Best Dolores McElroy Podcasts (2024)

1
Drive Away Dolls: An Experiment in Fun 52:42

3M ago52:42

52:42

Filmsuck co-hosts agree that this funny low-budget film by Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke, which is the first film of their "lesbian B-movie trilogy," represents a challenge to our dull American film era.By Eileen Jones and Dolores McElroy

1
The Book of Barbra: Surveying Streisand 1:16:55

3M ago1:16:55

1:16:55

Co-hosts grapple with the new Barbra Streisand memoir, a 900+ page tome called MY NAME IS BARBRA that came out in November 2023 but takes three months to read. Latest Filmsuck! Co-host Dolores, a devoted fan of the EGOT award-winning singer-actor-producter-director, brings impressive insight to the way Streisand "needs a hostile world" in order to …

1
Agonizing Over the Academy Awards 1:00:46

4M ago1:00:46

1:00:46

We're wading into the Oscar nominations and the people who hate them!By Eileen Jones and Dolores McElroy

1
MAESTRO and the Mess that is the Biopic 56:59

4M ago56:59

56:59

In this episode, we talk about the sad mess that is the biopic genre, with MAESTRO, currently playing on Netflix, as one of our main examples. Dolores takes a reasonable stance on the biopic, praising the good ones and indicating the fascination of the form for a certain type of audience, and Eileen says, "Kill it with fire!"…

1
POOR THINGS: Is It a GreatThing? 54:36

4M ago54:36

54:36

Filmsuck co-hosts round out 2023 and blaze into 2024 with an epic hashing-out of the flamboyantly gorgeous new Yorgos Lanthimos film POOR THINGS that reunites him with his creative team from THE FAVORITE (2018), screenwriter Tony McNamara and lead actor-producer Emma Stone. Stone plays a kind of female Frankenstein's monster created in a laboratory…

1
Todd Haynes’ Mature Take 1:08:46

5M ago1:08:46

1:08:46

Co-hosts agree that Todd Haynes gripping new melodrama MAY DECEMBER is one of his best! The film has been nominated for several Independent Spirit Awards including Best Feature, Best Director for Haynes, Best First Screenplay for Samy Burch, and Best Lead Actor for Natalie Portman. (But not Julianne Moore or Charles Melton? WTF?)…

1
Blessings on THE CURSE 1:01:52

6M ago1:01:52

1:01:52

Filmsuck co-hosts hash out the agonizingly compelling cringe-comedy series THE CURSE--created by Nathan Fielder and Bennie Safdie, who also star alongside Emma Stone--and arrive at amazing insights explaining all of contemporary life. This podcast is such a bargain!By Eileen Jones and Dolores McElroy

1
Pre-Code Halloween Party: Two From Boris Karloff 1:11:37

7M ago1:11:37

1:11:37

New Filmsuck episode! A Halloween celebration of Boris Karloff in two of his pre-Code films: THE OLD DARK HOUSE and THE BLACK CAT! He's best known for FRANKENSTEIN, but Karloff gave so many great performances, it's a good time to appreciate his range. Many of his films are widely available, but these two more obscure ones are part of the current Cr…

1
Bottoms: New Teen Comedy is Tops 1:02:14

8M ago1:02:14

1:02:14

Filmsuck co-hosts revel in a raucous low-budget comedy called Bottoms that's playing at a theater near you, and doing amazingly well with critics and young audiences. It's about a high school girls-only fight club--excuse me, "women's self-defense class"--and it's so refreshingly funny and irreverent about the tired cliches of the high school comed…

1
Old Broads Hit the Road 1:04:11

9M ago1:04:11

1:04:11

Latest Filmsuck! Our "Old Broads Hit the Road" episode features a discussion of a promising film/TV trend involving older women on the move seeking liberatory experiences in ELLE S'EN VA (ON MY WAY, 2013), JUANITA (2019), HACKS (2021-), and MRS. HARRIS GOES TO PARIS (2021).By Eileen Jones and Dolores McElroy

