James Gunn stewards a new DC Cinematic Universe with the hotly anticipated Superman. Starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Nathan Fillion, and Edi Gathegi, this new version of the Big Blue Boy Scout attempts to turn over a new leaf for a floundering franchise by taking pages from a rich tapestry of comics. Is it successful? We…

Jeff is on vacation this week, so it's up to Derek and Amir to pull off the rare double feature episode. In a week of dueling popcorn blockbusters, which crowdpleaser — John Wick spinoff Ballerina or racing drama F1 — will reign supreme? We talk Ana De Armas, Brad Pitt, and the highs and lows of both movies.…

Celine Song's followup to 2023's gem Past Lives explores the world of matchmaking through a spin on the classic love triangle. Song turns her signature gentle tension on its head with a take on modern dating and transactional matrimony. Is it successful? Will lightning strike twice for the Oscar-nominated filmmaker? Tune in and find out...…

This installment of our What We're Watching series is a television catchup episode, where we discuss two big, recent hits — both in their second seasons — that we just haven't had time to cover in full: The Last of Us and The Rehearsal. Both headliners for Max (soon to be HBO Max again), the two series' sophomore seasons take giant swings. Do they …

Arguably one of the best action franchises of all time comes to a presumed end with Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. Somehow, the most divisive entry yet, Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise's latest attempt to save movies as champions of the analog finds Ethan Hunt once again fighting the rogue AI known as The Entity. Are its two barnbu…

Critically-acclaimed Andor has returned. Politically sophisticated and emotionally bracing, Tony Gilroy's Star Wars series about the birth of a rebellion has returned for a second and final season. Does it live up to its first season's incredible highs and adult-minded storytelling? We discuss and review the show, its odd release schedule, and wher…

In 2025, do the MCU doldrums continue, or is Jake Schreier's Thunderbolts a return to form for a flagging superhero universe? Does it rise above its grating marketing to deliver something with actual, emotional honesty? With Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, and Lewis Pullman at the helm of a misfit gang of anti-heroes, the chances aren't bad. Tune in…

It's that time of the year again where we make our friendly bet on the season's box office results. After two years in a row of Amir taking the bag, Derek and Jeff are trying extra hard in 2025 to take down the reigning champ, but will everyone's lists be different enough? Tune in as we predict the winners, losers, and wild cards of the summer.…

Ryan Coogler's Sinners is one of the year's best films: a purposefully messy vampire metaphor just overflowing with passion and ideas, painted across a tapestry of folklore, diegetic blues, and epic horror. It’s why we go to the movies. We discuss its deep roster of incredible performances and its myriad of themes that catapult it beyond standard b…

On this week's podcast, we review the latest streaming sensation on Max and the spiritual successor to ER, The Pitt. A medical drama like no other, the series prides itself on its realism and its real-time, 15-episode conceit. It just so happens that one of our co-hosts, Dr. Amir Touray, is well-equipped to review the series in a way most of us are…

Director David Ayer re-teams with Jason Statham for another professionally titled actioner: A Working Man. Following up last year's The Beekeeper, will the duo recapture the absurd magic of their debut? We review the film and discuss the careers of both Ayer and Statham.By Jeff Zhang, Derek Wong, Amir Touray

For our first television episode of 2025, we review the long-anticipated revival of Marvel's Man Without Fear — Daredevil: Born Again. Is the new series able to find the best version of itself despite extensive reshoots and behind-the-scenes shakeups? Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio slip back into the roles like a pair of comfortable shoes, but i…

This week, we review director Steven Soderbergh's second film to be released in as many months. Black Bag sure is steamy — Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett playing married spooks certainly heightens its seductiveness — but its real heat lies in its surprising juxtaposition, honing in on a passionate kernel of loyalty and devotion within a sea …

It's been six long years since the last Bong Joon-ho film, Parasite, swept through the 2020 Oscars, including the prize of Best Picture. A beloved filmmaker that has brought us both intimate, grounded thrillers as well as propulsive genre yarn, Bong Joon-ho is once again dipping his toe into sci-fi class warfare with Mickey 17. Featuring Robert Pat…

A welcome respite from Jimmy Kimmel's irony-pilled sarcasm, the 97th annual Academy Awards found late-night legend Conan O'Brien in the host chair. Jeff, Derek, and Amir break down the broadcast and the nominees, from the winners to the losers, the graceful to the ugly. We discuss Anora's historic evening, a weird in-memoriam tribute, and the longe…

This week, after a long month of lists, recaps, and Oscar nominated heavy hitters, we lighten the mood with the gory, splatter-filled Stephen King adaptation of The Monkey. Oz Perkins' second film in a year, The Monkey stars both Theo James and Christian Convery in dual roles, Tatiana Maslany, Colin O'Brien, Adam Scott, and Elijah Wood. Does Perkin…

