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Dara Clear

The Anticlimax of Megalopolis, or What Would You Do With Coppola’s Money? – Episode 182

In this episode, Dara is spurred to reflect on Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film, ‘Megalopolis’. In the great master’s wild and not-so-wonderful saga, one brilliant man carries the burden of saving society from itself, but must contend with a rival who epitomises more mundane aspirations. Is the film about Coppola himself, or is it his thesis statement of whose visions are worth following? Whatever about its intention, the execution is an unwieldy mess.

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The Humble Art of Reading the Room, or It’s Not All About You! – Episode 181

In this episode, Dara shares final thoughts on the US presidential election and speculates that the Democrats still haven’t shaken the patronising habit of belittling those who disagree with them. He argues that if you take this attitude in the world of martial arts, you are setting yourself up to fail – the assumption of superiority is a dangerous flex of ego that can result in complacency and abdicated diligence.

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Four More Years! Trump Restored and Gore Vidal’s Presidential Writings – Episode 180

In this episode, Dara reacts to the re-election of Donald Trump to the US presidency. Did the Democrats and Kamala Harris once again fail to take seriously Trump and the Republican voter base? Whatever the cause, politicians of the liberal centre or centre-left have not been convincing enough to get themselves back into power. Four more years of Trump is a worrying prospect for the larger wellness of a very divided nation.

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Staying with the Female Experience of Violence and the Power Imbalance – From Looking for Mr. Goodbar to Woman of the Hour – Episode 179

In this episode, Dara considers violence against women and the recent clear-eyed responses to it by Hollywood regulars Anna Kendrick and Saoirse Ronan, as seen in Kendrick’s impressive directorial debut ‘Woman of the Hour’, and as heard in Ronan’s bulletproof interjection on the Graham Norton show. After reviewing Kendrick’s chilling movie and contextualising Ronan’s comments, he recalls a key moment of Rachel McAdams’ character in the second season of True Detective which laid out with absolute clarity the power differential between men and women.

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I Felt That, or Emotional Travelling with Fictional Characters – Episode 178

In this episode, Dara talks about the characters we respond to in the art we consume. Having been very stirred by ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’, he stays in the world of movies and finds himself thinking about Jungian archetypes and the shadow self we can see reflected at us from the big screen. Speaking about that film, which has heavily promoted Lady Gaga as the joint draw of the story along with Joaquin Phoenix’s compelling title character, he argues that it is what transpires between the Joker and Brendan Gleeson’s prison officer that really unlocks the film and its grim depiction of human damage.

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What the Hell Is That! The Audacious Grotesquerie of ‘The Substance’ – Episode 177

In this episode, Dara is still reeling after watching Coralie Fargeat’s astonishing film ‘The Substance’, a scarifyingly vicious body-horror satire on the pressure that results from the extreme demands of celebrity and the beauty expectations inflicted on women. The film is centred around a TV fitness personality whose middle-age renders her undesirable in the eyes of the network. In a ferocious performance by Demi Moore we bear witness to the lengths a woman will go to to preserve her looks and corresponding status.

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You Have It So Easy! Resentment, Ease, and Reaching for the Good – Episode 176

In this episode, Dara considers the elements that contribute to our resentment buckets and shoulder chips. He believes time and the ease of others are two key ingredients in the mix. He confesses to giving voice to some very uncharitable resentfulness around the time he became a father. He also speaks carefully around a significant source of resentment in his marriage.

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Too Old for This S**t, or Try Harder, You Silver Foxes! – Episode 175

In this episode, Dara shares his gripes about the utterly mediocre buddy movie Wolfs, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt as two fixers reluctantly obliged to work together through a night of yuk-filled capers (SPOILER: THERE ARE NO YUKS!). The film is an ode to laziness, self-satisfaction, complacency and vanity, and has the gall to pay tribute in its final shot to a truly great buddy movie of yesteryear, the inference clearly being that Clooney and Pitt are a contemporary equivalent of two past greats. No such luck.

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How Does That Sound? – Testing Opposing Belief Systems – Episode 174

In this episode, Dara reflects on a weekend spent with an old friend and his resultant fatigue, both psychological and intellectual. It prompts an interrogation of his belief and value systems and whether they are more or less valid than those of his friend’s. He argues that it is healthy, and perhaps even necessary, to have someone you regard challenge you with love.

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