A Piece of Pie: The Queer Film Podcast

Paul and Chris return to the pod to bring their expertise on classic Hollywood. In 1934, Will Hays, then the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, began strenuously enforcing the Production Code. This code was a guideline used to determine what films could depict on screen and the behavior of characters. These included drug use, promiscuity, and yes, homosexuality. Despite limiting these things, it ...

We’re continuing our series examining the films of 90’s auteurs, Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson! This time Brian and Max are joined by playwright and our newest contributor, Keegon Schuett. We discuss the legacy of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams’ questionable handjobs and, as always, the problematic behavior of Quentin Tarantino. Is this his most relaxed film, or his most baldly depraved? 

Questions or comments about ...

This week, Raina Deerwater from GLAAD returns to the pod to discuss two nominees of the 2026 GLAAD Media Awards. On Swift Horses and Hedda were nominated for Outstanding Film (Wide release). Each film tackles queer characters in mid-century America. On Swift Horses is about a war veteran returning to the states where he reunites with his brother, while Hedda is a queer adaptation of the play, "Hedda Gabler" starring Tessa...

We're commemorating the Christmas season by taking a look at two Nicole Kidman films. First up, the final film from Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut, co-starring her then-husband Tom Cruise. And we pair it with Babygirl, co-starring Harris Dickinson and Antonio Banderas. We're joined once again by Alonso Duralde, writer of the recently revised Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas. He brings his Christmas-movie expertise ...

This week we're celebrating the late, great Diane Keaton. Contributor and playwright Keegon Schuett returns to the pod with one of his favorite warm blanket movies, Something's Gotta Give co-starring Jack Nicholson and Keanu Reeves. And tis the season for Holiday movies, so we pair it with Keaton's turn as the matriarch of a chaotic family Christmas in The Family Stone.

For details and to buy's Keegon's new ...

With Paul Thomas Anderson's newest One Battle After Another in theaters and heavily favored in the Awards conversation, Brian and Max return to their project pairing off his films with the work of fellow American master, Quentin Tarantino. This time it's a bloody revenge fantasy paired with an Altman-esque stoner comedy that refuses to be understood. Give a listen as we continue to examine two modern day auteurs who are s...

This week we're discussing two of cinema's most celebrated queer filmmakers, Luca Guadagnino and Andrew Haigh. Within the last few years, they've each given us deeply personal stories about love, loneliness, grief and the disconnect of growing up queer in a straight world. Through different eras and wildly different tones, each film grapples with queer life in stunning and heart wrenching detail. Chris is back as we ...

Just in time for Halloween, we're revisiting two of our favorite classic 90's horror flicks. Fresh off an Academy Award for Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino teamed with director Robert Rodriguez for From Dusk Till Dawn, starring Tarantino and George Clooney. Rodriguez would follow that up with The Faculty, from writer Kevin Williamson. With sprawling casts and self-referential scripts, these films still hold up among the b...

This week we’re joined by Raina Deerwater, Associate Director and Research Analysis at GLAAD! She joins to discuss their Studio Responsibility Index, and recent findings that LBGTQIA+ representation in film is on the decline. We discuss what that means, and what can be done about it. And then we talk about the sapphic crime drama, Love Lies Bleeding starring Kristen Stewart one of a few queer centered films from 2024.

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This week we're finally discussing Tony Kushner's masterpiece, Angels in America. As Chicago's own Invictus Theater Company stages a new production, we welcome two actors from the show, Miguel Long and Ryan Hake, to discuss the 2004 HBO adaptation. They offer insight into playing these challenging roles, as we discuss the differences between the play and the movie, and how the play remains as relevant as ever. 

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This week, Brian is joined by writer Sezin Devi Koehler, who quite literally wrote the book on Keanu Reeves. Her book, Much Ado About Keanu: A Critical Reeves Theory highlights the actor’s legendary career. We take a specific look at The Matrix, a franchise created by trans women, and John Wick, an iconic character that, according to Sezin’s theory, is very likely transgender himself. 

You can find a copy of her book here 

https://ti...

This week we’re taking a look at two very different queer icons. Musical geniuses Freddie Mercury and Liberace each got the biopic treatment in the 2010’s, and they each got very different movies. Behind the Candelabra starred Oscar winners Michael Douglas and Matt Damon and was directed by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh. Despite the pedigree, only HBO would release it. Bohemian Rhapsody, by contrast, despite a troubled production ...

This week we’re joined by film scholar Syd Wrigley, who joins the podcast to discuss Gregg Araki’s famed Teen Apocalypse Trilogy. Starting with Totally Fucked Up in 1993, he followed it with The Doom Generationin 1995 and finally Nowhere in 1997, the trilogy that would define a generation and stands at the center of the New Queer Cinema movement. Recently re-released via Criterion, these films are being discovered by a brand new ge...