#495 — Keanu Reeves & Carrie-Anne Moss, Paolo Sorrentino

Merry Christmas, you bangily-bangers! In this, the last regular episode of the Empire Podcast for 2021 (don't worry, though, there's a Christmas special to come next week, and the Review Of The Year on the 29th), Chris Hewitt enters the Matrix and sits down on Zoom with Neo and Trinity themselves, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, ahead of the release of The Matrix Resurrections next week. The only spoilers here are thematic ones, but if you're antsy, the interview starts at 00:27:47.104, and ends at 00:46:01.513. Chris also has a chat with Paolo Sorrentino, the Italian director of the simply beautiful The Hand Of God, which is on Netflix now. How's that for a pair of Christmas crackers? Then, in the virtual podbooth, Chris is joined by Helen O'Hara, Ben Travis, and James Dyer as they talk about what's in store for the epic live show that will mark Episode 500 (tickets on sale now for our February 5th extravaganza at kingsplace.co.uk), discuss the best Christmas parties on film, that time Chris and James watched Spanish porn together, talk about a whole bunch of trailers including Everything Everywhere All At Once and the new Fantastic Beasts, and review The Tender Bar, The Lost Daughter, Swan Song, and a little movie called Spider-Man: No Way Home. We appreciate that some people will be wary of spoilers, and believe us, this is a spoiler-free review, talking more about how the movie made us feel. But again, if you're antsy, or spidery, then the review begins at 01:26:50.531, and ends at 01:44:03.835... And that's that. Enjoy!