1
Go Bears: Why We’re Still Thinking About THE BEAR Seasons 1 & 2 57:47

10M ago57:47

57:47

Filmsuck co-hosts Eileen and Dolores agree that the relentless affect and unusual staying power of the FX/Hulu series The Bear makes it a rare example of popular art in the tradition of the family-torment plays of Eugene O'Neill and Edward Albee. A belated tribute!By Eileen Jones and Dolores McElroy

1
BARBIE and OPPENHEIMER: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Doll 1:11:00

10M ago1:11:00

1:11:00

Latest Filmsuck! Co-hosts Eileen and Dolores agree on finding Greta Gerwig's BARBIE surprisingly funny and delightful, and Christopher Nolan's OPPENHEIMER a ponderous, unenlightening snore. In order to argue these contentious views, we have to get into the gritty details, so this is a spoilers-galore episode!…

1
Asteroid City: Wes Anderson’s Alien Affect 1:02:10

11M ago1:02:10

1:02:10

Filmsuck co-hosts Eileen and Dolores fearlessly defy obsessive Wes Anderson fans in reviling his soul-deadening, seersucker suit sensibility!By Eileen Jones and Dolores McElroy

1
Somebody Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Hangin’ in the Heartland 58:28

11M ago58:28

58:28

In this year's Filmsuck Pride Month episode, we’re talking about the fresh and funny HBO series Somebody Somewhere. It’s just wrapped up its second season and been renewed for a third, so if you haven’t been watching it, now is a good time to catch up with this offbeat show that fans have been raving about and wondering why it doesn’t get more atte…

1
Retelling the Stars: Little Richard and Brooke Shields 1:00:48

1y ago1:00:48

1:00:48

Filmsuck co-hosts talk about two new documentaries that deal with two wildly different celebrities, each negotiating a lifetime of public performances beginning in childhood--Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields on Hulu, and Little Richard: I Am Everything, available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+. Rejected by his father, a minister who also operated a bar a…

1
Dead Ringers: Dead-on or DOA? 56:16

1y ago56:16

56:16

Latest Filmsuck episode! Co-hosts Dolores and Eileen tackle the new Amazon Prime miniseries DEAD RINGERS, based on the 1988 David Cronenberg body-horror freakout classic, and featuring Rachel Weisz in the roles of disturbingly codependent twin gynecologists once played by Jeremy Irons. The miniseries oddly combines feminist topicality with the old …

1
Poker Face: No Bullshit, It’s Good 1:08:57

1y ago1:08:57

1:08:57

Latest Filmsuck episode! A tribute to Poker Face, the hit Peacock series created by writer-director Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Glass Onion) with a starring role tailor-made for the marvelous Natasha Lyonne. She plays Charlie Cale, Las Vegas cocktail waitress turned amateur sleuth with a special gift for detecting when people are lying, which is a lo…

1
Emily and the Blasphemed Brontes 1:01:22

1y ago1:01:22

1:01:22

Filmsuck co-hosts disagree over the new Emily Bronte biopic, Emily, currently playing in theaters. Dolores likes the way the film depicts the creative development of the author of the towering Gothic novel Wuthering Heights, and Eileen--a Bronte Sisters devotee--hates it so much she's willing to see the world burn if only this film could be destroy…

1
Joel Coen in Person: Definitely Meet Your Heroes 1:04:38

1+ y ago1:04:38

1:04:38

Since the recording of co-host Eileen's interview with Joel Coen and Frances McDormand about The Tragedy of Macbeth is not going to be widely released after all--a decision made by Coen himself in accordance with the curating team at the Pacific Film Archive where the screening and interview took place--here's a fulsome discussion of the event with…

1
The Pale Blue Eye: Poe Lingers On 54:44

1+ y ago54:44

54:44

The new Netflix film The Pale Blue Eye, featuring Harry Melling as Edgar Allan Poe when he was an eccentric young West Point cadet, here aiding an alcoholic detective (Christian Bale) to solve the grisly murder of a fellow cadet at the military academy. The film's a train-wreck, and a good opportunity for co-hosts Eileen and Dolores to rant about t…

