Podcasts about Roger Ebert

This is our NEW RELEASE review podcast, ONE HOT TAKE.About forty percent of Supergirl absolutely rips. It imagines a space western with two compelling young women at its centre and briefly convinces you that's exactly where superhero cinema should be heading. Then it remembers it's a superhero blockbuster.Synopsis:Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, joins forces with an unlikely companion on an interstellar journey of vengeance and justice when an unexpected adversary strikes too close to home.Sean BurnsSean Burns is a film critic for WBUR's Arts & Culture and a contributing writer at North Shore Movies and Crooked Marquee. He was Philadelphia Weekly's lead film critic from 1999 through 2013, and worked as a contributing editor at The Improper Bostonian from 2006 until 2014. His reviews, interviews and essays have also appeared in Metro, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, The Boston Herald, Nashville Scene, Time Out New York, Philadelphia City Paper and RogerEbert.com.A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Burns was a recurring guest on the late David Brudnoy's WBZ 1030 AM radio show, and in 2002 received an award for Excellence in Criticism from the Greater Philadelphia Society of Professional Journalists. Currently a member of the Online Film Critics Society and the Critics Choice Association, he's also “the most annoyingest person ever,” according to his niece.WEBSITE: splicedpersonality.comTWITTER: @SeanMBurnsOne Heat Minute ProductionsWEBSITE: oneheatminute.comTWITTER: @OneBlakeMinute & @OHMPodsMERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/en-au/stores/one-heat-minute-productionsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Pope Leo’s Chicago street cred, David Lee Roth’s new tour, tributes to Tom Dreesen and Roger Ebert, a new controversy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, toy guns, and the worst commencement address ever are among the minutiae topics discussed this week by Rick and Dave. [Ep432]

Pack your bags and head to small town Champaign, Illinois with Producer Brandon for one last year of the Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival, affectionately known to movie-lovers as Ebertfest. Brought back for a final year, festival organizers Chaz Ebert and Nate Kohn programmed a lineup of modern classics and under-the-radar films audiences may have missed. First, Brandon sits down with actress Betty Gabriel following a screening of her film, Get Out (now coming up on its 10-year anniversary). Critically acclaimed for her role as housekeeper-with-a-disturbing-secret Georgina, Betty reflects on being a part of Jordan Peele's beloved horror-social satire's legacy. The conversation then pivots to Betty's current and upcoming projects in television and film. Get Out is currently available to stream on HBO Max.Next, Brandon is joined by writer-director Tracie Laymon & actor French Stewart of the Barbie Ferreira & John Leguizamo dramedy, Bob Trevino Likes It. The film follows a lonely young woman (Ferreira) who strikes up a relationship online with a stranger (Leguizamo) who shares the name of her own narcissistic father (Stewart).After premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival, the crowd-pleasing film received both the Narrative Feature Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. Tapping into her own experience with her own father, Tracie discusses the semiautobiographical nature of her film and how the personal themes and narrative have resonated with audiences from all walks of life. In this joint interview, French Stewart provides insight into his role as an unsupportive father and how he approached playing this antagonistic character with pathos and three-dimensionality.  Tracie then touches on how following the worldwide success of Barbie, Mattel Studios hired her to write and direct a live-action film based on the discontinued 90's cult toy, Tony The Tattooed Man. Bob Trevino Likes It is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+Watch the trailerTo read more about Ebertfest ‘The Last Dance,' visit: ‘The Last Dance' Ends a Beautiful, Impactful Run for the Long-time Roger Ebert Film FestivalIn the famous words of Ebertfest founder, Roger Ebert: “the balcony is closed”Support the show---Subscribe to learn more about filmmaking, production, media makers, creator resources, visual storytelling, and every aspect that brings film, television, and video projects from concepts to our screens. Check out the MediaMakerSpotlight.com show page to find even more conversations with industry professionals that inspire, educate, and entertain!We on the Women in Film & Video (WIFV) Podcast Team work hard to make this show a great resource for our listeners, and we thank you for listening!

Nina has been cooking this one for a while, and it's finally time to share! Enjoy information shared with us by the person who has seen the movie 15 times, listened to the director commentary, and read the full screenplay!Ben Wheatley if you're listening, please reach out, Nina would love to chat. Trade offer: You join us on the podcast to cover Kill List and in exchange we just act super chill and like you've always been here.Personally I (Noah) think it's a good deal, but you know.Matt Zoller Seitz for Roger Ebert: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-field-in-england-2013Our website!https://www.casualhorrorpod.comFollow us on social media!https://bsky.app/profile/casualhorrorpod.comhttps://www.tumblr.com/casualhorrorpodhttps://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/casual-obsessionFollow the hosts on their individual accountsNina (They/Them)https://letterboxd.com/ninawolverinahttps://bsky.app/profile/ninawolverina.bsky.socialhttps://www.tumblr.com/ninawolv3rinaNoah (He/They)https://letterboxd.com/Bubbadabadhttps://bsky.app/profile/bubbadabad.bsky.socialhttps://www.tumblr.com/bubbadabadJade (They/She)https://www.tumblr.com/whatisityouprayforhttps://letterboxd.com/thefakestfanEmma (They/Any)https://bsky.app/profile/jellyfwitch.bsky.socialhttps://letterboxd.com/emmapanada

Yes, this is the one where Michael Keaton gets reincarnated as a snowman so he can spend more time with his son. It is not the 1997 horror film about a murderous snowman getting revenge, nor is it the delightful 1979 Rankin-Bass animated special. Kerry and Collin weren't that lucky. "Snow dad is better than no dad," as the old saying goes, but could "Jack Frost" have worked if George Clooney was in the lead, as originally intended? Why is no one amazed they are talking to a talking snowman? What questions would you have for a person reincarnated in such a manner? And who in their right mind would keep their nail polish remover in their nightstand? All these questions, plus Kerry gives three more films from 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, all of which happen to be list-worthy.  Go to MovieZyng to start or continue your DVD/blu-ray/4K collection.   Visit collinsouter.com RogerEbert.com Follow Collin and Kerry on Letterboxd. Book movies covered: Rebecca (1940) The Princess Bride (1987) The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

Send us a text or a voicemailA horror podcast visits an Irish inn to scatter the ashes of their former co-hosts, unaware the property is said to be haunted by a witch with a penchant for humans with black lungs. On Episode 725 of Trick or Treat Radio our feature film discussion is Hokum from director Damian McCarthy! We also talk about the prospect of an Evil Dead prequel, how successful horror films build dread, and what we have in common with Wilfred Brimley. So grab your witch repellent spray, ring the bell for the Honeymoon Suite, and strap on for the world's most dangerous podcast!Stuff we talk about: The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Evil Dead Wrath, prequels, grindhouse, AARP, Wilfred Brimley, Rocking a Mel Gibson, grey jaw temples, Al Pacino, Masters of the Universe, House of Usher, The Mummy's Shroud, Eye of the Cat, Willard, Frankenstein Created Woman, Food of the Gods, Aliens, Lake Mungo, Nightfall, Bitter Feast, Dark Souls, Zombie Beach, The Haunting of Helena, Blood Spirit, Kristina Klebe, Killer Mermaid, Patrick Melton, Feast, Saw IV, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Fear of the Walking Dead, The Gift, Ken Burns, Kevin Burns, Steve Minor, Lake Placid, Friday the 13th, Day of the Dead, House, Halloween H2O, Carol Kane, Adams Family Values, Roger Ebert, I Bury the Living, The Last Dinosaur, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, E.G. Marshall, Creepshow, Two Evil Eyes, Jared Leto, Morbius, Brian May, Hokum, Damian McCarthy, Adam Scott, Florence Ordesh, Severance, Conquistador, Step Brothers, destiny vs. personal choice, Forbidden Fruits, Widow's Bay, folk horror, scary Irish woods, witching and bitching, Diablo Cody, Lisa Frankenstein, Jennifer's Body, Jack the Jackass, raging assholes, a moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips, and Witches Get Stitches.Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradioJoin our Discord Community: discord.trickortreatradio.comSend Email/Voicemail: mailto:podcast@trickortreatradio.comVisit our website: http://trickortreatradio.comStart your own podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=386Use our Amazon link: http://amzn.to/2CTdZzKFB Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/trickortreatradioTwitter: http://twitter.com/TrickTreatRadioFacebook: http://facebook.com/TrickOrTreatRadioYouTube: http://youtube.com/TrickOrTreatRadioInstagram: http://instagram.com/TrickorTreatRadioSupport the show

Black on Black Cinema announces our next full review: Above the Rim (1994), the final entry in Barry Michael Cooper's Harlem Trilogy. Directed by Jeff Pollack and starring Duane Martin, Tupac Shakur, Leon, Marlon Wayans, Bernie Mac, and Wood Harris. Above the Rim follows high school basketball star Kyle Watson torn between Shep, a fallen athlete trying to redeem himself, and Birdie, a dangerous drug dealer who happens to be Shep's brother. Tupac Shakur's final theatrical film before his 1996 death is reason enough to revisit it.Then we get into the real conversation: Donald Trump has become everything racists feared a Black president would be. Barack Obama had to be practically perfect to even be considered; Harvard Law, Constitutional law professor, decorated Senator, devoted husband and father, scandal-free, measured, dignified. Every box checked. Meanwhile Trump arrived with business failures, fraud convictions, hush money payments, multiple affairs, and a career built on corruption. Ta-Nehisi Coates called Trump "the first white president;" not merely because he's white, but because his entire political existence hinges on the fact of a Black president. His campaign started with birtherism. Coates wrote: "It is as if the white tribe united to say — if a Black man can be president, then any white man, no matter how fallen, can be president." We unpack what that means in 2026.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Movie of the Year: 2006BrickThe Brick podcast episode of Movie of the Year arrives just in time to appreciate one of 2006's most audacious genre experiments. Ryan, Mike, and Greg are joined by Pete Wright of TruStory FM to dig into Rian Johnson's neo-noir debut, a film that transplants the hard-boiled world of Dashiell Hammett into the hallways and parking lots of a Southern California high school. Few films from this era take a bigger swing, and fewer still land it this cleanly.About Brick (2006)Brick is a neo-noir mystery thriller written, edited, and directed by Rian Johnson in his feature directorial debut. The film opened in New York and Los Angeles on April 7, 2006, distributed by Focus Features. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan Frye, a teenage loner who pushes his way into the criminal underworld of his high school to investigate the disappearance -- and eventual murder -- of his ex-girlfriend Emily, played by Emilie de Ravin. The supporting cast includes Lukas Haas as the drug kingpin known only as the Pin, Nora Zehetner as the duplicitous Laura, Noah Fleiss as the enforcer Tug, and Richard Roundtree as a vice principal navigating the chaos from the margins.Johnson wrote the first draft in 1997 immediately after graduating from USC School of Cinematic Arts. He spent the next seven years trying to get it made, with every financier asking him to set it in college instead of high school. He ultimately raised approximately $450,000 from friends and family, shot the film in 20 days, and spent three months rehearsing with the cast beforehand. The score -- inventive and deeply atmospheric -- was composed by Johnson's cousin Nathan Johnson using traditional instruments alongside improvised ones including filing cabinets, kitchen utensils, and tack pianos, all recorded on an Apple PowerBook.The film drew on hardboiled classics, particularly the novels of Dashiell Hammett, and won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It holds an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and earned three stars from Roger Ebert, who called it a rich source of dialogue and behavior. You can read Ebert's full review at RogerEbert.com. Brick has since become a cult classic and a clear blueprint for Johnson's later work on Knives Out.Find the full cast and crew listing at Brick on IMDb.Guest Panelist: Pete WrightPete Wright is a podcaster, author, educator, and co-founder of TruStory FM, a podcast production network he has built over more than three decades in media. He has logged thousands of episodes across more than three dozen shows covering film, ADHD, creative process, brand storytelling, and the craft of audio production. His work spans journalism, corporate communications, and graduate-level teaching, where he spent fifteen years working with students on storytelling and media production.Among his best-known projects is The Next Reel Film Podcast, a deep-dive film discussion series that serves as his primary film-critical home. He also co-hosts Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast alongside Nikki Kinzer, an award-winning show with over a million annual downloads and 29 seasons of episodes since its 2010 launch. In 2024, Pete and Nikki co-authored Unapologetically ADHD: A Step-by-Step Framework for Everyday Planning on Your Terms, a practical guide grown directly from the podcast's community and themes. His debut science fiction novella, Lattice, was published in 2026. Pete's most recent podcast venture is Headstone, a personal series about legacy, memory, and the stories we leave behind. He is based in Portland, Oregon. This Brick podcast episode marks his first appearance on Movie of the Year.Brick Podcast Discussion: Noir in High SchoolThe central creative gamble of Brick is not simply that it applies film noir conventions to a high school setting. More precisely, it applies them without irony. Johnson made a deliberate choice to play every scene completely straight, and the cast follows his lead without a single wink at the camera. Consequently, the absurdity of the premise becomes the engine of the film's tension rather than its release valve.This Brick podcast opens with a foundational question: does the noir-in-high-school conceit actually work? The genre's grammar depends heavily on power asymmetry, corruption, and the lone investigator operating outside institutional structures. High school provides all three. Brendan's relationship with the vice principal mirrors the classic detective's uneasy truce with law enforcement. The Pin's basement headquarters functions as the smoky back room. The femme fatale and the enforcer play their archetypal roles without adjustment.Johnson drew specifically on the novels of Dashiell Hammett -- particularly the Continental Op stories -- and encouraged his cast to read Hammett rather than watch noir films. He wanted the stylistic choices to come from the source material, not from imitation of existing screen adaptations. That decision gives Brick a distinctive texture. Moreover, the dialogue mixes actual period noir slang with invented high school vernacular in a way that creates its own self-consistent world. As Roger Ebert noted, the story never fully clarifies itself while it unfolds, but it delivers a rich supply of behavior and incident along the way.Genre Bending: What the Brick 2006 Film Is Actually DoingBrick belongs to a specific 2006 moment when genre recombination was operating at a high creative pitch. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang had landed the previous year playing similar games with noir self-awareness. Sin City had arrived with a maximalist visual approach to the same source material. Brick chose a third path: minimal budget, straight-faced commitment, and an insistence that the formal constraints of the genre could do meaningful emotional work if you simply trusted them.The genre-bending discussion on this Brick podcast examines how Johnson uses the noir framework not as homage but as architecture. The structure of a hardboiled mystery -- the inciting mystery, the series of contacts, the betrayal, the revelation -- maps onto adolescent social hierarchies with surprising precision. Furthermore, the paranoia endemic to the genre translates naturally into the heightened social surveillance of high school life, where everyone watches everyone and information is currency.The Spaghetti Western and Anime InfluencesJohnson has cited Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns and Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop as visual influences alongside the noir literary tradition. That combination matters, because it explains why Brick never feels purely retro. The film's rhythm and its relationship to violence carry a different energy than classic noir. Notably, Johnson used shoes as a design element for each character, treating footwear as an immediate visual shorthand for who each person is. It's a small detail that reflects how thoroughly he thought through every layer of the film's visual language.Additionally, the score by Nathan Johnson uses invented instruments -- wine-o-phones, tack pianos, kitchen utensils -- to create an atmosphere that nods to classic noir without reproducing it. The result is a film that works as genre exercise, coming-of-age story, and tone poem simultaneously.The Treatment of Women in BrickNoir has always had a complicated relationship with its female characters, and Brick inherits that complication without fully interrogating it. Emily exists primarily as a body -- a mystery to be solved, a loss to be avenged. She drives the entire plot but occupies very little of the film's actual screen time. Laura is more present, but her function remains rooted in the femme fatale archetype: beautiful, manipulative, ultimately revealed as the architect of the tragedy.The Brick podcast addresses this directly. Does Johnson's decision to play the genre completely straight mean he also reproduces its blind spots uncritically? The case for the defense is that Brick is a formal exercise, and the female characters serve genre functions that the film deliberately signals as such. The case against is that signaling an archetype and interrogating it are different things, and Brick largely declines to do the latter.Moreover, the pregnancy subplot -- Emily is pregnant with Tug's child, a revelation that triggers her murder -- adds a layer of consequence to the female characters' bodies that the film handles with notable brevity. It functions as a plot mechanism more than a human reality. The discussion examines how this choice shapes the film's emotional center, which ultimately rests entirely with Brendan's grief and not with Emily's life or Laura's survival.Nevertheless, Nora Zehetner's performance as Laura earns genuine complexity within the constraints the script gives her. The hosts explore whether that performance transcends the archetype or simply executes it with exceptional skill.Rushmore: 2006 It BoysThe Taste Buds carve out space in this episode for a Rushmore segment dedicated to the It Boys of 2006 -- the young male actors whose stars were ascending in that specific cultural moment. Brick arrives at a fascinating point in Joseph Gordon-Levitt's career trajectory, before Inception and The Dark Knight Rises made him a mainstream anchor, when he was still operating in the cult-film

Rob St. Mary and Rob Spencer join Mike to dig into Proyas's tale of John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), who wakes in a cheap hotel room with no memory, a dead body nearby, and a city that refuses to add up. Detective Bumstead (William Hurt) closes in while the pale, bald Strangers rearrange reality every time the clocks stop — building a world that is simultaneously a locked-room mystery, a Philip K. Dick nightmare, a Kafka story with a superhero ending, and a filmmaker's self-portrait: the Strangers as producers, Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) as the compromised writer, and Murdoch as the protagonist who tears through the painted backdrop and seizes the apparatus.The conversation covers the film's screenplay stages and two finished cuts, the studio-mandated voice-over that Proyas spent a decade trying to undo, and Roger Ebert's role as the mechanism of the film's survival. Mike and the Robs also place Dark City within the remarkable 1998–99 cluster of simulated-world films — The Truman Show, The Matrix, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor — and examine what it means that Murdoch's triumphant ending leaves the city still a construct, still running on hidden machinery, with only the god changed.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Rob St. Mary and Rob Spencer join Mike to dig into Proyas's tale of John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), who wakes in a cheap hotel room with no memory, a dead body nearby, and a city that refuses to add up. Detective Bumstead (William Hurt) closes in while the pale, bald Strangers rearrange reality every time the clocks stop — building a world that is simultaneously a locked-room mystery, a Philip K. Dick nightmare, a Kafka story with a superhero ending, and a filmmaker's self-portrait: the Strangers as producers, Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) as the compromised writer, and Murdoch as the protagonist who tears through the painted backdrop and seizes the apparatus.The conversation covers the film's screenplay stages and two finished cuts, the studio-mandated voice-over that Proyas spent a decade trying to undo, and Roger Ebert's role as the mechanism of the film's survival. Mike and the Robs also place Dark City within the remarkable 1998–99 cluster of simulated-world films — The Truman Show, The Matrix, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor — and examine what it means that Murdoch's triumphant ending leaves the city still a construct, still running on hidden machinery, with only the god changed.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth 

Episode Summary Erin and Rachel follow Lightning McQueen and Mater around the globe in this discussion of Cars 2, a spy-themed sequel with a convoluted plot and disappointing politics.  Episode Bibliography Abg 13. (2021, February 21). Cars 2 Tokyo Race Lap One w/ Film Maker Commentary (Subs Included). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB-qsiCs6us&list=PLkVBJymkFErmVjGA_sJvZwr7CFirexCaa&index=1 Abg 13. (2021, February 27). Cars 2: Making Lemon-Aides (Subs Included). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WnBgTtuILU&list=PLkVBJymkFErmVjGA_sJvZwr7CFirexCaa&index=12 Barnes, B. (2011, October 17). John Lasseter of Pixar Defends ‘Cars 2'. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/movies/john-lasseter-of-pixar-defends-cars-2.html Bastoli, M. (2011, March 21). Screenwriter claims Cars was his idea, sues Pixar. The PIXAR Blog. https://web.archive.org/web/20111006214337/http://pixarblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/screenwriter-claims-cars-was-his-idea.html Bastoli, M. (2011, July 28). Victory for Disney/Pixar in Cars lawsuit. Big Screen Animation. https://web.archive.org/web/20120314153029/http://www.bigscreenanimation.com/2011/07/victory-for-disneypixar-in-cars-lawsuit.html Bastoli, M. (2011, July 28). Victory for Disney/Pixar in Cars lawsuit. Big Screen Animation. https://web.archive.org/web/20120314153029/http://www.bigscreenanimation.com/2011/07/victory-for-disneypixar-in-cars-lawsuit.html Billington, A. (2008, September 25). Pixar's Cars 2 Pushed Up to Summer of 2011. FirstShowing. https://www.firstshowing.net/2008/pixars-cars-2-pushed-up-to-summer-of-2011/ Blankenship, M. (2012, October 5). Summer bummer: 5 most disappointing movies. TODAY. https://web.archive.org/web/20121005003851/http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44260890/ns/today-entertainment/ Brew, S. (2011, July 24). Denise Ream interview: Eraser, Cars 2, stop motion animation, Star Wars and Pixar. Den of Geek. https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/denise-ream-interview-eraser-cars-2-stop-motion-animation-star-wars-and-pixar/ Cars 2. (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cars_2 Cars 2. (n.d.). Box Office Mojo. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3091760641/ Cars 2 (2011) - Full cast & crew. (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1216475/fullcredits/ Chang, J. (2011, June 19). Cars 2. Variety. https://variety.com/2011/film/reviews/cars-2-1117945476/ Child, B. (2011, June 20). Cars 2 premiere - in pictures. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/gallery/2011/jun/20/pixar-walt-disney-company cinemajudgetv. (2011, August 16). CARS 2 - In the Studio. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP98hbvjc_s Desowitz, B. (2011, April 19). Lasseter Talks 'Cars 2'. Animation World Network. https://www.awn.com/animationworld/lasseter-talks-cars-2 Ebert, R. (2011, June 22). John Lasseter plays with his cars movie review. RogerEbert.com. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/cars-2-2011 FILM.TV. (2011, July 27). Cars 2: John Lasseter im Exklusiv-Interview. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRBkkuGnL-A Finklea, B.W.  (2014). Examining masculinities in Pixar's feature films: What it means to be a boy, whether  human, fish, car, or toy. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Alabama]. ProQuest Dissertations &  Theses Global.  Greenberg, C. (2011, May 23). State Farm Backs Disney/Pixar's 'Cars 2'. MediaPost. https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/151040/None Hill, J. (2010, June 24). Hamming it up at Disney's Holiday Showcase. Jim Hill Media. https://limegreen-loris-912771.hostingersite.com/hamming-it-up-at-disneys-holiday-showcase/ Hunter, H. (2010, February 15). Cars 2 Gets A Toon Up... Blue Sky Disney. http://www.blueskydisney.com/2010/02/cars-2-gets-toon-up.html Kabuki. (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki Lasseter, J. (Director). (2011). Cars 2 [Film]. Pixar Animation Studios. Malouf, M. (2017). Behind the closet door: Pixar and petro-literacy. In S. Wilson, A. Carlson, & I. Szeman  (Eds.), Petrocultures: Oil, politics, culture (pp. 138-161). McGill-Queen's University Press. Maltin, L. (2011, June 24). movie review: CARS 2. Indiewire. https://web.archive.org/web/20140108213426/http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/movie_review_cars_2 Ness, M. (2018, January 4). Pixar's First Minor Roadblock: Cars 2. Reactor. https://reactormag.com/pixars-first-minor-roadblock-cars-2/ O, C. (2011, June 28). Inside CARS 2 with Director John Lasseter. 5 Minutes for Mom. https://www.5minutesformom.com/cars-2-john-lasseter/ obsessedwithfilm. (2011, July 21). John Lasseter talks Cars 2. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO76wBgd1D8 O'Connell, M. (2011, October 18). ‘Cars 2' Director John Lasseter Defends Film, Says Sequel Wasn't About Merchandising. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/cars-2-director-john-lasseter-249910/ Parks, T. (2009, August 25). Disney 'hints at Cars sequel title'. Digital Spy. https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a173720/disney-hints-at-cars-sequel-title/ Pixar boss reveals Cars movie merchandise made $10bn. (2011, July 21). BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-14209968 Robertson, B. (2011). The World Is Not Enough. Computer Graphics World. https://www.cgw.com/Publications/CGW/2011/Volume-34-Issue-6-June-July-2011-/The-World-Is-Not-Enough.aspx#articletop Rorie, M. (2011, June 27). Was Cars 2 Too Violent For A G-Rating? Screened. https://web.archive.org/web/20110629141858/http://www.screened.com/news/was-cars-2-too-violent-for-a-g-rating/2473/ Saint, J. (2020, April 30). Oops! Disney's Cars Did Eugenics. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6qMgiA-VY0 Slager, B. (2011, June 28). Sell-uloid: The Marketing of CARS 2. chud.com. https://chud.com/58735/sell-uloid-the-marketing-of-cars-2/ Szalai, G. (2011, February 14). Disney: 'Cars' Has Crossed $8 Billion in Global Retail Sales. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/disney-cars-has-crossed-8-99438/ Travers, P. (2011, June 23). Cars 2. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/cars-2-91198/

