Performance Anxiety the Podcast

Film, TV, theatre and comedy: we celebrate and dissect the performances everyone’s talking about.

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

What the 🫎is Performance Anxiety (the Podcast) !?!?

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

Here’s our take on the new and massively successful Ryan Gosling film Project Hail Mary.

The reason that Project Hail Mary is so successful commercially is because people want to watch it. And people want to watch it because it is successful artistically. It feels like Hollywood getting some of its mojo back. Hollywood is returning to a genre it has been neglecting - the proper studio picture.

A studio picture has at its centre something that invites people to the cinema - a big star that everyone knows and wants to watch. But this on its own is not enough. The story itself also has to be involving and compelling.

The way Hollywood makes stories compelling is by using a formula. The formula goes like this - the star plays a recognisable, relatable character that goes on a journey in which the stakes could not be higher. Through the journey the character transforms themselves for the better. The character’s transformation in turn makes the world in which the character lives a better place. The audience watches this formula play out and leaves the cinema satisfied.

This structure is the basis of every Hollywood film. The key for movie makers was always to make the formula fresh and interesting through the use of different stars, different genres, different journeys.

Compare this to what Hollywood has been turning out for the past few years - endless sequels, franchise sludge and self-important, worthy films. The studios turned their backs on their own winning formula. Characters were not going on transformative journeys any more because they had to be representatives of the human resources department. The old studios, the engines of popular storytelling, seemed embarrassed by the very thing that made them great.

What made Hollywood great was never sermonising, it was artistic craft coupled with star power. It was the ability to make audiences want to leave the house, buy a ticket, and sit in the dark with strangers. The old formula delivered this: a magnetic lead, a story that went somewhere, scenes designed to be seen on a big screen, and an ending that paid off.

Project Hail Mary scratches this itch in a profoundly satisfying way. Ryan Gosling is allowed to be a film star rather than a brand extension or a eunuch in trainers. The story is told through impressive spectacle and charm. It is funny. It is not ashamed of being entertaining. In present conditions, this practically revolutionary.

This is not to overstate the case. One decent film does not mean Hollywood is back and firing on all cylinders. But it does suggest that the old machinery is still there and can still work when someone bothers to use it properly. And after years of lectures, sludge and synthetic franchise rubbish, this is enough to feel hopeful.

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

Find out why we think the nee version might just be inspired! https://t.co/vmFgLvjc1P

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

First trailer for the ‘HARRY POTTER’ series.

Releasing this Christmas on HBO.

[Alex Dale @typofoto]

We think it might be genius https://t.co/nQLxHZKa02

[Sridhar Ramesh @RadishHarmers]

The Oscars have no credibility. They change their minds about who the best actor is every year.

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

We actually make two, maybe three oscar predictions in this one. Why not see if we really know what we are talking about?

[spiked @spikedonline]

Can the Oscars leave the woke era behind? The new Academy award for casting is a welcome rebuke to the DEI agenda. Hollywood is finally recognising that casting is an art, not a tickbox exercise, say Maren Thom and Alex Dale
https://t.co/J0mlfwSv5y

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

By us.

[spiked @spikedonline]

Can the Oscars leave the woke era behind? The new Academy award for casting is a welcome rebuke to the DEI agenda. Hollywood is finally recognising that casting is an art, not a tickbox exercise, say Maren Thom and Alex Dale
https://t.co/J0mlfwSv5y

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

How I cast movie stars: ‘I knew Paul Mescal was great in 15 seconds’

A lovely interview with @ltd_nina that pinpoints the intricacies and intangibles of casting.

“It's about how the actor's essence intersects with the character on the page. So the crazy, terrible thing is that normally someone will get passed over, not because they weren't good, but because somebody else, for some unaccountable reason, seemed more right.”

https://t.co/76i79iDTbj

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

Have Pixar remembered what makes them great? For a while it looked like Pixar had lost the plot - literally.

We watched Hoppers to see if they’ve got their magic storytelling touch back.

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

We enjoyed it thoroughly! https://t.co/C3ILqT3cB0

[The Book Club @bookclubpodhq]

We've had lots of questions asking us if we've seen the Wuthering Heights film. Well, we have, see Tabby and @dcsandbrook 's reaction below 👇

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

All the criticism of @wuthering_hts is basically that it isn’t what people want. The sympathetic reviews think it’s a “provocation”. Everyone should do themselves a favour and try to understand it for what it actually is!

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

Wuthering Heights - why all the hate?

Fennell’s Wuthering Heights isn’t faithful and it isn’t “correct” either.

It raids the novel’s afterlife and feeds it back into the moor.

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

@typofoto https://t.co/A0ORyCzWt2

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

Wuthering Heights - why all the hate?

Fennell’s Wuthering Heights isn’t faithful and it isn’t “correct” either.

It raids the novel’s afterlife and feeds it back into the moor.

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

On the other hand … https://t.co/C3ILqT3cB0

[Luke Hearfield @LukeHearfield]

Just came out of Wuthering Heights. Oof. An inconsistent, shallow and uneven mess of a film. And that’s coming from someone who loved Promising Young Woman and enjoyed Saltburn. 
This film however, was terrible because it's full of half measures. Fennell only dips her foot into the surrealism and maximalism pond, but had she actually completely submerged herself in it and committed, then she might’ve made a film that was actually interesting - rather than insufferable. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are horribly miscast. Both are far too old to convincingly play the roles of young, selfish, immature and petulant lovers. And what’s bizarre is Fennell has some of the best people delivering quality work in their departments (Durrant, Sandgren) and yet it in the end it all comes across as vacuous.  
Not half as shocking, intelligent or audacious as it thinks it is.

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

Wuthering Heights - why all the hate?

Fennell’s Wuthering Heights isn’t faithful and it isn’t “correct” either.

It raids the novel’s afterlife and feeds it back into the moor.

[Alex Dale @typofoto]

Good for him. He’s quite the Heathcliff

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

New Article!

Casting and the culture wars.

[Maren Thom @MadamMarenT]

New article from @perform_pod.

Me and @typofoto on casting and the culture wars.

https://t.co/K6qbZGsA4C

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

.@MadamMarenT and @typofoto on the wonderful film legacy of Rob Reiner

[spiked @spikedonline]

Rob Reiner gave us some of the most quotable moments in cinema history. ‘These go to 11’; ‘You can’t handle the truth!’; ‘I’ll have what she’s having’. His work is woven into the fabric of our culture. RIP, write Maren Thom and Alex Dale
https://t.co/PRf3F5LjoP

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

New by us.

[spiked @spikedonline]

Rob Reiner gave us some of the most quotable moments in cinema history. ‘These go to 11’; ‘You can’t handle the truth!’; ‘I’ll have what she’s having’. His work is woven into the fabric of our culture. RIP, write Maren Thom and Alex Dale
https://t.co/PRf3F5LjoP

[Alex Dale @typofoto]

.@MadamMarenT offers insight that no one else does

[Performance Anxiety the Podcast @perform_pod]

@MadamMarenT on #DianeKeaton

[spiked @spikedonline]

Diane Keaton was the first actor to master the art of ‘performing’ authenticity. She looked as if she was discovering her emotions at the same time we were. She changed acting forever, says Maren Thom
https://t.co/FoaalMgBbg

[Alex Dale @typofoto]

There is always a tension between who an actor is as a person in private and their public persona, which is how they seem to an audience. Actors get typecast because they have a type, and it’s useful to use instantly recognisable types to tell stories efficiently. She is “quirky”