Biopic: A Podcast Story

Episode 29: All The Way, with Bryan Cranston as President Lyndon Johnson

Presidential biopic month continues with the 2016 television movie All the Way, about the blockbuster year of 1964 and Lyndon B. Johnson’s first (and only) year of presidential campaigning and his efforts to try to do nice things for all Americans by spearheading the War on Poverty and the Civil Rights Act.
We know how Americans love it when leaders try to do things to make America a better place for everyone, so everything goes great for Lyndon, Martin Luther King and SNCC as they work to destroy institutional inequality. Americans grew emotionally and intellectually over the one-hundred years since the Civil War, so it’s not like anyone would want to vote against decency and their own self-interest.
Aside from that, we discuss LBJ’s propensity for being a pathological liar, the positives and negatives of prosthetic ears, when we first saw Eyes on the Prize, and if Anthony Mackie is too hot to play anyone except Anthony Mackie.
All the Way stars Bryan Cranston as President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Anthony Mackie as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Melissa Leo as First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, Frank Langella as Senator Richard Russell, Stephen Root as J. Edgar Hoover, Ray Wise as Senator Everett Dirkson, Bradley Whitford as Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Todd Weeks as Walter Jenkins, Bo Foxworth Robert McNamara, Aisha Hines as Fannie Lou Hamer, and Joe Morton as Roy Wilkins. 
Sources used in the episode include…
Volumes 1, 2, and 4 of Robert Caro’s Lyndon Johnson bio.
 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
 
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Episode 28: Lincoln, Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham Lincoln

This week we enter the world of Lincoln, an almost-perfect 2012 movie that features just about every “hey it’s that guy” brilliant character actor and one unforgettable, magical performance as honest Abe by Daniel Day-Lewis. We don’t have a lot to complain about outside of top hats, weird facial hair, and “states’ rights,” so we spend a lot of time praising the casual brilliance of Tony Kushner’s writing and some guy named Steven Spielberg who seems to be going places as a director.
No way around it: This movie is flawless.
Some other questions: How badly does Sara want to go to an underground dogfight with Tim Blake Nelson? In the 1850s, what was the correct number of children to have in order to be survived by at least one of them? How good at this was Abraham Lincoln? How unfair is it that Tommy Lee Jones had to share oxygen for weeks on end with Robert Wuhl while filming Cobb (the subject of Biopic: A Podcast Story’s 4th of July 2024 episode,) when he is such a good actor? Is anyone better than Sally Field?
Also very important: We play a game, “Who said it: Scholastic Book Fair Poster or Abraham Lincoln,” celebrating the most wrongly-cited president of all time.
Lincoln stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, and also Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, James Spader, Walton Goggins, John Hawkes, Jared Harris, Jackie Earle Haley, Joseph Cross, Michael Stuhlbarg, Tim Blake Nelson, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Hal Holbrook, Gloria Ruben, Adam Driver, Lee Pace, Gulliver McGrath, David Costabile, Colman Domingo, and pretty much every other awesome person you can think of, and was directed by Stephen Spielberg and written by Tony Kushner. 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Episode 27: Ed Wood with Guest Star, Comedian Liam McEneany!

Biopic’s all grown up and welcoming its very first guest, the brilliant comedian Liam McEneaney. Liam is also an Ed Wood expert (making all of Sara and Rena’s outstanding Wikipedia-based research less critical) his work has been praised by Gilbert Gottfried, and he’s released 2 comedy albums and has written for a variety of funny shows and comedians.
Outside of an opening jump scare featuring convicted felon Jeffrey Jones, Ed Wood is an unscary, delightful romp through the world of auteur Ed Wood’s not-amazing (or maybe amazing?) filmmaking and truly lovely self-acceptance. Tim Burton’s 1994 film features an indelible and brilliant performance of Biopic returning champion Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, lovingly recreated set pieces, and too-ridiculous-to-be-fake anecdotes from the making of Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space.  
Also discussed: the fascinating history of Bunny Breckinridge, our mutual friend Sam Jackson (he’s doing OK despite not winning an Oscar for Pulp Fiction), and how Orson Welles’ miscasting sins may have outshined Ed Wood’s hiring his girlfriend’s chiropractor.  
Ed Wood stars Johnny Depp as Ed Wood, Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, Sarah Jessica Parker as Dolores Fuller, Patricia Arquette as Kathy O’Hara, Vincent D’Onofrio as Orson Welles, Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge, Mike Starr as Georgie Weiss, Max Casella as Paul Marco, Lisa Marie as Vampira, George “The Animal” Steele as Tor Johnson, Juliet Landau as Loretta King, Brent Hinkley as Conrad Brooks, and Ned Bellamy as Dr. Tom Mason. 
Find out more about our fab guest Liam at: https://heyitsliam.com/, @radioliam on instagram,@heyitsliam on Twitter (or X, whatever), or you can text him at 424-245-LAFF. 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Episode 26: Liz and Dick, with Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor

