Dr. Maria Walls returns after her psychedelic trance into Mandy, Nicolas Cage's latest endeavour. Where horror melts with heavy metal, scored by Johann Johannsson, the film narrates a trip that takes a turn for the worst after the Red Miller's partner gets kidnapped by cultists. If this thriller is spooky enough for Maria, then it's spooky enough for us, right?
Dr. Maria Walls joins Mikey for a coffee in studio to talk The Other Side of Hope. Director Aki Kaurismäki's new comedy is a crowdpleaser about the friendship between a newcomer to Helsinki and a budding restaurateur. Aww. Rob reckons Maria's a fan, he can tell by her hand gestures.
Thelma is the steamy, sexy and spooky (Maria's words) thriller about a lonely woman who discovers her supernatural powers. Now, if that's not enough, Dr. Maria Walls is a big fan too. Involving education, libraries, powerful seizures and a dangerous attraction, surely that's a recipe for a blockbuster hit, right Dr. Maria?
Dr. Maria Walls is back to review not a DVD today, but an actual, real, film that's even in the cinema (wow). Capernaum follows a streetwise 12-year-old Lebanese boy running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and is sentenced to five years in jail, who sues his parents for giving him life. This is an emotional one, may not have made Dr. Maria cry but the listeners reckon it's a tear-jerker.
Kiran's got a real page turner this week, The Wall by John Lanchester is Time Out's Book of the Month for March. Looking forwards to a dystopia reality where climate change is in full force, this thrilling new novel is about why the young are right to hate the old. And as Kiran said, Tess already can't put it down.
Tonight's show was actually entirely curated by bFM's own Samuel Harmony, who sent Oto and Jaycee, not just a playlist, but a stack of CDs and Casettes that he collected while he was in Indonesia as part of the New Zealand Delegation attending AXEAN Festival 2025. Whakarongo mai to experience 2 hours of Psych rock, folk, disco and more by Southeast-Asian artists playing at the festival!
Oto and Jaycee talked to bad for education about his new single - 'Close My Eyes,' and played 2 hours of Surf Rock, Indie and Grunge by independent artists from the Asian diaspora.
This Day in History takes us back to 1989, and the (figurative) fall of the Berlin Wall:
For more than two decades the Wall had divided Berlin, with movement between East and West virtually non-existant. Ostensibly built to protect East Berlin, it was denounced in the West as a totalitarian restriction on freedom of movement. It's fall would see the rapid entry of the former Soviet bloc into the world economy, with mixed results.
This morning Maria popped in to chat about 'Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway', directed by Miguel Llanso and screening at the NZIFF. It's a buck-wild, smash-cut, fever-dream of a film; tune in to find out more.
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