Above the Title: A Colin Farrell Podcast

This week, we are taking a look at 2020's The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie's return to his trademark type of ensemble crime films after a decade of franchise fare and a movie that one of your cohosts thinks is the worst thing we've ever discussed on the podcast. Topics include: the diminishing returns of Ritchie's whole deal, this movie's rancid racist and nationalist politics, the dying art of studio fanfare, and the weird legacy of Colin's "pull up your pants" performance in this film. Plus: he's not very good in this, but we still go long on the career of star Matthew McConaughey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Stuart Elmore joins us to talk 2019's Dumbo, a somewhat misbegotten entry in Disney's attempts to remake their animated classics and, to date, Colin's last starring role in a major studio film. We get into our feelings on director Tim Burton and his body of work, the complicated history of the original, Disney's monstrous 2019 and the broader wave of live-action remakes, and the difficulties of integrating subversive or progressive ideology into works released by major conglomerates. Plus: Stuart, no stranger to tackling full actor filmographies himself, prods us to answer the question we've been dancing around for weeks: what is going on with Colin's career and why does he keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Johnny Buse joins us to discuss Steve McQueen's 2018 Windy City heist epic Widows. As anyone who's seen it knows, this movie is a very rich text, and as this is a Colin Farrell podcast (and with two Chicago boys on the recording), we mostly focus in on his subplot regarding a contested alderman race for a South Side ward, and the film's broader understanding of Chicago's political structure, racial tensions, and social boundaries along neighborhood lines. But we also do touch on other aspects of the film at large, including its misbegotten Oscar chances, the star-studded cast and how it plays with their receptions, the legacy of Chicago in film, the cosmopolitan concerns of an English television series being remade in the United States, that one scene where Michelle Rodriguez makes out with a stranger, and, of course, a Viola Davis Mount Rushmore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here on Above the Title, we're completionists. We've made the pledge that we are going to discuss every Colin Farrell performance of the 21st century. And if that means we have to talk about a 40 minute Game of Thrones knockoff ad for a quartz company that never mentions quartz, well, that's the task we've set for ourselves. But you, dear listener, you have not made this pledge. You have a limited time on this Earth and are under no obligation to listen to this discussion. The subject is Legend of Cambria. The guest is Jeff Sweeney. We have fulfilled our obligation and wash our hands of whatever choice you make with this information. Godspeed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Justin Stillmaker returns to the show to close out our look at Colin's run of prestige projects in 2017 with the misbegotten but still Oscar nominated legal drama Roman J. Israel, Esq. The sophomore film from Nightcrawler writer/director Dan Gilroy, the film stars the god Denzel Washington as the titular lawyer, a civil rights activist struggling with a crisis of faith, and Colin the corporate lawyer he inspires to action. We get into Colin's penchant for taking unremarkable supporting roles in higher profiles of this ilk and his difficulties connecting with strong directors, and discuss the film's well intentioned but misguided politics, its muddled narrative resulting from post-production woes, and its frankly shameless similarities to Michael Clayton, a film originally pitched to Washington and written and directed by Gilroy's older brother. But mostly, we are here to valorize Denzel, the man all three of us think might just be the best movie star of all time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Jake Mueller (Cinebums) returns to the show to talk Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled. A remake of the Clint Eastwood/Don Siegel film of the same name, the film stars Colin as a Union soldier in the waning years of the Civil War who is injured and taken in by a Confederate girl's school and all the sexual tension and various romances that follow. We talk the film's racial and gender politics and its complicated reception, along with our broader feelings on Coppola, the remaining context from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, and the wildly different approaches between this film and the original. Plus: two difficult, contentious Rushmores on two of our absolute favorite actresses. Listen to Cinebums! https://cinebums.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Andrew Jagielski joins us for the second and (sadly) final collaboration between Colin Farrell and Yorgos Lanthimos. That's right, it's 2017's postmodern Greek tragedy The Killing of a Sacred Deer, in which Colin plays a hypocritical surgeon whose family is placed under a curse by a teenage boy he once wronged. We delve into how this film works as an expression of Lanthimos' style and as a star vehicle for Colin, and sort through our feelings on the uglier side of Lanthimos' obtuse worldview on the edge of a populist reinvention. Along the way we touch on the birth of movie star Barry Keoghan, A24's off kilter 2017 and the development of their house brand, and Colin and Nicole Kidman's big Cannes film festival and the tumultuous events that occurred on the Croisette (with a little tease for next week). Plus, somehow, we get into a knock down drag out fight about Taylor Swift, the most Lanthimosian of pop stars. