The seventh episode of the Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we discuss two Los Angeles-set detective films: Inherent Vice (2014), Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s hippie mystery novel, and L.A. Confidential (1997) which follows three cops in 1950s L.A., each with wildly different styles, on hunt for the perpetrators of the Nite Owl Massacre. Featuring: * Spotted Dick * Benecio Del Toro’s 70s face * A digression about Hippie Pizza* The actual narrator * Epic Nixon Foundation TikToks * Watch Guys * ‘Audrey, Donna or Shelley?’* What even is ‘Skibidi Toilet?’and much, much, more! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegreyalbum.substack.com
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1:23:23
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1:23:23
Metropolitan (1990), Barcelona (1994), and The Last Days of Disco (1998)
The sixth episode of the Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we discuss Whit Stillman’s ‘Doomed Bourgeois in Love Trilogy’, three comedies of manners that portray the professional and romantic travails of upper-middle-class young people. Metropolitan (1990) takes place in the world of debutante balls, Barcelona (1994) follows two American expats in Spain at the end of the Cold War and The Last Days of Disco (1998) covers the disco scene of the early 1980s.Featuring: * The Decline of the West * Neocon Romcoms* ‘The Tapas Putsch’* The difference between a jacket, blazer, and sportscoat * The seething hatred of Anglo cuisine * Knock off KFCs* Why Boomers hate wet shaving and much, much, more! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegreyalbum.substack.com
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1:12:16
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1:12:16
Heat (1995) and Drive (2011)
The fifth episode of the Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture.This episode we discuss Michael Mann’s magisterial crime epic Heat (1995), featuring legendary performances from Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, and Drive (2011), Nicolas Winding Refn’s synth-and-neon-drenched L.A. noir starring Ryan Gosling as a quiet stunt driver who gets caught up in the criminal underworld.Featuring:* Robert DeNiro Simping * YouTube Cobblers* National Medal of Arts Recipient Jon Voight * We respect crowded coffee shops * Boogie-woogie Piano * What is literally me? * Dan Radcliffe is a 5 ‘4 Goblinand much, much, more! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegreyalbum.substack.com
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1:20:07
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1:20:07
The Ghost Writer (2010) and Love Actually (2003) – The Tony Blair Christmas Special Extravaganza!
The fourth episode of the The Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture.This episode we talk about two films as part of our Tony Blair Christmas Special Extravaganza: The Ghost Writer (2010), Roman Polanski’s political thriller about a controversial former British Prime Minister and Love Actually (2003), Richard Curtis’s modern Christmas classic rom-com.Featuring:* 2000s anti-neocon pop culture* New Labour Home Secretaries* 500 IQ Theorycel Gordon Brown* Love Actually as Blairite propaganda* Deported from Saudi Arabia for being too handsome* Joni Mitchell > Joe Rogan* Gordon Brown’s Kitchen Nightmares* ‘You will never convince me to eat the brown meat’and much, much, more!Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegreyalbum.substack.com
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1:08:46
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1:08:46
Annie Hall (1977), Interiors (1978), and Manhattan (1979)
The third episode of the The Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we talk about three films by legendary filmmaker Woody Allen: Annie Hall (1977), the Best Picture winner that revolutionised the romantic comedy genre; Interiors (1978), Allen’s underrated attempt at a Bergmanesque drama; and Manhattan (1979), perhaps his most complete film.Featuring:* Woody Allen isn’t a boomer and he hates cocaine* ‘Van Gogh’ and ‘Notre Dame’* An anecdote featuring Nicolas Cage* A Weezer comparison* Why do they all end up in France?* Black Rifle Coffee* The Golden Age of Seth Rogen moviesand much, much, more! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegreyalbum.substack.com
A podcast companion to The Grey Album newsletter, every episode features a free-form discussion and analysis about whatever piece of pop culture that's gripping us at the moment, be it film, television or literature. It's like the conversation that you have immediately after you leave the cinema, but with two witty and erudite best friends that you never knew you had. Featuring digressions, jokes, and a dash of politics. thegreyalbum.substack.com