The Best Pictures Podcast

Join out hosts for the 83rd Best Picture winner, A King's Speech. Ian and Maggie both appreciated the top notch performances, and understated but deftly executed visuals.

After wrapping up the last winner of the early 2000s, we're revisiting our lists and shuffling some of our rankings! We discuss the highs and lows of our most recent decade of winners and reflect on what we're most excited for in the 2010s. We also revisit a couple of our early winners and answer some great listener questions.

Join Maggie and Ian for the final 2024 halloween episode Stephen King's Carrie. Despite some creaky bits, the 1976 film adaptation proves to be an entertaining (and spooky) watch!

Join Ian and Maggie for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining. With plenty of ghostly spookiness (and psychic powers to boot), the film still provides a thrilling Halloween-time watch. Do our hosts prefer the book to the movie? Listen to find out!

Join Maggie and Ian for the 78th winner, American crime drama Crash. Shallow characters, surface-level commentary, and several excruciatingly gratuitous scenes didn't impress either of our hosts.

Join our hosts for the 77th Best Picture winner, Million Dollar Baby. Despite some knockout performances (wink wink) both Maggie and Ian had some conflicted feelings about the last round of this winner.

Ian and Maggie are back with a winner episode covering the 75th winner, Chicago. They loved the musical numbers and ambition of production, but were left wanting more from the character development.

Join us as we celebrate the 6th anniversary of the Best Pictures Podcast by tackling another cult classic!

Ian and Maggie cover the 74th Best Picture inner, A Beautiful mind. All around the hosts appreciated a solid film with great acting.

We're back with another canon episode, and we're kicking off a new decade of winners! This time we're talking about the sword and sandal epic Gladiator (2000s).

Having found themselves boxed in a ranking corner, Maggie and Ian decided the needed a fresh start 2024: a re-ordered winner ranking. In addition to talking about the shuffles, Ian and Maggie each revisited a past winner to reevaluate their thoughts, talk about where the 1990s falls in the overall quality of films, and look forward (maybe not positively) to the 2000s.

For our final episode of 2023 we cover the classic 1964 Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special. Maggie makes a case for Santa being the villain of the story, and she and Ian debate the physics of abominable snowmen.

We're kicking off the 2023 holiday season with a special episode on The Nightmare Before Christmas! We cover our history with the film and delve into it's major influences, themes, and legacy.

For this special spooky episode, we cover the 1979 scifi horror classic Alien!

Happy spooky season 2023! This year Ian and Maggie, with the help of podcast favorite Lola, dive into the classic Universal monster film Creature from the Black Lagoon. Special Guest: Lola.

In this episode, we tackle one of the cringiest best picture winners we've covered so far: American Beauty. We pick apart this dark look at the monotany of suburban America in the late 90s and talk about the few things that worked for us and the many that don't.

We're back with our critique of the 71st Best Picture winner Shakespeare In Love! We go through why we love this film and why it was a welcome break from more serious recent winners as well as dive into why the win is sometimes controversial when talking about other nominees from that year.

Join Maggie and Ian as they talk through 1997's winner, Titanic. Though our hosts had mixed opinions on the first part of the movie, both agree the epic romance/disaster horror combo is worth a watch!

We're back with the 69th Best Picture, The English Patient! How will this 1996 winner stack up against the other sweeping romantic epics we've covered?

We're back in the new year with the 68th Academy Award winner Braveheart! Will this questionably historical epic live up to our standards, or will it pale in comparison to our recent run of good winners.

Come listen to Maggie and Ian cover the 1966 animated TV special, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! With outstanding art direction, editing, and some unforgettable songs, this snack of a show is a delight.

We're back with our second spooky episode of 2022, and this time we're covering The Sixth Sense along with special guest Myke of the Cinemusts podcast!

To kick off our 2022 Halloween season, we're covering the 1955 psychological thriller/horror film Les Diabolique! Special Guest: Sangita.

We're back with the 67th Best Picture winner: Forrest Gump. After a long run of good but very tough winners, turn to something more uplifting and talk good writing, sassy editing, and unusual visual effects. Will this comedy drama continue our streak of good winners, or will it pale in comparison?

Join Ian and Maggie as they cover Schindler's List. While the intense violence and brutality of the Holocaust depicted in the film make it a difficult and emotional watch, both hosts agree this 1993 winner is one of the best films they've covered. Trigger warning for intense racial violence and antisemetism.

