Episode #292: "Portrait of a Lady on Fire," the Boston SciFi Film Festival, and the Boston Israeli Film Festival
Release Date: 02/14/2020
Spoilerpiece Theatre
On this week’s show, Megan and Dave kick things off with (2:18), Cameron and Colin Cairnes's nasty found-footage horror thriller starring David Dastmalchian and featuring demonic possession, heads on fire, garroting by necklace, all wrapped up in a nifty 1970s production design. Bonus: Michael Ironsides does the opening voiceover! Then Evan, Megan, and Dave watched director Doug Liman’s update of (21:03). Jake Gyllenhaal picks up Patrick Swayze’s reins and beats the snot out of (checks notes) countless people. And there’s a man-eating crocodile thrown in for good measure. But is it...
info_outline Episode 505: "Love Lies Bleeding," "Stopmotion," and "Frida"Spoilerpiece Theatre
Megan kicks things off this week with talk of (2:16), Rose Glass's intense queer thriller starring Kristen Stewart and Katy O'Brian. Verdict? LISTEN (ha). Next Dave and Megan review (6:11), Robert Morgan's horror movie starring Aisling Franciosi and featuring lots of compelling stop-motion animation. Megan likes it but wishes it delved deeper, and Dave thinks they should have stopped this motion picture from being a thing. Lastly, Evan, Megan, and Dave all discuss (17:37), Carla Gutierrez's dynamic Frida Kahlo documentary that everyone liked. , we talk about the 2024 Oscars. If you’re a...
info_outline Episode 504: "American Dreamer" and "Damsel"Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Megan and Dave tackle (2:07), and it ain’t pretty. Sure, Peter Dinklage and Shirley MacLaine are fine. And sure, Dave laughed at a few things. But that’s about all the positives we have for it (hoo boy, do we get amped up during this talk!). Then Evan, Megan, and Dave watched (22:40), the new dragon’s-gonna-eat-ya-but-not-if-I-can-help-it flick starring Millie Bobby Brown as a princess who meets said dragon after a bit of marital subterfuge orchestrated by Robin Wright as her nefarious would-be mother-in-law. Following an uneven opening, we thought it pulled together (even if...
info_outline Episode 503: "Dune: Part Two" and "Spaceman"Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week, Megan and Dave discuss , Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Rebecca Ferguson. Dave found the fatalism inherent in its story rendered it dramatically inert, even if he dug its look (despite the on-the-nose Nuremberg rally-inspired sequence) and some of the performances. Megan loved the spectacular film: Dazzling visuals, immersive sound, excellent performances, riveting narrative, and a perceptive critique of colonialism and power dynamics. Everyone watched , Johan Renck's existential sci-fi drama starring Adam Sandler (well, Dave listened...
info_outline Episode 502: "Lovely, Dark and Deep" and "Players"Spoilerpiece Theatre
It’s been two weeks since we talked horror at Spoilerpiece, so Megan and Dave remedied that by watching Teresa Sutherland’s , a bump-in-the-night-type thriller that plays out in a national park. While Megan and Dave came to roughly similar conclusions about the movie’s technical aspects and Georgina Cambell’s lead performance, one of them hated it overall (like, HATED IT) and one of them liked it. First listener to guess who hated it wins a trip down amnesia lane. Then the whole gang watched , a new Netflix romcom starring Gina Rodriguez, Damon Wayans Jr., and a million supporting...
info_outline Episode 501: “Orion and the Dark” and “The Hobby”Spoilerpiece Theatre
Megan is back! And to kick things off, she and Dave talk about the animated film (2:33). Yes, it’s screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s first foray into children’s films. But is it any good? Not surprisingly, Megan and Dave have divergent views. But who liked it and who did not?!! (Eh, it’s exactly what you think.) Then Evan, Megan, and Dave discuss (22:17), a documentary about the trading card boom that kicked into overdrive in 2020 after Covid hit. Sports cards, Pokémon cards, memorabilia, you name it, the doc covers it (with a notable absence of Magic: The Gathering). THE HOBBY is...
info_outline Episode 500: "Out of Darkness" and "Restore Point"Spoilerpiece Theatre
Spoilerpeeps, this is the 500th episode of the show. Megan couldn’t make it this week, leaving the duo of Riedel & Crean. (That doesn’t roll off the tongue like Hall & Oates. Such is life.) Dave watched (2:04), a survivor horror film (so its marketing says) set 45,000 years ago, about six people struggling in a new, vast, inhospitably cold environment. What keeps attacking them at night? Probably exactly what you think! Then Evan and Dave watched (14:36), a dystopian-adjacent sci-fi film with a great production design, but a story that both of them found lackluster (even if one...
info_outline Episode 499: "The Taste of Things" and "Scrambled"Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week we talk about (2:05), which features many of Dave’s loves: Juliette Binoche, French food, romance, and tobacco (Megan liked it, too). This deliberate romantic drama, about a gourmand (Benoît Magimel) and his gifted cook (Binoche), is directed by Trân Anh Hùng. It's beautifully photographed, meticulously staged, and it also is not for everyone. Then all three of us watched (18:13), a comedic drama written and directed by Leah McKendrick, who stars as Nelly, a 34-year-old woman who freezes her eggs while also taking stock of her life. This one had a range of reactions from the...
info_outline Episode #498: "Self-Reliance" and "Sometimes I Think About Dying"Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week, we cover two movies dealing with loneliness and connection. Megan reviews (1:56), Rachel Lambert's poignant and sweet comedy-drama starring Daisy Ridley as a shy and isolated person who meets someone new (Dave Merheje). Then we (Evan and Megan) discuss (14:23), Jake Johnson's uneven comedy — which he directed, wrote, and stars in — about a lonely person participating in a dark web reality game show where people try to kill him. And on this week's , we cover the winner of our Best Picture Oscar winners poll: (1971), William Friedkin's tense crime thriller...
info_outline Episode 497: "Origin" and "I.S.S."Spoilerpiece Theatre
Thanks for patience with the delay in posting the show this morning. This week Megan and Dave talk about (2:51), director and screenwriter Ava DuVernay's adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson's book Caste, starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Wilkerson, Jon Bernthal as Wilkerson's husband Brett, and Niecy Nash-Betts as Wilkerson's cousin and best friend Marion. All three of us watched (21:32), starring Ariana DeBose and Chris Messina, in a tale as old as time: The United States and Russia are at war, so the astronauts and cosmonauts on the international space station in Earth's orbit are...
info_outlineHanging chads, pepperoni, and things swingin’ are big topics of conversation this week. Plus, we have lots of movies. Megan talks about PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (4:18), which is FINALLY coming out in the U.S. Then Evan spills the beans about the Boston Israeli Film Festival and the documentary BREAKING BREAD (15:50), the dark comedy FORGIVENESS (19:28), starring what Evan calls Israel’s Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, the documentary I WAS NOT BORN A MISTAKE (23:50), about an orthodox trans woman, and the dark comedy BORN IN JERUSALEM AND STILL ALIVE (31:00). Then it’s the Boston SciFi Film Festival, with PROXIMA (38:06) leading off the discussion, followed by THE LONG WALK (47:48), a horror/sci-fi movie featuring an older man and a ghost who helps him to travel through time, and the fallout that results from it. Finally it's AFTER WE LEAVE (55:10), a dystopian future flick that has some good elements and not so good elements