Citizen Dame

This week, the Dames are talking about love, true love as we discuss the beloved 1987 fairy tale classic, The Princess Bride. William Goldman adapted the script from his own novel. Rob Reiner directs the film which stars Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn and so many more.

Be sure to come back next week when we finish out our 1987 romantic movie series with Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah in Roxanne.

And we're back! This week, we're talking about Maurice (1987), the Merchant-Ivory adaptation of E.M. Forster's startlingly progressive story of homosexual love in Edwardian England. The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems.

Next week, we'll be discussing The Princess Bride, so Gen-Xers and Millennials should get real excited!

This month we're traveling back to 1987, starting with the Academy Award-winning romance, Moonstruck.

Plot: Loretta Castorini, a bookkeeper from Brooklyn, New York, finds herself in a difficult situation when she falls for the brother of the man she has agreed to marry.

Directed by: Norman Jewison
Written by: John Patrick Shanley
Starring: Cher, Nicolas Cage, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia

We close out our Women's History Month discussion of Penelope Spheeris with THE movie of the 1990s: Wayne's World, starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey! Hear about the film that introduced a generation to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and maybe sort of formed Lauren's entire psyche.

Next week, we'll be chatting about Moonstruck, so defo prep for that!

Party on!

We continue our Penelope Spheeris series with her first narrative feature, Suburbia.

Plot summary:

Suburbia is director Penelope Spheeris's study of the Los Angeles punk rock scene in the early 1980s. Evan and his younger brother leave their broken home in an attempt to escape their alcoholic mother. They find family in a group of punks who live as squatters in an abandoned house by the side of the highway.

We're celebrating Women's History Month by discussing some of the best films of the severely underrated Penelope Spheeris, whose filmography is quite something. First up: Spheeris's first feature, The Decline of Western Civilization, an intense, enjoyable, wholly strange documentary about the LA hardcore punk scene in 1979/1980. Even if you're not a punk fan, this is a must-see.

We'll be on a brief break next week, but will return the week after to discuss Spheeris's Suburbia (1983), a fictionalized take on the punk lifestyle.

We conclude our David Lynch series with his first Academy Award-nominated feature, The Elephant Man. Released in 1980, John Hurt stars as John Merrick, a Victorian era freak show star whose life changes when he meets Dr. Frederick Treves, played by Anthony Hopkins. But of course, with David Lynch telling the story, there is so much more to it than what lies on the surface.

This week we continue our David Lynch series with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the prequel film to the remarkable series.

Trigger warning for discussion of sexual abuse/incest.

This week, we continue our David Lynch series by exploring the mysteries of Mulholland Drive.

Plot summary: After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.

Written and directed by David Lynch
Starring: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Patrick Fischler, Robert Forster, Ann Miller

We're back and better than ever! After a brief hiatus while Karen was at Sundance, the Dames return to discuss some of the must-sees of the festival, followed by a deep dive into David Lynch's 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, and Laura Dern.