Seventh Row Podcast

Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care is a film about kind and empathetic people being kind and empathetic. And how rare is that?

In this episode, Alex Heeney asks what tender loving care actually looks like in the film — between friends, family members, and social workers and the people they care for — and what that care can and can't do.

Alex digs into the scenes and filmmaking choices that illuminate those relationships, including the film's use of domestic spaces, what Leigh keeps offscreen, Jacqueline Durran's costumes, recurring scenes of singing, and the opening and closing shots that complicate the film's take on care.

Alex's upcoming film programs:

The Deep Focus: The Worst Person in the World starts October 8.

The Long Take returns in November for the first time in a year.

Get invited to upcoming programs and free events:

Tell me where to reach you at http://email.seventh-row.com

More from Seventh Row:

Peterloo in Process, Alex's book about Mike Leigh's filmmaking process: http://mikeleighbook.com

Hard Truths podcast episode

Questions? contact@seventh-row.com

Instagram: @SeventhRow

What happens when a lonely taxidermist looking for her first human subject meets a lonely man willing to volunteer for the job? Apparently, you get a musical romance.

In this episode, I'm talking about Theo Rhys's Stuffed, starring Jodie Comer as taxidermist Araminta and Harry Melling as Bernie, which had its world premiere at TIFF.

The songs themselves may not be particularly memorable, but Stuffed does something I'm always hoping a movie musical will do: it actually has a reason to be a musical.

I dig into how the film uses song to connect Araminta and Bernie before they've even met, to give us access to feelings they struggle to communicate to each other, and — perhaps most interestingly — when it decides not to let them sing.

Plus: why I nearly walked out of this two-hour taxidermy musical several times…and why I kept sitting back down.

Want to join me for my upcoming free online event on The Worst Person in the World? We'll dig into how the film lets it dawn on us that it's dawning on Julie that her life no longer fits.

👉 Join my email list at http://email.seventh-row.com, and I'll send you an invitation.

A deep dive into Bretten Hannam's At the Place of Ghosts followed by an interview with Hannam.

How do you tell a story about two siblings processing a shared childhood trauma when they can't talk about what happened?

In this episode, Alex Heeney explores how At the Place of Ghosts uses horror elements to make trauma visible, to connect personal memory to larger histories, and to imagine healing through relationships with family, ancestors, and the land.

Alex and Bretten discuss Indigenous storytelling traditions, genre as a translation tool, their visual language, sound design, and the challenges of creating a film where past, present, and future coexist.

Bretten Hannam is a Two-Spirit L'nu filmmaker living in Kespukwitk, Mi'kma'ki (Nova Scotia) where they were raised.

If you're interested in learning more about The Long Arc, check out episode 191: Great films ask for more than a binge. You can also find all the details on our website:

👉 Learn more about The Long Arc here

You can reach Alex on Instagram @SeventhRow or via email at contact@seventh-row.com, if you have any questions.

Why do some shows keep rewarding us years later?

And is there a way to make those rewards come sooner — without having to get older or rewatch ad infinitum?

In this episode, Alex introduces The Long Arc, a new 10-week experience built around the first season of HBO's Looking. She walks through what a typical week looks like, how the live sessions work, why each participant follows a different thread through the season, and how spending time with the same show—and the same group of people—changes the way you watch.

The first season of The Long Arc begins June 30.

👉 Learn more about The Long Arc here

You can reach Alex on Instagram @SeventhRow or via email at contact@seventh-row.com, if you have any questions.

Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31st starts with a sequence that doesn't advance the plot — and yet shifts how you watch the entire film — and ends with a sequence with almost no dialogue but a lot happens.

They're sequences I've returned to again and again over 14 years to figure out how they work — and keep discovering something new that shifts how I see the film.

In this episode, Joachim Trier talks about the problem the opening was trying to solve, Eskil Vogt talks about the challenges of writing the ending, and I talk about the pleasures of digging into them.

This month, I'll be hosting in-depth workshops on the opening and the ending of Oslo, August 31st as part of The Deep Focus.

👉 Find out more about The Deep Focus

Some of the best, most boundary-pushing cinema at the Berlinale is quietly tucked away in the sidebars where most of the press never look.

