Mixed Bag

"Suck a toe, get your piggies licked" - Matt Loveranes, 2026

Hey, are you one of those people who only listens to Mixed Bag for Pop Corner and skips the feature presentation? Then you're going to love this one where we talk about The Odyssey in Pop Corner for about as long as we talk about The Fountain. Sometimes the Baguettes have to record a podcast on Saturday night and things get pretty hazy, okay?

The Fountain is Darren Aronofsky's Extremely Deep film all about this guy who's searching for the secret to everlasting life (or more like everlasting WIFE, since his impetus is saving his dying wife). We see the same basic story play out over three different yet intertwined timelines. It's definitely the kind of movie a seventeen year old thinks is very cool and profound, which is why Jamie brought it as her personal pick for the episode.

Pop Corner chat includes (but is not limited to:) The Odyssey, Madonna's new album and her place as a cultural figure ("Me and Madonna? We're the same," says Matt) and a tribute to New Zealand's own dear departed Sam Neill.

That's IT! I've had it with these motherf*ckin' SNAKES on this motherf*ckin' PODCAST!

Our ongoing surprise series JetBag: Emergency Landing continues with another instalment, and this one is a real first class episode if I do say so myself. Featuring yet another Evil Flight Attendant theory, reflections on the band Cobra Starship, and a pitch for a brand new Obra Dinn-alike video game (TM TM TM).

Over in the Pop Corner we talked about so many things I've divided them into categories:

New Release Movies

The Invite, Toy Story 5, Couture

Old Movies

Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), Orpheus (1950), The Doom Generation (1995), Crooked House (2017), O Brother Where Art Thou (2000), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

TV

The Traitors NZ Season 3, Widow's Bay

Video Games

Alice: Madness Returns (2011), The Seance of Blake Manor (2025), Ratline (2026), Utter a Name (2025)

Music

CMAT's Euro-Country (2025)

RIP

Bonnie Tyler, your rasp will live on forever.

Happy Pride (June pride is the only element of American cultural imperialism recognised by the Mixed Bag crew). We're celebrating by watching... a movie that was widely protested by the gay community when it was released?

That film is Cruising, a William Friedkin joint where Al Pacino goes undercover in the Meatpacking District to catch a gay serial killer. Or is he the gay serial killer himself?

The essay Cass finds at the end of the episode is also worth a read, and can be found here.

Over in the Pop Corner, we talk The Boys in the Band (1970), Disclosure Day, the mobile game Cats & Soup: Magic Recipe [please help I am addicted], The Christophers, ""sport"" including ""the Hurricanes"", Kissing Jessica Stein (2001), the short documentary "He Won't Stop Building a Map to an Imaginary Place" by People Make Games, and reaction videos of people listening to Olivia Rodrigo's you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love.

The final episode of Demisexual is here! And for the first time in the miniseries, Demi isn't the main character. But where does this performance fit in our Demisexual Rankings? You'll have to wait until the end of the episode to see.

"The Angels are charged with finding a pair of missing rings that are encoded with the personal information of members of the Witness Protection Program. As informants are killed, the ladies target a rogue agent who might be responsible." (Sourced from Letterboxd). 

Over in the Pop Corner, we talk Tiny Bookshop, Battlestar Galactica (2004-09), Mother Mary, Backrooms, The Christophers, the recent Wellington Film Society mini-festival, and Olivia Rodrigo's new album you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love (which Cass can confirm she has also listened to now and also thinks is great, especially the first part).

We're still Demi-sexual here on Mixed Bag, and this time we look at the film infamous for inadvertently leading to the 2022 Oscars Slap: G. I. Jane.

"In response to political pressure from Senator Lillian DeHaven, the U.S. Navy begins a program that would allow for the eventual integration of women into its combat services. The program begins with a single trial candidate, Lieutenant Jordan O’Neil, who is chosen specifically for her femininity. O’Neil enters the grueling Navy SEAL training program under the command of Master Chief John James Urgayle, who unfairly pushes O’Neil until her determination wins his respect." (Sourced from Letterboxd). We talk about whether this film really goes into the true horrors faced by women in the military, what G. I. even means and why all three of us thought that the final scene of this film was implying a surprise gay twist.

Plus, we talk through some of our recent watches: short discussions of The Sheep Detectives, Caterpillar, Cover Up, Magellan, My Cousin Rachel (2017), Battle of the Sexes (2017), Misericordia (2024), True Grit (2010) and Obsession. Jamie and Matt offer their defence of Peter Hujar's Day, while Cass still thinks it is exquisitely boring. In the TV world, we talk Wie is de Mol?, Survivor and Ready Gamer Mum. And Jamie grants Rita Bullwinkel honorary trans status in admiration of her short story series Belly Up.