This week Black on Black Cinema finally gives Sugar Hill (1994) the deep analysis it deserves. Directed by Leon Ichaso and written by Barry Michael Cooper — the architect behind New Jack City and Above the Rim — Sugar Hill is the second and most emotionally dramatic entry in Cooper's Harlem Trilogy. Wesley Snipes as Roemello Skuggs, a high-level Harlem drug dealer who wants out. He's got money, power, a woman he loves in Melissa (Theresa Randle), and a future waiting for him if his volatile brother Raynathan (Michael Wright) and the game itself will let him leave.We break down what makes Sugar Hill flawed but still underrated. Cooper's layered screenplay that tries to give Roemello genuine intellectual depth (Georgetown scholarship-eligible, chess player, art collector), Michael Wright's explosive performance as the brother who can't escape the past, and Leon Ichaso's atmospheric direction that turns Harlem into a character of its own. Terence Blanchard's jazz-inflected gives the film a serious connection to Spike Lee's own work. Clarence Williams III steals scenes effortlessly, and Ernie Hudson has a good time as a villain this time around.We discuss why it got overshadowed by New Jack City, how it works to keep the idea of Wesley Snipes being one of the coolest dudes in this era. Sugar Hill has its flaws from scenes that in hindsight are oddly placed (potentially post edit bay issues), some characters who aren't as explored as actual human beings, but there is still something here worth talking about and the effort of making a gentlemen gangster film with the same actor who was notorious for playing one of the most brutal gangsters in the 90s era is something to admire here.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month. Originally written for Clint Eastwood by friend of the show Elmore Leonard, Richard Fleischer's 1974 Charles Bronson vehicle MR. MAJESTYK is that classic action film setup: a melon farmer accidentally ends up in the middle of a mob hitman's prison transport escape and teams up with a beautiful migrant labor organizer to save his crop. It's a hell of a lot of fun, and probably should have been Patreon episode 3, but here we are. We talk Bronson, small grower economics, and a whole lot about the United Farm Workers, Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong, and Cesar Chavez. Good ep! Roger Ebert's profile of Bronson: https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/charles-bronson-its-just-that-i-dont-like-to-talk-very-much Paul Koslo interview: https://iamlegendarchive.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_10.html Review of Christian Paiz's Strikers of Coachella: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/coachella-united-farm-workers/ Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers by Frank Bardacke: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2213-trampling-out-the-vintage As always, thanks to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork. Additional production by Ryan Torgeson.

Movie of the Year: 2006Slither The Slither Podcast Brings Body Horror to the 2006 BracketThe Slither podcast episode unleashes the first true horror movie on our Movie of the Year 2006 bracket. After opening the season with Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, the Taste Buds trade metafiction for meteorites. Consequently, things get slimy fast. Ryan, Mike, and Greg welcome producer and festival programmer Drea Clark to dig into James Gunn's gleefully gross directorial debut. Together, the panel asks whether a movie full of alien slugs deserves a deep run in the bracket. Above all, they ask whether Slither has more on its mind than exploding deer and tentacled husbands.About the FilmSlither is a 2006 science fiction horror comedy written and directed by James Gunn. A meteorite crashes outside the small town of Wheelsy, South Carolina, carrying an alien parasite. The parasite infects wealthy local Grant Grant, played with squirming brilliance by Michael Rooker. Soon, Grant transforms into a tentacled monster, and slug-like creatures spread through the town. Meanwhile, police chief Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion) and Grant's wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks) try to stop the invasion.Universal released the film on March 31, 2006. Notably, it flopped at the box office, grossing under $13 million against a $15 million budget. However, critics largely embraced it. Roger Ebert praised its Troma-loving spirit in his RogerEbert.com review, and the film became a cult favorite on home video. In addition, it launched the directing career that eventually gave us Guardians of the Galaxy and the new DC Universe.Guest Panelist: Drea ClarkThis week the Taste Buds welcome Drea Clark, a true film industry polymath. Drea co-hosts Maximum Film! on the Maximum Fun network, the long-running movie podcast she shares with film critic Alonso Duralde. Furthermore, her credentials behind the scenes run deep. She has served on the Sundance Film Festival programming team, led narrative feature programming at Slamdance for over a decade, spent ten years with the LA Film Festival, and curated Geena Davis's Bentonville Film Festival. As a producer, her features include The Last Time You Had Fun, Lake Los Angeles, and No Light and No Land Anywhere, the latter executive produced by Miranda July. In short, few guests are better equipped to judge a scrappy genre debut from a first time director.James Gunn as a First-Time FilmmakerBefore Slither, James Gunn was a writer with a strange resume. He cut his teeth at Troma on Tromeo and Juliet, then wrote the live action Scooby-Doo movies and the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake. Consequently, Slither arrived as his first chance to direct his own material. The panel debates what the film reveals about Gunn as a filmmaker. Specifically, they trace the DNA that later shows up in Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad, and Superman. The needle drops, the found family of misfits, and the sincere heart under the gross-out gags all start here. Moreover, Drea brings a programmer's eye to the question of how debut features signal a career to come.Sex and Violence on the Slither 2006 PodcastSlither earns its R rating with enthusiasm. The Taste Buds tackle how the film weaponizes both sex and violence, often in the same scene. Grant's infection plays like a grotesque infidelity story, and the alien's reproductive plans push body horror into genuinely uncomfortable territory. However, the violence stays cartoonish enough to keep the comedy alive. The panel asks where Gunn draws that line, and whether the bathtub scene, the barn scene, and that infamous bursting body still shock today. Ultimately, the conversation lands on a bigger question. Does the film use its excess for a purpose, or is the excess the point?Is Slither an Allegory?Every great monster movie smuggles in a meaning, or so the theory goes. Therefore, the panel puts Slither on the couch. Is the film an allegory for toxic marriage, with Grant's transformation literalizing a controlling husband? Is it about small town conformity, as a hive mind absorbs an entire community? By contrast, maybe Gunn simply loves slugs and explosions, and the search for subtext misses the joke. Drea, Ryan, Mike, and Greg each stake out a position. Nevertheless, the debate keeps circling back to Starla, whose arc gives the film its surprising emotional weight.TriviaNo Movie of the Year episode is complete without Trivia. This week's round digs into Slither's production and its B-movie family tree. Expect questions about the practical effects, the casting, and the film's connections to Troma legend Lloyd Kaufman, who cameos in the movie. Additionally, the segment tests whether the panel can untangle Slither from the movies it lovingly rips off, including Night of the Creeps and Shivers. Play along and see if you can outscore the Taste Buds.Dream Blunt RotationNew season, new games. In Dream Blunt Rotation, the panel assembles the ultimate smoke circle from the world of Slither. Which characters make the cut, and which get left outside the garage? Mayor Jack MacReady seems like a chaotic invite, while Bill Pardy might be the chillest hang in Wheelsy. Meanwhile, the conversation drifts toward the cast and crew themselves. Listen to find out who earns a spot in the rotation and whose vibes get vetoed.Awards and RecommendationsThe episode closes with Awards and Recommendations, the segment where the Taste Buds hand out honors to the film's cast, crew, and creatures. Nominees this week range from Michael Rooker's fearless physical performance to the effects team behind the slugs. As a result, expect passionate cases and at least one baffling pick. The winners stay a surprise, so you will have to listen for the results. Afterward, the panel shares recommendations for what to watch next if Slither leaves you hungry for more horror comedy.Why Slither Still MattersTwenty years later, Slither looks like a turning point hiding in plain sight. It kept practical creature effects alive at a moment when Hollywood was abandoning them. Furthermore, it proved that horror comedy could carry real emotion, a balance Gunn has chased ever since. The film's box office failure also tells a story about 2006 itself, a year when audiences ignored a future superstar director. In practice, the Slither podcast episode asks the question this whole season exists to answer. Does cult status and influence make a movie a contender for the best film of 2006? Listen and judge for yourself.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 2006Movie of the Year: 2006 — Intro, Part 1Movies of 2006: The Bracket RevealTristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull StoryAll Movie of the Year episodesFAQ: Slither Podcast and FilmWhat is this episode of the Slither podcast about?Ryan, Mike, and Greg debate whether James Gunn's Slither deserves to advance in the Movie of the Year 2006 bracket. Guest panelist Drea Clark joins to discuss Gunn's debut, the film's sex and violence, and its possible allegories.What is Slither (2006) about?An alien parasite crash-lands near the small town of Wheelsy, South Carolina, and infects a wealthy local named Grant Grant. He mutates into a tentacled monster while slug-like creatures take over the town. A police chief and Grant's wife fight to stop the invasion.Who directed Slither?James Gunn wrote and directed Slither as his feature directorial debut. He later directed the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and now co-runs DC Studios.Who stars in Slither?The cast includes Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry, and Tania Saulnier, with a small role for Jenna Fischer. Full credits are on IMDb.More Questions from the Slither 2006 PodcastWas Slither a box office success?No. The film grossed under $13 million against a $15 million budget. However, strong reviews and home video sales turned it into a cult classic.Is Slither a remake?No, but it wears its influences proudly. Gunn openly drew on Night of the Creeps, Shivers, The Blob, and the Troma catalog, where he started his career.Who is the guest on this episode?Drea Clark, producer, festival programmer, and co-host of the Maximum Film! podcast on Maximum Fun.Why does Slither still matter?It launched James Gunn's directing career, championed practical effects, and perfected the horror comedy tone that countless films have imitated since. The Slither podcast episode makes the full case.

