Episode 559: "The Penguin Lessons" and "Bob Trevino Likes It"
Release Date: 03/28/2025
Episode #630: "Tony"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Director and co-writer Matt Johnson's Anthony Bourdain biopic (2:04) wisely focuses on one short period of Bourdain's life: The summer Tony (Dominic Sessa) went to Provincetown, Mass., and worked in a kitchen while trying to woo his high school classmate Nancy (Emilia Jones). This movie isn't afraid to show you what a jerk Bourdain could be, how aimless he was, and how he made wrong decision after wrong decision. With an excellent central performance from Sessa and superior supporting work from Antonio Banderas as the chef/owner of the restaurant where Tony works, and Leo Woodall as a crude...
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Episode #629: "Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Spoilerpiece Theatre
We're slinging into this week's episode...webslinging that is, because we're reviewing (2:22). Tom Holland and Zendaya are back as Peter Parker and MJ, but this time they have to find their way back to each other in the wake of SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME's events. (By the way, how is the last live-action Spider-Man movie already from five years ago?!) With the world having forgotten Peter Parker ever existed, our favorite wall-crawler has to face a powerful new villain while battling his own worst instinct: that he has to handle everything alone. Is it the best Spider-Man movie? Probably...
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Episode #628: "The Dink"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Yep, we're reviewing a movie called (1:38), named after a type of shot in Pickleball - a real sport - called a "dink." No, we're not making that up, and yes, Evan and Dave really watched this movie, which stars Jake Johnson, Mary Steenburgen, and Ed Harris. Johnson is a long-washed up tennis player, Steenburgen is his pickleball partner, and Harris is his father. Anyway, one member of Spoilerpiece really liked THE DINK, and one just hated it. Hated it. Can you guess which is the liker and which one isn't? , we talk about the 1986 film , in honor of its fortieth anniversary.
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Episode #627: Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" and Spoilerpiece is 12!
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Evan and Dave sat side by side in the movie house (notably not an IMAX movie house) to watch (2:44), Christopher Nolan's film of Homer's epic poem. Because after OPPENHEIMER, what do you do? Swords and sandals, obviously. Look, folks. This film is long. But it's engaging, has an incredible score, and Matt Damon gives the performance of this career, along with excellent work from Anne Hathaway, John Leguizamo, Robert Pattinson, Himesh Patel, and Samantha Morton. Evan is on board with the movie, and Dave is, too, though they're both ambivalent about Nolan, and they go down that rabbit...
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Episode #626: "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Dave was happy to see (1:34) - Evan less so - a comedy by director David Wain with a screenplay by Wain and Ken Marino, members of the 1990s sketch comedy group "The State." Eight members of "The State" appear, including Marino, and there are a billion celebrity cameos as Kansas hairdresser Gail Daughtry (Zoey Deutch) and her friend Otto run around L.A. trying to find Jon Hamm so she can fuck him (because her fiancé used his celebrity sex pass to bone Jennifer Aniston after a book reading in their town). Yes, it's as absolutely bonkers as it sounds. And if you're not into...
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Episode #625: "Enola Holmes 3"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
It's one of those weeks over at Spoilerpiece when one of us is pretty neutral about a movie, and the other is pretty irritated (by the movie; not, like, by life). Such is the quandary of . The Millie Bobby Brown-starring series about Sherlock Holmes younger sister is the kind of thing that makes Evan bristle, and makes Dave pretty - what's the word...noncommital? One thing both Evan and Dave agree on: This movie has a lot of plot for a picture that's pretty short but feels pretty long ("More endings than RETURN OF THE KING," says Evan). eek! Not high praise. , we watch and .
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Episode #624: "Lucky Strike"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Given how many films have been made about WWII, it's impressive when one tells a new story, like Rod Lurie's action drama (1:47), which follows a wounded American soldier (Scott Eastwood) stranded behind enemy lines during the Battle of the Bulge. Scott Eastwood looks more like his dad, Clint, than he ever has, but unfortunately, looks don't mean he inherited his father's charisma. His blandness definitely hurts the movie. Also, its plot follows predictable beats, and not much is really surprising. However, its period accuracy, harrowing encounters with Nazis, and decent war set pieces make...
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Episode #623: The Voices of Our Mother
Spoilerpiece Theatre
You know, sometimes you spend your young adulthood worshipping Satan, being a dirty heretic basking in the glory of His evil. And then, sometimes, inexplicably, you find God and dedicate your life to him. You even adopt a child and plan to raise her with a steady diet of God's love. And then what does Satan do? HE SHOWS UP ON YOUR DOORSTEP IN THE GUISE OF A CHURCH GARGOYLE AND DECIDES IF HE CAN'T HAVE YOU, HE'S GOING TO POSSESS THE BABY! Satan: What a bastard. So now you have to spend your life with the child attached at your hip, praying the evil away. Meanwhile, the child grows into...
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Episode #622: "Disclosure Day"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Steven Spielberg's aliens-are-among-us-and-we're-gonna-prove-it blockbuster is out, and Dave and Evan have seen it. And they liked it! Mostly! There are many odd choices in (1:29), but also lots of things that are rather nifty, beginning with Emily Blunt's bravura performance. , we talk about the 1995 anthology film .
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Episode #621: "Seven Snipers"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Not to be confused with , , , , or , it's (2:53), a movie Dave proclaims is not a movie. It's a scenario. And sort of a good one. Just with some of the shittiest execution you've ever seen. First, there's Radha Mitchell as a retired sniper raising her soon-to-be 16-year-old daughter on an isloated farm in Australia. Okay, no problems there. Second, there's word that a nasty AF sniper by played Tim Roth is coming for Mitchell in order to kill her and probably do something else that will be completely obvious to anyone who has ever watched a movie. (Tim Roth as an elite sniper? As fine an actor...
info_outlineSometimes 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 THE PENGUIN LESSONS, 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 Cattaneo for laying off the sentiment. Next, Evan joins Megan and Dave to dicuss BOB TREVINO LIKES IT, featuring superb turns by Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizmo as two lonely people who strike up an unlikely and deep friendship that helps shepherd them through emotional trauma. This movie made us sob real tears. (Again, not jerked, but earned.) And then over on Patreon our Women's History Month poll winner is the disaster that is ANGIE, directed by Martha Coolidge and starring Geena Davis; this movie is head-scratchingly bad.