Episode 321. For our annual Nicolas Cage weekend, we watch our earliest Cage yet in 1987's Raising Arizona. In this Coen Brothers caper, an infertile couple kidnaps a baby from a family of quintuplets, intending to raise him on their own, until criminals and manhunters get in their way. We discuss the movie's sincerity, the iconic chase scene, the tattoo mystery, John Goodman screaming, and how every small town movie just takes us back to Napoleon Dynamite. Click here to watch a video of this ep...
Jul 09, 2025•1 hr 37 min•Season 8Ep. 321
Episode 320. We bring our racecar nonsense to The Review Show by watching the 1971 movie Le Mans, set in the real 24-hour motorsports endurance race through the French countryside. We discuss the film slowly building anticipation before the race actually starts, Steve McQueen's movie star identity intertwining with cars and motorcycles, waxing philosophic on the roar of the engine, and watch sponsorships. Link to Patrick H. Willems' video essay on Grand Prix: https://youtu.be/JPnTm8C_OfY?si=iQKO...
Jun 25, 2025•1 hr 40 min•Season 8Ep. 320
Episode 319. We quick-change into our capes for an episode on Richard Donner's 1978 Superman: The Movie. This has all the classic Superman iconography you know and love, plus a complicated real estate scheme where Lex Luthor wants to sink the California coastline to make a new one. We discuss the strange pacing that makes you wait nearly an hour to see Superman in action, the surprisingly sincere romance (and horniness), Jor-El being a busy dad with two jobs, Midwestern wheat fields, how we expe...
Jun 12, 2025•1 hr 55 min•Season 8Ep. 319
Episode 318. We return to the world of Valiant comics to read the first three volumes of Faith, from writer Jody Houser. Faith has always worked with a superhero team, but now she's setting out on her own to live in sunny Los Angeles and fight crime her own way, while keeping up a day job as a pop culture blogger. We discuss Faith's important role as a plus-size superhero and how the story doesn't need to call attention to how unusual that is, the endless barrage of nerdy references, mid-2010s t...
May 28, 2025•1 hr 35 min•Season 8Ep. 318
Episode 317. We want to believe in this week's episode, a look back at the The X-Files movie from 1998. This movie, sometimes known under the subtitle Fight the Future, was released in theaters between seasons 5 and 6 of the TV show but tells a standalone story. Mulder and Scully are fighting for their careers, their lives, and their connection to each other as they're embroiled in a plot to release an ancient alien virus into the world. We talk about how this movie goes big while staying close ...
May 14, 2025•1 hr 57 min•Season 8Ep. 317
Episode 316. It's a Review Show first as we try to dissect a sketch comedy show with no traditional narrative, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. This show premiered on Netflix in 2019 and made a mark with its focus on absurd escalations to everyday awkward interactions. We discuss how the show reflects a post-pandemic lockdown hyper-awareness of social interaction, the lack of recurring characters, the buff boy contest, Dan Flash shirts, and how Karl Havoc plays better if you know the ...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 51 min•Season 8Ep. 316
Episode 315. We watched the 2016 comedy I Was a Teenage Wereskunk, an homage to 1950s B-movies made on a shoestring budget. A teenage boy is sprayed by a magical skunk while he's trying to look at boobs and now he turns into a murderous skunk monster whenever he gets horny. We discuss how the movie is a deft parody of a variety of genres, the tiny house, the sexy pancakes, our new favorite character Deputy Gary, and trying to understand mid-century cultural tropes like beatniks and the Lover's L...
Apr 16, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Season 8Ep. 315
Episode 314. We pay tribute to the late director David Lynch by watching his 2001 film Mulholland Drive. An aspiring actress finds a mysterious amnesiac woman hiding in her new Hollywood apartment, sparking a close bond between the two women, and a search for truth and identity. We ask whether it's possible to spoil the ending of this inscrutable movie and discuss its origins as a failed TV pilot, clues that don't lead you anywhere, selves within selves, the symbology of the jewelry box, and how...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 53 min•Season 8Ep. 314
Episode 313. It's finally here: the episode where Kyle makes Melissa watch a Gundam. We watched Mobile Suit Gundam I-III, three movies on Netflix that are abridged compilations of the original 1979 TV show. In a war-torn future, young Amuro Ray finds his way into a mech suit and struggles with the moral conflicts of becoming a soldier losing members of his newfound family. We discuss how Gundam is more about the tragedy of war than it is about pew-pew-pew space fights, characters who are introdu...
