Filmspotting

The new Netflix comedy Best of the Best introduced Matt and Jordan to the world of collegiate competitive Bollywood dance, and they left converts: to the dancing, to stars Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia, and to director Lena Khan’s winning movie (which has a joke-filled script written by comedian Hassan Minhaj and writing partner Prashanth Venkataramanujam). In the Best of the Best-inspired Rec Seg, they recommend an entry-level Bollywood classic and an obscure NYC-set dance movie. Then it’s a pair of single-setting (“bottle”) movies for listener Steven, and Producer Sam hosts a “Let’s Dance!” round of trivia.
Intro (00:00:00–00:02:28)
Best of the Best (00:02:29–00:20:55)
Rec Seg! (00:20:56–00:36:45)
Listener Req Seg! “Bottle Movies” (00:36:46–00:52:14)
Game: Let’s Dance! (00:52:15–01:08:55)
New to Streaming / Credits (01:08:56–01:26:39)
Show Notes
For what film should Alison Willmore make her triumphant return to SVU?
https://poll.fm/17448084
Now Streaming on Bazooga - A Filmspotting: SVU Archive⁠ https://letterboxd.com/samvanhallgren/list/now-streaming-on-bazooga-a-filmspotting-svu/⁠
Pre-Order Matt's book "Funny Business: The Old-School Wedding Crashers and Knocked-Up Virgins Who Changed Comedy Forever" (Coming October 6th):⁠ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790241/funny-business-by-matt-singer/⁠
Feedback: Email us at feedback@filmspottingSVU.com
Follow Matt on Blue Sky: @mattsinger.bsky.social
Follow Jordan on Blue Sky: @jhoffman.bsky.social
Follow the Show:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/superpulse/⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/FilmspottingSvu⁠
Follow the Show:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/superpulse/⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/FilmspottingSvu⁠
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Film critic and author Alonso Duralde joins Michael Phillips to explore a piece of filmmaking wisdom from Vincente Minnelli: that a picture which stays with an audience is built from “a hundred or more hidden things.”

Drawing on films ranging from Meet Me in St. Louis, Some Came Running, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, they consider how production design, performance, music, camera movement, and seemingly minor visual choices accumulate into something lasting.
Notes:
"I Wake Up Screening: What To Do Once You've Made That Movie" by John Anderson and Laura Kim
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0823088987?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
Books by Alonso Duralde
Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alonso-duralde/hollywood-pride/9780762485895/?lens=running-press
I'll Be Home For Christmas
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brandon-gray/ill-be-home-for-christmas-movies/9780762499335/?lens=running-press
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

PV & FRANNY
A girl with a glockenspiel. A boy with a guitar. A high school full of weirdos, mascots who may or may not be unhinged, and a mystery that isn’t what anyone thinks it is.
A dead-serious love story… that refuses to behave like one.
One flier turns into a band. One band turns into obsession. And before they ever play a real set, everything is already ridiculous.
ACT TWO
If Act One is about starting a band, Act Two is about what happens when everything immediately gets in the way.
Franny does what any rational person would do.
He writes a love song.
Which would be fine… except for the rule.
No romance. Ever.
And PV means it.
What follows is a series of perfectly logical decisions that somehow make everything worse.
A love song that says too much.
A date that shouldn’t exist.
A plan to fix things that only complicates them further.
Because if PV won’t date a bandmate, there’s only one solution:
Make the competition part of the band.
Which works.
Until it doesn’t.
As alliances shift, rules get enforced, and Franny finds himself deeper in a situation he cannot control, the band becomes something else entirely.
Not just music.
Not just friendship.
Something closer to a test.
Of loyalty. Of identity. Of whether you can separate what you create from how you feel.
And in the middle of it all, the stakes quietly expand.
A school competition that suddenly matters.
A partnership that feels more intense than anything either of them expected.
And a realization that success might not look the way they imagined it.
Act Two is where the band takes shape, the lines get blurred, and the consequences of those rules start to land.
Because sometimes the only thing more complicated than love…
…is trying to avoid it.
🎭 CAST
NARRATOR – Ty Burrell
AJAY – Rahm Braslaw
JUDY – Samantha Morelos
MARIAN – Eileen Fogarty
PV – Kensington Tallman
RYUZO – O’Neill Monahan
FRANNY – Liam Richardson
GROUNDSKEEPER – Fred Armisen
DALE – Ruben Ray
TAP WATER BOTTLED WATER JINGLE – Chris Mann
🎬 PRODUCTION
Written by Tommy Wallach
Directed by Mark Knell & Jack Levy
Executive Produced by Shaan Sharma, Jack Levy, and Mark Knell
Table Read is a Manifest Media production.
Find The Show: Table Read Podcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As David Lynch's Blue Velvet turns 40, Adam and Josh revisit the film that shocked audiences and helped define modern American cinema. Is it Lynch's masterpiece? Plus: Massacre Theatre and Josh’s thoughts on Practical Magic 2 and Paul Greengrass's The Uprising.
This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code FILMSPOT26 to take 15% off.
(Timecodes will not be precise with ads.)
Intro (00:00:00-00:03:09)
Pantheon Project: Blue Velvet (00:03:10-01:16:00)
Filmspotting Family (01:16:01-01:19:03)
Practical Magic 2, The Uprising (01:19:04-01:27:11)
Massacre Theatre (01:27:12-1:33:05)
Credits / New Releases (1:33:06-1:37:01)
Notes:
-
Feedback:
-Email us at feedback@filmspotting.net⁠⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠Ask Us Anything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and we might answer your question in bonus content.
Support:
-Join the Filmspotting Family for bonus shows, archive access, and more.
http://filmspottingfamily.com
-Filmspotting Shop for T-shirts and more.
⁠https://www.filmspotting.net/shop⁠⁠⁠⁠
Follow:
-Watch Filmspotting on YouTube:
⁠https://youtube.com/filmspotting⁠
-Adam/Filmspotting
⁠Letterboxd⁠ |⁠ Instagram⁠ |⁠ Facebook⁠ | ⁠Bluesky⁠
-Josh/LarsenOnFilm
⁠Letterboxd⁠ | ⁠Instagram⁠ |⁠ Facebook⁠ | ⁠Bluesky
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Blue Velvet turns 40 this month—Adam and Josh have a Sacred Cow review coming later this week—so we're going back to 2014 for our Top 5 David Lynch Scenes.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.