The Smartest People in the Room

Episode 29 - Snot Is The Key

It's the beginning of a new year, and you know what that means: getting caught up on releases from the previous year for Best of 2025 lists and awards season! This week we talk about Dead Man's Wire (premiering this Friday, January 9!), Avatar: Fire and Ash, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Hamnet, Wake Up Dead Man, Marty Supreme, Train Dreams, and more! If you'd like to participate in Maddie's Female Filmmaker Challenge, you can find the guidelines here [https://boxd.it/Reo56]! Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers): * Dead Man’s Wire * Marty Supreme*, Train Dreams*, Hamnet*, Eddington, One Battle After Another, Wake Up Dead Man*, Sentimental Value*, Peter Hujar’s Day * Avatar: Fire and Ash*, F1, Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Irishman * If I Had Legs I’d Kick You*, Die My Love*, Nightbitch, Her Smell * Little Women (2019), Arrival * It Was Just An Accident, The Secret Agent, Resurrection, Safe * Knives Out, Glass Onion, Emma., Good Luck to You Leo Grande * The Smashing Machine * Bugonia*, Kinds of Kindness, Call Me By Your Name, Moonlight, Green Book, Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, Get Out, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Killers of the Flower Moon The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @yeah.boice and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://lagomorph-0.bandcamp.com/].

Episode 28 - My Friend Gwyneth? Paltrow?

Sorry it’s so late, but this week we discuss Sinners, The Phoenician Scheme, Brokeback Mountain, and the New York Times’ top movies of the century so far! (Episode recorded on 7/9/25). Maddie’s ballot: Mulholland Drive (2001), Spirited Away (2002), Margaret (2011), The Master (2012), Under the Skin (2014), Carol (2015), Moonlight (2015), Phantom Thread (2017), First Reformed (2018), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Rachel’s ballot: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Children of Men (2006), Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Silence (2016), There Will Be Blood (2007), Moneyball (2011), Ocean’s Eleven (2001), A Hidden Life (2019) Links: The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century - The New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/movies/best-movies-21st-century.html] Maddie’s Letterboxd list The America I Love [https://boxd.it/wNo4y] Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers): * Sinners*, Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever * The Odyssey (2026), Juror #2, Superman (2025), The Batman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Weapons, Wolf Man, The Royal Hotel * Brokeback Mountain, This Is Spinal Tap * The Phoenician Scheme, Asteroid City, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel * Parasite, Mulholland Drive, Memories of Murder, Bloody Nose Empty Pockets, Titane, Love Lies Bleeding, Spirited Away, Margaret, The Master, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, Under the Skin, Tár, The Zone of Interest, Moonrise Kingdom, Carol, Moonlight, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, I Saw the TV Glow, Phantom Thread, First Reformed, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Mad Max: Fury Road * Superbad, Children of Men, The Worst Person in the World, Michael Clayton, Fish Tank, Interstellar, The Gleaners & I, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Past Lives, Anchorman, Napoleon Dynamite, Everybody Wants Some!!, The Tree of Life, Aftersun, Everything Everywhere All At Once, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Ratatouille, Ocean’s Eleven, Spotlight, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, Silence, Gone Girl, The Irishman, Little Miss Sunshine, Inception, Pan’s Labyrinth,  Before Sunset, The Lives of Others, Almost Famous, Roma, Moneyball, Eephus, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Oldboy, Amélie, Ladybird, Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria (2018), A Serious Man, Bridesmaids, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, Arrival, The Dark Knight, Anatomy of a Fall, Her, Boyhood, Wolf of Wall Street, Zodiac, Y Tu Mamá También, Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, City of God, Inglourious Basterds, The Social Network, Get Out, Nope, Us, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, No Country for Old Men, In the Mood for Love The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @yeah.boice and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://lagomorph-0.bandcamp.com/].

