Miranda July’s Uncomfortable Comedies, and a Toast to Roger Angell

About this episode

<p><span>Miranda July’s third feature film is “Kajillionaire,” a heist movie centered on a dysfunctional family, and her first with a Hollywood star like Evan Rachel Wood. Like most of her work, it can be classified as a comedy, but just barely. “There’s some kind of icky, heartbreaking, subterranean feelings about family that I would not willingly have gone towards if it weren’t for the silly heist stuff,” July tells Deborah Treisman, </span><em><span>The New Yorker’s</span></em><span><span> </span>fiction editor. July acknowledges that billing her work as comedy allows her the budget to do things that straight drama might not get: “I knew I wanted to make a bigger movie. It changes the medium, it changes the kinds of things you can think up.” Tresiman, who has edited<span> </span></span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/miranda-july"><span>July’s short stories</span></a><span><span> </span>and other writings for the magazine, talks with her about the thread of discomfort and embarrassment that runs through her work in every medium. Plus,<span> </span><span>David Remnick toasts the centennial of Roger Angell, who has contributed to<span> </span></span><em><span>The New Yorker<span> </span></span></em><span>since the Second World War with writings on baseball and every other topic under the sun.</span></span></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>