For this special 100th episode, we're throwing it way back to the very first Academy Awards. We're discussing the first and only film to win Most Unique and Artistic Picture, why we wish that category hadn't disappeared, and how Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans makes us wish we knew more about silent film.

Join our hosts and special guest Lola for this extra special summer episode! They discuss the 1960s beach movie genre focusing in what can only be described as "the most bonkers" example: Beach Blanket Bingo. There's sky diving, mermaids, and a surprising amount of tangents on kidnapping. Special Guest: Lola.

Join Maggie and Ian as they cover 1992's winner, Unforgiven. Despite mixed opinions going into this episode, Ian and Maggie found they both appreciated the top-notch visuals, complex characters, and ultimately the completely satisfying (if sometimes difficult to watch) story arcs. Trigger warning for violence against women.

Join Ian and Maggie as they finally cover the only horror movie to ever win Best Picture. Now that they're all out of delay tactics, will they be able to make it through one of the most intense movies they've covered to date?

Our hosts take a break between best picture winners to break down this underrated 1980s western.

Join our hosts for the 63rd best picture winner and western epic, Dances with Wolves. Despite having all the trappings of a great western, Dances with Wolves managed to dissappoint. The expansive score and top-notch visuals just couldn't make up for the flat writing of our main character's arc and the heavy reliance on the white savior trope.

We're back with another cult classic and a new special guest to celebrate our 4th podcast-iversary! We discuss costuming, performances, and which character we'd least like to investigate a spooky old mansion with. Big thank you to everyone who's stuck with us these past four years, and to newer listeners, welcome!

Once again Maggie and Ian have ranked themselves into a corner and it's time to fix that! They cover which films moved up and down their lists the most, which decade of winners is their favorite (and which is their least favorite), and answer listener questions about what movies they may have been a little too harsh on and which upcoming films they're most looking forward to.

Come listen to Ian and Maggie's takes on the 1989 Best Picture, Driving Miss Daisy. Though the main charcters' performances deserve the praise they garnered, even the contemporaneous critiques still ring true. Despite the poorly-aged material, Ian and Maggie both found parts of the films they enjoyed; listen to find out where it ranked!

Join Maggie and Ian for the 1988 Best Picture, Rain Man. While the film proved to be well written and tidily constructed, our hosts took major issue with its basic premise. Listen to find out where Rain Man ranks!

Join us as we welcome special guest Lola back to talk about this classic romantic comedy for a Valentine's Day/Birthday special! Special Guest: Lola.

Join us for 1987's The Last Emperor. With it's impeccable visuals, the film is a feast for the eyes, but some huge narrative pitfalls left Ian and Maggie wanting more. Where does that leave The Last Emperor? Listen to find out!

We're kicking off 2022 with the sad but incredibly good Platoon! We talk character arcs, cinematography, and why this movie is a master class in building tension. We also discuss how it compares to the many other war films that have one best picture and where it ranks among them. Massive trigger warning for this episode! The movies is very rough and we discuss some difficult topics and scenes. Please listen with caution!

Maggie and Ian are back with an earlier retelling of Charles Dickens' classic.

Welcome back to our special guest, Jade, for another holiday episode of the Best Pictures Podcast. Join us as we talk through the delight that is 1992's The Muppet Christmas Carol. Between the impressive live-action performance of Michael Caine and the next level puppeteering (who's actually surprised there?), this movie is sure to delight.

We decided to take a left turn out of nowhere and start the holiday lineup early with Miracle on 34th Street. Between the rich and lovable characters, the tight writing, and a heartwarming message of holiday cheer, both Maggie and Ian can't say enough good things about this classic.

We're back with a Halloween (and let's be honest every other time of year) classic: The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We laugh. We cry (mostly cause we're laughing too hard), and we discuss how every element of this movie creates not only the perfect allusion to the sci-fi and horror B-movies of old, but also just a good time. So sit back, relax, do the Time Warp, and join us as we welcome back special guest Emma (A Christmas Story, Labyrinth) for another fabulous episode.

In the first of our 2021 Halloween Specials, we cover the classic spooky comedy Arsenic and Old Lace! As a heads up, we had some minor audio issues, but we've cleaned them up the best we could. It was too good an episode to lose! Special Guest: Sangita.