Episode 559: "The Penguin Lessons" and "Bob Trevino Likes It"
Release Date: 03/28/2025
Episode #604: "Whistle"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Evan and Dave settle in to talk about the horror film (1:30), whose marketing tagline is "Don't Blow It." Well, one of us thinks this derivative, bloody as hell, tonally confused schlockfest, which has countless references to other horror movies, blew it, and the other doesn't. Which co-host is which, you wonder? (Take a wild guess.) Over on Patreon, we talk about the wacko 1989 action comedy
info_outline
Episode #603: “Islands” and “A Private Life”
Spoilerpiece Theatre
It's Megan's final episode on Spoilerpiece, and we're very happy to send her off with lively conversations. First up is (5:41), a slow burn thriller about a tennis instructor (Sam Riley) at an island resort who falls in with an unhappy English couple (Stacy Martin and Jack Farthing) and their young son. We all really dug this picture, and think Riley is great in the lead role. Then it's on to (30:11), a sort-of comedy, sort-of thriller set in Paris, with Jodie Foster as a psychotherapist who's convinced that one of her patients was murdered. But how is she going to prove it? By making lots...
info_outline
Episode #602: "H is for Hawk," "Dooba Dooba," and "The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week, Megan tells Dave and Evan about (2:48), based on Helen MacDonald's memoir about losing their beloved father and, while grieving, adopting a stubborn hawk. Then all three of them talk about (11:31). This found footage horror film rubbed them all the wrong way. Some of them really wrong. Finally, Megan and Evan discuss (36:46). Both Evan and Megan were moved by this movie's embrace of queer joy while it's simultaneously an AIDS allegory. , we watch the Safdie Brothers' 2017 film
info_outline
Episode #601: "The Choral" and "The Rip"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Before we start talking movies, Megan has some news. Then: We often say on Spoilerpiece that movies we select to review end up being thematically related, even when we don't intend them to be. Well, not today, gang! (5:50) and (24:12) could not be less alike if they're directors ( and , respectively) made conscious decisions to make them live on opposite ends of the movie spectrum. Evan and Dave take on THE CHORAL (Megan had screener problems), an all-over-the-place drama about a chorus putting together a performance under the heavy cloud of World War I. Ralph Fieness is great. Everything...
info_outline
Episode #600: "Dead Man's Wire" and "OBEX"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week we get down to the wire - the (2:56), that is! (Hey-o!). This drama about a well-known-to-Hoosiers (like Dave) historical incident didn't really work for us. Which incident, you ask? Why, a very public kidnapping! Bill Skarsgård plays a disgruntled Indianapolis resident who holds a mortgage executive hostage over a loan dispute. Featuring an unrecognizable Cary Elwes and Kelly Lynch in small roles (and a recognizable over-the-top - natch - Al Pacino in another), we kind of rip DMW a new one. Following that, we tackle Albert Birney's (25:57), which is more of a split decision....
info_outline
Episode #599: "The Plague" and "We Bury the Dead"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Welcome to 2026! We start out the year by doing what we do best: Not enjoying a movie that is otherwise being heaped with critical praise! That's right, folks, Evan and Megan didn't really get the critical brouhaha behind (2:42). This story about extreme bullying at a water polo camp left them a little cold, and not because the water temperature is a chilly 65 degrees. Dave joins them for (21:45), and unconventional the-dead-are-coming-back-to-life tale. This one left Dave cold, but not just because he has a frigid critics' heart. Evan and Megan liked it, and its take on zombieism is...
info_outline
Episode #598: Our favorite films of 2025!
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Welcome to the final Spoilerpiece of 2025! We take turns talking about our favorite films of the year. Dave (3:02), Megan (19:35), and Evan (39:30) each have a couple surprising choices sprinkled in. We hope you had a great year, and we'll see you in 2026. ! This week we talk about the 1979 Robert Altman sci-fi flick , starring Paul Newman.
info_outline
Episode #597: "No Other Choice" and "Is This Thing On?"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week everyone saw everything, so we start off with Park Chan-Wook's latest, the darkly comic thriller (2:51), in which a 25-year veteran of a paper company is laid off and after a series of poor interviews, can't find another job. So he does the next logical thing: He decides to murder everyone in his field who may be more qualified than he is. Yikes! We all had our problems with this (it ain't ), but we did find things to like. But it seems we're outliers; NO OTHER CHOICE is getting critical raves but we all found it lukewarm for one reason or another. We follw up with Bradley Cooper's...
info_outline
Episode #596: "Influencers," "Dust Bunny," and "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Megan, Evan, and Dave all saw all the movies on the list. Hot shit! We start with (1:37) (the aptly-titled sequel to ), and everyone is on board with the killin’, though Evan and Dave don’t love its pacing. We all agree that Cassandra Naud is dynamite in the lead, and Megan and Dave even feel sympathy for her murderous character (weird!). Then there’s (24:28), a fantasy-horror about a young girl who thinks there’s a monster under her bed that has eaten her family, so she hires her intriguing neighbor Mads Mikkelsen (playing a hitman) to off the monster. One of us hated...
info_outline
Episode #595: ""Hamnet," "One Battle After Another," and "It Was Just an Accident"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Evan is back! We're happy to have him. First up is Megan's solo turn on (2:19), director Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel (with a screenplay by Zhao and O'Farrell), a historical drama about Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare's marriage following the tragic death of their 11-year-old son. Then Evan, Megan, and Dave talk about Paul Thomas Anderson's (15:16), but Dave is called away mid-conversation by a child in need (one of his, not some rando who wandered in from the hinterlands). Evan and Megan pick up the conversation and then discuss writer-director Jafar Panahi's...
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.