It's incredibly easy to overpraise something like Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist just for its degree of difficulty and the unlikelihood of it even existing, but it’s the real deal: a living Great American Novel plucked from time. We sit down and review the three-and-a-half-hour epic - complete with intermission - and discuss its performances, ambitio…

This week we review RaMell Ross's Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel of the same name. The story of two Black boys who form an unshakeable bond at a segregated reform school in the Jim Crow South, Nickel Boys transcends its first person conceit, its Oscar-bait trappings, and the swerve of its twist ending to deliver a major work…

As per tradition, we follow up the best of 2024 with our Most Anticipated Films of 2025 episode as Jeff, Derek, and Amir list what's got them excited going into the new year. Running the gamut of indie gems to the massive blockbusters, tune in to find out what's on our hotlist for 2025!By Amir Touray, Derek Wong, Jeff Zhang

Another year of cinema in the rear view as we count down our personal top tens of 2024. A year that highlighted the limits of accessibility for some of its best films, 2024 gave us the most varied lists we've ever had on the show with showings across all genres. What made Jeff, Derek, and Amir's lists? What were honorable mentions? Tune in and find…

At 94-years young, Clint Eastwood is still going strong with his latest meat-and-potatoes legal thriller, Juror #2. Featuring a murderers' row of actors and a premise to die for, is Eastwood's latest just a redux of your dad's favorite movie from the mid 90s? Or is there something more than meets the eye?…

Happy new year! We ring in 2025 by reviewing podcast favorite filmmaker Robert Eggers' latest historical horror: his grim vision of the vampire classic, Nosferatu. We talk vampires, Dracula, and Eggers' slavish devotion to granular detail. Does it continue his streak of bracing period terror, or is it more of a hindrance this time around? Tune in a…

This week, we review Cannes and awards season darling Anora. Another exploration of director Sean Baker's working class milieus, this story of a fiery stripper who falls in with an immature son of Russian oligarch is a barnburner showcase for Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, and Yura Borisov. Does it live up to its festival hype?…

For better or worse, Bertrand Bonello's The Beast is one of the most memorable movies of 2024. A discombobulating sci-fi trip through time that stars Lea Seydoux and George Mackay, it explodes the kernel of loneliness at the center of Henry James' 1903 novella - The Beast in the Jungle - into something much more...perplexing.…

2024's challenger to last year's "Barbenheimer" phenomenon is here in the form of the Gladiator II and Wicked double feature. We review both highly anticipated films, and our discussion just might surprise you! Tune in and find out!By Amir Toura, Jeff Zhang, Derek Wong

This week we review Edward Berger's Conclave, a papal conspiracy thriller in the guise of a serious business, hiding a goofed-up B-movie underneath. We talk about its twists and turns, its murderers' row of a cast, and its absolutely preposterous ending. Will this make our best-of-the-year lists? Tune in and find out!…

This week, we review Aaron Schimberg's under-the-radar indie darling, A Different Man, an unlikely companion piece to this year's The Substance and may even overtake it as the essential 2024 text on self-hatred and the self-wounding blade of wish fulfillment. Effortlessly smart without an ounce of ostentatious force, this is a movie with a million …

This week we review Pascal Plante's Red Rooms, an under-the-radar indie that's taken the horrorsphere by storm. A serial killer thriller that finds power in its restraint and shocking prescience, Red Rooms is an evil — yet vital — film to understand the stranglehold of postmodern, screen-abetted detachment. We discuss our culture of macabre obsessi…

This week we review the new Max series continuing Matt Reeves' The Batman saga: The Penguin. Starring Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, and Clancy Brown, the eight-episode miniseries details Oz Cobb's rise from Gotham nobody to connected crime boss. We review the first five episodes.By Jeff Zhang, Derek Wong

This week, we review Todd Phillips' highly anticipated sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux. Is it a misbegotten misfire? Or is it a movie with a strange set of balls? Is it both? We discuss its interesting metatext, spiteful movies, and the odd throughline between Joker 2 and Megalopolis.By Jeff Zhang, Amir Touray, Derek Wong

Self-financed and over 40 years in the making, Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis is the most divisive movie of the year. Is it an unmitigated disaster or an old master's magnum opus? Or is it somewhere in between? We're all divided on this one, but we can all agree on one thing: you've never seen anything like this before, and you might not ever a…

Once again transmogrifying old-school exploitation into her own feminist styling of New French Extremity, Coralie Fargeat trades in the empowered bloodletting of 2018’s Revenge for body horror. Your mileage may vary with The Substance, but whether you wince, cackle, or simply abandon the theater out of disgust, one thing is quite clear: it's quite …

Director Jeremy Saulnier follows up his brutal downers of Green Room and Hold the Dark with a politically angry new action thriller. With a star-making turn from actor Aaron Pierre, Rebel Ridge rides into the pantheon of contemporary suspense in ways that might be surprising, especially if you're expecting more sanguine violence from Saulnier. We d…

