Our movie podcast recommendation this week is looking at the films that don’t, er, tend to rise to the top of the barrel: it’s W-Rated.
Everyone’s heard of the IMDb Top 250. A list of films so prestigious, so revered, so well-made, they’re seen as the epitome of filmmaking excellence. Led by The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II and The Dark Knight. These are the movies most podcasts want to talk about.
Now, of course, all art is subjective, but for every The Godfather, there must be a Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2. This is where the IMDb Bottom 100 comes in, and there’s one podcast not only able, but willing to talk about these movies that are maybe not everyone’s cup of tea…
Scraping the proverbial barrel for the benefit of all of us are Clare and Daisy, and their podcast W-Rated. These two amazing ladies aren’t afraid of no-to-low star ratings; nothing on the IMDb Bottom 100 is off limits for them on this podcast. In fact, they’re actually excited to tackle some of these universally derided films, especially infamous movies like Spice World and Crossroads. Others, they’re not so eager for.
It was Daisy’s morbid curiosity (her words, not ours!), which led to a cursory glance of the Bottom 100. The challenge of watching these movies, and finding out if they were genuinely as bad as everyone on IMDb said they were, enticed her. She discussed her ideas with Clare on Twitter, and honestly if you’re going to put yourself through watching as many of these movies as possible, you might as well record it. Thus, W-Rated was born.
The Golden Raspberry Awards (colloquially known as the Razzies) has existed since 1981, so the honouring of some of cinema’s worst achievements is nothing new. With Daisy and Clare though, they’re not just here to shoot down these movies. It’d be really easy to trash talk bad movies for 90 minutes on a podcast. What you get with W–Rated is genuinely thoughtful criticism, as well as highlighting the forgotten positives. Most of the Bottom 100 seem to be there through reputation alone, and Daisy and Clare take a unique approach to actually dissect the film and the nuances. In the case of the recommended episode specifically, they discuss the world of bestselling female erotic fiction that this movie seems to have been based on, as well as discussions of the representation of female sexuality.
Clare and Daisy are incredibly knowledgeable about film, and their chemistry together is undeniable. To most, a podcast like W-Rated is an unenviable task, but their engaging charisma and charming personalities more than make up for the absent calibre of cinematic excellence.
While not the official W-Rated line, I’m pretty certain the W in W-Rated stands for Wonderful. It could also be Witty. Or Wow. Or World-Class. All words that succinctly sum up these warm, well-educated, winning women, who have the willpower to wholly tackle all that is whimsical about the worst of the worst.
Recommended episode: 365 Days (8 May 2021) – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/365-days-2020/id1547255034?i=1000520729110
W-Rated can be found at: https://linktr.ee/WRated
And followed at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WRatedPod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wratedpod
All episodes of W-Rated are available and can be listened to or downloaded from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Are you a British movie podcast who would like to be featured on Film Stories? We welcome all suggestions and requests, but we especially want to hear from you if you’re female, POC, non-binary, LGBTQIA+ or have a disability. Email Em – verbaldiorama at gmail co uk (Just remove the spaces and add the ‘@’ and the dots, but don’t send spam. She’s vegetarian.)
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