Matt's Movie Lodgecast

Celebrate Hollywood and the movies as the Lodgecast presents our Oscar Extravaganza & 2024 Movie Favorites! Host Brother Bischke leads a hard-charging examination of the Academy Award nominations as five prestigious Lodge members lay down their picks for what should win and what will win in twenty-three Oscar categories in under 30 minutes! Then it's onto our special award, where we'll all give our pick for The Salad Dragon of the Year! Then we charge forward to the very serious business of picking our 2024 movie favorites as we all count down from #10 to #1 of our very favorite films of 2024. Some Lodgecast movies make the cut of our best films, but there are many surprises. Have a listen, and let us know what you think!

Kevin Spacey made his comeback movie in 2024 called Peter Five Eight. We've been sitting on this one for a long while but wanted to drop it on you before we take our Spring Break. This neo-noir thriller went directly to video-on-demand and stars Spacey, Rebecca De Mornay, Jet Jandreau, and Jake Weber. Spacey plays Peter who is an assassin who comes to a small mountain community to wreak havoc. "In this town NOTHING is what it seems." We talk all things Spacey in this controversial new episode of the Lodgecast!

The goddess of AMC Theaters, Nicole Kidman, hits the silver screen with the new erotic thriller Babygirl. Whether or not it was erotic or a thriller will be debated in this steamy episode. The film is written and directed by Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) and stars a high-powered CEO, played by Kidman, who begins an affair with young intern Harris Dickinson. Kidman's husband is played by the always sexy Antonio Banderas, and the film also stars Sophie Wilde as Kidman's assistant. We caught this one in theaters with a full audience that was ready for a sexy good time. This A24 movie was a box office success, which will hopefully pave the way for future erotic thrillers!

It's December 31st, 1999. The last party before Y2K. That's the setting for the new A24 movie written and directed by Kyle Mooney. Mooney is known for being a Saturday Night Live cast member from 2013 to 2022. In his directorial debut, he directs Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison, Tim Heidecker, and Alicia Silverstone. Mooney is also in the film, along with somebody special who shows up in the third act that we won't spoil here. The movie features a stacked late 90s soundtrack. This could be a late 90s nostalgia slam dunk, but is it? We'll let you know in this packed episode we assembled for Y2K!

Hawt

Does the title of this movie grab your attention? It did for us! We went in knowing nothing about this movie other than it starred Amy Adams. The movie is based on a 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder and directed by Marielle Heller, who also directed Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019). Amy Adams is the star, and she is supported by Scoot McNairy, Arleigh Snowden, Emmett Snowden, Mary Holland, Ella Thomas, Archana Rajan, and Jessica Harper. It was in theaters for a minute, where we caught it on the big screen. You can now watch it on Hulu. But maybe listen to our review before you do so!

We’re all safe from the fires in LA so far! So let the Lodgecast whisk you away to the tundra of Minnesota where we recently watched A Complete Unknown about a young Bob Dylan played by Timothee Chalamet. This movie covers Dylan’s early folk period up to his controversial decision to go electric in 1965. James Mangold directs this conventional biopic which also stars Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez. We got way into Dylan for this one! Enjoy this Minnesota winter special Lodgecast with some hot cocoa!

Happy New Year! It's the new musical film everyone is talking about, so we figured we'd talk about it. Wicked: Part I! This 160-minute movie covers the first half of this epic adaptation of the popular musical adaptation Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, which is based on the 1995 novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire, which comes from the universe of L. Frank Baum's Oz books which were adapted into the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba Thropp, who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, but it's gonna take a long time for her to get there. Along the way, she befriends Ariana Grande who plays Galinda Upland and encounters Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The film is directed by Jon M. Chu and also stars Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, and Peter Dinklage. In this movie you'll hear hit songs like "The Wizard and I", "Popular", "Defying Gravity", and so much more. Listen to our thoughts and feelings on t

Merry Chongsmas and Happy Chongnukkah! Back in Episode 134 of the Lodgecast we covered a little movie called "2025 - The World Enslaved by a Virus" and it was a special experience. The movie has received the lowest possible rating on IMDb at 1.0. It was written and directed by the Wesely Brothers. Since then, we've been tracking these bros and they released a new movie called A Law for Christmas which currently has a 1.1 rating on IMDb. We saved it for the holidays and watched this entire movie with a running time of 2 Hrs. 21 Min. The movie stars Savannah Lathem as Gloria Winters who has just become the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. She travels to a small rural town to interview farmers. There she meets the love of her life Christian Baker (Chase Giacomo). The movie carries all the signature filmmaking techniques of a Wesely Brothers production, which we will tell you all about in this stuffed holiday episode! Enjoy!

At age 94, Clint Eastwood is back! He directed the new legal thriller Juror No. 2 to critical acclaim! The courtroom isn't our favorite place to be in movies and we certainly had some issues with Clint's latest and last (?) film. The movie stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Cedric Yarbrough, and Kiefer Sutherland. Hang in there Clint!

