In this episode, Dara is perplexed by the moral ending of Jennifer Lawrence’s new comedy, No Hard Feelings. What is the purpose of such moralising? Does the audience benefit from the character’s personal edification? Should we care about a dissolute character’s redemptive arc? He compares the sexual politics of that movie to Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot.
A contrasting comedy voice is that of Wes Anderson, whose new film Asteroid City Dara also watched recently. He admires the lack of morality in Anderson’s movies, but confesses to being very much unmoved by this latest effort. He asks whether Anderson is more of an aesthetician than a moviemaker.
Should we be looking for morality tales in sex comedies? Are movies the place to find affirmations of our own goodness? If not there, where? And where do we obtain our own morality?
Dara also shares some abandoned podcast topics, and takes a moment to applaud the women’s football teams of Ireland and Australia, who just competed in the Women’s World Cup. What makes them so much better than their male counterparts?