Housekeeping For Beginners and Monster (Movie Squad Podcast #165)

With Simon Miraudo away on special assignment, Movie Squad returns for another week with Breakfast host Pam Boland as Tristan Fidler and Lucy Rutherford take a look at two new dramas in cinema release. Firstly, the Squad look at Housekeeping For Beginners, a new film from Macedonian-Australian filmmaker Goran Stolveski (Of An Age), a new drama that focuses on Dita (Anamaria Marinca) who never wanted to be a mother. But circumstances force her to raise her girlfriend's two daughters: tiny troublemaker Mia (Dzada Selim) and rebellious teen Vanesa (Mia Mustafa). The next film is a new Japanese drama from director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters, Broker) called Monster, which played earlier this year at the Perth Festival. A single mother (Sakura Ando) demands answers from a school teacher when her son (Soya Kurokawa) begins acting strangely. A fight at school causes even more trouble. This film is also dedicated to musician Ryuichi Sakamoto who composed the film's score before his death in 2023. We also mention the concert film Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus which is playing this Sunday 12 May for one session at Luna Cinemas (details here). Stay tuned for an extended, pod-exclusive chat about Hirokazu Kore-eda's films and the benefits of Letterboxd. Tune into RTRFM 92.1 at 7:30am on Fridays for your regular broadcast of Movie Squad on the radio.