Mar 19, 2025•1 hr 36 min•Season 8Ep. 313
Episode 312. We read the first two volumes of the Love Everlasting, from Tom King and Elsa Charretier. This is a psychological horror comic about a woman who finds herself trapped in a series of stereotypical romance stories, never sure when she's really falling in love and when she's just going through the motions trying to get out of this story and escape. We discuss the variety of vintage romance comic tropes, the mysterious cowboy who enforces the rules of this world, finding true love at th...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 39 min•Season 8Ep. 312
Episode 311. We catch up to the current season of For All Mankind, as the show reaches the 1990s and begins the race for Mars, with a private company launching its own voyage alongside the USA and Russia. We discuss how the show has proven itself adept enough at drama in the early seasons to earn a few wild comedic moments now, having one specific human villain, and spending too much time on setup when we're ready to be introduced to a situation in media res. Kyle demands a sovereign colony on M...
Feb 19, 2025•2 hr 10 min•Season 8Ep. 311
Episode 310. We watched the first two seasons of For All Mankind, an Apple TV+ drama that looks at an alternate world history where the space race never ended, with each season jumping forward years to see a new era of exploration. We discuss the balance of tense space missions with equally tense interpersonal drama at home, how the show feels sprawling but also limited in only showing us the American or Russian side, breaking narrative rules, surprisingly nuanced supporting characters, and one ...
Feb 07, 2025•2 hr 2 min•Season 8Ep. 310
Episode 309. We're talking on Sunshine, and don't it feel good! We watched the sci-fi thriller from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, about a space mission to launch a nuclear bomb that will revive the dying Sun and save Earth from death by ice age. The mission is thrown into chaos when the crew hears a distress signal from the first ship who attempted this mission and failed under mysterious circumstances. We discuss the cast of breakout stars and how the movie feels like it could b...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Season 8Ep. 309
Episode 308. It's an explosive start to 2025 as we watch all of the Bourne franchise: the trilogy of The Bourne Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum, the not-really-a-reboot The Bourne Legacy, and the attempted return to form with Jason Bourne. These movies follow an amnesiac secret agent as he attempts to uncover the corrupt government program that took his memories in exchange for deadly skills. We discuss the context of action cinema in 2002 and how the series adapted to industry changes like c...
Jan 08, 2025•2 hr•Season 8Ep. 308
Kyle and Melissa are here for a chill end-of-year celebration, looking back on our year in podcasting and looking ahead to our 2025 goals. We give out our Review Show awards, play a game of "What the Hell Were We Talking About?", run through our recent cinema experiences, talk about fancy cocktails and fancy mansions, and finally share our thoughts on the weird twist in the otherwise conventional neo-noir show Sugar. Click here to watch a video of this episode. (00:00) - Intro (00:03) - Welcome ...
Dec 18, 2024•2 hr 15 min
Episode 307. In our final Review Show of the year, we rewatched Severance before season two premieres in January! Employees at a shadowy mega-corporation can choose to undergo a "severance" procedure, where their brain is divided between work memories and personal memories. A group of severed employees who know nothing outside of their office start to wonder what the purpose of their work actually is, what their outside lives are like, and what it'll take for them to escape. We discuss the myria...
Dec 05, 2024•2 hr 20 min•Season 7Ep. 307
Episode 306. We watched the 2018 limited series Escape at Dannemora, from director Ben Stiller. In this drama based on true events, two inmates start affairs with a civilian prison employee, and manipulate her to get them the tools they need to break out. We discuss how everything falls apart after the escape, the diegetic soundtrack of 2015 radio pop hits, tiny doll pants, and how a reference to Happy Gilmore has actual thematic resonance to the story. Click here to watch a video of this episod...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 7Ep. 306
Episode 305. They should've sent a poet... instead they got podcasters. We connect with Contact, the 1997 sci-fi drama from director Robert Zemekis, based on a novel from Carl Sagan. Dr. Ellie Arroway has spent her life listening to the stars, and the stars finally have a message for her. Humanity scrambles to decode an alien transmission and determine what to do with this new knowledge, and what it means for their very concept of facts vs. faith. We discuss the story's approachable and universa...
Nov 06, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Season 7Ep. 305
Episode 304. We watched Ti West's horror trilogy of X, Pearl, and Maxxxine. These movies take us from a 1970s adult film shoot turned deadly to a farmgirl's suffocating small town life in 1918 to the neon sleeze of 1980s LA. We discuss the sense of history in each of the films, repeated patterns of aging and feeling trapped and becoming the person you swore you wouldn't become, dual roles and special effects makeup, if character actor Toby Huss has become too well known to just be used for a cou...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 7Ep. 304
Episode 303. We kick off October with a look into DC Comics' dark magic side, reading Paul Dini's run on Zatanna. Our heroine is both a working stage magician and one of the most powerful magical beings in the universe, as she juggles solving supernatural crimes with maintaining her performance schedule. We discuss how Zatanna is more iconic than any actual real world female magicians, the story's sense of place in San Francisco, killer puppets, Brother Night, and the "please, just let me sleep"...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Season 7Ep. 303
Episode 302. How has Kyle never seen Zodiac? That's the real mystery. Shametember corrects this error as we discuss David Fincher's 2007 true crime thriller. This movie follows the investigation into the Zodiac killer across decades through the perspective of detectives, journalists, and the few survivors of his attacks, all based on real accounts. We discuss the unnerving atmosphere and bizarre side-stories that are just as haunting as the main mystery, the atypical plot structure and pacing, J...