Episode 27 - Spanish Has Been Such a Huge Part of Her Life

TW: eating disorders Last episode of 2024 and an important reminder that Rachel and Maddie are shrill feminist buzzkills with hater energy :) This episode we discuss Megalopolis, Emilia Pérez, Wicked, "live action" remakes of animated films, The Substance, and Conclave. Links: The episode of On Point that Rachel mentions: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/12/02/trump-authoritarianism-ruth-ben-ghiat-voters-strongmen [https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/12/02/trump-authoritarianism-ruth-ben-ghiat-voters-strongmen] Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers): * Megalopolis*, The Substance*, Emilia Pérez*, The Zone of Interest, TÁR, Joker: Folie à Deux, Honeyboy * Nosferatu, The Iron Claw, Wicked, Crazy Rich Asians, West Side Story (2021)*, Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story (1961) * Moana 2, Moana, Inside Out, Inside Out 2 * How to Train Your Dragon (2025), How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, The Lion King (2019), The Little Mermaid (2023), Mufasa * The Apprentice, Magic Mike XXL, The Terrifier series, Suspiria (2018), Nightbitch, Showgirls, The Souvenir*, The Souvenir: Part II, Tenet * Conclave*, All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), The Brutalist, Nickel Boys, The Holdovers, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, La Chimera, Gladiator II, Heretic, A Real Pain, Anora, His Three Daughters, I Saw the TV Glow,  A Different Man, Sing Sing, The People’s Joker*, Batman Forever, Babygirl, Will & Harper, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, A Complete Unknown, Queer The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @yeah.boice and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://lagomorph-0.bandcamp.com/].

Episode 26 - Jellicoe Songs for Rafferty Jellicoe Frost Law Cats

We are now in awards pre-season and we have a lot to discuss. How are we going to get to 10 Best Picture nominees? Can James Mangold pull off A Complete Unknown? Will Nightbitch be good? (Answer: yes, it's Marielle Heller). Why are there so many horror movies about pregnancy right now, and romcoms with older women age gap relationships? (Not complaining!) Listen and find out! Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers): * The Brutalist * Anora, Sing Sing, Conclave, Maria (2024), Jackie, Spencer, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Perez, Blitz, Nickel Boys, Gladiator II, A Complete Unknown, The End (2024), Mother Mary, The Governesses * Tár, Vox Lux, The Order (2024), Bram Stoker’s Dracula * Saturday Night, The Piano Lesson (2024), Joker: Folie à Deux, A Real Pain, Past Lives, Everything Everywhere All At Once, CODA (2021) * Sentimental Value * All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) * Mrs. Doubtfire, Wanted * The Substance, The Apprentice, The Witch, A Different Man, Under the Skin, Walk the Line, Ford v Ferrari * Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, Heretic, Babygirl, Queer, The Room Next Door, A Strange Way of Life, The Killing of a Sacred Deer * Nightbitch, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quad du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Honeyland, The First Omen, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Diary of a Teenage Girl, Tully * The Godfather, Her Smell, Wildlife, Gone Girl, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Boston Strangler, Colette, Silent Night * The Idea of You, Anyone But You, Eileen, Twisters, Immaculate, The Deliverance, Madame Web, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Running Man, Barbarella * Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Lawrence of Arabia, The Ten Commandments, Chinatown, The Witches of Eastwick, The Bucket List, As Good As It Gets, The Shining, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Taste of Things, The French Connection, Easy Rider * Presence, No Sudden Move, A Star Is Born (2018), House of Gucci, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Bikeriders, Molly’s Game, John Wick * Red Rocket, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @sc00gle and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://lagomorph-0.bandcamp.com/].

Episode 25 - I'm Not Reading All That

Sorry for the delay between episodes! A lot has happened - Maddie went to Cannes! We hate the suburbs! Maddie and Rachel saw Challengers! Links: Maddie's Cannes ranking on Letterboxd [https://boxd.it/vCYyS] The article [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/arts/music/pop-musics-middle-class.html] about pop music's "middle class" that Rachel mentioned Maddie's Seed & Spark campaign [https://seedandspark.com/fund/always-were#story] for the short film she's producing, Always Were - or if you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation, the Louisville Film Society fiscal sponsorship page [https://louisvillefilmsociety.org/film/always-were/] Maddie's newsletter [https://buttondown.email/MaddieTenKnives#subscribe-form] Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers): * Megalopolis*, Anora, Bird, Red Road, American Honey, Cow, Passages * The Hyperboreans (Los Hiperbóreos), The Wolf House (La casa lobo), Beau Is Afraid * Rumours, Oh Canada*, The Substance * Honey Boy, Hereditary, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, It's Not Me(C’est pas moi), Titane * Inside Out 2, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Vrse, Flee, The Boy and the Heron, Coraline, Paranorman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Inside Out * Love Lies Bleeding, I Saw the TV Glow*, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Top Gun: Maverick, The Lion King (2019), Twin Peaks: The Return * Challengers* * Twisters, Joker: Folie à Deux, Wicked, Gone Girl, Maxxxine, Janet Planet, Thelma, Kinds of Kindness, The Bikeriders, Cora Bora, The Favourite, Poor Things, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster, Dunkirk, American Animals, The Batman - Part II, The Master, Eileen, Godzilla Minus One, Inside Man, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Twister The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @sc00gle and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://lagomorph-0.bandcamp.com/].