Podcasts
‘Eileen’ Is an Unvarnished Story of Liberation Through Self-Acceptance [The Lady Killers Podcast]
“Some people, they are the real people. Like in a movie, they’re the ones you’re watching, they’re the ones making moves. And the other people, they’re just there filling the space. And you take’em for granted. You think, they’re easy. Take a penny, leave a penny. That’s you, Eileen.”
Some people have family homes filled with love. The walls are lined with photos of celebrations, milestones, and treasured memories while the house itself brims with compassion and laughter. They are the lucky ones. Some of us have family homes that feel cold and empty. Whether from abuse or neglect, many must try to make the best of life with houses that feel more like prisons and parents incapable of expressing love. William Oldroyd explores this unique tragedy in his adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen. The homes we see in this icy story may have once held love, but now they’ve become grim and dirty shells their occupants would kill to escape.
Eileen Dunlop (Thomasin McKenzie) leads a solitary life. This anxious twenty-something spends her days doing secretarial work at a boys’ correctional facility and her nights caring for her alcoholic father. The retired cop seems to resent his daughter’s presence in the house even though he would literally die without her. When a dazzling new coworker named Rebecca (Anne Hathaway) takes a liking to Eileen, the lonely young woman allows herself to hope for an enchanting friendship, budding romance, and altogether happier life. But the relationship takes a startling turn on Christmas Eve leading Eileen to question the grim future laid out before her.
In the latest episode of The Lady Killers Podcast, co-hosts Jenn Adams, Sammie Kuykendall, Rocco Thompson, and Mae Shults will wade into the chilly waters of this dismal film to discuss three complicated yet unknowable characters. How does Oldroyd’s adaptation compare to Moshfegh’s source material? Does Mrs. Polk (Marin Ireland) deserve her fate? Is this Anne Hathaway’s best performance and is there hope to be found in the story’s abrupt ending? They’ll answer all these questions and more while attempting to empathize with a perhaps intentionally off-putting heroine.
Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.
It’s been a busy month on Murder Made Fiction podcast. In addition to introducing a new co-host (Perfectly Good Moment‘s Amanda Jane Stern), we spent Pride Month tackling a wide variety of Leopold and Loeb fictional adaptations.
In 1924 Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb plotted to commit the perfect murder when they abducted and killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks. As Amanda outlines in her primer on the case, the men were caught almost immediately and the media circus that followed was billed “the trial of the century”.
Listen to Leopold and Loeb mini primer.
The fallout has reverberated throughout the last century as countless books, plays, musicals, and films have drawn on the case for inspiration. Some are more faithful than others, such as Richard Fleischer‘s 1959 drama Compulsion, which stars a young Dean Stockwell as Leopold and Orson Welles as the boys’ lawyer, John Darrow (named Jonathan Wilk in the film).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Compulsion (1959).
Then there are the texts that use the idea of queer-coded killers as a jumping off point, but confuse (or flat-out disregard) the details of the real life case in favour of jumbled fiction. That’s what happens in Barbet Schroeder‘s Murder by Numbers, which awkwardly introduces a tortured backstory for lead actress (and executive producer) Sandra Bullock. The result is an uneven film that misunderstands which of its two competing storylines are actually interesting (hint: it’s the Leopold and Loeb stuff with Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Murder by Numbers (2002).
We ended up discussing other (often more successful) titles on Patreon, including 1992’s Swoon (a New Queer Cinema art-house take on the crime), Michael Haneke‘s 2007 Funny Games remake, and gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson‘s Scream, which proved to be a much more reverent and sly interpretation of L&L than we anticipated.
We wrapped up the month with a final summary episode about our favorite adaptations before chatting with author and archivist Erik Rebain, who literally wrote the book on Leopold (Arrested Adolescence) and maintains one of the foremost websites on the crime.
Watch our discussion on YouTube below (or listen here):
Next month: For July, we’re turning our attention to the Boston Strangler, with a look at films from 1964 and 1968, as well as the most contemporary version from 2023, starring Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon.
Want even more true crime adaptations and Murder Made Fiction? Support the show on Patreon to listen to the aforementioned episodes, as well as a full-length primer on the case and 160+ hours of bonus content.
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