1
Holiday Movie Meldown 54:02

1+ y ago54:02

54:02

BONUS Filmsuck episode for holidays! Dolores and Eileen discuss the Christmas movies they can't or won't see because childhood trauma, and offer up some alternative holiday films for your viewing pleasure. Dolores suggests Goodfellas as heartwarming family fare, and Eileen recommends Curse of the Cat People a a lovely yuletide entertainment.…

1
White Lotus: Playing in the Shallow End 59:08

1+ y ago59:08

59:08

Filmsuck co-hosts Eileen and Dolores grapple with their bewildering lack of love for White Lotus, the highly praised, much-Emmy-ed HBO Max series satirizing the vacationing ruling class. Sorry in advance to all those who revere it!By Eileen Jones and Dolores McElroy

1
A Big Hand for Banshees of Inisherin 1:00:14

1+ y ago1:00:14

1:00:14

Filmsuck co-hosts enthuse about the new Martin McDonagh film The Banshees of Inisherin, a dark comedy that turns pitch-black by the end! Set in 1923 Ireland as the civil war rages on the mainland, this fable-like tale reunites Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, the stars of McDonagh's 2009 cult favorite In Bruges, as former friends whose increasing…

1
Tracking the Vampire 1:04:10

1+ y ago1:04:10

1:04:10

For your Halloween pleasure and edification, this week on Filmsuck we're talking about the vampire film from Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1931), and Vampyr (1932) through Martin (1976), The Hunger (1983), Near Dark (1987), Let the Right One In (2008), and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), in order to analyze how this popular movie monster repr…

1
Three Thousand Years of Longing for This Film to End 51:23

1+ y ago51:23

51:23

Both Filmsuck co-hosts hated the new George Miller movie Three Thousand Years of Longing, a feeling shared by audiences everywhere, it seems, as the romantic fantasy wastes the talents of Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba in the lead roles and becomes one of the biggest box-office failures of 2022. The film raises the question "Why can't mainstream film…

1
Bullet Trainwreck 56:59

2y ago56:59

56:59

This week on Filmsuck we're lamenting the shiny, busy, but oddly inert action comedy Bullet Train that mostly wastes the talents of an excellent cast. Bullet Train stars Brad Pitt as a sweet-natured assassin who's back at work after an extended interlude in therapy, and wants to do a nice, simple, non-violent "snatch and grab" job in keeping with h…

1
2 Yeps for Nope 1:02:51

2y ago1:02:51

1:02:51

Though if you talk to your friends and acquaintances you're likely hear a range of opinions on Nope--from 1) best Jordan Peele film so far, he's transcended himself, to 2) worst Jordan Peele film ever, Get Out (2017) and Us (2019) were so much better--your Filmsuck co-hosts agree on their pro-Nope stance. Dolores thoroughly enjoyed it, and Eileen t…

1
Elvis and the Hysteria of Baz Luhrmann 1:10:07

2y ago1:10:07

1:10:07

You may know writer-director-producer Baz Luhrmann from such expensive spectacles as The Great Gatsby, Australia, and Moulin Rouge! Co-hosts Dolores and Eileen talk about Luhrmann's hysterically melodramatic films and disagree sharply on how successfully his new biopic Elvis represents the life and career of legendary performer Elvis Presley, debat…

1
Proud of Hacks 1:15:45

2y ago1:15:45

1:15:45

In honor of Pride Month we're talking about the Emmy/Peabody/Golden Globe-winning HBO series Hacks, starring Jean Smart as seventy-ish stand-up comedy legend Deborah Vance, pushed into updating her act by hiring young Gen Z writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder, daughter of former SNL star Laraine Newman), whose career is also in trouble. It's hate …

1
The Northman and the Strange Career of Robert Eggers 1:01:27

2y ago1:01:27

1:01:27

This week we're discussing the new Viking epic The Northman in the context of writer-director Robert Eggers' brief but spectacular career, including his first two feature films, The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019). Deserving of the term "auteur" if anyone is, Eggers admits he had to deal with more creative interference than ever before with …

1
Witchfest! A Discussion of Recent Witch Movies 56:23

2y ago56:23

56:23

In this Filmsuck episode we're talking about witches in film, a favorite subject of ours. We're focusing specifically on the revived figure of the truly frightening witch that is central to Robert Eggers' The Witch (2015) as well as the directorial debut of Goran Stolevski, You Won't Be Alone, which is currently playing in theaters. These brilliant…

1
Parallel Mothers and Almodovar’s New Groove 58:55

2y ago58:55

58:55

This week we're tackling another 2022 Academy Award nominee, Pedro Almodovar's Parallel Mothers. It's not nominated for Best Picture or even Best International Feature Film, which is weird--what the hell, Academy? But Penelope Cruz is nominated for Best Actress in her seventh film with the director, and longtime Almodovar collaborator Alberto Ingle…

1
Tragedy of Macbeth: A Banquet for Starving Film-Lovers 1:02:26

2+ y ago1:02:26

1:02:26

We're very keen on this audacious adaptation of Macbeth by Joel Coen, his first solo effort without brother Ethan. This might seem like an odd choice of project, but Coen stresses the link between Macbeth and earlier Coen "pulp noir" films. He also acknowledges his brilliant predecessors in making expressionistic black-and-white versions of Macbeth…

1
Nightmare Alleys and Film Noir 1:05:05

2+ y ago1:05:05

1:05:05

In this final episode of our "Favorite Film Genres" series, we take on what is perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most subversive, American film genre, film noir! We analyze the old and new versions of Nightmare Alley to help us define the dark, doom-obsessed, complex noir form: Guillermo del Toro's fantastical sin-soaked version currently pla…

1
West Side Stories and the Musical 1:14:59

2+ y ago1:14:59

1:14:59

In this week’s Filmsuck episode, our co-hosts throw down over which version of the great musical West Side Story reigns supreme. Eileen backs the 1961 version directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, while Dolores pulls for Steven Spielberg’s new version. That being said, co-hosts join forces to shake their fists at such Spielberg choices as ove…

1
Todd Haynes: Avant-garde with Heart 1:06:37

2+ y ago1:06:37

1:06:37

Todd Haynes is co-host Dolores McElroy’s “favorite living director” for his films’ “meticulousness” and “visual splendor,” but above all the way he loves his subjects and makes them “vibrant and romantic”! Dressed for life at the front of a classroom, Haynes always projects the air of a nice, well-adjusted teacher--and indeed, he figured he’d wind …

1
Liza Minnelli: Pizzazz with 4 Zs 1:09:09

2+ y ago1:09:09

1:09:09

We know we’ve sung high praises for all our Great Old Broads, but wow, was Liza Minnelli an amazing talent! In our final installment of the series, we discuss this multi-media star, tailor-made for the New Hollywood of the 1960s. Even though she had famous Hollywood movie studio parents, Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, Liza initially propelled …

1
Elizabeth Taylor Part 2: The Last Star 1:29:09

2+ y ago1:29:09

1:29:09

So much Liz that we needed two episodes to deal with all that stardom. Here we cover everything from the Liz-starring film epic Cleopatra that bankrupted 20th Century-Fox to near-death from pneumonia and an emergency tracheotomy to the scandalous Liz-and-Dick romance that included two marriages to Richard Burton plus one rebuke from the Pope to her…

1
Soft, Pink, and Posh: The Cinema of Sofia Coppola 1:02:32

2+ y ago1:02:32

1:02:32

Here's our very special Filmsuck episode featuring author and film columnist Jessa Crispin, who joins us in a gleeful, long-overdue takedown of Sofia Coppola films!By Eileen Jones and Dolores McElroy

1
Vivien Leigh: Scorpio Rising 1:27:28

2+ y ago1:27:28

1:27:28

In the latest Filmsuck episode, we're talking scary-beautiful sorceress-star Vivien Leigh who played Scarlett O'Hara and Cleopatra and Anna Karenina and Blanch DuBois and many other iconic film roles. We also take on the recent, remarkably stupid film studies scholarship about her.By Eileen Jones and Dolores McElroy

