Episode 30: 2025 Wrap Up and 1st Annual Miseys
Mise en Screen
This week we have a special episode for you. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the nominees for the upcoming 98th Academy Awards, and we have some opinions on them. We then wrap up 2025 with both Ben and Steven listing out their top 5 films of 2025 with special (and not so special) Miseys awarded intermittently. They also go over the best and worst punishment films that were doled out and the bottom five films of 2025. Time Stamps: (01:15) The 98th Academy Award nominations (35:29) Top 5 of 2025 & 1st Annual Miseys (1:49:00) Best & Worst Punishments...
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Episode 29: Hamnet
Mise en Screen
Hamnet - a 2025 biographical drama directed by Chloe Zhao, written by Zhao with Maggie O’Farrell, based as stated on the 2020 novel of the same title by Farrell. It stars Jessie Buckley as Agnes Hathaway and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare, who after a courtship and shotgun wedding give birth to and raise a daughter Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and twins Judith and Hamnet (Olivia Lynes and Jacobi Jupe). The death of one of their children sends them both into a spiral of grief, which may only be arrested by William’s work on the Globe Theater in London. Time Stamps: ...
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Episode 28: No Other Choice
Mise en Screen
No Other Choice is a 2025 dark comedy directed by Park Chan-wook, written by Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, and Lee Ja-hye. It is adapted from 1997 novel The Axe by Donald Westlake. It stars Lee Byung-hun plays Yoo Man-su, who has lost his longstanding position at a paper mill and must search for work in a shrinking job market. To reduce the competition he enacts a plan to kill the better qualified individuals for a job opening he will create through more murder so that he may once again provide for his family. This family includes his wife Lee Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin),...
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Episode 27: Is This Thing On?
Mise en Screen
Is This Thing On? is a 2025 comedy-drama directed by Bradley Cooper, written by Cooper, Will Arnett, and Mark Chappell, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern as Alex and Tess Novak, a couple whose marriage is on the rocks, leading Alex to discover stand-up as a way of processing it. They are joined by Bradley Cooper himself as Alex’s best friend Balls, Andra Day as Balls’ wife Christine, Christine Ebersole and Ciaran Hinds as Alex’s parents, Jordan Jensen as Jill, one of the comics Alex befriends; and Blake Kane and Calvin Knegton as Alex and Tess’s twin sons Felix and Jude. Time Stamps:...
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Episode 26: Song Sung Blue
Mise en Screen
Song Sung Blue is a biographical film about the married musical artist duo Lightning and Thunder, Mike and Claire Sardina, a Neil Diamond tribute act, though they refer to it as “interpretation,” while navigating the ups and downs of their regular lives. It is based on a 2008 documentary of the same name by Greg Kohs. Also starring Michael Imperioli as Mark Shurilla, a Buddy Holly impersonator; Ella Anderson as Rachel Cartwright, Claire’s daughter; King Princess as Angelina Sardina, Mike’s daughter; Fisher Stevens as Dave Watson, Mike’s dentist and manager; Jim Belushi as Tom...
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Episode 25: Marty Supreme
Mise en Screen
Marty Supreme is a 2025 sports comedy-drama film directed, written, produced, and edited by Josh Safdie, with Ronald Bronstein co-writer, co-producer- and co-editor. In this film we follow Marty Mauser, an aspiring table tennis player who seeks to become the world champion of the sport while simultaneously outrunning the consequences of his various scams, affairs, prideful boasts, and collectors. Co-starring Odessa A’zion as Rachel Mizler, his paramour, Gwyneth Paltrow as Kay Stone, a formerly famous actress who Marty pursues, Kevin O’Leary as Milton Rockwell, a wealthy businessman and...
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Episode 24: 2025 Catch Up
Mise en Screen
In this episode we discuss a litany of films we watched to fill in the gaps of 2025 releases, full spoilers for all films discussed. Time Stamps: (5:49) Broken Church (19:36) Star Trek Section 31 (26:07) Avatar: Fire and Ash (33:21) Black Bag (38:28) Sovereign (43:31) Eephus (49:58) Train Dreams (56:41) The Phoenician Scheme (1:01:21) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (1:06:15) Ballad of a Small Player (1:09:49) The Mastermind (1:13:48) Presence (1:17:37) Weapons (1:22:17) Hag (1:28:24) Novocaine (1:32:42) Flight Risk (1:37:00) One of Them Days...
