228: You Can’t Handle Joe’s Ram Jam - The Whale/The Wrestler

This week, we invite back returning guest Kailey Diaz to help us take on two films from Darren Aronofsky, a director who regularly plunges into stories about characters who struggle with addiction and obsession. His latest, The Whale, generated controversy even before its release for its casting and over concerns that it would be fatphobic. In wide release now, it is actually generating a lot of Oscar buzz for the controversially cast actor, Brendan Fraser, for whom this is being seen as a comeback moment akin to one that Aronofsky had earlier created with Mickey Rourke in the 2008 film, The Wrestler. With significant thematic overlap between these films, we go deep into discussing their characters' motivations and the successes (and failures) of the performances that bring them to life on the screen. We also drink some hazy IPAs for good measure.