Four Favorites: The Mank Couple on Moonstruck, Billy Wilder and the Before trilogy

“Movies give us a love language of our own.” Romance is the theme on this episode, in which Letterboxd’s Mank Couple—film aficionado Erica Marquis and documentary filmmaker Ben Crew—join hosts Gemma and Slim to talk through their four romantic Letterboxd favorites: Before Sunrise, Moonstruck, WTC View and The Apartment, with a side-serving of Hitch and Love & Basketball. CW for mention of suicide. Plus: wild opinions on Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love, what has happened since Erica and Ben originally hooked up, seeing Linklater’s Before trilogy in theaters, Cher’s best hair, food as a character, New York as a character, getting the tone of 9/11 movies right, Brian Sloan’s play-to-film success, portrayals of PTSD, the things we take for granted, Fred MacMurray as a smarmy a-hole, The Apartment’s incredible production design, making space and time for “big films”, movies as life, Slim’s love for Shirley MacLaine, and the invisible threads between films. Links: The Letterboxd list of films mentioned in this episode; Ben’s screenplay for Muppets Great Gatsby; Slate interview and Big Picture podcast episode with Ben and Erica; Ben’s 9/11 documentary archive and video essay Lists mentioned: The Absolute Beauty in Everyday’s Mundanity; what a difference a day makes; Two Lost Souls Find Comfort; Films so lovely; People Walking Idly through European Cities; Movies with the best pasta/noodle scenes Reviews mentioned: Reviews of Moonstruck by Chris Feil, Jarod; reviews of WTC View by KimW and JoshuaMinh, review of The Apartment by K. Austin Collins. Credits: This episode was recorded in Auckland, Chicago and Pennsylvania, and edited by Slim. Facts by Jack. Booker: Linda Moulton. Transcript by Sophie Shin. Theme: ‘Vampiros Dancoteque’ by Moniker.