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PODCAST

Mixed Bag

A podcast looking at the mixed, muddled and meh movies throughout film history. Featuring Matt, Cassandra and Jimmy. Contact us at mixedbagcontact@gmail.com

tv & film film reviews

All Episodes

134:34

166 - St Elmo's Fire 🔥

Mixed Bag ·

2026/04/12

It's the first instalment of our latest miniseries: DEMISEXUAL. That's right, we're celebrating the life and career of Ms. Demi Moore, starting right here at her first feature film appearance St Elmo's Fire.Letterboxd has a very long summary for this one, so we'll just say that it's about seven friends in their post-university era, trying to get their lives and love lives together. Also, most of the men should be in jail!!!!!!! In the Pop Corner, we chat Green Snake (1993), Project Hail Mary, After

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102:32

165 - Michael Collins 🇮🇪

Mixed Bag ·

2026/03/29

"Oh... they're the IRA." – Matt Loveranes, 2026It's a Cass pick, which means you know it'll either be animated, a musical, or an obscure period piece (shout out Dean Spanley). Today's film is definitely in the third category and comes straight from Year 11 history class. "Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic," says Letterboxd. Not a word on the

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98:25

164 - Junebug 🐞🤰

Mixed Bag ·

2026/03/15

It's Matt's personal pick, and in honour of the upcoming Oscars he's decided to go back to where it all began... "it" being Amy Adams' long unfinished road toward Oscar glory.On the way to meet with an independent artist in the South, newlywed art dealer Madeleine is convinced by her husband, George, that they should stop to meet his family in North Carolina. Madeleine’s affluent lifestyle clashes with the family, but she befriends George’s wide-eyed and pregnant sister-in-law, Ashley, who is

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96:01

163 - On Golden Pond 🎣 YOU OLD POOP!

Mixed Bag ·

2026/03/01

It's a totemic film for Jamie, who has been working on her Katharine Hepburn impression since childhood. But truly, how many times can someone say "You old poop!" with a straight face? We (attempt) to keep a tally.For Norman and Ethel Thayer, this summer on golden pond is filled with conflict and resolution. When their daughter Chelsea arrives, the family is forced to renew the bonds of love and overcome the generational friction that has existed for years. (Sourced from Letterboxd). Over in the

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119:31

162 - Saltburn 🏰

Mixed Bag ·

2026/02/08

Saltburn — it's the dumb person's idea of a smart movie. Luckily we're all dummies and we are ready to LICK this salt.Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten. (Sourced from Letterboxd). Pop corner kernels include: the Trans Theatre festival in Melbourne, the Lord of the Rings trilogy

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81:50

161 - Avatar: Fire and Ash 🔥

Mixed Bag ·

2026/01/25

We're back for our first real episode of 2026! We saw the Big Blue Boys again and let me tell you those returns are diminishing.In the wake of the devastating war against the RDA and the loss of their eldest son, Jake Sully and Neytiri face a new threat on Pandora: the Ash People, a violent and power-hungry Na’vi tribe led by the ruthless Varang. Jake’s family must fight for their survival and the future of Pandora in a conflict that pushes them to their emotional and physical limits. (Sourced from

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77:20

Top Tens of 2025 (Bonus Episode)

Mixed Bag ·

2026/01/11

We bid farewell to the year gone by with a round up of our favourite films of 2025. From arthouse to blockbusters, international cinema to Aotearoa-grown, the Mixed Bag trio have a lot to say about a bunch of films that will never feature on this podcast because they are too good.We'll be back soon with our first real episode of the year discussing Avatar: Fire and Ash!

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86:02

160 - Mixed Nuts with Lucas Neal 🎄

Mixed Bag ·

2025/12/21

"You there, boy, what day is it?""Why, it's Mixedmas, sir!" Celebrate the festive season with the most of Mixed of all Mixed films, Mixed Nuts! We're joined, as is tradition, by the Ghost of Christmas Pod, Lucas Neal. Letterboxd describes this simply as "The events of a crisis hotline business on one crazy night during the Christmas holidays." It's a French farce with a lot more suicide jokes than you'd expect for a Christmas film, we can tell you that much. Over in the Pop Corner, we chat Wake Up

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123:52

159 - A Beautiful Mind

Mixed Bag ·

2025/12/08

His mind...Our final movie from this round of personal picks as we look forward to the holiday season. We discover that one of the hosts has her own cognitive malfunctions to deal with (Paul Bettany face blindness). We reminisce about Jamie's close personal connection to Jennifer Connelly. We forgive Matt for his bad takes about Anomalisa (Cass writes the blurbs). From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash Jr. experiences it all. As a brilliant but socially awkward

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101:13

158 - Anomalisa

Mixed Bag ·

2025/11/23

Cass worked a full 16-hour day the day before recording this pod so she worried she would fall asleep on mic. Instead, she decided to let herself be fuelled by hatred as she brings one of her least favourite movies to the pod for her personal pick. Matt's a fan, Cass is a foe, but at least all three hosts can agree that the film looks good.Anomalisa is a stop-motion animated film written by Charlie Kaufman about a man who sees everyone else in the world as having the same face and voice. When he

