"Nickel Boys"

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

This week, after a long month of lists, recaps, and Oscar nominated heavy hitters, we lighten the mood with the gory, splatter-filled Stephen King adaptation of The Monkey. Oz Perkins' second film in a year, The Monkey stars both Theo James and Christian Convery in dual roles, Tatiana Maslany, Colin O'Brien, Adam Scott, and Elijah Wood. Does Perkins follow up last summer's Longlegs with a potent mashup of Final Destination and Stephen King? Or does this horror comedy fizzle out?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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