In today's episode, I'm looking at three films that feel like a step forward for women's stories:

Arrú: A Sámi musical from Norway

Black Burns Fast: A queer South African coming-of-age story directed by a Black woman

The Education of Jane Cumming: A Scottish period drama based on the first documented legal case involving accusations of lesbians in the UK

Taken together, these show how filmmakers are finding new ways to dramatize the systems shaping women's lives — from colonial land politics to the legacy of apartheid to the class and racial hierarchies of the 19th century.

👉 Curious about joining one of my film programs? Get on the waitlist here.

I only open a few a year, and they're limited enrollment, so this is the best way to ensure you get first dibs on a spot.

This episode was originally recorded for a panel at the Berlinale Film Festival called Let's talk about (short) films! Pluralistic Discourse in Film Criticism.

I was invited to speak about the online film programs I've been building for thinking and talking about film — where we don't just share opinions about a film and move on.

Instead, we're looking for something new: what does this film offer that I didn't notice the first time?

Because you don't need to wait for a major life change to see a film differently. Sometimes, all you need is a new question, a new lens, or the chance to look again with other curious people.

In this episode, I walk through some of the ways I structure those conversations to be places to explore ideas and discover something new.

And the best part? You don't need to be a film expert. You just need to be willing to notice something — even if it feels obvious — and let the group carry the torch from there.

Curious about joining the next film program?

👉 Join the waitlist to find out when the next one opens

Sound of Falling, the second feature by German writer-director Mascha Schilinski, follows women across four generations of the same farming family. Gothic and ambitious, it explores memory, intergenrational trauma, and what it's like to live inside a woman's body — while still showing moments of joy and connection. Through its form, the film offers the audience a catharsis that the characters don't have access to.

So on today's episode, host Alex Heeney digs into why the film won her over…and then talks to Schilinski about developing the film's

Schilinski talks about how the film blurs memory and imagination, the titular image of falling, the sound design, and more.

Want to learn how, like Schilinski, Joachim Trier builds a catharsis that only the audience has access to?

👉 Join the waitlist for The Deep Focus: Oslo, August 31st

The best directed TV show of 2025 is a queer hockey romance from Canada called Heated Rivalry.

And like the rest of the internet, host Alex Heeney has become quite a fan.

But she's been thinking a lot about what makes it good and what has made it popular, and how those two things definitely intersect, but the Venn diagram isn't just a circle.

So on today's episode, Alex talks about why she, too, was very excited for the cottage, why the show is hitting in this cultural moment, what still felt lacking — and how all of that sent her to rewatch Looking, a very different kind of show, to get the hit she was really craving.

👉 Want to watch/rewatch Looking with Alex and a small group this spring? Get on the waitlist here: http://email.seventh-row.com/looking

Early screenings of Chloé Zhao's Hamnet had critics weeping in the aisles

Host Alex Heeney left it dry-eyed — and so did her guest, Angelo Muredda.

We're Shakespeare fans, long-time film critics, and not exactly immune to a good cry — so in this episode, we try to figure out why the film didn't land.

We dig into what works in the film (a short list) and what doesn't (a longer one), where the adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel went awry, and whether having read a synopsis of Hamlet on Wikipedia might actually impede your enjoyment of the film.

👉Stay updated on Alex's next group experiences

Related Episodes

169. David Cronenberg's The Shrouds with Angelo Muredda

132. Sarah Polley's Women Talking with Angelo Muredda

159. Macbeth with David Tennant

What if the most powerful insights about a film don't come from watching it alone — but from talking it through with curious people who notice what you missed, and help you turn half-formed thoughts into something deeper?

In this episode, I share why I built The Long Take —

A space for deep, layered, perspective-shifting conversations about film — and how a spirit of collaboration, attention, and trust can transform how we see movies…and ourselves

We kick off Nov 2 with a zero-prep welcome session. 👉 Save your seat

How can a film with a queer protagonist, written by a queer playwright, and directed by a queer man… not be a queer film? That's the tricky question I'm tackling with The Choral, the WWI period drama that just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

In this episode: my Ralph Fiennes/Nicholas Hytner fangirling, why the film works as a crowd-pleaser but flattens queerness and other marginalized identities, and the bigger questions it raises about reclaiming — or sanitizing — queer history.

