The following podcast contains explicit language.

I'm Stephen MacCaff and this is the Slate Culture Gap Fest naked pomegranate Tori

edition. It's Wednesday, January 9, 2019. On today's show, the favorite is a sweet, juicy bit of 18th century pulp.

It tells the story of two rivals for the favor of Queen Anne.

And then Roma is the latest movie from the director Alfonso Quaran.

He of so many remarkable films,

I cannot wait to talk to Dana about both this movie

and her wonderful review.

Finally, it's that time of year again when we discuss slate discussing movies in

their movie club package which raises the question of the state of Hollywood, the

film industry, and our collective souls.

Joining me today is I promise to master the job title before you master the job.

So I know you're not very young. You are the deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times in charge of Arts and Culture.

That is correct.

Dana Stevens is the film critic of slate.com. Hey Dana. Hey hey. And I can pop in here as we do our

introductions to apologize for my sound which is going to be a little weird and telephonic today or

getting my recording situation out in LA sorted and it's taking a minute which is

entirely on me but anyhow I won't sound great today but I will in the near future. Thank you for your patience.

All right, why don't we dive right in? It's a tall glass of juice we have here. The favorite takes place in the court of Queen Anne.

Anne here is played by the British actress, the Olivia Coleman familiar to our listeners probably from Broad Church.

Anyway, as Queen Anne, she is gout-addled moody, possibly weak-willed, I would say even by contemporary standards,

maybe bipolar, but she's also the Queen and so to ballast herself publicly to love her

...