an expiration date. Theo is moving away in two weeks, so they decide to make the most of it, and slowly but surely, we learn why it’s so urgent for Theo to leave town.
Fake Tattoos is on VOD in Canada and France
Set during the now fictional 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the film follows elite swimmer Nadia (2016 Olympic bronze medalist swimmer Katerine Savard) during her final competition as a professional athlete, and the aftermath of that loss. The film takes place over just a few days in Tokyo, begins with her final races, and then becomes about what it means for her to be ending this part of her life to go on to become a doctor, and in turn, leaving her best friend and fellow swimmer Marie-Pierre (Ariane Mainville) behind.
Nadia, Butterfly is on VOD in Canada
On this podcast episode, we discuss the two features of Swedish filmmaker Magnus von Horn: his latest, Sweat, and his first feature from 2015, The Here After, with particular focus on how empathy is so crucial to his work.
The Magnus von Horn podcast episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh.
The Here After is the story of John (played by Ulrik Munther), a teenage boy who has just been released from juvenile detention and must find a way to reintegrate into his family and community in rural Sweden. The John we meet is quiet, sensitive, and sweet, but it’s slowly revealed that he was in juvie because he killed his ex-girlfriend. Everyone in the town is either afraid of him or hates him, and even his father, who clearly loves him, doesn’t know how to give him the support and care he needs. John is extremely isolated, but still attempts to go back to school, with many difficulties, develops a romance with a new girl in town, and tries to rebuild a his relationship with his father.
The Here After is streaming on MUBI UK
Set over the course of just a few days, Sweat follows social media influencer and fitness enthusiast Sylwia (Magdalena Kolesnik), as she navigates the challenges of her job and personal life. She lives alone in Warsaw in a nice apartment, and spends most of her time alone and feeling lonely, despite her 600,000 adoring instagram followers. She’s always the centre of attention but nobody is really interested in the real her — not her mother, her date, or her fans. As she picks up her mother’s birthday gift, attends her mother’s birthday party, picks up a man at a club, and prepares for her breakfast television appearance, she deals with a stalker, and her conflicting desires for attention at any cost.
Sweat is streaming on MUBI worldwide.
To celebrate our 100th episode, ten regular guests share what they would choose if they got to make the whole world watch one movie.
On this Seventh Row Podcast episode, we celebrate Mother’s Day with the queen of on-screen mothers, Chantal Akerman, and her films Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and Les Rendez-vous d’Anna.
This Chantal Akerman podcast episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh.
Akerman’s breakthrough feature, Jeanne Dielman, follows a single mother’s household labour routine, showing chores and food preparation in real-time, set over the course of three days.
Jeanne Dielman is available on VOD, DVD/Blu-ray, and is streaming on The Criterion Channel in Canada and the US
Anna (Aurore Clément) is a filmmaker, travelling through West Germany, Belgium, and France to screen her new film. Along the way she meets various connections from her past, including her mother, most of whom talk at her, rather than with her.
Les Rendez-vous d’Anna is available on DVD and is streaming on The Criterion Channel in Canada and the US
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This podcast episode explores two wonderful 2020 dramedies, Spinster and The Forty-Year-Old Version, about women who find themselves at a personal and career crossroads as they approach forty.
This episode is a Seventh Row members exclusive, as are all episodes older than six months. Click here to become a member.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, and Contributing Editor Lindsay Pugh.
From our review: “The funny, smart, wildly entertaining The Forty-Year-Old Version is among other things, an exploration of how difficult it is for a marginalised creator to be authentic to their own voice and get paid. Blank, a playwright herself, writes the on-screen Radha as a playwright living in Harlem who won a 30 Under 30 award 10 years ago and now struggles to catch a break. She’s torn about the fate of her new play, Harlem Ave: either keep it in limbo at a small, underfunded Black-owned theatre, or sell out to big Broadway producer Josh Whitman (Reed Birney), who wants to sanitise the play for white audiences.” Read the full review.
The Forty-Year-Old Version is streaming on Netflix worldwide.
From the introduction to our interview with Andrea Dorfman: “In the press notes for Spinster, director Andrea Dorfman describes it as a film that ‘tells a story of someone who isn’t always seen — in this case, the single woman.’ Single women in films are usually partnered up by the end of the story. Spinster has been marketed as an ‘anti rom-com’, because even though it’s a heartwarming comedy about a woman’s relationships, the script steadfastly maintains that heroine Gaby (Chelsea Peretti) doesn’t need romantic love to be happy.
The film begins on Gaby’s 39th birthday and ends on her 40th; in between, we watch her realise that romantic love isn’t the be all and end all of her existence, as romantic comedies so often paint it to be. At first, Gaby is actively seeking a man, even after a series of thoroughly disappointing dates. But throughout the film, she learns that by working on strengthening the non-romantic relationships in her life, she can find joy outside of romantic love.” Read the full interview.
Spinster is available on VOD, and streaming on Prime in the US.
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