Alex reviews Andrew Ahn's 2025 adaptation of the 1993 film The Wedding Banquet, starring Lily Gladstone, Youn Yuh-jung, and Joan Chen (and many more). The film is about two queer couples who end up conspiring to marry one half of each couple in exchange for a green card and money for IVF treatments. Alex discusses the film's unexpected delights — including the wonderful, tender sound design and lovely blocking — and how the film thoughtfully updates (and even queers some more) Ang Lee's classic queer rom-com. **Stay updated on the best under-the-radar films that just might shift your perspective by joining the Seventh Row Newsletter: http://email.seventh-row.com **Want to join Alex and a group of movie lovers to watch and discuss a Queer African film in May 2025? Join the waitlist for Reel Ruminators: http://seventh-row.com/reel-ruminators **Want Seventh Row's ebook on Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire? It's available at http://sciammabook.com
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167. We Have a Pope (Nanny Moretti, 2011) — the best pope movie
Pope Francis died today, which means it will soon be time to elect a new pope. Instead of rewatching Oscar Winner Conclave, Alex recommends catching the delightful Italian comedy We Have a Pope. On this episode, Alex talks about why watching Conclave made her immediately want to rewatch Nanni Moretti's We Have a Pope, and what Moretti's film has that Conclave lacks. If Conclave is a film about how everyone wants to be pope, We Have a Pope is a film about a man who has a panic attack as soon as he becomes pope...and then runs away from the Vatican while he has an existential crisis. **If you want to stay updated on the best new under-the-radar films, become a Seventh Row Insider at http://email.seventh-row.com
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166. Introducing...one of the most important films of this decade
What if one of the most important movies of this decade, maybe even this century, flew under your radar? What if it won major awards in its country of origin, including audience awards at festivals, and yet you still hadn't heard of it? Would you want to see it? We're watching one of those movies this month in the April 2025 edition of Reel Ruminators. On today's episode, Alex discusses the film we're watching — an Indigenous film from so-called Canada — without revealing the title. And she introduces four criteria the she used to define what makes this film 'important' and how the film meets these criteria. **If this movie sounds like something you'd like to see, join the April 2025 edition of Reel Ruminators: http://seventh-row.com/reel-ruminators
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165. Misericordia (directed by Alain Guiraudie) and what the opening scene can teach us
Today, Alex Heeney recommends Alain Guiraudie's multi-César-nominated erotic thriller Misericordia. Since the film takes many twists and turns that she doesn't want to spoil, she introduces the film briefly before delving into what we can learn from the opening sequence. In excellent movies like this one, the opening scene can teach us so much about how to watch the film and what's to come. Alex teaches how to read a film's opening scene in Reel Ruminators: A Movie-of-the-Month Experience. *** Want to watch an Indigenous film by an Indigenous woman director that's one of the most important films of the 2020s? And then dig into how it works and how it makes you feel? Join the waitlist for the April 2025 edition of Reel Ruminators: A Movie-of-the-Month Enrichment Experience https://email.seventh-row.com/reelruminators ------- Stay updated on Seventh Row Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com. Follow Alex Heeney on Bluesky, Twitter and Instagram.
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164. Black Bag directed by Steven Soderbergh: finally, a fun thriller for grownups
Today, Alex Heeney recommends Steven Soderbergh's new spy thriller, Black Bag, starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. It's the rare film for adults that's a taut 90 minutes, character-focused, heaps of fun, and also screening in cinemas. Alex discusses why she's been a Soderbergh devotee for 25 years and how Black Bag showcases Soderbergh at his best. *** Want to discover more fun movies for grownups from around the world? Join the waitlist for Reel Ruminators: A Movie-of-the-Month Enrichment Experience https://email.seventh-row.com/reelruminators ------- Stay updated on Seventh Row Follow Seventh Row on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram. Read our articles at seventh-row.com. Follow Alex Heeney on Bluesky, Twitter and Instagram.
A weekly film podcast that helps you have a more rewarding experience watching movies by connecting you to the best under-the-radar films from around the world so that you don’t have to watch all the movies to watch good movies that expand your cinematic horizons — both in content and form.
This is a podcast about those films, the joys and challenges of finding and watching those films, how filmmaking choices affect our experience of them, and the people and places we discover through looking outside the mainstream and beyond the English language.
Our mission is to upend the canon to be more inclusive by spotlighting and diving deep into international and independent films by and about women, Indigenous People, LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized groups. Find multiple episodes on the films of Kelly Reichardt, Céline Sciamma, Andrew Haigh, and Joachim Trier.
Become a member to access the full (200+ episode) podcast archive and get early access to new episodes: http://seventh-row.com/join
New Zealand