The Contrarians Alex Mattis & Julio Olivera

Okay, let’s get serious about this. Whether you think it’s a little weird for PJ Hogan to follow his wedding-themed debut with another wedding movie, there’s a lot to chew on when it comes to MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING. How do we feel about the film’s moral stance? Does it embrace rom-com tropes more than it subverts them? Did Rupert Everett burn bright and fast while Dermot Mulroney played the long game? Is this the perfect example of why Julia Roberts reigned supreme once upon a time? All that and more in this Real Talk segment!

Wait a minute, didn’t we JUST do this? A wedding movie from Aussie director PJ Hogan? Perhaps the most shameless example of a filmmaker selling out as quickly as they could, MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING was a massive box office and critical success, so in a way you can’t blame Hogan for going Hollywood. You can nitpick his sophomore effort to death, however, and that’s exactly what this episode is about. Join Alex & Julio as they welcome Julia Roberts back to the show to judge her love life as harshly as they can!

The fresher they are, the harder they rot… or something along those lines. Peter Bogdanovich’s amazing initial run of movies eventually had to hit a rough patch, and NICKELODEON is infamously known as the project that derailed his career almost for good. Were critics and audiences too tough on P-Bog’s love letter to silent filmmaking? How do The Contrarians feel this measures against Paper Moon, Targets and The Last Picture Show? More pressingly, can we be okay with a story that praises Birth of a Nation so much?

Legend says the great Peter Bogdanovich once asked “Who would dare live in a pineapple under the sea?”. Unfortunately, studios were not interested in exploring the answer to that question just yet, so instead P-Bog made a comedy about the early days of filmmaking. NICKELODEON was a huge bomb and it’s branded with a 17% Tomatometer score, so it’s time for The Contrarians to come to its rescue! Listen to Alex & Julio as they celebrate another Bogdanovich/O’Neals team-up and stare at Burt Reynolds’ clean-shaven face!

Do you like ABBA? That could determine how you ultimately feel about MURIEL’S WEDDING. But there’s more to PJ Hogan’s feature film debut than its memorable soundtrack, and The Contrarians will get into it in this Real Talk segment. Does the comedy balance out the tragedy? Is the film too unfair toward some of its characters? And does the unstoppable talent of Toni Collette redeem it all?

Welcome to our first PJ Party of the Summer: a wedding party! Aussie filmmaker PJ Hogan jumpstarted Toni Collette’s career (and his own) with a cringy, depressing so-called comedy full of despicable characters and ABBA songs. Should we ignore MURIEL’S WEDDINGS many failings just because it gave us one of the best actresses of our generation? Listen to Alex & Julio pick apart a movie that clearly inspired Mamma Mia! - and isn’t that the worst sin of all?