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122:29

157 - Whip It 🛼

Mixed Bag ·

2025/11/09

It's time for Jamie's Personal Pick, and you know she's gonna choose a big ol' Dyke Drama. Some Sapphic Cinema. A Movie for Muff-Divers. So she's chosen a movie about one of the world's gayest sports, roller derby, featuring a pre-transition Elliot Page and bi-con Alia Shawkat and... NO LESBIAN CHARACTERS!?!? 😱😱😱 Can it be true?!?!?In Bodeen, Texas, an indie-rock loving misfit finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin. (Sourced

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130:25

156 - Goosebumps w Mike Bryant 👻🎃☠️

Mixed Bag ·

2025/10/28

It's spooooooky season so it's time for the Foe of the Podcast, Mike Bryant, to arise from his crypt once again and bless the pod with another scary feature that is mixed in quality.This time around, we're travelling just a decade ago to Goosebumps (2015) starring Jack Black, based on R. L. Stine's children's horror novel series of the same name. After moving to a small town, Zach Cooper finds a silver lining when he meets next door neighbor Hannah, the daughter of bestselling Goosebumps series

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107:01

155 - Marley and Me 🐕

Mixed Bag ·

2025/10/12

We cap off Tissue Box Office with a film where the tragic death is of not a long-haired brunette, but a short-haired blond! And also, he's a dog.A newly married couple, in the process of starting a family, learn many of life’s important lessons from their trouble-loving retriever, Marley. Packed with plenty of laughs to lighten the load, the film explores the highs and lows of marriage, maturity and confronting one’s own mortality, as seen through the lens of family life with a dog. (Sourced from

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102:42

154 - The Notebook 📓

Mixed Bag ·

2025/09/28

We are Jamie-obsessed on this next installation of Tissue Box Office, to the extent where everyone keeps accidentally renaming Ryan Gosling's character after our beloved cohost. While it's clear the whole Mixed Bag trio are bona fide Gos-heads, what do they think about the film that launched a million teen girl crushes?An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer’s. From a faded notebook, the old man’s words bring to life the story about a couple who is

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116:23

153 - A Walk to Remember

Mixed Bag ·

2025/09/14

We continue on our journey through the wonderful world of weepies with 2002's A Walk to Remember, the sleepover classic beloved by every teen girl who ever said "I can fix him."When the popular, restless Landon Carter is forced to participate in the school drama production, he falls in love with Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town’s minister. Jamie has a “to-do” list for her life, as well as a very big secret she must keep from Landon. (Sourced from Letterboxd). This episode we put forth our

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117:34

152 - Beaches 🏖️

Mixed Bag ·

2025/08/31

Let's go to the beach, beach, let's go get away with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey! Next on our Tissue Box Office list is a classic platonic weepie that somehow has little to no cultural footprint in Aotearoa New Zealand. A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years. (Sourced from Letterboxd). But before we dive into the beachy waves, we unpack the 2025 NZ International Film Festival in a bumper Pop Corner. Hear

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01:43:03

151 - Love Story

Mixed Bag ·

2025/08/17

Hankies at the ready, Baguettes, it's time for our new miniseries, TISSUE BOX OFFICE! Today, we discuss the concept of the term 'weepie', what qualifies as a weepie and a classic of the genre, 1970's Love Story.Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver’s wealthy father threatens

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01:59:35

151 (or actually 150?) - Fantasia 2000

Mixed Bag ·

2025/08/03

Okay, maybe this one really is episode 150 after all. Regardless, you've been listening to Mixed Bag for 150 years. Feel old yet?Blending lively music and brilliant animation, this sequel to the original ‘Fantasia’ restores ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ and adds seven new shorts. (Sourced from Letterboxd). If you don't love the Rhapsody in Blue sequence, you are probably a philistine and hate cinema and music?? That's what Cass thinks, at least. Pop corner kernels include: Girls and Too Much,

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01:34:58

150 - Crash

Mixed Bag ·

2025/07/20

So at one point in this episode we say that we should do something special for our 150th episode, which is next... well, actually we miscounted and this is our 150th episode. If you've been with us for all 150, thank you for sticking with us!Today we talk Crash, the infamous race relations film that beat out Brokeback Mountain at the Oscars (a film which will not be featured on Mixed Bag because it is straightforwardly good). We keep accidentally referring to it as Trash in this episode, for good

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01:56:56

149 - Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian...

Mixed Bag ·

2025/06/30

We're joined by Museum Enthusiast and Night at the Museum superfan Renée Iosefa to discuss the second (and best) Night at the Museum film. We've been trying to get Renée on the pod for ages but this woman is always booked and busy, so we're excited to find a time to talk "the greatest film trilogy of all time".Hapless museum night watchman Larry Daley must help his living, breathing exhibit friends out of a pickle now that they’ve been transferred to the archives at the Smithsonian Institution

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174 results

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