Review of Girls on Film

Thelma and Louise. Sonny and Cher. Lucy and Desi. Like all great duos, the two female hosts of the weekly movie-review video podcast Girls on Film share unfailing chemistry. Each brings an experienced entertainment background to the show.  Heather Stewart’s credits include film, TV, theater, and vocal performances. Suzanne Keilly writes and acts in various productions, including her sketch comedy show Keilly and Roeters and award-winning short film Not So Small Talk. Since October 2006, the two have shared their chatty film opinions via “Girls on Film,” produced by Stewart’s boyfriend Alex Albrecht, the co-host of the tech/web podcast Diggnation.  And if you want more Stewart and Albrecht, catch the couple creating delicacies and catastrophes in the kitchen on Revision3‘s cooking show for the novice gourmand, Ctrl-Alt-Chicken.

Two Girls.  Two movies.  Once a week.  Friends Keilly and Stewart give us 20-minute takes on two of the latest movies to hit theaters and rate them based on this spiffy system: “Run to the Theater,” “Walk to the Theater,” “Netflix it,” “Catch it on Cable,” and “We’d rather watch Congo again” (evidently their Platonic idea of the “worst movie ever”). Since April 2007, they have also begun each episode with a spoof of one of the featured movies, such as a Euro film noir scene to introduce their review of the French film Paris, Je T’aime

. Stewart and Keilly feed off of each other with effortless charisma. This goofy, social vibe is what makes the show more than just movie reviews but a breeding ground for some great unscripted hilarity, like Stewart’s off-the-wall comment that she is “bed-sweating” in Episode 18 and when a plane unexpectedly drowns out the sound during outdoor filming in Episode 17. Interestingly, for a show hosted by two girls, there is surprisingly little chick flick representation, as the two often opt for heavier fare, such as action/thriller movies Disturbia (Episode 20), Breach (Episode 13) and Blood Diamond (Episode 6). If you haven’t seen the film they’re talking about, their chatty reviews may feel like you’re watching two teenage girls gabbing irrelevance on the phone.  Still, you’ll likely be entertained by just how much fun they’re having yakking about flicks.

Not every review goes into great analytical detail, but it isn’t uncommon for the girls to inject some insightful points on top of the comedy, like their discussion of emotions, stereotypes, and relationships in The Pursuit of the Happyness (Episode 7). …On an unrelated note, doesn’t Stewart look awfully like Monica from Friends? In Episode 8 (at 1:55 and 6:11), she even delivers that signature Monica line: “I Know!”