Misericordia: Unfulfilled Transactional Sex (and also Mushrooms)

This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard! 

Kathryn joins Melvin to discuss our latest Patreon-selected movie, Misericordia! This foreign drama/dark-comedy from Alain Guiraudie offers a lot to talk about: Fall vibes, yearning, secrets, and plenty of small town conflict. Also, mushrooms!

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 27-minutes discussing Movies or art-pieces that become rally-cries for fandoms and garner 10/10 reviews in “support” of those projects, and how this makes Melvin go, “Hmmm…” (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
• The setting of the film, a Fall French countryside, is stunning.
• The film is cozy and even-keeled, but it also has a dash of the grotesque.
• Melvin hasn’t watched a lot of Queer cinema and that’s largely due to the genre often included a bit more sexuality in it than other genres.
• Someone watching movies outside their comfort zone can sometimes help bring a broader understanding to that person’s outlook.
• How we interpret the mushroom as a symbol.
• Talking about love, justice, and living.
• Getting into the ending, discussing its abruptness, and closing thoughts.
• The importance of forgiveness and mercy when expressed and experienced in the right direction, as opposed to from merely observers.

Recommendations:

• Good News in January (you might have missed) (2026) (YouTube)
• Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013) (Video Game)

Misericordia is Unrated. It features Félix Kysyl, Catherine Frot, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Serge Richard, Jacques Develay, David Ayala, Tatiana Spivokova, Elio Lunetta, Sébastien Faglain, and Salomé Lopes. Directed by Alain Guiraudie. Misericordia is available here.

Consider supporting Cinematic Doctrine on Patreon! As a bonus, you can gain access to a once-a-month movie poll where you decide a movie we discuss on the podcast, early unedited episodes of the podcast, and merch!!

Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

Cinematic Doctrine is available on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and other major podcast apps.