Biopic: A Podcast Story

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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Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

Bonus Episode! Irrelevant Host Banter 12: The Pride of The Yankees and Saint Joan

Hooray! We have a bonus episode: our 12th 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 23: The Pride of The Yankees
Episode 24: Saint Joan
Highlights include:
Unimpressive Greatest Generation-era honeymoons
More fascination with the Gehrig family’s premature aging.
More on Henry VI’s “Love Day.”
Rena’s classmates emotionally wounding her by laughing at the sentimental bits in Casablanca.
Sara’s Saul Bass appreciation.
Sara’s Thelma Schoonmaker appreciation.
And much more, of course! 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q
Follow us!
Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory 
Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social
Threads: @biopicapodcaststory
Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory
Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

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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Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

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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Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

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.
Follow us!
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Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

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.
Follow us!
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Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

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.
Follow us!
Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory 
Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social
Threads: @biopicapodcaststory
Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory
Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

Episode 22: The Duchess, Starring Keira Knightley as Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

Finally, a proper costume drama! We are surprised that it took this long. In the 2008 film The Duchess, we travel to the days where it really sucked to be a woman (as opposed to every other time in history) and meet the captivating, delightful, ahead-of-her-time Duchess of Devonshire, her dull-as-dishwater, dog-obsessed husband, and her “he looks like a member of Oasis” partner in cuckolding.
Despite the hangovers of Cleopatra and Gandhi, Rena and Sara actually want this tidy, 1 hour, 50 minute film to be longer as they discuss the positives and negatives of gambling addiction, rotten boroughs as a metaphor for the electoral college and vice versa, giant skirts, giant hair, and whether children should be used for blackmail. It’s WAY more fun than it sounds. Tragically left on the cutting room floor: Your two moms arguing for 30 minutes about the Royal Family.
The Duchess stars Keira Knightley as Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, Ralph Fiennes as The Duke, Dominic Cooper as Charles Grey, Charlotte Rampling as Lady Spencer, Hayley Atwell as Bess Foster, and Simon McBurney as Charles James Fox. 
 
Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.
Follow us!
Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory 
Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/
Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com