Is it a movie if half of the scenes only have one line of dialogue? This and other philosophical issues about the art of filmmaking are considered as Rena and Sara reluctantly reenter the chaotic, tax-dodging world of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in 2012’s barely-a-movie Lifetime teleplay Liz and Dick.
Is there a world where Lindsay Lohan was on Ambien the entire time she was making this movie? Did Creed Bratton and David Eigenberg need credits for their SAG insurance eligibility, or did the director of this film help them bury a body? Where exactly is the black box that Liz and Dick are in, watching their relationship unfold? Did Liz’s dog have to poop out a piece of priceless jewelry, and what effect does that have on that piece of jewelry’s value? Was Sara’s college production of Hamlet the actual worst?
So many questions. So few answers.
Liz and Dick stars Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor, Grant Bowler as Richard Burton, David Eigenberg as Ernest Lehman, Creed Bratton as Richard Zanuck, Harry XX as the Butler, Theresa Russell as Sara Taylor, and a bunch of people we’ve never seen or heard from again. 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Episode 25: Ray, with Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles

It’s time to dissect one of the reasons for this podcast’s existence: The Oscarbatory biopic of the life of one Ray Charles, as told by director and co-writer Taylor Hackford (aka Mr. Helen Mirren) and featuring a dynamite performance by Jamie Foxx.
Picture it: 2004, peak “I am going to imitate this famous person and I am going to get awards for it” filmmaking. Sara and Rena have a few problems with this movie, however: mainly that while the state of Georgia has committed, and continues to commit, countless sins, they never exactly banned and then asked for forgiveness from Charles—a pretty vital plot point to this film. Also discussed: when an artist writes a hit song by sitting down at the piano and banging it out flawlessly, the first not-disappointed-in-their-genius-artist-child mother, and the very real fear of being looked at in disappointment by Regina King.
No corpse talk this week, however, the age-old debate of “who would you rather watch a bad movie with, Craig Robinson or Wendell Pierce” achieves a resolution.
Ray stars Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, Kerry Washington as Della Bea Robinson, Regina King as Margie Hendricks, Clifton Powell as Jeff Brown, Harry Lennix as Joe Adams, Bokeem Woodbine as Fathead Newman, Sharon Warren as Aretha Robinson, Curtis Armstrong as Ahmet Ertegun, Richard Schiff as Jerry Wexler, Larenz Tate as Quincy Jones, Terrence Howard as Gossie McGee, and Wendell Pierce as Wilbur Brassfield.
 
References: 
SNL “Black Jeopardy” skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VaXlMvAvk
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Episode 24: Saint Joan, with Jean Seberg as Joan of Arc

Rena and Sara find themselves in complete agreement on Saint Joan, the 1957 Otto Preminger adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan. 
Find out about Rena’s secret passion for time traveling historical characters and learn more about Sara’s weird catholicism, along with the timeless visuals of a young woman being emotionally destroyed in a courtroom filled with men fighting over who gets to hurt her the worst.
Prepare yourself for wild 14th and 15th century history, including Henry VI’s “Loveday,” a solution better suited for siblings than warring countrymen, a brief look at Otto Preminger’s monstrousness, a bonus moment of Corpse Capers, and the a FOUR-Pete for our friend Sir John Gielgud. 
Saint Joan stars Jean Seberg as Joan of Arc, Richard Widmark as Charles VII, Richard Todd as the Bastard of Orleans, and John Gielgud as the Earl of Warwick. 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Episode 23: The Pride of the Yankees, with Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig

Our 1+ hour journey into our oldest film yet, 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees, leads us to ask, who is history’s greatest monster? Probably Sara, for the giant tank of haterade she dumps all over this painfully “and-then” film featuring far-too-old actors that covers the life and times of the nevertheless honorable man and incredible athlete Lou Gehrig. 
We discuss Lou Gehrig’s miraculous birth to elderly parents, his hip-breaking fist-fights with the beloved fraternity Alpha Alpha AARP, Walter Brennan’s role as a third party in Lou Gehrig’s marriage, and whether there’s anything more upsetting than people playing themselves in films (there isn’t, but there probably is).  We also discuss that one time that Cal Ripken Jr. maybe got into a fistfight with Kevin Costner and almost destroyed his perfect attendance streak.
Pride of the Yankees stars Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, Teresa Wright as Eleanor Gehrig, Walter Brennan as Sam Blake, and Babe Ruth as himself.
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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Bonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 11: Gandhi and The Duchess

Hooray! We have a bonus episode: our 11th edition of Irrelevant Host Banter. These are some outtakes that were cut for running time, and/or because we were digressive or repetitive.
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 21: Gandhi
Episode 22: The Duchess
Highlights include:
Blade Runner Rutger Hauer monologue appreciation.
More fun tidbits about rotten boroughs.
Rena’s loathing for antimaterialism.
Why corsets are less barbaric than going to the gym.
Kevin Costner being a big man-ho in the 90s.
And much more, of course! 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
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