You might've just missed this recent little supernatural horror movie that dropped onto Netflix called The Deliverance. But the Lodgecast knows that a horror movie directed by Lee Daniels deserves to be covered! We talked about our history with Mr. Daniels' films, most notably Shadowboxer (2005), Precious (2009), and The Paperboy (2012). Then we watched The Deliverance, which did not disappoint, serving up many salad dragons to our delight. The movie stars Andra Day, Rob Morgan, Caleb McLaughlin, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Tasha Smith, Omar Epps, Mo'Nique, and Glenn Close as the unforgettable Alberta Jackson! You're gonna wanna tune into this episode and possibly fire this movie up on Netflix. Movie critics be damned, this movie is a wild ride!

To mark the 30th anniversary of The Crow (1994) and commemorate the passing of Brandon Lee, director Rupert Sanders made his own version of The Crow and called it The Crow (2024). There are existential moments in Lodgecast history where we ask, "What are we doing?" and seeing The Crow (2024) in IMAX was one of those moments. The Crow (2024) stars a tatted-up Bill Skarsgard as The Crow with his girlfriend, played by FKA Twigs. It got bad reviews and did bad box office and was just all around bad, bad, bad. So in our generosity, we've decided to drop this goth bomb on you!

Despite Bischke’s strong objections, we finally covered the vampiric ballerina splatterfest ABIGAIL. But don’t worry, he’s already exacted his revenge…and then some!

We explore the wild universe of the Alien franchise as we confront its latest installment Alien: Romulus (2024) directed by Fede Alvarez. We briefly talk about Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien Resurrection (1997), AVP (2004), AVP:R (2007), Prometheus (2012), and Alien: Covenant (2017) before we ascend the sacred Burbank 16 steps to watch this movie in IMAX. We were pleasantly surprised at this interquel, which takes place between Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986). It stars a younger group of actors this time including Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu. Facehuggers and chestbursters abound! But let Ian Holm rest in peace!

The day after Election Day, the Lodgecast tried to shake off the post-election blues by watching Robert Zemeckis's new film Here starring Forrest Gump and Jenny (Tom Hanks and Robin Wright). Zemeckis has had quite a run on the Lodgecast with three films: the Lodgecast classic Welcome to Marwen (2018), the remake of The Witches (2020), and Holy Smokeo himself, live-action Pinocchio (2022). Here (2024) looked to be another wild Zemeckis film-in-the-making, all taking place in one room, in one house over the course of decades. Actually millions of years as the film starts with dinosaurs, eventually leading to Native Americans, and then a role for Benjamin Franklin's illegitimate son William. It's based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire, with a screenplay by Zemeckis and Eric Roth. Most of the nonlinear story covers a post-World War II family and the ups and downs of their lives from the late 1940s to the early 2000s. Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly play the parents of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Hanks

We recently witnessed Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan in the conservative biopic Reagan! This week it's Dennis Quaid in the gross-out body horror movie The Substance! Way back in Episode Number 9 of the Lodgecast, we covered a little French revenge film called Revenge (2018) directed by Coralie Fargeat. This French film director has returned six years later to give us The Substance (2024). The movie stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid. As we'll say in this episode, if you have the stomach to watch this body horror movie, then watch it first before you listen to all the spoilers in this episode.

Happy Halloween! In our last political-related Lodgecast for quite a while we take on Ali Abbasi's new horror comedy The Apprentice. It's a horror comedy because it is the origin story of American psychopath Donald J. Trump. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, with Jeremy Strong as Trump's mentor Roy Cohn and Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump. Over the course of the film, which covers about 1973-1987, we see Trump devolve from an aspiring real-estate mogul to the pathologically narcissistic, vindictive psychopath we know today. Join us in our election anxiety episode as we try to laugh at the man who has spent the last nine years destroying our country. This episode will be instantly dated so tune in today!

In a very special episode of the Lodgecast, we cover the new epic political biopic Reagan (2024)! For this hotly anticipated film, we took a little Lodgecast field trip to do some research. You'll hear all about it in this episode. In the movie Reagan (2024), Dennis Quaid stars as President Ronald Reagan alongside Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan. The rest of the cast is stacked, including Jon Voight, C. Thomas Howell, Kevin Dillon, Mena Suvari, Robert Davi, Xander Berkeley, Pat Boone, Kevin Sorbo, and most importantly, Creed's Scott Stapp as Frank Sinatra. The film was directed by Sean McNamara who has quite the filmography. It's an epic Lodgecast about an epic movie covering an epic President. This is Reagan!

Reverend David A.R. White returns for a fifth installment of the God's Not Dead film series entitled God's Not Dead: In God We Trust. We caught a Fathom Event screening of this during the one week it was playing. It delivered on its promise of being the most political in the series, with David A.R. White running for Congress against the villainous secular congressman Peter Kane (Ray Wise). Scott Baio stars as Kane's even more villainous right-hand man. Isaiah Washington reprises his role as Congressman Daryl Smith. Dean Cain, Mike Huckabee, and the Newsboys also show up. The movie dares to ask "Is God dead in American politics?" Spoiler: David A.R. White wins the election and God is Not Dead! Will David A.R. White rise to the presidency and become the Antichrist in God's Not Dead 6? Only time will tell!

Ever had a taxi ride that changed your entire life? Well that's Daddio! In this unique film, Dakota Johnson gets in a cab with taxi driver Sean Penn. Over the course of their journey from JFK International Airport to her apartment in Manhattan, they have a 100-minute conversation about life, love, loss, sex, power, and much more. Daddio was written and directed by Christy Hall. Dakota Johnson plays Girlie and Sean Penn plays Clark, also known as Daddio!