Biopic: A Podcast Story

Episode 19: And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, Starring Antonio Banderas as the Eponymous Mexican Revolutionary

The fascinating topic of Pancho Villa’s savvy engagement of the film industry to prop up the Mexican Revolution is made somewhat less fascinating with this sometimes jaunty and crackling, sometimes bummer-ific 2003 HBO film And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself. Why must we have two Blandy McBlanderson tubs of vanilla ice cream as our way into this story? Why does one of them have to be the condescending communist and future episode subject John Reed? Why can’t this movie have more Alan Arkin? Is it possible to make Antonio Banderas unattractive? 
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself gives us the opportunity to delve into the dark world of showmances, snuff films, additional strange moments from Sara’s incredibly interesting personal history, and the incredibly American tradition of standing around and watching battles. 
As a bonus: Another segment of “CorpseTalk” as we find out about the grim journey of Pancho Villa’s head post-death. 
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself stars Antonio Bandaras as Pancho Villa, Eion Bailey as Frank Thayer, Alan Arkin as Sam Drebbin, Jim Broadbent as Harry Aitken, Matt Day as John Reed, Michael McKean as William Christy Cabanne, Kyle Chandler as Roaul Walsh, Colm Feore as D.W. Griffith, and Alexas Davalos as Teddy Sampson.
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Bonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 8: Get on Up! and Gotti

Hooray! We have a bonus episode: our eighth edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs. We jump around in a senseless, context-deprived manner, and you should definitely skip this episode and download any normal episode from “Episode 10: Cobb” onwards if this is your first time listening.
Includes material cut from:
Episode 17: Get on Up!
Episode 18: Gotti
Highlights include:
Sara is surprised to learn that Dan Ackyroyd’s eyes don’t match.
A discussion of what it means if you don’t notice people’s eye color.
Grieving for the decline of wedding gowns with a sleeve.
James Brown corpse capers that didn’t make it into Episode 17: Get on Up!, even though we normally never miss a corpse caper.
More deconstruction of bad Get On Up! Reviews from IMDB.
At least Gotti was free on one of the streaming services that we subscribe to.
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Bonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 7: Cleopatra and Get on Up!

Hooray! We have a bonus episode: our seventh edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time. If this is your first time listening to us, we recommend that you listen to one of our regular episodes instead.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs.
Includes material cut from:
Episode 16: Cleopatra
Episode 17: Get on Up!
Highlights include:
Clarifying Carroll O’Connor’s age.
More revolting Ptolemaic incest talk.
Appreciation for Craig Robinson and the fine art of yelling at the screen during movies.
Numerous shout-outs to Andrew Hickey’s A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs.
Sara’s shrine to Jason Mantzoukas.
Rena mushing out at her foster cat, again.
And more, of course!
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
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Bonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 6: Prefontaine, Respect, and The Conqueror

Hooray! We have a bonus episode: our sixth edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time.
Think of it as Sara and Rena having a conversation in non sequiturs.
Includes material cut from:
Episode 15: Prefontaine
Episode 4: Respect
Episode 5: The Conqueror 
Highlights include:
Rena and Sara debate what number constitutes “several.”
The "Second Opinion" for Prefontaine that didn't make it into the episode.
Sara’s reaction to an abbreviated Beauty and the Beast performance at Disney World.
And more, of course!
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Episode 20: Reagan, Starring Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan

WE CALLED AN AUDIBLE FOR THE GIPPER.  
The things you do for love: Because Rena and Sara care and do not want anyone to spend money to see this movie, they went to see it. 
While Reagan is a soul-crushing journey through a propagandistic vision of the life and times of one simple mofo who was either blindly optimistic or the root of all modern evil, it’s also (mostly) objectively bad filmmaking: Everything looks hideous and coated in putty, scenes often contain only 3 to 4 lines of dialogue, and Reagan’s only human flaw is loving America a little too much.   
Crack open that industrial-size container of jelly beans and treacle to enjoy this tale of triumph, recounted through a logic-defying framing device of a broken KGB agent (played by noted accent disaster artist Jon Voight) sharing his slideshow of “The Crusader” single-handedly destroying communism with his sunshine-y grin and passion for God. Hear about Dutch’s baptism by Kevin Sorbo (he is in the movie), how Reagan shrugged at the AIDS crisis and got off on union-busting, and how the only likable character in the movie ended up being a Russian asset (‘sup, Dana!). Witness the horror of evil monsters Dalton Trumbo and Jimmy Carter advocating for healthcare. And for God’s sake, do not see this movie. 
Reagan stars Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan, Mena Suvari as Jane Wyman, Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan, Dan Lauria as Tip O’Neill, Jon Voight as a man named Viktor, Robert Davi as Leonid Breshnev, Kevin Dillon as Jack Warner, and Scott Stapp as Frank Sinatra. 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Episode 18: Gotti, Starring John Travolta as John Gotti