1
Gloria Swanson: Have They Forgotten What a Star Looks Like? 1:16:20

3y ago1:16:20

1:16:20

We're kicking off our "Great Old Broads" series with the fabulously overdressed silent screen star Gloria Swanson, who set out to become a definitive figure of excess in the highly excessive Hollywood of the 1910s and 1920s. You know her as Norma Desmond, the unforgettably mad has-been star determined on making a comeback ("I hate that word! It's '…

1
Heatwave Horror 1:02:05

3y ago1:02:05

1:02:05

In this Filmsuck Summer Film Series (FSFS) episode we're focusing on horror films set in vacation settings. We discuss the beachy shock effects of Jaws and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and especially concentrate on the lakeside summer camp slasher terrors of Friday the 13th. Our special guest Ian Miller joins us to discuss the original Friday t…

1
The Girls of Summer 1:11:18

3y ago1:11:18

1:11:18

We're kicking off our Filmsuck Summer Film Series (FSFS for short) with a tribute to films and TV about teen girls making the most of their magical interlude of freedom. We're also sharing some partially hidden gems that you might not know about: 2018 indie film Skate Kitchen and its current HBO series spin-off Betty, both directed by Crystal Mosel…

1
Halston Held Hostage by Ryan Murphy 1:01:07

3y ago1:01:07

1:01:07

This week we're taking on the Ryan Murphy Problem by examining the new five-episode Netflix series Halston, produced and co-written by Murphy. It stars Ewan McGregor as the famous one-name fashion designer whose spectacular rise backed by huge corporate money made him a king of NYC in the Studio 54 era, and whose equally spectacular fall in a cloud…

1
Tallulah Bankhead - Never Boring 58:50

3y ago58:50

58:50

In this episode of Filmsuck we justify our love for Tallulah Bankhead, the sensational star of stage, screen, radio, and television whose outrageous wit, frank enjoyment of recreational drugs and alcohol, and wild sexual adventuring made her as famous as her acting from the 1920s to the 1960s. She used to tell reporters, "Say anything about me, dah…

1
Tennessee Williams on Film 1:30:41

3y ago1:30:41

1:30:41

Happy 110th birthday, TW! In this episode of Filmsuck we're reveling in the mind-blowing film adaptations of Tennessee Williams' great plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), and Night of the Iguana (1964). The most celebrated American playwright of the mid-20th century, Williams' r…

1
Bridgerton: WTF 1:16:12

3+ y ago1:16:12

1:16:12

This is, in a way, a continuation of last week’s special Anti-Valentine’s Day episode about “peak libido” and unsexy cinema and television, because we’re talking about the supposed counter-example of Bridgerton, which is getting raves for its red-hot period-piece sexiness. Special guest co-host Emily Robbins helps Eileen fathom the Regency romance …

1
Anti-Valentine's Day and Unsexy Cinema 1:25:01

3+ y ago1:25:01

1:25:01

Today in honor of this awful holiday we're doing an anti-Valentine's Day episode, lamenting the dreary unsexiness of most film and television of our time. We're wondering if it's part of a much larger phenomenon--the depletion of erotic energy in our collective existence that's running alongside the depletion of other planetary resources. That's th…

1
Fascinating Fascism 1:13:14

3+ y ago1:13:14

1:13:14

In the latest Filmsuck episode we take on the depressingly timely topic of fascist aesthetics, in terms of historical development and cinematic representations. For example, did you know that the success of the notorious white supremacist film Birth of a Nation (1915) inspired both a resurgence in the Ku Klux Klan but also their adoption of the ful…

1
YES WE FRAN 1:03:43

3+ y ago1:03:43

1:03:43

Dolores and Eileen talk All About Fran--i.e. writer-humorist-raconteur-ultimate New Yorker Fran Lebowitz--in the new Martin Scorsese docuseries Pretend It's a City, now playing on Netflix. We celebrate Fran L., "public wit," mordant naysayer, and the last bohemian standing, representing a lost gritty urban paradise of art, books, music, and hanging…

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