Episode #61 - "The Visit," "Grandma," and "90 Minutes in Heaven"
Release Date: 09/11/2015
Episode 546: Our Top 10 Movies of the Year (All Three of Us)
Spoilerpiece Theatre
It's the end of the year, and that means it's time for our top 10 lists. As members of the Boston Online Film Critics Association, we vote for what we consider the best films of the year (ya know, like critics do). Megan (4:28) goes first, followed by Dave (28:45), and finally Evan (51:51). We have some overlap, but not much! And we have a good time breaking down our reasons for liking the films we do. There are some curveballs, too, which is always fun. Over on Patreon, the results of our Hitchcock for the Holidays poll is a discussion of the 1943 thriller . It you're a patron, .
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Episode 545: "The Brutalist" and "Nosferatu"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Ladies and gentleman, pray forgive Dave in his capacity as host this week: His rhythm was off, as he was interrupted during the Patreon segment by a restless 9-year-old. (Speaking of Patreon, , Geena Davis-starring THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT. It's a fun conversation!) This week we all watched (3:44), Brady Corbet's post-WWII epic featuring Adrien Brody as a talented architect trying to thrive in the United States while dealing with rampant antisemitism (he's a Hungarian Jew), the process of getting his wife and niece to the United States (they're stuck in Budapest), and designing and building a...
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Episode 544: "Chasing Chasing Amy," "Conclave," and "Nickel Boys"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
We start with (1:44), trans filmmaker Sav Rodgers’ documentary about his relationship with Kevin Smith’s , and an exploration of Rodgers’ reverence for Kevin Smith’s at-the-time groundbreaking but now much-more-questioned-about-its-narrative-ideas lesbian-falls-for-a-straight-man rom-com. Over the course of six years, Rodgers’ feelings change as he transitions, and interviews Smith, queer filmmakers and critics, academics, his own fiancée Riley (whom we all love), and Joey Lauren Adams, CHASING AMY’s star, who has *very* different feelings about it than writer-director Smith....
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Episode 543: "Queer," "Flow," and "Nightbitch"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Megan and Dave talk about director Luca Guadagnino’s (2:28), an adaptation of William S. Burroughs 1985 novel (with a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes). Starring Daniel Craig as William Lee (a Burroughs stand-in), this movie left both Megan and Dave a little bewildered, as there were things they liked (the shooting-up scene, the color palette), and things they didn’t like (Drew Starkey’s performance as Lee’s love interest). Then Evan joins in for (22:38) an excellent animated film featuring a very cat-like cat and other animals as they survive a catastrophic flood. Finally...
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Episode 542: "Know Your Place" and "The Black Sea"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
Evan is off this week (doubtless watching PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES), so Megan and Dave take on (2:19) and (35:29) as a duo. And as with many weeks, the movies we choose are linked thematically (often accidentally). In this case, both films tackle characters with feelings of being outsiders. In KNOW YOUR PLACE, Robel (Joseph Smith) balances being a typical American teenager with the familial demands of being the child of Eritrean immigrants, and he navigates the emotional and physical fallout that comes with feeling stuck between two competing sets of demands. And in THE BLACK SEA,...
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Episode 541: "Wicked," "Gladiator II," and "Blitz"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week, we start things off at Shiz University, as Megan saw (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 (6:18), Ridley Scott's sequel to Ridley Scott's (ha) , 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...
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Episode 540: "Blink Twice" and "My Old Ass"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week, we took a gander at two films in current release: Megan and Evan watched (2:32), Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut starring Naomi Ackie as a woman who goes to a private island with a tech-bro (Channing Tatum) and parties with his friends, but things aren't what they seem to be. We were divided on this thriller. Then Dave joined them for (24:35), which is NOT about an aged donkey. It’s writer-director Megan Park’s sweet and charming coming-of-age tale of Elliot (Maisy Stella), a woman preparing to leave her small town for college in the big city, taking some...
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Episode 539: "Heretic," "Black Cab," and "Small Things Like These"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week Megan talks about the psychological horror thriller (2:18), starring a possibly career-best Hugh Grant. Then Evan, Megan, and Dave discuss the Nick Frost-starring horror flick (11:34), and the excellent (28:56), with Cillian Murphy as an empathetic man slowly uncovering the ugly secrets of a local convent. , we talk about in honor of its tenth anniversary.
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Episode 538: "Here," "High Tide," and "Music by John Williams"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week, Dave gets boomerific yapping about the new Robert Zemeckis film (3:14), starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, and a bunch of other actors who should have known better, as they tackle Zemeckis’ latest blundered technology cry-fest. Gah. Then Megan and Evan talk about (13:54), Marco Calvani’s queer love story, set in Provincetown, Mass., between a heartbroken undocumented Brazilian immigrant and a man leaving the country in a week. Finally, Dave and Megan discuss (34:36), which is a documentary about the storming of the Bastille. Weird that a documentary about the Bastille would...
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Episode 537: "The Line" and "Magpie"
Spoilerpiece Theatre
This week we watched (2:41), a drama (sometimes called a thriller, but eh) about a fraternity brother who gets mixed up in his frat’s shady pledge shenanigans. Does it result in someone’s death? Does the Pope shit in the woods? Then we watched (27:12), an atmospheric thriller starring Daisy Ridley (from an idea she had) about a woman dealing with her absolutely reprehensible husband's emotional affair. But is he really having an emotional affair? Are things even what they seem? As Evan says, does it all add up? And over on Patreon, we watched , the winner of our October poll.
info_outlineSean Burns joins Evan and Kris this week, vowing to up the episode’s profanity quotient since he’s filling for Dave. But Evan does a pretty good job of that himself, cursing out M. Night Shyamalan’s found footage horror film THE VISIT. Although Evan can’t stand the movie, Kris doesn’t actually hate everything about it and manages to sell Sean on seeing it. After they get through that slog, Sean talks about how entertaining Lily Tomlin is in GRANDMA and how crazy it was seeing her around Sundance with Jane Fonda. Then he wraps everything up with 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN, the boring Christian film that stars Hayden Christensen with a creepy mustache and drawl. How boring is it? Sean needed three tries to get through it without falling asleep. Given its lack of excitement, it’s not surprising that the guys end up hitting a number of tangents instead of discussing the movie in depth.