🎟 Plus, a sneak peek at Living Out Loud, my FREE three-day summit on queer and trans storytelling happening Oct 3–5.

👉 Sign up for Living Out Loud

Alice Winocour's Couture is a backstage film about the fashion world — less about the clothes than the bodies who wear them, shape them, and photograph them. It's a film about the ways that commerce and fashion (and medicine) shape and damage women's bodies.

As a Winocour fan and researcher since 2015, Alex Heeney connects Couture to Winocour's explorations of traumatized bodies, outsiders, and backstage stories throughout her body of work.

🎟 If you want to explore a film together in conversation — not just listen in — join me for Living Out Loud, my free Queer and Trans Storytelling Summit happening the first weekend of October.

On Day 3, I'll be hosting a short film screening and live group discussion — and you're invited.

👉 Save your seat here.

At TIFF, Alex dives into Iranian filmmaker Farnoosh Samadi's Between Dreams and Hope, a powerful film about a trans man in Iran navigating the dehumanizing maze of gender-affirming care — and connects it to two others, from Canada and France, that reveal how patriarchy, money, and bureaucracy shape queer and trans survival. These aren't straight reviews so much as reflections on how films spark curiosity, uncover hidden systems, and resist erasure.

✨ Don't miss it! This October, join me for Living Out Loud — a FREE three-day live online summit all about queer and trans stories and queer and trans history.

Sign up here

Joachim Trier's new film, Sentimental Value, is already a buzzy hit. Alex Heeney has been thinking and writing about Trier's films for more than a decade, and this one sharpened her sense of what she values in his work. In this episode out of TIFF, she look at the film's portrait of a complicated family and the role of the family home in telling that story.

✨If you enjoyed the episode, The Deep Focus: Oslo, August 31st is where you can explore the opening of Oslo, August 31st, trace its echoes through that film, and then see how Trier evolves those ideas in Sentimental Value.

👉Spots will be limited, so make sure you're on the waitlist here.

What happens when a story that once felt modern… suddenly doesn't? And what does that tell us about the limits — and possibilities — of the stories we tell about women?

In this solo episode, Seventh Row Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney tracks a shift in perspective — hers, and maybe yours too.

📍 How a 2021 film reopened an old question 📍 Why Far from the Madding Crowd (2015) once felt strikingly modern — and what I see in it now 📍 And what this tells us about how our expectations for stories about women have changed — fast

Along the way, I dig into:

•

How the marriage plot continues to shape the kinds of stories we tell about women

•

The limits of romantic "choice" when that's the only choice on offer

•

Why stories that include romance aren't the problem — but centering it might be

•

And how our expectations for women's stories are shifting — fast

🎟️ Want to know what the 2021 pick is? Join Reel Ruminators to find out — and be part of the conversation.

What happens when you watch a film — not just to be entertained — but to reflect, notice, and share?

In this episode, Alex Heeney (curator of Reel Ruminators) sits down with Hazel Shaw, a UK member of the community, to uncover what really makes this unique movie-of-the-month space so rewarding — and how it sparks discoveries you might not expect.

Together, they talk about:

•

What happens when you watch films that aren't suggested by an algorithm

•

Why gathering with film lovers from around the world can change the way you see a film

•

Why some of the most surprising film conversations happen in spaces where no one needs to agree.

•

The "aha" moments that can sneak up on you while watching and reflecting on a film.

•

The lasting rewards of being exposed to films you might have overlooked on your own.

Whether you're already curious about Reel Ruminators or simply interested in what happens when film-watching becomes a shared, intentional practice, this episode offers a thoughtful, behind-the-scenes look — with reflections that may just surprise you, too.

🔗 Learn more about Reel Ruminators

Ten years on, 45 Years hasn't lost an ounce of its emotional weight. In fact, it might just cut deeper.

