meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The New Yorker Radio Hour

Miranda July’s Uncomfortable Comedies, and a Toast to Roger Angell

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, Wnyc, David, Arts, Yorker, Society & Culture, Storytelling, Books, New, Remnick, Politics

4.26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Miranda July’s third feature film is “Kajillionaire,” a heist movie centered on a dysfunctional family, and her first with a Hollywood star like Evan Rachel Wood. Like most of her work, it can be classified as a comedy, but just barely. “There’s some kind of icky, heartbreaking, subterranean feelings about family that I would not willingly have gone towards if it weren’t for the silly heist stuff,” July tells Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker’s fiction editor. July acknowledges that billing her work as comedy allows her the budget to do things that straight drama might not get: “I knew I wanted to make a bigger movie. It changes the medium, it changes the kinds of things you can think up.” Tresiman, who has edited July’s short stories and other writings for the magazine, talks with her about the thread of discomfort and embarrassment that runs through her work in every medium. Plus, David Remnick toasts the centennial of Roger Angell, who has contributed to The New Yorker since the Second World War with writings on baseball and every other topic under the sun.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour.

0:10.7

I'm David Remnick.

0:12.1

Some years back, The Onion, the satirical website, ran a piece about Miranda July under the headline,

0:19.2

Miranda July called before Congress to explain exactly what her

0:24.1

whole thing is. Miranda July's whole thing is a lot of things. She's a writer, a performance artist,

0:29.3

a filmmaker, me and you and everyone we know, her first big movie remains a cult favorite.

0:36.2

July played a performance artist trying to catch a break, a role that seemed like it might

0:41.1

have been autobiographical.

0:43.5

That's a limited access floor.

0:45.5

You need a swipe card.

0:46.9

Oh, I'll just get off on two then.

0:51.1

You want the offices?

0:53.6

Actually, are you Nancy Harrington?

0:56.0

Yes.

0:57.0

Okay, because I wanted to show you my art.

1:00.0

I brought this tape I thought we could watch.

1:02.0

Okay, why don't you send it to this address?

1:06.0

But that's here.

1:08.0

Can I just hand it to you?

1:10.0

You'll get lost.

1:11.8

It's better if you send it.

1:14.2

But I'm so close.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios and The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.