This bonus episode for our season on the awesome movie year of 1971 features Don Siegel's Dirty Harry. Directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, Reni Santoni, Andrew Robinson and John Vernon, Dirty Harry is the first of five movies featuring Eastwood as San Francisco Police Inspector Harry Callahan.The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Roger Ebert (https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dirty-harry-1971), Roger Greenspun in The New York Times, and Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times.Check out more info and the entire archive of past episodes at https://www.awesomemovieyear.com and visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/awesomemovieyearYou can find Jason on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JHarrisComedy/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jasonharriscomedy/ and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goforjason/You can find Josh online at http://joshbellhateseverything.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joshbellhateseverything/, on Bluesky at signalbleed.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/signalbleed/If you're a Letterboxd user and you watch any of the movies we talk about on the show, tag your review “Awesome Movie Year” to share your thoughts.You can find our producer David Rosen and his Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com, on Twitter at @piecingpod, on Bluesky at piecingpod.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/bydavidrosen/Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.All of the music in the episode is by David Rosen. Find more of his music at https://www.bydavidrosen.comSubscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosenPlease like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for future episodes.

Ian Hunter has spent four decades building miniatures, supervising visual effects and thinking like a filmmaker on some of the most demanding productions in Hollywood. In this episode, he traces a career that began in a garden shed with a punched-up piece of German black velvet and ended up — via James Cameron, Tim Burton, the Coen Brothers, and Christopher Nolan — on some of the most iconic screens in the world.Ian grew up surrounded by art. His father painted oils and acrylics, played music and did pastel portraits, and encouraged his three sons to make things — even when those things destroyed the materials he'd given them. The moment that really clicked, Ian recalls, was being handed a model kit as a kid and taking to it immediately. That creative instinct only grew stronger. In high school, he and his brothers were making Super 8 films, scratching laser effects onto the film with a pin and blowing up overloaded resistors for explosions. One of those films required them to fake-rob a local bank — and the encounter that followed, with the surprisingly enthusiastic vice president of the Monrovia Wells Fargo, led to a meeting with the mother of Rick Baker, whose work Ian had recently encountered in a traveling special effects exhibition and been completely floored by.After drifting away from an aerospace course at Cal Poly Pomona and working in an acid bath plastics factory, Ian answered a classified ad looking for model makers — and on the strength of a modest portfolio, was hired the same day. His first feature was The Abyss. He and fellow model maker Jim McGee built the flooded engine room of the Montana submarine with almost no direction beyond James Cameron's bare-bones description, and shipped it to South Carolina having never seen a frame of the live action. The production was not without its disasters — Ian found himself entangled in the notorious wax crane fiasco, and talks about the valuable early lesson of knowing when to call something out before it goes wrong.From there, a friend pointed him toward Boss Film, Richard Edlund's company in Marina del Rey, where a chance encounter with departing model supervisor Mark Stetson changed everything. What was supposed to be a one-week favour on a music video turned into six years. Working with Stetson took Ian from being a junior model maker building things in isolation to visiting sets, talking directly with directors, and understanding that miniature work only succeeds when it becomes invisible — just more shots in a movie, telling the story rather than showing off the technique.Among the projects from that period, Ian talks at length about Total Recall — including the behind-the-scenes chaos of a scale miscommunication on the final day of shooting, a scene involving a little person that nobody had accounted for, and the moment he glued a Coke can to a model building because they were running out of time. That Coke can, dressed up and shot from the front, made it into the finished film. So did one in Waterworld. And Inception. And Interstellar. And, after the story apparently got around, director Fede Álvarez greeted Ian on Alien: Romulus by asking exactly where he was planning to hide it.Ian built the suburb for Edward Scissorhands — deliberately making it more bland and mundane than real life — and talks about one of his proudest in-camera shots: the final view through the bedroom window and out over the snow-dusted neighbourhood, achieved with a 1:24 scale model and real snow shakers on the night. On Batman Returns he built the Penguin's zoo, and describes receiving one of his all-time favourite compliments from Tim Burton — who, after watching a pyrotechnics test, asked simply: "Where did you shoot this?" Not realising he was looking at a miniature. The zoo also gave Ian one of his best examples of a happy accident: a polar bear sculpture that was supposed to explode but instead toppled slowly sideways with flames coming out of its feet. Tim Burton loved it. The entire subsequent engineering challenge was figuring out how to recreate the mistake.On the X-Files movie, Ian and his partner Matthew Gratzner built a collapsing federal building on a tight budget, referencing Oklahoma City bombing photographs for the detail of damaged concrete and exposed floors. The late Roger Ebert reviewed the finished film and said the sequence should have been cut — because it was too reminiscent of real tragedy. Ian reflects on that as a marker: they'd gotten past the technique and into the emotion.The conversation turns to Christopher Nolan, with whom Ian has worked across multiple films. Ian describes Nolan as collaborative but definitive, someone who discusses a shot in depth and then tells you exactly what he wants. He talks about the liberation Nolan offered on Interstellar when he told the crew to stop following the previs — pre-vis is just a guy at a computer on a Friday trying to get the shot out the door, Nolan told them; if you can see a better angle, do that instead. The result was that the miniature crew started shooting faster, and a number of shots that had been planned as digital moved across to the physical side. Ian also describes the meticulous sun-angle calculation that went into matching the Inception hospital sequence — setting up models in a parking lot at a precisely calculated skewed angle to hit the exact quality of light that had been captured in Calgary on a specific date.On First Man with Damien Chazelle, Ian had drawn storyboards before the first meeting proposing a documentary approach — cameras attached to the spacecraft, nothing sweeping or cinematic, everything either very close or very wide as if shot from another ship. Chazelle walked in and described exactly the same idea. They spent twenty minutes together going through the sequence, working to an animatic cut to music, and Ian went off and shot it. That shorthand — that moment of being in sync before the conversation has really started — is something Ian describes as central to how he has survived in an industry where so many practical effects houses have not. He's a model maker, yes. But more than that, he's a filmmaker.This podcast is completely independent and made possible by listener support. If you'd like to help me keep making these episodes, you can join my Patreon community here: https://patreon.com/jamiebenning Watch more on YouTube:Check out the Filmumentaries YouTube channel for behind-the-scenes clips and extra content: https://youtube.com/filmumentariesAll my links

EPISODE 143 -  “GUESS WHO'S NUMBER ONE?: STEVE & NAN RANK TRACY/HEPBURN FILMS” - 6/08/2026  One of the most dynamic duos in film history is undoubtedly the teaming of SPENCER TRACY and KATHARINE HEPBURN. This chemistry was electric. Over the course of their careers, they appeared in nine films together — covering a wide range of genres. They were in everything from Westerns (“The Sea of Grass”) to film noirs (“Keeper of the Flame”) to what would become their specialty, romantic comedies (“Pat and Mike”). They also appeared in the seminal 1960s social comedy/drama “Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.” This week, Steve & Nan will do the impossible  — they will attempt to rank the nine films this duo made together. Form worst to best! How will your favorite stack up? SHOW NOTES:  Sources: Wikipedia.com TCM.com; IMDBPro.com; IBDB.com; RogerEbert.com Movies Mentioned: Woman of the Year (1942), co-staring Fay Banter, Reginald Owen, Minor Watson, William Bendix, Gladys Blake, and Dan Tobin; Keeper of the Flame (1942), co-staring Richard Whorf, Stephen McNally, Forest Tucker, Howard De Silva, and Margaret Wycherly; Without Love (1945), co-starring Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn, Patricia Morison, Felix Bessart, Carl Esmond, and Gloria Grahame; The Sea of Grass (1947), co-starring Melvyn Douglas, Robert Walker, Phyllis Thaxter, Harry Carey, and Edgar Buchanan; State of the Union (1948), co-starring Angela Lansbury, Howard Lindsay, Van Johnson, Roger Moore, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Margaret Hamilton, and Charles Lane; Adam's Rib (1949), co-starring Judy Holiday, Tom Ewell, David Wayne, Jean Hagen, and Hope Emerson; Pat and Mike (1952), co-starring Aldo Ray, William Ching, Sammy White, Charles Bronson, Chuck Connors, Phyllis Povah, and Jim Backus; Desk Set (1957), co-starring Gig Young, Joan Blondell, Dina Merrill, Sue Randall, and Neva Patterson; Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967), co-starring Sidney Poitier, Katharine Houghton, Beah Richard, Roy Glenn, Cecil Kellaway, Isabel Sanford, and Virginia Christine; --------------------------------- http://www.airwavemedia.com Please contact sales@advertisecast.com if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The brilliant and soulful Roxana Hadadi returns with this episode devoted to one of her current favorite actors, the great Riz Ahmed. Similar to past conversations focused on terrific character actors like Tom Wilkinson and Edward Norton, this week, we explore Ahmed's filmography at large, discuss his evolution as an actor, and what sets him apart in the films THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST, NIGHTCRAWLER, and SOUND OF METAL.Guest Bio: A TV critic with Vulture, who also writes about film & pop culture, Roxana was previously the film editor & a critic with Pajiba, & her reviews, essays, recaps, and other writing have also been published by The AV Club, Polygon, RogerEbert.com, The L.A. Times, Crooked Marquee, The Playlist, Fox Digital, The Criterion Collection, GQ, & Inverse.Originally Posted on Patreon (6/7/26) here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/160446279Donate to the Pod via Ko-fi & PayPal Shop Watch With Jen logo Merchandise in Logo Designer Kate Gabrielle's Threadless ShopTheme Music: Solo Acoustic Guitar by Jason Shaw, Free Music Archive

Phil and Emily bring in writer Lindsey Romain for the fourth installment of the Angelina Jolie action films miniseries, and it is the one LaToya Ferguson was promised. Lindsey's work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Vulture, and Bright Wall/Dark Room, and she saw this movie four times in theaters as a teenager. She still has the promotional pin from when she worked at a movie theater in high school. She is the right person for this.Mr. and Mrs. Smith follows two upper-class assassins who are also, it turns out, married to each other and working for rival agencies. It opened June 10th, 2005 against Madagascar, Star Wars Episode III, The Longest Yard, and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D, and made $487 million on a $110 million budget. The script originated as Simon Kinberg's graduate thesis. Carrie Fisher, Akiva Goldsman, Jez and John Henry Butterworth, Ted Griffin, and Terrence Winter all took passes at it. Angela Bassett and Keith David filmed scenes that were cut entirely. What remained was Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, which Roger Ebert correctly identified as the only thing that needed to remain.The conversation covers the Doug Liman of it all, specifically his "we'll make it up as we go along" approach and what that costs the film in its final act. Emily identifies the half hour from when they can't kill each other through the home improvement store sequence as the movie locking in completely, and the final action sequence as where it loses her. Phil compares the last scene to Eyes Wide Shut. The group also gets into how the affair backdrop has shifted what it feels like to watch now, the surprisingly durable premise and its various attempted adaptations, who was responsible for the ex-wife jealousy beat, and where exactly 2005 Brad Pitt ranks in the full Brad Pitt hotness timeline. The answer is not first.This is the fourth installment of the Angelina Jolie action films miniseries. Wanted is next.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsLindsey Romain — https://www.instagram.com/lindseyromain

