Are You Screening? Podcast

We're trying to get you as caught up with things as we can this week, and we cover Army of the Dead, Wrath of Man, Cruella, and Those Who Wish Me Dead. It's a strange mix of heist movies, zombies, action, and live-action look at a cartoon world, and it all adds up to a front-runner for best of the year, horrible nonsense, and things that should have been better. Tune in and we'll let you know which is which.

This week we take another look at The Mitchells vs the Machines, which is a lot of fun, and we review Without Remorse, the latest Tom Clancy effort. Ultimately, Without Remorse isn't particularly bad, but it could have been a lot better. We also keep looking back at award winners of years past, a project that started out as an idea to give people some ideas of what to look for via streaming services in these theater poor times. Since I turned out that several years didn't have very inspiring nominees, we take a look at some of the best of 2005.

This week we take a look at Mortal Kombat, Stowaway, and The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and we take another look at some old Oscar winners by way of listener questions. Is it possible that Mortal Kombat is actually a decent effort? We wouldn't have expected to even entertain the question, but the trailer made us curious. Do things work out? We'll let you know, and if you haven't heard of The Mitchells vs. the Machines yet, you really want to check it out.

Going into the Oscars has thrown everything sideways in this movie season that can't stop trying to tear the industry apart. This week, we talk briefly about Mortal Kombat, which is as weird as you expect, and we catch up on Promising Young Woman. We also start taking a look back at Oscars past to see just how much these awards mean, especially several years later. Are any of the winners actually good, or still watched? Should any of them have won over the other nominees? The answers may surprise you.

As we enter the final stretch of awards season, this week we're looking at two popcorn flicks that seemingly have no business entering awards talk. Nobody, the new effort by the screenwriter of John Wick, and a movie that looks to tell a very similar story, and Godzilla vs. Kong, which looks to be a movie that you will like exactly as much as you predict. We also end up waxing poetic about the state of theatrical releases and where things seem to be headed in the wake of the Arclight closing.

We may be venturing away from awards season, and happily toward theaters moving closer and closer to some serious releases (cross your fingers), but the news of the day is the Snyder Cut, because certain people won't stop talking about it and we might as well join them. Whether or not a movie is worth your time becomes a very different question when it's four hours long... and you've already seen it, but it turns out that there isn't much need for convincing. For some, you're going to see it whether or not anyone says it's good or bad, for others, the opposite is true. If you thought it was bad to start, and few thought it was good, can throwing two more hours at it improve things? We'll let you know.

This week we're going over the Oscar noms and comparing them with the Critics' Choice Awards. The short version is that the Oscars are the CC plus Pinocchio. We're also covering Judas and the Black Messiah, which we did not love as much as the Oscars, but is still a worthwhile film.

With awards all anyone can talk about, we're running down the Critics' Choice winners leading into the Academy Award nominations, but there are still a lot of things coming out... even if theaters are still hurting. We'll take a look at Coming 2 America and let you know if it's worth your time, and we'll also throw out some quick impressions of other new releases.

It's that time of year again. That's right. It's our own awards! The Can't Win Awards were spawned from our hope to give some attention to the movies, actors and actresses, and yes, even screenwriters and directors, who just... let's face it, can't win other awards. There's too much out there not to highlight the films that just aren't big enough, or are too "genre" to be taken seriously. Tune in and find out who we thought needed a shout out this year, and a special award, and why Shane decided it was Vast of Night.

Now the fun begins listeners! Sure, the Golden Globes have happened, and other awards are coming up - tune in to Critics' Choice on March 7th - but this week we're headed in the other direction. The worst movies can be as hard to put on a list as the best, but we make ourselves do it. Did your most hated film make the cut, or are you not putting in the same sort of effort we are and thus didn't even see any of these? Tune in and find out what we just couldn't stand this year.

It's that time, and now that awards are right around the corner, we're giving you our Best Movies of the Year lists. There are a few surprises, and we aren't as moon-eyed over some of the things jockeying for position on everyone else's lists. Find out what we loved this year, what you need to see, and how we figure our take on things may give some insight into what is going to win Best Picture.

This week, with the Golden Globes and Critics' Choice nominations out, we take a look at the nominations and run through some movies we need to at least mention before awards shows start hitting. Some of the nominations are a little crazy, some are obvious, and we also wanted to cover a few more of the movies getting a lot of attention before we hit you with our Best of the Year lists. It's a wild ride, tune in and find out what movies you better be aware of, and which ones we don't actually think are that great despite everyone talking them up.

This week we're reviewing Nomadland and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, but we couldn't let an episode this close to various awards go by without some commentary on the crazy world that is this year in film.  I'll also give some hints on what I'm nominating for the Critics' Choice Awards (nominations revealed on the 8th)... and what I'm not.

We're catching up a little this week, and we're covering The Little Things, but also Wonder Woman, The Midnight Sky, and the Critics Choice Super Awards. We're actually particularly interested in what people though of the Super Awards, especially with the bigger awards season on the horizon.

We've got some quick reviews of recent and upcoming releases this week, but a listener email sent us down the rabbit hole of revisiting our picks for the best films of last year. That's always a scary trip, but it worked out well.  We tackle Mank, briefly, and Soul, The Midnight Sky, and more.

We're taking a look at Freaky this week as theaters slow to a grinding halt, but we'll also give you a quick review of Hillbilly Elegy before we fully cover it, and we'll be looking at other things you can watch while you wait for films to decide their fates.

We check in this week with Honest Thief and wonder at the extent to which Liam Neeson can pull this one together. A somewhat interesting premise isn't given the script it deserves, but with little available in theaters... well, we'll let you know if this is worth your time. We're also giving a rundown of some of your non-theater options, including some great films and shows that are hitting on streaming services. There's a lot of good stuff out now or on the way.

As more and more movies get pushed back, options that aren't streaming are harder to come by, leading to the infinite cycle of reasons people aren't in theaters. With that, two titles from Netflix are among the biggest possibilities. Enola Holmes and Hubie Halloween offer very different fare, but at least they're options, and one of them is actually quite good.

As the movie world puts everyone in a strange limbo of theater openings mixed with release date pushback, we head to New Mutants to let you know if daring theaters is worth your time. A strange, underhyped film that isn't getting a lot of attention post-release, but is it any good?

Tenet finally shows up, but the film that doesn't want you to know what it's about hasn't managed to get people swarming against the pandemic. Is it worth heading to the theater? You can catch the curious case of Bill&Ted returning to the screen decades later at home or in the theater, but is it worth either option? We'll let you know where to put your money.