Sep 25, 2024•1 hr 50 min•Season 7Ep. 302
Episode 301. Shametember kicks off this year with a movie that Melissa has somehow never seen -- 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, from Joe Dante, the director of the Gremlins films. In this live-action and animation hybrid, Bugs and Daffy join a globe-trotting adventure with an aspiring stuntman who needs to save his action star father from the villainous chairman of Acme. We discuss the frantic plot and non-stop visual gags, celebrity cameos, product placement, Steve Martin's confounding pe...
Sep 11, 2024•1 hr 41 min•Season 7Ep. 301
Episode 300! To celebrate our 300th episode, we're breaking our usual episode format to imagine a theme park based on the movies, shows, comics, and audio fiction we've covered in the past 299 episodes. Ideas include: High School Land, a Speed Racer roller coaster, a Mission:Impossible stunt spectacular, a carnival booth that will tell you if you're going to hell or not, a secret chicken restaurant that you can only find if you bribe a newsie, a town of endless parades, and a walkaround Michael ...
Sep 06, 2024•1 hr 41 min•Season 7Ep. 300
Episode 299. We are not numbers! We are free podcasters!! Our topic this episode is the 1967 British sci-fi mystery show The Prisoner. After suddenly resigning from his intelligence bureau, a spy known only as Number 6 is kidnapped and imprisoned in the eerily idyllic Village, where he's challenged with bizarre mind games until he gives up whatever terrible secret made him resign. We discuss the rotating cast of actors playing the Village's leader Number 2, the killer bubble, the mod coastal fas...
Aug 14, 2024•2 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 299
Episode 298. French cinema month concludes with the 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It's the 1950s in a quaint French town, and young Genvieve is despondent over her boyfriend being sent off to war, and coming to terms with marrying a more sensible man whom she should love but doesn't. We talk about how the movie is sung through in its entirety and defies common musical structure, the vibrant color palette, why Genvieve's mom doesn't just marry the suitor herself if she adores him so mu...
Jul 31, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 7Ep. 298
Episode 297. In honor of the Paris Olympics, we're covering French cinema this July, starting with Titane. This is a 2021 horror movie about a woman who has sex with a car and becomes pregnant with a car baby. We discuss how strange the movie is beyond just this initial premise, the murder spree, the dance sequences, and a firefighting brigade made entirely of orphan boys. Click here to watch a video of this episode. (00:00) - Intro (00:04) - Welcome and banter (03:27) - Non-spoiler thoughts on ...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Season 7Ep. 297
Episode 296. We continue our tradition of watching a Nic Cage movie every 4th of July weekend, and it's Christmas in July with the 2000 magic realism holiday rom-com The Family Man. Jack Campbell is a successful businessman living a solo jetsetter lifestyle when he's transported to an alternate world where he stayed with his college sweetheart and settled down in the suburbs. We discuss how the story fails to stand out in the catalogue of Christmas movies, the lack of compromise in the family vs...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 296
Episode 295. We donned our aprons to talk about the first two seasons of the culinary dark comedy The Bear, in preparation for season three later this month. When a world class chef has to return home to Chicago and take over his late brother's failing sandwich shop, the whole staff struggles to adapt to their personal loss and new professional goals as they work to revamp the restaurant under a punishing deadline. We discuss the show's mix of dread and coziness, the well-rounded peripheral char...
Jun 19, 2024•2 hr 13 min•Season 7Ep. 295
Episode 294. We chow down on the first two volumes of Chew, the 2009 comic from John Layman and Rob Guillory. Whenever Tony Chu eats something, he gets a psychic impression of its history. He can see where produce was grown or how meat was slaughtered, or if he bites a dead body, he can see that person's last moments. He uses this power as an agent for the FDA, solving bizarre food-related crimes in a world where where chicken has been outlawed and is now treated as an illicit substance. We disc...
Jun 05, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 7Ep. 294
Episode 293. We run from a bi-plane right into a discussion on Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller North by Northwest! Roger Thornhill is caught up in a web of espionage and danger after he's mistaken for a secret agent, and this humdrum advertising exec has to play the action hero to get out of this conspiracy alive. We share our experiences going to the Fathom Events theatrical screening for this movie's 65th anniversary, its influence on spy stories, the surprising amount of humor, unconvincing ...
May 22, 2024•1 hr 32 min•Season 7Ep. 293