De 1998 até 2025, as mulheres passaram de 17% para 23% das funções-chave nos bastidores de Hollywood. Três décadas. Seis pontos percentuais. Parece pouco? Porque é pouco. Mas a história fica ainda mais perturbadora quando você descobre que, em 2025, o número de filmes protagonizados por mulheres despencou 13 pontos em relação ao ano anterior. Como um avanço pode andar tão devagar enquanto o retrocesso corre?É sobre isso que este episódio se debruça: o paradoxo de um cinema que celebra diversidade nos discursos de premiação mas mantém sets hostis, etarismo estrutural, mulheres negras praticamente invisíveis nos cargos de tomada de decisão e a direção de fotografia como lugar quase inalcançável. Por que a Noruega conseguiu elevar de 20% para 62% a proporção de diretoras em apenas um ano, e o Brasil ainda engatinha? E o que a "fábrica de empatia" do Roger Ebert tem a ver com o movimento Red Pill?Rafael Arinelli recebe Luísa Pécora e Carissa Vieira para mergulhar nos números reais, nas políticas públicas que funcionaram, nos festivais que viram vitrine de diversidade, e na pergunta que ninguém quer responder: será que o Oscar muda alguma coisa além do ciclo de notícias?A resposta vai incomodar. E precisa incomodar.• 04m56: Pauta Principal• 1h21m54: Plano Detalhe• 1h36m16: EncerramentoOuça nosso Podcast também no:• Spotify: https://cinemacao.short.gy/spotify• Apple Podcast: https://cinemacao.short.gy/apple• Android: https://cinemacao.short.gy/android• Deezer: https://cinemacao.short.gy/deezer• Amazon Music: https://cinemacao.short.gy/amazonAgradecimentos aos padrinhos: • André Marinho Moreira• Bruna Mercer• Charles Calisto Souza• Daniel Barbosa da Silva Feijó• Diego Alves Lima• Eloi Xavier• Guilherme S. Arinelli• Thiago Custodio Coquelet• Wilmar Arinelli Jr• William SaitoFale Conosco:• Email: contato@cinemacao.com• X: https://cinemacao.short.gy/x-cinemacao• BlueSky: https://cinemacao.short.gy/bsky-cinemacao• Facebook: https://cinemacao.short.gy/face-cinemacao• Instagram: https://cinemacao.short.gy/insta-cinemacao• Tiktok: https://cinemacao.short.gy/tiktok-cinemacao• Youtube: https://cinemacao.short.gy/yt-cinemacaoApoie o Cinem(ação)!Apoie o Cinem(ação) e faça parte de um seleto clube de ouvintes privilegiados, desfrutando de inúmeros benefícios! Com uma assinatura a partir de R$30,00, você terá acesso a conteúdo exclusivo e muito mais! Não perca mais tempo, torne-se um apoiador especial do nosso canal! Junte-se a nós para uma experiência cinematográfica única!Plano Detalhe:• (Carissa): Mostra: Mestras do Macabro• (Carissa): Filme: Em Minha Pele (2002)• (Luísa): Filme: Rapper aos 40• (Rafa): Álbum: Dominguinhos 2.0Edição: ISSOaí

Oh. My. Goodness. Are YOU in for a treat!? Hopefully, you're more hopeful than Roger Ebert, who rated this as the worst film of 1988. Fancy a game of top Tom Berenger action? Because it's here!  It's a primetime slice of New York cheesecake coming your way from Donald P. Bellisario, the creator of MAGNUM PI and AIRWOLF. Some say this is his one and only film, others would say he directed AIRWOLF: THE MOVIE, too.  Either way, from the way Ryan and Laura scramble all over themselves to get their favourite moments heard, we can only suspect you'll have as much fun watching this, intoxicated and REALLY SMOKING your cigarettes, as only Tom can.

What do these two Hallmark entries have in common? They both star holiday staple Candice Cameron Bure, who has charmed her way through dozens of these Hallmark films over the years. Kerry and Collin decided it was time to take a dive into this end of the Christmas movie ocean and judge the movies on heir own terms. Did "Switched For Christmas" convince Collin that Bure could play twins? What was the biggest medical faux pas that Kerry noticed in "The Christmas Contest"? Did both films incorporate a Christmas cookie baking montage? If so, were the characters dressed appropriately for the occasion? All this, plus the latest and greatest in physical media for the Blu-ray Gift Exchange.  Go to MovieZyng to start or continue your DVD/blu-ray/4K collection.   Visit collinsouter.com RogerEbert.com Follow Collin and Kerry on Letterboxd. Blu-rays covered: Warner Bros: "The Bride!" - 4K (2026) "Wuthering Heights" - 4K (2026) Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series Sony: "Nickelodeon" (1976) "The Front" - 4K (1976) Warner Archive: Looney Tunes Cartoons: The Complete Series (2020) "George Stevens: a Filmmaker's Journey" - 4K (1984)  "The Late Show" (1976)  

Black on Black Cinema announces our next film review: Sugar Hill (1994), directed by Leon Ichaso and written by Barry Michael Cooper; the second film in his legendary Harlem Trilogy alongside New Jack City and Above the Rim. Wesley Snipes stars as Roemello Skuggs, a high-level Harlem drug dealer who decides to walk away from the life to start fresh with his girlfriend Melissa (Theresa Randle), only to discover that leaving isn't something the game allows. Co-starring Michael Wright, Clarence Williams III, Ernie Hudson, and Abe Vigoda.Then we get into it: Reparations for Black Americans. We agree it should happen, the historical, economic, and moral case is ironclad. But what does repayment actually look like in practice? Direct cash payments? Targeted investment? Tax free benefits? Educational and business funds? And who qualifies for it? Is it just direct descendants of enslaved people only, or a broader class of Black Americans impacted by systemic racism? We break down the competing frameworks, the political obstacles, and what an honest reparations conversation looks like beyond the talking point.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

John, Cameron, and Sarah discuss why this not-so-forgotten film was critically panned (and why the critics got it wrong). Sources for this episodeAtwell, Elaine. “Sapphic Cinema: “but I'm a Cheerleader” - AfterEllen.” AfterEllen, 25 Sept. 2015, web.archive.org/web/20180111052700/www.afterellen.com/movies/454739-sapphic-cinema-im-cheerleaderEbert, Roger. “But I'm a Cheerleader Movie Review (2000) | Roger Ebert.” Https://Www.rogerebert.com/, 14 July 2000, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/but-im-a-cheerleader-2000Fuchs, Cynthia. “But I'm a Cheerlead - Interview with Jamie Babbit - Nitrate Online Feature.” Nitrateonline.com, 21 July 2000, nitrateonline.com/2000/fcheerleader.htmlGideonse, Ted. “The New Girls of Summer.” Out, vol. 8, no. 78, July 2000, pp. 54–61.Our theme music is by Suno.

Movie of the Year: 2006Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull StoryThe Tristram Shandy Podcast Opens the 2006 BracketThe Tristram Shandy podcast episode kicks off our brand new 2006 bracket on Movie of the Year. After crowning our way through 1971, the Taste Buds turn to a fresh film year. Moreover, we start with one of the strangest comedies of the decade. Michael Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story is a film about making a film of an unfilmable book. Consequently, it makes a perfect launch title for a show that loves movies about movies. In this episode, Ryan, Mike, and Greg dig into metafiction, gender, and the prickly chemistry between Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Additionally, two new segments make their debut. Above all, we want to set the tone for a wild 2006 season.About the FilmLaurence Sterne published The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767. The novel is famous for being playful, digressive, and nearly impossible to adapt. Notably, the narrator barely manages to get himself born across hundreds of pages. Winterbottom and his team turned that problem into the whole joke. As a result, the movie follows a fictional crew trying to film the book. Steve Coogan plays a vain version of himself, plus Tristram and his father, Walter. Meanwhile, Rob Brydon plays a needling version of himself and Uncle Toby. The screenplay carries the pseudonym "Martin Hardy," although Frank Cottrell-Boyce actually wrote it. Furthermore, the cast includes Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, Dylan Moran, Naomie Harris, Kelly Macdonald, and Jeremy Northam. Gillian Anderson and Stephen Fry also appear as heightened versions of themselves. You can read more at Wikipedia or the original Roger Ebert review.This is the first film episode of our 2006 season. To explore the wider bracket project, visit the Movie of the Year archive. If you enjoy this Tristram Shandy podcast deep dive, our A Clockwork Orange episode from the 1971 run pairs nicely with this conversation about cinematic form.Want to hear how the season began? Start with our 2006 season intro, then dig into the 2006 bracket reveal before this episode.Metafiction and the Unfilmable NovelMetafiction sits at the center of our first discussion. Sterne wrote a novel that constantly reminds you it is a novel. Similarly, Winterbottom built a movie that keeps reminding you it is a movie. The crew breaks the fourth wall, argues about the script, and screens its own dailies. Therefore, the film becomes a hall of mirrors about storytelling itself. The Taste Buds ask a simple question. How do you adapt a book that mocks the idea of adaptation? Furthermore, we trace the lineage from Sterne to modern self-aware comedies. Films like Adaptation and Day for Night come up as obvious cousins. Ultimately, we argue that Winterbottom found the only honest solution. He filmed the failure instead of the book. Consequently, the movie respects Sterne by refusing to tame him.The Battle of the Sexes on ScreenNext, we turn to gender and how the film portrays men and women. The male characters chase status, sex, and screen time with comic desperation. Coogan, in particular, frets about his shoe lifts and his billing. Meanwhile, the women in the film often hold the real power. Kelly Macdonald plays Jenny, who grounds Coogan with calm clarity. Naomie Harris plays Jennie, a production assistant who runs circles around the panicking men. Gillian Anderson arrives late and instantly reshapes the production. By contrast, the men flail and posture. So the Taste Buds debate a thorny point. Does the movie satirize male ego, or does it quietly indulge it? Additionally, we weigh how the battle of the sexes plays inside an 18th-century story. The novel and the film both poke fun at male pride. As a result, the gender comedy spans two very different centuries.Coogan and Brydon Anchor the Tristram Shandy PodcastAbove all, the Coogan and Brydon double act drives this Tristram Shandy podcast conversation. The two comedians play exaggerated, petty versions of themselves. Their rivalry over billing, teeth, and impressions fuels the funniest scenes. Notably, this dynamic later powered the beloved series The Trip. The Taste Buds dig into why their friction feels so real. Brydon needles, Coogan bristles, and the comedy snaps into focus. Furthermore, we discuss how improvisation shapes their banter. The closing Al Pacino impression duel becomes a highlight. Meanwhile, we ask whether the pair actually like each other on screen. The answer stays gloriously unclear. Consequently, their chemistry gives a chilly intellectual film a warm, human pulse.Rushmore: The Mount Rushmore of 2006 TelevisionOur Rushmore segment asks each host to carve a Mount Rushmore of 2006 television. The year was loaded with future classics. For instance, The Wire aired its acclaimed fourth season. Meanwhile, The Office, 30 Rock, and Friday Night Lights were all finding their feet. Additionally, prestige newcomers like Dexter and Heroes premiered to big buzz. The hosts each pick four shows and defend their choices. Naturally, the debate gets heated fast. Listen to the episode to hear which four faces each Taste Bud sets in stone.I Never Metacritic I Didn't LikeThis episode debuts a brand new game called "I Never Metacritic I Didn't Like." The premise is simple and a little dangerous. We pull up a film's Metacritic profile and put the critical consensus on trial. Specifically, we test whether the aggregate score matches our own gut reactions. Tristram Shandy earned strong reviews from critics on release. However, strong scores do not always survive a Taste Buds cross-examination. Therefore, the game lets us argue with the wider critical record in real time. Expect this segment to return throughout the 2006 season. Above all, it gives us a structured excuse to fight about numbers.Why Tristram Shandy Still MattersTristram Shandy still matters because it cracked a problem that had defeated everyone before it. Winterbottom proved you can film an unfilmable book by filming the attempt. Moreover, the movie launched a now-legendary comic partnership. The Coogan and Brydon collaboration grew into The Trip and its many sequels. Additionally, the film remains a sharp, funny lesson in adaptation. Film students and Sterne scholars both still cite it today. Ultimately, the Tristram Shandy 2006 podcast discussion shows why this small comedy punches far above its weight. Notably, it kicks our 2006 bracket off with brains and mischief.Related Episodes from Movie of the Year: 2006The 2006 season is just getting started, so this list will grow each week. For now, revisit the episodes that set up the bracket, plus a favorite from our 1971 run.Movie of the Year 2006: Season IntroThe 2006 Bracket RevealMovie of the Year archiveThe Last Picture Show (1971)FAQ: Tristram Shandy Podcast and FilmWhat is this Tristram Shandy podcast episode about?In this episode, Ryan, Mike, and Greg launch the 2006 bracket by breaking down Michael Winterbottom's comedy. They cover metafiction, gender, the Coogan and Brydon dynamic, and two new segments.What is the movie Tristram Shandy about?The film follows a crew trying to adapt an unfilmable 18th-century novel. As they struggle, the actors' egos and offscreen lives take over the production.Who directed Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story?Michael Winterbottom directed the film. Frank Cottrell-Boyce wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym "Martin Hardy."Is Tristram Shandy based on a book?Yes. Laurence Sterne wrote The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman across nine volumes between 1759 and 1767. You can read more on Wikipedia.Do Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon play themselves?Yes, mostly. Both actors play exaggerated, fictional versions of themselves, and they also play characters in the film within the film. See the full cast on IMDb.Is Tristram Shandy connected to The Trip?Yes, in spirit. This film first paired Coogan and Brydon with Winterbottom, and that chemistry...

