Seventh Row

A place to think deeply about movies

Michael Snydel podcast

/

Ep. 74: Best of 2020

Seventh Row editors Alex Heeney and Orla Smith discuss the best films of 2020, with help from some special guests.

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

Clockwise from top left: City Hall (Frederick Wiseman), Monkey Beach (Loretta Todd), First Cow (Kelly Reichardt), and Spinster (Andrea Dorfman)

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney and Executive Editor Orla Smith

Special guests:

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.

Show notes

  • Listen to our podcast episode from July on the best of 2020 (so far)
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring Ammonite
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring Another Round
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring The Assistant
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring City Hall
  • Listen our podcast episode featuring First Cow
  • Preview or purchase our ebook Roads to nowhere Kelly Reichardt’s broken American dreams, featuring essays on all of her films and in-depth interviews with Reichardt and her collaborators on First Cow
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring First Stripes
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring I Used to Go Here
  • Read Alex’s review with Monkey Beach director Loretta Todd
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring Monkey Beach
  • Listen to our podcast episode about Never Rarely Sometimes Always and abortion on screen.
  • Preview or purchase our ebook Portraits of resistance: The cinema of Céline Sciamma
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring Proxima
  • Read Orla’s interview with Proxima director Alice Winocour
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring Rustic Oracle
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring Sibyl
  • Listen to our podcast episode featuring Sorry We Missed You
  • Read Orla’s interview with Spinster director Andrea Dorfman
  • Read our critic’s survey of the best films of 2020
  • Check out our Lockdown Film School sessions
  • Visit our merchandise store

For more on each of the films, including where to view them, please see our article Seventh Row picks the 30 best films of 2020

Read our other Best of 2020 articles

/

Ep. 67: Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris and City Hall

Frederick Wiseman’s long career exploring the functions of American institutions continues with his recent City Hall. On this episode, we contrast it with Ex Libris, considering how Wiseman’s films differ when looking at systems which function well and systems which are not working.

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

Left: The New York Public Library; Right: Boston City Hall

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and special guest Michael Snydel.

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.

Ex Libris: New York Public Library (2017)

Ex Libris will get you excited about the role of the library in contemporary society. Libraries are no longer merely buildings that house books. They are meeting places to discuss community issues and to get information delivered with passion straight from the experts. At the same time, the library is where people go to find answers to personal questions, from how to deal with a cancer diagnosis to tracking family history.

The New York Public Library is an especially interesting subject because not only does it have local branches across New York City, but it also has specialized branches with special collections. Wiseman visits the Performing Arts Library to see concerts and shows. At one branch, people are creating audio versions of books to make the library’s collection more widely accessible. And at branches in low income neighbourhoods, community outreach programs for tutoring are especially important. By giving us wide shots of each branch’s exterior and interior, we learn about the context of the proceedings we see and how this supports the community – Alex Heeney

City Hall (2020)

Wiseman’s most recent film explores the numerous ways municipal government interacts with a city. From Mayor Marty Walsh’s pitches to developers to holding public meetings about cannabis stores, from sports championship parades to pest control inspection, Wiseman looks at all the angles.

Show notes

  • Purchase our Documentary Masters ebook, featuring interviews with Wiseman on National Gallery (2014), In Jackson Heights (2015), and Ex Libris (2017). The book also features interviews with Joshua Oppenheimer, Hubert Sauper, Sophie Fiennes, Gianfranco Rosi, Steve James, Penny Lane, Chris Hegedus, D. A. Pennebaker, and Alanis Obomsawin.
  • Listen to our “Look back at TIFF 2020” episode, where Angelo Muredda named City Hall his favourite film of the festival
  • Read Alex’s interview with Wiseman on Monrovia, Indiana
  • Listen to Michael on The Film Stage

Where to watch the films

Ex Libris is available to stream on Kanopy in the US and Canada. You can also purchase a region-free DVD or Blu Ray of the film here.

City Hall is available to stream on Kanopy in the US and Canada. You can also purchase a region-free DVD or Blu Ray of the film here.

Subscribe to the podcast

/

Ep. 35: The Invisible Man and Unsane

On the podcast, we compare and contrast two recent horror films about women and their stalkers: Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane (2018) and Leigh Wannell’s The Invisible Man (2020).

Stills from the films Unsane (left) and the Invisible Man (right) which we compare and contrast on the podcast.
Stills from the films Unsane (left) and the Invisible Man (right) which we compare and contrast on the podcast.

Michael Snydel from The Film Stage Show joins the entire Seventh Row editorial team: Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and Editor-at-Large Mary Angela Rowe for this episode. We discuss internal versus external horror, genre conventions, Chekhov’s Diazepam, and much more.

In Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018), stalking victim Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) unknowingly signs a form voluntarily committing herself to a psychiatric facility. Once there, the facility traps her in an insurance fraud scheme designed to ensure everyone stays there as long as their insurance will pay. And worse, one of the orderlies appears to be her stalker, David Strine (Joshua Leonard).

Blumhouse’s re-imagined The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell, 2020) follows Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), who escapes from her abusive relationship with optics engineer Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Two weeks later, Adrian seemingly dies by suicide suicide. But shortly after, actions that could only be explained by the presence of an invisible man begin ruining Cecilia’s life.

  • Read Alex’s essay on Claire Foy’s performance in Unsane.
  • For much more on Unsane and other feminist horror, purchase or preview our ebook Beyond Empowertainment: Feminist Horror and the Struggle for Female Agency.
  • Listen to The Film Stage Show‘s episode on The Invisible Man.
  • Check out all the rest of The Film Stage Show‘s episodes, including one on Portrait of a Lady on Fire, featuring Alex.