Episode 559: "The Penguin Lessons" and "Bob Trevino Likes It"
Release Date: 03/28/2025
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...
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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...
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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...
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Episode #594: "Rebuilding" and "The Secret Agent"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week, Megan watches (2:30), writer-director Max Walker-Silverman's follow-up to (which Megan loves), about a cowboy putting his life back together after a fire destroys his home and land, and the homes of many people in his community. Then Megan and Dave discuss (22:14), a Brazilian film by Kleber Mendonça Filho about political violence and corruption that's receiving accolade after accolade this year. (Wagner Moura won Best Actor at Cannes, for one.) , we cover Kelly Reichardt's 2010 film .
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Episode #593: "Wicked: for Good" and "Train Dreams"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Megan fills Dave in on (4:07), the conclusion of the film adapation of the Broadway musical which is an adaptation of the novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Verdict: Megan liked it, but didn't love it the way she loves ( for a reminder). Then Dave and Megan talk about (20:34), director and co-screenwriter Clint Bentley's adaptation of the Denis Johnson novella. With gorgeous cinematography, a quietly deft screenplay, and a beautiful central performance from Joel Edgerton, Megan and Dave both see TRAIN DREAMS ending up on their year-end...
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Episode #592: "The Running Man" and "Nouvelle Vague"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
The Megan-Dave dynamic duo returns with two new movies, Edgar Wright's (2:15) and Richard Linklater's (25:41). Dave didn't see THE RUNNING MAN but he was able to fill Megan in on the difference between Stephen King's novel and the . But how did Megan like Wright's version? Eh...she didn't love it. (But she did love Colman Domingo, so there's that.) As for NOUVELLE VAGUE, Megan and Dave return to the age-old question: Who is this movie for? Aside from a Linklater fan or someone steeped in French New Wave cinema, does anyone really want to see a cutesy black and white take on the making of...
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Episode 591: "Predator: Badlands," and "Die, My Love"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Dave and Megan are a duo again this week, and they get down to it on (3:29), the latest, and, in their estimation, largely successful attempt to prolong the life of the PREDATOR franchise. P:B is kind of silly and even cute in places, but the dynamic duo are largely here for it. (Megan is super here for it!) Then they get into (28:34), director and co-writer Lynne Ramsay's latest. Featuring strong performances from Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, Megan and Dave dive deep to dissect just what's going on in this movie. And they also try to figure out just what's going on in this movie,...
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Episode 590: "Ballad of a Small Player" and "Hedda"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Evan is off this week so Megan and Dave dig into (2:17) and (22:31). Dave only got through 40 minutes of BOFSP because he hated it, and Megan takes the reins. Then they both discuss HEDDA, Nia DaCosta's latest as writer-director, which Megan loooooooooooved and Dave...didn't. , the October poll winner is Wes Craven's 1981 film , and it is a HOOT.
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Episode #589: "Frankenstein" and "The Mastermind"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Dave is back this week but, bum that he is, didn't get a chance to watch either film this week. So that leaves Megan flying solo on (3:00), writer-director Guillermo del Toro's take on Mary Shelley's classic novel. Short version: Megan loooooooved it and particularly enjoyed that this version portrays Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) as a complete bastard, and it gives the Creature (Jacob Elordi) a humanity and depth that other versions don't. Then Evan joins Megan for (17:04), writer-director Kelly Reichardt's latest, about an art heist gone wrong - largely because its planner (or...
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Episode #588: "Vicious" and "Chain Reactions"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Megan and Evan hold down the fort again this week, while Dave's on vacation. Megan kicks things off with a review of (2:25), Alexandre O. Philippe's insightful documentary about THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, which takes an intriguing approach: it examines the film's impact on five artists — Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama — exploring how it shaped their art and psyche from childhood trauma. Megan is a big fan and highly recommends it. Next, both of us discuss Bryan Bertino's disappointing psychological horror film (20:55), starring...
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.