This bonus episode for our season on the awesome movie year of 1971 features Mel Stuart's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder, Peter Ostrum and Jack Albertson, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is based on the novel by Roald Dahl.The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Roger Ebert (https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/willy-wonka-and-the-chocolate-factory-1971), Howard Thompson in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/01/archives/chocolate-factory.html), and Tony Mastroianni in the Cleveland Press.Check out more info and the entire archive of past episodes at https://www.awesomemovieyear.com and visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/awesomemovieyearYou can find Jason on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JHarrisComedy/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jasonharriscomedy/ and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goforjason/You can find Josh online at http://joshbellhateseverything.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joshbellhateseverything/, on Bluesky at signalbleed.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/signalbleed/If you're a Letterboxd user and you watch any of the movies we talk about on the show, tag your review “Awesome Movie Year” to share your thoughts.You can find our producer David Rosen and his Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com, on Twitter at @piecingpod, on Bluesky at piecingpod.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/bydavidrosen/Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.All of the music in the episode is by David Rosen. Find more of his music at https://www.bydavidrosen.comSubscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosenPlease like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for future episodes.

Braga, King, and Ski talk Bad Lieutenant, a movie famous for introducing the world to Harvey Keitel's dong. It features actual heroin use, a fake NLCS with the Dodgers and Mets, and the weirdest crying put to film. Roger Ebert gave it a perfect score. Is it any good? Listen!

Phil and Emily continue the Angelina Jolie action films miniseries with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life (2003), joined by Carson Betts and Caroline Thompson, co-hosts of the How Have You Not Seen It podcast. All four participants are watching this film for the first time. This is relevant information.The Cradle of Life follows Lara Croft racing to find Pandora's Box before a rogue scientist with strong Peter Thiel energy can use it as a biological weapon, with complications provided by her ex-lover Terry Sheridan, played by Gerard Butler. It cost $95 million, grossed $160 million worldwide, and opened July 25th, 2003 against Spy Kids 3D, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bad Boys 2, and Seabiscuit. It received three stars from Roger Ebert, which nearly convinced Emily to see it in theaters that summer. She saw The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen instead. Phil does not believe she made the better choice. The film was also banned in China for giving the impression of a country in chaos overrun by secret societies. Hollywood had not yet figured that out.The consensus is that this movie is more competent than the first Tomb Raider along nearly every axis, which somehow makes it less enjoyable. Phil calls it dumb and not fun, as opposed to the first film, which was dumb and fun. Emily notes the big action set piece in the middle is a shootout in a lab, which she finds strange given the title. The group also covers Jan de Bont's filmography and what it means that this was his final film, the Sasquatch creatures that the script introduces and then declines to explain, and the actual Cradle of Life, which turns out to be visually underwhelming in a way that Carson compares to a YouTube video that will not load.The true climax, Carson argues, was always going to be in Lara's heart.This is the third installment of the miniseries on Angelina Jolie's 2000s action films, following Gone in 60 Seconds and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsCarson Betts — https://www.instagram.com/carsonlbettsCaroline Thompson — https://www.instagram.com/sportclimbbarbieHow Have You Not Seen It — https://www.instagram.com/hhynspod

The Pope's Encyclical on AI … GUEST Dr Charles Camosy … Prof at the Catholic Univ of America in the nation’s capitol … Charlie taught at the Creighton Univ School of Medicine and in Fordham Univ’s theology department, & is author of “Beyond the Abortion Wars,” and “Resisting Throwaway Culture” … his most recent book is “Living and Dying Well: A Catholic Plan for Resisting Physician-Assisted Killing” … Charlie advises the Faith Outreach office of the Humane Society of the US & the pro-life commission of the Archdiocese of NY. Summer movies and new streaming… GUEST Abby Olcese… writer on film, pop culture and faith … she’s written for Think Christian and RogerEbert.com (she’s from Kansas City) … author of “Films for All Seasons: Experiencing the Church Year at the Movies”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Black on Black Cinema dives deep into Is God Is (2026), Aleshea Harris' feature directorial debut adapted from her Obie Award-winning stage play. Starring Kara Young as "The Rough One" and Mallori Johnson as "The Quiet One," the film follows twin sisters bearing the disfiguring burn scars of a childhood tragedy, ordered by their bedridden mother to kill the abusive father who destroyed their family. With Janelle Monáe, Sterling K. Brown, Vivica A. Fox, Erika Alexander, and Mykelti Williamson rounding out the cast, and Tessa Thompson and Janicza Bravo producing.We analyze Harris' genre-blending, part western grind house, part noir, part dark comedy; and how she translates her stage play to cinema. We break down how the film confronts generational trauma, absent and intimate partner violence, and the totality of Black womanhood with brutal honesty. Sterling K. Brown cast against type as a villain is inspired. Black women's rage played straight, not for laughs or shame, is the film's greatest achievement.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Movie of the Year: 2006The Sweet 16 RevealedThe Best Movies of 2006 Enter the BracketThis episode puts the movies of 2006 on the clock, as Ryan, Mike, and Greg reveal which 16 titles advance to the bracket season. The Taste Buds have spent weeks wrestling with a starting field of 64 films, and the cuts have been real. The debates ahead will be worth every minute.Getting from 64 films to 16 requires real conviction. Every cut involves films with legitimate credentials, passionate defenders, and strong arguments in their favor. Consequently, this episode does more than announce a list. It reflects a set of choices the Taste Buds are prepared to defend all season long.About Movie of the YearMovie of the Year is a PopFilter podcast built around one question: what was the best film of a given year? Ryan, Mike, and Greg select a year, assemble a 64-film bracket, and argue their way to a champion. The format rewards deep cinematic knowledge, honest disagreement, and a willingness to change your mind when the argument demands it.The show has built a catalog of bracket seasons that reward both longtime listeners and newcomers. Each season has its own personality, shaped by the films in contention and the friction those films generate in debate. The 2006 season carries that tradition forward with a year that has only gotten more interesting with time.2006: A Year Worth Arguing AboutFew years in recent memory offer the range that 2006 does. Prestige dramas, international films, genre pictures, and independent features all had strong years, and the critical consensus at the time did not always hold up. Some films that dominated awards conversation look different now. Meanwhile, others that were overlooked at release have since built lasting reputations.Roger Ebert captured the energy of 2006 well. His review of The Departed reflected a year when ambitious filmmaking found real audiences, and when the line between commercial and prestige cinema blurred in productive ways. Additionally, 2006 produced genuine disagreement between critics and general audiences, which is exactly the kind of tension that makes a bracket season compelling.The Taste Buds considered films across every genre and profile when building the 64-film field. Notably, some titles with strong critical support did not survive the early cuts, while others with devoted fanbases made a stronger case than expected. That tension runs through every round of the bracket.How the Movies of 2006 Bracket WorksThe bracket is central to what makes Movie of the Year function as a podcast. The Taste Buds begin with 64 films, then work through rounds of debate until one film stands alone. Each episode focuses on a specific matchup or group of films, with Ryan, Mike, and Greg arguing for and against each contender.The Sweet 16 revealed in this episode seeds the season ahead. From there, head-to-head matchups determine which films advance through the Elite Eight, the Final Four, and ultimately the championship. However, seeding does not guarantee anything. A well-argued case can always change the outcome, and upsets are part of the format.For listeners new to the show, this episode therefore serves as an ideal starting point. The Taste Buds make each debate accessible and entertaining, regardless of how familiar you are with any individual film.The Road to the Sweet 16Cutting 64 films to 16 means making hard calls. The Taste Buds apply consistent criteria across every cut: rewatchability, cultural staying power, craft, and genuine argument value within the bracket. A film that cannot generate a compelling debate does not serve the season well, regardless of its pedigree.Above all, the goal is a Sweet 16 that produces great arguments. A bracket full of obvious consensus picks would make for a dull season. Consequently, the Taste Buds deliberately include films that create friction, titles where reasonable and informed people genuinely disagree about their value and legacy.Some of the 16 films advancing will surprise listeners. Others will feel inevitable. The full reveal happens in this episode, and the reasoning behind each selection is part of what makes debating the movies of 2006 so worthwhile from start to finish.A Starting Field Built for DebateThe 64-film field the Taste Buds assembled for 2006 reflects the full range of what the year produced. Genre range mattered in the curation process. So did the desire to include films that cut against consensus and force the bracket to reckon with less comfortable choices. Specifically, the films that survive into the Sweet 16 represent a cross-section of 2006 that rewards close attention and strong opinions.Why the Movies of 2006 Still MatterThe Movie of the Year podcast treats film debate as something worth doing seriously. The 2006 season carries that forward with a year whose critical reputation has shifted meaningfully since its release. Films that seemed certain to endure have faded. Others that barely registered in awards conversation have grown into genuine touchstones.The bracket format demands accountability that casual film lists do not. When you argue for a film head-to-head against another specific film, you have to articulate why you believe what you believe. Furthermore, you have to hold that position under pressure from two other opinionated co-hosts who may disagree entirely.Specifically, 2006 sits at a cultural inflection point. Studio filmmaking, independent cinema, and international film all competed for serious critical attention that year, and the market rewarded each in different ways. The season will reflect that range, and the debates will run deep. The movies of 2006 have a lot left to say, and this season is where they say it.Related Episodes from Movie of the YearMovie of the Year — Full Episode ArchiveThe Last Picture Show — Movie of the Year: 1971A Clockwork Orange — Movie of the Year: 1971The French Connection — Movie of the Year: 1971Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory — Movie of the Year: 1971Note: Add 2006 episode URLs to this list as they are published.FAQ: Movies of 2006 and the Bracket RevealAbout the Episode and the ShowWhat is this movie's 2006 podcast episode about?Ryan, Mike, and Greg reveal the 16 films advancing to the 2006 bracket season. They narrow a starting field of 64 films down to the Sweet 16, setting up the full season of head-to-head debates ahead.What is Movie of the Year?Movie of the Year is a PopFilter podcast where hosts Ryan, Mike, and Greg debate and rank films from a single year using a bracket format. Each season covers one year of cinema and ends with one film crowned champion.Who hosts Movie of the Year?The show is hosted by Ryan, Mike, and Greg, collectively known as the Taste Buds, on the PopFilter podcast network. Each host brings a distinct critical perspective to every debate.How does the Movie of the Year bracket work?The Taste Buds begin each season with 64 films from the chosen year. Through debate-style episodes, films compete head-to-head until one film is crowned Movie of the Year. The Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, and championship rounds each produce their own episodes.About the 2006 SeasonWhy is 2006 a significant year in film history?2006 produced a strong and varied field of films across genres and profiles. Prestige dramas, international cinema, genre filmmaking, and independent features all had notable years, making 2006 an ideal year for bracket debate.How did the Taste Buds select the 64-film starting field?The Taste Buds curated the field based on critical reception, cultural staying power, rewatchability, and argument value within the bracket format. The goal was a field that represents the full range of 2006, including some selections that will surprise listeners.Where can I listen to Movie of the Year?Movie of the Year is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Full episodes and archives are also available at popfilter.co.What films made the 2006 Movie of the Year Sweet 16?The 16 films advancing to the bracket are revealed in this episode. Listen to find out which films survived and how the Taste Buds justify every selection.

