Biopic: A Podcast Story

Wired is one of the worst things we’ve ever seen, even here in the year of our lord 2026, where everything is kind of awful. And yet it persists with a righteous confidence that it has done nothing to deserve. 

Wired answers the question, what if a biopic both disdains its subject and tells its subject’s story through the perspective of one of America's most preachily moralizing, self-righteous boomers, who pretty much relies on that one time he was awesome to justify all of his subsequent life choices? And isn’t that a question we’ve all asked?

John Belushi takes the world’s saddest journey through his life, presented here as a parade of regrettable humiliations and IP-skirting recreations of his work, in a taxi driven by Ray Sharkey, an actor incapable of doing an inoffensive Spanish accent (or of admitting to vulnerable partners that he had a deadly virus). While all of this is happening, we watch in suspense as Scoop Bob Woodward tries to get the story about John’s drug addiction. It’s an unfun fever dream that tries really hard to be interesting and fails in a way that almost destroys your will to live. 

We welcome back comedian and filmmaker Liam McEnaney, who helps us parse through this movie that absolutely has no business existing. 

https://heyitsliam.com/

 

Sources used in the episode include…

Wired, by Bob Woodward. 

Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests, by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller.
Various interviews with Michael Chiklis et al that we found on the internet, but that Rena is unable to track down in a hurry befroe running to to the eye doctor almost four months after recording this thing, when we just want to get new content up again at long last.

Pre-order Sara’s new book, Dark Messiah, here!

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-messiah-sara-z-carson/1149827886

 

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q

Follow us!

Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory

Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social

Threads: @biopicapodcaststory

Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory

Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

AND WE’RE BACK.

We’re sure you’ve all missed us terribly, but some very good life stuff (Sara’s book is available for pre-order on Amazon! Rena’s work can be read on Galerie.com!) busted up our routine. 

Also busting up our routine: Our non-hate for Kevin Costner’s performance in Hidden Figures, a film in which he is not the star.

Hidden Figures is, instead, a tour-de-force of gorgeous performances by astonishingly attractive, gifted actors which manages to commit some sly transgressions on the “white savior” trope that dominates so many movies about the Black civil rights movement. (Who has the balls to make Sheldon a villain? Hidden Figures does). 

Telling the true story of the Black female NASA employees—Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson—who sent men to the moon, Hidden Figures brought us joy. This film is packed with supportive partners and parents, well-behaved and thoughtful children, Karens getting undermined, and deeply brainy women, and we’re here for its optimism. 

Oh, and Mahershala Ali is here? Okay, cool. 

We discuss: Apollo 13 and how maybe that control room shouldn’t have been wall-to-wall Clint Howards, the discomfort of Operation Paperclip, flawless makeup, math, and whether Sara’s brain is still fully functional (spoiler: it is not). 

Hidden Figures is directed by Theodore Melfi, and stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, Janelle Monae as Mary Jackson, Kevin Costner as Al Harrison, Kirsten Dunst as Vivian Mitchell, Jim Parsons as Paul Stafford, Mahershala Ali as Colonel Jim Johnson, Aldis Hodge as Levi Jackson, and Glen Powell as John Glenn. 

Sources used in the episode include…

 

The book Hidden Figures

https://www.space.com/35145-hidden-figures-right-stuff-history.html

https://frockflicks.com/hidden-figures-2016/

https://madamenoire.com/784290/on-the-problematic-and-unnecessary-white-saviors-in-hidden-figures/ 

https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/baldwin-witness 

 

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q

 

Pre-order Sara’s new book, Dark Messiah, here or on Amazon, or from your local bookstore!

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-messiah-sara-z-carson/1149827886

Follow us!

Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory

Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social

Threads: @biopicapodcaststory

Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory

Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

We’re sure you’ve all missed us terribly, but some very good life stuff (Sara’s book is available for pre-order on Amazon! Rena’s work can be read on Galerie.com!) busted up our routine. 

Also busting up our routine: Our non-hate for Kevin Costner’s performance in Hidden Figures, a film in which he is not the star. 

Hidden Figures is, instead, a tour-de-force of gorgeous performances by astonishingly attractive, gifted actors which manages to commit some sly transgressions on the “white savior” trope that dominates so many movies about the Black civil rights movement. (Who has the balls to make Sheldon a villain? Hidden Figures does). 

Telling the true story of the Black female NASA employees—Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson—who sent men to the moon, Hidden Figures brought us joy. This film is packed with supportive partners and parents, well-behaved and thoughtful children, Karens getting undermined, and deeply brainy women, and we’re here for its optimism. 

Oh, and Mahershala Ali is here? Okay, cool. 

We discuss: Apollo 13 and how maybe that control room shouldn’t have been wall-to-wall Clint Howards, the discomfort of Operation Paperclip, flawless makeup, math, and whether Sara’s brain is still fully functional (spoiler: it is not). 

Hidden Figures is directed by Theodore Melfi, and stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, Janelle Monae as Mary Jackson, Kevin Costner as Al Harrison, Kirsten Dunst as Vivian Mitchell, Jim Parsons as Paul Stafford, Mahershala Ali as Colonel Jim Johnson, Aldis Hodge as Levi Jackson, and Glen Powell as John Glenn.

Sara wrote a book. You should pre-order it here: https://www.amazon.ca/Dark-Messiah-Novel-Sara-Carson/dp/B0GVZMLYCR

This one is just FUN. Dolemite is his name and … we can’t write the rest. Eddie Murphy gives us a gonzo, super-delightful ride through the world of “Godfather of Rap” Rudy Ray Moore and the making of iconic blaxploitation film Dolemite. 

