2025 Summer Box Office Wager Results

As we head into a jam-packed end of 2025, we give a refreshed list of what we're looking forward to, plus a little rundown of what we've been watching on both the big and small screens. Some topics from our lowkey hangout episode: HBO's Peacemaker, Alien: Earth, The Smashing Machine, and a rundown of New York Film Festival.

Short and sweet episode this week as Derek is on a much-deserved vacation. Jeff and Amir give a quick review of The Long Walk, the latest Stephen King adaptation. A movie that grew with its buzz, it features some of the best performances of the year in Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, but is it enough to carry its relatively simple premise for 108 minutes? Plus, an in-depth discussion of a long history of Stephen King movies.

"No fear. Like Tom f---ing Cruise." One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson like you've never seen him before. Gripping you from the first second of its barnburner opening montage, Anderson synthesizes his typical mastery of emotional stakes with the very unexpected: action chops. We discuss his love for Terminator 2, another all-timer Leonardo DiCaprio performance, and the star turn of one Chase Infiniti. Even middle-of-the-road PTA is good enough for a spot in the best of the decade. Hell, make it two decades.

This week we review Highest 2 Lowest, Spike Lee's brazen remake of the 1963 black and white Akira Kurosawa classic, High and Low. A divisive movie with its own modern mind apart from its predecessor, Highest 2 Lowest split audiences at Cannes this year and has now split us on the podcast as well. Akira Kurosawa at the height of his power or Spike Lee's late style curio? We talk about aging masters, baffling scores, and Lee's storied oeuvre as a whole.

It's that time of year again where we reveal the winner of our annual summer box office wager. Amir has taken the crown since the 2023 inception of this standing contest among hosts. Will he do it again this year? Or can Derek or Jeff finally win one? We discuss the movies of the summer: surprise hits, dark horse picks, and the biggest disappointments. Plus, a brief recap of the Emmys.

It's that time of year again where we reveal the winner of our annual summer box office wager. Amir has taken the crown since the 2023 inception of this standing contest among hosts. Will he do it again this year? Or can Derek or Jeff finally win one? We discuss the movies of the summer: surprise hits, dark horse picks, and the biggest disappointments. Plus, a brief recap of the Emmys.

Darren Aronofsky follows up his divisive Oscar-winner, The Whale, with a throwback to 90s capers. Caught Stealing is an After Hours pastiche without any ego and a studio potboiler aimed right down the middle of the road, it just happens to star one of the most charismatic casts assembled in 2025. Jeff and Derek discuss the star power of Austin Butler, the few surprises the film has in store, and this strange departure from Aronofsky's typical auteurism. Tune in!

Xenomorphs get the prestige television treatment with Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth. Mashing up extraterrestrial horror with corpo-palace intrigue, the eight-episode first season looks to expand the world of the Ridley Scott classic. Does Hawley's acclaimed pedigree with Legion and Fargo hold promise for his new series? We review the first five episodes.

Zach Cregger follows up his 2022 surprise hit Barbarian with another bout of sneaky horror with Weapons. Centered around a town grappling with a singular classroom of missing children, Cregger's sophomore feature-length film turns a microscope into a Fresnel lens to heat up the rot of an empathy-starved community: safety, routine, and comfort crumbling into dust amidst hidden dangers and inexplicable tragedy. The question is, does it stick the landing? Tune in to our review to find out.

Leaving Cannes critics perplexed and polarized this spring, Ari Aster's Eddington takes aim at the fabric of the American zeitgeist. Is it the defining finger on the pulse of COVID-abetted brain rot? Or is it as groan-worthy as an "Ari Aster COVID movie" sounds? We discuss the film, Aster's filmography, and the prospect of assembling a political perspective through a fractured, dogshit Internet.