Ep. 401: Robert Daniels on Cannes 2026: Ben'Imana, A Man of His Time, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Clarissa Redux Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. At the 2026 Cannes Film Festival I caught Robert Daniels, New York Times critic and associate editor of RogerEbert.Com, just before he was wrapping up his festival visit. Among the films discussed were later Camera d'Or winner Ben'Imana (directed by Marie Clémentine Dusabejambo), A Man of His Time (Emmanuel Marré, winner of Best Screenplay), I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning (Clio Barnard), and festival sensation Clarissa (Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri). Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass

We keep bringing up the beloved American film critic Roger Ebert over and over again, and we've decided it's time to finally exorcise this demon. Before we put Roger in the penalty box for a while, we're going to put our accumulated knowledge to good use and play a long-threatened game: The Roger Ebert Mystery Box Challenge, in which we attempt to predict his reviews for movies we've covered on this podcast. The balcony is open! Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - patreon.com/michaelandus

7:13 Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu 24:55 Passenger 31:44 Tuner 37:55 Saccharine 44:20 Silent Friend 50:47 Giant 56:41 Stolen Kingdom It's a 7-movie week on 'At the Movies Again,' formerly known as 'Roger (Ebert) & Me, a weekly movie review podcast tribute to 'Siskel & Ebert' hosted by film critics Brett Arnold & Mark Dujsik. The show covers every new theatrical and streaming release each Friday in the format Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert pioneered. A movie review podcast covering all new releases every Friday, modeled after 'Siskel & Ebert,' the pair who inadvertently invented film podcasting in the 1970s. Hosted by Mark Dujsik of markreviewsmovies.com & Brett Arnold of Yahoo Entertainment and The New Flesh podcast, a show about horror movies that is currently celebrating its 11th year. Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. Even if you're on Spotify or YouTube, jump over there and throw us 5 stars. We can't get on RottenTomatoes until 200 people rate it! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on Black on Black Cinema, the crew returns to announce the next film, "Is God Is." The film follows two sisters who embark on an epic quest for revenge; confronting a charged family history that will push them to extraordinary lengths. The movie is written and directed by Aleshea Harris who is also the playwright for the original play the film is based on.This week's random topic tackles the viral leaked text messages exposing alleged coaching between white women on how to "lock down" Black athletes. The screenshots show detailed "rules" including positioning the athlete as "the prize," completely integrating into his life, dealing with competition from Black women, and even strategies to provoke Black women to reinforce stereotypes. We break down the racialized manipulation at play, and the history of predatory targeting of Black athletes.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

Movie of the Year: 2006A New Season Begins The Movies of 2006 Podcast Begins: 128 Films Enter the BracketThe movies of 2006 podcast is officially underway, and the Taste Buds are ready to take on one of the richest film years of the 21st century. Ryan, Mike, and Greg kick off the 2006 season on PopFilter by introducing the year, explaining the bracket structure, and beginning the first round of eliminations. Furthermore, Part 1 of the intro sets the tone for a season packed with genuine heavyweights, unlikely contenders, and some of the most debated films of the decade.2006 delivered a field that refuses to cooperate with easy rankings. The Departed sits alongside Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, and Little Miss Sunshine in the same calendar year. Additionally, Casino Royale, The Prestige, Babel, Borat, and Idiocracy all arrived in 2006, representing wildly different visions of what cinema can accomplish. The Taste Buds have their work cut out for them.About the 2006 Film Year2006 stands as one of the most celebrated film years of the decade. Martin Scorsese's The Departed swept the Academy Awards, winning Best Picture and earning Scorsese his first Oscar for Best Director. Meanwhile, Guillermo del Toro delivered Pan's Labyrinth, a Spanish-language dark fantasy that works equally as a fairy tale and a historical horror. Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men earned near-universal acclaim for its singular, one-take-heavy vision of a dying civilization.The box office reflected 2006's breadth. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest topped the global charts. Casino Royale relaunched the Bond franchise with Daniel Craig in his debut as 007. Cars kept Pixar's winning streak intact. Moreover, the comedies were just as crowded: Borat, Talladega Nights, Idiocracy, and Clerks II each built devoted audiences. Consequently, building a bracket from this year means making choices that will draw genuine disagreement from all directions.International cinema contributed heavily to 2006's depth. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel earned seven Academy Award nominations after competing at Cannes. Pedro Almodóvar's Volver brought Penélope Cruz one of her most celebrated screen performances. The year also produced major releases from Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain), Sofia Coppola (Marie Antoinette), Christopher Nolan (The Prestige), and Mel Gibson (Apocalypto). In practice, few years in recent memory offer this density of debate-worthy titles across this many genres. The movies of 2006 represent a year when every corner of the industry produced something worth arguing about.How the Movie of the Year Bracket WorksMovie of the Year uses a bracket format borrowed from sports tournaments. The Taste Buds seed 128 films from a given year and match them head-to-head across multiple rounds until one earns the title of best of the year. The movies of 2006 provide an especially deep pool to draw from. Each round cuts the field in half: 128 to 64, 64 to 32, 32 to the Sweet 16, and on through the Elite Eight, Final Four, and championship. Notably, the bracket covers the full range of the year — prestige titles, genre pictures, comedies, blockbusters, and deep cuts all compete on equal footing.The seeding and matchups drive the conversation. A high-seeded favorite facing a scrappy underdog often produces the most spirited debates, because the Taste Buds evaluate every film on its own terms. No film earns an automatic pass based on reputation alone. A beloved blockbuster can fall in round one. A smaller film can advance much further than anyone expects. Therefore, the bracket functions as a pressure test for every assumption the hosts carry into the season.The format also distinguishes Movie of the Year from a standard best-of list. The hosts cannot simply rank their favorites and close the debate. Instead, they defend each pick against a direct opponent, round after round. Above all, the bracket produces arguments that a list never could, because every vote carries immediate consequences. To see what this process looks like across a full season, the Movie of the Year archive includes complete coverage of every year the Taste Buds have tackled, including the recently completed 1971 season.The 2006 First Round: Inside the Movies of 2006 Podcast BracketThe first round of the 2006 season pits 64 matchups against one another and cuts the field in half. Part 1 of the intro covers the opening set of battles, with Part 2 completing the round. Even the quickest first-round decisions carry weight, because an early upset can remove a major contender long before the serious rounds begin.2006 gives the hosts no shortage of compelling first-round scenarios. High-profile releases like Superman Returns, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Blood Diamond arrive as recognizable titles but face real scrutiny on merit. Films like Half Nelson, Brick, and Thank You for Smoking represent the indie side of the year with strong critical backing. Moreover, the international titles — Pan's Labyrinth, Volver, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer — introduce a different set of criteria into the matchups entirely.The documentary field adds another dimension. An Inconvenient Truth became one of 2006's most discussed releases and earned Al Gore an Academy Award. Jesus Camp generated controversy and critical notice in equal measure. Additionally, the horror entries, the prestige dramas like United 93 and The Good Shepherd, and the awards-season crowding all create pressure across the bracket from the opening round. Roger Ebert's four-star review of The Departed captures the critical consensus around 2006's most decorated film. Nevertheless, the first round is only the beginning.Why 2006 Still Matters2006 represents a pivotal moment in 21st-century cinema. The year demonstrated that prestige filmmaking and mass entertainment could share a single calendar without one displacing the other. The Departed and Pan's Labyrinth both belong to 2006. Borat and Children of Men arrived the same year. That range matters because the best film years do not produce one kind of great film — they produce many kinds simultaneously.Moreover, 2006 produced titles that have only grown in cultural stature since their release. Idiocracy arrived with little fanfare and now functions as a widely cited cultural reference point. Children of Men drew modest theatrical audiences and currently ranks among the most admired films of the decade in retrospective criticism. The Prestige built a devoted following that continues to generate debate about its structure and its final image. Additionally, Casino Royale remains the gold standard for modern Bond films nearly two decades later.The movies of 2006 podcast gives these films a structured arena to compete. That structure reveals something a ranked list cannot: which films hold up under sustained comparison, which reputations survive direct opposition, and which consensus picks turn out to be more fragile than they appear. 2006 deserves this treatment. The Taste Buds are the right crew to find out which film earns the crown.Related Episodes from Movie of the YearMovie of the Year — Full Episode ArchiveThe Last Picture Show — Movie of the Year: 1971A Clockwork Orange — Movie of the Year: 1971More 2006 episode pages will be linked here as the season progresses.FAQ: Movies of 2006 Podcast and Film YearWhat is the movies of 2006 podcast intro episode about? This episode launches the 2006 season of Movie of the Year on PopFilter. Ryan, Mike, and Greg introduce the 2006 film year, explain the bracket format, and work through Part 1 of the first round, taking the field from 128 films down toward 64.How does the Movie of the Year bracket format work? Movie of the Year seeds 128 films from a given year into a tournament-style bracket. Films compete head-to-head across multiple rounds — from 128 to 64, then 32, the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, and championship — until one film earns the title of best of the year. The format produces arguments that a simple ranked list cannot, because every vote has immediate consequences.What films are in the 2006 Movie of the Year bracket? The 2006 bracket includes 128 films from across the year: prestige dramas like The Departed, Babel, and Letters from Iwo Jima; international titles like Pan's Labyrinth and Volver; genre films like Children of Men and The Prestige; comedies like Borat, Idiocracy, and Little Miss Sunshine; and blockbusters like Casino Royale and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.What won Best Picture for the 2006 film year? The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese, won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007. The film also earned Scorsese his first Best Director Oscar. However, Oscar history and the Movie of the Year bracket determine their...

