Episodes

  • The Host

    The Host
    Jul 4 2025
    This week, the great Andrew Jagielski returns to the show to discuss the last of Saoirse's attempts towards traditional stardom, Andrew Niccol's The Host. An adaptation of the only non-Twilight novel Stephenie Meyer ever wrote, the film stars Saoirse as a young woman possessed by an alien parasite dueling for control over her body, and get this - they both like different boys. Listen in as we debate the metrics by which one determines what is the worst, eulogize the Saw franchise, consider the long term benefits of being in a flop, and go long on Saoirse's career in comparison to other actresses of her generation.

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    2 hrs and 44 mins
  • Byzantium

    Byzantium
    Jun 27 2025
    This week, we're checking back in with our old friend Neil Jordan for 2012's Byzantium, in which Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan play mother and daughter vampires eking out a living in an English coastal town. Listen as we ponder such questions as: are vampires played out as a narrative concept? Does this movie function as an earnest feminist counter to its sex-centered marketing? Is this movie an attempt to better execute the core ideas behind Jordan's previous film Ondine? Is Caleb Landy Jones Good in this? What's going on with Caleb Landry Jones' Wikipedia page? What's going on with this movie's Wikipedia page? What going on with Chris Columbus' Wikipedia page? The answers to these questions, and more, can be found within.

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    2 hrs and 38 mins
  • Violet & Daisy

    Violet & Daisy
    Jun 21 2025

    This week, the great Justin Stillmaker returns to the show to discuss Violet & Daisy, the... other movie from 2011 where Saoirse Ronan plays a teen girl assassin. Co-starring Alexis Bledel, the film was the directorial debut and swan song of Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Precious Geoffrey S. Fletcher, and as we try to wrap our heads around this befuddling movie and his incredibly brief career, we also defend Spike Lee's honor, continue to litigate the long cultural tail of Quentin Tarantino, somehow keep mentioning Seijun Suzuki, and contemplate alternate casting possibilities both real (this was almost a Saoirse/Carey Mulligan vehicle!) and imagined. But we devote most of the episode towards eulogizing the legendary James Gandolfini, in one of his last performances before his untimely death.


    Check out the trailer for Justin's upcoming movie The Rider: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFLAZvZOFUy/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D

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    2 hrs and 27 mins
  • Hanna

    Hanna
    Jun 14 2025
    sorry about this one gang

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    2 hrs and 19 mins
  • The Way Back (Round 2)

    The Way Back (Round 2)
    Jun 7 2025
    This week, it's a first for Above the Title - we're doubling back to a movie we've already covered. That's right, it's a return look at the first role Saoirse booked after her Oscar nomination and her one collaboration with Colin Farrell, Peter Weir's swan song The Way Back. Our original episode was one of our most contentious, and we've had two years to let our thoughts percolate on this divisive film. Kind of a postscript episode this week, but a fun one, even if we mostly talk about the Russo brothers.

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    1 hr and 43 mins
  • The Lovely Bones

    The Lovely Bones
    May 16 2025
    This week, the great Morgan Garrity joins us to discuss Peter Jackson's boondoggle adaptation of Alice Sebold's best selling novel The Lovely Bones, starring Soairse as the ghost of a girl murdered in the 1970s. We talk the film's lengthy production and the complicated history behind the novel, get into our thoughts on Jackson and this adaptation, but really we're all here to sort one thing out: is Academy Award nominee Stanley Tucci good in this movie?

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    2 hrs and 31 mins
  • City of Ember

    City of Ember
    May 11 2025
    This week, the great Charlie Schumann returns to chat about 9-1-1, the late career of Jennifer Lopez, and the relationship between the Mission: Impossible films and the tv show. Oh, and when we remember we also discuss Saoirse's first lead role City of Ember, a failed YA dystopian franchise starter about an underground city that definitely makes sense and definitely isn't boring.

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    2 hrs and 5 mins
  • Death Defying Acts

    Death Defying Acts
    May 2 2025
    This week, we're playing clean-up on the last of the movies rushed into release to capitalize on Saoirse's Oscar nomination with Gillian Armstrong's Death Defying Acts. An almost entirely fictionalized melodrama set in the last weeks of Harry Houdini's life, the film stars Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones at the very tail end of the star runs, and Saoirse Ronan as the latter's plucky con artist daughter. We talk the two leads' A-list careers twenty years on, fancast our own Harry Houdini biopics, argue over which de Havilland sister was better, and devote some time to talking about The Pitt. We mostly talk about The Pitt. How good is The Pitt y'all.

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    2 hrs and 7 mins