We are way out over our skis here as two east coast ladies with a passing grasp on the blaxploitation genre, but we loved this, we loved Dolemite, and we love Eddie Murphy, comic genius and embarrasser of the guilty (ahem, John Landis). While we discuss this film, we also talk about cultural gatekeeping, appreciating art that wasn’t made to be spoon-fed into your individual brain, if Dolemite is as artistically ambitious as Mean Streets and the work of John Cassavetes, German filmmaking nepo babies, Tyler Perry’s Madea, and so much more. 

Dolemite Is My Name is directed by Craig Brewer and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and stars Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore, Keegan Michael Key as Jerry Jones, Mike Epps as Jimmy Lynch, Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Lady Reed, Tituss Burgess as Theodore Toney, Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nick von Sternberg, Craig Robinson as Ben Taylor, Ron Cephas Jones as Ricco, Snoop Dogg as Roj, Luenell as Auntie, Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris as Walter Crane, Chris Rock as Bobby Vale, and the one and only Wesley Snipes as D’Urville Martin. 

 

Sources used in the episode include…

 

Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema
By Odie Henderson

Bustle: Rudy Ray Moore's Real Life Is Just As Wild As The Story Of 'Dolemite Is My Name' 

 

https://www.bustle.com/p/how-accurate-is-dolemite-is-my-name-theres-plenty-of-truth-to-the-biopic-19742402

 

USA Today: Fact-Checking Dolemite Is My Name: 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2019/10/25/dolemite-is-my-name-fact-checking-eddie-murphy-netflix-movie/4062293002/

 

UCLA: Nicholas is my Name 

https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/nicholas-is-my-name

 

Film Talk: Nicholas Josef von Sternberg: “There’s no doubt that my father was a highly respected film director”

https://filmtalk.org/2019/08/28/nicholas-josef-von-sternberg-theres-no-doubt-that-my-father-was-a-highly-respected-film-director/

About the Dunbar Hotel:

 

https://www.laconservancy.org/learn/historic-places/dunbar-hotel/

https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/when-central-avenue-swung-the-dunbar-hotel-and-the-golden-age-of-l-a-s-little-harlem

 

https://lamag.com/l-a-on-screen/dolemite-is-my-name/

 

“Eddie Murphy Nearly Physically Assaulted John Landis While Making ‘Coming to America’,” from Cracked. 
https://www.cracked.com/article_41377_eddie-murphy-nearly-physically-assaulted-john-landis-while-making-coming-to-america.html 
 

“He fucked me over”: How John Landis betrayed Eddie Murphy over ‘Coming to America’, from Far Out 
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/director-betrayed-eddie-murphy/ 

 

Diary of a Mad Black Woman review, Variety 

https://variety.com/2005/film/markets-festivals/diary-of-a-mad-black-woman-2-1200527749/ 

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q

 

Follow us!

Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory

Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social

Threads: @biopicapodcaststory

Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory

Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com

Week 2 of Black History Month brings us to 2014’s Selma, Ava DuVernay’s masterful look inside the life of Martin Luther King (you’ve probably heard of him unless you’re home-schooled or live in Florida), as he leads the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights marches (which were initiated by minister James Bevel). This movie might have been nominated for 2 Academy Awards, but it’s wildly underrated. 

We couldn’t be more excited to welcome back a special guest star, the very, very smart and insightful filmmaker, critic, and educator Brandon Wilson, to talk about the casual polymath genius of Ava DuVernay, the importance of a humanized portrait of MLK, strategic political theater, and so much more. 

Selma is directed by Ava DuVernay, written by Ava DuVernay and Paul Webb, and stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr., Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, André Holland as Andrew Young, Giovanni Ribisi as Lee C. White, Lorraine Toussaint as Amelia Boynton Robinson, Stephan James as John Lewis, Wendell Pierce as Hosea Williams, Common as James Bevel, Alessandro Nivola as John Doar, LaKeith Stanfield as Jimmie Lee Jackson, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Fred Gray, Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Oprah Winfrey as Annie Lee Cooper, Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy, Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Bayard Rustin, Stephen Root as Al Lingo, Tessa Thompson as Diane Nash, Omar Dorsey as James Orange, Henry G. Sanders as Cager Lee, Jeremy Strong as James Reeb, Trai Byers as James Forman, Corey Reynolds as C. T. Vivian, Niecy Nash as Richie Jean Jackson, E. Roger Mitchell as Frederick D. Reese, Ledisi Young as Mahalia Jackson, and Nigél Thatch as Malcolm X. 

Read Brandon’s essay for RogerEbert.com, “Look Away, Look Away”: https://www.rogerebert.com/black-writers-week/look-away-look-away’

 

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

Our theme music is by Ben Patch: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5BB01QpPE7HBGacGAlullu?si=gp_6jbvsThWXg_sSLVcv6Q

Sources

Books:

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

Robert Caro on LBJ

 

Articles: "Why Martin Luther King Jr. Loved Star Trek"

MLK was a Trekkie. Throwing that in there for the nerd contingent. I’m not sure that we have any way of knowing 

https://time.com/4478354/martin-luther-king-star-trek/

 

Follow us!

Instagram: @biopicapodcaststory

Bluesky: @biopic-podcast.bsky.social

Threads: @biopicapodcaststory

Website: https://biopicapodcaststory.podbean.com/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/biopicapodcaststory

Contact us: biopiclistenermailbag@gmail.com