Episode 559: "The Penguin Lessons" and "Bob Trevino Likes It"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Sometimes we accidentally stumble into a theme at Spoilerpiece, and this week's theme is movies that make us dissolve into choking sobs. First, Megan and Dave weigh in on , a movie that should be slight; a high school English teacher in politically fraught 1972 Argentina (Steve Coogan) rescues a pengiun and then everyone learns something. Megan and Dave agree: This movie should not work. It should be treacly and stupid...but it made us weep. Legit tears, not tears cheaply jerked from us. Kudos to Coogan for navigating the screenplay's potential pitfalls - he is excellent - and director Peter...
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Episode 558: "Ash" and "Locked"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Evan, Megan, and Dave take in two derivative films this week: (2:37), a horror/sci-fi hodgepodge headed up by Eiza González and Aaron Paul about an astronaut who wakes up to find her crew killed, features just about every horror/sci-fi trope since ALIEN hit screens in 1979. Then there's (25:17), a thriller starring Bill Skarsgård as a petty criminal trapped and tortured in an impenetrable SUV owned by bad-dude Anthony Hopkins. , we watched the 1975 noir , starring Gene Hackman, who left us in February.
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Episode 557: "The Electric State" and "Novocaine"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Evan, Megan, and Dave watched one dud and one banger. The dud: (1:55), the latest crap-fest from the Russo brothers. This unfunny sci-fi comedy stars Millie Bobby Brown, Chris Pratt, and Ke Huy Quan. The banger: (26:00). Assistant bank manager Jack Quaid has a genetic condition in which he can't feel pain. So when bank robbers kidnap his would-be girlfriend (Amber Midthunder), he uses the condition to his advantage to try to save her. , we talk about the 2006 Spike Lee heist film .
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Episode 556: "The Rule of Jenny Pen" and "Starve Acre"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
It's a week for horror on Spoilerpiece. Megan and Dave talk about (2:10), featuring Geoffrey Rush as a judge recovering from a stroke, John Lithgow as a sadist, and Jenny Pen as Lithgow's evil puppet cohort. Then Evan joins in for (20:59), in which two grieving parents find a mummified oak tree and tend to a reanimated rabbit that may or may not be malevolent. Yeah, it's weird. , we talk about the 2025 Oscars.
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Episode 555: "Captain America: Brave New World," "The Monkey," and "My Dead Friend Zoe"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week we catch up on two current releases and a new film. Megan and Evan talk about (2:28), and Megan and Dave discuss (26:02). Then we all talk about the new film (41:03), a dark comedy/drama about an Afghanistan war veteran (Sonequa Martin-Green) dealing with the trauma of losing her friend and fellow vet Zoe (Natalie Morales), who keeps popping up in her day-to-day life as a ghost. , we talk about because it's 25 years old (yikes!).
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Episode 554: "Cleaner" and "The Quiet Ones"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Dave is under the weather, so Megan and Evan tackle the two films as a duo. First, we review Frederik Louis Hviid's true crime heist film, (2:59), which recounts the largest robbery in Denmark's history. Next, we discuss Martin Campbell's action thriller (28:09), which features Daisy Ridley as an ex-soldier turned window cleaner who must save a building full of people after they're taken hostage by eco-terrorists. , we talk about Jeremy Saulnier's 2024 Netflix crime thriller .
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Episode 553: "Rounding" and "The Gorge"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Megan, Evan, and Dave discuss (1:59), about an ambitious medical resident who relocates to a rural hospital after an elderly patient dies in his care. He soon becomes obsessed with saving a young asthma patient while suffering from horrific visions brought on by sleep deprivation and his previous trauma. Then we talk about (27:48), an action-rom-com-horror-thriller starring Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Sigourney Weaver. , we watched , the bizarro sort-of sequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ.
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Episode 552: "Heart Eyes" and "Love Hurts"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Dave spoils director Josh Ruben’s latest, the horror comedy (2:11), about a serial killer who targets couples on and around Valentine’s Day. Then Evan and Megan join him to discuss (18:09), which stars in his first leading role. , we talk about Billy Wilder’s in honor of its 75th anniversary.
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Episode 551: "Dog Man" and "Love Me"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Evan and Dave are a duo this week. Dave took his children to see the ridiculous animated movie , which he - surprisingly? - liked. And both Evan and Dave took in , a romantic drama in which Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun play a buoy and a satellite falling in love long after every lifeform on Earth has gone extinct. , we discuss the 2006 Tony Scott film with Denzel Washington.
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Episode 550: "Rocky's" and "Inheritance"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week we watch two films, the indie comedy-drama (2:26), about five friends in their mid-20s who come together for a funeral, but first regroup in the parking lot of the 24-hour deli they loitered around in high school. Then it’s (23:11), a spy thriller with Phoebe Dynevor and Rhys Ifans as an estranged daughter and father caught in a conspiracy. (Please excuse Dave’s room noise when the podcast begins; his space heater ran for a few minutes.) , we talk about the 1989 Nicole Kidman thriller .
info_outlineThis week, we start things off at Shiz University, as Megan saw WICKED (2:22), the film adaptation of the stage musical, which is an adaptation of the novel by Gregory Maguire. Does Jon M. Chu's film hold up under scrutiny? And how are Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as, respectively, Elphaba and Glinda? Next, Dave joins Megan to talk about GLADIATOR II (6:18), Ridley Scott's sequel to Ridley Scott's (ha) GLADIATOR, starring Paul Mescal. Megan and Dave's opinions diverge, but they agree on one thing: Denzel Washington's performance is absolutely unreal (in the best way). Then Evan joins in for a lively discussion of Steve McQueen's BLITZ (28:01), starring Saoirse Ronan as a single mother who puts her son on a train to safety during the early days of the German Blitz campaign over England. But her son (Elliott Heffernan) has other ideas that lead to peril, again and again and again. There's a compelling racial element to the story, but otherwise all three of us had different views of the film's success or failure. Over on Patreon, we talk about the zany 1987 Japanese comedy A TAXING WOMAN.