On this episode, host and Seventh Row Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney is joined by Lindsay Pugh (Woman in Revolt) to revisit Andrew Haigh's masterpiece about a childless couple celebrating their 45 the wedding anniversary in the same week that a traumatic secret from the past comes to light.

We talk about:

•

What makes this story hit differently as we have aged

•

Why the film's focus on emotional repression, delayed gratification, and public performance feels so radical

•

How Haigh's queer lens shapes his portrayal of a straight relationship

•

What gets added (and deepened) in the move from short story to screenplay

•

Why Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay deliver two of the most nuanced, unforgettable performances of the century

•

How Haigh's blocking — the way actors move through space and interact physically — works hand-in-hand with the dialogue to show us what's shifting beneath the surface, like tension, avoidance, closeness, or control

Whether you're watching for the first time or the fifteenth, 45 Years is a film that evolves with you — and we unpack why.

Links Mentioned:

🎟️ Reel Ruminators: http://seventh-row.com/reelruminators

🎥 Guide to One of the Best Films of 2024: https://seventh-row.com/guide

🪩 Find Lindsay Pugh at Woman in Revolt

📚 Book on Andrew Haigh's film Lean on Pete

💡Read Alex's interview with Andrew Haigh (2021) – audio excerpted in the episode

🎧 Andrew Haigh films/TV on the Seventh Row Podcast

Referenced Episodes:

Ep 155 Halina Reijn's Babygirl with Lindsay Pugh

Ep. 163 Joan Micklin Silver's Chilly Scenes of Winter and Crossing Delancey feat. Lindsay Pugh

Ep. 117 The North Water (dir. Andrew Haigh)

Ep. 110 Weekend (dir. Andrew Haigh) and End of the Century: Brief Encounters

Ep. 94 HBO's Looking

Ep. 7 Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete

In this episode, Alex Heeney digs into Celine Song's Materialists, a film about Lucy, a matchmaker struggling with her own love triangle. Will Lucy (Dakota Johnson) choose love — in the form of her poor ex John (Chris Evans) — or money with eligible bachelor Harry (Pedro Pascal)? And can love and money even co-exist?

With its charming cast, elegant blocking, and standout sound design, Materialists could have been a sharp, class-conscious rom-com.

But for all its promise, it ends up skimming the surface.

You will hear:

•

What works well in the film, including the visual storytelling and sound design

•

Where the film struggles, especially with its thin characterization and reluctance to fully engage with class and money

•

Comparisons with other works, such as Gossip Girl (2007–2012) and Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park (1999), that tackle similar themes with more depth

Links Mentioned:

🎟️ Reel Ruminators: http://seventh-row.com/reelruminators

🎥 Guide to One of the Best Films of 2024: https://seventh-row.com/guide

📚 Kelly Reichardt ebook: http://reichardtbook.com

💡Lindsay Pugh on Materialists

Referenced Episodes:

Ep 137: Luca Guadagnino's Challengers

TIFF 2024 Ep 7: Luca Guadagnino's Queer

Ep. 172 and 173: Jane Austen Wrecked My Life — a film that delivers more fully on the promise of a smart, satisfying modern rom-com.

Join me (Alex Heeney) on a journey through three films I programmed inside Reel Ruminators — a British political thriller, an Indigenous Canadian documentary, and a queer South African drama — and discover how their contrasts actually illuminate one another.

By the end of this episode, you'll see how exploring differences between films can reshape your own viewing of film as an art form.

🎧 In This Episode You'll Discover

•

Hidden threads connecting three very different films—and how noticing those threads can deepen your own film palate.

•

Time as a storytelling tool in cinema: why stretching or compressing time matters, and how you can see it in action.

•

Imagining "an otherwise": an academic concept—one I first encountered through queer cinema—that helps you consider films about marginalized lives in a new light and uncover new layers of meaning.

•

Tiny moments, lasting impact: why just a few minutes of film can carry immense emotional weight—and stick with you long after the credits roll.

•

Sneak peek at upcoming picks: what's on deck next inside Reel Ruminators and the threads you might spot in hindsight.

Links & Mentions:

• 🎬 Join Reel Ruminators
•

🎁 Free companion guide to one of 2024's best films