Episode 270 | Netflix's The Queen's Gambit and John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King

Dust off your chess sets and start reminding yourself of the difference between pawns and bishops because the world of competitive chess is the talk of the town again. Netflix's lends some midcentury glamour to the cerebral, famously nerdy pursuit with its new miniseries The Queen's Gambit, featuring Anya Taylor-Joy as a fiercely ambitious chess prodigy who strives to excel in a game that is well-known for being male-dominated. Does the literary adaptation from Scott Frank and Allan Scott succeed at making the think-iest of board games into an absorbingly cinematic experience? Wade and Kevin also turn in a retro review this week to commemorate the passing of Sean Connery. Connery's iconic screen presence often elevated the movies he starred in, and the guys take a look at the Rudyard Kipling adaptation The Man Who Would Be King to see whether they can define exactly what that screen presence consisted of. Tally ho! Music interlude by Vlad Gluschenko, "Warm Days." Used under Creative Commons license 3.0. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices