Sorry for the delay between episodes! A lot has happened - Maddie went to Cannes! We hate the suburbs! Maddie and Rachel saw Challengers!

Links:

Maddie's Cannes ranking on Letterboxd

The article about pop music's "middle class" that Rachel mentioned

Maddie's Seed & Spark campaign for the short film she's producing, Always Were - or if you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation, the Louisville Film Society fiscal sponsorship page

Maddie's newsletter

Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers):

• Megalopolis*, Anora, Bird, Red Road, American Honey, Cow, Passages
• The Hyperboreans (Los Hiperbóreos), The Wolf House (La casa lobo), Beau Is Afraid
• Rumours, Oh Canada*, The Substance
• Honey Boy, Hereditary, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, It's Not Me(C’est pas moi), Titane
• Inside Out 2, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Vrse, Flee, The Boy and the Heron, Coraline, Paranorman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Inside Out
• Love Lies Bleeding, I Saw the TV Glow*, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Top Gun: Maverick, The Lion King (2019), Twin Peaks: The Return
• Challengers*
• Twisters, Joker: Folie à Deux, Wicked, Gone Girl, Maxxxine, Janet Planet, Thelma, Kinds of Kindness, The Bikeriders, Cora Bora, The Favourite, Poor Things, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster, Dunkirk, American Animals, The Batman - Part II, The Master, Eileen, Godzilla Minus One, Inside Man, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Twister

The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @sc00gle and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠.

It's time for the Smartest People Oscar Predictions! Hopefully we are of some help to your ballots this weekend 🙏🏻 we also discuss the releases we're looking forward to in 2024.

Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers):

• Oppenheimer*, Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Poor Things*, Nyad
• Eileen
• The Boy and the Heron, Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse
• Barbie
• The Zone of Interest*, Killers of the Flower Moon*
• 20 Days in Mariupol
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Maestro*, Society of the Snow
• A Star Is Born (2018)
• Green Book
• Asteroid City, Napoleon (2023)
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
• Godzilla Minus One
• American Fiction
• Following, The Prestige, Tenet, Vice
• Dune: Part 2, The Taste of Things, Drive-Away Dolls, Love Lies Bleeding, La Chimera
• Civil War (2024), Ex Machina, Annihilation, Inside Llewyn Davis, Drive, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, MEN*
• The First Omen, Challengers, Hit Man, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Mad Max: Fury Road, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Nosferatu (2024)
• Longlegs, Joker: Folie à Deux, Joker, Faces of Death (2024), The End (upcoming), Nightbitch, Gasoline Rainbow, I Saw the TV Glow, Maxxxine, Mickey 17, Megalopolis, The Way of the Wind, They Follow, It Follows
• Margaret

The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @sc00gle and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠.

Okay, so, we recorded this emergency podcast the Saturday after the Oscar nominees were announced, and then Maddie got too busy and is only just now uploading it. This episode is no longer topical, nor a hot take. Please forgive us but please listen anyway! (Also, Maddie knows the song is called "What Was I Made For?" but was too worked up to remember the title).

"Barbie Has Cellulite (But You Don't Have To)" from Jessica DeFino's newsletter The Unpublishable

Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers):

• Barbie*
• Priscilla
• May December
• Past Lives, Eileen
• Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody, Crash, Forrest Gump, Shakespeare In Love
• Nyad, Asteroid City
• Singin’ in the Rain, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
• The Eternals, Hamnet

The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @sc00gle and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠.