Silver Screen Queens

Reviewing movies and the culture that surrounds them.

  • Every Wednesday
  • Averages around 38 minutes

Melissa Savage and Katie Molloy met in film class, and haven’t been able to stop talking movies ever since. Each week they watch a movie and review it, stopping to make plenty of nerdy references along the way.

333: Joker

Published 9 October 2019 • 37 minutes, 41 seconds

We didn’t really want to watch this, but we absolutely had to be part of the conversation. When people start maligning our much-loved comic book movies and thinking they can do it better, we need to get in there and see for ourselves. Joaquin Phoenix plays this (apparently) grittier, more realistic version of the Joker, directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips, trying to reinvent himself as an auteur. Did it deserve the top prize at Venice? We discuss.

332: Knock Down the House

Published 2 October 2019 • 37 minutes, 9 seconds

In 2018, documentary filmmaker Rachel Lear’s followed four non-traditional female candidates for the congressional primaries. One of those candidates was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and so this film has a ringside seat to the rise of one of the most exciting new progressive voices of our age.

331: Ad Astra

Published 25 September 2019 • 43 minutes, 2 seconds

Brad Pitt is getting some later-career Oscar buzz for this performance as a lone astronaut journeying across the solar system to find his missing dad. We love a good sci-fi, and that premise had us intrigued.

330: I Am Mother

Published 18 September 2019 • 38 minutes, 24 seconds

This new Netflix sci-fi may be only a middling look at motherhood, but less than 24 hours after this episode was recoded, Mel gave birth.

329: It Chapter 2

Published 11 September 2019 • 43 minutes, 11 seconds

The second half of Stephen King’s IT gets the big budget, big star treatment (and nearly three hours of run time).

328: Triple Frontier

Published 4 September 2019 • 30 minutes, 40 seconds

Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal and Ben Affleck in a Netflix movie? As former special forces soldiers taking on South American drug lords? Count us in! A new instalment of the long-running ‘Katie watches Oscar Isaac’s entire filmography’ series.

327: Late Night

Published 28 August 2019 • 40 minutes, 41 seconds

Mindy Kaling gave Emma Thompson the great gift of this role as the host of a long-running late night show facing oblivion as her show nears three decades on air. Kaling takes her expert-level rom-com game and applies it here to the story of a diversity hire in a white, male world, taking us on a tour of how race and gender play out in Hollywood with a comedic touch.

326: Always Be My Maybe

Published 21 August 2019 • 42 minutes, 54 seconds

SSQ fave Randall Park teams up with comedian Ali Wong to make a Netflix comedy about a high-flying chef reunited with her stuck-in-high-school childhood best friend after a long absence. Featuring a buzzy Keanu Reeves cameo, we had to give it a go.

325: Outlaw King

Published 14 August 2019 • 43 minutes, 49 seconds

Chris Pine in a Netflix movie! Where he gets naked! Sign us up! Our favourite Starfleet Captain/Superhero Love Interest/Indie Darling takes on the juicy role of 12th century rebel Scottish leader Robert the Bruce, ably supported by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Tony Curran, and reteaming with Hell or High Water director David Mackenzie.

324: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw

Published 7 August 2019 • 41 minutes, 9 seconds

The Fast & Furious franchise gives its two biggest stars their own spin-off, and finally teams The Rock with Jason Statham (ably assisted by Idris Elba and Vanessa Kirby). The explosions are as big as the muscles as car nerdery gives way to more generic, physics-denying stunts, exotic locations and showy cameos as Universal wrings every last dollar out of their superhero franchise.