Riceboy Sleeps, The Kitchen and May December (Movie Squad Podcast #152)

With Simon Miraudo away on special assignment, Tristan Fidler and Breakfast host Pam Boland are joined by reviewer Cecilia Allen for another episode of the Movie Squad podcast!

For our first review, Cecilia discusses the new Canadian drama Riceboy Sleeps directed by Anthony Shim and partly based on his own childhood experiences growing up as a Korean immigrant in Vancouver. The film is set in the 1990s and follows a Korean single mother So-Young (Choi Seung-yoon) raising her young son Dong-Hyun (Ethan Hwang) in the Canadian suburbs. Out in cinemas now.

Then, Tristan visits The Kitchen, a British drama that is available streaming as a Netflix Original, which is co-written and co-directed by actor Daniel Kaluuya with Kibwe Tavares. Set in a future dystopia, a young orphan Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman) meets his possible father Izi (Kane Robinson) in the housing estate known as ‘The Kitchen,’ which is constantly raided by the police.

For a bonus review, Tristan and Cecilia discuss the critically acclaimed Todd Haynes directed melodrama May December starring Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman (who also produced) and Charles Melton. Already discussed in last year’s Movie Squad Boxing Day Special, Tristan hears what Cecilia thought of this dark and spiky movie about an actress (Portman) who visits a married couple to research a role in a movie, opening up old wounds about their controversial and criminal ‘romance’. Out in cinemas this week!

Tune into RTRFM 92.1 at 7:30am on Fridays for your regular broadcast of Movie Squad on the radio!