Episode 517: "This Closeness" and "Jim Henson Idea Man"
Release Date: 06/07/2024
Spoilerpiece Theatre
It's a big week! Tim Burton's long-awaited (2:08) finally arrives after its thirty-six-year gestation — Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara reprise their roles, and Jenna Ortega co-stars — and does it live up to the praise being heaped upon it? Megan lets you know! Next, we all saw (18:42), Azazel Jacobs' family drama about three sisters (Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne) grappling with their father's imminent demise. This flick is getting raves, but not from us. Finally, Megan and Dave watched (39:31), Stephen Soucy's documentary about the legendary...
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It’s a 50-50 week on Spoilerpiece, as one of the movies we watch is crap, and one is a joy from start to finish. First, the crap, because we didn’t want to end on a sour note: Lee Daniels’ (2:12), a derivative dumpster fire of a possession story cribbed from better possession stories. What makes it so awful, though? Glad you asked! Every character but one in this movie is an asshole. Like, a serious asshole. Andra Day’s Ebony? Asshole. Glenn Close as her mother, Alberta? Asshole. Mo’Nique as the world’s meanest social worker? Total asshole. We at Spoilerpiece don’t usually need...
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This week, Evan talks about (2:14), Nathan Silver's Jewish comedy starring Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane about a man's grade-school music teacher who becomes his adult Bat Mitzvah student. Unfortunately, he wasn't a fan of the awkward humor. Then, we (Dave and Megan) review (13:24), John Adams and Toby Poser's (aka the Adams family) horror film about a fracking crew encountering an 1800s soldier, who's still alive with a parasite inside him. We had mixed reviews: One of us liked it, one hated it. Finally, we all discuss (34:19), So Young Shelly Yo's moving, sensitive, and insightful...
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This week, Megan fills Evan and Dave in on (1:31), starring Elliot Page (who also co-wrote the story) in Dominic Savage's tender and emotional indie drama as Sam, who journeys home for his father's birthday, his first trip to his hometown since his transition. We follow that up with (9:18), Austin Peters's thriller starring Elizabeth Banks as Hope, an esthetician with a line of products about to hit the marketplace. Unfortunately, another esthetician opens a location directly across from her, and wouldn’t you know? Someone steals Hope’s identity and messes with her in a way...
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Because of some truly bizarre audio difficulties this week, Megan was unable to join us. Which is a bummer! Because she had things to say about both movies on the docket. First, Dave talks about DUCHESS (2:35), directed by Neil Marshall and written by Marshall and its star, Charlotte Kirk. And how is it? Well, it's dog shit! Like most of Marshall's movies! Ho ho! Then Evan and Dave talk THE INSTIGATORS (14:41), a Boston crime comedy that goes out of its way to be very Boston-crimey and Boston-funny, but doesn't quite do either well! Just how much charisma do Matt Damon and Casey Affleck have...
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Dave jokes that it’s Megan’s big week on Spoilerpiece: She saw all three movies on the docket! First, she fills Evan and Dave in on (2:27), Joe Stephenson's gothic horror film starring Eddie Izzard as Dr. Nina Jekyll (good) and Rachel Hyde (bad) in a contemporary update of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Then Megan talks about (14:14), Greg Kwedar's tender and incredibly moving drama starring Colman Domingo and based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison. Megan loved Colman...
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Dave is under the weather this week (feel better soon, Dave!), so Megan and Evan cover the week's movies together. First, Megan reviews Agnieszka Holland's vital, yet harrowing drama (3:33), which follows a family of refugees from Syria, a border guard, and a group of activists providing aid to refugees, who converge on the Polish-Belarusian border during a humanitarian crisis. Then Evan and Megan dig into Shawn Levy's much-anticipated superhero film (26:26), which features Ryan Reynolds/Deadpool teaming up with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine! Thankfully we do a show where spoilers are the...
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Evan is off this week, so Megan and Dave braved this week’s releases. Actually, Dave didn’t see (2:39) — Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie legacy sequel starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos — so it’s up to Megan to tell you, dear listeners, that it’s kind of crap. She has some positive things say about it (Glen Powell, for example)…but not many. Both Megan and Dave saw (21:52), a period-piece biopic directed by Thomas Napper about Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot who took over her husband's champagne business after his death. French people, chateaus,...
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Well. It is a BANNER week on Spoilerpiece, gang. Megan and Dave discuss writer-director Nicole Riegel’s (2:54), about a struggling singer-songwriter from Cincinnati (KiKi Layne) taking a shot at winning an opening slot at a biker gathering in South Dakota while also falling into an intense relationship with a semi-retired Scottish guitarist (Thomas Doherty). Then we get to (26:56). We’ll dispense with a description and leave it all in the audio, but please do buckle up. (And maybe get some popcorn and a burrito. Why the hell not?) , we talk about in honor of , who left us in late June.
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We just marked a national holiday in the United States, so you know what that means: It’s cash grab season! Megan and Dave talk about said (possible) cash grab, (1:53). Eddie Murphy and cohorts return in the legacy sequel that continues the legacy of shittiness that unleashed on the world 30 years earlier. Ugh. Then Evan joins Megan and Dave to talk about (16:41), a terrifically bloody action film from India that features a commando on a train trying to save his fiancée from bandits. It’s got loads of good killin’, but it’s not for the faint of heart. (It makes look fuggin’...
info_outlineWelcome the wacky world of Spoilerpiece! Why wacky? Because for our first film, Megan and Dave watched Kit Zauhar's THIS CLOSENESS (2:33), one of the most indie films to ever indie, and we’re not sure it’s a good movie…but it’s not bad, either? And the ending is…we’re not sure also? And every character in it is an assbag, but that’s OK? Good sound work, by the way... WTF is this movie, exactly? Hey, if you see it, you tell us. Then Evan, Megan, and Dave watched JIM HENSON IDEA MAN (23:21), Ron Howard’s Disney+ documentary that goes in-depth-ish on Henson, his early partnership with his wife, his early experimental films, and how that experimentation showed up in lots of projects throughout the rest of his career. On Patreon, we talk about Spike Lee’s CROOKLYN, which turned 30 this year.