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week the great Colin Hamingson AND the great (and returning!) Saneesh Feisal join us to talk 2016's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the biggest hit of Colin Farrell's career and, seven years later, the most toxic and complicated movie he was ever in. We dig into Warner Brothers' attempts to transform Harry Potter into an MCU of their own, and the weird ways that experiment was both a success (for this movie) and a disastrous failure (in what followed). Along the way we touch on director David Yates' attempts to (sorry) recreate the magic of the mainline Potter films, Eddie Redmayne's brief movie star run, the film's notorious twist, how the movie's disinterest in a great Colin performance ending up being the best thing that could have happened to him, and all the controversies that have become attached to this film in the years since - including, yes, all our feelings on the Potter franchise and J.K. Rowling's now dead legacy. Trans rights are human rights. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just when we thought we were out, they pull us back in. That's right, this week we're taking a look at Solace, a cat and mouse thriller about a psychic cop (Anthony Hopkins) pursuing a psychic serial killer (Colin Farrell), which had sat on the shelf for several years before getting a quick festival run and alleged theatrical release to cash in on Colin's newly reclaimed stardom. We talk about the film's protracted production (including a decade where they were, swear to God, trying to retool it as a sequel to Se7en), attempt to sort through its incoherent narrative, toast Hopkin's career, get into the weeds of Italian copyright law, and mostly just lose our minds as we take one last look back at the dredges of Colin's flop era. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Morgan Garrity joins us to talk the second season of HBO's True Detective, Colin's first serious foray into American television and the continuation of his hot comeback summer of 2015. Playing one of four leads in the highly anticipated series, centering on a group of adrift cops stumbling their way through uncovering a conspiracy in a small California town, we get to see Farrell dip into an old bag of tricks as he attempts to grab onto the redemption narrative that had been so central to Matthew McConaughey in the first season. Did it work? We talk about it, along with its belabored by design narrative, the somewhat uncomfortable gender politics of both this and season 1, Vince Vaughn trying to reinvent himself as a serious actor, the failed Taylor Kitsch movie star run, and some wildly inaccurate, now months old speculation on both season 4 and this year's Oscar nominations. But the three of us are mostly here to do one thing, and that's fangirl over Rachel McAdams. There's truth that lives and truth that dies, we don't know which so never mind. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Genevieve Jacobson joins us, after months in Colin's flop era, to talk about a good movie. That's right, we've finally arrived at The Lobster, Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos' Cannes winning and Oscar nominated English language debut. The film stars Colin as a man in a surreal future forced to find a partner or be turned into the titular crustacean, and we find a lot to dig into regarding the film's philosophical underpinnings, aesthetic oddities, and morbid sense of humor. Along the way we touch on the beginnings of Colin's comeback, the odd circumstances that led to his getting the role, the film's messy and delayed release, our broader feelings on Lanthimos' body of work, and, most importantly, what animal we'd each choose to become. The answers are very revealing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we're taking a look at Liv Ullman's 2014 adaptation of the August Strindberg play Miss Julie. Starring Colin Farrell alongside an ascendant Jessica Chastain as a servant and mistress engaged in an scandalous flirtation, the film sees Ullman move the location to Northern Ireland and update the narrative with a modern, feminist framing. We get into the psychosexual drama at play and the film's stylistic successes and failures (especially in relation to the more acclaimed 1951 Swedish adaptation), plus we take a look at the long cultural tail of Ingmar Bergman and try to sort through our feelings on Chastain's underwhelming career. Is this the final film in Colin's dark night of the career? Or does his performance here presage the major comeback to come? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Charlie Schumann joins us for the tenth anniversary spectacular look at notorious bomb Winter's Tale. A sweeping epic in which Colin Farrell plays an immigrant street thief who befriends a magic horse (?) and discovers he's a pawn in the eternal battle between God and Satan (??) and then lives for a century so he can fulfil his destiny (?????????????), the film was received with much derision and quickly forgotten save for the odd meme or two. We touch on its reputation and general failures, and along the way discuss the legacy of so bad it's good movies, the artistic crimes of writer/director Akiva Goldsman, what remains of Colin's dreamboat status, and just how the hell they got Will Smith to play Satan at this point in his career. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Jeff Sweeney (of the Travolting podcast) joins us to look at failed Oscar contender Saving Mr. Banks, the deeply Disneyfied (and maybe evil?) biopic of Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers and her feuds with Walt over the famous 1963 film version. We grapple with our complicated feelings about the legacy of the Disney corporation, have an oddly contentious debate over Paul Giamatti's entire body of work, and reckon with a moving and close to home Colin Farrell performance as Travers' alcoholic father. Plus: deep dives into the careers of Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson (and a shorter drive-by on Jason Schwartzman). Cole can't remember who voiced the gargoyle in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Connor outlines his plan for worldwide economic collapse. Jeff gets a lot of mileage out of his Elvis impression. Note: this is the second half of a two part episode, be sure to check your feed for the other half, dropping at the same time. Listen to Travolting's new series on the films of Winona Ryder! https://rss.com/podcasts/travolting/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the great Jeff Sweeney (of the Travolting podcast) joins us to look at failed Oscar contender Saving Mr. Banks, the deeply Disneyfied (and maybe evil?) biopic of Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers and her feuds with Walt over the famous 1963 film version. We grapple with our complicated feelings about the legacy of the Disney corporation, have an oddly contentious debate over Paul Giamatti's entire body of work, and reckon with a moving and close to home Colin Farrell performance as Travers' alcoholic father. Plus: deep dives into the careers of Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson (and a shorter drive-by on Jason Schwartzman). Cole can't remember who voiced the gargoyle in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Connor outlines his plan for worldwide economic collapse. Jeff gets a lot of mileage out of his Elvis impression. Note: this is the first half of a two part episode, be sure to check your feed for the other half, dropping at the same time. Listen to Travolting's new series on the films of Winona Ryder! https://rss.com/podcasts/travolting/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we're shrinking ourselves down to insect size to explore a world of wonder (and mostly get distracted by tangents), as we take a look at Epic. A misbegotten franchise starter from now defunct studio Blue Sky (best known for the Ice Age franchise), the film stars Amanda Seyfried as an ordinary woman who discovers a microscopic adventure occurring in the forest by her house and Colin as a general attempting to protect a kingdom from a evil warlord. We talk about celebrity voice casts in animated films of the past twenty years, the project's relationship to Pixar, the film's willful embrace ofgeneric fantasy tropes, and the broader state of American animation at this point in history... but mostly we're just trying to figure out if Colin is literally supposed to be playing a leaf in this thing. Like an actual leaf on a tree. It's very unclear. Connor talks through his feelings regarding Killers of the Flower Moon. Cole has the upmost respect for the owls of Ga'Hoole. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we continue our journey into the doldrums of Colin's middle period with a look at Dead Man Down, a muddled attempt by original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo director Niels Arden Oplev to inject European art film flair into the DTV crime thriller mold. We discuss the film's incoherent plotting and tone, once again tackle the question of Colin Farrell in action hero mode, and break down co-star Noomi Rapace's odd run as a failed Hollywood leading lady. Plus, because you try talking about this movie, we get very loopy and really just drift off into whatever tangents cross our minds. But, like, more so than usual. Cole wants Tommy Wirkola to chill. Connor debuts his Justin Timberlake impression. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we continue our journey into the doldrums of Colin's middle period with a look at Dead Man Down, a muddled attempt by original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo director Niels Arden Oplev to inject European art film flair into the DTV crime thriller mold. We discuss the film's incoherent plotting and tone, once again tackle the question of Colin Farrell in action hero mode, and break down co-star Noomi Rapace's odd run as a failed Hollywood leading lady. Plus, because you try talking about this movie, we get very loopy and really just drift off into whatever tangents cross our minds. But, like, more so than usual. Cole wants Tommy Wirkola to chill. Connor debuts his Justin Timberlake impression. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the podcast it's the Oops! All Rushmores special! The great Sean Fahey joins us, and he wanted to spend the episode playing everyone's favorite game. So join us as we delve into a multitude of careers, from luminaries like Christopher Walken all the way to beloved character actors like Kevin Corrigan. Also we briefly find time to discuss Seven Psychopaths, Martin McDonagh's 2012 follow-up to In Bruges, and try to figure out just what's going on with Colin Farrell's career. Connor feels bullied. Cole holds several grudges. Sean executes a master plan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the podcast it's the Oops! All Rushmores special! The great Sean Fahey joins us, and he wanted to spend the episode playing everyone's favorite game. So join us as we delve into a multitude of careers, from luminaries like Christopher Walken all the way to beloved character actors like Kevin Corrigan. Also we briefly find time to discuss Seven Psychopaths, Martin McDonagh's 2012 follow-up to In Bruges, and try to figure out just what's going on with Colin Farrell's career. Connor feels bullied. Cole holds several grudges. Sean executes a master plan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.