It's a deeper cut this week as we dive straight into a smaller, VOD action gem with Bren Foster's kinetic martial arts actioner, Life After Fighting. We review this by-your-bootstraps indie gem that puts big budget blockbusters to shame with its brutal confidence and unbelievable choreography. We're giving away what we thought about it right here, …

Fede Álvarez takes over the reins of Xenomorph terror with Alien: Romulus. In this episode, we review the first Alien movie in seven years, and the first in over a decade to depart from series godfather Ridley Scott. Does Álvarez chart his own path with his tense, gorehound pedigree from Evil Dead and Don't Breathe? Or is it just a rehash of better…

It's not an M. Night Shyamalan film without some divisiveness. We discuss his new Josh Hartnett vehicle, Trap, his late career stylings, and the pros and cons of his heightened realities. Is Trap one of Shyamalan's best? Or is it another dud?By Derek Wong, Amir Touray, Jeff Zhang

We return to television this week to conduct a postmortem on the controversial second season of HBO's House of the Dragon. The Game of Thrones spinoff has its fans split down the middle with a divisive finale, and season in general, as the Greens and Blacks head to war. We discuss the contention at the center of the series' reception, as well as gi…

Deadpool joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper in Shawn Levy's Deadpool & Wolverine. Or does he? We review the 34th film in the MCU. Can the Merc with the Mouth and the wayward X-Man band together to save Marvel's flagging Multiverse fortunes? Or is it just another parade of cameos and fan service?…

Sequel, reboot, re-quel, revival, whatever you call it, Twisters is here. We review Lee Isaac Chung's followup to the 1996 smash hit. Does it avoid legacy sequel traps, or does it lean into them? Does the summer of Glen Powell continue? Tune in and find out!By Jeff Zhang, Derek Wong, Amir Touray

Oz Perkins' fourth feature-length horror film rides upon a wave of hype. From its cryptic teasers to the hyperbolic reception as "one of the scariest movies ever," Longlegs has quite a reputation to live up to. Is it really something special? Or is it just a hodgepodge pastiche of better movies? Tune in and find out.…

Another week, another prequel. We review A Quiet Place: Day One, directed by pod favorite filmmaker Michael Sarnoski (Pig). Will a new Quiet Place away from the Abbott Family sidestep prequel doldrums? Will Sarnoski once again subvert genre convention with the human element? Tune in and find out!By Amir Touray, Jeff Zhang, Derek Wong

Just through star power alone, Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders is an elegy for the home of a band of outsiders and misfits, eroded by time into something much more sinister and encroaching. We discuss the trio of movie stars at the film's center and its surprising power through familiar tropes.By Amir Touray, Derek Wong, Jeff Zhang

The fourth installment of the Bad Boys franchise finds Mike Lowery (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) on the run from a criminal conspiracy. 2020's Bad Boys For Life struck gold with new directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah taking over the action reins from Michael Bay. Will they succeed again? Tune in and find out.…

Funny and sexy cinema is back! This week, we tackle Richard Linklater's latest film: Hit Man. We discuss the filmmaker's storied oeuvre, the film's capital "M" movie star performances in Glen Powell and Adria Arjona, and its knottier-than-expected questions of identity. It's steamy, uproarious, and just a little twisted.…

One of the best shows on TV finally makes its return. This week, we review the first four episodes of Interview with the Vampire's second season. The second season finds Louis and Claudia on the run after supposedly killing Lestat, and the pair travel the world in search of more of their own kind. Does the new season live up to the series' pristine…

George Miller has huge shoes to fill: his own. A follow-up to one of the best action movies ever made, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a long-awaited prequel to the 2015 high-octane whirlwind. Nearly a decade later, does Miller have what it takes to live up to an impossible standard, or is he doing something completely different? Tune in and find out.…

We are back with our second annual Summer Box Office Wager! After our disastrous guesses last year (bad for us, entertaining for you), we're back for another round of predicting this season's biggest movies. Have we learned our lessons? Or will we miss big again? Find out and follow along!By Derek Wong, Amir Touray, Jeff Zhang

Back by popular demand, we're catching up with Marvel's hit animated series: X-Men '97. We spent the first episode praising the first stretch of the season for its freshness and surprisingly mature handling of its mutant heroes. Does it stick the landing? We review the rest of the season and its sprawling three-part finale.…

This week, we review Luca Guadagnino's electrically charged tennis drama, Challengers. Joined by special guest Ashley Zhang, we discuss the trinity of great performances from Zendaya, Mike Faust, and Josh O'Connor, as well as sing our praises for a rare blockbuster-level crowdpleaser that’s still full of blood, vitality, and texture.…

It's nun week as we head into a rare double feature episode, this time covering Michael Mohan's Immaculate and Arkasha Stevenson's The First Omen. Nunsploitation is back! Or is it? We tackle these twin movies with eerily similar subject matters and themes, both movies centered around young novitiates who uncover sinister conspiracies within their c…