Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, with week with special guests Conor Murphy and Natasha Waugh, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.
This August, we are taking a look at the films on the Irish Leaving Certificate Curriculum. This week, Celine Song’s Past Lives.
Nora Moon was just twelve years old when her family emigrated from South Korea to Canada. Moving to New York to pursue a career as a writer, Nora tries her best to stay in contact with her childhood friend Hae Sung, who remained in Seoul. Time passes and the pair drift out of contact. Years later, Hae Sung reaches out to let Nora know that he will be visiting New York, causing Nora to confront and re-evaluate many of her life choices.
At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Show Notes:
- Recorded 13th August 2025.
- Past Lives at The Internet Movie Database.
- Follow Conor on Twitter.
- Follow The Video Trolley on Twitter.
- Read Conor’s film criticism at The Video Trolley.
- Follow Natasha Waugh on Twitter.
- Visit NatashaWaugh.ie.
- Watch Terminal, 2016.
- Watch Mother, 2019.
- Watch Natasha’s episode of Fair City, 2025.
- Jennifer Horgan writes at The Irish Times about the potential for the new Drama, Film and Theatre Studies course, October 2022.
- Emma O’Kelly at RTÉ reports on the new Drama, Film and Theatre Studies course, May 2025.
- Emma O’Kelly at RTÉ reports on the schools selected to serve as a pilot for the new Drama, Film and Theatre Studies course, January 2025.
- The New York Times considers the “elusive” nature of genre, November 1939.
- Celine Song talks to Vulture about her life and career, May 2023.
- Celine Song talks to The Guardian about making Past Lives, August 2023.
- Celine Song talks to The Los Angeles Times about her life and career, June 2023.
- Jesse Green reviews Endlings for The New York Times, March 2020.
- Celine Song talks to The Austin Chronicle about her love of Bertolt Brecht, June 2025.
- Celine Song talks to GQ about making Past Lives, December 2023.
- Carly Thomas at The Hollywood Reporter reports on Celine Song’s response to the memetic joke that Materialists is “broke man propaganda”, August 2025.
- Diemmy Dang writes at 34th Street about Celine Song’s early work and career, July 2025.
- Helen Shaw writes about The Seagull on The Sims 4 or Vulture, November 2020.
- Nicole Carpenter writes at Polygon about Celine Song’s staging of The Seagull on The Sims 4, October 2020.
- Justin Chang at The Los Angeles Times considers the synchronicity of the release of Everything Everywhere All At Once and Turning Red, May 2022.
- Jeff Yang at CNN writes about the Asian American themes of Everything Everywhere All At Once, April 2022.
- Brandon Yu at The New York Times writes about the increasing prevalence of movies starring Asian characters speaking Asian languages, May 2024.
- Ian Wang at Art Review criticises that depiction of the Asian American experience in contemporary cinema, August 2023.
- Ed Pilkington writes at The Guardian about the implementation of book bans in Trump’s America, February 2025.
- Alison Hicks writes at The Guardian at the increasingly common attempts to ban books for children, April 2025.
- Ariana Baio writes at The Independent about how Disney became embroiled in the culture wars, December 2024.
- Michael McWhertor at Polygon reports on Disney’s decision to pull an episode of Devil Dinosaur that featured trans representation, November 2024.
- Pamela McClintock at The Hollywood Reporter accounts for Disney’s decision to cut a transgender subplot from Win or Lose, December 2024.
- Alex Stedman at IGN reports on the decision by Disney to insist that Pixar remove any reference to Riley’s queerness from Inside Out 2, October 2024.
- Edward Helmore at The Guardian reports on how the re-election of Donald Trump has shifted the media landscape, November 2024.
- Jessica Wakeman writes at CNN about the glass-encased Jane’s Carousel, January 2018.
- J. Kim Murphy reports at Variety about Celine Song’s work on a follow-up to My Best Friend’s Wedding, July 2025.
- Amy Hawkins writes at The Guardian about the concept of neijuan, December 2024.
- Peter Coy writes at The New York Times about cultural stagnancy in China, August 2023.
- Koh Ewe reports for The BBC on the population decline in South Korea, August 2025.
- Brook Larmer at The New York Times considers the ticking demographic time bomb in South Korea, February 2018.
- Justin Kuritzkes talks to Vulture about writing a script for Challengers, April 2024.
- Bethy Squires writes at Vulture about the connections between Past Lives and Challengers, April 2024.
- All I Want is a F&!king Bride by Justin Kuritzkes, December 2015.
- Donna Ferguson at The Guardian considers how online dating has changed the way that people fall in love, February 2022.
- Taylor Slavens at The South East Arrow discusses how the internet has changed love, February 2025.
- Megan Garber at The Atlantic considers how the internet became a machine for nostalgia, February 2014.
- Katherine Boehret at Vox considers how social media is designed to keep the past ever-present, June 2015.
- Darren Mooney considers Celine Song as a “classical modernist” filmmaker at Second Wind, August 2025.
- Mara Butler writes at Culture Slate about how mobile telephones have changed horror cinema, August 2023.
- Beth Elderkin at Gizmodo considers the various ways that horror movies “get around” mobile phones, October 2018.
- Jazlyn Gonzales at State Press considers how modern romantic comedies completely ignore the realities of modern dating, October 2024.
- Ashley Brown at NPR considers how racism still plays a role in online dating, January 2018.
- Serena Smith at Cosmopolitan discusses her experience of racism on dating apps, July 2025.
- Kat Chow and Elise Hu at NPR consider how the dating apps advantage certain ethnicities, November 2013.
- Deborah Jiang-Stein writes at The Huffington Post about “the Jewish-Man/Asian-Woman connection”, November 2010.
- Louis Chilton at The Independent considers the ubiquity of Pedro Pascal, April 2025.
- Zach Cregger talks to People about how Pedro Pascal was almost in Weapons, August 2025.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: Celine Song, character complexities, cinematographic techniques, conor murphy, emotional narrative, film education, immigration, Irish Leaving Cert, love, natasha waugh, past lives, podcast, Relationships, The 250 |
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