Have you ever thought, “Maybe John Gotti has a lot in common with Nelson Mandela?” If so, this is the film for you. 
John Gotti gets the “throw every good movie about the cosa nostra in a blender and strain out the wrong lessons and the cliches” treatment with this barely-a-movie biopic that boasts 38 producers, 5 production companies, too many connections to the TV show Entourage, and little else. Oh, and Pitbull’s here to threaten you with his score. 
Gotti also offers John Travolta preening around with a cat-butt mouth, performances that challenge the terribleness of Robert Wuhl, wigs for days, scenes containing two people just yelling “whatsa matter with you” at each other, ugly wedding gowns, and sanity-challenging needle drops. Also a new game: is it the work of alleged elder abuser Randall Emmett, or is it ChatGPT? 
Gotti stars John Travolta as John Gotti, Spencer LoFranco as John A. Gotti, Kelly Preston as Victoria Gotti, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Angelo Ruggiero, and William DeMeo as Sammy Gravano. 
 
As promised, here is a clip from Rollergator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGAfUx9jJZ8
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Episode 17: Get On Up!, with Chadwick Boseman as James Brown

The mercurial, incredibly talented, and wildly chaotic James Brown gets the biopic treatment with Tate Taylor’s Get On Up!, which depicts a troublingly sanitized version of the musical superstar. Featuring perhaps the greatest framing device in the history of the genre (an office park, a rifle, a life coaching seminar, and a woman who used the wrong toilet), Get On Up! keeps us on our toes with its wild timeline-bending storytelling and features unsurprisingly brilliant performances from its murder’s row of talented actors, led by the late, great Chadwick Boseman as James Brown.
Also explored are questions about whether Frankie Avalon was a tool, James Brown’s dedication to his tracksuit, James Brown’s connection to Mitt Romney, and how many times we’re going to have to experience the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
Get On Up stars Chadwick Boseman as James Brown, Nelsan Ellis as Bobby Byrd, Viola Davis as Susie Brown, Dan Ackroyd as Ben Bart, Jill Scott as DeeDee Brown, Octavia Spencer as Aunt Honey, Craig Robinson as Maceo Parker, and Brandon Mychal Smith as Little Richard. 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
 
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Episode 16: Cleopatra, the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor Version

Holy sh%t you guys. Rena and Sara dive into this colossal fiasco of a motion picture and come dangerously close to anhedonia as they stare into the void for four boring hours. Get on board for a lengthy history lesson about one of the film industry’s greatest cautionary tales. How did everyone involved do so little with so much? Was Richard Burton’s Roomba charging station filled with whiskey? How long was Cleopatra standing expectantly at the top of that giant plastic Sphinx?
The ridiculous props, excessive premature use of marble, Joe Mankiewicz’s gift for creating job security, the chaos of Burton and Taylor’s love affair, and Rex Harrison’s dark personal history come up as Sara and Rena wander through this dull as dirt abyss of excess.
Cleopatra stars Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, Richard Burton as Mark Anthony, Rex Harrison as Caesar, Roddy McDowall as Octavian, and Martin Landau as Rufio.   
 
Sources: 
The Cleopatras: The Forgotten Queens of Egypt by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Richard Burton: Prince of Players by Michael Munn
Fiasco: A History of Hollywood’s Iconic Flops by James Robert Parish 
The Worst Movies of All Time by Michael Sauter
The Studio by John Gregory Dunne 
Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris 
My Life with Cleopatra: The Making of a Hollywood Classic by Walter Wanger
Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century by Sam Kashner and Nancy Shoenberger 
CaroleLandis.net 
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1998/03/elizabeth-taylor-199803
https://frockflicks.com/cleopatra-1963/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/15/how-we-made-cleopatra
 
Promised link to the first episode of the BBC’s The Cleopatras, a more entertaining rendition of this story that will take up only 45 minutes of your time. This thing is bonkers.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x35sa5m
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
Follow us!
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Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com