Episode 516: "The Dead Don't Hurt" and "Backspot"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
What a week for movies! Megan and Dave watched writer/director/composer/co-star Viggo Mortensen’s (2:30), a bittersweet drama set in the 1860s. Viggo (the only actor Dave permits being called by first name, because it’s fun to say “Viggo”) is Olsen, a Dane, and Vicky Krieps is Vivienne, a French-Canadian, who meet in San Francisco, fall in love, and make a life together in a tiny Nevada town. TDDH is Vivienne’s movie, as it traces her tough, tender, and resilient character from childhood to adulthood. It’s a dense story with lots of twists and turns (and too much to get into in...
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Episode 515: "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," "Atlas," and "Hit Man"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Dave, after initially going to the wrong theater, made it to the FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (3:21) screening. He yaps about it, and then Megan and Evan join him for Jennifer Lopez’s new sci-fi flick, ATLAS (11:32), about A.I. that’s - natch - trying to wipe out humanity. A.I. is on everyone’s minds lately, right? Too bad there wasn’t some originality on the writers’ minds when they wrote the fuckin’ thing. Then everyone talks about Richard Linklater’s new comedy, HIT MAN (29:53), starring Glen Powell as a fake hit man and Adria Arjona as the woman he falls in love with, who may just...
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Episode 514: "Babes" and "You Can't Run Forever"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
What happens when all three critics on Spoilerpiece have problems with both movies on the docket? Listen and you’ll find out! First up is director/co-writer Michelle Schumacher’s (2:26), a wannabe thriller starring Schumacher’s husband J.K. Simmons, Schumacher’s daughter Olivia Simmons, and a bunch of people who apparently didn’t know better than to get involved in this thing. (You *can* avoid this shit.) Then there’s (23:55), the new comedy (in air quotes) from director Pamela Adlon, starring and co-written by Ilana Glazer. This thing is getting glowing reviews absolutely...
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Episode 513: "Let It Be" remastered, "Evil Does Not Exist," and "Force of Nature: The Dry 2"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week there’s a music documentary, an eco-fable set in Japan, and Dave’s favorite cinematic subgenre: Australian detective stories starring Eric Bana! To start things, Dave fills Megan and Evan in on Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s remastered , which crawled so Peter Jackson’s could fuggin’ sprint. Megan watched , said eco-fable, which focuses on a village near Tokyo and a clamping site being developed nearby. This is Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to the much-lauded . Finally, everyone saw , which features Bana reprising the role of Aaron Falk from . (Aside: (Dave and Evan’s...
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Episode 512: "The Fall Guy," "New Life," and "Unfrosted"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Megan fills Dave and Evan in on the Ryan Gosling/Emily Blunt-starring (2:03), which is an update of the TV series "The Fall Guy" (bet you didn't see that one coming). Is it good? Bad? Somewhere in between? Then Megan and Dave talk about the genre hyphenate (12:56), which seems to be one thing (suspense thriller) and then becomes quite another (sci-fi/horror!). And Evan joins Dave and Megan to talk about Jerry Seinfeld's , the almost entirely untrue story of the creation of Pop Tarts. we talk about one of Dave's favorites, , a first-time watch for both Megan and Evan.
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Episode 511: "Boy Kills World," "Butterfly in the Sky," and "Humane"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week on the show, we got some wires crossed (which is to say *Dave* got some wires crossed). So he mistakenly watched (2:24), the new Bill-Skarsgård-kills-the-shit-out-of-everyone movie, instead of (12:33), a new documentary about “Reading Rainbow.” But fear not! Megan and Evan watched BUTTERFLY IN THE SKY, and to suggest they completely Stan out isn’t far-fetched (though it’s refreshing to hear two of us on the podcast love a moviegoing experience so much). Finally, Megan and Dave watched (32:25), Caitlin Cronenberg’s feature directing debut, in which a wealthy family...
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Episode 510: "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" and "We Grown Now"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Megan took one for the team and checked in on Guy Ritchie’s latest, (2:38). Does this based-on-a-true-story movie take Ritchie down some less traveled paths? Or is it standard Guy Ritchie fare? Megan has the answers! Evan and Dave join Megan to talk about (17:52), writer/director Minhal Baig’s coming-of-age story of two boys growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green complex in the early 1990s. Over on Patreon, in honor of its 50th anniversary, we talk about Francis Ford Coppola’s THE CONVERSATION.
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Episode 509: "Civil War" and "The Greatest Hits"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Perhaps you’ve heard the brouhaha surrounding writer-director Alex Garland’s Kirsten Dunst-starring (2:18) and wondered what it’s all about (um...a civil war...in the United States...in the near future). Wonder no more! Megan and Dave saw it, and they have things to say: unkind, complimentary, and all points in between. One of them hated it. One did not, acknowledging its strengths as well as its flaws. Then Evan joined Megan and Dave to watch (32:15), starring Lucy Boynton and Justin H. Min, and written and directed by Ned Benson. And guess what? NOT A ROM-COM, which Evan and Dave...
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Episode 508: "The People's Joker" and "Girls State"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week on the show we Megan and Dave tackled the controversial (to Warner Bros.) (1:53), director/co-writer/editor/star Vera Drew's queer coming-of-age superhero parody. Good sound design, good visuals. What else is good about it? Then Evan, Megan, and Dave talk about the documentary (24:27), directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine’s companion piece to their 2020 doc . Following a group of teenage girls from Missouri as they navigate a week-long immersive democratic experiment, the Spoilerpieces have a range of views. , in honor of its 90th anniversary, we talk about the classic...
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Episode #507: “Femme” and “Ennio"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Dave can't join us, so it’s just Megan and Evan this week! First, Megan reviews Giuseppe Tornatore’s lengthy, yet fascinating documentary (2:35) about the life and work of Italian film composer Ennio Morricone. Then we both discuss Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s gritty queer thriller (16:18), which captivated us, but left us with some complicated feelings. And in this week’s , we chat about the winner of our poll on women-directed films, Lynne Ramsay’s psychological drama !
info_outlineWhat happens when all three critics on Spoilerpiece have problems with both movies on the docket? Listen and you’ll find out! First up is director/co-writer Michelle Schumacher’s YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER (2:26), a wannabe thriller starring Schumacher’s husband J.K. Simmons, Schumacher’s daughter Olivia Simmons, and a bunch of people who apparently didn’t know better than to get involved in this thing. (You *can* avoid this shit.) Then there’s BABES (23:55), the new comedy (in air quotes) from director Pamela Adlon, starring and co-written by Ilana Glazer. This thing is getting glowing reviews absolutely everywhere, but not from us. (We saw a different movie, maybe?) Over on Patreon, we yap about a movie we really enjoy: RUN LOLA RUN.