Film critic Nell Minow joins Kerry and Collin for a look an a holiday favorite that has been remade at least four times, "The Shop Around The Corner" (1940), starring Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullivan and Frank Morgan. At the start, though, there is also a brief discussion on the current release, "The Sheep Detective," which all three highly recommend. Why does "The Shop Around The Corner" take place in Budapest? What is it about this story that makes it so ripe for further exploration in how we anonymously communicate with one another? What exatly is "the Lubitsch touch"? All this, plus three films from 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Go to MovieZyng to start or continue your DVD/blu-ray/4K collection.   Visit collinsouter.com RogerEbert.com Follow Collin and Kerry on Letterboxd. Book movies covered: The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Pepe le Moko (1937) Ugetsu (1953)  

Walter Sterling takes the Midnight Misfits through one of his most embarrassing corporate stories from a disastrous NBC retreat at the Hotel Mutiny in Biscayne Bay, complete with mirrored ceilings, an empty pool, suspicious phone tables, and an unexpected naked dance performance during dinner. Walter also talks with Matias Bombal about Hollywood, Roger Ebert, The Sheep Detectives, Is God Is, and the strange business of selling bizarre movie ideas. Plus, Walter dives into claims about Zorro Ranch, human jerky, elite cannibalism, old-world fireplaces that may not have been built for wood burning, and another Confessions of a Retired Detective story from Vic Ferrari about undercover narcotics work in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Black on Black Cinema reviews Michael (2026), Antoine Fuqua's Michael Jackson biopic starring Jaafar Jackson as the King of Pop. While Jaafar delivers a great impression of his uncle Michael, the film itself is a shallow, sanitized music biopic that refuses to engage with Jackson's complexity and controversies. Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) crafts a visually stunning but emotionally hollow portrait that hits every musical biopic cliché—rise to fame, family dysfunction, creative genius, tragic decline, and rise again without taking risks or offering fresh insight into one of music's most complicated icons.We break down why the film fails despite strong performances, analyzing how it sidesteps difficult questions about Jackson's life, allegations, and legacy in favor of a safe, reverential approach. The Thriller recreation is impressive, the musical sequences are well-executed, and Jaafar's physical transformation is remarkable—but beneath the spectacle lies a film afraid to be honest about its subject. We discuss what a truly great Michael Jackson film would require, compare it to other music biopics, examine the Jackson estate's involvement and creative control, and explore why Hollywood keeps making shallow biopics instead of complex character studies. Essential viewing for understanding how NOT to make a music biopic.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

4:27 Obsession 21:06 Is God Is 28:06 In The Grey 36:51 Driver's Ed 43:41 Marty, Life is Short 49:20 The Wizard of the Kremlin 53:57 Lifehack 58:58 Forge 01:04:02 Magic Hour It's a 9-movie week on 'At the Movies Again,' formerly known as 'Roger (Ebert) & Me, a weekly movie review podcast tribute to 'Siskel & Ebert' hosted by film critics Brett Arnold & Mark Dujsik. The show covers every new theatrical and streaming release each Friday in the format Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert pioneered. A movie review podcast covering all new releases every Friday, modeled after 'Siskel & Ebert,' the pair who inadvertently invented film podcasting in the 1970s. Hosted by Mark Dujsik of markreviewsmovies.com & Brett Arnold of Yahoo Entertainment and The New Flesh podcast, a show about horror movies that is currently celebrating its 11th year. Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. Even if you're on Spotify or YouTube, jump over there and throw us 5 stars. We can't get on RottenTomatoes until 200 people rate it! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The thirteenth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1985 features our cult classic pick, Kurt Thomas action movie Gymkata. Directed by Robert Clouse and starring Kurt Thomas, Tetchie Agbayani, Richard Norton and Buck Kartalian, Gymkata is the first and only film featuring world champion gymnast Kurt Thomas.The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Roger Ebert and Laurie Horn in the Miami Herald.Check out more info and the entire archive of past episodes at https://www.awesomemovieyear.com and visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/awesomemovieyearYou can find Jason on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JHarrisComedy/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jasonharriscomedy/ and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goforjason/You can find Josh online at http://joshbellhateseverything.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joshbellhateseverything/, on Bluesky at signalbleed.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/signalbleed/If you're a Letterboxd user and you watch any of the movies we talk about on the show, tag your review “Awesome Movie Year” to share your thoughts.You can find our producer David Rosen and his Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com, on Twitter at @piecingpod, on Bluesky at piecingpod.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/bydavidrosen/ Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.All of the music in the episode is by David Rosen. Find more of his music at https://www.bydavidrosen.comSubscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosenPlease like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1985 episode, with our audience choice pick, animated toy adaptation He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword.

Steve interviews Jay Mariotti (00:30:02) who returns to the podcast with a list of topics that he is anxious to sound off on. Jay talks about the end of the LeBron James era, watching sports in Paris, and Pablo Torre winning a Pulitzer Prize. Jay also rants on sports writers that are holding back, weak sports commissioners, and the Russini/Vrabel scandal. Jay also shares his memories of Roger Ebert and a letter that Gene Siskel wrote to him about a flowered sweater. Steve starts the show with a packed First things First that includes talk about the Buffalo Sabres in the playoffs, the 2026 Braves, Inter winning the Scudetto, and an exciting draft for the New Orleans Saints. The show ends with one last thing about everything that has went on the last month including Steve's trip to Florida, his struggles at dance class, and the progress of his failed hockey comeback. For more information follow the podcast on twitter @sports_casters Email: thesportscasters@gmail.com

This week on Black on Black Cinema, the crew returns to announce the next full film review on the 2026 music biopic "Michael." The film follows the life of famed musician Michael Jackson from early childhood to the middle of his career as one of the biggest names in music history. The random topic this week is all about the Supreme Court further damaging the Voting Rights Act, and how online Black spaces have had just about enough of celebrities and political influencers who helped put us in the current situation and now are asking for Black people to come together to fight back.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

3:00 Mortal Kombat II, 13:13 Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft 21:06 The Sheep Detectives 26:42 Remarkably Bright Creatures 33:25 Couples Weekend 38:47 Affection 44:47 Recap It's a 6-movie week on 'At the Movies Again,' formerly known as 'Roger (Ebert) & Me, a weekly movie review podcast tribute to 'Siskel & Ebert' hosted by film critics Brett Arnold & Mark Dujsik. The show covers every new theatrical and streaming release each Friday in the format Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert pioneered. A movie review podcast covering all new releases every Friday, modeled after 'Siskel & Ebert,' the pair who inadvertently invented film podcasting in the 1970s. Hosted by Mark Dujsik of markreviewsmovies.com & Brett Arnold of Yahoo Entertainment and The New Flesh podcast, a show about horror movies that is currently celebrating its 11th year. Please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. Even if you're on Spotify or YouTube, jump over there and throw us 5 stars. We can't get on RottenTomatoes until 200 people rate it! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We start our first series of Harrison Ford themed movie reviews for this month. What better way than to highlight all his various War/Western films?   MOVIES REVIEWED: A Time for Killing, Journey to Shiloh, The Intruders (1970), Judgment: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley, The Frisco Kid, Hanover Street, K-19: The Widowmaker, Cowboys & Aliens, Ender's Game & Call of the Wild (2019)     GUESTS: Will Styer, Night Taylor, Jon Mark & Joseph Burke           CLIPS USED: Harrison Ford K-19 The Widowmaker interview (with Roger Ebert), Journey to Shiloh trailer & Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley (1975) clip

This week we review one of Roger Ebert's least favorite films. At what aiport store did they buy their flight attendants outfits? Are you telling us there's a factory inside that skyscraper in Chicago? Wait, Bo Derek is HOW old in this?! Join us for one of the best road trip movies ever!

Phil and Emily are joined by Angie Han, TV critic at The Hollywood Reporter, to discuss Synecdoche, NY (2008), Charlie Kaufman's audacious directorial debut and the film Roger Ebert called the best of the 2000s.Kaufman wrote and directed this hallucinatory portrait of Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an ailing theater director who uses a MacArthur Fellowship to build a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse. As the decades pass and his art consumes his life, the film tunnels deeper into mortality, creative obsession, and the quiet horror of living in a body that won't cooperate. Originally conceived as a horror film with Spike Jonze, Synecdoche, NY opened in October 2008 against High School Musical 3 and Saw 5, made $4.5 million on a $20 million budget, and has since been ranked among the greatest films of the 21st century by the BBC, the Guardian, and Time.Phil finds it deeply triggering as a self-described hypochondriac. Angie has seen it a dozen times and finds it weirdly soothing. Emily thinks it's funnier than people give it credit for. All three dig into why this film bombed commercially and became a critical touchstone, what it means to watch it in your 20s versus your 40s, and why it still doesn't have a Criterion edition.Follow the show and guests:Podcast Like It's... — https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeitsPhil Iscove — https://www.instagram.com/pmiscoveEmily St. James — https://www.instagram.com/emilystjamsAngie Han — https://www.instagram.com/ajhan06

Black on Black Cinema breaks down Love, Brooklyn (2025), Rachael Abigail Holder's directorial debut that premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Starring André Holland, Nicole Beharie, DeWanda Wise, and Roy Wood Jr., this indie romantic drama follows writer Roger as he navigates complicated relationships with his ex Casey (an art gallery owner) and current lover Nicole (a newly-single mother) against Brooklyn's rapidly changing landscape.Executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, Love, Brooklyn delivers intelligent Black characters working through love, loss, career, and friendship without falling into stereotypes—no one raps, dies, or gets incarcerated. Director Holder created a story with "no villains," just good people navigating modern relationships.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).

This week on Black on Black Cinema, the crew returns to announce the next film to be reviewed, "Love, Brooklyn." The film follows three longtime Brooklynites navigate careers, love, loss, and friendship against the rapidly changing landscape of their beloved city. The movie stars Andre Holland, Nicole Beharie, DeWanda Wise, and Roy Wood Jr. The random topic this week is an overarching conversation of rape and violence culture in regards to the CNN investigative report on a secret network on men drugging their wives and sexually abusing them and the former Lt. Governor of Virginia who murdered his wife and committed suicide.Black on Black Cinema is a long-running podcast featuring in-depth Black movie reviews and frank conversations that matter to the Black community. We review Black films across every genre — from Black horror and Black sci-fi to indie dramas, comedies, and blockbuster action. Covering filmmakers like Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, and more. Hosted by Jay, Micah, Terrence, and T'ara. Featured on RogerEbert.com. A TNP Studios production. New episodes weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all major platforms. For more TNP Studios content, check out The Nerdpocalypse (movie & TV news), Look Forward (progressive politics), and Dense Pixels (video game news).