Make Time for This - GSPN's Podcast for Pop Culture and Other Things · GSPN, Blue Wire

Celine Song's Past Lives is one of the year's best films, and likely to feature come awards season

·1 hr 9 min·4 clips

Arthur describes his marriage as “so boring” and reduces the relationship to rent, a residency, and a green card.

1. Make Time For This discusses Celine Song’s feature directorial debut, Past Lives, as a film moving from theaters to VOD. 2. Adam McGee and Andrew Schneider host the episode and frame the movie as part of a larger awards-season conversation. 3. The episode asks whether Past Lives works as a romantic drama because of emotion, craft, and autobiographical detail. 4. Adam says the film felt like the “first great film of 2023” after Sundance buzz and A24 bidding attention. 5. Andrew places Past Lives alongside Barbie and Oppenheimer as one of the year’s likely Best Picture contenders. 6. The hosts note that Celine Song wrote and directed the film after theater work and a writing-room credit on The Wheel of Time. 7. They point to her stage production of Chekhov’s The Seagull using The Sims on Twitch as evidence of her range. 8. The conversation tracks Nora’s move from South Korea to Canada and later to New York City. 9. They explain that Nora reconnects with Haesung after he finds her father’s Facebook page and leaves comments saying he knew her at age 12. 10. The film’s long-distance conversations become a central topic, with Adam comparing them to a situation ship and Andrew pushing back on the term. 11. Andrew says he sees Haesung as in love with an idea of Nora, not just Nora herself. 12. Adam argues that Haesung’s disappointment in his own ordinary life shapes his pursuit of Nora. 13. The hosts contrast Haesung’s instability with Nora’s pragmatism, which comes through in her choices and her direct responses. 14. Adam says Arthur’s explanation of his marriage as residency housing, rent savings, and a green card is one of the film’s sharpest passages. 15. Andrew quotes Arthur’s line, “I’m the guy you leave in the story,” as the clearest summary of the film’s triangle. 16. Adam says the movie is emotionally persuasive even where he finds the romance intellectually uncertain. 17. The episode’s tone is conversational and analytical, with long stretches of back-and-forth disagreement. 18. The hosts mix awards speculation with scene-level reading, including repeated attention to framing, blocking, and the score by Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen. 19. Listeners interested in romantic dramas, awards films, and Celine Song should find this useful. 20. Listeners wanting a plot recap without discussion of character psychology may skip it.

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