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Episode 23: Wake Up Dead Man
Mise en Screen
Wake Up Dead Man is the latest Knives Out mystery film from writer-director Rian Johnson. In this film we find Father Jud Duplenticy (Joh O'Connor) under suspicion of the murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Joshj Brolin), stabbed in the back in a storage closet during his Good Friday service. The ensemble this time is played by Glenn Close as Martha, a lifelong servant of the church, Jeremy Renner as local physician Dr. Nat, Kerry Washington as attorney Vera, Andrew Scott as author-in-exile Lee, Cailee Spaeny as Simone, a disabled woman and the church’s biggest donor, Daryl McCormack as a...
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Episode 22: Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
Mise en Screen
Kill Bill The Whole Bloody Affair is a re-release of Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2 as one four hour thirty-five minute film with one 15 minute intermission. In this film we follow The Bride, played by Uma Thurman, who is pregnant and rehearsing for her wedding when her ex-lover Bill (David Carridine) arrives with the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah) and kill her. She inexplicably lives through this, wakes up four years later, and begins taking her revenge on each member. Time Stamps: (00:56) A Karate Christmas Miracle (26:41) Mishima: A...
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Episode 21: Rental Family
Mise en Screen
Rental Family is the latest feature film by Hikari, cowritten by herself and Stephen Blahut, starring Brendan Fraser as a struggling American actor living in Japan who stumbles into a job working for a rental family agency who hire out actors to play unconventional roles for clients such as hosting a funeral for a still living individual, staging a wedding, playing a father for a mother-daughter who are trying to get into an elite school, cheerleading for an older live performer, interviewing an aging and forgotten actor, and even just to play Dreamcast games split screen with a hikikomori...
info_outlineThe Long Walk is the latest film adaptation of a Stephen King novel and takes place in an alternate 1970s United States in which a past war has ruined the country economically. The totalitarian regime that now runs the country has devised a new annual event to encourage larger GDP growth: a marathon walk in which one kid from each state is chosen via voluntary raffle. Each individual must walk at least 3mph, should they fail to do so after three warnings they are killed and the walk lasts until only one remains. The film’s focus is mainly on Raymond Garraty as #47 (Cooper Hoffman) and Peter McVries as #23 (David Jonsson) who strike up a friendship despite the competition and its lethal end for all but one competitor.
Timestamps
- (00:00) The Cell
- (22:06) Misery
- (41:01) Children of Men
- (53:10) The Long Walk
- (1:34:32) Next week's episode: Him
Works Cited
- 11.22.63 (Bridget Carpenter, 2016 miniseries; Stephen King, 2011 novel)
- Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976 film; Stephen King, 1974 novel)
- Cell (Tod Williams, 2016 film; Stephen King, 2006 novel)
- Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006 film; P.D. James, 1992 novel)
- Dreamcatcher (Lawrence Kasdan, 2003 film; Stephen King, 2001 novel)
- Ghostbusters (Paul Feig, 2016)
- The Green Mile (Frank Darabont, 1999 film; Stephen King, 1996 novel)
- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Mockingjay - Part 1, Mockingjay - Part 2, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Francis Lawrence, 2013-2015, 2023 films; Susanne Collins, 2009-2010, 2020 novels)
- It (Any Muschietti, 2017/2019 films; Stephen King, 1986 novel)
- Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow, 2015)
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (J.A. Bayona, 2018)
- Jurassic World Dominion (Colin Trevorrow, 2022)
- Jurassic World Rebirth (Gareth Edwards, 2025)
- The Long Walk (Francis Lawrence, 2025 film, Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) 1979 novel)
- The Long Walk - Just King Things (Cameron Kuntzelman and Michael Lutz, 2021)
- Neon Genesis Evangelion (Hideaki Ano, 1995)
- Mass Effect 3 (BioWare, 2012)
- Misery (Rob Reiner, 1990 film; Stephen King, 1987 novel)
- Needful Things (Fraser Heston, 1993 film; Stephen King, 1991 novel)
- The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994 film; Stephen King 1982 novella)
- The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980 film; Stephen King 1977 novel)
- The Stand (Stephen King, 1978)
- Star Wars, Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson, 2017)
- Star Wars, Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, 2019)
- Thinner (Tom Holland, 1996 film; Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) 1984 novel)
Find us elsewhere!
Ben Verschoor
- https://cinema-purgatorio.ghost.io/
- https://letterboxd.com/jamn4sure/
- @benverschoor.bsky.social
Steven Santana
- https://breakingarrows.substack.com/
- https://letterboxd.com/number8axel/
- @number8axel.bsky.social
Opening music is Root Beer Rag by Billy Joel
Closing music is G-Spot Tornado by Frank Zappa
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